Editorials

Unions under attack as backbone of progressive causes

Sep 182012

The Left should remember what the Right has known for years.

by Ish Theilheimer

How ironic that the Right seems more aware than the Left of the crucial importance of unions to progressive politics. In the past, when conservatives were less aggressive, this didn't matter so much. Now, in the age of Stephen Harper and the Tea Party, the stakes are much higher.

In the USA and here in Canada under Harper (and, of course, under Brad Wall in former social democratic homeland Saskatchewan), new laws are sapping the strength and even the existence of unions, too often with little public outcry.

Pollution and slavery

Sep 162012

Editorials

Andrew Nikiforuk's new book uses a loaded term but others have used it too.

by Penney Kome

Alberta author and environmentalist Andrew Nikiforuk’s new book, The Energy of Slaves, suggests that we measure our energy use in units of what might be called “slave power”. He starts from the premise that machines now do the chores that societies such as the Romans and the US Southern plantations required slaves to do — and dubs those machines, “slaves”.

The notion that we privileged Westerners are all closet slaveholders is deliberately shocking.

People power rising

Sep 102012

Editorials

Events in Quebec, Kitchener, and south of the border show voters tired of conservative agenda.

by Ish Theilheimer

This has been an exciting week in politics, with distinct calls for people power.

In Canada, the week opened with the election of a minority PQ government in Quebec. This would be a hard election to describe to some from another country, like English-speaking Canada for instance.

Public workers are easy marks for bullies

Sep 042012

Editorials

Public workers are easy marks for bullies

Schoolroom lessons ignored in right-wing power politics.

by Ish Theilheimer

Working for the public these days is like wearing a bullseye on your back. Every passing politician wants to use you for target practice. After years of hectoring and propoganda, the right wingers' message has become dominant. They blame government, public services and public sector workers for public deficits. The talk show jocks and bully pulpit politicos who hammer these points home every day never mention the real reasons for big deficits, like cutting corporate taxes and corporation exporting jobs to low-wage countries — all of which leaves government treasuries stripped bare of tax dollars. It's pretty hard for a government to stay in the black if it depends on income tax from Wal-Mart workers.

Labour needs a better image

Aug 082012

Editorials

When working people keep siding with bosses, something has to change.

by Ish Theilheimer

The Civic Holiday weekend, which most Canadians celebrate at the beginning of August, is the best holiday of all because it has no obligations other than to put down tools, relax and enjoy. Other holidays require gifts, parades, services, and so on, but the Civic Holiday is about not working, which is a great reason for a holiday.

That's why it seemed ironic to me over the weekend to be imbibing beachside with a group of neighbours and hear them start to trash-talk other workers. My companions (even some who work for the public themselves) dumped special ridicule Unionized workers who "make too much money," like teachers and nurses and public liquor store workers.

I felt like I was sharing brewskies with Don Cherry.

Wreckers make a moonscape of Canada

Jul 272012

Editorials

After 13 damaging months, Conservatives' changes will be hard to reverse.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video "rant"

At his last news conference of the session, government House leader Peter Van Loan told the truth for a change. They "got the job done," he said. It's true. In 13 months, the Harper Conservatives have done what they set out to do nine years ago when Harper became head of the newly-incarnated Conservative Party of Canada. In just over a year, his government has laid waste to Canada's public services, its cooperative traditions and its reputation. Mission accomplished.

Tough medicine needed to save the world

Jul 242012

Editorials

Extreme weather brings home climate change reality.

The bills for climate change are coming due and the situation is alarming.

My part of Canada is experiencing the worst drought in memory. The eastern US has been buffeted by catastrophic storms and heat waves. Tornadoes have become common where they were formerly unknown (in fact one hit my home as I was finishing this piece!). Meanwhile, many parts of British Columbia are fighting floods and mudslides and the Arctic continues to thaw.

Climate change is no longer theory. It's a lethal reality that is already killing people, flora and fauna — through crop failures, weather catastrophes and the elimination of habitat needed to support life on land, in the air and in water.

Ish is in Schoolhouse

Jul 102012

Editorials

Publisher is also Producer of Ottawa Valley summer theatre.

Ish will return after July 17, when Stone Fence Theatre launches Schoolhouse, by Leanna Brodie, in Eganville.

Schoolhouse paints a loving portrait of rural one-room schoolhouses, which went out of use about 50 years ago in the Ottawa Valley. Just as importantly, it portrays a heroic teacher who worked, as so many teachers do now, for equality and fair treatment for their students.

"Producing Schoolhouse is only a small tangent", says Ish, "from my work with Straight Goods News."

Polarization destroying Canadian consensus

Jun 192012

Editorials

Polarization destroying Canadian consensus

Harper is making Brian Mulroney look like a beacon of progressive thought.

by Ish Theilheimer

When Canadians become nostalgic for the good old days of Brian Mulroney, you know something is seriously wrong.

Mulroney won two successive majority governments in the 1980 before being hounded from office in the '90s, having acquired the popular moniker "Lyin' Brian." He was pompous, full of himself, scheming and capable of downright nastiness. He peppered his speech with gutter-level expressions like "There's no whore like an old whore," and "You gotta dance with the one what brung you."

Governments “omnibuster” to make stealth changes

Jun 122012

Editorials

Governments “omnibuster” to make stealth changes

Harperites, Ontario Liberals use omnibus bills to thwart democracy.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video rant produced by Samantha Bayard

If there's anything I can't stand, it's when you're out for a walk and you see a coffee cup from Horton's that some fellow Canadian has seen fit to throw out of the car onto the roadside. You go to dispose of the darn thing up and inside you find a cigarette butt or two.

I'm sure that only Stephen Harper Conservatives throw these damn things out of their car windows. They show the same level of respect and common decency in everything they do.

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