Ish Theilheimer

Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley.

eMail: ish@straightgoods.com

Polluter pay should be at heart of tar sands debate

May 222012

Editorials

Mulcair shows focus and consistency in decrying "Dutch Disease."

by Ish Theilheimer

If there's any reason for surprise over NDP leader Tom Mulcair's comments about the tar sands, "Dutch disease," and the polluter pay principle, it is his consistency. As long as anyone can recall, Mulcair has been making precisely the same points and saying almost exactly the same things on this all-important national issue.

His remarkable consistency and reasonable positions won him his party's leadership — with broad support from all regions, including Western Canada, where his rivals keep saying he is hurting himself with these same points and ideas. Indeed, when Straight Goods News interviewed him last September about his leadership campaign, it was nearly impossible to get him off the subject of environmental sustainability and how his views shaped his approach to industrial development of all kinds.

Canada being hit by speeding bus

May 142012

Editorials

Omnibus budget legislation lets Harperites roll progress back to 1950s.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube rant

These days in Canada, it seems you're either on the bus or off the bus. That's how the Harper Conservatives see it, at any rate.

The federal budget omnibus bill is a good example. It's a 400-page wishlist lays out changes to some 70 federal laws. It rolls up every Conservative's fondest dreams into one nauseating package — nauseating, that is, unless you're on the bus. This Bill has room for everything the Harperites love, and attacks everything public they hate.

Harperites hang troops and vets out to dry

May 092012

Editorials

Cuts to veterans' services show Conservatives' true colours.

by Ish Theilheimer

Among the most outrageous and surprising truths emerging about the Harper government is how poorly it treats Canada's military personnel and veterans. The Conservatives frequently say "Support our troops," but their government's actions undermine Canadian Forces personnel and veterans to a shocking extent.

Harperites hang troops and vets out to dry

May 082012

Editorials

Cuts to veterans' services show Conservatives' true colours.

by Ish Theilheimer

Across Canada, thousands of federal workers, including more than 1,500 PSAC members — about one eighth of the Department of National Defence (DND) work force — are being fired in the wake of the federal budget. "The positions are not back-office public service jobs but are core jobs to support the military in front offices," said Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) president John MacLennan.

Gutting Fisheries Act could be Harper’s gun registry

May 022012

Editorials

Progressives must seize on organizing opportunity they've been handed.

by Ish Theilheimer

Canada's Prime Minister and Conservative government are known for crass power politics, but including the wholesale dumping of fish habitat protections in with a Budget bill may prove too clever by half.

The government probably hopes it can sneak its changes in with the Budget and that most Canadians won't notice. And they could be right, if the Opposition and citizen groups don't act on this.

Eugene Forsey, we need you

Apr 032012

Editorials

New book illustrates long-term nature of "current" struggles.

by Ish Theilheimer

Where is Eugene Forsey, when we really need him?

Although known as Canada's foremost constitutional expert, Forsey — who died in 1991 — was far more than that, as his daughter Helen Forsey recalls in her new book. Eugene Forsey: Canada's Maverick Sage (Dundurn, 2012) tells how Eugene Forsey, born in Newfoundland in 1904 to wealthy parents, went on to become one of Canada's leading voices for social justice and the common good.

Stirred by his own conscience and a restless intellect, his radical activities in the 1930s in Montreal — which included co-founding the League for Social Reconstruction and helping found the CCF (forerunner of the NDP) — made him a target. Later, he was fired from work as a McGill University professor, but then hired as first research director of the Canadian Congress of Labour, forerunner of today's Canadian Labour Congress. Later still, Pierre Trudeau — whose vision for national unity he vigourously supported — made him a Senator.

Muclair takes over as Opposition leader

Mar 272012

Hill report

Tar sands, Christian Paradis, F35 purchase debacle and Aveos layoffs dominate news.

by Ish Theilheimer

and Samantha Bayard with YouTube video

OTTAWA, Straight Goods News, March 27, 2012 — The House of Commons did not sit last week, the Budget is due Thursday, and with Stephen Harper away until tomorrow, the main item of interest this week is the NDP's new leader Thomas Mulcair.

Mulcair delivers new politics to NDP

Mar 262012

Editorials

Many signs of cultural change on display in leadership vote.

by Ish Theilheimer

TORONTO, Straight Goods News, March 25, 2012 — At about 9:20 on Saturday night after four exhausting ballots, members of the NDP chose a new kind of politics in Tom Mulcair. The new leader answered in kind, with a low-key acceptance and a next-day love-in with former leadership rivals.

Mulcair's overwhelming support — he led on every ballot, and won with 56 percent of the vote despite the Party establishment's attempt to stop him — showed how keenly the membership embraced this new kind of leader.

To understand how different Mulcair is from conventional NDP leaders requires an understanding of the Party's culture. That culture, traditionally, has combined picket line grit, obsession with parliamentary procedure, retail electioneering, and moral sanctimony for the many causes that comprise this coalition called a political party. It was a culture of moral victories and a narrow base. Jack Layton made real progress toward changing it.

Tom Mulcair, however, aimed to change that culture for good. He appears to have done so.

His low-key acceptance speech is a great example of his new politics. Although many reporters panned it as low-key and uninspiring, it actually accomplished exactly what he needed it to do.

In a party concerned about his personal style being too aggressive, Mulcair showed himself to be a compassionate person who loves his family and young people. Keen observers might have noted, as well, that the man was close to tears at least twice as ballots results were revealed, and that he and his family were constantly together.

NDP’s Establishment outfoxes itself

Mar 202012

Columnists

Topp campaign errors show smart money is on the outsiders.

by Ish Theilheimer

The NDP doesn't like to admit it, but it has an establishment of wizened, veteran smart people. Sometimes they're too smart for their own good, which appears to be the case with Brian Topp's candidacy.

Evaluating the distinctions

Mar 132012

Editorials

NDP leadership candidates differ by shades of gray.

by Ish Theilheimer

With the federal NDP leadership race coming down to the wire and so many of the candidates in "violent agreement" with one another in nationally televised debates, the differences between them remain fuzzy to many observers.

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