Astroturfing is a political tactic designed to present a specific, often corporate agenda as the will of the public. The term itself is a play on words, acknowledging that these campaigns are basically fake grassroots movements. Now that we’re in an election, let’s keep an eye out for use of this term, not to mention […]

Throughout its lengthy and lacklustre history, this site has burned through a number of content management systems. Movable Type was fun for a while, for example, and WordPress was a worthy successor. Since January of 2009, I’ve been a loyal Textpattern user. It was my good friend Ram over at Funkaoshi – not to mention […]

If you use a feed reader or some other blog subscription service, and you want to know what the parties are saying about themselves and their leaders during this election campaign, then you’ll probably want to follow their feeds. Add the following links to your reader to follow the Liberal, Conservative, NDP and Green Party […]

I knew that if I didn’t renew my domain name today, it would expire. Hell, I had a note in my calendar and everything. But I figured I had until midnight before they’d decide to pull the rug out from me, and sadly, that wasn’t the case. If you visited my site this afternoon and […]

The last time we as a nation went to the polls was on Tuesday, 14 October 2008. Granted, when I say “we as a nation,” I mean just 58.8 percent of eligible voters, according to Elections Canada. Yes, the turnout during our last election was the single lowest voter turnout for any federal Canadian election […]

Busy times ahead, you guys. Multiple gigs, including a terrific annual fundraiser and the launch of the new Hamilton branch of Everyone’s a DJ. Lots of new and existing projects on the go, including a few things I’m afraid I’ve got to keep a lid on for the time being. Plus it’s a busy time […]

Academic, activist and Canadian icon David Suzuki is seventy-five today. Feel free to send him a birthday greeting through his foundation’s website, if you like. And as long as you’re here, here’s a list of all the posts I’ve written that mention or reference Dr. Suzuki in some way: 1. Political parties are not convenience […]

In the wake of today’s news about the upcoming vote to defeat the budget and trigger an election, I said something that I’d now like to assure you was just a joke, with no evidence available to substantiate it. “The race is on: can the Tories shut the government down again by Friday, in time […]

Following yesterday’s rejection of the budget presented to the House, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has announced that he will table a motion against the government later today. A vote on the motion will follow on Friday, with the NDP and the Bloc pledging to support it. “This is a government that’s lost the confidence of […]

“It’s Budget Day today,” the good people at iPolitics noted in their Morning Brief. The “annual staring contest” will begin at 4:00 PM EST, when Finance Minster Jim Flaherty will table the Harper government’s proposed budget in the House. Check out the iPolitics infographic explaining the budget process; it’s one of a number of useful […]