The question is, Do you want more money or less? Carney repealing carbon pricing means you now have less.
Peter MacLeod
@petermacleod.bsky.social
Principal, masslbp.com | Helping people shape the policies that shape their lives | Citizens’ Assemblies + Democratic Innovation | Co-author, democracyssecondact.org
In the very near future, no one will believe we had a policy this good. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...
End of carbon tax rebates a financial hit for Canada’s poorest, research shows
Rebates were tax-free payments that compensated consumers for the cost of carbon taxes
theglobeandmail.com
The conservative bias of both journalists and politicians is one of the major problems of liberal democracy today. After ignoring, and often even dismissing, far-right voters for decades in the late 20th century, they have declared them "the people" in the early 21st century.
Rahel Freiburghaus@rfrbrghs.bsky.social · 7d ago(Swiss) politicians are bad at knowing what voters actually want. There is a clear conservatism bias: Political elites systematically perceive voters as more conservative than they really are, irrespective of the actual policy debate (e.g., raising retirement age) www.defacto.expert/2026/07/28/s...
When I was a kid, we worried about “acid rain.” Then a few adults in the room decided to address the problem. policyoptions.irpp.org/2012/04/acid...
Acid rain: A case study in Canada-US relations
On March 11, 1981, when Ronald Reagan visited Ottawa for the first time as president of the United States, he was greeted by thousands of protesters on Parliament Hill. They shouted and held placards ...
policyoptions.irpp.org
Kim McCauley@kimischilling.bsky.social · 3w agoI am not a climate scientist but when I was a kid the number of times we couldn’t go outside because of Canadian wildfire smoke was zero times
Following a Citizens’ Assembly, the French National Assembly passed a law on 15 July 2026 legalising assisted dying and assisted suicide in France. #CitizensAssembly
France legalises assisted dying following a citizens’ assembly
Following a Citizens’ Assembly, the French National Assembly passed a law on 15 July 2026 legalising assisted dying and assisted suicide in France.
mehr-demokratie.de
Strong agree with this editorial co-authored by Jeff Collins - where is Canada’s civil defence spending? www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
Opinion: As Canada burns, defence spending must go toward fighting wildfires
Fires in Canada are growing year and year, our fleets of water bombers should too
theglobeandmail.com
How bad is the air quality? So bad that everybody’s automatic headlights are on while driving the 401 at 4 PM
I’m always reluctant to directly attribute any one weather event to climate change. But Canada’s current fossil-fuel boosterism does hit a bit harder while considering whether we have to keep our 6-year-old home from the baseball camp he’s been excited about, because of potential record heat.
We already knew that social media-fed disinformation and ragebait is terrible for liberal democracy. Powered by AI text generation it's of course worse.
AI software that generates ‘rage bait’ developed by Germany’s far-right AfD
Alternita platform uses Google Gemini, OpenAI and Claude to create provocative social media posts
irishtimes.com
Aka enough with Alabama
Jim Stanford@jimbostanford.bsky.social · 4w agoUBS 2026 Global Wealth Report confirms the typical (ie. median) Canadian is 2x wealthier than the median American. Cda ranks 7th on median wealth, US 28th. Galactic hoards of Musk, Bezos, et al inflate the US average but virtually none flows to most Americans. #canlab #cdnecon /2
NEW in @porchparty.bsky.social: The Civic Standard is a strange, compelling nonprofit in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom that combines food, theater, and "giving people a ride." Cofounder Rose Friedman talked to me about what she's learned about building community www.porchpartynews.com/p/civic-stan...
'Pay attention.' How an unusual Vermont nonprofit builds community
The Civic Standard offers everything from participatory theater to killer mac and cheese. Cofounder Rose Friedman has some advice on bringing neighbors together.
porchpartynews.com
‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...
For the North Sea island of Sylt, the high number of tourists is becoming an increasing burden. Randomly selected residents are working together with other stakeholders to develop a tourism strategy for the future. #CitizensAssembly
Citizens help shape Sylt's tourism strategy
For the North Sea island of Sylt, the high number of tourists is becoming an increasing burden. Randomly selected residents are working together with other stakeholders to develop a tourism strategy f...
mehr-demokratie.de
Agree with every word of @emmettmacfarlane.com's analysis here. The past decade has seen lots of truly excellent, accomplished, public-minded people appointed to the Senate. Returning to crassly partisan appointments is the very last thing Canada needs.
Mark Carney returns to grubby patronage and damages the renewed Senate
In the Golden Age of Twitter, before it was bought up by a white supremacist oligarch and transformed into a wasteland of disinformation and hate, the Canadian politics nerds used to half-joke about h...
emmettmacfarlane.substack.com
Correct your priors: Private money is going after clean energy, governments are using public money to prop up fossil fuels "About 59% of all money spent on the fossil fuel system came from taxpayers in 2015. By 2025, that climbed to 68% and spiked at 78% in 2022." www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Who’s Really Keeping Fossil Fuels Alive? Taxpayers
To judge by the way many people discuss the energy transition, we’re engaged in a fight between green idealogues in government and academia on the one hand, and a more realistic private sector that re...
bloomberg.com
As the U.S. prepares to celebrate its 250th, icymi: @mdrohan.bsky.social tells @spaikin.bsky.social about American founding father Benjamin Franklin's failed attempts to annex Canada. Don't know this story? She says that's because Canadians let the losers write the story: youtu.be/71XcY7OgYe8?...
Madelaine Drohan: Long Before Trump, Franklin Failed to Annex Canada | TVO Today Live
YouTube video by TVO Today
youtu.be
Many Americans aren’t even aware that democracy is in peril globally. Liberal democracy is now the least common form of govt in the world, and nearly three in four people on earth live under some form of authoritarianism. Never before have this many nations slid toward authoritarian rule at once.
The proportion of Canadians who feel that individuals have a role to play in reconciliation remains as high as when the question was first asked in 2020. environicsinstitute.org/reconciliati... #CoT2026
We have an incredible problem: too many donations for our mutual aid hub and not enough shelves! We’ve outgrown our current setup, and we need to adapt to keep up with need, especially as we help candidates across the country adopt this model.
Mon texte dans La Presse aujourd’hui ! www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/opi...
Place publique à Claire Trottier | Taxer les riches : une idée solide et rigoureuse
La philanthrope et présidente du conseil du regroupement Patriotic Millionaires Canada, Claire Trottier, croit que la société peut exiger une plus grande contribution des gens les plus nantis, notamme...
lapresse.ca
Steven Guilbeault: "If you look at our campaign platform during the last election, commitments that we made to Canadians, mentioned climate change 28x. It did not mention pipelines once. So I think rightfully so, some people are wondering what is happening."
This new report seems timely. environicsinstitute.org/spotlight-on...
Spotlight on Alberta 2026 | Environics Institute for Survey Research
While Albertans have become less likely to express feelings of “Western alienation,” there has been a steady polarization of opinions in the province.
environicsinstitute.org
These nuts are going to be a problem for a long while unfortunately. They have already started scaring away any non O&G capital from Alberta (Vancouver is to Calgary as Toronto was to Montreal), so they have destroyed any chance of a smoothish post oil future.
Max Fawcett@maxfawcett.bsky.social · 2mo agoOnce again, it's all about victimhood for these folks. The media spends a disproportionate amount of time talking about Alberta. Three of Canada's nine supreme court justices are from or were educated in Alberta. And the most underrepresented province in both the House and Senate is ONTARIO.
“The book is really an invitation… to practice a more grown up kind of politics.” — @petermacleod.bsky.social joins @spaikin.bsky.social on TVO Today Live at 7:30pm to talk citizen assemblies, democratic fragility, and his new book “Democracy’s Second Act.” | Producer: @hclark.bsky.social
Amidst the discussions on how to strengthen the bonds between Canada and the EU, we argue that we should also be focusing on social bonds and future generations. Canada should join Erasmus+! A topic also raised in the European Citizens’ Panel on Learning Mobility of the EU Commission @ec.europa.eu
Peter MacLeod@petermacleod.bsky.social · 3mo agoAs Canada draws closer to Europe, @alexhim.bsky.social, @steinbri1.bsky.social and I explain why Canada should join Erasmus and dramatically increase 🇨🇦-🇪🇺 student mobility. More exchange, more shared experience, and stronger democratic ties in a fractured world. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...