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Corporate taxes: to cut or not to cut?
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Apr. 18, 2011
In just five years, Canada has gone from having the highest business taxes in the Group of Seven industrialized nations to the lowest. The federal corporate tax rate is on a course to reach 15 per cent next year, down from 28 per cent at the start of the decade – the result of successive cuts by both Liberal and Conservative governments… Most provinces have matched those breaks, saving businesses billions of dollars a year. But in the wrenching aftermath of the financial crisis and massive corporate bailouts, has the global rush to relieve the tax burden on businesses gone too far?
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Here’s the right way to reform health care
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Apr. 19, 2011
The government that emerges after May 2 should sponsor a major national inquiry into the future of Canadian health care and health insurance… Canada has a tradition of making major reforms in public policy based on the recommendations of royal commissions… The overwhelming merit of a good royal commission is that it can supply governments and voters with well-thought-out policy recommendations… At the least, it might cause us to have a serious discussion of serious issues the next time we’re asked to go to the polls.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Where’s Laurier when you need him?
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Apr. 16, 2011
Laurier’s greatest strength lay in the art of compromise. As Mr. Pratte deftly observes, “If Canada still exists today, it is because there have always been Canadians who felt that Laurier was right, that compromise is not surrender or cowardice, but rather daring and courage.” In this era of wedge politics, targeted tax cuts and slapdash spending promises, it’s painful to realize, through Mr. Pratte’s retelling, that Laurier’s Big Canada vision has all but disappeared.
Tags: economy, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Ontario judge rules mentally ill can be held in jails
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Apr. 18, 2011
An Ontario Superior Court judge has blown a hole in a lower-court uprising over mentally ill offenders who are shunted off to jail cells because of a bed shortage at mental hospitals. Mr. Justice Ian Nordheimer concluded that an Ontario Court judge acted unreasonably when she prevented authorities from placing unfit offenders in jail to await a hospital bed… “If the person is not very well and it is possible for them to wait a few days while we are finding a bed, then that is acceptable and in line with the workings of the rest of the criminal justice system.”
Tags: crime prevention, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Are your politics hard-wired?
Sunday, April 17th, 2011
Apr. 16, 2011
…there’s mounting evidence that they are to some extent biologically rooted deep in the subconscious part of our brains… The best evidence of this comes from twin studies, which show that identical twins are highly likely to share political beliefs, and to have similar engagement levels in politics… Modern political strategy is crafted to trigger a chain of emotional reactions among voters and exaggerate the differences among the parties. Political campaigns are not about debating policy, but about affirming emotions… Voters are both rational and intuitive. But to some extent, they are also born.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Global capitalism leaving U.S. middle class behind
Saturday, April 16th, 2011
Apr. 15, 2011
Globalization and the technology revolution are increasing productivity and prosperity. But those rewards are unevenly shared – they are going to the people at the top in the United States, and enriching emerging economies over all. But the American middle class is losing out… “Multinational companies,” he said, “are doing exactly what one would expect them to do. The resulting efficiency of the global system is high and rising. So there is no market failure.”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Stillbirth epidemic claims more lives each year than HIV-AIDS and malaria combined
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Apr. 14, 2011
The vast majority of stillbirths are preventable. In wealthy countries like Canada, where high-tech obstetrics are the norm, stillbirths are linked to smoking, obesity, advanced maternal age, and abnormalities in the placenta and umbilical cord… The real complications are poverty and lack of access to basic healthcare services for women… Stated bluntly, stillbirth is inversely correlated with wealth; the problem exists largely where there is rampant poverty, no education and poor housing, like all conditions that stalk mothers and children.
Tags: Health, standard of living, women
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Walking the line on corporate tax cuts
Friday, April 15th, 2011
Apr. 15, 2011
… what really counts is being competitive – which is what the Canadian rate would be wherever it stands in the 15-per-cent to 18-per-cent range… Parties, like provincial governments, are kidding themselves and, by extension, their electorates. Play with corporate rates all they like, governments are going to need more, not less, money to deal with an aging population. These costs – $2-billion to $3-billion a year for health care alone – will dwarf all the effects of corporate tax adjustments.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
A new development model gains steam in aboriginal communities
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Apr. 11, 2011
Mining, forestry and energy still provoke battles, but experience is leading to more enlightened resource deals that go beyond the traditional model, which sees a company simply handing out royalty cheques… corporations increasingly realize the futility of battling aboriginals in courts of justice and public opinion… first nations are also finding creative ways to get around the red tape of the Indian Act, which forces them constantly to seek Ottawa’s approval. A string of relatively recent laws allowing communities to opt out of certain sections of the Indian Act… offers more freedom to do business.
Tags: economy, Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Has U.S.-style ‘voter suppression’ made it to Canada’s election?
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
April 10, 2011
The term refers to efforts by one political party, not to win votes, but to convince people not to vote at all… with negative advertising. The Conservatives might be calculating that, even if the coalition bogeyman doesn’t win voters over to their side, the prospect might discourage some Liberal supporters from voting at all–a second-best result… both the Liberals and the Conservatives may be hoping that, if they can mobilize their vote while discouraging voters who incline to their opponent, that’s not the worst thing in the world.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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