Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
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Want democratic reform? Let’s start with newspapers.
Those who run the country’s daily newspapers reveal themselves to be as contemptuous of democracy and society as the party they endorsed. They reveal themselves as concerned only about “the economy” but for them this is just a code word for the corporate elite, the 1% — not the economy of ordinary wage and salary earners… One answer to the democratic deficit created by media concentration (and ideological bias) is the idea of publicly subsidized newspapers — not unlike the CBC model and models in Europe…
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada finally has a minister of social justice
The new prime minister’s message was clear: Supporting families – lifting them out of poverty, helping them find affordable housing, getting them into the workforce and improving their children’s life chances – is a stand-alone job, one that remains at the top of his agenda… Duclos founded the Poverty and Economic Policy Research Network. He served as a page in the House of Commons under Pierre Trudeau and joined Canada World Youth, an international organization than trains volunteers 15-to-35 to be community workers at home and abroad.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, disabilities, economy, Health, homelessness, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 1 Comment »
A better way to pay for the middle-class tax cut
The increase in the top rate is ill-considered… If the new Liberal government wishes to improve equity, it would be advised to go after the various tax preferences that undermine both economic growth and fairness in the tax system… by reducing some of the following: the small business tax deduction ($3.2 billion), lifetime capital gains exemption ($600 million), donation credit related to gifted securities ($52 million), flow-through shares ($125 million) and bringing capital gains tax rates in line with the top tax rate on dividends ($1.25 billion).
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Dreaming and thinking: the Liberals need both
… with 325 commitments… the new government will need thinking of a high order: it will be necessary to create a strategic prime ministership in which Justin Trudeau’s time is allocated to the three or four priorities he most wants and needs to achieve. A second tier of critical issues (30 to 40) should be allocated to ministers and monitored, not run, by the centre. And a third tier which require a longer-range perspective, in which parliamentary committees, parliamentary task forces, and formal inquiries can do good agenda-setting work.
Tags: economy, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
End of a Painful Era
… the Harper government waged an all-out war on civil society, parliamentary democracy, the environment, organized labour, First Nations, and anyone else that might pose an obstacle to its economic and social policy objectives. First among them was Harper’s plan to reposition Canada as a pro-business, deregulated, low-wage “energy superpower,” followed closely by the party’s ideological commitment to small government and low taxes.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Put democracy and fairness at top of Liberal agenda
Ottawa has the means to leverage spending in a more productive and equitable direction. The centre has identified more than $25 billion in foregone taxes and giveaways to corporations and the affluent that it argues could be put to better use. Ottawa could boost the Working Income Tax Benefit, refundable tax credits, and the Guaranteed Income Supplement and Old Age Security. Improve Employment Insurance. Support provincial poverty reduction strategies. And invest in child care, transit, housing and higher education.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa returns to normal after Stephen Harper’s dark decade
It is hard to convey the palpable relief that had wafted across the capital by lunchtime the day after the stunning collapse of the Harper regime… An Ottawa officialdom, quietly, confidently, steering the good ship HMCS Canada back onto its true course: the sensible middle-power nudging the more powerful on the international stage toward good, and the nation domestically toward some small degree of greater fairness and some small victories for social justice.
Tags: featured, ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau’s kinder, gentler start
Politics will and must always feature robust, vigorous debate. Politics is how we sort out choices and priorities in a democratic society. And since we do not all agree on these matters, we debate them endlessly… But it helps protect or restore our faith in the way we make these choices if the debates are attended by some measure of restraint and dignity. We can do debates better if the one at the top of our political institutions, the prime minister, leads with a tone of civility and respect…
Tags: featured, ideology, multiculturalism, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau’s victory is a triumph for decency
Millions were repelled by Conservative efforts to scare people into voting for the status quo… Trudeau spoke out fiercely and repeatedly for human rights… rejected a Tory economic model that left too many behind, and refused to be shackled by the conventional wisdom that budget-balancing trumps all. That progressive vision informed his promises of greater tax fairness, his bold investment in job-creating infrastructure and his pulling together of a generous, equitable child benefit from a hodgepodge of Tory programs that collectively favoured the affluent.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, immigration, poverty, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Voters delivered a moral judgment on Stephen Harper
In electing Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, the voters were saying they’d had enough of mean-spiritedness in politics… But by this election, that non-Conservative majority was determined to see them gone… faced with a choice between the Liberals and a social democratic party posing as Liberals, voters opted for the real thing… The Liberal leader is hardly a radical. His father, Pierre, wasn’t either… But the Liberal leader is different in style. He is sunnier; he exudes optimism; he seems more open.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
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