Loonie reaches parity with US Dollar

The Canadian dollar, known to us Canadians as the Loonie, has reached parity with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. This has been a story Canadians have been following for years now as the Loonie has risen over 60% over the last 5 years. In real terms, that means that my Penn education now costs less than half as much as it did my freshmen year and that since my assets are denominated in Canadian dollars, my net worth has risen 60% relative to my American peers. Not bad.

This story here has to do with the US dollar weakness against all major currencies and will likely continue its decline as global current account imbalances work themselves out.

With oil closing at record highs above $80 and the mortgage crisis continuing to take its toll, things are not looking good for the US economy.

Cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

DiCaprio Takes on the Environment, Gore-style

Originally posted at Progressive Dispatches

Leonardo DiCaprio is following in Al Gore's footsteps with his new movie, The 11th Hour. According to Warner Brothers,

The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course.

It comes out in New York and LA this weekend and has a wider release on August 24th (which is when I will be able to see it when it comes out in Philadelphia). After watching the trailer, it's no surprise that the film has already received so much positive buzz online,

The film expands on the themes of last year's Oscar-winning doc, "An Inconvenient Truth," and even goes further then the global warming issue, which the film argues is just one symptom of humanity's overarching influence on the planet.According to Warner Brothers.

From a review at Treehugger.com:

The film is a collection of vivid imagery accompanied by commentary and meditation from an impressive collection of political leaders, designers, and visionaries—a proverbial team of environmental rock stars. Cast members include former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, and sustainable design authority William McDonough . . . to name a few. In total, the film features 50 independent voices, bringing expertise, experience, and emotion to the crisis at hand. Their words are informative, powerful, and inspiring—perhaps some of the great quotes of our time

Gristmill also has a review and an interview with DiCaprio and the producers of this film.

Leonardo DiCaprio premieres "The 11th Hour"

~BT

Young Liberals Fight Back!

The Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) released three great ads today, based on Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, in response to another round of Conservative attack ads. This is a much needed counter attack to the Conservatives ability to buy television and radio ads. (they have them running on Business News Network).

According to the YLC's press release,

“Look, it’s no secret the Conservatives are a wealthy party who can afford all kinds of fancy marketing executives and focus groups,” admits Pickup, “but within the Liberal family we’ve got talent, we’ve got dedication, and we’ve got a clear vision for Canada of which we’re proud.”

The three parody ads will be promoted through a multi-pronged approach that utilizes youngliberals.ca, Facebook, youtube.com, instant-messenger programs, and bloggers. This cohesive online campaign provides an opportunity for members and supporters to disseminate and share their messages quickly and affordably.

The ads have already garnered positive coverage in the Toronto Star, on CityTV's 6pm news, and much coverage throughout the blogosphere:

• A BCer in Toronto
• CTV's Politics Blog, Gauntlet.ca
• The Turner Report

The Facebook group has reached over 575 members and is growing fast.

(cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches)

~BT

Harper's EcoFraud Exposed!

In their own words:

We thought that http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca was a little too strong on the BS side, so we made our own.

Visit http://www.ecofraud.ca and raise awareness by spreading the word!

You need to check this out and spread the word!

Progessive Dispatches: 1 month old!

I was really surprised to notice that I have been blogging at Progressive Dispatches for 1 month now, mainly because it feels like I just posted And we're back! So, why post about a such a minor milestone?

Well, I had previously blogged for 3 months at Canadian Liberal @ Penn in the summer of 2005. True, I am only 1/3 of the way to my previous record in terms of longevity, in terms of number of posts, this is my 21st post so far, which is getting close to my previous record of 27. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere close to the amount of traffic I used to get, which is disappointing because the traffic provided me with active comments and conversation with others that made blogging more fun and meaningful. But last week's discovery of a burgeoning blogosphere at Penn has been pretty cool.

This time around, I found blogging to be both easier and harder. It has been easy because of the large range of topics that I want to blog about but tough because of the high speed and breadth of the constant flow of new information. The sheer size of the American political system allows for a sizable political chattering class of pundits, strategists, lobbyists, and has seen the emergence (pdf) of a vibrant progressive blogosphere that is fascinating to watch flex its muscle within the Democratic party. The progressive resurgence nationwide and the real notion that I could be part of this avant-garde progressive movement has been exciting. Most of all, it it the desire to bring this progressive infrastructure and success back to Canada that is most interesting me about US domestic politics right now.

In comparison, I was able to blog about Canadian politics at a much slower pace and there were less blogs and not much of an online opinion infrastructure. Granted, I was blogging within a nascent Canadian blogosphere dominated by well organized conservatives. Progressive Bloggers had just been founded and was quickly followed by Liblogs, both of which I joined and saw a steady traffic of around 50 unique visitors per day.

We find the the same thing at the early stages of the development of the US blogosphere. It started with conservatives having a powerful top-down infrastructure which has since stagnated. Meanwhile there has been an incredible growth of the progressive blogosphere with some asking whether it has reached its apex. This example shows how the Canadian right is able to effectively emulate their American counterparts and implement similar policies, strategies and ideas on a slight time delay.

In Canada, Conservatives have long mastered the art of borrowing from the US conservative movement and I don't see why Liberals shouldn't do the same thing on the Progressive side. Across the pond, British bloggers are similarly learning from recent progressive successes in America. From an initial glance, the Canadian landscape seems to have grown in size but I don't see Canadian blogs having the same sort of impact on politics yet.

(Posted at Progressive Dispatches)

Ignatieff coming home to U of T

Today, the University of Toronto will announce the Michael Ignatieff has accepted a position at the university and will be returning to Canada. Both the Star and the Globe have leaked reports.

This is a great move for Ignatieff as he needs to be in Canada to increase his exposure with Canadians. In my mind, Ignatieff is one of the top potential candidates being discussed in Liberal circles and this news definitely heats things up.

More commentary to come...

Canada Right to Urge Action in Niger

Our Liberal government is rightfully calling upon the international community to take action to deal with the humanitariam crisis in Niger as well as other West African countries. Minister Aileen Carroll announced on Friday that Canada would increase funding for the crisis in Niger. This is in addition to the help Canada is already sending through the Canadian Internationl Developement Agency (CIDA) to deal with the crisis.

Niger currently faces a serious food crisis. Drought and an invasion of desert locusts caused a 225,000 tonne grain deficit in the 2004-2005 harvest. The food crisis threatens some 3.5 million people in close to 3,000 villages. UNICEF made an urgent appeal on Friday for more aid, saying $14.6-million was needed “to help stop a deadly cycle of starvation.

The media is slowly paying attention to the crisis in Niger. On CNN, Anderson Cooper will be devoted his show on Monday at 7pm to this issue. From his site: "Anderson Cooper travels to Africa to put a human face on the hunger crisis in Niger".

I hope these efforts won't be in vain and the increased attention and Canada's efforts will be successful in convincing other countries to pay attention to this crisis. Props to Aileen Carroll and our Liberal government for continuing to be a positive force in tackling humanitarian crises.

Great Public Television: TVO, CBC

I am constantly reminded of the huge benefits of strong and vibrant public television networks. In Canada, we need to ensure that the regulations (think CRTC content laws) and federal funding currently in place be strengthened to continue to protect and strengthen Canadian culture and content. Check out Our Public Airwarves a campaign for a revitalization of Public Broadcasting. We need increased funding of public broadcasters and continued support for the Canadian Television Fund and Telefilm Canada among others.

Do your part, sign this online petition for a Strong CBC.

This weekend, I have had the chance to watch TVO's Big Ideas program which has brought coverage of Navigating a New World Symposium at UofT on November 6th, 2004. I am currently watching Naomi Klein talking about Iraq and the Bush Agenda, after seeing Romeo Dallaire, Irshad Manji and Loyd Axworthy. I have been thoroughly impressed with programming coming out of TVO and CBC. Check out TVO's 2005 fall programming preview here.

For the cynics reading this, all I can do is point to Quebec. The laws, regulations and government funding have ensured a vibrant cultural industry in Quebec. It is in Quebec where Canadian and Quebec films remain the most popular and successful. Yes, the language barrier makes it easier competing against Hollywood by it shouldn't mean that we shouldn't put up a fight in English Canada.

Frist Flip-flops on Stem Cell, Goes Against Bush

Wow, turmoil in the republican party now that Bill Frist, the senate majority leader has decided to break With bush on the stem-cell bill.

This could mean that up to 7 or 8 other moderate republicans might see some political room to do the same thing and vote their conscious. This could precipitate a veto showdown between the President and his Republican congress.

Already, Tom Delay has criticized Frist on his flip-flop in an interview with CNN this afternoon.

Interesting times to be a Democrat :)

With Rovegate going on, now Bush is losing his grip in Congress. This week, on the vote on CAFTA, 39 republicans voted against the president. Bush has also lost republicans on his position on social security. Now this. I hope the democrats can capitalize.

Update: Post-Secondary Transfer already Liberal Policy

I was reminded today that what the dedicated post-secondary transfer that the premiers were in the news about, is already Liberal Party policy.

I was at the Liberal Policy convention in March so I should have remembered. It was one of the Young Liberal resolutions and ended up being combined and adopted as a priority resolution.

Check out Jason Cherniak's posts to that effect:

Comments after Liberal Policy Convention in March

Premiers take up Young Liberal Cause

Some news articles which appeared after March Policy Convention:

BC Campus Paper

The Charlatan Paper