Peter MacLeod

Seattle Is Renewing Its Unique Approach to Public Campaign Financing - Bolts Seattle is poised to continue its experiment in public campaign financing. Voters on Tuesday appear to have renewed the city’s democracy vouchers program, which provides each adult Seattle resident wi...

NEW in Bolts: Seattle voters decided this week to renew their "democracy vouchers," which is a unique program that hands residents $100 in vouchers to donate to local candidates of their choice.

The program will continue for another 10 years. Bolts explains!
boltsmag.org/seattle-demo...

REPRESENTATION IS DEMOCRACY* David Plotke

I argue that the opposite of representation is not participation. The opposite of representation is exclusion. And the opposite of participation is abstention. Rather than opposing participation to representation, we should try to improve representative practices and forms to make them more open, effective, and fair. Representation is not an unfortunate compromise between an ideal of direct democracy and messy modern realities. Representation is crucial in constituting democratic practices. “Direct” democracy is not precluded by the scale of modern politics. It is unfeasible because of core features of politics and democracy as such.

Representation has a central positive role in democratic politics: I gain political representation when my authorized representative tries to achieve my political aims, subject to dialogue about those aims and to the use of mutually acceptable procedures for gaining them.

In my professional opinion, this is one of the most importantly correct single articles in all democratic theory (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...):

The central point must be hammered away: distrust is MADE by political actors, it is not primarily a naturally occurring phenomenon. So I'm skeptical that institutional reforms or interventions are going to successfully address it that don't involve somehow eradicating the forces weaponizing it.

An EU Citizens' Panel on intergenerational justice will begin in September. Interested parties can submit their ideas and visions online until the end of July.

www.buergerrat.de/en/news/trea...

#CitizensAssembly

Text on image: We believe highly unequal societies are unstable societies - and not in anyone's long-term interests.

When working people get ahead, Canada gets ahead. When working people win, Canada wins.

#CanadaSky #CdnPoli

🇨🇳 China installed 464 GW of solar capacity in the 12 months to June☀️

That's more than the total EU solar capacity as of 2024 (338 GW) and DOUBLE the total US solar capacity (229 GW).

...in just 12 months

The full Democracy R&D 2025 programme is here!
Changemakers from all over the world will meet this October to build strategies to make democracy work under pressure.
👉 Explore the programme: drive.google.com/file/d/1TEgK...
📌 Register at www.drd2025.org
🌍 Available funding for Global South + CEE

Everyday Enchantments: In Conversation with Daily tous les jours Daily tous les jours co-founders Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat reflect on 15 years of delightfully unconventional design practice.

“The apparently frivolous work around play and joy is really critical right now, so that we can start coming together again.” Great profile of the public space innovators at Daily tous les jours in @azuremagazine.bsky.social

www.azuremagazine.com/article/ever...

A Moment of Opportunity | United Nations In a special address at 9:00 AM ET on 22 July 2025, the UN Secretary-General focuses on a hopeful story emerging amidst the ongoing climate devastation and turmoil: that of a new energy era. He o...

Listen to UN Secretary General & climate champion António Guterres set out key actions to turbocharge renewables at 9am today! Tune in now www.un.org/en/climatech...!

This is a great place to start.

The American tech platforms are an active threat to Canadian sovereignty and democracy.

The Amount of Electricity Generated From Solar Is Suddenly Unbelievable Solar power has become the fastest growing source of energy throughout the globe, with one gigawatt of capacity installed every 15 hours.

"The world is now installing one gigawatt worth of solar energy infrastructure every 15 hours — or about the output of a new coal plant." futurism.com/electricity-...

YouTube video by Citizens Assembly Victoria-Saanich Citizens' Assembly Overview

Moving onto a brief video explaining what the assembly looked like, featuring really heartwarming commentary from members.

Item F1 “Victoria-Saanich Citizens’ Assembly - Final Report Submission” featuring some of the members of the assembly and Peter MacLeod (Chair of the assembly, @petermacleod.bsky.social). Kicks off by explaining how the Assembly was, well, assembled.

🚨 Our latest report, What Should the CBC Be? is out now!

The conclusion is clear: Canadians want CBC/Radio-Canada to continue, but it must evolve to remain relevant and trusted.

Here's a sneak peek at the report 🧵

Is the CBC out of touch? Here's @emma-wilkie.bsky.social with some ways the CBC can connect better with all Canadians.

What Should the CBC Be? is out tomorrow! Until then, here's a refresher on how Canadians feel about our public broadcaster: tinyurl.com/39yy6uht

In an appeal to the German federal government, the Initiative for an Effective State calls for the increased use of citizens' assemblies.

www.buergerrat.de/en/news/stre...

#CitizensAssembly

Blame the denominator, not the economy Over the last couple of years, there have been countless articles warning of Canada’s poor economic performance. The mic drop has increasingly been Canada’s poor performance relative to peer countries...

Op ed from @danskilleter.bsky.social and me.

Many in corporate Canada have been using GDP per capita to make misleading claims about the Canadian economy.

We need more nuanced discussion of economic data than the "GDP per capita" truthers give us.

socialcapitalpartners.ca/blame-the-de...

Consider this one:
"It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954, until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power; the second terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later this year or early next."

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

If you are looking for a hopeful read, check out this essay by the great @billmckibben.bsky.social on the global explosion in solar power adoption. The stats in this piece will blow your mind in wonderful ways:

www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

At tonight’s opening ceremony at @ipsa.org the new Korean President gave an inspiring speech about his vision for a new “k-democracy”, centred on citizens and institutionalised deliberation. His ambition is to make Korea a world leader. His words we’re moving, let’s hope action follows soon

Welcome to Post-Extremism When the state goes radical, the radicals become paramilitary

I wrote about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case on the newsletter this week, and the new lawlessness it symbolizes. www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/welcome-to...

Plaque commemorating the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games in Toronto, titled “41 Trees.” The plaque features the Toronto 2015 logo, and logos of major partners including CIBC, the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, City of Toronto, Government of Canada, and Government of Ontario. Text (English side): ⸻ 41 TREES In the summer of 2015, Toronto hosted the XVII Pan American and V Parapan American Games, the largest international multi-sport Games in Canada’s history. These 41 trees, which stand on the traditional lands of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, are in tribute to the 41 participating countries and territories, and the talent, commitment and teamwork of the athletes who were here in pursuit of a dream. More than 10,000 athletes, coaches and officials participated in the TORONTO 2015 Games, thanks to the funding and leadership of the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, the City of Toronto, Lead Partner CIBC and 15 other municipalities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe region, three universities and more than a dozen other civic-minded corporate sponsors. None of it would have been possible without the passionate dedication of 23,000-plus Games-time volunteers. United We Play.

🌳🌳🌳 Welcome to Tree Thread: The Sequel.

Ten years ago today — July 10, 2015 — Toronto kicked off the 2015 Pan Am Games.

To mark the event, 41 trees were planted along a section of Front Street East — one for each country or territory.

In this thread, again, I'll review the state of every tree.

A Comprehensive Expenditure Review "by end of summer" ? I’m reading today’s Globe and Mail article (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-federal-cabinet-ministers-letters-spending/) that has the only publicly available details on the federal sp...

Can anyone find between $1B and $2B *per day* in federal spending cuts for the next 3 fiscal years between now and September? That's the task the Minister of Finance just set out. open.substack.com/pub/robsonj/...

Fabriqués à #Chicoutimi, Qc. Roulent à #Barcelona et #Madrid.

La #Véloconomie pour le #Québec...
Des emplois, du développement régional, des revenus d'exportation, du rayonnement international. Et plus encore !

___
#CyclesDeVinci
#LundiVélo #Vélo
#BiciMad #BicingBCN

Stephen Marche: Canadians know we need to turn away from America. How might that actually work? It's time for Canada to move beyond America — not because we want to but because we have to if we want to thrive.

This is a really good piece by @stephenmarche.bsky.social

We need to own more of our own stuff. Not owning our economy has made us vulnerable to tyrants.

Featuring @jonshell.bsky.social @scpartners.bsky.social

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

How Did Design Become the Solution to Everything? A new book charts how the discipline transcended humble origins and turned into something more ambitious, and more conflicted.

Many designers don’t just want to make the world more beautiful—they want to make it a better place. A new book shows why they have so often failed to do so, writes Celine Nguyen:

Denmark Begins Drafting Women as Russian Threat Looms The Nordic country for the first time has extended a lottery for compulsory military service to women in its latest move to expand its armed forces.

Women in Denmark who have turned 18 became eligible for military conscription on Tuesday, as the country moved to expand its armed forces to prepare for a possible threat from Russia and to meet U.S. expectations of NATO members.

Opinion: Our elbows may be up, but have Canadians really changed? While parlous times for Canada, public opinion on national pride and our future has changed less than might be expected

Michael Adams and I reviewed the mixed mindset that Canadians find themselves in on the occasion of this year's Canada Day celebrations.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

Exhibit 45,768…. Public knowledge is as consequential public opinion.

bsky.app/profile/thea...

#topoli A friendly Canada Day reminder that we somehow forgot how to build very ordinary and very effective apartment buildings like this guy - 88 units on Bathurst, no angular plane nonsense, no ridiculous windows, no bowling lane lay-outs. Just wide and light filled 1s and 2s. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦