Baker Lake, Nunavut, is the geographic centre of Canada, but it's rarely the centre of attention for most Canadians. And yet what's going on here is nothing less than a test of democracy in Canada's newest territory. A huge complex of uranium mines is being proposed for the tundra west of Baker Lake, in the middle of important caribou habitat.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has had a cake walk since defeating Lorne Calvert and the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the November 2007 provincial elections. After Calvert’s resignation and as the NDP went through a leadership contest, Wall enjoyed a period of easy living.

You can call this a honeymoon for the new Saskatchewan Party government, or you can admit that the NDP in opposition has been singularly pathetic. There are just no fundamental ideological differences on the big economic issues, and that will be even more true now that Dwain Lingenfelter, the former deputy premier under Roy Romanow, has been anointed NDP leader.

The party of Tommy Douglas no more

Reading the Saskatchewan government's news release announcing the Energy Council conference, I couldn't help but reflect on the connections with the news of a proposed Western Energy Corridor, recently reported in the Star Phoenix following the Western Governors Association (WGA) Annual Conference.  While both are riddled with words like 'sustainability' and 'clean energy,' red flags are going up in seeing emerging themes that raise some serious questions.

The dust has not settled from the recent Saskatchewan NDP leadership convention where Dwain Lingenfelter was narrowly elected leader. Ryan Meili, the candidate to whom the progressive vote rallied, got 45 per cent of the vote, and Lingenfelter, who entered the race with a coronation in mind, won with 55 per cent of the vote.

The Saskatchewan NDP held a leadership convention over the weekend to select a successor to Lorne Calvert, who is retiring from politics. The victor was Dwaine Lingenfelter, long time party stalwart who was a key member of the inner circle of the cabinet during the government of Roy Romanow. But the campaign for the leadership and the convention showed deep divisions within the party.

NO NUKES IN ONTARIO – A TEACH-IN

Join us for a teach-in on nuclear energy in Ontario. What are the concerns surrounding nuclear energy, and what are the alternatives?

On the evening of Friday March 13 at 7:00 p.m. there will a screening of the film Battle of Chernobyl. Earth Sciences Auditorium (ES 1050), 33 Willcocks St, U of T.

On April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Pripyat exploded and began spewing radioactive smoke and gas. Firemen discovered that no amount of water could extinguish the blaze. More than 40,000 residents in the immediate area were exposed to fallout 100 times greater than that from the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. But the most serious nuclear accident in history had only begun.