Liberals Must Opt for Long-Term Vision, Not Short-Term Gratification
By Gregory D. Morrow

Delegates at the December 2 Liberal leadership convention will fundamentally face two choices: 1) go for the quick fix and the remote chance of short-term gratification, or 2) think about the long-term vision of the party and country. This follows from the simple fact that Liberals must choose what generation to whom they want to speak and what generation to which their leader belongs. If they choose Michael Ignatieff (age 58), Bob Rae (age 57), Ken Dryden (age 58), or Joe Volpe (age 58) they are counting on a quick fix. If they choose Gerard Kennedy (age 45), Scott Brison (age 38) or Maurizio Bevilacqua (age 45), they will be thinking about the long-term vision of the party and country.

At heart, Liberals must face the fact that the current Conservative agenda — focusing on five key priorities — is a short-term strategy meant to win them a majority, probably some time next year. Next year, Conservatives will say “this is what we said we would do and we did it. Now give us a majority.” Most likely there are two outcomes: a Conservative minority (if Canadians decide that a limited focused mandate has been successful) or a Conservative majority (if Canadians decide the Conservatives deserve a free hand). The Liberals will not have time to pull together a revamped vision in time. They will have only selected their leader in December, after all. So, to think that they will win instantly is wishful thinking, and endangers their chances of success in the medium- and longer-term. The party is polling 15 points behind the Conservatives, who are above the magic 40% threshold (commonly thought to be what is needed for a majority, ironic as it is — wouldn’t it make sense if 50% was needed to win a majority??).

(more…)

Fox News / Bush White House Propaganda Goes Public
By Gregory D. Morrow

Every few days, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly feels compelled to defend the network as the only one that is ‘fair and balanced’. He forcefully argues - and I’m sure he actually believes — that Fox is not a conservative network. By the same token, and despite heavy doses of partisan rhetoric and targeted character assassinations, the Bush White House has gone to great lengths to pretend that it represents Americans of all political stripes.

However, yesterday’s appointment of Fox News correspondent Tony Snow as the White House press secretary goes a long way to dispel both of these myths. Of course, there have been plenty of content analyses by sociologists and others that have shown that Fox virtually always relies on conservative sources, so the selection of one of its big faces to be the face of the Bush administration is really just a matter of changing venues, and confirms what we always knew about the network. But for the White House to so blatantly bias its dealings with the public by selecting a Fox News correspondent seems to me underhanded and disingenuous.

(more…)

Softwood Lumber Framework a Bad Deal for Canada
By Gregory D. Morrow

After four years of back and forth between Canada and the U.S. on softwood lumber, we learned today that negotiators have reached a framework on a softwood lumber deal. At issue is whether Canada subsidies its industry and to what degree softwood trade should be free trade. An analysis of the proposed framework below shows that deal heavily favors the U.S. industry, and serves to divide the Canadian industry east-to-west. On the surface, it appears that the Conservatives are playing politics with this central issue, rather than stick to principles that have earned Canada the majority of legal victories to this point. Here are the key issues at stake:

1. Price of Canadian Wood:

What the U.S. Wants: to change Canada’s system so prices are determined by market demand, not by public auction. Ultimately would like to end logging on public lands. Wants export taxes to ensure Canadian lumber is not cheaper than U.S lumber.

What Canada Wants: wants to retain its current system.

Framework proposes: a min 5% export tax if Canadian lumber prices fall below $355/thousand board foot, to ensure Canadian lumber is not cheaper than American lumber. Moreover, the deal includes a ’surge’ protection for the U.S., to ensure that no region exceeds a quota (if they do, they face a large duty).

Who Wins?: U.S.; this is a big win for the U.S. lumber lobby, as it ensures that Canadian wood never has a price advantage over U.S. wood.

(more…)

Very sad news today. Jane Jacobs has died at 89, apparently due to a stroke. The world has lost one of its greatest citizens. The American-born activist, writer, and urban expert has lived in Canada (Toronto) since 1968.

Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) is one of the seminal texts of the twentieth-century.

Edit: Christopher Hume did a nice piece in the Star today.

Globe and Mail
Toronto Star
Wikipedia

Project for Public Places
CBC
CBC Archives
New York Times

Kunstler Interview

Rational Reasons
Treehugger
Metropolis 347

(more to come)

Agoraphobia: Fear and Fences as Symbols of America
By Gregory D. Morrow

Fear is a very powerful thing. Fear can motivate even the most reasonable of people to act irrationally. And that’s what is happening right now in the United States on the issue of illegal immigration. The latest news is that the Minutemen are now going to build their own private fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. May I introduct to you the new symbol of American freedom:

Forget the Statute of Liberty. That is so yesterday. No, today, it is better to simply wall yourself off from the world around you, and let the media broadcast images of what American thinks of the world. Actually, there is nothing surprisingly about the current state of panic in the United States. American fear has reached pathological levels since 9/11. Many Americans now suffer from Agoraphobia - the fear of open spaces, but more commonly thought of as the fear of leaving your house. The common response is to simply close the world out.

This culture of fear is played out everyday on newscasts. We even build our cities to quell our fear. Gated communities are the fastest growing form of housing. Fear of crime, fear of terrorism, fear of the other.

(more…)

I typically don’t post my academic work here, since scholarly work is not as accessible as op-eds. That being said, this piece might interest some people — it’s about the relationship between politics, ideology and design. Architects should be warned that I take a critical position on current practice.

How Technology Swallowed The Fish:
Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim And The Ideology Of Skin-Deep Architecture
By Gregory D. Morrow

You know that Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim has entered into the lexicon of pop culture when silver-haired, cigar-smoking, mildly obese old men in central Kansas debate the merits of having a “Bilbao Effect” for their own declining town.[1] Hate it or love it, the Bilbao Guggenheim has been labeled as: a) as Paul Goldberger has suggested, “a metaphor for Basque culture and the relationship it aspires to have with the world: a thing apart, yet entirely willing to make a connection on its own terms,”[2] or b) another example of American cultural imperialism. The position to which you ascribe — masking imperialism or mirroring culture — to some degree depends on the ideological frame through which you see the world. If you ascribe to Clifford Geertz’s theory of ideology, architectural production merely reflects culture, lending support to Goldberger’s thesis.[3] If you ascribe to Karl Marx’s theory, ideology distorts reality, thus architecture would be seen as masking the reality of cultural imperialism.[4] In what follows, I will argue that Bilbao is neither American cultural imperialism, nor a metaphor for Basque nationalism, but rather reflects the current state of urban redevelopment and architectural practices.

(more…)

Canadian Political News Round-Up:

Emerson frustrated, ex-aide says. Said to complain Tories `too partisan’ Minister’s office denies remarks made

Well, I’m not feeling sorry for Emerson, who clearly puts his own interest ahead of his constituents. On the other hand, if these statements are true, it’s not surprising to heard that Stephen Harper (aka Adam Sutler) is running the show like his own personal dictatorship, has no people skills, nor that his government is far more partisan than the Liberals.

Young MPs set to back Kennedy

The following MPs are backing Gerard Kennedy’s Liberal leadership bid. Kudos to them:
Mark Holland, 31, Ajax-Pickering
Scott Simms, 35, Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor
Navdeep Bains, 28, Mississauga-Brampon South
Omar Alghabra, 36, Mississauga-Erindale
Mario Silva, 39, Davenport
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, 45, Etobicoke Centre

Liberal critics want ceasefire in ‘phony war’ over child care. Harper had warned of election showdown

I have to agree with Ralph Goodale on this one. As I’ve said before, we should be providing BOTH support for families, and support to provinces in order to create child care spaces. This is not an either/or. Given that all the other parties support the creation of child care spaces, it is incumbent upon Harper, since he has only a minority government, to reach a compromise.

Mulroney’s green gala could prove awkward for PM

“The most notable thing about the present Conservative environment policy is its almost total absence,” said Toby Heaps, editor of Corporate Knights magazine. It’s a little strange to have the guest of honor at an event honoring the ‘green’ Mulroney be a person like Harper who does not place the environment among his top 100 priorities, let alone his top five priorities.

The Other Leadership Race: the Green Party of Canada
By Gregory D. Morrow

There’s been a lot of to-do about the Liberal leadership race heating up. But nary a word about the other leadership race — for the Green Party of Canada. The Greens hold a leadership race every two years, not matter what. Two years seems a little short (four seems better to me), but the idea of a regular election process for party leadership is a great idea. That way, leaders can’t stay on well past their expiry date (yes, Ralph Klein we are talking about you!). The Green Party could play an important role in Canadian politics if we ever get serious about electoral reform, to ensure a better match between vote and seat share. It would be great to see the 14 Green MPs that they would have elected if we had a purely proportional system [although I don’t endorse a purely proportional system; I prefer a mixed-member parliament; see Making Every Vote Count (756kb PDF); still, the Greens would have around 12 MPs under a mixed-member system]. In contrast the $50,000 entry fee and $3.4 million spending limit for the Liberal leadership, the Greens have a much more reasonalbe $2,000 entry fee and $50,000 spending limit. Feel free to check out the growing list of Green bloggers.
There has been little said about the Green leadership race, but here are some of the declared or rumored candidates.

(more…)

Stephen Harper (also known around here as Adam Sutler, the controlling Chancellor in V for Vendetta) has promised to punish those who exercise independent thought. A new Canadian Press article (”Loose lips sink careers, ministers are warned”) is yet another exhibit of a Conservative government that has the audacity to think it can control the thoughts and actions of everyone under its command.

“Ministers in the new Conservative government have been warned they could be banned from traveling, publicly humiliated or even fired for verbal gaffes.”

The hypocrisy of Stephen Harper is as arrogant as it is foolish. For Harper to preach about the importance of the individual in society (individual rights, property rights, the importance of individual achievement, etc) on the one hand, yet undermine the independence of the individuals in his party illustrates a remarkable disrespect for his colleagues.

“So stick to the party line, or you’ll go out there and tell the whole world that you’re a dumb (jerk) who screwed up.”

How can a government run on a principle of giving MPs greater authority and responsibility (in and out of parliament) so quickly betray that commitment by issuing gag orders on all ministers and MPs?

(more…)

Two-for-one: Tories Block Environment and Free Speech
By Gregory D. Morrow

I love when I can combine two recent rants into one. Today, the Tories displayed disregard for both democracy/free speech and the environment all in one. Not only did the Tories eliminate 15 Kyoto research projects but also prohibited Environment Canada scientist Mark Tushingham from giving a lecture about his new fiction book “Hotter than Hell,” which is based on a not-too-distanct future affected by global warming.

Due process for this event was not followed and that’s why it was cancelled,” said Ryan Sparrow, a spokesman for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose. Due process? You mean they didn’t ask permission from the Prime Minister’s Office? No, because Tushingham was billed as an Environment Canada scientist. Well, duh, that’s what he is.

Meanwhile it appears the 15 programs eliminated today are just the beginning. As reported yesterday, the Tories plan to cut 80% of funding on global warming in favour of tax cuts. I have to agree with Scott Brison on this one: “It is clear the Conservative government has no plans to listen to expert advice from their own department and is willing to sacrifice sound environmental policy to partisan ideology,” said Brison.