Elected Friday, suspended Sunday– A new Commonwealth record??

In praise of the liberal arts in time of AI: Apparently, one still needs to think critically. Comforting.

Good morning, universities and colleges. Here’s your daily reminder: try to stay off the front page.

A jolting swing to the right in UK local elections as early results start to come in:

We are aware of people trying to get help that are waiting 6 weeks or more to be admitted. People will die waiting to save themselves. What good is involuntary treatment if there are no treatment spaces? (3)

The loose strands in the rough weave of the commons. Help us to see ourselves in all creation,and all creation in ourselves, ourselves in one another Invocation, by Everett Hoagland.

Govt. of Saskatchewan is failing children Everyone should take a look at today's tragic report from Saskatchewan's Children's Advocate. It highlights 13 tragic cases where children under the age of five have died since 2019, with toxic illegal drugs in their systems. The CBC coverage of the report…

Good grief. This is shocking. And it takes a lot to shock me.

Things that come back to haunt you. There's a quick lesson you learn in politics. Decisions have consequences. Be careful. Things can come back to haunt you. Consider this example from the past week in UK politics. When he became Prime Minister, Keir Starmer dumped a woman from an important job,…

Manage the Issue or be Managed by the Issue. Holy Smokes. The UK Mandelson story just won't quit. It's the gift that keeps on taking -- credibility, public confidence, the benefit of the doubt. For those of you who haven't been following, Peter Mandelson was dumped as UK Ambassador to the United…

Find a way or make one….

The evolution of political communications. You could make the argument that candidates should sit for interviews not to directly reach voters, but to shape the answers produced by tools like ChatGPT. The same goes for news releases and other written posts. The best campaigns, and really, any…

Easter, 1916: A terrible beauty is born. The more I read about the Easter Rising in 1916 and the struggle for Irish independence, the more fascinating and nuanced it becomes. When I woke up this morning, I knew nothing about the life of Roger Casement. Apparently, that's because his life and…

NDP's April ChiefCalf is up on the gov't pulling $2.5M from Prairie Harm Reduction. Why is the gov't turning it's back? Minister Carr says we believe in recovery and more detox beds. We've never funded safe consumption sites. Conway heckles, "good luck to the St. Paul's emergency room." #skpoli

Politics is not like business. Success in one field does not guarantee success in the other. Some wise words today from UK policy wonk Polly MacKenzie. Politics is not like running a business. Some skills are transferable, but more is required. As Ms. MacKenzie says, politicians are not mere…

Industry Groups Raising Alarms About SaskPower Rate Hikes. Seems like a lot of people were surprised and dismayed by Scott Moe's decision to hike power rate, including a major industry group, made up of some of the largest industry group. In a recent letter to the province's Rate Review Panel, the…

Unbelievable. Not only are they failing to inform the public or school divisions of these unconscionable delays, They're not even talking to each other. Take the work done by your ministerial officials and throw it out the window, cut capital funding then deny any delays. Unbelievable.

MOE REFUSES TO CUT HIS GROCERY TAX AS MANITOBA DOES

A Carpet of Diamonds The air warms; the snow receded, leaving behind a carpet of diamonds. A goose walks tentatively towards open water. The crack of the ice echoes across the lake. There is hope. Soon we'll be swimming, and feeling the warmth of the sun on our faces.

The Politics of Education Funding in Saskatchewan. After years of constrained capital dollars in the Saskatchewan's education sector, one has to wonder how Shellbrook jumped to the head of the line for a new school. This is a particularly salient question since no less than an authority than the…

First real day of spring

Bad news budget for education in Saskatchewan "Education critic Matt Love says the Saskatchewan budget doesn’t invest enough additional money to address classroom complexity or help with schools that are crumbling or bursting at the seams. The Ministry of Education is getting a two per cent…

Sask. Budget means more cuts to classrooms It's become sadly predictable, according to the NDP's Matt Love. Limited funding means school board cuts are inevitable. Love says: "This budget will lead to cuts in our classrooms, and the Sask Party is proving once again that they can’t be trusted to…

Rising Debt under Scott Moe. Last year: This year: www.40Billion.moe

www.40Billion.moe. Sask. Party's reputation for fiscal prudence lies in tatters.

Quick writing tips from a speechwriter and a novelist.

The guy who started it all is gone.

Re-upping this story from last week as WTI continues to climb this evening. Why the volatile price of oil can help, or hurt, the Saskatchewan budget www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I honestly don't know how a government could screw this up so badly. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Iran may disintegrate in unpredictable ways. I don't agree with everything Thomas Friedman says, but this column provides some depth and context. As he states, in the Middle East, the opposite of autocracy is not always democracy. Further, focussing exclusively on the disintegration of human…

Forest Bath The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness." — John Muir

Translating political speech "Keep on fighting" means "I'm gone in six months". "Must be a wake-up call" means "I'm launching my leadership campaign". "Cheating" means we're so ego-centric and self important we will never understand why everyone doesn't love us.

For a sitting Prime Minister, blowing a 13,000 vote margin and slipping to third place is not a good thing, even if it is only a byelection. Things are about to get weird in the UK again

We say SK feeds the world, but we're not even feeding our own children! Time for change. www.ndpcaucus.sk.ca/over_one_in_...

Irish Times Columnist on a strange week for the monarchy: "The answer is that even constitutional monarchies developed limits on arbitrary power, chief among them an independent criminal justice system and some kind of parliamentary accountability. The United States, on the other hand, has allowed…

2. Not describing AMW as “my brother” and pointedly ending on “Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.” AMW is completely out in the cold. Not even considered part of the family any more. 🚮

Wow

The latest chapter in the long history of staffers taking the hit when things get tough: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Politics is such a funny business. People look invincible and events look inevitable, until they are not. You wake up one morning and people are writing about the stench of death surrounding your administration.

Hope is a fighter and a screamer.

After being held in two of them as a boy, I fought for decades urging America to never again build concentration camps and put human beings in them. It breaks my heart to watch this happen twice now in my own lifetime.