Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
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The mathematical truth about Toronto property taxes: raising them is the best option
Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
The average annual residential tax bill across the GTHA and Ottawa for 2018 came in at $4,773 per household. In Toronto, it was $3,906… The mathematical truth says Toronto’s residential property taxes are low. The mathematical truth says there is room to raise them to pay for the things the city desperately needs.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Toronto should move to a ranked ballot
Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
Council recently voted 14-11 to direct city staff to start the process of moving toward a ranked ballot for the 2022 municipal election… No one likes how our system encourages negative campaigns, focuses on wedge issues and personal attacks, and gives incumbents at the municipal level where there are no political parties such an unfair advantage. Or that councillors can be elected with so little support from the electorate.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, participation
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Canada is rich – and cheap
Monday, December 9th, 2019
Canada is the third-richest country in the G7 and the best in class with government finances… [On military spending or Official Development Assistance] Whether Ottawa likes or doesn’t like input or output measures, or GDP or GNI ratios… these are measures of burden sharing… That was the essence of Mr. Trump’s criticism of Canada this week at the NATO Summit.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario using new law to suppress suits alleging negligent government conduct, lawyers say
Monday, December 9th, 2019
By making the government immune from lawsuits for negligence… the law sets a dangerous precedent: it harms the individual right to hold government accountable, and permits government “to circumvent the rule of law and deny access to justice.”
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, rights
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How Not to Engage Parents: Lessons from the Ontario Ministry of Education
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
Policymaking deals with complex issues for which government officials have to develop timely, effective, efficient and sensitive responses. A consensus has formed in the past decades that officials are more likely to get it right if they ask input from the people who will be affected by the policy in question. The public shares their input in good faith, hoping it will lead to better results. But public trust is undermined when government use the input from a consultation to justify any and all policy changes.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s voting system is functioning just fine
Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
… proportional representation… tends to favour the formation of smaller parties able to exert outsized influence due to the need to win the support to form coalitions. That in turn leads to deal-making, horse-trading and backroom agreements, with the ongoing need to keep smaller allies happy if the coalition is to remain in power. Compromise is not necessarily a bad thing… Yet it can also breed uncertainty.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario shouldn’t turn back the clock on naming judges
Wednesday, November 20th, 2019
The effect of that would be to give the attorney general more leeway to use his own discretion in naming judges and JPs. It risks turning back the clock and re-politicizing a system that has been virtually free of partisan considerations for some time. It would be, in other words, a step backwards toward the bad old days when political connections mattered as much (or more) than legal excellence.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau has chance now to be unusually bold
Monday, November 18th, 2019
Trudeau may not be able to get all provinces to agree to, say, a universal pharmacare program. But that doesn’t preclude him from establishing the legislative framework for one… voters didn’t elect Liberals just so they could sit on their hands and apologize for not being from Alberta. They elected them to do something.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
In new minority reality, unprecedented opportunities await Canada’s Senate
Friday, November 15th, 2019
In the past, tough topics around health care, mental-health challenges, legalization of cannabis, rural and urban poverty, constitutional reform, official-languages policy and the structure of foreign aid have been thoroughly, openly and constructively addressed by Senate committees… Every region of Canada is represented in the Senate, and its demographic and skills mix is representative of Canada as a whole.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, participation, Senate
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Right Now: Conservatism in Canada is on the edge. We need bold new ideas
Friday, November 8th, 2019
Contrary to popular belief, conservatism is not a political ideology. Russell Kirk, the great American conservative writer, described it as “a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.” To make conservatism a winning political force again, we must apply our way of looking at the civil social order in a way that fits with the reality of life in 2019.
Tags: economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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