Daily Archives: February 27, 2020

Cuban emigrants and the political culture of exile (II) – OnCubaNews

Posted: February 27, 2020 at 2:01 am

Read the first part of this article.

The sensation that people under 40 have, that a great many of their friends have left, was that of those who are in their 50s when the rafters crisis suddenly reopened the exodus, at the apex of the Special Period; and even earlier, when those in their 60s, in the upsurge in prosperity in 1980, saw their friends unexpectedly cross to the other side; not to mention those who, on the way or already in their 80s, saw their classmates or playmates leave in the wave of the epic and not always prodigious 1960s.

The Mariel thunderstorm, whose round anniversary is approaching, rumbled under a seemingly clear sky. Its cause cannot be attributed to a formidable political conflict with a civil war and international isolation included (as in the 1960s), or to a collapse of the economy (like 14 years later). It took place in the midst of economic growth, stability and the international thaw of the 1970s, although at a juncture of worsening tensions with the United States.

It is often said that it was the expectations that were opened by the dialogue with the emigration, and the consumerism incited by the 130,000 community members who visited the island with the opening, which led to Mariel. Certainly, that change made the possibility of leaving palpable, with a return that had remained closed until then, and doing so loaded with videocassette players and jars of M&Ms for the family. So, why not do it?

Although this hypothesis is consistent with the circumstances, visits were only one factor, and perhaps only a trigger. Other variables concurred in Mariel.

The first was that, by terminating the immigration agreement in 1973, the U.S. government had closed the door, leaving many Cubans without a direct exit route. Whenever something similar happened, in 1962, in 1973 and in 1984 (when a bad agreement was reached, later implemented by drops), the result would cause a migratory accumulation.

The second variable was the unexpected, vertiginous and emotional situation, triggered by the events of the Peruvian embassy, and its rapid escalation. Many who had never thought, or had not seriously considered leaving, suddenly faced the option of doing so: your cousin tells says that if you want to leave, you have a seat in a boat that is waiting for you right now; you have three hours to decide. The emotional contagion that sociologists study had triggered the massive entry into the Peruvian embassy and accelerated the Mariel spiral, which facilitated equally intense adverse reactions.

As a whole, those who left through Mariel looked more like Cuban society than any previous emigration. Among them there were no longer large land or property owners or upper middle class, and although the proportion of professionals and farmers was much lower than that of the country, and that of the unemployed reached almost a quarter of the total flow, 3 out of 5 were workers. The proportion of blacks and mestizos and single men was much higher than all previous flows; almost half had no relatives in the United States; and the vast majority did not speak English. Naturally, their socio-economic and cultural profile, and their education and appearance were not those of the historical exile, the one which rejected them because they didnt look like Cubans, and disparagingly called them Marielitos. Although only 15% of them had a criminal record, in Cuba they were simply called scum. [1]

For the issue at hand, this double rejection suffered by Mariel migrants left an indelible mark. The acrimony of the acts of repudiation, later multiplied in the mirror of literature, theater and cinema, prevails in memory, beyond other dimensions of that intense episode. On this side, however, for many young revolutionary Cubans, the marches in front of the Peruvian embassy, prologue of Mariel, were then lived as their first real political experience.

The government of Peru had lent itself to an operation managed from Washington, by those who in the Carter administration had struggled from the beginning against the rapprochement.

The trauma of Mariel would contradictorily feed the culture of exile. I met a couple of humble workers who left through the Peruvian embassy, and still live in a working-class neighborhood in Lima. He told me that he would never return to Cuba again. She visits frequently, organizes groups of Cuban emigrants and even collaborates with the Cuban embassy. The two have their reasons.

In the end, research shows that, with Mariel, a new stage of Cuban emigration began, characterized by the permanent link with Cuban society. It is they, who left since 1980, who fueled most of the flights and remittances in later years, especially since the crisis of the 1990s.

The Special Period rafters would not be bid farewell with acts of repudiation, but with gestures of solidarity and fraternity, hugs and prayers. Cuban society had changed; and so had politics. Henceforth, emigration was going to increasingly mean part of a family survival strategy. Following that logic, they would never stop looking back or break away from their previous lifeeven when they still didnt have the help of Facebook or WhatsApp, or commercial airlines regular flights.

However, those who emigrated until January 2013, no matter if it was because of the economic situation or family reunification, continued to fall into the black hole of exile, because they lost their permanent residence in Cuba, along with their other citizenship rights. This was the prevailing condition, even if they had not really started off as exiles.

For example, most of the intellectuals and artists who left in the 1990s, and decided to stay definitively, instead of opting for the privilege granted to the guild and other professionals (through the institutions where they worked or those they were linked to), to acquire a PRE (residence permit abroad), they chose to let the door close behind them. Almost none could have documented that their departure responded to fear of repression for political or religious reasons which, according to the UN, endorses the category of refugee.

Most of them processed their exit permit: for a scholarship; for a work stay; for a stay for personal reasons (visiting relatives, marriage with a foreigner). Even those who applied for an immigrant visa for the United States or Europe or any other place, or received it unexpectedly, because their spouse or family member had suddenly won the bombo (an American immigrant visa obtained by lottery) were not considered political refugees in those countries, under no circumstances. So how the hell did they become exiles?

The self-perception of Cubans and their true national pride are no strangers to this attitude. To the extent that the condition of exile circumvents economic or family reasons, identifying themselves as a simple immigrant brings them closer to Mexicans, Central Americans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, Peruvians, Ecuadoriansoften rabble. On the other hand, it also implies having a neutral position with respect to Cuban politics. Both attitudes are strange to a predominant cultural code in Cuban emigration, which reneges being Hispanic or Latino in the United States; Sudaca in Spain; or Caribbean in the rest of Europe. None of that responds to anti-Castroism, ideological or cultural, but to feeling different. The other Latin American and Caribbean people realize this.

On the other hand, under the apparently coherent umbrella of a predominant anti-Castro culture there exists a very varied whole. This heterogeneity does not respond only to the successive waves and their very different social groups, values and political interests; but to the nature of the glue that binds them.

In a strictly ideological and intellectual sense, the culture of anti-Castroism lacks an organic management center. The exile organizations have always been diverse, from former Batista followers and Rebel Army guerrillas, to Communist Party members and Rapid Response Brigade leaders turned opponents.

None of them are usually headed by organic intellectuals. Those who in emigration adopted the condition of exiles and work as academicians, writers or journalists, usually dont direct any of them. The years in which professors Enrique Baloyra and Jos Ignacio Rasco, and journalist and editorial businessman Carlos Alberto Montaner, represented that Democratic Platform, where three of the many organizations in exile joined, are a thing of the past.

After this quick overview of such an intricate problem, what is the nature of classical anti-Castroism? Is it an ideology, that of historical exile? Or rather a psychological charge made up of resentment, cystic fury, catharsis in the face of helplessness and grief over what is left behind and lostas a friend of mine saysfor the shame of having been and the pain of no longer being?

Whatever the answer to these questions, there is still the question of how that feeling is reproduced today within a very mixed population due to the successive migration waves, whose majority did not lose property, nor a privileged way of life, since more than half arrived after the crisis of the 1990s.

Could it be because that way they find the key to their assimilation of the environment? Or does it also respond, as others suggest, to their personal frustrations regarding the dynamics on the island, to another grudge against a past that is still there, without change or visible solution, as they continue seeing on the networks, through the eyes of their friends on Facebook who remain here?

Paraphrasing Marial Iglesias, will it be a pattern that reproduces the metaphors of no change, there and here?

It is not possible to fully address these issues without delving into the nature of the real changes, including behaviors and ways of thinking, on both sides.

Note:

[1] Rafael Hernndez and Redi Gmis. Retrato del Mariel: el ngulo socioeconmico (Cuadernos de Nuestra Amrica, # 5, January-July 1986.)

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Social justice and economic inclusion: Where to South Africa? – Daily Maverick

Posted: at 2:01 am

The concept of social justice is hardly free of contestation. In the massive literature which the concept of social justice has spawned, there is scarcely any agreement about whether liberty, equality, solidarity or the common good is the central feature on which the concept of social justice must be predicated.

Some argue that social justice is promoted to the extent that society can enhance the collective good without infringing upon basic individual freedoms. Others stress that social justice reflects a concept of fairness in the assignment of fundamental rights and duties, economic opportunities and social conditions. In turn, the debate then shifts to three different ideas: legal justice which is concerned with what people owe society, commutative justice which concerns the extent of obligations that the citizenry owe to each other and distributive justice, that is what society may owe to each citizen.

The topic for tonight has been made somewhat easier for me in that the issue of social justice is coupled to that of economic exclusion. I need to deal with the distributive component if I am to show fidelity to the advertised topic of this lecture. In this connection, the South African reality at present stands in sharp contrast to our constitutional ambition as is evidenced in the text. The preamble refers to a Constitution designed to heal the divisions of the past and, establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. Section 9, the equality clause, provides that equality includes a full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To this end, a series of social and economic rights are included in the Constitution, including the right to housing, healthcare, food, water, social security and education. In addition, powerful rights are given to employees including the right to form and join a trade union, to participate in the activities and programmes of trade unions and to strike.

The current reality is depressingly different. While there is evidence that money metric poverty declined in South Africa during the democratic period of our history, a 2019 report by Statistics South Africa shows that, despite a decline in poverty between 2006 and 2011, poverty levels have again risen; from a low of 53.2% in 2011 to 55.5% in 2015. At that time 30.4 million people were living in poverty. Inequality in South Africa, measured in terms of the Gini coefficient of income, has consistently been above 0.6 from 1993 to 2015 which easily places South Africa in the top five most unequal countries on the global scale.

Regrettably, there has been no significant reduction in overall inequality or poverty in post-apartheid South Africa.

Even my short but stark description reveals the imperative of embracing social justice, without which economic inclusion, by which I mean the ability of all South Africans to live a dignified life through fair and reasonable participation in the economic intercourse of the country, cannot be achieved.

The Constitution insists that basic social provisioning for those most in need must be progressively realised. Its true that many budgets have devolved much money on social grants and education. However, the country waits in vain for a coherent economic policy that gives priority to the vindication of these promises. We search for an economic policy that radically reduces unemployment and increases life chances for the dignified life for all. However, social justice dictates that we raise our gaze beyond distribution, its importance notwithstanding.

What then is social justice within the South African context?

In attempting to engage with this complex topic, I borrow from the work of Nancy Fraser, an American critical theorist (in particular Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth, Redistribution or Recognition? (2003). Fraser contends that there are two paradigms of justice based on redistribution and recognition. According to the former, social justice focuses on socio-economic issues, for the absence of access to a fair distribution of resources reflects an unjust political economy. The remedy requires redistributive economic measures. By contrast, the recognition paradigm is primarily a matter of cultural evaluation of a status groups culture and the arbitrary prioritisation of hegemonic culture. The remedy here focuses on cultural or symbolic change.

Fraser argues that an antithesis between the two is a false one in that no society which is saturated by social injustice is but two-dimensional. Subordinated groups suffer both maldistribution and misrecognition in forms where neither of these injustices was an indirect effect of the other, but here both primary and co-ordinals. (p.19) She argues that one should roundly reject the construction of redistribution and recognition as mutually exclusive alternatives. The goal should rather be, to develop an integrated approach that can encompass and harmonise both dimensions of social justice. (p.26)

I have already dealt at some length with South Africa and the challenge of redistribution. I turn now to recognition.

Recognition is a matter of social justice for the status of full partners, and social interaction simply is a consequence of institutionalised patterns of cultural value in whose construction they have not equally participated. It is a denial of justice to those affected thereby. We can embrace all within our society as social peers with reciprocal relations of equality or we can continue to ensure that some will suffer from a state of subordination by way of misrecognition.

In this connection, Fraser refers to racial profiling in which policing practices treat young black males as dangerous because of racialised conceptions of criminality. In these cases, the institutional perception of blackness considered as a danger inhibits the targeted group from achieving the status of being a full partner social life.

Recognition and distribution are thus both dimensions of justice for the normative core of my conception is a notion of parity of participation. According to this norm, justice requires social arrangements that permit all (adult) members of society to interact with one anothers peers. For participatory parity to be possible, I claim at least two conditions to be satisfied: [an] objective condition [which] precludes forms and levels of economic dependence and inequality that impede parity of participation [and an] intersubjective condition [which] precludes institutional norms that systematically depreciate some categories of people and the qualities associated with them. (p. 36)

The principle of parity of participation (See Nancy Fraser Social Exclusion, Global Poverty and Scales of (In) Justice: rethinking law and poverty in a globalising world 2011 (22) Stellenbosch Law Review 452) requires the construction of social arrangements that permit all members of society to interact with one anothers peers. For this to happen, at least three conditions have to be met: the distribution of material resources must be such as to ensure that participants enjoy an equal capacity for social interaction. Thus, economic structures may reproduce deprivation, exploitation and promote gross disparities and wealth, income, labour and leisure time. In turn, this prevents people from participating on an equal basis with others in social life.

These structures must be eradicated if social justice is to be attained. The legal and social system must express equal respect for all participants and ensure equal opportunity for achieving social esteem. Here institutionalised patterns of cultural values systematically undermine various categories of people and the qualities associated with them, thereby denying them the status of full partners and a fair opportunity for social interaction.

The third consideration concerns the political constitution of society which must be designed to accord roughly an equal political voice to all social actors. This rules out electoral systems and media structures that systematically deprive categories of persons of a fair chance to influence decisions that affect them in the public domain. Fraser insists that all these conditions are necessary for participatory parity. None alone is sufficient.

To quote Fraser again:

Encompassing economic, cultural and political considerations, (parity of participation) treats redistribution, recognition and representation as three analytically distinct facets of justice none of which can be reduced to the other although they all practically intertwined. (p.455)

In Frasers work, the norm of parity of participation extends to family and personal life, employment and market relations, formal and informal politics and voluntary associations in civil society. The mechanism of exclusion takes on a plurality of different forms: many women have lacked the standing and resources to participate in official politics while enjoying the cultural and material prerequisites for meaningful (if not equal) participation in family life. Lesbian and gay people, until recently, have lacked the standing to participate openly in sexual relations and in family life, even if they had access to decently remunerated work. For Fraser, this shows that exclusion may well not spill from one sphere into another. In South Africa, however, apartheid raised the possibility of total radical exclusion. The vast majority of South Africans were systematically stripped of participation rights in all spheres of society and were treated as no more than a vast reservoir of labour at the service of white capital.

Exclusion goes further, for it reproduces itself in more subtle ways. It is often rooted in the institutionalisation of hierarchical patterns of cultural value which deny some the chance, even modest, of participation in vast areas of society, particularly where their own lives are affected thereby. A white male norm permeates society and is then used to assess competence and merit. At a cruder level, undocumented immigrants are denied any chance of participation in the political space of the country in which they reside.

The application of the parity of participation principle

The Constitution boldly sets out a vision of what can only be described as a form of social-democratic governance for South Africa. The pursuit of substantive equality, the critical role of the state in providing social goods and services, particularly to the poor and those most in need as well as strong labour rights for workers to organise are core components of the system of governance set out in the Constitution. These provisions form component parts of the governance model which the drafters of the Constitution considered to be most appropriate if South Africa was to transcend the very high levels of inequality which were deeply embedded in South African history.

There can be little doubt that the burden of history weighed heavily on those who were charged with constructing a democratic society. Colonial dispossession refashioned by the mining and industrial revolutions and, after 1910 the advent of Union, brought more stringent forms of exclusion and marginalisation which were incorporated into law. This lasted until 1948 when the legislation and social control took on an even more pernicious form which characterised South African society until 1994. In this way, the history of capitalist development and inequality in South Africa were inextricably linked. (See Colin Bundy Post-Apartheid Inequality and the Long Shadow of History in Crane Soudien, Vasu Reddy and Ingrid Woolard: Poverty and Inequality: Diagnosis Prognosis Responses (2019))

Twenty-six years later, it is fair to say that not only are poverty, unemployment and inequality with us today but the key indicators outlined above may well have worsened during this period.

This reflects an abysmal failure to chart a new growth path, one which was in keeping with the social-democratic commitments of the Constitution. While it would be churlish not to acknowledge the introduction of the social grant system and the determined efforts by successive governments to address poverty levels, almost three decades of economic policy have not transformed the economic landscape. There has been a significant failure to provide high-quality education and healthcare to the poor, no real expansion of incentives for peasant farmers, an omission to focus upon labour-intensive industrialisation, to take but a few of the key elements of policy implementation which required urgent attention.

In addition, little has been done to alter the spatial geography of apartheid. Let us acknowledge the mass housing construction programme after 1994. But it mainly took place on the peripheries of existing townships, far from the workplace and, often, on land bought for zoned township development under apartheid. Twenty-six years into democracy South African urban areas look very similar to those inherited from the apartheid regime.

In summary, the kind of structural challenge to deal with inequality and reboot South Africa from its deeply imbedded patterns inherited from some 300 years of colonial and apartheid rule have simply not taken place despite much political rhetoric.

It is not surprising that the constitutional arrangements, born of the 1994 settlement have been seen by some as nothing more than a messy compromise which primarily advantaged Afrikaner and black capital at the expense of more than 50 million South Africans. The underlying assumptions upon which the Constitution are based have thus come under sustained attack. Take for example the following comment from Tshepo Madlingozi:

Language and praxis of human rights collapse when they come up against the demands of those who are considered non-humans. The discourse of human rights has nothing to say to those who suffer dehumanisation and social death because it is predicted on the humanity of those already inside the wall of political society.

These criticisms target the absence of the concrete steps needed to conduct the principle of recognition. The white male norm remains dominant within our society. We continue to assess excellence through this particular prism. As an anecdotal illustration, many of my black students have informed me that if they speak with a model C accent they find less of a barrier at university than if they come from the townships. This example can be multiplied through various experiences throughout society.

The Constitution envisaged the construction of a new South African identity which would embrace the dignity of difference and ensure the construction of a new appropriate norm for a democratic non-racial, non-sexist society. That, sadly, has not happened and, accordingly, levels of alienation, deeply embedded in South African history, have not been addressed. Unsurprisingly, this has given rise to various forms of populist rhetoric which, in turn, promotes new forms of exclusion, all of which are also at war with the constitutional commitment to the construction of a new non-racial and non-sexist society. None of this is surprising because if what you have depends upon how you look, then apartheid has renamed relatively intact.

The constitutional project will continue to play little of a meaningful role in the lives of millions of South Africans. That a Nobel prize winner and another senior member of a foundation that claims to promote the Constitution can claim publicly that apartheid was not a crime against humanity is a truly disturbing illustration of how far the country needs to travel to embracing a new identity. At the same time, the disadvantage still encountered by millions has promoted a populism that resembles fascism far more than it does democracy. With it emerges a discourse which is utterly incongruent with a non-racial, non-sexist democracy.

The lack of participation to which Fraser refers is equally true with regard to our electoral system. The 10 years of rule under President Zuma showed that Parliament did not regard itself as accountable to the citizenry and thus failed regrettably to execute its responsibilities of oversight over the executive. From this failure, the constitutional design of separation of powers was placed in jeopardy. This failure ensured that rent-seeking rather than employment creation and an inclusive economy became the order of the economic day as did the hollowing out of key constitutional institutions and the concomitant rise in corruption. The country still awaits decisions by the NPA to enforce the principle of legal accountability, no matter the political position of an alleged offender.

Frasers concern about how electoral systems can shape political participation and erode the parity of participation principle are manifestly applicable to present-day South Africa. This should dictate that a serious debate be conducted about an electoral system which can enhance rather than impede a fundamental principle which promotes social justice, political and economic inclusion.

It is the argument of this paper that the three-dimensional framework advocated by Fraser, namely redistribution, recognition and representation, adequately captures the normative framework which makes the best sense of the Constitution. The Constitution was drafted within the context of a unique pattern of inequality for a country which had been subjected to settler colonialism, a dual economy of enrichment and impoverishment, spatial geography which promoted human development for a few and human confinement for the majority. It exalted the principle of stable nuclear families for a few and the disruption of family life for the many in the name of a cheap labour reserve.

There can be little doubt that existing patterns of poverty and inequality threaten the possibility of continued democracy and the stability of the South African state. It is simply not sufficient to limp along at a growth rate of less than 1% of GDP annually with little vision as to how economic policy can be rendered congruent with the fundamental constitutional promises. The poverty of policy to redress 300 years of history is of course compounded by the challenges posed by the global economy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Simply put, labour can no longer be considered as playing social mediator in the conflict for the distribution of the fruits of the economy.

For this reason, some nostalgic attempt to return to the social-democratic model of the 1950s and early 1960s is now futile. A fresh set of ideas has to be implemented to ensure the vindication of the promise of redistribution. This, in turn, raises the challenge of a constitution of a politics that embraces new forms of countervailing power to resist the excesses of capital.

At the same time, we need to conduct a national debate about what it means to be South African and what standard we employ to evaluate successful participation within society. Simply put, the white male norm which continues to dominate and exclude millions from fair participation has to be eschewed and replaced with transformative content. This second challenge leads to a further consequence: what does the principle of non-racial and non-sexist accountability look like? Can we fashion some agreement that, to borrow from Martin Luther King, is based on the character of the human being rather than her colour? Can this become the decisive yardstick?

The third challenge is to ensure that our politics are rendered accountable to the citizenry. To this end we need to acknowledge the failure of our present electoral system. There is an inability of the present electoral system to promote a coherent and viable system of separation of powers, particularly between the executive and the legislature.

These are our challenges which cannot be postponed any longer or passed on to elaborate think tanks or satisfied with empty promises. If all three of these principles are not addressed urgently, there will be no social justice for millions and, in turn, there will be little left of the great ambition that we had in 1994 of developing a democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom for all who live in this land. MC

Dennis Davis is a Judge of the Western Cape Division of the High Court and Judge President of the Competition Appeals Court.

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Social justice and economic inclusion: Where to South Africa? - Daily Maverick

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As Bernie Sanders surges, Texas liberals take their own shot – The Columbian

Posted: at 2:00 am

SAN ANTONIO Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren endorsed her, Texas largest labor union is on her side and she surpassed $1 million in donors. Jessica Cisneros, who at 26 would become the youngest member of Congress, is the best shot liberal activists couldve taken for a win in the 2020 election.

But its not clear that on Super Tuesday, itll be what Democratic voters in Texas want.

As Sanders rides high nationally, surging in polls and putting critics on edge about Democrats nominating an avowed democratic socialist to take on President Donald Trump, his success is emboldening a crop of insurgent challengers on the left in Texas. They are backed by more money and bigger names than ever before, and as their rivals taunt them on TV and debate stages ahead of the March 3 primary, its proof that some are not being taken lightly.

It has been the playbook for Democrats that ending the GOPs long hold on Texas would take broadly appealing candidates who could bring in more voters from the center of the ideological spectrum. But about a half-dozen liberals running from the left in Democratic primaries, in races ranging from big-city prosecutors to U.S. Senate, are also testing Sanders calculus that they can energize and turn out more Democrats than the moderates who have failed at the top of the ticket for a generation.

That gambit is attracting heavy doses of skepticism, and invariably, outright dismissal. In Texas, Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin in 2016 and voter turnout ranks among the lowest in the U.S., undercutting predictions that a wave of young and minority voters will carry progressive candidates to victory.

But with early voting already underway in Texas, Sanders ascendancy in the polls has armed them with a rebuttal.

Conventional wisdom would say that the most progressive Democratic presidential nominee wouldnt be leading in the polls in this state, U.S. Senate candidate Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez said at a debate last week, referring to Sanders. She is a former labor organizer who has raised more than $1 million, supports a fracking ban in a state where the energy sector is king and is endorsed by Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro.

One of her moderate rivals, state Sen. Royce West, scoffed. We have to make certain that we have a dose of reality. No Democrat can win by being far left. Its not going to happen, he said.

By the end of Super Tuesday, more than one third of all Democratic convention delegates will be awarded. Texas has 261 delegates and is the biggest prize on March 3 behind California, where Sanders popularity alone could give him enough delegates to hold off centrist rivals before the partys national convention in July. If Sanders beats expectations in Texas, hell emerge even more formidable.

But his allies in other Texas races have their work cut out, even in places where theyre putting their most energy. On the Texas border, Cisneros is mounting one of the nations closest-watched primary challenges against conservative Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar who has held an A rating from the National Rifle Association, is a target of abortion-rights groups and was one of the last members of Texas delegation to publicly say he would vote to impeach Trump.

Once an intern in Cuellars office, Cisneros is backed by Justice Democrats, which helped elected Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive firebrand from New York. When she tells Democrats what Cuellar stands for, theyre like, Youre running against a terrible Republican. I tell them no, thats my Democratic congressman, Cisneros said before a living room of supporters in San Antonio, just days before early voting began.

The liberal challenges are giving more attention to a range of progressive proposals, from more expansive health care coverage and education benefits to less punitive criminal sentences, than is customary in Texas.

In Cuellars contest, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has thrown her support behind the eight-term incumbent and visited his campaign headquarters in Laredo over the weekend. Cuellar, who did not even have a primary challenger in 2018, is now launching attack ads casting Cisneros as an outsider over her work as an immigration attorney in New York and telling voters that he is the only candidate that speaks for us.

Sanders two years ago performed even worse in the district than statewide, trailing Clinton 3-to-1.

Its an unusual race of two Democrats on totally opposite ideological ends of the party, which has moved further left on policies even among candidates who take a more moderate tone.

There was this idea for a long time that Democrats had to be conservative in Texas. And the thing is, weve tried that for a very long time, and it didnt get us very far, said Ed Espinoza, a former Democratic National Committee official who now runs the group Progress Texas.

In Austins affluent and purple suburbs, Alex Dormant, 66, liked what he heard as centrist Senate candidate MJ Hegar, who is backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, talked about winning over voters on both sides she nearly won a House seat in 2018, and frequently mentions that her supporters two years ago also planted yard signs supporting Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Sanders doesnt given him the same confidence.

I think hell turn off a lot of Texans who think hes too extreme, he said, adding, Texas is winnable, in my opinion.

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As Bernie Sanders surges, Texas liberals take their own shot - The Columbian

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The GOPs Silly Attempt to Boost a Liberal Candidate – The New Republic

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In other words, Cunningham is a product of the Democratic candidate-selection machine that above all values the right biographical details (moderates with military backgrounds are ideal), along with the ability to pass what the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee calls the Rolodex test (candidates are asked to go through their phone contacts and add up how much money they could raise from everyone in it). Smith clearly failed the Rolodex test.

According to Bitecofers thesis, such tests are irrelevant to the question of which candidate the voters will accept. In fact, it doesnt really matter which Democrat wins the nomination. Both have an equal shot at winning in November. Even if you question the premise that almost any Democrat is equally electable, in this particular case, the man the party chose, Cunningham, has an electoral history that is no better than Smiths. He already lost a Senate primary in 2010. He honestly just looks like the kind of guy who would lose a North Carolina Senate race to a vulnerable Republican.

In short, theres no evidence, despite the certainty of Democratic politicians and operatives, that Smith would be a worse candidate than Cunningham. Those operatives may sincerely believe otherwise. Or they may simply be laundering their own centrist politics through the imagined preferences of voters. Either way, the results would look the same.

Democrats ought to welcome the conservative intervention as a colossal waste of Republican money, if nothing else. When Republicans are weighing in for somebody, Senator Tim Kaine told Politico, theyve made the judgment that theyre worried about Cal, and theyre not worried about her. They seem to be making exactly the same mistake the Democrats are. If Smith wins the primary, which is still an unlikely prospect, their mistake will have given her a positive introduction to North Carolina voters.

The Liberal Economists Behind the Wealth Tax Debate – The New York Times

Posted: at 2:00 am

These things get sorted out over time, Mr. Summers said in an interview, after praising Mr. Zucman and Mr. Saez for pushing the debate on inequality. Most serious professionals in the tax policy area think that the polemical urge at some points has gotten the better of Gabriel and Emmanuel, especially when Gabriel starts to tweet.

Other economists have challenged the details of Mr. Zucman and Mr. Saezs wealth inequality calculations. They have engaged in a debate with the economists Matthew Smith, Eric Zwick and Owen Zidar, whose work shows a much smaller concentration of wealth among top earners. The competing study implies there is less for the government to gain by taxing the very wealthy.

And while candidates like Mr. Sanders support raising taxes on the wealthy by citing Mr. Zucman and Mr. Saezs claim that the rich pay lower effective tax rates than poor and middle-class Americans, many liberal economists say the claim is wrong since the calculations do not include some tax benefits for the poor, like the earned-income tax credit.

Leaving them out seems both analytically and politically mistaken, said Jared Bernstein, a former top economist for Mr. Obama who counts himself a fan of Mr. Zucman and Mr. Saez.

Some economists have long been critical of Mr. Saez and Mr. Zucmans work, including Wojciech Kopczuk, a Columbia University economist who published a rebuttal to the pairs wealth data in 2015. But their rising public profile has brought more scrutiny. Mr. Kopczuk argues that, compared with their earlier work, the Berkeley economists recent book made more aggressive and he believes incorrect assumptions.

Thats when you can say without any doubt they crossed from academic research to advocacy, Mr. Kopczuk said. Its liberating when you dont have to deal with reviewers.

Mr. Saez and Mr. Zucman defend their methods as conservative estimates and note that the imposition of an American wealth tax would provide much more transparent evidence on wealth concentration.

If we have the wealth tax data, we will see who is right, Mr. Saez said. If were wrong, fine. If it turns out there is no wealth concentration in the United States, we dont need a wealth tax.

Jim Tankersley reported from Berkeley, and Ben Casselman from New York.

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The Liberal Economists Behind the Wealth Tax Debate - The New York Times

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Conservatives are concerned, but is liberal indoctrination really an issue at UNL and UNO? – Omaha World-Herald

Posted: at 2:00 am

LINCOLN Reid Preston gave out red Republican goods this month in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student union pens, sunglasses, bottle openers.

As treasurer of UNLs College Republicans, the freshman from Lyons, Nebraska, cares about todays political scene. Asked if Democratic professors have badgered him with liberal messages, Preston said they havent.

Even a professor of political science, who might reasonably be expected to share his own views, was pretty much in the middle, Preston said. For the most part, he was really good at not having any biases at all.

Many Republicans nationwide say they have lost faith in colleges and universities and now view them as havens of liberal indoctrination. In a comparatively short period, national surveys show, Republicans generally have shifted from a positive opinion of higher education to one of distrust.

But a 2018 campus culture survey done by the NU system, and World-Herald conversations this month with 19 students at UNL and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, found minimal concern about professorial political proselytizing.

Conservatives nevertheless have reason to be suspicious. Not only do college faculties lean liberal, they tumble leftward. Whether that has any effect on teaching and learning isnt clear, but there isnt good evidence that anyone is being indoctrinated. Most of the 19 students said politics rarely, if ever, comes up in classes.

High-profile incidents of dismissive or contemptuous treatment of conservative students convey the notion that such episodes are commonplace on college campuses.

Outside the same student union 2 years ago, a liberal graduate student-lecturer berated a sophomore who was recruiting for the conservative Turning Point USA. The student captured still photos of the lecturer flipping her off and recorded some of the diatribe on video.

The images swept the nation and gave conservatives a gotcha moment. The incident proved, they said, that conservative students are bullied on college campuses. Some Republican state senators in Nebraska demanded changes at UNL, and the student-lecturer wasnt invited back for the next school year.

Harvey Perlman, former chancellor of UNL and now a law professor there, said that if professors strive to sway Nebraska students toward liberalism, theyre doing a bad job, considering Republican domination of state politics.

If the concern is somehow that left-leaning faculty will twist the minds of their students, it hasnt seemed to work, said Perlman, who switched from Republican to Democrat after the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Most of us are fairly careful when discussing issues that divide people.

David Randall of the conservative-libertarian National Association of Scholars doesnt see it that way. Randall, director of research of the New York-based organization, said liberals, or progressives, have bent higher education toward a social justice mission that aims to liberate groups from oppression.

This results in a teacher thinking its appropriate to rebuke a student for her political perspective, Randall said. In effect, there is a radical monoculture growing in higher education, he said.

Of the 19 students interviewed by The World-Herald, seven said they were Democrats, six said they were Republicans and the rest were independent, libertarian or apolitical.

The Pew Research Center found last year that 59% of Americans who lean Republican responded that colleges have a negative effect on the nation's direction, up from 35% in 2012. Among Democratic leaners, 67% had a positive view the same percentage as in 2012.

Molly Patrick, a UNO junior with a multidisciplinary major, said professors havent imposed their politics on her. Were just worrying about facts and stuff, said Patrick, a libertarian from Fremont. Some Republicans might think theyre liberal notions, but theyre just facts.

Noah Floersch, an independent from Omaha, said he has some conservative views and hasnt been lambasted with liberal political messages from professors. Floersch, a UNL junior, said his family leans to the right.

I dont feel like Ive been forced one way or another, but I definitely think my scope has broadened, said Floersch, a marketing major.

Sixty Andrews, a senior UNO political science major from Omaha, said he doesnt hear professors uttering contempt for Trump. Professors allow us to offer our opinions whether we agree or disagree with any political leader, he said.

Andrews, a Republican, said higher education has a beneficial impact on individuals and society.

I cant get my students to turn in their assignments on time, (so) Im certainly not going to impact their view on who to vote for, said Darren Linvill, an associate professor of communication at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Nationwide surveys indicate many college faculties are overwhelmingly liberal or Democratic. The UCLA Higher Education Research Institute found in its latest survey (2016-17) that 48.3% of faculty members identified themselves as liberal compared with 11.7% who said they were conservative.

Further, that survey of more than 20,000 full-time undergraduate teaching faculty members at 143 colleges indicated the percentage of liberals has grown from 36.8% in 1998-99.

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A report published four years ago by Econ Journal Watch found that at 40 universities, many elite schools like Harvard and Stanford, 3,623 professors had registered as Democrats and only 314 as Republicans. That ratio is about 11.5 to 1. The study looked at faculty members in economics, history, journalism, law and psychology.

Conservatives know this and dont like it. The Pew Research Center found last year that 59% of Americans who lean Republican responded that colleges have a negative effect on the nations direction, up from 35% in 2012. Among Democratic leaners, 67% had a positive view the same percentage as in 2012.

A Gallup poll in 2017 found that only 33% of Republicans have a lot of confidence in higher education. Fifty-six percent of Democrats answered that question positively. The Gallup poll found that the biggest reasons for Republican lack of confidence were the belief that they were too political and pushed their own agenda.

UNLs Richard Duncan, a registered Republican and professor of law, said that when there is little diversity in political thought at colleges, theres no reason to have a lot of confidence in them. And UNL could use more such diversity, he said.

That said, Duncan is in his 41st year at UNL and said the institution is a really good place. He said that for the most part, its a university where conservatives and progressives can mingle and find their views respected.

An NU campus climate survey published in 2018 found that 90% of students believed liberals felt free to express their views on campus and 75% believed conservatives had the same freedom.

Robert Reason, an associate dean at Iowa State University, said the presence of liberal indoctrination is just not shown in any of the research.

Reason said that during faculty recruitment, Ive never had a conversation about someones political views. He described himself as a moderate Democrat.

Many say a big reason for the disparity is that liberals select careers in higher education because there are like-minded people in it. They say conservatives are more likely to join the private sector.

Clemsons Linvill said studies have found that students become slightly more liberal while in college, but that a similar change also takes place among young adults who dont go to college. Linvill, who said he is registered as an independent, has studied political bias in higher education and said its largely fallacious.

Linvill said in one report that there has been a growth of conservative groups with a stated mission to expose political bias and abuse in higher education. This has contributed to widespread publicity of episodes where bias was evident, he said.

Julia Schleck, an associate professor of English at UNL, said through an email that the partisan divide over higher education has been deliberately engineered by conservative media.

Schleck, who leans to the left, said negative coverage in those outlets over the past five years has produced the slump in Republicans opinion of higher education.

Randall, at the National Association of Scholars, said conservative students have created groups like Turning Point USA because of the nonstop propaganda thrust at them by liberal professors.

The Harvard student newspaper two years ago said in an editorial that the school needs more diversity of political viewpoints. The editorial said 83.2% of the universitys arts and sciences faculty identified themselves as liberal in the papers survey, compared with 1.5% who said they were conservative.

These statistics do not reflect America, the piece said. And, it said, the statistics probably contribute to declining faith in American colleges.

Rain clouds and a bit of a rainbow roll over the sky in Millard on Aug. 16, 2016.

The sun sets behind a center pivot located north of Red Cloud, Nebraska, on Thursday, July 27, 2006.

Storm clouds hide the sun as it sets over Nebraska's Sand Hills on July 7, 2009, near Thedord, Nebraska.

A summer storm passes north of Rose, Nebraska, on Sunday, June 10, 2007.

A rainbow forms over U.S. Highway 12, just east of Valentine, Nebraska, as storms roll over the area on July 25, 2017.

The sun sets behind an approaching storm as a car heads west on U.S. Highway 34 near Union, Nebraska, on April 24, 2016.

Icicles form on vines in downtown Omaha on Feb. 24, 2017.

Railroad tracks are illuminated by the setting sun on May 3, 2017, east of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

The sun sets behind Chimney Rock on May 3, 2017.

Members of the Boats, Bikes, Boots & Brews group head to shore as the sun sets after an evening out on Lake Zorinsky on April 22, 2015.

Icicles hang from the horse carriage parking sign in the Old Market on Jan. 15, 2017.

Wheat, ready for the combine, is silhouetted by the setting sun as the wheat harvest on the Lagler farm near Grant, Nebraska, was in full swing on July 7, 2005.

A layer of fog covers the Missouri River near the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge on Feb. 5, 2015.

A setting sun creates a pink haze on a windmill and the Sand Hills southwest of Rushville, Nebraska, on Sept. 22, 2007.

Pigeons scatter at sunset as the St. John's steeple is silhouetted against the Woodmen tower in downtown Omaha on Oct. 3, 2014.

The sun bursts behind the clouds over the North Platte River east of Bridgeport, Nebraska, on July 26, 2006.

Steve Jobman, a farmer south of Minatare, Nebraska, cuts alfalfa after sunset on June 2, 2004.

Wheat waves in the wind in a field west of Dalton, Nebraska, on July 18, 2001.

The moon rises over the northern cross of the St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha on Feb. 10, 2017. On this night, there was a full moon, a lunar eclipse and comet 45P passed by the earth.

As the wind speed picks up, a woman holds onto her hood while crossing 16th Street along Dodge Street in Omaha on Feb. 24, 2017.

From left: Melody Borcherding, Kseniya Burgoon and Michael Beltz scoop out a vehicle on Jan. 23, 2018, in Norfolk.

Jeff Bachman harvests soybeans and prepares to transfer them as the sun sets on a field near Ayr, Nebraska, on Oct. 19, 2008.

As the sun sets, sandhill cranes arrive to roost in the Platte River at the Rowe Sanctuary & Iain Nicholson Audubon Center south of Gibbon, Nebraska, on March 12, 2008.

A pair of sandhill cranes pass in front of the moon shortly after sunrise at the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon, Nebraska, on March 13, 2012. Sandhill cranes, which mate for life, can live between 20 and 40 years.

A windmill is dwarfed by storm clouds near Crawford, Nebraska, on May 3, 2017.

An early November storm system rolls through the Great Plains, but Omaha only receives rain, which collected on freshly-fallen leaves on Nov. 11, 2015.

Cattle head up to a well to get a drink at the end of the day near Sparks, Nebraska, on Aug. 21, 2015. Smoke from the wildfires in the western states created a haze.

The moon rises above the corn as farmers harvest the last of their fields in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on Nov. 5, 2014.

Two riders help round up part of the 750 head of cattle branded at the Lute Family Ranch, located south of Hyannis, Nebraska, on May 12, 2005. Mick Knott, who runs the ranch, owns about half the cattle, and the Lute Foundation owns the rest. The work started about dawn and finished about noon.

The rising sun illuminates a tree and a windmill in a snow-covered field located on U.S. Highway 20 between Rushville and Chadron, Nebraska, on March 1, 2017.

The College Home Run Derby was held at TD Ameritrade Park and was highlighted by The World-Herald's annual Independence Day fireworks display on July 2, 2015.

Fog rises from the Missouri River and covers the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge on Jan. 5, 2010.

The weekend's perfect weather colored the clouds at sunset south of Wymore, Nebraska, on Oct. 23, 2004.

Deer chill out at Chalco Hills Recreation Area on Feb. 22, 2018.

A leaf is covered in a dusting of snow near 138th and Hickory Streets on Dec. 18, 2014, in Millard.

A runner emerges from the edge of the rising sun on Sept. 11, 2015, at Zorinsky Lake Park and Recreation Area in Omaha.

Nearly 45 minutes after sunset, an orange and blue glow is seen setting behind the Omaha skyline flanked between trees in Council Bluffs on Jan. 11, 2018.

Rain drops collect on a flower following early showers on May 10, 2017, in Millard.

The promise of rain is fleeting for the seven windmills on the Watson Ranch north of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, on U.S. 71 on May 16, 2004.

A crescent moon sets behind the UNO bell tower on Nov. 6, 2013.

Ralph Remmert is depicted in the mural "Fertile Ground" near 13th and Mike Fahey Streets in north downtown Omaha on June 19, 2017.

Ralph Kohler, 94, keeps his eyes to the sky for ducks and geese as the sun rises over his hunting pond east of Tekamah, Nebraska, on Nov. 30, 2011. Kohler has been a professional guide for most of his life, and he is preparing for the spring season.

The sun rises over St. Paul Lutheran Church, located three miles north of Republican City, Nebraska, in March of 2004.

Geese are silhouetted in the color and clouds as the sun sets at Zorinsky Lake on Feb. 21, 2016.

The sun rises on Chimney Rock on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014, near McGrew, Nebraska.

Cranes walk through the shallow water of the Platte River shortly before sunset near The Crane Trust, which is close to Wood River, Nebraska, on March 13, 2012. The river provides cranes with a safe place from predators for rest at night.

A bespangled vest awaits a rider during Nebraska's Big Rodeo on July 25, 2013, in Burwell, Nebraska.

Horses stand in the snow on Feb. 22, 2018.

Residents of the Nebraska Panhandle enjoyed unseasonably mild temperatures and cloud cover on Aug. 12, 2004.

Members of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association hold their hats as 2013 Miss Burwell Rodeo Olivia Hunsperger passes by during the opening ceremonies on July 27, 2013, in Burwell, Nebraska. "This may be a small town, but it's got a big rodeo, and it's got a really big heart," Hunsperger said.

A break in the clouds highlights downtown Omaha as seen from Lewis Central High School in Council Bluffs, as severe storms passed through the Omaha Metro area on June 5, 2014.

John Wanief waits for the bus in a shelter at 120th Street and West Center Road as cold rain pours down in Millard on Nov. 11, 2015.

Flocks of waterfowl fill the sky as the sun rises over Ponca, Nebraska, on March 3, 2018.

A red tail hawk perches on a light stanchion backed by the moon and overlooking the property near the Indian Creek development in Omaha on Feb. 27, 2018.

A woman walks with two dogs in Memorial Park near Dodge Street as many sledders go down the hill in Omaha, Nebraska, on Feb. 2, 2016. MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD

The sun sets over Sidney, Nebraska, on June 2, 2015.

The rising sun shines on a snow-covered hill located north of Chadron, Nebraska, on March 1, 2017.

Storm clouds are illuminated by the setting sun as people exit a football camp in Lincoln on Friday, June 16, 2017.

Sharon Vencil walks her dogs, Blackie and Whitie, along the Field Club Trail on March 6, 2018, in Omaha.

The morning sun burns off a layer of fog just north of the Chimney Rock.

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Conservatives are concerned, but is liberal indoctrination really an issue at UNL and UNO? - Omaha World-Herald

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Long-held Ontario Liberal ridings go to polls in Thursday byelections – CBC.ca

Posted: at 2:00 am

Voters in OttawaVanier and Orlans will go to the polls Thursday to determine the fate of two of the sevenseats the Liberals kept when they were routed in the 2018 provincial election.

OttawaVanier NDP candidate Myriam Djilane acknowledges the ridings are Liberal strongholds, with candidates winning by thousands of votes last time even as the party's support imploded.

"Fortresses always crumble eventually," Djilane said at a news conference Tuesday.

She said the entire Ontario NDP caucus, federal leader Jagmeet Singh and several MPs have helped canvass both ridings during the byelection campaign.

"It's very clear from talking to residents of OttawaVanier and I'm sure Orlans as well that people are really tired of being taken for granted and want to make sure their votes are counted."

Liberal candidate Stephen Blais, a current city councillor who has reduced his responsibilities during the campaign, said the party's smaller seat count gives him more freedom on the campaign trail.

"The luxury of being in the position that we're in is that I don't need to listen to the party boss in Toronto," Blais said.

"My platform and my brochure is all about Orlans and it's what I want to say. It hasn't had to be approved by unelected officials in downtown Toronto."

Andrew West, candidate for the Green Party of Ontario in OttawaOrlans, said the byelection will take questions about strategic voting off the table.

"Nothing's going to change the fact that Doug Ford has majority government. Nothing's going to change that with 50 seats amongst them, the Liberals and the NDP have gotten no legislation passed in the last two years," he said.

"The Green Party has, and when people hear that they get excited."

The private member's bill, which protected electric vehicle charging spots, is proof the Greens work well with others, West said.

Ben Koczwarski, the Greencandidate in OttawaVanier, said more voters are telling him they're prioritizing climate change and environmental issues as they cast their ballot.

"More and more people are saying, 'I always voted Liberal in the past, but this time I'm going to vote Green because I really want some decisive action on climate to be taken,'" Koczwarski said.

The Liberals were reduced to seven seats in the June 2018 election that saw Doug Ford's Ontario PC Party form a majority government.

The NDP is now the official oppositionwith the Liberal rump losing official party status and still in the process of electing a new leader. For the first time, the Green Party of Ontario elected an MPP.

OttawaVanier and OttawaOrlans were two of the seats that stayed Liberal, but their MPPs resigned for other positions.

Nathalie Des Rosiers returned to academiaand Marie-France Lalonde pursued and wonthe federal seat for the riding.

The party dipped to five seats, but went up to six when PC-turned-independent Amanda Simard from the rural eastern Ontario riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell switched to the Liberals.

CBC Newsreached out to the Ontario PC Party and the individual campaigns of OttawaOrlans candidate Natalie Montgomery and OttawaVanier candidate Patrick Mayangi.

Neither were made available for an interview.

On Monday, Elections Ontario reported that 4,822 ballots had been cast in Orlans, representing about 4.35 per cent of registered voters. That was less than half the figure for advanced polls in the 2018 general elections.

In OttawaVanier, the preliminary results for advanced polls were similarly low 2.47 per cent of registered voters, or 2,502 people cast their ballots.

The polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 27.

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Long-held Ontario Liberal ridings go to polls in Thursday byelections - CBC.ca

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Abrupt departure of MLA from caucus weakens already-thin Liberal majority – CBC.ca

Posted: at 2:00 am

Since becoming Nova Scotia's premier in the fall of 2013, Stephen McNeil has been able to count on two things during House sittings:steadfast loyalty from his caucus colleagues and a manageable majority on every vote.

Hugh MacKay's decision to sit as an Independent to try and spare Liberals political embarrassment means McNeilwill have to pay closer attention to both this sitting.

RCMP have charged MacKay with impaired driving in relation to an alleged offence dating back to Nov. 22, 2018.

Late last year,MacKay pleaded guiltyto operating a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit in relation to an incident on Oct. 13, 2019. He was fined $2,000 and prohibited from driving for a year.

Nova Scotia Liberals still hold a majority of votes in Nova Scotia's 51-seat legislature, but there are now two Independents one of whom previously sat as a Toryand two vacancies,which means the party in power now only controls 25votes.

There are currently 17 PCs and four NDPMLAs in the House.

Hypothetically, if the Liberals were to lose the two byelectionsto the NDP or PCs, there would be 25 Liberal votes and 23non-Liberal votes.The two independent MLAswould hold the balance of power.

Liberal Kevin Murphy sits as Speakerand according to House rules and parliamentary convention, he can only vote to cast a deciding voteif the members of the legislature are deadlocked.

That has happened in Nova Scotia, but it's rare.

In 1991, the government of DonaldCameron faced stiff oppositionand at least four tie votes on motions designed to delay or derail the passage of bills, including the budget.

Each time, the PC-appointed Speaker, Ron Russell, voted in favour of the government.

At the federal level, Speakers have only voted 11 times since Confederationin 1867.

Depending on the results of byelections underway in Cape Breton Centre and Truro-Bible Hill-Millbrook-Salmon River, McNeilmay find himself needing the support of one of those Independent MLAsor the Speaker to win votes on the floor of the chamber.

That's a far cry from when the McNeilLiberals won power from the NDP in 2013 and had a 14-vote cushion, even with a Liberal in the Speaker's chair, or after the 2017 general election when Liberals enjoyed a two-seat majority without the Speaker's vote.

The uncertainty surrounding the March 10byelection votes may spur the party in power to quickly pass the budget Finance Minister Karen Casey will introduce Tuesday afternoon.

Here's why.

Liberal House Leader Geoff MacLellan sets the hours for debate at Province House. That means he can extend sittings beyond normal hours. For example, he could addgovernment business to Wednesday sittings, which are normally devoted entirely to "opposition business."

During budget deliberations in 2019, he did not extend House hourson those "opposition days."That meant the budget vote came a few days later than a fast-tracked budget deliberation. But in 2018,MacLellan did fast-track thebudget.

The timing of this year's budget vote is important because of the byelections and March Break. The House does not sit during March Break, which happens this year from March 16-20. The byelection votes take place on March 10, but the results don't becomeofficial for 10 days afterwards.

If the Liberals lose both votes, that means any vote taking place after March Break this year could conceivably end in a draw.

That would leave it to Speaker Kevin Murphy to decide the vote, but he is not free to simply back the party he belongs to. Generally speaking, "casting votes" as they are called either preserve the status quo or allow debate to continue.

To avoid that possibility, look for the House leader to fast-track the budget in an effort to wind up the sitting by Friday, March 13.

Courtenay-Alberni MP says Liberals need to stop dragging their feet on universal pharmacare – My Comox Valley Now

Posted: at 2:00 am

Courtenay-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns (supplied by Johns' office)

Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns says the Liberal government should approve the NDPs universal pharmacare plan.

The party tabled the bill in the House of Commons yesterday. Johns says this is something the Liberals have promised for a very long time.

Were calling on the Liberal government to follow through with their promise to Canadians that theyve made over 23 years ago instead of getting and helping the pharmaceutical industries getting bigger profits.

They say all the right things but they keep putting the powerful drug companies first and so this is the first opportunity that weve had to make them make a decision on whether or not they are going to follow through with their promise, Johns added.

The pharmacare plan would give all Canadians access to free prescription medication.

Johns says No one should have to face the impossible choice between paying rent or filling a prescription and thats happening in our communities, right in our riding.

He added that if the Liberals dont approve the tabled bill, the trust in them from everyday Canadians will be broken.

Its not a confidence motion but its a motion that will hurt the credibility of this Liberal government if they choose to vote against it. Its a campaign promise theyve made, its something that were laying early out in the mandate, we dont want them to drag their feet on this, says Johns.

If the Liberals actually want to help Canadian families, they can work with us and we can all work together to deliver the universal pharmacare that people need.

Currently, Canada is the only country in the world that has a universal health care plan, but no national pharmacare plan to go along with it.

Courtenay-Alberni MP says Liberals need to stop dragging their feet on universal pharmacare - My Comox Valley Now

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Leong: Federal Liberals need to get their act together on energy and climate – Calgary Sun

Posted: at 2:00 am

It is a cruel irony that a would-be oilsands miner is forcing Canada to finally have an honest discussion on energy and environmental policies.

In a letter addressed to the federal government, CEO and president of Vancouver-based Teck Resources Don Lindsay withdrew the companys application to build the multibillion-dollar oilsands Frontier oilsands project near Fort McMurray.

The project, which went through a decade of regulatory hoops, was awaiting final approval from Ottawa this week.

The federal Liberals are surely breathing a sigh of relief, now that theyre off the hook from actually having to make a decision and behave like a government.

But the relief will be short-lived.

The political maelstrom following Tecks announcement came fierce and fast. The federal Liberal government deserves all the flak it is getting not just for its mishandling of the Teck situation directly but also for its laissez-faire attitude regarding the protest blockades over the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia.

That and the general lack of clarity on what Canada wants in terms of balancing energy development and climate change have cast a huge shadow on the now-shelved Frontier mine.

As CEO Lindsay politely put it in his letter: The growing debate around this issue has placed Frontier and our company squarely at the nexus of much broader issues that need to be resolved.

But if you read all the way to the bottom of Lindsays letter, youll find the decision is about much more than getting out of that nexus.

We support strong actions to enable the transition to a low carbon future. We are also strong supporters of Canadas action on carbon pricing and other climate policies such as legislated caps for oil sands emissions, he wrote.

The promise of Canadas potential will not be realized until governments can reach agreement around how climate policy considerations will be addressed in the context of future responsible energy sector development.

He is hardly alone among business leaders with that type of messaging.

Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, offered this advice on social media Sunday night to help break the seemingly endless deadlock on energy projects.

All sides accept carbon pricing as (the) best way of addressing climate change; all sides accept that oil remains in high demand (and) Canadian oil is world-class; priority given to reconciliation with Indigenous communities.

Speaking of Indigenous communities, the Frontier project much like the Coastal GasLink pipeline received the support of the 14 First Nations near the proposed mine.

Last week, Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon told Postmedia columnist Chris Varcoe his government was prepared to institute the regulations for an oilsands emissions cap so long as it was done in such a way that continues to allow our industry to succeed.

The only thing left would be how Alberta can manage carbon pricing in a way all relevant parties will accept. (And for those who dont know, Alberta already has a form of carbon pricing. The disagreement is about whether its good enough.)

Real, measurable progress was being made on balancing climate change with producing energy.

But despite this seemingly universal willingness to address carbon emissions, reduce the oilsands environmental impact and involve First Nations in every step along the way, there is still the problem that caused Teck to walk away from its proposed mine: it is still possible for an energy company and its partners to do everything right in support of a project but still have it rejected.

This is solely within the federal governments power to correct assuming it actually wants to.

rleong@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @RickyLeongYYC

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Leong: Federal Liberals need to get their act together on energy and climate - Calgary Sun

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Daily Archives: February 27, 2020

Cuban emigrants and the political culture of exile (II) – OnCubaNews

Social justice and economic inclusion: Where to South Africa? – Daily Maverick

As Bernie Sanders surges, Texas liberals take their own shot – The Columbian

The GOPs Silly Attempt to Boost a Liberal Candidate – The New Republic

The Liberal Economists Behind the Wealth Tax Debate – The New York Times

Conservatives are concerned, but is liberal indoctrination really an issue at UNL and UNO? – Omaha World-Herald

Long-held Ontario Liberal ridings go to polls in Thursday byelections – CBC.ca

Abrupt departure of MLA from caucus weakens already-thin Liberal majority – CBC.ca

Courtenay-Alberni MP says Liberals need to stop dragging their feet on universal pharmacare – My Comox Valley Now

Leong: Federal Liberals need to get their act together on energy and climate – Calgary Sun

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