Thomas J. Duck: Echoes of Walkerton in Environment Canada cuts (in The Toronto Star)

"In May 2000, the water system of Walkerton, Ont., suffered an E. coli outbreak that left nearly half the community’s 4,800 people ill. Seven died. ...

"Underlying the failures of the Walkerton PUC and the MOE, however, were government of Ontario cutbacks. How deep were the cuts? In the years leading up to the Walkerton tragedy, the MOE’s budget was reduced by 68 per cent and its staffing by 40 per cent. These numbers are comparable to what Environment Canada is experiencing today. Consider, for example, that Environment Canada’s climate change and clean air program is having its budget reduced by an astonishing 77 per cent. The cuts are so deep that they appear designed to break Environment Canada once and for all.

"It is interesting to note that three members of that Ontario government have played key roles in Stephen Harper’s federal cabinet: Jim Flaherty (the outgoing minister of finance), John Baird (minister of foreign affairs), and Tony Clement (president of the Treasury Board). Flaherty, Baird and Clement were there when Ontario’s cuts were made and witnessed the result. Surely they must see the parallels now. So why haven’t they spoken out about the dismantling of Environment Canada?"

Echoes of Walkerton in Environment Canada cuts | Toronto Star

Thomas J. Duck is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science at Dalhousie University.

Rick Salutin: The century that knew too much (in The Toronto Star)

"... the novel, The Man who Loved Dogs , by Leonardo Padura. It’s built around Leon Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico City in 1940. But it’s also about the 20th century, especially the Soviet Union, RIP, 1917-1991: 74 years, the lifespan of a normal person. It asks how the most beautiful dream humanity ever dreamed, a world of peace and social harmony, became its most awful nightmare."

The century that knew too much: Salutin | Toronto Star

We tend to forget that this dream attracted a lot of bright, energetic N. Americans to Russia in the early '30s. We need to study what went wrong.

Rick Salutin: Putin may be crazy, but it doesn’t matter (in The Toronto Star)

"If you designed a computer program to react “rationally” on the model of great power leaders pursuing what’s consensually viewed as the National Interest, it would probably “behave” as Putin has, or perhaps more drastically. ...

"The dilemma of the squares. There have always been spontaneous outbreaks of democratic will, like the Paris Commune or slave revolts. There’s a collective as well as an individual need to control one’s life. ...

"The trick is finding a way to link the genuine popular outbursts to institutionalized, constitutional, representative forms. I know that’s a mouthful but I don’t think anyone’s come up with a solution. Yet who wants to be stuck with merely voting in the occasional election, then going to sleep for another four years?"

Putin may be crazy, but it doesn’t matter: Salutin | Toronto Star

Swedes Seek Regime Change as Tax Cuts Turn Into Poison Pill - Bloomberg

"Swedes are preparing to punish the government for cutting their taxes. ...

"“The government has done completely the wrong thing when they have pushed through big and ineffective and expensive tax cuts instead of making important investments in jobs and education,” Magdalena Andersson, economic spokeswoman for the Social Democrats, who aspires to become the next Finance Minister, told reporters today in Stockholm.

"In Sweden, unlike in most other countries, “you don’t have to win on a pledge to cut taxes,” said Carl B. Hamilton, economic spokesman for the Liberal Party, a junior partner in [Prime Minister Fredrik] Reinfeldt’s coalition. “People have felt they have received a decent return on their tax money.”"


Swedes Seek Regime Change as Tax Cuts Turn Into Poison Pill - Bloomberg

Rick Salutin: Medium for Pete Seeger's message was the singalong (in The Toronto Star)

"[Pete Seeger]  was essentially a figure in the Oral Tradition, versus most musicians who belong to the Written Tradition in the sense that their music is edited, perfected and sent one-way to audiences. They’re part of a print approach although they use recorded sounds instead of words on pages. Even on his recordings, Seeger strove to capture the ambience of interaction.

"This is especially subversive in the concert context because it breaks down the cash nexus. You pay to go but you perform....

"“I’ve never sung anywhere without giving the people listening to me a chance to join in,” said Seeger: “as a kid, as a lefty, as a man touring the U.S.A. and the world, as an oldster. I guess it’s kind of a religion with me. Participation. That’s what’s going to save the human race.” You could say the singalong was a metaphor for all that, though you could also say the singalong came first in his life (as son of a musicologist) which extended outward and took in politics."

Medium for Pete Seeger's message was the singalong: Salutin | Toronto Star

Rick Salutin: Harper's fawning over Israel was unseemly (in The Toronto Star)

"... it didn’t embarrass me as a Jew, which I’d thought it might; it embarrassed me as a Canadian. It was so unrestrained and disproportionate. It’s unseemly to go so gaga for another country.

"I don’t think at the height of the Cold War, Canada ever put on such a show of adoration for the U.S.; I doubt it did for Britain in Empire days....

"Canadians would never do stuff this garish at home (think of Chris Hadfield’s dignified “O Canada” at the last Leafs-Canadiens game) but they go to a foreign place and let it hang out like cheerleaders at a Texas high school football game."

Harper's fawning over Israel was unseemly: Salutin | Toronto Star

Stephen Harper should take economics lesson from Henry Ford (in The Toronto Star)

Toby Sanger:

"A century ago, the trail-blazing automaker proved the benefits of paying a fair wage. It’s a lesson our prime minister ought to learn."

Stephen Harper should take economics lesson from Henry Ford | Toronto Star

Toby Sanger is the economist for the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Twitter: @toby_sanger.