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Why care less about the disabled fetus?
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Jan. 19, 2012
… if sex selection can be characterized as a social or cultural practice informed and perpetuated by demeaning attitudes toward women that many of us can agree is discriminatory, what about the selection of fetuses on the basis of disability? For those of us living with, or living with someone with, Down syndrome, a cleft lip or a missing limb, the selection against fetuses with these characteristics is as troubling as the selection against female fetuses.
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, standard of living, women
Posted in Equality Debates | 2 Comments »
The Liberals need a new leader: What about Bob?
Sunday, January 29th, 2012
Jan. 28, 2012
Mr. Rae is one of the people “driving this vision” of the party as an engaged, open network that reaches out across all kinds of channels to build community and draw young people into a real discussion about ideas. “The party needs a leader who understands this generation, their culture, their modus operandi… as a self-defined “recovering politician,” he developed a reputation for taking on difficult issues: the Air India bombing, the restructuring of the Red Cross, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the crisis at Burnt Church and nation-building in the Forum of Federations.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Paradigm, shifted [seniors]
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
Jan. 28, 2012
Money for fighter jets? Check. Money for more prisons? Check. Money for MP pensions? Check. Money for gazebos? Check. Money for seniors? Not so fast… / our Prime Minister touted as his own Canadian economic and financial successes for which previous governments were largely responsible and offered the same nostrums – lower taxes, cuts to social programs, minimal-restriction resource exploitation, more deregulation of the private sector – which were largely responsible for the crisis in the first place.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Does Harper really need to raise the retirement age?
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Jan. 27, 2012
the Canada Pension Plan is not in financial difficulty. Instead, the target of reform appears to be Old Age Security… Canadians are living longer… 5 years longer than was the case in 1967… The wellbeing of Canadian seniors has improved tremendously over the last 40 years — higher incomes, better consumption, and healthier lives. However, in the years approaching retirement ages, an increasing number of Canadians are unable to work due to disability, declining job skills, or other reasons… these Canadians may suffer as they wait for their public pension cheques to begin flowing.
Tags: budget, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Prime Minister Harper unveils grand plan to reshape Canada
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Jan. 27, 2012
Mr. Harper portrayed his agenda as a fix for a generation – a fix he claimed is necessary to confront the challenges of an aging population. Canada’s demographics, he warned, pose “a threat to the social programs and services that Canadians cherish.” Preserving those social programs will likely mean cuts elsewhere… he plans to make Canada’s old-age security program sustainable. What that means is unclear. He did not spell out whether seniors will have to wait longer to receive the benefit or whether clawbacks would be increased for higher income earners.
Tags: budget, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
The premiers want more health-care study? Seriously?
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Jan. 24, 2012
We don’t need more studies or committees. Every royal commission, provincial inquiry, independent analysis for the past five decades has come to the same basic conclusions about what we need to do reform medicare: * Control spending by limiting medicare coverage to essential treatments that work; * Modernize primary care by moving away from solo physician practices to interdisciplinary teams; * Create some kind of universal prescription drug plan; * Shift money from institutional care to home care … [and] … invest it in palliative care.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadian bilingualism a blessing not a curse
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Jan. 23, 2012
Canada, an officially bilingual country, is a leader in the promotion of second-language knowledge. Ottawa and the provinces together spend more than $2-billion a year offering government services in both French and English… learning a second language should be viewed as a gift society which confers significant global advantages, and bridges cultural divides… The ability to speak French, English – as well as Spanish or Mandarin – should be seen as a source of pride and as an investment in the future that will yield dividends over a person’s lifetime.
Tags: economy, immigration, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Resolve the treaties and complete Confederation
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Jan. 23, 2012
The five years leading to Confederation saw the great debates that stirred the ideas for union, and the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences that set the framework for a national accord. The five years leading to 2017 could lay the foundation for the next chapter – the missing chapter: the resolution of the treaties and the beginning of reconciliation and reconstruction with our aboriginal peoples. It’s the civil-rights movement of our generation.
Tags: economy, ideology, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa summit aims to boost first-nations economies
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Jan. 22, 2012
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is preparing a budget based on departmental proposals for spending cuts… aboriginal programs in areas such as health and housing are clearly at risk… But Mr. Harper says a focus on sharing natural-resources wealth can actually boost social funding for communities… if the billions in mineral, hydro and forestry development in northern Manitoba were to benefit the region’s communities, Ottawa could spend less in areas like on-reserve housing. “The treaties were based on sharing the wealth,” he said.
Tags: budget, economy, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The politics of Harper’s medicare decision
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Jan. 20, 2012
When Stephen Harper was campaigning for the first time, he proposed a Patient Wait Times Guarantee linked to federal money. Now, however, Mr. Harper is going to give money to the provinces (they got federal tax points for health care a long time ago, a transfer they never mention) without any strings, conditions or demands. It’ll be the first time since medicare began that a federal government has handed money over carte blanche. Broadly speaking, two reasons explain his decision – one theoretical, one political.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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