Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category
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Why isn’t Harper’s record on democracy an election issue?
Nor has the cause of democracy been helped by most of the mainstream media, which, with notable exceptions, cover specific incidents of Harper’s abuses of democracy but rarely point to their dangerous larger implications. This is a strange oversight… vital reports have received nothing like the extensive coverage they deserve… I wish every Canadian knew that the Council of Canadians and the Voices analyses existed
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Tories roll out taxpayer-funded payola
On Harper’s cash-for-kids program… The NDP leader would simply deliver Harper’s enriched benefit, while giving parents a chance to get in on the ground floor of his eight-year plan to develop a $15-a-day national child care system. The Liberal leader would scrap Harper’s assortment of payments and tax breaks… and introduce a single, tax-free Canada Child Benefit targeted at middle-and lower-income families… Mulcair is offering low-risk, incremental change. Trudeau is offering a fairer, more coherent approach.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Mulcair, Trudeau agendas offer relief, not risk
Both Mulcair and Trudeau would upend Harper’s $26 billion pre-election “cash for everyone” budget that disproportionately favours higher-income earners. They would cancel the Conservative Family Tax Cut, an income-splitting measure that benefits the affluent. Both would also cancel the Tory increase in the TFSA, which also largely benefits higher earners. And Trudeau would roll Harper’s universal child care benefit into a new family support program… The biggest “risk” these changes pose is to the wealthy.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Stephen Harper offers a record of selective accomplishment
He did introduce a universal child care benefit. To pay for it, his government de-invested in preschool learning and child care centres. His final promise — to cut medical wait times — was a mirage. Harper knew the provinces, not Ottawa, controlled the delivery of health services… Nor did he offer — or attempt — to reduce poverty, strengthen democracy or respect the courts. If voters assumed these were inadvertent oversights, they were wrong… It reflects Harper’s ideology, not the mandate he sought from voters.
Tags: budget, child care, corrections, crime prevention, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
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Liberals and NDP are the same but don’t know it
Liberals and NDP are the same but don’t know it. It’s as if Canada already has one main opposition party… To the degree the NDP has slipped ahead of the Liberals it’s largely because they’ve Liberalized themselves. This has a justice: for years NDPers moaned that Liberals stole their ideas and votes. If neither side admits it, that’s because many Liberals remain under the illusion that the NDP is a left-wing party, and many NDPers share the delusion. It also explains how they keep lurching erratically past each other on the ideological spectrum.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Dump this regressive law [Union disclosure Bill C-377]
The new law promises to promote “transparency” by forcing unions to report every transaction they make worth $5,000 or more to the CRA, to make public the salaries of officials who make upwards of $100,000 a year, and to report details of any political activities they undertake. But… the law’s real effect will be much more noxious… It will impose burdens and potential penalties (up to $1,000 a day) on unions that aren’t faced by any other independent organizations — businesses, non-profits, political parties, even government agencies.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights
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We should face up to history and make sure Canada Day is for all
By the time we celebrate our 150th Canada Day in 2017, we need to take concrete steps towards fixing the relationship with aboriginal peoples. There’s no contradiction between keeping that in mind and taking special pride today in our country on its official birthday. Ultimately, Canada Day must be for everyone, and only facing up to the truths of the past will make that possible.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
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Mellower NDP sets its course, free of the drag of socialism
… socialist terminology is no longer on the party books. Mr. Mulcair’s policies, such as an increased minimum wage, child care, corporate tax increases, cap-and-trade, are sufficient… The policies give the New Democrats left-side girth, but they’re a far cry from the “smash capitalism” days, from knee-jerk, anti-U.S. sentiment, from being in the lock of labour, of high taxes and state planners… the mellowing out is finally paying off… polling numbers show them within reach of the top rung.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living, tax
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In praise of Proportional Representation
Refusing to accept that we need electoral reform is another way of discouraging turnout and contributing to growing citizen alienation… First-past-the-post is an antique system from a time when local ridings actually mattered. But in an age where party policy is determined by leaders, and individual MPs are too frequently told how and when to vote, its main function is to make thousands of votes across Canada meaningless. It’s time for a change
Tags: ideology, participation
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Stephen Harper has altered the face of Canada
Who would have foreseen the Law Reform Commission of Canada, the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights and Democracy), the Health Council of Canada, the National Anti- Poverty Organization and the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy would all be scrapped? These agencies brought Canadians together to tackle common problems, focused on areas of public concern and produced well-researched non-partisan policy reports.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, participation, rights, standard of living
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