All posts by Chris Tindal

Mind The Gap

economy, social justice

A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, titled “The Rich And The Rest of Us,” finds that the top 10% of Canadians are getting richer while the vast majority (80%) aren’t moving, and some of the bottom 10% are getting poorer. What’s worse, is that those 80% of Canadians in the middle are working harder (200 hours a year more compared to nine years ago) just to earn the same amount of money, while the 10% at the top are working less.

That’s an unsustainable situation if I’ve ever heard one.

In his new book The Upside Of Down, Thomas Homer-Dixon names the growing gap between the rich and the poor as one of the main threats facing our global society. He also points out how rapidly this problem is developing, explaining that “in 1950, there were about two poor people for every rich person on Earth; today there are about four; in 2025, there will be nearly six.

The good news in the report is that government policy can make a difference. “If they had to rely solely on market earnings,” the report says, “40% of Canadian families would have experienced significant losses in incomes compared to a generation ago — even though they are working more. Canada’s tax and transfer system stopped the freefall of incomes for almost half of the population raising children.” Government can also help with the problem of people who are working more for little to no gain by cracking down on unpaid overtime.

The report concludes with a very interesting statement:

An intractable growing gap between rich and poor, in good times and bad, oblivious to work effort, is akin to the slowly building impact of climate change — a clarion call for action which, ultimately, cannot be ignored.

And, like climate change, we will continue to see rising inequality until we understand our connectivity to each other and to our environment.

Amen.

Greens and NDP Tied

green party, ndp, polls

From cbc.ca:

The poll also suggested the Green Party continues to show momentum across Canada, with 13 per cent support nationally, tied with the NDP for the first time in Decima’s polling, the agency said.

The poll recorded 35 per cent support for the Bloc Québécois in Quebec, down significantly from its numbers in the run-up to the last election, when the Bloc was regularly closer to 50 per cent support in its home province, Decima said.

“It seems more the case that they can find little to rally anti-Ottawa emotion with,” Anderson said Thursday in a release. “And so those voters in Quebec who are nationalist but not separatist feel free to consider their other options, which now decidedly include the Green Party.”

The Liberals followed the Bloc in Quebec with 23 per cent, with the Green Party at 13 per cent, and the NDP with seven per cent.

Running On Fumes

energy

The gas shortage that began last week wasn’t supposed to last this long. Instead, it’s getting worse.

Esso, Canadian Tire, Petro-Canada, and Shell gas stations in Toronto are all suffering from gas shortages, and some of them are completely out of fuel.

The shortage, we are told, is due to a fire that happened at a refinery in Nanticoke, Ontario on February 15th. Also, it’s due to the CN rail strike. Also, it’s due to cold weather.

In other words, there are a lot of things going wrong at once. Robert Theberge of Imperial Oil described the Nanticoke fire as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” His comments were probably an attempt to minimize the problem, but for me they do the opposite. If our gas supply is so susceptible to disruption that it can be broken by a straw, we’ve got a problem.

In the early 1970’s, North American oil production peaked, giving birth to the energy crisis. People woke up and took action (efficiency, conservation), but eventually new supplies from the Middle East drove prices back down, and old habbits returned. Three years ago, when gas prices spiked in Canada, individuals (though not government) smartened up again, and started buying fewer stupid, ugly vehicles. Then, again, prices dropped, and the pendulum of behaviour swung back.

By evolutionary design, we humans are adept at reacting to immediate threats (“Ah! Lion!”), but not as good at detecting gradual ones or noticing long emergencies. Doesn’t mean we can’t do it, just means we have to try a little harder. Just as every oil field has a peak production, and just as North America peaked in the 1770s, it’s becoming increasingly likely that global oil production will peak soon as well. In fact, some believe it already has.

This week, as gas prices went back up (and as we actually started running out of the stuff), some drivers reacted with anger and confusion, as if they’d had no warning that this kind of thing could happen. But of course, CN will go back to work, the refinery will get back up to speed, and prices will go back down again. The temporary supply problem (the one that’s easy to notice, the lion) will be resolved and the illusion that our oil supply is infinite and secure will be restored. The looming global supply problem will remain, of course, but that’s the one that’s much easier to sleep through.

Something else will remain as well — one question: how many more warnings can we afford to ignore?

That’s A Funny Lookin’ Surge

conservative party, green party, ndp, polls

Headline in today’s Globe and Mail: “Tories surge on Harper’s leadership.” You probably read that and thought, “oh, I guess that means that the Tories have surged.” But you’d be wrong, you silly fool you.

Read the first paragraph to see that the poll found that, “Stephen Harper is the most decisive federal leader.” He’s decisive alright, in a George Bush “I’m the decider” kind of way. Never mind that just because you’re “decisive” doesn’t mean you’re making the right decisions.

Get to the third paragraph, and you find out that the Harper government is at thirty four per cent. Only zero-point-seven per cent more than a third, and two percentage points less than they got in the last election.

Where’s the surge?

Oh wait, there it is. “The main beneficiary appears to be the Green Party, which has the support of twelve per cent of voters.” That puts us ahead of the Bloc at eleven per cent, and just two points behind the NDP at fourteen.

Ok, so I tracked down the surge. The only thing I’m missing now is the part where the electorate is being accurately represented. The whole article is writen as if thirty four per cent is a huge amount of support. It’s not, and Harper should stop behaving otherwise.