It’s nearing the end of January, and the 2016 New Year’s honeymoon is officially over. To mark the occasion, our bloggers have brought together the good, the bad, and the ugly from across Canada. From Goodwill Toronto’s mismanagement to Justin Trudeau’s mediocre performance in Parliament, they’re taking on the best and worst of our time.
Dennis Gruending gets the ball rolling with an analysis of Justin Trudeau’s best-known political promises. Unsurprisingly, he hasn’t been able to follow through on all of his 195 election promises –but some of the disappointments have major implications. From moving the Syrian refugee resettlement targets to keeping Canadian bombers in Syria, there’s a lot our PM needs to follow up on.
Things haven’t been great on the other side of the fence, either. As Gerry Caplan explains, “the election loss has taught the Conservatives exactly nothing.” From attempting to bar electoral reform (a “senate blockade” was suggested at one point) to flagrantly ignoring their own political past, they’ve got a lot to reconcile with before they can perform well as Canada’s Official Opposition. Until then, “here is only one appropriate fate for a gang with this kind of integrity: Kevin O’Leary.”
Getting right to the ugly news, Postmedia is continuing to cut jobs by the dozen. This time, it’s a round of cuts to newsrooms in Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa and Vancouver. Cities with two papers owned by the conglomerate will see their newsrooms merged, with only one top editor overseeing everything. Beat reporters will not be distinct to one paper, but serve both “brands,” making one wonder –are they really separate brands at all? As David Climenhaga reports, Postmedia is stubbornly maintaining they are. Meanwhile, editorial diversity dies its slow death.
With all this bad and ugly, an analysis of what exactly it takes to be “good” is needed. Nora Loreto has been doing exactly that, looking into the mismanagement of Goodwill Toronto. After years of incompetent leadership, the chain that seemed too advantaged to fail –it has much of its merchandise donated for free, after all– has announced the closure of 10 Toronto stores with no warning. Instead of searching for an investor to solve the store’s financial woes, it could be time for unions to rethink their role –and consider buying out Goodwill Toronto directly.
A final slice of good news for the week: a reminder that three of Canada’s proposed pipeline projects are as good as dead. As for the fourth, Gordon Laxer explains how it fails to promote oil security within Canada –the marketing doesn’t match the message. Instead, the pipeline would likely be used for the continued export of Canadian oil and continue our reliance on carbon-heavy energy.
From broken political promises to Energy East, the best and the worst have played out on our pages. Not featured here are several other uniqe and thought-provoking blogs, at your beck and call for weekend reading. Until then, that’s the good, the bad and the ugly, this week at Rabble.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
