Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Afternoon Links

Assorted material for your weekend reading.

- Stephen Harper's closest confidants say he'll veer right if he gets the chance with a majority. But it's of course beyond the pale for anybody else to make the point where it might be seen as a criticism.

- Doug Saunders rightly points out that inequality is an even more serious issue on a global scale than a national one. And it's long past time for some concerted effort to counter the class that's fighting to increase it on both levels.

- Which naturally means that some renewed recognition of the value of organized labour in representing the interests of non-elites is in order.

- Finally, Harper patronage Senate appointee Don Plett is going for the yuks:
Former Conservative party president Don Plett, now a Tory senator, rejects the notion that the power of the party has become too concentrated in the hands of a few individuals in Ottawa.

He points to the fact that national councillors and the party president are still elected, that riding associations can vote to turf incumbent candidates and that policies are still voted on by members on the convention floor.
That's right: apparently Plett's best examples of the democracy allowed for by the Cons include a rigged process which ensured that not a single incumbent MP actually faced the type of vote which Plett is bragging about.

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