BLOG THIS | blog.thismagazine.ca: April 2005 Archives

I got this today from the smart folks at the Educational Policy Institute. It was labelled urgent, so I figure it is worth blogging. According to their calculations, the proposed 10% cut to tuition will actually help low-need students, and harm high-need students. (I'm going to hold off on throwing in my own $0.02, which is that there is no force on this earth that can give the federal government the power to raise or lower tuition rates in this country; if Jack and Paul jr. want to pretend they can, well, that's just one more Ottawa fantasy).

Anyway, here are their calculations:

The following may seem paradoxical but true - follow the logic:

1) Take a student from a reasonably family: no student loans, no grants. Assume he has tuition and fees of about $5000. His net cost is $5000 minus the value of his tuition tax credit, which is equal to 16% of tuition federally and roughly 8% provincially (it varies a bit from place to place). So $5000-($5000x.24) = $3800. Now, give this kid a 10% cut in tuition. Now his cost is $4500 and his net cost after tax expenditures is $4500-($4500x.24) = $3420. So the net benefit to this student is $3800 - $3420 = $380. In short, the $500 tuition reduction will make the affluent student better off by $380.

2) Now, take a high-need student. Say, a single independent student with need (i.e. cost minus resources) of $9000 in Ontario (the example would work in most provinces, but Ontario has nice simple rules about remission, so they're the easiest case to explain). This student has tuition and fees of $5000. As with the more affluent youth, the net cost after tax credits is $3800. She has $9000 in loans, of which anything over $7000 will be remitted at the end of the year, meaning that effectively she is carrying a $7000 loan and a $2000 grant.

Watch what happens when you give this student a 10% tuition reduction:

a) Tuition (i.e. cost) goes down by $500

b) Therefore 'need' goes down by $500.

c) Therefore, this student's loan will be cut to $8500

d) Because the remission threshold stays the same, this student will at the end of the year have $7000 in loans and $1500 in grants. In other words, the student is no better off because the $500 gained through lower tuition gets clawed back through the student aid system.

e) IT DOESN'T END THERE. Independently, the tax people are making their calculations. Like the more affluent student, the poor student will lose $120 of the $500 benefit due to the decrease in the tax credit.

f) Therefore, giving a high-need student a $500 break on tuition means taking away $500 in grants and $120 in tuition. In other words, reducing a high-need student's tuition by $500 makes her worse off by $120.

So what we have here is not just a case of a policy where more rich kids benefit more than poor kids because they are likelier to be in school in the first place. And it's not just a case that the rich kids get something while the poor kids get nothing. This is a policy where the low-need kids get something and the high-need kids LOSE something.

Clearly, the people proposing the tuition reduction have not thought through the implications of this measure

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Boy in Da Corner

Posted by andrew at 02:44 PM ET | Comments (0)

To Club Soda last night to see Dizzee Rascal, the 20 year-old hip-hop hero from London. None of the sad chaviness of The Streets here; it's more Tupac/Fiddy focused on the desolation of the East End.

At least, that's what the reviews say. I have to confess to feeling a bit out of it. The sound mix was bad, and I can't pretend to having understood much more than the odd "Yo Yo Montreal!" and the occasional chorus ("I wish you were six years younger"). The anti-cool Montreal crowd certainly seemed into it though, hands in the air just like down at 8 mile.

The hilight for me was observing the absolute necessity of having a sidekick. Dizzee had some dude playing Boswell to his Johnson, a man whose job it was to rhyme along with the odd sentence, while making sure that the crowd's hands were pushing up or down, as the occasion demanded. Dizzee also had the balls to yell "Thank You Vancouver!" at one point, and I can't decide whether it's cooler if he did it on purpose, or cooler if he didn't.

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April 27, 2005

Fly Like a... passenger train

Posted by joyceb at 02:53 PM ET | Comments (6)

It's nice to see that there's still room for making aviation history in this modern world. I am in awe, if not a little scared, of the newest Airbus which can carry as many as 840 passengers.

Image the Globe and Mail: Bob Edme/AP

While I'm scared to fly in such a big crowd, I can't wait to have the opportunity to see one of these big birds land or take off.

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Stephen Harper’s Head Explodes as He Tries to Explain All the Ways He Hates the Liberal NDP Deal

Posted by john_d at 02:52 PM ET | Comments (5)

Witnesses at Mr. Harper’s speech today in Amherstburg, Ontario report smelling toast shortly before a loud flash of exquisite purple light. After that, Mr. Harper’s headless torso continued with the Conservative leader’s preset itinerary, and is expected to press forward with a headless non-confidence vote as soon as Parliament resumes.

From the Globe story:

“It was only less than two months ago that we had a federal budget, we were given some financial figures. We were told those financial figures were the real figures, now miraculously another $5-billion is available. This isn’t the first time this has happened,” Mr. Harper said…

I guess that means Harper might actually decide to register a vote on the budget this time. And just what does he not want the feds spending money on?

“The deal means that the Liberals will, over the next two years, put new money toward affordable housing, education and the environment.”

EXTRA, EXTRA —Stephen Harper hates poor people, schoolchildren and the planet! ... and he wants you to hate them too. Why? Because they cost too much money; money that would be better spent giving tax breaks to corporate welfare bums.

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Prime Minister Layton

Posted by andrew at 12:57 PM ET | Comments (0)

The Right Honourable Jack Layton, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada

Prime Minister Layton has been an impassioned social advocate for more than 30 years. As the national voice for municipalities as president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, a city councilor or a student leader, Mr. Layton has brought energy and leadership to achieve change. He is also well-known to every Torontonian as a skilled, utterly-ruthless negotiator.

Read the rest over at Warren Kinsella's website.

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Documenting Democracy

Posted by andrew at 12:45 PM ET | Comments (0)

I hear that Toronto is all-abuzz over Hot Docs, the annual film fest running until May 1. I was actually expecting to be down for it this week, to help Capture Entertainment with their pitch to make a film version of The Rebel Sell.

Capture put together a proposal for The Democracy Project, "an exciting endeavor involving a growing international coalition of broadcasters who will participate in the selection and financing of 10+ documentaries on the theme of democracy produced by independent filmmakers."

From the proposals, the NFB and CBC were to choose four submissions to compete in a special pitch session, Thursday April 28 at the University of Toronto. Winner would get $10k in development money.

Alas, we weren't selected. Among those that are competing, there is a documentary about DDT, and another about a transsexual who is suing the Vancouver Rape Relief Centre. Here's the list of competing proposals (they went with 5, in the end).

Sour grapes aside, I can't say I'm that impressed with the subject matter of the proposals. I was actually worried that the content of the Rebel Sell was not enough about "democracy" strictly speaking; but from the looks of it, we should have proposed something on the topic of consumerism in Africa.

If anyone goes to the pitch session, I'd love a report.

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Canadian Culture, Meet the Sewer Pipe

Posted by john_d at 10:22 AM ET | Comments (5)

News this morning that the CBC is laying people off. That’s sort of like saying, “once again, spring has followed winter,” isn’t it?

In other culture notes, the federal government’s proposed changes to the Copyright Act suggest that Canada’s educators will soon have a free hand in taking copyright material off the Internet for classroom use. And so we say goodbye to two professions in Canada: writers and publishers for the educational market. So long. We hardly knew ye.

Finally, a report in the Winnipeg Sun last week declared open season on George Bowering, Canada’s first ever and now retired Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He’s brilliant, his latest book is up for the prestigious Griffin Prize, he did great work promoting Canadian culture for all of $12,000 per year (now that’s a cushy government job), yet we just can’t cut him any respect. Kudos especially to the NDP’s Pat Martin for ridiculing an underpaid cultural worker. Solidarity!

Thanks to Bookninja.com for the poetry story.

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April 26, 2005

rats.... sinking ship...

Posted by andrew at 12:49 PM ET | Comments (8)

Pettigrew quitting politics: report

The prime minister has lobbied Pettigrew not to take the job, saying people might think the foreign affairs minister is leaving because he is unhappy with the federal Liberals, according to other reports.

Why would anybody think that?

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April 25, 2005

How Wolfie touched our lives

Posted by patricia at 05:31 PM ET | Comments (3)

Brian Iler is a long-time friend of This Magazine and it is no exaggeration to say that if not for the considerable time he has spent as a volunteer legal advisor to me and my colleagues, This Magazine might have gone under years ago.

And so, we would like to offer our best wishes to Brian and his family as his son Andrew Agnew-Iler recovers from a life-threatening gunshot wound. We're thinking of Andrew and hoping for a full and speedy recovery.

Brian writes in a letter to friends that Andrew was shot in the early morning of April 19. He survived in part because he was in excellent physical condition -- mainly the result of his recent involvement with parkour, also called PK and urban free-form running.

"Last Saturday, I was going out for a video, and Andrew asked me to wait, and he would walk with me, as he was going to meet friends. As we walked, he talked about how important PK has become to him -- 'Dad -- I've stuck with this longer than anything else in my life,' and how he wanted to devote as much time as he could to it -- 'We're starting a new sport' he enthused. In part, I think, he was pitching to avoid the pressure to get a paying job for the summer, and in larger part, to be sure, genuine excitement."

In one of those strange coincidences that I believe must have some meaning, Andrew appears in classic parkour form in the current issue of This Magazine.

Brian writes: "For more about Parkour (PK), see their Toronto website, that Andrew had a huge hand in developing. PK is entirely self-managed by its participants, with no outside assistance or support.

"The website has a forum thread on what's happened to Andrew, 'Let us hope and pray for Wolfie.'"

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come on, guess!

Posted by andrew at 04:21 PM ET | Comments (9)

WHOOPS: Make that 197 days to go.

226 days still to go.

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videogames make you smart (er)

Posted by andrew at 10:33 AM ET | Comments (3)

The latest buzz book, in the Blink/Collapse/Wisdom of Crowds mold, is Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson. It was excerpted in the NY Times Magazine this weekend, and has been widely blogged.

I'm reviewing the book for the National Post, and I read it, cover to cover, in about three hours last night. It comes in at a very lean 206 pages, and for long stretches the breeziness of the writing builds to a full gale.

That isn't to say the ideas are without merit. I think Johnston is right to claim that most of our culture -- from videogames to TV to the Internet -- is getting increasingly complex and sophisticated, and that this is, in turn, giving us a mental workout and making us smarter (according to some relevant definition of "smarter").

But I'm going to hold off on any stronger judgments until I've sat down and thought about it some more. My first reaction is that this is yet another book that should have remained a magazine article. I'll post more once I've done the review.

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The Most Powerful Person in the Country? -- take your pick.

Posted by john_d at 10:29 AM ET | Comments (6)

David Kilgour, MP for Edmonton Beaumont.

This Globe story has Kilgour, a former Liberal but now an independent, being the essential link in the chain that could see the Liberal Party defeating a non-confidence motion next month and clinging to power just long enough to pass some crucial legislation, now all tempered by a possible deal with the New Democrats.

There’s almost too much to talk about here. Do the NDP really want to be seen to be propping up a government widely held to be horriby corrupt, even if it means ditching corporate tax cuts and seeing real advancement on national child care? Layton is showing remarkable confidence in the ability of the Canadian electorate to discern subtleties in the process, especially when the Conservatives are chomping at the bit for a telegenic, one-issue vote—corruption vs. anti-corruption.

Can Layton really expect Paul Martin to honour his word in any deal?

I think it’s worth the gamble for the NDP, but here’s a nightmare scenario for you. The deal is done, the Liberals drag their heels on socially progressive legislation as they always do, Martin gets to call the next election on his own terms and in the meantime runs a fairly skilled damage control campaign, taking his licks on Cross Country Check-up, mea-culpa, etc. Meanwhile, in the months leading up to the election, several Conservatives say things that make them look like wingnuts. Then the Liberals once again steal seats from the NDP by pointing toward the Conservative bogeyman and whispering “Beware, a vote for Layton is a vote for Harper.”

Bingo. A new mandate for the Liberals and no ongoing scandal to bring them down early—followed by a budget full of corporate tax cuts.

I know, I know. I’m not factoring in the Bloc and Quebec. It’s Monday morning. My head hurts.

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April 24, 2005

Finding one's way in the Nation of Rebels

Posted by andrew at 11:07 AM ET | Comments (3)

From the Sunday New York Times:
Democratic Moral Values?

While the Democratic Party traces its ideological lineage on economic issues to the New Deal, its DNA on social issues was created by the union of the two principal movements of the 1960's: civil rights and the antiwar counterculture. The two are generally discussed as part of the same transformative social force of the era, but in fact, in the political arena, they reinforced very different instincts. The civil rights movement legitimized the idea of legislating and codifying morality. Where activist lawmakers or judges could find a constitutional rationale for overruling states and communities on a discriminatory social policy, Democrats came to believe that they had not just the right but also the responsibility to intervene.

The counterculture, however, was all about radical individualism -- the attitude Republicans now snidely describe as ''if it feels good, do it.'' In the context of the time, these contradictory ideas weren't hard to reconcile; to Democrats, and to most Americans, government's integrating swimming pools seemed clearly to be right, while government's banning books seemed clearly to be wrong. But as often happens in law and politics, the specific circumstances that created each impulse were outlived by the conflicting precedents they established.

Hoo boy. This is yet another post-election article from an American lefty (sorry, liberal) trying to figure out just what strategy the Dems need to adopt, if they are going to win the "values" war in American political life.

Why Americans feel the need to fight every political campaign as if it were 1968 is beyond me. Well, actually, it isn't.

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April 23, 2005

guess the date!

Posted by andrew at 04:09 PM ET | Comments (0)

228 days remaining.

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April 21, 2005

Put the pope in your address book

Posted by patricia at 04:57 PM ET | Comments (1)

John Paul II was the first wired pope, and he received many an emailed prayer. But if you don't have his current coordinates (does heaven have high-speed?) You might try emailing the new pope (in English) at benedictxvi@vatican.va. He has a separate address for Italian queries.

I think I'll tell him how much I like his new hat.

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Mondovino!

Posted by andrew at 11:35 AM ET | Comments (1)

Violence as 10,000 winegrowers protest at French overproduction

A group of 50 young wine producers hurled molotov cocktails, cobble stones, bottles and flares at riot police at the end of a turbulent but mostly peaceful demonstration by 10,000 growers from the French deep south.

Ok, that's it. I'm moving to France. If anyone reading this blog has any leads on jobs for a semi-failed bilingual academic philosopher, in France, please send me an email at andrew.potter@utoronto.ca

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The majesty of parliament, xxi

Posted by andrew at 10:41 AM ET | Comments (6)

So Paul Martin is going to talk directly to the people tonight. Great. But what could he have to say that could not -- indeed, should not -- be told in, and to, Parliament?

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April 20, 2005

Utne gives props to This!

Posted by Lisa at 05:21 PM ET | Comments (6)

We just got the May/June 2005 issue of Utne in the office and there's a great story in it about Toronto's indie magazine scene and why it's so gosh darn hot. Anyways, the article singles out This as one of the great Toronto-based mags, calling us a feisty independent.
Also, mentioned are Spacing, Brick, Kiss Machine, Peace Magazine, Outpost and a few others. Check it out!
They also mention this mainstream national newsweekly called McLean's.
Oops....
Anways, a nice little piece that provides me with the opportunity to blog about something other than Paris Hilton.

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oh yeah, plus there's a new Pope

Posted by john_d at 01:15 PM ET | Comments (7)

Well, if Potter is going to get all poetic on us, I’ll join in. This is from Jonathan Bennett’s 2004 collection of the same name—from ECW Press:

Here is my street, this tree I planted
for Raghavan, among others

You still take yourself as you used to,
the village’s red dust in a dry mouth,
fashionable clothes that fit, people who

you know, knew, grew into a man with.
Familiar digs, handshakes, worn jokes,
the pout of her lip, bread that tastes like bread.
Look: here is my street, this tree I planted.

Remember when we swung on that tyre
over the flooded river and you made me
a fool in front of your sister. Damn you!

Remember that. Remember it will you?
Wherever you are now. Bahrain, I think.
Berlin—was it then, fine. Just remember
it of a morning when you butter toast.

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April 18, 2005

moon/june/spoon

Posted by andrew at 11:30 PM ET | Comments (7)

Is poetry the perfect literary form for the digital age? Are we in for a golden age of clerihews and couplets, blank verse and sonnets?

Why not?

Yesterday was all F.R. Scott, but this evening was spent with John Degen's Killing Things. Then I check my email, and there's a note from my friend Brad Buchanan announcing his new poetry blog, The Miracle Shirker.

Brad's one of the smartest dudes and best poets I know. Hang out at his blog, get to know him, send him some feedback. Once I receive my copies of his new book The Miracle Shirker, maybe we'll have a contest on this blog and I'll give one away.

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Ed Broadbent addresses a nation of rebels

Posted by john_d at 04:43 PM ET | Comments (23)

I was in Ottawa last Friday, attending a daylong session of the Canadian Conference of the Arts designed to get arts and culture types better access to government. Ed Broadbent sat on a panel with three other MPs, discussing ways we ordinary plebes can get to government and maybe even influence policy on issues near and dear to our hearts.

Ed said: “The mechanics of the state retain incredible power within the globalized world, despite all mythology suggesting otherwise.”

Ed’s not one to blow smoke. Instead he was issuing a challenge of sorts to the street-fighters. Learn how government works and make it work for you.

Please discuss.

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April 17, 2005

The Useful Psychopath

Posted by andrew at 06:42 PM ET | Comments (2)

Well, The Corporation is out on DVD. How do I know this? Well, largely thanks to the full-page ads that have been running nonstop in local and national print media for the past few weeks. The ads have been inescapable. But of course, as Joel Bakan writes in the book version of The Corporation:

Advertising is now inescapable, whether on our television or computer screens, huge outdoor billboards and electrical signs, wrapped around buses and subway cars, or at museums, concerts, galleries, and sporting events...

I guess this is only objectionable when it's other people shilling their products.

Anyway, if you are looking to purchase a copy of the new widescreen DVD edition, you can pick a copy up at my favourite online psychopath, Amazon.

If you click on that link and scroll down, you'll see something interesting. The first customer review gives it 5 stars, with the title "fantastic extras." Note, though, that the author is one Mark Achbar, who happens to be the Producer, Director, and Executive Producer of, er, The Corporation.

Now, far be it from me to criticise someone who is so clearly an expert on psychopathic greed and self-promotion, at least when others engage in it. And maybe there is nothing wrong with reviewing your own work on amazon and giving yourself 5 stars. But it seems to me that if you honestly believe that the publicly-traded corporation is an institutional psychopath leading to destruction and ruin, then maybe you shouldn't be using its services to shill your product.

Or, again, maybe this stuff is only wrong when other people do it.

Check amazon's share price here.

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April 15, 2005

Fabricland and Labrador

Posted by joyceb at 06:18 PM ET | Comments (11)

More pesky media attention for the seal hunt and bigger trouble still for the lying liars employed at big American newspapers. Seems a graphic and controversial first person account of a brutal seal hunt published this week by the Boston Globe was, you guessed it, a fabrication.

Writer Fabricated Boston Globe Story on Seal Hunt

The story claimed the author witnessed water running red with blood, hundreds of seals shot from "some 300 boats" etc etc. While this is undoubtedly what many seal hunt expidetions are like, the author was nowhere near the scene. Ouch.

The Boston Globe is owned by the The New York Times Co.

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Posted by andrew at 12:50 PM ET | Comments (2)

Ethics chief admits doing a poor job

OTTAWA - Calling it "a nightmare," the Ethics Commissioner of the House of Commons yesterday acknowledged his office's unacceptable and poor performance in the past year.

...
He also indicated he is unwilling to crack down on two unidentified members of Parliament before a possible June election, even though they are refusing to make a disclosure statement as required under new ethics rules.

...

Mr. Shapiro told reporters later he has not yet made a long-overdue ruling on former Cabinet minister Judy Sgro's case. The commissioner hired a law firm to review the case and blames the delays in his decision on the complexity of the case.

He said the timing of the release will not be affected by an election.

This means Ms. Sgro may be forced to go into a federal election in the next two months with an immigration scandal still hanging over her head.

...

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Investigative Journalism Does Exist

Posted by mason at 12:54 AM ET | Comments (5)

Today the Canadian Association of Journalists announced the nominees for its awards for outstanding investigative journalism. I sincerely wish I had read or watched more of these stories, if for no other reason than to write more informed off-the-cuff blog posts.

Is it the case that much of this work flew under most Canadians' radars? If so, how do we solve that problem?

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April 14, 2005

Meanwhile... West of the Rockies

Posted by mason at 01:52 PM ET | Comments (7)

While federal polticians waste time and attract attention over a possible election, the citizens of British Columbia have a real fight on their hands: trying out oust an irresponsible (neo)Liberal government.

Unfortunately, progressives in B.C. are up against some serious obstacles. After four years of a privatization, slash-and-burn agenda that has gutted public services, filled the coffers of big business and left marginalized citizens to suffer, Gordon Campbell's government has been playing nice lately. With one-time cash infusions to education, rural communities and seniors, for example, this is your basic game of electioneering — and it may be working. But as The Tyee's Barbara McLintock points out, the BC Liberals' own budget documents show no willingness to maintain propped-up funding in many areas.

Meanwhile, the most obvious alternative to the Liberals, the NDP, are having trouble rebuilding from their massive defeat in the 2001 election. No one seems to know anything about leader Carole James, and concerns persist that the NDP is merely the party of big unions. The party's platform was released yesterday, but with only a month before the May 17 vote, is there enough time for them to win?

In the last election, the BC Green Party made it on the radar by garnering around 12 percent of the vote (including mine), and their presence threatens to cut into NDP support as well.

Some of the best coverage (although mostly Vancouver-centric) can be found at The Tyee, Terminal City and the excellent political blog Paying Attention, which are doing their part to offset the Liberal-friendly coverage of CanWest's media outlets: four of the daily newspapers and the top TV newscast in the city.

All in all, it makes me wish I was back in Vancouver. Nothing like a heated election to get the juices flowing!

Anyone in B.C. have some insight on the early stages of the election for the rest of us?

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April 13, 2005

The Wrong Arm of the Law

Posted by patricia at 03:22 PM ET | Comments (5)

Though I hate to flog dead horses, I thought I'd return to our recent debate, Crime, Corruption and Cameron, or whatever it was called, and give a nod to the Ryerson Review of Journalism. (The magazine, produced by students in Ryerson's magazine journalism program, launches tonight.)

Anyway, there's an excellent package of stories in the Summer 2005 issue, including one by Elysse Zarek about how investigative reporters Stevie Cameron, Andrew McIntosh and Juliet O'Neill "got so close to the story that they became the story."

"A lot of journalists met with the RCMP," Cameron tells Zarek. "I seem to be the only one who has been maimed."

She's also the only one who had her face splashed across the front page of the Saturday Globe, with the headline, "Could this journalist be the secret informant?"

Lots of other great stories in the Review, including a fabulous profile of Jim Bell, editor of Nunatsiaq News (and my former boss).

For any who are interested, the launch party is tonight at Hotel Boutique, 77 Peter St. in Toronto.

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Choose your PM (before you vote)

Posted by andrew at 11:10 AM ET | Comments (6)

Over at Politics Watch, they've set up a vote selector quiz. Answer 19 questions, and based on your answers they match you with the federal leader that most closely fits your profile. Like web-dating, but even dorkier.

So, I plugged in my preferences, and discovered to my shock and horror that here are my match scores.

Paul Martin: 100
Jack Layton: 80
Duceppe: 70
Harper: 15

This is what philosophers call a reductio ad absurdum. If the results of your inquiry are so absurd they can't accepted, then you must change the premisses. Hence, I conclude that the quiz is flawed.

Which it is, actually. For example, question 1 asks "Do you want your Prime Minister and his or her political party to permit individual provinces to use private providers in the delivery of publicly funded health services?"

It's a trick question. All provinces are already allowed to do this under the Canada Health Act. The CHA is neutral with respect to delivery. This was the point Pierre Pettigrew tried to make during the election campaign, but then Paul Martin frog-marched him out to apologise. Apologise for explaining how a piece of Canadian legislation actually operates.

Here's question 16:

"Do you want your Prime Minister and his or her political party to immediately make significant cuts to post-secondary tuition fees?"

And how are they supposed to do that? When was the last time a federal government raised or lowered tuition fees? Which federal education minister was responsible?

Exactly. There is no federal education minister.

PoliticsWatch: Politics for ignoramuses.

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Greatest Canadian

Posted by joyceb at 10:10 AM ET | Comments (2)

We let the 25th Anniversary of the death of one of our heroes go unmarked. Terry Fox. Hail, Terry. You remind every one of us that there's always a little bit that we can do, individually.

Incidentally, Douglas Coupland has a beautiful new book, a tribute to Terry Fox. Proceeds are going to charity. For anyone who remembers that time, as well as for those so young they have no idea who this icon was.

Cover image, "Terry", Douglas Coupland, Douglas & McIntyre, 2005.

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April 12, 2005

Quick, before Canadians remember why they didn’t vote for us last time

Posted by john_d at 11:24 AM ET | Comments (8)

According to this report in The Toronto Star , Stephen Harper feels no need to wait to force an election – and if I were advising him, I’d agree. Why wait, when all the other parties seem to be cooperating with the Gomery Inquiry and the press to guarantee a one-issue (well zero-issue really) vote?

Granted, the Liberals can’t be expected to do much more than they are doing – playing defence and occasionally abandoning ship with that famous Liberal loyalty on display. The Bloc will introduce their non-confidence motion later this week, which will further highlight AdScam, while allowing Harper to say he won’t let separatists call an election. Very cooperative of M. Duceppe. And the NDP will… um, hello NDP?

I’m going to give Layton and company the benefit of the doubt and assume they are hunkered down at HQ, building a solid platform based on real issues facing real Canadians. Sadly, unless Layton starts getting himself in the papers and in front of the cameras a bit more, real issues won’t enter into it.

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April 11, 2005

Adscam, media, and a one-party state

Posted by andrew at 12:57 PM ET | Comments (13)

I'd like to direct everyone to the excellent discussion sparked by Mason's Controversial! posting about investigative journalism below. Degen has just weighed in with some important points.

I'd like to add something here. It is important to recognize that Adscam is not really an aberration. Despite all the protests about it "not being part of Quebec's political culture," that's a load of balls. It is, and everyone involved knows it. But it is also a part of Canada's political culture. This is a point that Andrew Coyne has been making for ages, and I'm sure his forehead and his local brick wall are on intimate terms by now.

I would also like to repeat something I wrote on this blog last year: Everyone must read William Kaplan's "A Secret Trial," *especially* Norman Spector's Afterward. The key point is this: Adcam-type corruption in Ottawa is not a "Liberal" problem, it is thoroughly bipartisan. It is a structural feature of how the federal government operates. And, unfortunately, it is the case that 80% of the federal government's operations are devoted to keeping Quebec happy. That is why the federal corruption problem is mostly -- but not exclusively -- a Quebec problem.

This is not anything that anyone in Ottawa seriously challenges. Everyone associated with the feds in any high enough capacity is well-enough aware of what is going on. And that includes the journalists.

So, I'll leave off with some questions: Why did William Kaplan's book fall stillborn from the press? Why was it hardly reviewed in Canadian papers? Is it because Stevie Cameron has many important friends? Is it because Mulroney has many important friends? Because the media is lazy? Because Canadians are complacent? Or, I ask again, is this just a necessary structural feature of a one-party state?

Finally: Is it possible that we'd all be better off if Quebec would just separate?

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Hate: Crime or medical condition?

Posted by andrew at 12:44 AM ET | Comments (0)

David Ahenakew's trial has come to a close. Ahenakew said all kinds of nasty things about Jews to a reporter, but now says he was feeling disoriented from new medication for diabetes when he made the controversial comments. Except, as Alex Roslin found out, this member of the order of Canada had been saying this sort of thing for years.

Check out Roslin's Classic This piece, Speak No Evil, now up on the This Magazine website.

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April 10, 2005

Idle Worship

Posted by andrew at 10:47 AM ET | Comments (9)

The great, universal complaint of our era is overwork. We're all harried, exhausted, enslaved by the Man, and working too hard to enjoy our lives. But is it possible that the culprit isn't our work ethic after all, but our leisure ethic?

That's from my latest piece in the new, wonderful, Toronto Sunday Star.

From the sounds of it, you'd think I had a job.

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April 09, 2005

Woodward? Bernstein? Anybody?

Posted by mason at 01:37 AM ET | Comments (17)

So the National Post’s Don Martin believes Adscam is Canada’s Watergate. Insomuch as it represents the extreme level of corruption within the governing party, I suppose he’s right. But I can’t help but note one significant difference: Watergate was uncovered by investigative journalists, while Adscam was busted open by the Auditor-General, and the recent damning allegations of kickbacks and malfeasance were revealed in a somewhat orderly, government-mandated inquiry.

So my question is this: What is wrong with investigative journalism in this country? Does it even exist? Seems to me this was a story just asking for some heavy digging, and… nothing. It seems a little too easy to just lay the blame at the feet of our (heavily concentrated) mainstream media for failing to invest in investigative reporting, but maybe that’s a good place to start. When was the last time the Globe or the Post, or CTV or CBC news, or any significant daily in the country really uncovered a big story? For me, nothing comes to mind.

Trouble is, the independent media is not much better. Indeed, even This Magazine isn’t the haven for investigative reporting it used to be. The Tyee breaks a good B.C. story once in a while, and Straight Goods digs as well, but for media outlets like these, with limited resources to say the least, only so much can be expected.

If anyone has the resources to pursue investigative work, it’s the mainstream media. Unfortunately, it seems the investment problem is compounded by another problem in Canadian journalism: the pack journalism mentality. Every major story in the country is basically reported the same way by every major media outlet, and commentary seems to be all that separates them.

Is that any way for a country’s media to behave?

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April 08, 2005

and casket makers around the world shudder

Posted by john_d at 01:06 PM ET | Comments (1)

The largest and most well attended funeral in living memory took place in Rome today, and the central image throughout was the plainest of wooden boxes, made of cypress wood and featuring some fine dovetail work on the joinery. Simple, unpretentious and, I’m guessing, not nearly as expensive as the polished mahogany and brass caskets pushed by the funeral industry.

If it’s good enough for a Pope…?

Thanks to the Los Angeles Times for use of the photo. Credit: Luca Bruno/AP

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April 07, 2005

Who is running The New Yorker?

Posted by patricia at 04:07 PM ET | Comments (1)

As we put the May/June issue of This Magazine to bed, I'm sure our art director wishes he had a staff of 45, but such is not the case.

So I was amused to find this masthead for The New Yorker, cobbled together by The New York Observer (click the link at the end of the Observer piece to get a pdf of the masthead). As Tom Scocca writes, "Officially, there's no such thing as the New Yorker masthead." The writers have bylines, the editors are a largely anonymous lot.

The results are approximate, but fascinating nonetheless.

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Whither poet laureates?

Posted by joyceb at 03:04 PM ET | Comments (12)

Today's Edmonton Journal reports that plans are well underway to create the position of poet laureate for the city. My pointing out of this matter in the lunch room begged the following questions: What does a poet laureate do? And, Why does Edmonton need one? I had to confess to not knowing what the specific duties of a poet laureate are, other than composing official poems for important events, over a certain term. I'm throwing this question out to our resident poet, blogger john_d, as well as afficionadoes. Do we need civic poet laureates? What should their role be?

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The Pope as Hipster

Posted by andrew at 02:31 PM ET | Comments (0)

Looks like I'm taking requests now. JC sent me this link, via which you can order trucker hats that read "Papist".

Order one, order a dozen. It might help calm those of you down who emailed me to complain that the Pope had ordered all his worldly possessions to be burned. No, I don't know what is going to happen to "all those cute outfits."

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Must resist temptation, must… damn

Posted by john_d at 10:48 AM ET | Comments (2)

Here’s the headline in the Globe today, re: a serious health concern:

Obesity a Big Deal, Statscan Says

Wait, I’ve got one for them—Suicide Rate Jumps.

How about—Cancer Growing Out of Control.

Endless hilarity.

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The Future of Multiculturalism

Posted by andrew at 10:00 AM ET | Comments (0)

While this is sure to enrage This Magazine publishers past and present, I am obliged to draw your attention to the goings-on over at The Walrus Online. Yesterday, an online chat took place live from Oxford University, on the question of the future of multiculturalism. It was moderated by the Walrus's Ken Alexander. A major participant was Daniel Weinstock, a Trudeau Fellow and director of CREUM, the centre where I am presently engaged in cutting-edge research. Check out the discussion here, where preliminary papers have been posted.

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Rebel Sell: The graphic novel version

Posted by andrew at 07:57 AM ET | Comments (6)

My new penpal Nic from U Michigan has taken time out from peppering me with questions about the Rebel Sell, to make a cartoon based on our account of cool.

It's pretty excellent. Check it out here (and dig the shout out to Montreal's hottest, The Arcade Fire).

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April 06, 2005

The literary craze that's sweeping the nation

Posted by andrew at 04:42 PM ET | Comments (6)

Mackenzie River

This river belongs
wholly to itself
obeying its own laws

Its wide brown eye
softens what it reflects
from sky and shore

The top water calm
moves purposely
to a cold sea

...

A river so Canadian
it turns its back
on America

The arctic shore
receives the vast flow
a maze of ponds and dikes

In land so bleak and bare
a single plume of smoke
is a scroll of history

-- F.R. Scott (Collected Poems)

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We hardly knew ye…

Posted by john_d at 01:56 PM ET | Comments (9)

With all the big, recent deaths in the news, I completely missed the fact that feminism has passed away due to complications from the entertainment industry.

Where’s that funeral? I’ll bet a newly single guy could get some action there.

Photo: AP/Vanity Fair/Mark Seliger

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It's not a competition, but this one means more to me.

Posted by john_d at 11:10 AM ET | Comments (10)

“I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that somber city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted; sometimes an innocent knock, sometimes a not so innocent.”

So begins THE great American novel, The Adventures of Augie March, by Montreal-born Saul Bellow who died yesterday at 89.

I am sad.

Read the NYTimes appreciation, and thanks to them for the photo.

photo credit; Neal Boenzi/The New York Times

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Purple Reign

Posted by andrew at 10:37 AM ET | Comments (0)

Sometimes, Urban Legends turn out to be true. To mourn the passing of the Pope, the Cross on the top of Mount Royal has turned purple. Well, sort of a mauve.

Here's a link to some photos and a brief history.

Thanks to YULblog for the link.

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April 05, 2005

And how, exactly, is this news playing in Belfast?

Posted by john_d at 04:46 PM ET | Comments (3)

Funny piece in the Guardian on the death of protestant supremacy in that most-Protestant of nations, England. When the King-to-be postpones his own wedding so as not to conflict with the funeral of a Pope, well, frankly, all the good Catholic-supression work of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I is a little bit undermined, isn't it?

In fact, I think Mark Almond’s article makes an interesting sub-point. In a time of great and deadly religious strife (evangelical Christian v. fundamentalist Islamic to name but one), it would seem one of the greatest and bloodiest of schisms has been reduced to a competition for the media cycle -- and the Catholics win!

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This headline makes me happy

Posted by andrew at 01:48 PM ET | Comments (1)

A colleague sent me this link from Yahoo news, and he wrote, "I don`t know why but I like everything about this headline in Yahoo news today."

Vatican Gridlocked as Hordes Rush in to Mourn Pope

I agree. It brings a big, random, smile to my face.

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architectural rape

Posted by andrew at 10:53 AM ET | Comments (10)

Also known as "advertecture."

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Who is an election for?

Posted by andrew at 10:12 AM ET | Comments (1)

Canadian journalism is beset by a pack mentality. It is, increasingly, hard to find an original and independent voice in the mainstream newspapers, which is why blogging has so quickly become such a vital part of my media grazing. Even the columnists I like are, frequently, better bloggers than they are columnists; I remain convinced that Paul Wells' editors at Maclean's don't read his blog, otherwise they would realise that he puts his best stuff online for free, while the punters get toss-offs about his vacations and inability to finish books.

N-E-Way.

Nothing demonstrates this pack mentality more than the notion that there won't be an election any time soon, because the parties can't afford it, and besides, the electorate is in no mood for an election.
I counted six versions of this claim in my morning papers, either quoted without comment or explicitly endorsed by the writer.

A few points:

First of all, elections aren't supposed to be held at the convenience of the political parties -- that should be obvious. But nor are they supposed to be held when it is convenient for voters. The point of an election is to settle the composition of the House of Commons, so that it might make a government. If the government can't govern, or if it loses the confidence of the House, then it is time for an election, regardless of how much money the parties have or what sort of mood the electorate is in.

Canada had elections in 1957, 58, 62, 63, 65, 68, 72, 74, 79, and 80.
Ten elections in 23 years; four elections in the six years bracketing the Diefenbaker regime, and twice in back-to-back years. The people voted because they needed to, not because they wanted to.

There are lots of reasons why this Spring might not be a good time for an election. Because it is inconvenient for all concerned is not one of them.

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April 04, 2005

Did something happen in Rome this weekend?

Posted by john_d at 10:08 AM ET | Comments (15)

It’s exodus time for the media. If you’re not doing a stand-up from St. Peter’s at this very moment, you are just not a serious media personality. See Art Johnson’s media column in the latest THIS Magazine for insight into the pack mentality now on display to honour one of the last great vestiges of medievalism in our world (and I say that as someone who likes medievalism).

My favorite media memes from the last three days:

“Whoever the next Pope is, he will have some pretty big shoes to fill.”

”...and yet this tired, sickly old man was such an inspiration to youth throughout the world.”

“Of course, he is beloved in Eastern Europe as one of the architects of the fall of Communism.”

To cut through the next few days of e-Talk Daily Pope Funeral coverage, view Frank Bruni’s audio-visual wrap up on John Paul II. Bruni is former Rome Bureau Chief for The New York Times. He knows his stuff. He takes the long view.

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April 01, 2005

Do not pay until 2007! Everyone Must Go!

Posted by john_d at 09:41 AM ET | Comments (0)

Driving north the other weekend, I had a brief glimpse into one possible future for our famous socialized health care system, now famously under attack by private interests hoping to profit from illness. Hasn’t Ralph Klein been doing a roadshow talking up the benefits of free market diagnostics?

Nevermind the moral questions for Canadians, I’m more concerned about the assault on my psyche such a change would bring. Surely everyone has seen those ridiculous American pharmaceutical commercials where they can tell you the name of the pill and all its many and various unfortunate side-effects, but not what it can do to improve your life. A commercial that identifies something and then describes in detail how bad it is. This is a revolution in marketing only ad execs could sell as a good thing.

Well, the marketers have struck our health care system already. Driving by Barrie’s impressive Royal Victoria Hospital on Highway 400, you can’t help noticing the giant banner slung across the building’s main facade. I guess the Royal Vic is going through a fundraising campaign tied to their investment in cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The sign reads: YOUR FUTURE CANCER CENTRE

Does it really take a public inquiry to decide that the advertising world has a number of sketchy idiots in it?

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Previous month: March 2005
Next month: May 2005

THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Please note that all writers hold the copyright for their pieces and it is illegal for any portion of them to be copied or distributed without their expressed permission. So please don't steal.

THIS MAGAZINE: BECAUSE EVERTHING IS POLITICAL

April 28, 2005

Prime Minister Layton: Help the rich, harm the poor?

Boy in Da Corner

April 27, 2005

Fly Like a... passenger train

Stephen Harper’s Head Explodes as He Tries to Explain All the Ways He Hates the Liberal NDP Deal

Prime Minister Layton

Documenting Democracy

Canadian Culture, Meet the Sewer Pipe

April 26, 2005

rats.... sinking ship...

April 25, 2005

How Wolfie touched our lives

come on, guess!

videogames make you smart (er)

The Most Powerful Person in the Country? -- take your pick.

April 24, 2005

Finding one's way in the Nation of Rebels

April 23, 2005

guess the date!

April 21, 2005

Put the pope in your address book

Mondovino!

The majesty of parliament, xxi

April 20, 2005

Utne gives props to This!

oh yeah, plus there's a new Pope

April 18, 2005

moon/june/spoon

Ed Broadbent addresses a nation of rebels

April 17, 2005

The Useful Psychopath

April 15, 2005

Fabricland and Labrador

Investigative Journalism *Does* Exist

April 14, 2005

Meanwhile... West of the Rockies

April 13, 2005

The Wrong Arm of the Law

Choose your PM (before you vote)

Greatest Canadian

April 12, 2005

Quick, before Canadians remember why they didn’t vote for us last time

April 11, 2005

Adscam, media, and a one-party state

Hate: Crime or medical condition?

April 10, 2005

Idle Worship

April 09, 2005

Woodward? Bernstein? Anybody?

April 08, 2005

and casket makers around the world shudder

April 07, 2005

Who is running The New Yorker?

Whither poet laureates?

The Pope as Hipster

Must resist temptation, must… damn

The Future of Multiculturalism

Rebel Sell: The graphic novel version

April 06, 2005

The literary craze that's sweeping the nation

We hardly knew ye…

It's not a competition, but this one means more to me.

Purple Reign

April 05, 2005

And how, exactly, is this news playing in Belfast?

This headline makes me happy

architectural rape

Who is an election for?

April 04, 2005

Did something happen in Rome this weekend?

April 01, 2005

Do not pay until 2007! Everyone Must Go!

Investigative Journalism Does Exist