Posts Tagged ‘featured’
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“A Tale of Two Reports” [Poverty in Ontario]
March 12, 2012
Poverty does not just happen. There are things that we do in society that create poverty and inequality. And there are things we can do to reduce poverty and inequality. Therefore, to respect the letter and the spirit of Ontario’s landmark poverty reduction act, passed with unanimous support from all parties in the legislature, we call for these changes to the 2012 Ontario Budget: raise social assistance rates to at least cover the rise in the cost of living; immediately implement the full Ontario Child Benefit; – do not make structural changes to social assistance programs before hearing the recommendations from the Social Assistance Review Commissioners.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadians open to tax hikes to create more equal society, poll finds
Apr. 10, 2012
… talk of raising taxes has been considered political suicide for more than a decade. But the survey commissioned by the Broadbent Institute suggests that most Canadians would not be opposed to paying a little more to preserve social programs and prevent the poor from falling even further behind… More than three-quarters of the respondents (77 per cent) said they viewed the gap between the very rich and the rest of Canadians to be a serious problem with long-term negative consequences for society… a clear majority of Conservative voters (59 per cent) also felt that way.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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More than a budget, this a blueprint to make over Canada
Mar 29 2012
The Prime Minister intends to use his parliamentary majority to redefine the role of government and rewrite Canada’s social contract. It would have helped to know all this before last year’s election. But Harper never said a word about reducing the government’s commitment to Old Age Security, capping Ottawa’s contribution to medicare or loosening environmental regulations. He never told Canadians a Conservative government would keep paring public services after the budget was balanced…. And the role of government in people’s lives will continue to shrink. They’ll have to lower their expectations, save more, demand less and stop looking to Ottawa to shield them from the rigours of the marketplace.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
A New Device to Correct Political Spin
April 2, 2012
In February, Statistics Canada made access to most of its data free… The change now makes it possible for anyone to fact-check many political claims. To demonstrate how easy it is to access and use this free data, a good start is to watch the five minute CANSIM tutorial.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
A beginners guide to conservative philosophy
Mar 15, 2012
For the conservative, society is the word we apply to aggregated individuals… Conservatives want to remove limitations on free, responsible and productive citizens. To achieve this end… There must be stability and order, so that the individual is protected from the harmful actions of others; this calls forth the rule of law. The rule of law, set forth and enforced by the state, must be as extensive as is necessary for order, and as limited as necessary for responsible individual freedom… Conservatives, in other words, have a rather pessimistic view of human nature and the potential of human beings to evolve.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, tax
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Budget aims to remake Canada in Stephen Harper’s image
Mar 30 2012
What matters in the budget is not the immediate impact of $5.2 billion in annual spending cutbacks announced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. Rather, it is the attempt to gradually transform Canada, from a country in which private and social needs live in uneasy balance to one where the urge for profit dominates. To Harper, private needs must have primacy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
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Ontario budget is a requiem for a caring province
Mar 27 2012
Most Ontarians accept the need for belt-tightening. What they don’t accept — at least not yet — is that this province can no longer afford to support the vulnerable. That is the premise on which Tuesday’s budget… is built… It is the small items – cutbacks imposed on those eking out a precarious existence – that raise questions about McGuinty’s values. Although the premier enacted a poverty reduction plan in 2009, he has now effectively renounced it.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, homelessness, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
The Tories’ Dirty Tricks Catalogue
29 Feb 2012
The Conservatives have been caught up in many shady activities since coming to power. The revelation that they may have been behind a robocall operation to suppress voting for opposition parties would rank, if proven, among the more serious offences… To the misfortune of Team Harper, its record on duplicitous activities is hardly one to inspire confidence that its hand are clean. There follows a list — is Harperland becoming Nixonland? — of dirty tricks, black ops and hardball tactics from the Conservatives’ years in power.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights
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