Calgary columnist challenged to write about Harper neoliberalism

On January 11, 2012, I offered any mainstream journalist at any large Canadian daily a free-dinner-for-two (value$150) if he/she could convince their editors to let them write an article or column describing the neoliberal policies of the Harper government. I have had no takers.
 
But this week, I did hear from a journalist by the name of Ian Robinson. He has some interesting opinions. He believes that “politicians fall somewhere below the humble, yet useful dung beetle and above penicillin-resistant staphylococcus.”
 
And: “The heart of the Occupy movement is a festering, black mass of envy and hatred for success.”
 
Lastly, "climate change is caused by the sun". 
Robinson is a “shoot now, ask NO questions” columnist and copy editor with The Calgary Sun. 
In a comment on my blog, he took exception to my earlier article, in which I said that there is a silent conspiracy amongst media corporations to censor any discussion of the Conservative government’s neoliberal ideology. 
I believe that the wide-open, free-for-all neoliberal environment that exists for the business community and that is ignored by the mainstream media, was responsible for the 2008 economic crash and is behind the current mess in Europe.
 
And Robinson’s opinion of me? That my views “strike him as less political position and more a symptom of some sort of mental disorder.”
Well!

Unless people take action, Harper's scheme will mean 'Goin' Down the Road' for Maritimers

By dramatically changing the health care funding formula, is Prime Minister Stephen Harper showing little concern for the future of the Maritime provinces? 

The Health Accord “deal” that Harper practically threw in the face of the provinces and territories this week, not only cuts health funding for all the provinces starting in four years, but threatens to further widen the growing standard-of-living chasm between  the “have” and “have not” provinces.

As their meeting ended in Victoria on Tuesday, the premiers vowed they will pressure the Conservative government to change the least equitable aspects of the so-called take-it-or-leave-it “agreement”.  But what if the sometimes stubborn Harper government refuses to give much ground?

All citizens of the Maritimes – not just the governments – would have good reason to vehemently protest the new agreement because the provinces that would likely lose the most in the long term are Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.  

Increase in cost of living
If the 2016-17 part of the agreement goes into effect, the cost of living will increase in the Maritimes, and this will be another blow to the region’s problem of too many people leaving to live elsewhere in the country. 

'Dinner for two' for first journalist who dares to explain Conservative ideology

Journalists in the mainstream Canadian media are being intimidated from fully describing the soulless ideology practised by the Harper Conservative government – at least this has been my impression for some time now. 

Wanting to find out what journalists are really writing about the Tories and neoliberalism, I spent some time this week searching the Internet for any 2011 articles that would link the two.

I felt that, if the mainstream media is involved in an unspoken conspiracy of silence to hide the evil economic philosophy of the Harper government, the public needs to know. 

Should we 'take down' the banks or try to save the best of capitalism?

It is November 1968, and a writer for Modern Mechanix peers 40 years into the future:

“People have more time for leisure activities in the year 2008. The average work day is about four hours . . . . Homes are practically self-maintaining. Robots are available to do housework and other simple chores . . . . You slide into your sleek, two-passenger air-cushion car, press a sequence of buttons and the national traffic computer notes your destination. Ninety minutes later, you slide beneath the dome of your destination city. . . . A typical vacation in 2008 is to spend a week at an undersea resort, where your hotel room window looks out on a tropical underwater reef.”

So what the hell went wrong?