Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
Ranked ballots for municipal elections matter and why Doug Ford should care
Monday, October 26th, 2020
… what is Premier Doug Ford afraid of? Municipalities deserve to decide how they conduct their own affairs, including how they elect their leaders. In fact, in referendums in Kingston and Cambridge, ranked ballots were chosen by voters as the way to elect their representatives.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, multiculturalism, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa now has a road map to rein in digital giants
Thursday, October 22nd, 2020
… an Australian-type regime in Canada would allow news publishers to recover about $620 million in ad revenue a year that’s now going to swell the bottom lines of Google and Facebook. That would make up most of the revenue losses the publishers are expected to suffer in the next few years. And it would be enough to save the jobs of an estimated 700 journalists (and all the content they produce), along with some 1,400 others in the news industry alone.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Federal NDP chooses wealth taxes as the wedge issue party needs right now
Wednesday, October 14th, 2020
The biggest knocks against wealth taxes is that they encourage the flight of capital and tax avoidance, and they shrink incentives for investment. The Parliamentary Budget Officer costed the 1-per-cent tax proposal and estimated it would raise $5.6-billion in the current fiscal year, but also that each family’s net worth would shrink by 35 per cent in a vast expansion of avoidance behaviour.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada needs a new grand national bargain: Quebec and Alberta
Tuesday, October 13th, 2020
Canada’s greatest challenge now is to get a new national grand bargain in the face of multiple external adversities – COVID-19, international forces that are increasingly hostile to Canada and its resource industries… Canadians themselves are ready – they are pragmatic and they want a united country that is serious about climate change… The challenge for Ottawa, the provinces, the Indigenous community and the business community is to find mutually supportive ways forward.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
An ambitious plan for an alternate reality
Friday, September 25th, 2020
This is the prospect that has so entranced the Prime Minister’s Office: bundling all the policies they’d ever dreamed of together and passing them all in a rush – in the name of “the pandemic” – and doing it all with borrowed funds. The government that failed at so basic a state responsibility as safeguarding public health is eager to take on new challenges.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa faces a fiscal reckoning. It must review all programs and costs
Friday, September 25th, 2020
The task ahead is on a different scale than any government has faced since the Second World War. It demands not just new programs, but a new way of thinking. This government needs to roll up its sleeves and thoroughly re-examine not only its spending priorities, but its revenue sources, its antiquated tax code, its industrial strategy… Without it, this remains just an unsustainably expensive wish list.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
The poetry of peace, order and good government must be made practical, too
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020
With some lawyers in masks behind plexiglass and others on screens, with nine judges spread throughout the courtroom and with smoke from American forest fires still lingering over Canadian provinces, the Court will ask what POGG’s [“Peace, Order and Good Government”] poetry means in the very real era of climate change and in the face of powerful provincial arguments that the federal legislation reaches too far into provincial domains.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
New survey shows Canadians want lasting change to accompany economic recovery
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2020
… change should be “fundamental.” … most often cited… is the need to reduce inequality… a priority shared by the higher and lower income alike… in a society that provides quality long-term care for the elderly, that covers all essential medicines through public drug plans, that makes sure employees can take paid sick days when they need to, and that makes affordable and high-quality daycare for young children available to all parents who need it.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Can Canada pivot from pandemic to progress?
Sunday, September 20th, 2020
… the Liberals’ Throne Speech on Sept. 23 will be an opportunity to set out policies and programs to carry us forward in ways that are more inclusive and equitable… a guaranteed livable income, along with adequate wages and benefits for the employed – as well as other social and health supports such as child care, education, pharma, mental health and dental care – would be a way to protect all Canadians.
Tags: budget, child care, corrections, crime prevention, economy, Health, ideology, Indigenous, participation, pharmaceutical, poverty
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
With the pandemic war still on, can we afford a postpandemic Throne Speech?
Thursday, September 10th, 2020
Team Trudeau’s original 2015 idea of using that extra borrowing to pay for a temporary surge in long-term investment fell by the wayside. There’s a strong hint it might be revived later this month. Would that make sense? The only fair answer is: It depends on what the money is being spent on… If it’s permanent, how will it be paid for?
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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