Apr 8 2020 — Rick Smith — Broadbent Institute — Given the bleakness of the news these days, it’s understandable that some people have been searching for a silver lining in the current COVID outbreak. From clearer waters in Venetian canals and coyotes roaming empty city streets, to better air quality in Italy and China and record low global GHG emissions, there have been a […]
Jan 1 2020 — Rick Smith — Broadbent Institute — From a progressive point of view, the last days of the year were…less than ideal. Between Conservative re-election and Brexit in the UK, climate change-linked fires in Australia and a failure of global leadership at the Madrid climate change conference, Jason Kenney and his minions on a rampage and Trump and more Trump, I’m not […]
Nov 6 2019 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — At a certain point, progressives really need to come to terms with the core truth of modern conservatism: they just aren’t that conservative anymore. Far from being “cautious of change”, as my on-line dictionary defines them, today’s conservatives revel in their role as disruptors. Wherever you look around the world — from Brexit to border […]
May 24 2019 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — Trying to follow the Conservative stance on climate change can give you whiplash. After all, this is a party that voted unanimously against signing the Paris Climate Accord in 2016, only to turn around eight months later and vote fully in support of the Accord (with only one Tory member dissenting). This new commitment didn’t […]
Aug 30 2018 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — There was a time when all participants in the political process – whether from the left or right – disagreed about the best approach to issues, but did so with a respect for their opponents and our democratic process. This is not one of those times. While most Canadians were focused on their barbeques and […]
Jun 5 2018 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — Federal environmental policy under the Liberal Party often reminds me of Sunday drives with my grandparents as a child. The conversation is pleasant enough. But it proceeds at a snail’s pace. Never arrives at a particular destination. And any criticism of the driver is met with a wounded expression. On World Environment Day, it’s appropriate […]
Feb 14 2018 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — Inequality is not inevitable. It’s the product of specific political and economic decisions made over decades, decisions that can be corrected. One glaring cause of inequality is the structure of the tax system itself. In many cases, richer Canadians pay a lower rate of tax on financial instruments such as stock options than middle-class and […]
Dec 1 2017 — Rick Smith — Broadbent Institute — The November 30 release of labour data from the 2015 Census confirmed that jobs have become much more unstable and precarious as many workers find it very hard to find stable, full-time employment. Less than one half of even so-called core age Canadians age 25 to 54 (49.8%) now work full time, on a full […]
Feb 21 2017 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — I had to watch Prime Minister Trudeau’s epic electoral reform meltdown from a distance over the past couple of weeks given my attendance at an international meeting of progressive policy leaders in South Africa. Being surrounded by politically attuned people from countries that have long used a proportional representation (PR) voting system provided some useful […]
Dec 21 2016 — Rick Smith — Broadbent Institute — As we inch closer to the Liberal government’s spring deadline to table legislation to scrap our majoritarian first-past-the-post voting system, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that defenders of our “archatic” system, as Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef describes it, are coming out of the woodwork. The clarity about the option now before us -- keeping our majoritarian system or moving to a proportional voting one -- must by very worrying to some. That’s because proportional representation is about taking power away from the elites and putting it in the hands of regular people.
Oct 8 2016 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — Well, that was quite something. Even those most dedicated cynics have to admit that an unexpectedly large amount of progress was made on the climate change issue in the past few days. What’s that? Yes. Yes, it is. The first inkling of some light at the end of the carbon tunnel. Here are 5 takeaways […]
May 29 2016 — Rick Smith — Toronto Star — “Notley NDP makes pigs fly” That’s how one media commentator reacted to the broad and unlikely assortment of corporate CEOs, union leaders, doctors, small and big city mayors, and environmentalists who stood with Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips as she unveiled the province’s signature climate legislation last week. We’ve long heard how important Alberta’s economic […]
Mar 20 2016 — Rick Smith — Toronto Star — Our prime minister’s “sunny ways” have failed to reach one of the darkest corners left behind by the previous government’s obsession with striking out at its enemies (real and perceived) — Ottawa’s war on charities. Instead of making good on its campaign promise to “allow charities to do their work on behalf of Canadians free […]
Nov 24 2015 — Rick Smith — Toronto Star — The renowned Canadian-born economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said that “all of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
Sep 23 2015 — Rick Smith — National Newswatch — Pity the poor pundits this ridiculously long election season. The election-industrial complex has never revved this hot for so long, and some of its practitioners are starting to show the strain from feeding the 24-hour news beast. As time wears on two conflicting and equally erroneous themes are front and centre, each making their own […]