« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Conserving Canada or a Conservative Canada?
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Mar. 31, 2011
Imagine treating this election as a plebiscite: a vote for conserving Canada or else for a Conservative Canada. Those who support the latter know where to put their X. So those who support the former had better get their X’s together before May 2… By voting “strategically”… We are at a turning point… facing a choice between two fundamentally different views of this country. Will the majority decide?
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Probing the pledge: The Tories’ flawed tax break for families
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Mar. 28, 2011
… there are better ways to achieve similar social policy objectives… investments in child care or parental leave, and tax measures that benefit people at the lowest income levels… if the goal is to lower Canadians’ tax burden, just cut income-tax rates for everyone or remove the lowest income earners from the tax rolls.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Smoke, mirrors and a Harper majority
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Mar. 29, 2011
Truth, as we know, is a moving target. Facts need not matter. In politics, it’s about who brings the most megaphones to the table. Whatever gets repeated the most is the reality. With more ads, with more media support, with more resources, the Conservatives drown out their opponents. Their fictional universe overshadows those of the other parties.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Be a smart voter – Canada needs you
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Mar. 30, 2011
Voters face some choices. They can form their beliefs about politics in a self-indulgent way. They can ignore evidence and form policy preferences based on what they find emotionally appealing. They can treat voting as a form of self-expression and ignore what damage they do. Or they can work to overcome their personal and ideological biases and choose in a smart, thoughtful way.
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Not exactly an economic gold medal
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Mar. 30, 2011.
The Conservatives’ drive for a majority is premised on positioning themselves as the best economic managers… In reality, however, the claim that things may be tough here, but they’re better than anywhere else, has never been statistically valid… Canada’s performance has been middling at best… among the countries that avoided bank failures, Canada’s performance has actually been subpar.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
With financial meltdowns and labour protests, is it the springtime for Marx?
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Mar. 27, 2011
“The revival of Marxism as a political project is unlikely, because the social forces that Marx expected to realize his ideas have been decisively weakened since the 1970s, namely the labour movements and mass labour and socialist parties. What should revive in today’s global atmosphere is Marxism as the major ideology criticizing capitalism and analyzing its internal contradictions and its incapacity to find effective solutions for the global problems of our century, notably the environmental crisis.” (Prof. Hobsbawm)
Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Conservatives are pedalling furiously but going nowhere
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar. 25, 2011
Today, and for most of the past five years, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have hovered around 36 per cent of the popular vote. So, in more than three decades, the organized national conservative political formations – the PCs, Reform, Canadian Alliance and Mr. Harper’s Conservatives – have not made major political gains… a fascinating tale because what we might loosely call the country’s conservative forces have never been better organized, financed or motivated. And yet, for all their strength, they appear not to have changed Canada, or at least Canadian politics.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Five reasons Ottawa is turning you off
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar. 26, 2011
Five reasons stand out for what’s wrong with Parliament, and why you should care about fixing it. 1. Ottawa’s irrelevant… But: Actually, the federal government does plenty, and could do more… 2. Ottawa is old, white and male… But: That can change… 3. Parliament ignores the big cities… But: The House can be fixed, and almost was… 4. Nothing gets done… But: It’s not as bad as it looks… 5. Hyperpartisanship turns people off… But: There are fixes… if you want change in Ottawa, there’s only one way to make it happen. Vote.
Tags: participation
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Brain strategy
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar. 25, 2011
As a practising child psychiatrist, I am acutely aware of the devastating consequences that result from a lack of national strategy on mental health and brain disorders. One out of five children has a diagnosable mental health problem, but only one out of six gets the help needed. The reasons include stigma, lack of resources, inadequate public education, caregiver burnout and lack of research to support new treatments. The biggest cause of “brain drain” is not doctors leaving Canada to practise elsewhere – it’s neglect of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Tags: child care, Health, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
The Tories’ buried budget line: Funding for brain research
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar. 24, 2011
If our future prosperity lies in knowledge, we need to nurture our most precious natural resource – our brains. One way to do that is larger and smarter investments in education. But another key component is preventing and treating brain diseases, which are a $60-billion a year drain on the economy annually. An estimated 5.5 million Canadians live with a neurological condition. There is a broad spectrum of conditions… One in five people will also suffer from a mental health problem like depression some time in their life.
Tags: disabilities, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Recent Comments