Friday, May 13, 2011

Friday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to end your week.

- Yes, this is the right response to the inexplicable claim that the NDP's complement of new Quebec MPs will somehow affect its ability to represent constituents and interests from across Canada:
(Said Jack Layton,) "(i)n our last caucus, two-thirds of our caucus were from Ontario. And yet we worked as a national party across the board on the issues. And I think people respected that. Our view is that we are all Canadians and the goal here is to work together."

He said he will continue that approach now that he is leader of the official Opposition.

"Each region and aspect of the country has grievances sometimes with the centre, with Ottawa. We'll take those grievances up but we will also work in a spirit together to try to build a better country."
But it's also worth noting that the NDP's caucus boasts better geographic balance than, say, the Cons' 2004 equivalent - in which 61 of the party's 99 MPs came from B.C., Alberta or Saskatchewan (which collectively held 78 seats in the House of Commons). Which makes this just one more example of the NDP being held to standards never applied to any of its competitors.

- Sixth Estate points out that having been deceased for several years is no obstacle to serving as an editor for the Fraser Institute.

- While it's still outrageous that the details of a brand-new oil spill were hidden until after there was no risk that they'd affect the federal election, the previous few thousand oil spills from Alberta pipelines pointed out by Emma Pullman would seem to have offered more than enough reason to be wary of the environmental effects of the tar sands.

- Finally, in case Canada's asbestos industry (supported by the Harper Cons) wasn't enough of an international embarrassment already, the Daily Show picks up on the absurdity of promoting a product deemed unfit by the developed world.

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