Up Next: bin Laden on the Dilapidation of Lower Manhatten Landmarks?

Why would anyone get Mike Harris to write a report on what's wrong with Toronto?

Ontario Election 2007: Why not make auto insurance an issue again?

It's amazing sometimes how you can forget about something that, only a few years ago seemed really significant. Take the last Ontario election where there was a fair amount of background noise concerning auto insurance. It seems we have pretty much forgotten it all and gone back to accepting the same old high prices.

A line in this post by Sean in Saskatchewan mentioned Saskatchewan's lower car insurance rates. I was also reminded recently of BC's lower auto insurance rates. The common factor in both provinces is that auto insurance is a publicly run system administered by a crown corporation. Now I know that free market ideology says that this simply cannot be, and yet it is.

Now the hacks at the Fraser Institute will tell you that somehow rates are lower in provinces with private insurance, and yet, everyone I know who moves to a jurisdiction with public insurance ends up saving money. They also don't pay attention to Fraser's insistence that public auto insurance kills you (methinks the institute doth protest too much). I'm talking about people who save money who are young and old, male and female. Who's really getting all these savings from private insurance then?

Moreover, we did we in Ontario, after raising a bit of a fuss, go back to accepting higher rates?

U.S. History (and Canadian Prophecy?)

Atrios has a post today on the mainstreaming of radical right-wing ideas in the US. Money quote:

"Over the last few decades we've seen just about every radical conservative idea be completely mainstreamed into our politics and discourse, while at the same time the Noble Defenders of the Left Flank like Joe Lieberman Weekly and Joe Klein have valiantly fought to ensure that every political idea or thought to their left on the rough political spectrum is declared to be "extremist." It's marginalization rhetoric which paints those who those who have those ideas as not just wrong, but actually ineligible to have a seat at the debate table."

This is, I think, a fair assessment of the success of far-right groups in the US in the past two decades. I can't help but think that this is exactly what Stephen Harper wants to import. It's been said that he wants to shift Canadian politics so that the Conservatives are the new "natural governing party" of this nation. The new cadre of editors at Macleans, the alarmist (and alarming) Ezra Levant and his rag, as well as a variety of think-tanks (Fraser among others) are more than willing to facilitate this mainstreaming of radical right-wing ideas.

Conservatives of both the small and big "c" variety are feeling ascendant in this country. The challenge will be to respond to their attempts at driving national discourse. In the US they were aided and abetted by a complacent and sometimes sympathetic media, we have no reason to assume the media will behave differently here.

The Kids are Alright

So says a Fraser Institute report that was quote by BlogTO. Every time I've mused about taking a teaching job in the GTA, someone says something about how kids in the "city" are gun-toting psychos with severe retardation. Sorry, but you're wrong, put away those stereotypes and shut up.

Monday Morning

While I try to decide whether or not I want to use WordPress to pimp out my blog, here are some other goings on:

Here is another reason not to switch to Vista: it won't work with iTunes.

Somehow I missed the fact that the New Pornographers played Toronto last week. Damn. Damn. Damn. Twin Cinema has probably been my favourite album of the last couple years.

Cyril Sneer types would probably be pleased to know that the Fraser Institute thinks the whole global warming thing is nothing but hype.

That's all I got for now...