Book Review Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May has written an interesting and useful book on the precarious and dysfunctional state of Canada’s failing parliamentary democracy. Although an excellent lay-person’s guide to Westminster-style politics, her book provides no real insight as to how this inauthentic, fractious, and ethically corrupt mess can be cleaned up and genuine democracy attained. She knows the score, but fails to understand the nature of the game.

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<span class="smallcaps"Book Review University of Toronto associate professor of political science Nelson Wiseman retraces the well-worn historical path In Search of Canadian Political Culture. It’s an erudite, insightful, and sweeping analysis of Canadian political history, but in the opinion of our reviewer it misses the mark in that it fails to provide guidance to those struggling for social and ecological justice on this planet at at time when the dominant human culture is out of control.

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Introduction Will Canadian politics simply perpetuate the battles of the past, or have globalisation and the Internet brought about a political sea change that will result in a radically transformed and more polarised political landscape? These two books represent radically different visions of Canadian democracy.

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A trip to a ferry terminal turned into a reminder of the fragility of democratic rights and the insidious way that both Liberal and Conservative governments have secretly adopted the self-serving corporate agenda of North American integration. Is the repressive, anti-democratic Security and Prosperity Partnership the beginning of The Age of Razor Wire?

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An environmental time bomb that could put all of Canada’s rivers and coastal regions under threat of energy, resort or industrial development has been quietly hidden under cover of the billions of dollars of economic stimulus in the 2009 budget bill. Passing it would make the Liberal Party complicit with Harper in gutting Canada’s environmental protection legislation.

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The collapse of the Coalition after its rejection by Liberal leader Ignatieff has left many Canadians disappointed and dismayed. Does its success in forcing the government to revise its attitude towards deficit budgeting plus the substantial grassroots support that erupted on Facebook groups and the Internet mean that there is a future for coalition politics in Canada?

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Their vote this week to support Harper’s ‘stimulus’ budget puts Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals firmly in bed with Canada’s very own Blue Meanies, and raises questions as to whether there is any real difference between Ignatieff’s Liberals and Harper’s newly-centralist Conservatives. It’s just a question of competing élites who both believe in their superiority.

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A Policy Accord to Address the Present Economic Crisis Preamble The new Government is supported by parties that share a commitment to fiscal responsibility, a progressive agenda and a belief in the role of Government to act as a partner with Canadians and Quebecers. Where appropriate, these goals should be pursued in full partnership and […]

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