We need to take Canada’s approach to drug addiction and burn it to the ground
Friday, June 19th, 2020
… as policies go, prohibition and jail time have been utter failures as deterrents. Mr. Perrin, the author of Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis, released this year, says politics – fear of a backlash from the electorate – have made our leaders afraid to do the right thing… this has allowed “an unregulated criminal underworld to dictate what is in the drugs that people are taking, forcing those people to play Russian roulette”
Tags: crime prevention, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
The case for putting seniors’ care under the Canada Health Act
Sunday, May 10th, 2020
One of the most critical undertakings by governments across the country over the past five to 10 years has been reining in runaway health care budgets. And most governments have been successful in doing so. Adding long-term care to health budgets would be a serious blow to those efforts. Then again, maybe Canadians can agree that this is something that needs to be financed… “It would be the first big expansion of our medicare system that has happened in decades…”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Solving homelessness will require infringing on individual rights
Wednesday, January 8th, 2020
We are stuck between two fundamental tenets of a fair and just society: a person’s right to freedom and personal agency, versus the duty authorities have to protect a person from self-harm and any attempts to harm others. If one of those was to trump the other, it would be the government’s responsibility to stop someone from harming oneself or harming others.
Tags: homelessness, ideology, mental Health, rights
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Care for Canada’s seniors shouldn’t be offloaded onto foreign multinationals
Wednesday, December 11th, 2019
There are areas in which the federal government should undoubtedly play a role in this country. Senior care is not one of them… Surely, this needs to be the sole purview of the province. Why are private care homes protected from facing fines when they fail to live up to their obligations? They can only be temporarily taken over or closed down permanently… Maybe if they were fined they’d clean up their act before that was necessary.
Tags: globalization, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
The world needs more Greta Thunbergs
Friday, June 28th, 2019
Ms. Thunberg began by offering some sobering perspectives on the greatest plague facing mankind, such as the fact that roughly 100 companies are responsible for emitting just over 70 per cent of our total carbon-dioxide emissions. And the fact that the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population emit about half of the planet’s total emissions and the wealthiest 1 per cent emit more than the poorest 50 per cent… “People who have a lot of power. People who consume enormous amounts of stuff, who often fly around the world, sometimes in private jets.”
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Conservative lies about the carbon tax need to be called out
Thursday, April 4th, 2019
Perhaps the most prevalent deceit is the common conservative lament that the federal carbon tax is regressive and hurts the country’s poorest citizens most. Nothing is further from the truth. Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission estimates that 80 per cent of families will receive rebates greater than their carbon costs under the federal program… what’s really immoral is being a leader of a political party in this country with no plan to help fight climate change.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 2 Comments »
Why not try after-hours care the Dutch way?
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
Feb. 02, 2012
… the Netherlands and France, have created 24/7 physician coverage. Health care is often provided in people’s homes or at a nearby clinic, not at the nearest hospital… You’d think such a system would be prohibitively expensive. Yet, when it comes to chronic illness management, Canada spends far more than either the Netherlands or France.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
The haves and have-nots of medicare
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Jan. 17, 2012
There’s an ominous new meaning for two-tier medicine in Canada: rather than one system for rich people and one for the poor, it will be one system for rich provinces and one for the poor… There isn’t a truly equal level of health care in Canada even now. Wealthy provinces have hospitals and programs that poorer ones can only envy. Wait times for certain procedures can vary widely between jurisdictions… The question is: will Ottawa’s new no-strings-attached funding proposal exacerbate the discrepancies in health care that already exist? And does Ottawa even care if it does?
Tags: budget, Health, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Wanted: a government with the will to tackle child poverty
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
Jan. 28, 2011
Ms. Turpel-Lafond described the frustration of front-line social workers who have few tools at their disposal to improve the conditions of the families they visit, especially in aboriginal communities. The best hope they can offer for families living in wretched housing environments, for instance, is to put them on a waiting list for better accommodations, which can be 10 years long… Well, the idea isn’t to have a professional friend. A service is not visiting people. A service is taking an active role and taking preventative measures to improve the child’s situation.”
Tags: child care, Health, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Bringing smart people to Canada can only make us better
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Nov. 18, 2010
Attracting super-smart foreign students isn’t bad news for our homegrown talent, despite what some say. There’s more than enough capacity in postgraduate programs to supply the demand from Canadian students, with room to spare… “We need an industrial strategy in Canada that creates high-quality innovation and research and development jobs”…
Tags: economy, immigration, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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