Tag Archives: Democracy

The Daily Mader – May 9, 2011

Every person who is a Canadian citizen and is 18 years of age or older… THIS IS MY SON: Such angst there’s been over the election of a handful of youngsters to Canada’s 41st Parliament. Well, I say “young”; the youngest is nineteen, which is older, as many have pointed out, than Queen Victoria was [...]

The Daily Mader – May 5, 2011

Debating the future of the party of the center. Errr…. centre. Middle. THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING?: All the cool kids are talking about the future of the Liberal Party. The catchphrase appears to be “party of the center.” That’s what Michael Ignatieff called it in his farewell address, and that’s what Rob Silver says [...]

Honduras Round-Up

I’ve been traveling for the better part of a month, and I haven’t been able to stay on top of the developments in Honduras. Here’s a brief round-up: The Law Library of Congress’s Directorate of Legal Research has issued what is, to date, the only objective legal analysis of the Honduran constitutional crisis. Its conclusion? [...]

Moving Forward in Honduras

Following ousted President Emanuel Zelaya’s surreptitious return to Honduras, interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti has another important op/ed in the Washington Post. Micheletti makes a fundamental point that has been almost completely missed in both coverage and analysis of the Honduran crisis: Underlying all the rhetoric about a military overthrow are facts. Simply put, coups [...]

Re-evaluating Honduras

[An edited version of this post appears at The Mark.] It’s been a month since the Honduran army, at the direction of the Supreme Court, removed President Manuel Zelaya from office, and a month since—on its own initiative—the army sent Zelaya into exile. A month of demonstrations and failed negotiations have not changed the status [...]

The Path Forward

Honduras’s interim president, Roberto Micheletti, has an important op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal reiterating some key—but oft-overlooked—facts about Manuel Zelaya’s removal from office, and explaining the Honduran government’s willingness to accept a negotiated settlement to the crisis.

Justice for Honduras

My Honduras post has been republished at The Mark.

Honduras

If the Canadian and other world governments had been as thoughtful in approaching the situation in Honduras as they have been hasty in casting judgment upon it, we wouldn’t be in the midst of a terrible foreign-policy blunder. But here we are. How did we get here? The events leading up to the present crisis [...]

Why Not Intra-Riding STV?

I’m swamped with work at the moment and haven’t had a chance to do any real (non-work) writing, but yesterday’s BC election–and particularly the rejectiond of a single-transferable vote system of quasi-proportional representation–has me thinking. I must confess to not having followed the BC (or earlier BC and Ontario) PR debates closely with respect to [...]

Khadr and The Prime Minister

[Note: I have to tread lightly here, so forgive me if this is a little opaque.] The Federal Court issued an opinion today ordering the Canadian government to request Omar Khadr’s repatriation from Guantanamo Bay. Two thoughts: First, the opinion’s logic strikes me as flawed. The fundamental holding is that Khadr’s Section 7 Charter rights [...]