Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category

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The crisis hitting small-town Ontario

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

Communities across the province are grappling with overdoses and appealing for more resources to deal with the crisis… According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, the opioid death rate is three times higher in northern than southern Ontario… While we often hear complaints about the lack of sufficient treatment and harm reduction facilities in large cities like Toronto, smaller communities are lucky if they have any at all.

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Surrendering to the provinces doesn’t bring peace to the federation. It only emboldens them

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

The thesis… that peace with the provinces is the highest aim of federal policy, and that the way to achieve it is to give them everything they want – or at least to never give them any offence – is a recipe for national paralysis. There are issues on which federal leadership is essential… how we got here [is] not because the federal government has been too hard on the provinces, but because it has been altogether too indulgent of them.

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Seeking common ground at the Thanksgiving table

Friday, October 6th, 2023

We need to understand that the anger that folks are feeling… is based on real issues – even if the target of that anger is, to put it charitably, misplaced. That misdirection is often fed by politicians, capitalists, and the well-funded propagandists whose job is to keep the working majority squabbling amongst ourselves… we also have a responsibility to try to move the needle a little bit towards justice.

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Pierre Poilievre: Same old guy, same old policies

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

Despite all the hype about his image makeover and how he’s a changed man… he continues to fuel the rage and hate that resides in many of his hard-line followers who despise Trudeau, the federal government and, in many cases, anything that they believe restricts their “freedom.” … his lack of policy specifics to date on key issues facing Canada is stunning.

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How to Defeat Poilievre’s Politics of Abandonment

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

For Poilievre freedom itself is conceived in opposition to government… The profit motive is what drives efficiency, no matter what “good” is being considered. Privatization then — whether in health or seniors care, housing, child care or transit — is the solution to the rising costs of living. The individual trumps the collective, competition trumps co-operation, private interests are king. Never mind that unregulated capitalism traps many in lives robbed of freedoms from want and drudgery.

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Liberals’ fortunes hinge on Holland’s pharmacare: coalition director

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

“Only a single-payer Pharmacare system will achieve the savings, efficiencies and fairness that is the hallmark of Canadian Medicare. Anything less will be unacceptable to Canadians and the NDP,” NDP health critic Don Davies declared in June, backing the view of Dr. Eric Hoskins. Public health care experts and organizations like the Canadian Health Coalition, and every commission that’s looked at the problem, agree.

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Alternative Federal Budget 2024 – Building Momentum: A budget for now and the future

Monday, August 28th, 2023

The AFB will tax extreme wealth by introducing a progressive wealth tax… restore the corporate income tax rate… to 20 per cent… [and] implement a windfall profits tax… Canadians really can have nice things – if we make our tax system more progressive and make smart investments in public services, income supports, and social and physical infrastructure.

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COVID-19 response should highlight what went right in Canada

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

TheStar.com – Opinion/ Contributors August 10, 2023.   By Kwame McKenzie, Contributor I am concerned that while we focus on relitigating the past we will allow useful, effective pandemic innovations to wither and die. Over 53,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Canada, with more every day. It has been a traumatic time and we have just […]

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Are the Tories actually underspending? Here’s what the numbers say 

Saturday, August 5th, 2023

… the Ontario government is already dealing with criticism on multiple fronts from political constituencies with demands that are hardly unreasonable: things like keeping hospital ERs open or adequately funding forest-fire suppression in the worst fire season in Canada’s recorded history or keeping the province’s largest city from falling into a budgetary black hole. These aren’t extravagances — they’re the normal things people expect from government.

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Why Ontario is in court (again) fighting to save Bill 124

Monday, June 26th, 2023

While managing the government’s spending is obviously an important function of government, Koehnen said in his decision that it can’t be used as an excuse to ride roughshod over the guarantees in the Charter: “While it might be appropriate to infringe on a Charter right when faced with a serious fiscal challenge, it is not appropriate to do so as part of the day-to-day management of government affairs.”

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