Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category
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Ontario must ensure public supports and services for everyone
… If you compare provincial government program spending, Ontario spends less per capita than any other province. If you look at the size of the Ontario Public Service, it employed 25 per cent fewer full-time equivalent staff in March 2016 than in March 1991… This obsession with small government encourages us to think small, to reduce our expectation of public service. It disengages us from our responsibility as social citizens to ensure public supports and services are there for everyone.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, standard of living
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Ontario’s spending and debt are not sustainable
… it’s really the complex government programs that cost us the most; $8 billion on eHealth, $37 billion on above market rates for renewable power, or the $93 billion Fair Hydro Plan designed to fix the high hydro rates caused by the Green Energy Act. Since 1997, the number of government employees has grown by 403,100, or 43.1 per cent… With bigger bureaucracies come bigger government plans, which means more government waste, paid for with higher taxes on the population.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
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2018 Ontario Election Kit for Faith Communities
ISARC has prepared a toolkit for faith communities to discuss issues and deliberate on electoral choices. As faith communities we have an obligation to care for those most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities… The ISARC Election Kit focuses on Income Security, Housing, and Employment Justice.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
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With populist politics, it’s emotion not economics that drives decisions
… if we were wholly rational, we would make ourselves aware of the relevant facts and figures and calculate our way to the logical conclusion. “But voters don’t behave that way… They vote against their obvious self-interest; they allow bias, prejudice and emotion to guide their decisions. . . Or they quietly reach conclusions independent of their interests without consciously knowing why. Deft politicians (as well as savvy marketers) take advantage of our ignorance of our own minds to appeal to the sub-conscious level.”
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
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Nine early signs of how Facebook ads are being used in Ontario’s election
This is the sort of online messaging that will help shape Ontario’s spring election – and that tells the story of what a modern political campaign looks like, as digital micro-targeting increasingly replaces mass communication through more traditional advertising. Much of that story will by its nature fly under most voters’ radars, because they will only see the sliver of ads targeted directly to them… The Globe and Mail is monitoring as many of those ads as possible, to give readers the fullest available picture.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation
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Charities ‘worried’ after meeting with Morneau on ‘political activity’ law
… the legislation should be rewritten “to explicitly allow charities to fully engage, without limitation, in non-partisan public policy dialogue and development,” the panel recommended. Partisan activities, such as supporting candidates or parties, should remain banned, said the report — echoing a view widely held by charities themselves… there’s been a year of silence since. The 2018 budget in late February dashed charities’ hopes again…
Tags: budget, participation, tax
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NDP’s Andrea Horwath finds her footing on progressive platform
While Horwath may gain traction with soaring rhetoric, her platform remains slippery in spots — brimming with good ideas on caring, but burdened by a black hole on hydro promises that sound too good to be true. Like the Liberals with their ambitious budgetary spending, the New Democrats stress caring while downplaying paying for it… The NDP fiscal plan calls for a budget deficit of roughly half the $6.7 billion projected in the Liberal budget in 2018-19, thanks to higher taxes on the rich and corporations
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living, tax
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NDP promises $12-a-day child care and lower deficits if elected
The New Democrats’ fiscal plan, signed off on as “reasonable” by former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, is bolstered by higher taxes. An NDP government would raise the corporate tax rate to 13 per cent from 11.5 per cent, close big business loopholes, and increase personal income tax on amounts earned more than $220,000 by one percentage point and on earnings more than $300,000 by two percentage points.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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Unmuzzle Bob Delaney, prophet of fiscal irresponsibility
“I’d argue that it’s fiscally irresponsible not to go into debt for benefits like health care, public schools, mental health or debt-free tuition.” What kind of monster would choose to balance a budget over having those things? Haven’t these people heard of mortgages? … What comfort are your kids supposed to get from being homeless (or badly homed)? … What kind of parents will they make if they’ve been badly housed and educated, or unhealthy?
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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Privacy laws should apply to political parties
The privacy laws also mandate that government and private companies protect personal data and that breaches be met with financial penalties. Yet political parties, which are free from such consequences, have not always been careful in their handling of their sizable stores of sensitive data… To the extent that micro-targeting happens without voters’ knowing about it or agreeing to it, the practice is manipulative in a way that distorts democracy. Data-hungry political parties are the last entities that should be exempt from privacy laws.
Tags: crime prevention, featured, ideology, rights
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