A diagram showing the VDA framework and the Arc of Democracy. At the top, three icons label the essential elements of democracy: Verification (tick), Deliberation (speech bubble), and Accountability (magnifying glass). Arrows descend from each through three horizontal bands representing the arc: Substantial (truth tested, voices included, power constrained), Performative (forms remain but substance is weak, rituals without consequence), and Simulated (appearance maintained but functions inverted: propaganda as verification, polarisation as deliberation, scapegoating as accountability). A vertical arrow on the left marks the arc's direction: improvements, decline, collapse. A column on the right maps counterpublics onto the same three states: functional counterpublics act in a substantial way, hollow counterpublics in a performative way, disordered counterpublics in a simulated way. The bands shift from grey through pink to red as democracy moves toward simulation.

A society that runs on this stack doesn't stop holding elections, or debating, or running investigations. The forms stay, but what goes is their capacity to constrain power. The arc bends toward simulation, carried out in the language of defending democracy.

It was policy primarily to be seen to do something about inequitable access to housing, but - of course - not to actually, y’know, DO anything about it.

This is the prime minister who cut $2.7 billion in foreign aid despite promising during the election not to cut it.

This is the prime minister who cut $231.9 million in funding for dental care and prescription coverage for very vulnerable asylum-seekers.

Talking about kindness.

#CdnPoli

Instead of cuts, if Carney was smart he'd invest $500 million in mRNA research in Canada, propelling us into a leading position in medical research.

Way too many people use the word "pragmatic" when what they're really describing is "unprincipled".

Good. Because this is the kind of shit that criminals do.

The 1990s Called. They Want Their Economic Policy Back. The C.D. Howe Institute recently dropped a tax reform paper. Spoiler: the rich pay less income tax, the GST goes up, and it’s all framed as distributionally neutral. And the model they want C…

The old narratives are tired. Cut taxes. Slash spending. Watch the economy soar. We've heard it for 30 years. Gillian Petit and I built Inclusiecon to build the evidence base for something better. New blog is up. 👇

deadfortaxreasons.wordpress.com/2026/03/30/t...

More from the Privacy Commissioner on FOI:
“Taking away Ontarians’ access rights— retroactively and into the future— denies them the information they need to understand government decision-making at the highest levels & hold their governments to account.”
www.ipc.on.ca/en/media-cen...

…and you were carefully educated that to be “apolitical” is a virtue, and that you “dislike politics” making you, as Kim Stanley Robinson put it: “putty in the hands of your rulers, just like always”

Currently listening to the ON Housing Minister explain today's windfall policy announcement and I think it's probably just a good idea to read any "affordability" measure as a stimulus package for the housing construction sector.

Don’t 'engage in divisive or contentious issues of any kind,' says provincial memo on graduation ceremonies | CBC News The memo, signed by Education Minister Paul Calandra and addressed to educators and school board staff, warns that failure by school boards to meet those expectations “poses a real risk to student wel...

*Ted Talk voice*

What if I told you that *not* expressing “political views” or “engag[ing] in divisive or contentious issues of any kind” is itself a political view?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Yes, what a mystery 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

"people are starving but THE ECONOMY is doing great"

hey if "the economy" is completely decoupled from the welfare of the people, WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT OF THE ECONOMY

"trickle down would work if it weren't for the sponges at the top"

The people with the most money-fueled power have always been envious of what can’t be bought, and sought to diminish and destroy it.

“D’you know,” he added, in a horrified voice, “he was telling me what to do? Next time I’ll have a quiet lie-down until the feeling goes away”

Found myself in a Pratchett book (again):

“I’m losing my touch,” he said. “Imagine—me, working for someone? I must have been mad. It’s the cold weather getting to me, that’s what it is. Even…wages,” he said the word with a shudder, “looked attractive.”

What I Want For You In 2026 — Sandi Martin The thing I want most for you in the coming year.

To think hard about how you spend your time and energy, and to ask yourself if what you do lines up with what you need.

sandimartin.ca/news/2026

I want you (and me...all of us, collectively) to develop the ability to look critically (and compassionately) at your life and community and identify what you need to be safe and satisfied.

This end of the year tradition means a lot to me, and I'm happy to be back at it after seven years away.

What I want for you in 2026 is enough.

"At the same time that Ottawa moved to relieve affluent property owners of poorly performing taxes, the budget provided new allocations to litigate pandemic benefit cases against low-income Canadians — cases that cost far more to pursue than the government could ever recover."

"The decision made sense. But what’s striking is how that same reasoning is rarely applied when the burden of complexity falls on people at the other end of the income scale."

"The Underused Housing Tax and luxury taxes were dropped because they complicated and yielded little return. Pandemic benefit cases meet the same description, only in reverse: they generate no return and inflict great harm.

Op-Ed: Ottawa's costly pursuit of the poor The government cites inefficiency as a reason to end taxes on vacant homes and yachts — yet keeps pouring money into futile litigation over pandemic-era benefits

Continuing fire from John Stapleton at the Federal Government's war on poor people from www.canadianaffairs.news/2025/11/12/o...

Budgets reveal political priorities. Every cut, every subsidy, every tax break exposes who governments believe deserves support. Austerity disguises itself as discipline, but the real cost shows up in the lives it pushes to the margins.

I miss library cards in the books that said who else had borrowed the book and when.

There are going to be lots of arm chair opinions on the value of essential public services from people who don’t use or rely on a certain public service today. Perhaps take a pause and listen to those who do for a change. Your couple a bucks a year to pay for said service might not seem so horrible

Do You Have a Real Financial Plan? Advice-Only Planner Sandi Martin Explains - Moolala A lot of people think they have a financial plan — but do they really? Bruce is joined by Sandi Martin, a certified advice-only financial planner, to break down what a real financial plan looks like a...

This was a super fun interview, and not just because talking to Bruce is *always* fun. Getting to talk about what a real, actual financial plan is (and isn't) gets me going every time.

moolala.ca/do-you-have-...

"The 1% who rule the world may have turned the pursuit of money and power into a kind of pathological game that are ends in themselves, but for the rest of us, having money, having an income, being free from debt, has come to mean having the power to pursue something other than money. We all want to ensure our loved ones are safe, and taken care of. We all want to live in healthy and beautiful communities but beyond that, the things we wish to pursue are likely to be wildly different. What if freedom were the ability to make up our minds about what it was we wished to pursue, with whom we wished to pursue it, and what sort of commitments we wish to make to them in the process?" . - David Graeber

The destructive nature of the current feudalized version of capitalism needs to be talked about more on social media.

This makes me think of @nolore.bsky.social's exhortation to get involved in your community somehow, regardless of whether what you do is overtly political. People need connection, purpose, and meaning. If that's community soccer or choir or gardening club or whatever, cool.