Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category

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Stop hate at its root — economic injustice

Friday, August 31st, 2018

… if we really want to stop hate, we need to do more than just call it out. We need to recognize that it is growing economic inequality that creates the conditions for hate to fester… There is no excuse for inaction in the face of economic injustice. It’s time to implement real solutions. Solutions like universal pharmacare, which economists say is more than feasible and will save us billions of dollars… Solutions like universal child care… Solutions like an immediate federal investment in housing…

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Doug Ford gives away the store on cannabis

Tuesday, August 21st, 2018

Now…, our most experienced distributor of restricted substances has been dealt out of the equation, relegated to online and wholesale sectors. Ideology aside, for-profit marijuana marketing comes at a cost — the LCBO’s dominance would have maximized revenues and minimized expenses, with more cash flow to pay for, say, the welfare increases that Ford has halved, and the mental health hikes he has dialed back.

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Notes on a Butter Republic [Social Democracy]

Sunday, August 12th, 2018

… a country can produce agricultural products, be “dependent” by most definitions, yet use that as the basis for permanent elevation into the first world. And in today’s world, Denmark manages to be very open to world trade, while having very low levels of inequality both before and after redistribution. Globalization need not be in conflict with social justice… Denmark, where tax receipts are 46 percent of GDP compared with 26 percent in the U.S., is arguably the most social-democratic country in the world.

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Still waiting for that adult conversation about taxes and public services

Saturday, July 21st, 2018

The disconnect between public services and the taxes we pay to provide them… invites us to vote for a property tax freeze, a sales tax cut, an income-tax cut — even if it doesn’t benefit us much. It invites us to disregard the reality that governments have a responsibility to ensure the ability to pay for the public services that we depend on.

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Provincial carbon tax revolt could be a blessing in disguise for federal Liberals

Saturday, July 21st, 2018

Ottawa can and should proceed without them. A federal carbon pricing plan would not only offer the virtues of simplicity. It would also free the feds to tailor it to their own designs, rather than taking on whatever half-baked or watered-down plans the provinces threw at them… Maybe internal free trade is beyond us, but carbon-fuelled tax reform is eminently feasible.

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10 ways Ontario can save half a billion dollars a year

Tuesday, June 19th, 2018

The incoming administration proposes to conduct a “line-by-line audit of government spending to bring an end to the culture of waste and mismanagement.” If I can find $521-million of annual savings between the couch cushions in under half an hour, then a professional line-item audit of non-public information easily will find billions more in annual savings.

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The real reason jobs left America

Saturday, June 9th, 2018

… the part of the U.S. that specialized in assembly-line manufacturing, and assembly lines are the easiest things in the world to automate… The data that strongly suggested we were heading for a mostly jobless future was available years ago, but most people ignored it. It was too hard to deal with… Most of the attempts to future-proof our politics are currently focused on developing various versions of a guaranteed basic income (Ontario’s pilot program being the biggest and boldest).

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NAFTA is dead and Canada should move on

Saturday, June 2nd, 2018

The compelling reason that Canada signed onto NAFTA (and to the original free-trade agreement) in the first place was to shield our economy from this type of capricious protectionism. It largely – if not completely – worked for us for the better part of three decades… But now we are locked in a relationship with an unpredictable and (economically) aggressive partner. No amount of nostalgia or wishful thinking can change that.

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Ignore the gossip and guesswork. The facts prove that Canada’s competitive

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018

… it will require all of us to take a broad view of what competitiveness means. Yes, that means taking a look at tax rules. But competitiveness rests on so much more than that — from workforce participation to skilled workers to modern infrastructure to science and innovation to global trade… I also believe in making decisions based on the facts, and the fact is that Canada remains one of the best places in the world to start, grow, and invest in a business.

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Offshore tax havens set to overtake Canada in corporate transparency

Monday, May 7th, 2018

Britain’s House of Commons passed legislation that will lift generations of corporate secrecy in its offshore territories by compelling company owners registered on the islands to reveal themselves in public databases. That kind of transparency is only an idea in Canada, where corporate owners can mask their identity behind lawyers and “figurehead” directors. There is no requirement for real company owners — or “beneficial” owners — to list their names in provincial or federal registries.

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