Poker Face I haven’t enjoyed a TV series as much as I enjoyed Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face in a very long time. It’s not a “Golden Age of TV”-style show like Deadwood or The Sopranos or Mad Men (all of which I also enjoyed very much), it’s a throwback toRead...
For-Profit Healthcare I have to admit to not having fully understood how for-profit clinics had succeeded in infiltrating the Canadian healthcare system in the first place, having forgotten that the price of single-payer healthcare is eternal vigilance. My understanding was that the Canada Health Act (CHA), which parliament passed unanimouslyRead More
It was very disappointing to hear CBRM placing blame rather than taking accountability for their flawed actions, only to reverse course due to public pressure—Acting Municipal Affairs Minister Colton LeBlanc While I don’t support Tory politics, Minister LeBlanc’s comments summarize my view on the five-million-dollar CBRM affordable housing debacle.Read More
We’re supposed to be celebrating yesterday’s announcement that Cape Breton University has received $58.9 million from the provincial government to establish a medical school that will solve Nova Scotia’s healthcare crisis but I can’t drag my eyes away from the spectacle of CBRM council refusing the $5 million it wasRead More
Student housing The “collective enterprise” UTILE (L’Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant) was established in 2013 “with the objective of developing a social economy student housing model specific to Quebec inspired by best practices in non-profit student housing around the world.” In 2016, working with the the ChantierRead More
The whole frame of geopolitics…seeks to manage tensions and power struggles among those who rule, while the vast majority of people—as well as plants, animals, land, and water—are controlled, confined, or killed to serve those interests.—Ray Acheson, ‘Abolishing Geopolitics and Building a World Without State Violence,’ Metapolis, September 2022 Read More
Editor’s Note: I have discovered a Spotify playlist called “Songs About Trains” which I recommend you listen to while reading this article. Also, Part I of this series is here. In the second part of this brief series on rail safety, we’re going to talk about rail tank cars,Read More
The train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio had me pulling on so many different threads this week, there’s no way I can weave them all back into a coherent whole, so I’m going to divide the resulting article into two parts to give me more time to track down someRead More
Editor’s Note: When I realized I would be publishing this year on the 41st anniversary of the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, I decided to reprint this piece from 2022—the preface to Susan Dodd’s 2012 book, The Ocean Ranger: remaking the promise of oil, with permission from Fernwood Books. Read More
Worker Ownership I’ve recently discovered that “Lefty feminist economist” Angella MacEwen, a Broadbent Institute Fellow and senior economist with CUPE National, has a substack (Social Economics) on which she promises to do her best to: … put economic analysis into plain language, and and add feminist working class context toRead More
