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We work hard, they enjoy life
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Aug. 20, 2011
The Americans don’t legislate vacation time, but Mercer notes that 15 days is what employers typically offer – putting the United States near the bottom. But not dead last. That honour belongs to Canada. Though each province is different, Ontario is typical, with a paltry 10 days of minimum vacation plus nine statutory holidays. Even the Chinese, with their legendary work ethic, give themselves two days more…. Crudely put: We work harder, they enjoy life more.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
David Johnston’s welcome words to lawyers
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Aug. 17, 2011
Some of his most challenging remarks were about what lawyers need to do to maintain the public’s trust. In the collapse of Wall Street, “how many lawyers ‘papered’ the deals that involved fraudulent statements of assets, liabilities, income and valuations? … A former law dean, Mr. Johnston challenged the law schools not to obsess over the intellectual qualifications of entering students, but to look more broadly at their “ethical sensibility and depth,” personal relationships, wisdom, judgment and leadership. He would also ensure “a broad and extensive focus on ethics in law school.”
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
‘Fractured’ health-care system failing patients, doctors say
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Aug. 18, 2011
Large numbers of people told the CMA that the future of medicine in this country must include healthier communities through a health promotion strategy, as well as improved access to long-term care, home-based care and pharmacare… “We now want to use that valuable information to mobilize governments to turn their attention to a new health-care system before the current federal-provincial-territorial accord expires in 2014,” said Dr. Turnbull. “The goal must be to use the next accord to transform health care so it truly serves Canadians for future generations.”
Tags: Health, mental Health, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Dropout chiefs imperil a generation of kids
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Aug. 17, 2011
Chiefs representing about 230 first nations in Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan have decided to boycott a three-person panel charged with finding fixes for the broken first nations education system. Native children will pay the price for this stiff-necked opposition, based on ancient animosities and petty political ambition. Right now, the federal government sends education grants to reserves, with chiefs using the money as they see fit. Some build and staff schools; some don’t. Only 40 per cent of on-reserve students graduate from high school, half the rate of the general population.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
The folly of benevolence
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Aug. 15, 2011
Australian philosopher David Stove’s What’s Wrong with Benevolence… is assertive… specifically, the benevolence of governments taken to its nth degree, its uttermost limit… Enacted in Elizabethan times, the Poor Laws originally gave succour to the poor, the sick and the elderly by means of a modest tax levied at the parish level. With the passage of time, the civic administrators noted a perplexing paradox: “It was found… that the proportion of the population receiving money under the [Poor] Laws (and consequently, of course, the burden on those who paid the tax) always increased.”
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Unskilled, unmarried, unwanted …
Tuesday, August 16th, 2011
Aug. 16, 2011
The problems of Britain’s inner cities look amazingly like the problems of America’s inner cities. In both places, the disintegration of the family is intimately linked with social decay… The decline of marriage has gone hand in hand with the decline in male employment… Any way you look at this, it’s a time bomb… Both Britain and America have developed a large, permanent underclass whose numbers are growing. Rootless, unmoored young men with no stake in society are a major threat to social order.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Britain’s unentitled riot at the loss of their future
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Aug. 10, 2011
there is a broad underclass in the U.K. that lives with little hope for the future. Candidate Barack Obama’s books talked of “dreams” and “hope.” For the Brits who are rioting, there’s little of either. They have short time horizons with little invested in their futures. They have little to look forward to. They worry about today while tomorrow is the long run. Next week is irrelevant… London has the unentitled rioting at the loss of their future… Give them hope for a future, and you might be able to put the genie back in the bottle.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
‘Fractured’ health care system is failing Canadians, report finds
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Aug. 10, 2011
A large number of Canadians told the CMA they believe health care is “in distress.”… “the health care system is fractured to such a degree that it is, in some ways, a system in name only,” says the report. “ From the perspective of the patient as a consumer of health care, it does a poor job of transitioning patients from one level of care to another. It does not provide patient-centred care — the care people need when they need it.” [It] is failing Canadians, especially vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, aboriginal people and those who live in rural parts of the country.
Tags: Health, Indigenous, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Will Cautious Stephen Harper let Wild Steve run free?
Sunday, August 7th, 2011
Aug. 06, 2011
EI has become a federal welfare program for people who live in areas with chronic high unemployment. Returning it to its original purpose of providing temporary help for people who suddenly find themselves unemployed would be one of Wild Steve’s top goals… Equalization would be another priority… The complex formula is clearly broken, since Ontario now collects more from it than any province other than Quebec… Then there’s health care… Wild Steve would rather cut 10 separate deals, freeing those provinces that want more leeway to experiment with parallel private care from the strictures of the Canada Health Act.
Tags: ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
More immigrants are in Canada’s national interest
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Aug. 04, 2011
Canada accepted 17 per cent more migrants last year than in 2005. In a time of recession when other Western governments are imposing strict limits on migration, Canada admitted 50,000 more migrants in 2010 than in 2009. Over the past 25 years, the total number of international migrants doubled to more than 200 million. We should expect that number to double again in the next two decades… On the whole, migrants contribute more to the public purse than they receive in benefits… (and) can deliver far more for global prosperity than foreign aid and international trade ever will.
Tags: economy, ideology, immigration, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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