Rock Nation does not endorse one political party or one set of ideas. Party based politics are a mess to begin with and our current political system needs to better adapt to very different times. There have only been a very few peaceful revolutions in history and there are many good ideas within our government that can be improved. What must be restored is the rule of law, formalized in the Magna Carta and disrespected by those who want to squash the revolution before it gets out of its cocoon. This is the time to share ideas for a better future and act with civil disobedience. 

Matt Price, January 5, 2012

Canadian Jobs Lost to Tar Sands

Just because something is a bit complicated, it doesn't mean you can ignore it, especially when it's hurting you.

And yet, this appears to be the case with the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the past several years -- 627,000 by one measure -- mostly in Ontario and Quebec where these jobs have historically existed.

The phenomenon even has a name already: "Dutch Disease." Canada now has a bad case of it, yet you won't hear the government in Ottawa talk about it, since that would run counter to its blinkered agenda of accelerating the strip mining of Northern Alberta to push more oil through pipelines to China and America.

The term "Dutch Disease" was coined in the 1970s after the Netherlands discovered a large natural gas field. The country's exchange rate became tied to the rising price of natural gas, pricing its manufacturing goods out of international markets and leading to job losses.

In 2011, the Canadian dollar traded on average above the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1976. This puts an extra burden on Canadian companies who export, since it makes their products less competitive versus products from other countries.

Thomas Walkom, December 9, 2011

Why Canadians Are Right To Worry About Border Deal

Americans are puzzled by the reluctance of so many Canadians to have personal information shared with Washington. They should not be. Our fears are rational. The United States makes us nervous.

This is not because we think Americans terrible people. We don’t. Americans are our friends. In many cases, they are our relatives.

But since 9/11, their government has played fast and loose with the rights of its own citizens. Is it any wonder that we worry about Washington doing the same or worse to us?

The issue has resurfaced with this week’s border agreement between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama. The agreement requires Canada to adopt more U.S.-style security measures — and share more information on Canadians with the U.S.

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Brendan Kennedy, November 23, 2011

Remember G20? The riot police, the defiant protesters, the mass arrests and the calls for inquiries?

The eviction of Occupy Toronto on Wednesday was in stark contrast to the ugly events of June 2010 when protesters and police clashed and hundreds were arrested.

At St. James Park, where Occupy Toronto protesters camped for weeks, there was almost no confrontation but peaceful negotiations as “tent city” was dismantled and the protesters departed.

“I wasn’t expecting this . . . (police) have been true to their word and they have been generally decent human beings,” said Masawe McCord-Franco, a protester who negotiated with police to resolve a handful of standoffs.

The day’s events were also in marked contrast to the evictions of some other Occupy encampments, particularly New York City, Oakland and at the University of California, where police actions have been widely criticized.

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Mary Esch October 5, 2011

SUNY Student Walkout Protests Tuition Hikes, Budget Cuts

ALBANY, N.Y. — Hundreds of students at State University of New York campuses from New York City to Buffalo walked out of classes and held rallies Wednesday to protest program cuts, demand a rollback of tuition hikes, and show solidarity with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators.

"I'm here because the state Legislature cut SUNY's budget by more than $300 million this year, and then over the summer they passed a plan to raise tuition by $300 a year every year for the next five years," said Jackie Hayes, a graduate student in Latin American studies at SUNY Albany. "On our campus, the state budget cuts translated into the elimination of five departments — French, Russian, Theater, Italian, and Classics — and we're concerned about how the next round of cuts will affect academic programs."

Students at the Albany rally marched to the administration building and chanted "Let us in." After some negotiation, campus security let 230 students in to talk with President George Philip, but media were barred.

"It was a fruitful and productive discussion and we will be scheduling meetings in the future to continue the dialogue," campus spokesman Karl Luntta said after the 90 minute meeting that covered concerns from tuition and budget to administrative issues.

The root of many of our problems is the GST — a regressive tax that the Mulroney government imposed against the will of the Canadian people and in defiance of the Senate as it sat at the time. To get it through, he had to create new Senate seats and pack them with his lackeys.

The GST crippled small Canadian industry by loading small companies down with paperwork that foreign manufacturers, and big companies that made everything “in house,” do not have to deal with. It made lots of work for civil servants, but it contributed to the loss of much of our manufacturing industry.

The HST pretends to simplify things by combining two taxes, but its main effect is to increase government revenue by taxing goods and services that were not taxed before.

Both taxes have been harmful, but the tax regime I call the “benefits tax” would provide a net benefit to Canada by giving Canadian industry an even break in the world market.

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Linda McQuaig, August 11, 2011

Tycoons laughing all the way to the bank                                                                              

There are likely few characters less loved in America these days than hedge fund managers — widely regarded as among the arch villains of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown.

So, months ago, when Washington embarked on a frenzied search for ways to reduce the massive U.S. deficit, a tax loophole that allowed hedge fund managers to pay tax at the exceptionally low rate of 15 per cent certainly seemed like low-hanging fruit.

Cancelling the loophole would save the treasury $20 billion over 10 years, and the public would surely be unmoved by the pain inflicted on hedge fund managers — the top 25 of whom took home an average pay last year of $880 million each.

But as the stakes rose in the bizarre negotiations over the country’s debt ceiling, the Republicans managed to push reluctant Democrats into taking all tax increases off the table. All deficit reduction was to come exclusively from government spending cuts, hitting the middle and lower classes hard.