I’ve started to accumulate a back-log of things I wanted to write about, or started to write about but couldn’t make work. Here, then, are a handful of brief observations and links from the past few weeks.

I Am Rubber. You, Are Glue.

Angus Reid finds that, while Conservative attack ads do hurt Dion, they hurt Harper even more. For me this reveals that attack ads against the personal character or patriotism of another politician (the Liberals are guilty of this too) are actually attacks on democracy itself, as they turn everyone off of the process and do damage to the level of debate in this country. Unfortunately, they seem to also help rally donations.

Four Myths on Senate Reform

An interesting piece by Thomas Hall in The Hill Times [pdf]. A good backgrounder on how and why most politicians are misleading us on senate reform.

More Support for Carbon Tax

Put a price on emissions now or else, report says. The economic impacts of not introducing a carbon tax would be worse than introducing one, and the cost goes up with each day of inaction. And yet, the Green Party continues to be the only party in Canada to support this painfully obvious necessity. Why then do the others–chief among them the Conservatives–keep hiding and distorting the truth?

Vote Like You Mean It

An Angus Reid poll finds that 58% of Canadians “would like the Green party to have representation in the House of Commons.” If anyone can think of a realistic way to make this happen without actually voting for us, I’d like to hear it. (Though voting for MMP in Ontario would help too.)

Buying Good Headlines

While the Greens were getting good headlines, the Conservatives were buying theirs. Like, wow.