Tag: g20

Article: Are U.S. Reform Conservatives Serious? (and why Canadian conservatives should care)

A long but rewarding read from E.J. Dionne [first published in the journal Democracy but re-published by The Atlantic on the intellectual state-of-the-nation of U.S. conservatives. Notable from Canadian eyes in this sense: The “reformicons” Dionne described as “heretics” in the U.S. Republican movement — people like like David Frum, Bruce Bartlett and Ross Douthat — appear to be advocating for a conservativism in the U.S. that, to my eyes, rather resembles the conservatism of the Conservative Party of Canada. And so, just as the Conservative Party of Canada may serve as a possible inspiration for the Republicans, so too could today’s Republican Party serve as a king of warning for Canadian Conservatives should it fail lower- and middle-income households [a recent report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer noted that under the Harper government’s tax cuts  have helped “Low and middle income earners [benefit] more, in relative terms, than higher income earners.”) have been and be seen as ignoring the problem of economic inequality in our society. 

Some excerpts from the Dionne piece: Continue reading Article: Are U.S. Reform Conservatives Serious? (and why Canadian conservatives should care)

Harper returns to St. Petersburg older but is he wiser?

Harper in the back of the plane
Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to reporters on his plane en route to the 2006 G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia (DAVID AKIN)

Stephen Harper had hardly every stepped outside of his native Canada when, in the first few months as Canada’s prime minister, he found himself flying to St. Petersburg for his first G8 summit.  This week, Harper will return to St. Petersburg for the annual summit of G20 leaders.

I was among the reporters covering his 2006 trip and I will be among the press pack covering this 2013 G20 summit. Continue reading Harper returns to St. Petersburg older but is he wiser?

Readers write taking issue with my piece on Putin-Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok in the fall of 2012.

In our papers on Saturday and here on this blog, I wrote about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who I believe to be an anti-democratic despot with little concern for respecting the rule of law or upholding universal human rights. Many readers agreed but some did not. Here’s a lightly edited pair of responses which were typical of those who disagreed:

We’ll start with this rant from a computer sciences professor at London’s Western University: Continue reading Readers write taking issue with my piece on Putin-Harper

As food prices skyrocket, "feeble" G20 considers talking about it

Drought
Rotting corn damaged by severe drought on a farm near Bruceville, Indiana, August 16, 2012.(AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB)

Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that G20 countries were considering how and when it should step in some sort of co-ordinated way to deal with rapidly rising prices of corn and soybean, two fundamental crops central to the diet of much of the world’s population.

Citiing unnamed G20 officials, the Times indicated that the G20  was ready to convince an emergency forum after the U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed its latest corn crop estimates last Friday. The Times did not mention Canada specifically but, of course, as one of the leading G20 economies and as one of the world’s largest food producers, Canada would be keenly interested and, presumably, involved in these discussions. Continue reading As food prices skyrocket, "feeble" G20 considers talking about it

Barroso: Euro leaders won't take no guff from no one

Here at the G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, European leaders are making the claim that the credibility of the G20 is at stake if G20 members don’t step and kick in to a US$430 billion International Monetary Fund to help Europe sort out its fiscal crisis. So far, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada will not contribute to such a fund. He believes that Europe has enough financial firepower of its own to deal with the euro crisis.

This morning, European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy held a press conference to make that claim — that they expect the G20, including Canada, to do its part to help Europe out of its mess.

During the question period, I put this question to those two gentlemen:

Why should North Americans risk their assets to help the largest and one of the wealthiest economic areas in the world? Shouldn’t IMF resources be used to help out developing countries and not the richest economic area in the world? What do you make of Prime Minister Harper’s contention that Europe has enough financial firepower on its own to deal with this crisis?

And, to Mr.Van Rompuy, you mentioned the credibility of the G20 is at stake as it considers whether to pledge billions to the IMF fund for Europe. Wouldn’t he say that the credibility of European leaders is at stake given you’ve had four years to fix this crisis and you still don’t have clear long-term plans?

Apparently I struck a chord. Here’s their responses:

Continue reading Barroso: Euro leaders won't take no guff from no one