Small P and Large P Politics and the F Word

On December 16, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Global Gender Index for 2020 based on 2019 country performance. Canada has dropped 3 places in the ranking since the last report a year ago.  Since 2006 the WEF has produced annual reports on the progress made toward gender equality using benchmarks based on four thematic dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. In the latest edition of Women, Politics and Public Policy: The political struggles of Canadian women, (Newman, White and Findlay, 2020, p. 389) we had this to say of the 2017 report:  According to the 2017 report, no country has fully closed its gender gap; four of the five Nordic countries, Rwanda (4th), and Nicaragua (6th) have closed more than 80 per cent of their gaps. And Canada? Canada does not crack the top ten; it ranks 16th out of 144 countries, which is 2 points lower than its first ranking in 2006. This d...

London On 1919 or 2019: The State of the City:  Bounding into the twentieth Century* or a vision of the future a generation behind. While some were relieved that the Mayor’s agenda was not as “right-wing” as they feared it could be, it certainly was avowedly conservative. And by conservative, I mean, old-fashioned; an elegiac reflection on issues and concerns that drove us a generation ago. It’s all about old-fashioned debt reduction, savings, and any job as an “honest” job. What was notably missing was any reference to or mention of the issues driving today’s feelings of uncertainty, i.e., climate change and work precarity. As a result, the Mayor’s priorities were devoid of any real vision of and for the City’s future. In fairness to the Mayor, it can be said that he was tailoring his speech to the particular audience. The Chamber of Commerce is characterized by its dogged commitment to status-quo business stability, so statements of radical progressive egalitar...

Last term my have been one of the most busiest I've encountered, although it has been said I say that every term. It did mean that I didn't really get a chance to write any blogs, and the writing I did do did not lend itself to easy conversion into blogs. But, now I'm on sabbatical until July. I'm still catching up on some projects I couldn't complete last term, but the office is set up in the basement and I can work in my pajamas (or at least the ones the dog hasn't eaten).