Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
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Not happy with politics?
… de Ruiter came up with Democracy Link, a free app that makes the process of phoning or emailing one’s representative as easy as posting a comment online, or phoning a friend on speed dial… So far, more than 1,000 people have downloaded the app, which is available for Android and Apple phones… He just hopes hundreds more Canadians download the app and start a serious discussion with their representatives at all levels of government, all across the country.
Tags: featured, participation
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Government underspending has left Canada with an infrastructure deficit
We don’t need more politically driven tax cuts from any political party. Anyone can cut taxes – always popular with voters – but it takes strong leadership and the ability to sell a vision to invest in crucial but less-popular initiatives such as infrastructure and defence. A major national infrastructure program that heavily involves public-private partnerships and privatizations will go a long way toward creating employment and getting Canada moving.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, pensions, privatization, standard of living, tax
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The toll we pay for a bunker mentality
In a globalized knowledge economy, the bunker mentality needs be avoided. But phrases like the closing of the Canadian mind are gaining currency. Ten years of a government catering to a right-wing base has had a cumulative impact. Not a closing, but a narrowing. The Conservatives have taken a lot of heat over information suppression. But it has had little effect. There are few signs of change. Their attitude is stay the course. If you say too much you are dangerous, if you know too much you are a threat.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Canada’s election and the return of activist government
Put bluntly, the needs of capitalism have changed. Business remains remarkably productive. But it cannot translate that productivity into profit unless customers have the wherewithal to buy its goods and services. Right now, too many don’t… Increasingly, government is being called on to pick up the slack… Only it has the capacity to keep the workforce intact and healthy during a prolonged economic slump… if modern capitalism is to thrive, the social programs that were taken apart 20 years ago need to be reinvented and reinstated.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
How the climate crisis can change Canada for the better
The Manifesto, bolder than anything on offer from the major federal political parties, lays out an alternative vision that would get us to 100 per cent renewable electricity within two decades — while building a fairer, more humane society in the process… now is the moment for a transformative agenda to come from outside electoral politics, to build a wave of popular support that will put real pressure on the next federal government…
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Economic prudence, or ‘cuts by stealth?’ Federal departments left $8.7 billion unspent last year
… critics say they amount to cuts by stealth… Canadians won’t know exactly which departments or programs were affected until after the election… But they do suggest hundreds of millions set aside for new military equipment, processing refugee applications, First Nations communities and transportation infrastructure went unspent… In contrast, the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency and Canadian Food Inspection Agency… appeared to go over budget.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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The moral need for conservatism
It’s always been a false distinction that less government means less heart… without economic freedom, average people suffer… more central planning, more government, more top-down control – it all makes people worse off, not better off… over the past two decades, real world GDP has increased by about 70%, and the global poverty rate has been cut in half, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.” There you have it. The strongest moral argument for economic conservatism around: Economic freedom ends poverty.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, poverty
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
The geezer vote
Those over 65 are from all political persuasions and at least three generations… we tend to keep a watch on the pennies… One of our top concerns is our health-care system, which polls say is preferred to private alternatives by 80-90 per cent of Canadians… A strong majority of Canadians support the CBC.. [but] the Trans-Pacific Partnership Harper’s so keen to sign will very likely mean the end of the CBC as a public national broadcaster
Tags: budget, Health, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 2 Comments »
How did we decide that federal economic policy matters more than anything else
The thinking of Keynes has become… a “meme”… Its continuing life appeals to economists, bureaucrats and politicians. Having tried central planning in emergencies, they’re tempted to imagine it might be the best way to sustain permanently a nation’s economic health… in public we only discuss how much everything costs and how governments can be made to pay. It’s as if we have lost the ability to think about anything that doesn’t fall under the heading “fiscal.”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Leaders, please give us answers, not insults
Stephen Harper may become Canada’s first political leader to have conducted an entire national election without once meeting an unvetted, non-partisan ordinary voter; nor encountered a national reporter who had not paid for his seat and the promise of an occasional question. (And only if your question has been vetted and approved and you behave yourself, mind.) He will not have delivered a campaign message to a single voter not instructed to react deliriously from his opening “hello” to his rictus grin at the end of his six-eight minute speech. This is not wise.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 3 Comments »
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