Hassan Arif

In times of deep recession, when people are out of work, or in threat of losing their jobs, when the middle-class is under siege, and when the ranks of the poor are growing, government has an obligation to help -- in the form of stimulus spending to promote employment, working...

Recent federal and provincial budgets seem to share the theme of doom and gloom. Whether it is the Drummond Report in Ontario which recommended deep cuts to social programs and public services, the federal government cutting money to programs related to environmental protection and cutting funding to the CBC, or...

In times of budget deficits, austerity frequently becomes the buzzword with cuts to social programs, the civil service, and balancing the budget in strict mathematical terms. The programs often most readily cut are those designed to help the poorest and most vulnerable -- as this group has less resources to...

At the last NDP leadership debate, Thomas Mulcair came under fire from the other candidates for wanting to fundamentally change the direction of his party towards the centre of the political spectrum, distancing the NDP from its roots in the labour movement.

If elected leader, Mulcair would likely place...

Detroit is a city that has become emblematic of urban decay and decline, of what can go wrong with an American city, ranking top or near-top in U.S. crime rates, and having experienced steep population decline.

In 1950 Detroit's population stood at 1.8 million. By 2010 that number...

Claims there is a "clash of civilizations" between Muslim countries and the West because of fundamentally opposed values have been soundly debunked by the Arab Spring. In Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, and other Arab countries, masses of people -- especially youth -- have taken to the streets demanding democracy, human rights,...

For members of the Millennial generation -- those born in the 1980s and 1990s (though some measures include the late-1970s as well) -- self-expression and free speech are especially important with the proliferation of social media. Through avenues such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, this is an especially connected generation...

Numbers from the latest census show that New Brunswick's population has grown over the last five years -- while less than the Canadian growth rate of 5.9 per cent for this period, and further behind the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, which are at 10.8 and 6.7...

We need a government which prioritizes helping the poor and middle class, which promotes strong social programs while also emphasizing economic prosperity and job creation. We need a government which bases its decisions not on pre-set notions driven by ideological assumptions, but bases its decisions on facts, evidence and research.

The 2008 U.S. presidential election was a triumph of democracy. Just over 40 years earlier, African-Americans in the South were barred from going to the same schools and using the same public amenities as whites. Providing basic civil rights for African-Americans was a contentious issue which, until Lyndon Johnson's presidency,...

In politics, 2012 is going to be a year marked by leadership races, from Republicans in the U.S. choosing a presidential nominee, to the NDP in Canada picking a successor to Jack Layton who can credibly claim to be (potentially) the next prime minister, and the New Brunswick Liberals selecting...

A recent CBC television movie about John A. MacDonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, highlighted the debates and struggles that preceded Canadian confederation. The movie showed the challenge of forging together divergent interests and regions into a pan-Canadian union. What initially seemed a utopian idea ultimately proved the only practical...

One cannot help but feel a bit pessimistic about American politics these days -- a contrasting feeling to the heady days of Barack Obama's election, when the election of the first African-American president seemed to herald a new era in political and social life in the United States. It also...

Ontario's Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty seemed destined for electoral defeat, badly trailing the Tories earlier in the summer. In addition, the NDP's federal breakthrough to official Opposition brought the spectre of the NDP displacing the Liberals on the centre-left, another worrying trend for Ontario Liberals -- especially as the NDP...

I write this column with the perspective of an outsider, as I am a lifelong resident of New Brunswick's captial city of Fredericton. However, Saint John, New Brunswick is a city I am familiar with and I have watched with interest the deliberations around Plan Saint John, an ambitious...

A serious mistake of Michael Ignatieff's tenure as Liberal leader was abandoning the coalition with the NDP which, with Bloc support on confidence motions, would have replaced Harper's minority rightwing government with a centre-left government more consistent with the will of the majority of the Canadian electorate.

At the time...

As with many non-NDP politicians and political commentators, I have to admit that in the past I have expressed sharp disagreement with the direction in which Jack Layton took the NDP as leader. However, this does not take away from the immense sadness and shock I felt upon hearing of...

One cannot underestimate Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. While he is not an overly charismatic leader, he has become an extremely good political campaigner.

In 2007 McGuinty faced a Progressive Conservative leader, John Tory, who was politically moderate, likeable, and (at least it seemed) electable. Tory's earlier mayoral campaign in Toronto...

In the aftermath of the New Brunswick Liberals' 2010 defeat, the party has been undergoing two processes -- renewal and selection of a new leader -- to reposition it for the 2014 provincial election.

I want to focus here on the theme of public policy. The New Brunswick Liberal...

Sometimes one comes across a news story which forces us to think, why isn't this making more news? It is such a dramatic and pressing issue, yet hardly anyone has heard about it.

For me, mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia is one such story.

The state of West Virginia...