Pontus' Palate

Another Book

2008-12-03T22:52:00.000-08:00

I'm certain that as an avid reader our PM knows that the best way to deal with stress of work or to make a decision is to read a good book.

The Liberals have the most to lose

2008-12-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

I've been saying it elsewhere. Now I'll say it here: The Liberal party is making probably the biggest mistake of their history. Of all the parties in this coalition the Liberals have the most at stake.

There are many ways to slice this (for example, the coalition's potential stability, the popularity of being in government while running a deficit) but I'll stick to the main point which has already become very apparent: In spite of a low ebb in separatist activity recently Canadians still have great revulsion for the Quebec sovereignty movement and it's leaders.

The Liberals will not be battling just an energized Conservative base, they will be facing a good portion of ordinary Canadians.

With that in mind, even if the Conservatives are booted, Harper is forced to resign and (however unlikely) the coalition lasts it's full length this will set the Liberal party back years.

Deficit spending in a recession

2008-12-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

The Liberals, NDP and Bloc have announced their coalition's stimulus plan: $30 billion. How they intend to spend it; we don't know yet.

Might I suggest handing each Canadian 1000 dollars?

Would you appreciate a hand out of 1000 dollars? I would, in fact handouts to the hardest hit individuals would probably be the best plan.

Instead of $1000 to every Canadian, let's imagine we gave $10,000 to 3,000,000 of the hardest hit Canadians. That's a nearly 10% of the country! So it could be scaled back to perhaps $10,000 to the worst hit 5% of Canadians. This could be far cheaper than the current plan, and more efficient too, I think.

I would find the idea appalling if it happened but I think the current plan which seems to point to spending it on infrastructure would be far more appalling.

Books on Britain

2008-11-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is my first post on my blog. Hopefully there will be many more.

First post: Books relating to British history for the amateur history buff. This list isn't meant to explain the subject to the reader. It's just meant to be interesting.

R.G. Collingwood
Roman Britain,

Bernard Bailyn
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

E.P. thompson
Whigs and hunters
Making of the English Working Class

J.A. Sharpe
Early Modern England: A Social History 1550-1760

Edmund King
Medieval England: From Hastings to Bosworth

Keith Thomas
Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England