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On The Other Hand

Award-winning author and journalist Penney Kome has published six non-fiction books and hundreds of periodical articles, as well as writing a national column for 12 years and a local column in Calgary for four years. She was editor of Straightgoods.com between 2004-2013.

Blog - On The Other Hand June 3
A woman cleans a window. Image credit: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels
Women still pay the cost of housework
Penney Kome | Unpaid housework contributes the equivalent of $600 billion a year to Canada's wealth, but it's not included in the GDP.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 31
Hand holding two Canadian twenty dollar bills. Image credit: Michelle Spollen/Unsplash
Universal basic income is only the first step towards an equitable economy
Penney Kome | Universal basic income needs safeguards or the result will be more gig work and much less security for workers.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 25
Protest marchers with megaphone. Image credit: Clay Banks/Unsplash
Protests have changed and so have protest songs
Penney Kome | In the 21st century protest songs offer music to live by, if not to march to.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 4
View of skyscrapers from below. Image credit: Samson/Unsplash
Using the pandemic to re-set the world economy
Penney Kome | Consumers and investors have a new reporting framework that uses environmental, social, and governance standards to measure corporations.
Blog - On The Other Hand December 16
Image: The White House/Flickr
Electoral college seals Trump's fate, but his denial of reality continues
Penney Kome | Claiming to have won the 2020 presidential election may be among Trump's most startling denials of reality, but as with most of his words and deeds, he has an agenda.
Blog - On The Other Hand November 9
Trump at an October campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in Goodyear, Arizona. Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Why it is important for Donald Trump to deliver a concession speech
Penney Kome | Trump has so far refused to concede that Joe Biden has won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, a dangerous tactic that could strain the mettle of American democracy.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 27
Image: Jay Phagan/Wikimedia Commons
U.S. advocates push back against voter suppression ahead of election
Penney Kome | Current polls suggest Democratic candidate Joe Biden is on course to win the 2020 election. But polls only matter if Americans can actually vote.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 16
Kamala Harris pictured in June 2020. Image: Kamala Harris/Facebook
The power behind Kamala Harris' smile
Penney Kome | As the first Black U.S. vice-presidential candidate, Harris is breaking a barrier on the world stage.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 8
President Trump leaves Walter Reed medical centre on October 5, 2020. Image: The White House/Flickr
Donald Trump's reckless behaviour after COVID diagnosis earns him 'super spreader' title
Penney Kome | Trump has acted like the "Pied Piper of Pandemic": a presidential candidate ready to disregard health guidelines and endanger his own supporters.
Blog - On The Other Hand September 18
A Democrats Abroad stall in 2018. Image: Will Bakker/Flickr
U.S. Democrats urge overseas voters to cast ballots early
Penney Kome | Democrats Abroad says U.S. voters from Canada could significantly affect the U.S. national election results -- if enough of them vote.
Blog - On The Other Hand September 1
Biden gives a speech at the DNC. Image: Elvert Barnes/Flickr
A tale of two American political conventions: Democrats run on 'decency,' while Republicans tout 'law and order'
Penney Kome | Irony abounds in the U.S. presidential election campaign, especially the recent Democratic and Republican conventions.
Blog - On The Other Hand July 10
An American voter posts their ballot from overseas. Image: Jeff Knezovich​/Flickr
U.S. should switch to mail-in ballot to circumvent threats to democracy
Penney Kome | The U.S. Supreme Court recently clamped down on "faithless electors," but other dangers to American democracy remain.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 29
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Marine One headed for a campaign rally in Tulsa. Image: Wikimedia Commons
U.S. opinion polls dump President Donald Trump
Penney Kome | The president's shoddy handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his response to the police murder of George Floyd have all contributed to a sharp decline in opinion polls.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 15
The 2010 BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Image: kris krüg/Flickr
It's time to dump profit-oriented GDP as a measure of economic growth
Penney Kome | We need an economic metric that includes social and environmental costs, and to put our efforts into reviving the global ecology that sustains us all.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 30
A supermarket checker works behind a plastic shield. Image: Russ Allison Loar​/Flickr
Pivoting from a service economy to a sustainable, equitable economy
Penney Kome | The pandemic is showing us all our weaknesses. We have time to correct them, before we destroy the planet in the endless pursuit of profit.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 1
A shuttered shop in Vancouver, British Columbia. Image: Rod Raglin/Flickr
Bailing out on the old normal
Penney Kome | With grim economic prospects forecast as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, campaigns have launched to rebuild the economy differently.
Blog - On The Other Hand April 21
Secretary-General António Guterres during inaugural meeting of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement in Hôtel Royal in Geneva, February 25, 2020. Image: UN Geneva/Flickr
Pandemic prompts United Nations call for global ceasefire
Penney Kome | Seventy countries have heeded the UN secretary-general's call to come together to fight COVID-19. If we can give up war during a pandemic, why can't we give it up permanently?
Blog - On The Other Hand April 9
Shoppers in the U.K. maintain social distance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Image: Tim Dennell/Flickr)
COVID-19 kicks over the economy
Penney Kome | The economy will have to change to accommodate contagion concerns that are likely to continue for two or three years due to uneven isolation rules.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 30
Image: Mark locchelli/Flickr
Now is a good time to begin a managed decline of Canadian fossil fuel production
Penney Kome | A managed decline would offer security and ease transition to a zero-carbon economy.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 20
Image: The White House/Flickr
Canada closes U.S. border amid coronavirus pandemic
Penney Kome | So many other motives blur U.S. policies on COVID-19 that the U.S. has fallen dangerously far behind other nations in trying to flatten the curve.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 10
Image: Nelson de Witt/Flickr
Halt to Teck Frontier mine signals new fossil fuel exploration just not worth it
Penney Kome | Activists call for "fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty" to control remaining fuels' carbon emissions.
Blog - On The Other Hand September 8
Image: Peter Blanchard/Flickr
Confusion on the horizon in election advertising
Penney Kome | Two jarring incidents occurred at the end of August that could indicate more complications than usual in the upcoming federal election.
Blog - On The Other Hand August 22
Elections Canada poll sign. Image: Dennis Sylvester Hurd/Flickr
Ethics and truth in election advertising
Penney Kome | Ready or not, we are embarking on an experiment to see whether Harper's legacy of election laws can support an actual election.
Blog - On The Other Hand July 23
Bee collecting pollen
Don't swat that bee!
Penney Kome | Insect-free summer may be a worrisome sign that extinction is in progress.
Blog - On The Other Hand July 7
Image: PaulVanDerWerf/Flickr
Interfaith and community groups stand up against Quebec's Bill 21
Penney Kome | The recently passed legislation prohibits civil servants from wearing religious symbols, such as a headscarf or a turban.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 18
Image: Women Deliver CEO and President Katja Iversen, from Women Deliver 2019 Mobilization Canada Facebook page
Behind Vancouver's massive and mysterious Women Deliver conference
Penney Kome | Canada leads the way with a new monster international fund to promote gender equality, women's empowerment, and reproductive health.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 4
Woman at microphone for Women Deliver conference. Image: Women Deliver/Facebook​
Vancouver hosts world's biggest women's conference
Penney Kome | Women Deliver's main pitch is to make sure that women's specific concerns are included as developing nations strive to expand their economies.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 5
The Aga Khan addresses the 2014 London Conference
Throwing shade on the Aga Khan
Penney Kome | If the Pope invited the prime minister's family to visit for the holidays, and sent a private jet to pick them up, would the Opposition be hinting at a breach of ethics?
Blog - On The Other Hand April 23
Andrew Scheer. Photo: Andrew Scheer/Flickr
Canadian politics need a civility pledge
Penney Kome | Alberta election rancour just a sample of what federal election could bring.
Blog - On The Other Hand April 15
NDP candidate Anne McGrath (right) poses with Premier Rachel Notley. Photo: Anne McGrath/Facebook
Alberta politics meets the federal NDP's 'island of calm'
Penney Kome | Calgary-Varsity candidate Anne McGrath has looked at Alberta from both sides now.

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