The View from Seymour

A take on Question Period

The Tyee has published my article Making Democracy a Commons Insult, about my first visit to Parliament during Question Period. Excerpt:

The conventional view is that Question Period shocks innocent schoolchildren who observe their government in boorish action. The schoolchildren that day seemed to take the uproar pretty calmly. 

Question Period looked like what urban black kids call "doing the dozens," swapping ritual insults to maintain status in the group. Canadian kids of whatever colour would understand what was going on in the chamber: the same ragging and bullying they experience in the schoolyard. 

I saw the MPs’ behaviour not as mere discourtesy to one another, but as a studied insult to the onlookers. Question Period is a kind of vicious parody of democracy, a show deliberately put on for the audience. 

What discouraged me was that all four parties were colluding in the show. Whether it was Libby Davies and Kirsty Duncan sniping at one another, or Tony Clement mumbling about payroll taxes, it was all meaningless -- and the MPs knew it.

Jeff Rubin's Shrinking World

The Tyee has published my review Jeff Rubin's Shrinking World, about his book Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization. In my opinion it's one of the most important Canadian books on politics and economics that we'll see this year.

Hospital safety as a political issue

The Tyee has published my article Germs Winning in BC's Hospitals. While it deals with local issues in the midst of a provincial election, the basic problem, I suspect, is very widespread across Canada and the US.

The cost of Afghanistan

I haven't posted much here lately because I've been too busy blogging on The Hook and writing articles for The Tyee. But I'd like to mention two related articles I've published there this week:

Caring for Vets' Diseases, Stress Could Cost Canada $11.5 Billion: And that's on top of the $7.55 billion it'll cost us by 2012.

Yuri's Invisible Wounds: About the impact of PTSD on one young Afghan veteran.

Watching Gaza from space

I've just posted an item on The Hook, the politics blog of The Tyee: Watching Gaza from space. Follow the link to satellite images showing just where the damage has been most severe.

Blogging Gaza

The Tyee has published my article Blogging Gaza, which links to some Israeli and Palestinian blogs right in the midst of the war.

Obama and his lessons for Canadian politicians

The Tyee has published my article Obamasphere: Coming to Canada?

It's a discussion of Obama's sophisticated use of the online media and what our own politicians can learn from him. So far, Michael Ignatieff is the only party leader who seems to be paying attention.

The Case for the Coalition

Over at The Tyee, Michael Byers has published a must-read: The Case for the Coalition.

Whatever happens at Rideau Hall on Thursday morning, this is a very clear explanation of the Canadian system of government. Read it, link to it, and pass it along.

A clinic in assymetrical warfare

Via The Independent in the UK: Just ten trained terrorists caused carnage. Excerpt:

Mumbai's 60 hours of terror were the work of a small team of professionally trained "commando killers", who spent weeks planning their atrocities, according to initial evidence emerging here yesterday.

Officials said they believe the terrorists who carried out attacks that left almost 200 people dead, and who held off the security forces for three days, may have numbered as few as 10. Only one – apparently a Pakistani national identified as Mohammed Ajmal Qasam by a senior Indian official – was captured alive.

This must be food for thought for every government in the world: What are you doing wrong when ten trained young idiots can paralyze a city of 17 million and hold off hundreds of commandos for 60 hours?

New Democrats in a coalition cabinet

I've just published an item on The Hook, asking Who's in your coalition fantasy cabinet? After all, if New Democrats and Liberals actually form a new government, we need to think about who goes in the cabinet.