The view from Pete

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GenX. My politics are clearly left and I’m tired of compromise with the neo-liberal right. They’ve driven a wedge with their money based centrist politics. We used to be able to do great things and we can again; we just need the leadership to do so; and folks to say as much.

Category: economy

  • Racism and bigotry are gaining again

    And we are worse off for it. By now you’ve been well acquainted with ‘wokeism’ and the smear the far right have coined against anyone or anything that highlights systemic injustices faced by minorities and the historically oppressed. But the opposite of ‘woke’ isn’t merely to disagree. The folks on the right are actively moving…

  • Another lap around the big flaming gas bag at the centre of our universe

    We’re in the final hours of 2022, and to many, glad to be done with it. The new year awaits, but how are we going to be any different than 2020-22? Excusing the fact that a global pandemic interrupted our world, what have we learned? Some might argue that the pandemic brought out the worst…

  • The coming reckoning of social media

    Starting with MySpace 20+ years ago, now facebook and twitter, social media is facing a reckoning. The legal framework for social media to exist and thrive has been based on the limited immunity that each organization has through actions of various governments. This means that users can post whatever they want, but social media operators…

  • The “NDP leadership/membership fiasco” is a right wing trap and many are falling for it.

    I’ll put down this marker right now, and I’m guessing that I can speak for many others too. Anjali Appadurai is likely to be an approved leadership candidate, very few memberships are likely to be terminated as a result of the internal investigation raised as a result of some publicly available information hinting at the…

  • The role of elected leaders in collective bargaining is to let the parties negotiate without interference.

    Generally speaking, voters outside the anti-union right wing tend to support pro-labour parties. That said, we don’t expect or demand that a government ‘from our side’ to deal out the best terms and big cash settlements (in public sector bargaining) or unduly pressure corporations in the private sector, but that the bargaining teams finally sit…

  • Neo-liberalism will not save us

    This may come as a surprise to many, but the economic upheavals we’re experiencing today were destined to happen long ago. They’ve just been made more profound and extreme by the pandemic. But we came so close to getting it. So close. The inherent weaknesses in capitalism’s true form, neoliberalism, were laid bare for all…

  • Gas tax reform should be on the table

    But not for the reasons you might think. As the growing EV sector cuts into fuel demand and consumption goes, so drops the fuel tax levies assessed by almost every level of government. That’s part of the bragging rights of EV owners – “we don’t have to pay that tax, or buy that fuel”. Which…

  • Opposition attacks on Royal BC Museum rebuild are some of the most repugnant in BC political history.

    See update Opposition attacks against against the proposed rebuild of the Royal BC Museum coming from the BC Liberals and Greens are sad, but predictable. It’s opportunist too. They both attempt to create a wedge issue (for which they are attempting to be on the right side of) by arguing that it’s a binary choice.…

  • Go Left. To save us. All of us.

    In uncertain times, folks can reach for more bold solutions when the same-old no longer works. These are some of those times. The Neoliberal economic philosophy hasn’t worked for large swathes of society, and those for whom it works are already the wealthiest and most powerful among us. Through no fault of our own, the…

  • Conservatives are determined to re-elect Trudeau – this time with a majority. This is awful.

    There was a series of social media posts circulated by various prominent conservative political leaders and thinkers in Canada which elevated the angry rants of some white-nationalist, covid-truther EU politicians as evidence that the world hates Trudeau and is harming Canada’s reputation around the world. Bunk. I am no Trudeau fan whatsoever, but I don’t…