|
The true north LGBT: New poll reveals landscape of gay Canada
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
Jul 6, 2012
The Forum Research poll, commissioned by the National Post… found that 5% of Canadians identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. And contrary to the popular wisdom that the same-sex marriage rate is surprisingly low, the poll found that a third of LGBT people say they are in a same-sex marriage… Forum’s 5% figure jibes with the latest number out of the United States, where a University of California Los Angeles think-tank last year found 4% of Americans are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Tags: participation, rights, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Social issues sank Wildrose during campaign, experts say
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Apr 24, 2012
“The lesson here is that the Alberta voter, and certainly I think the Canadian voter, has decided that issues that have already been settled are best left alone, particularly social issues”… the Wildrose Party was doomed the moment it tread into social conservatism without assuring voters it had limits. Ms. Smith chose not to draw a “clear line in the sand” and instead espoused free speech and freedom of religion, refusing to condemn candidates for making bigoted and racially charged comments… “There can’t be any doubt. People want to have a level of comfort the person they’re going to elect is a competent, fair individual and they’re not going to do any great social engineering.”
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The largest expansion of prison building ‘since the 1930s
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Sep 24, 2011
Imprisonment as we know it in Canada dates back to the pre-Confederation construction of the Kingston Penitentiary in 1835. Today, every jurisdiction is expanding its prisons — and has a pressing need to… The government’s latest crime bill, with its mandatory minimums and the end of house arrest for serious crimes, will add thousands more prisoners and cost untold billions… The Safe Streets & Communities Act and the details of the federal government’s procurement spree come at a time when the national crime rate is at its lowest since 1973.
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Crime and punishment: Inside the Tories’ plan to overhaul the justice system
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
May 21, 2011
The Conservative government’s omnibus crime legislation, due ‘‘within 100 days,’’ will mark a watershed moment in Canadian legal history… The bill is sweeping in scale and scope: It is expected to usher new mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.. It will expand police powers online without court orders, reintroduce controversial aspects of the Anti-Terrorism Act that expired in 2007, end house arrest for serious crimes, and impact young offenders and their privacy.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Immigrants cost $23B a year: Fraser Institute report
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
May 17, 2011
Young immigrants pay taxes that support social services for Canada’s aging population; immigrants fill the low-paying jobs that others do not seem to want; Canadians are ennobled by allowing people to share in the country’s economic riches; immigration enriches the cultural life of Canadians, and future generations end up repaying their parents’ debt by earning an average or above-average living in the long run. Mr. Grubel and economic consultant Patrick Grady argue, however, that these benefits either do not hold up to close scrutiny or that they are simply not worth the economic cost.
Tags: budget, economy, immigration, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Bureaucracies ‘stealth’ subsidize have-not provinces: study
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
Nov. 14, 2010
This “stealth equalization,” as it is described in the Frontier Centre for Public Policy paper, is disguised in disproportionately large federal bureaucracies across the perennial ‘have-not’ provinces, with the exception of Quebec. At the extremes, Prince Edward Island has 3,657 federal employees per 100,000 people, while Alberta has just 936… “We have an explicit equalization program that most are aware of, but this is one of the numerous other ways that Canadian public policy takes wealth out of the highest-productivity regions and redirects it to lower-productivity regions.”
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments