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Character of country has changed
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
September 21, 2012
… In 2011, building on a trend established in 2006, only 39.2 per cent of Canadian census families… had children. A significantly larger number – 44.5 per cent – had no children. And the proportion of those without children is rising. “Traditional” nuclear families – married couples with children – now make up barely more than a third of families, 31.9 per cent. That’s well down from 37.4 per cent in the 2001 census.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Polls show Canada actually more progressive after six years of Tory rule
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
Jul 4, 2012
If anything the numbers indicate Canadians today are more solidly progressive than we have ever been. Perhaps we are a more complex and mature people than the received wisdom gives us credit for. And perhaps this means that our national political leaders, across the spectrum, don’t understand or reflect our views nearly as fully or as precisely as they might… The poll does not even remotely suggest a country that has been pushed rightward, or is being pushed rightward, incrementally or otherwise, by Conservative rule.
Tags: corrections, economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s revolution missing in action
Sunday, April 29th, 2012
April 28, 2012
Very simply: there is nothing, not a line in Budget 2012, that could arguably not have been introduced by a Liberal Party led by a John Manley (minister of everything during the Chretien years), or a Frank McKenna (former premier of New Brunswick) – in other words, by conservative Liberals… There is one area, arguably, where the Tories are doing things in a way that looks and feels quite different… That is its handling of federal-provincial relations, which hurls entire areas of provincial jurisdiction, previously seized by Ottawa, back at the provinces. But even here, the concept is not new or particularly radical…
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Occupy this: if you’re living here, you’re already one of the ‘one per cent’
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
October 18, 2011
North America and Europe, geographic epicentres of the Occupy Wall Street movement, are the fattest of fat cats, globally speaking… adults in North America, Western Europe and a few Asian countries, most notably Japan, together possess almost all the world’s household wealth (a measure of total assets, including real estate, investments and all other property, net of any debt.), about 88 per cent. Everyone else, the majority of the world’s people, share the remaining 12 per cent.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Michael Ignatieff’s policies target Jack Layton’s base
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
April 4, 2011
We can vote for a centre-right party, the Harper Conservatives, who represent steady-as-she goes, cautious economic management, lowish taxes and a philosophical bent towards individualism and smaller government. Or we can vote for a centre-left party, the Ignatieff Liberals, who represent a significant increase in the role of the state in Canadian life, with ramped-up social spending on education, health care and pensions, and a much more active role for government in the economy… If enough voters buy Ignatieff’s vision, then Canada is headed for something quite different from what we’ve lived for the past 25 years.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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