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Primary care Paradox
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Jun. 28, 2011
Douglas’s achievement in introducing medicare in Saskatchewan represented a deep conceptual shift that radically altered the provision of health care in Canada. He convinced a nation that in a civilized society, health care should be considered essential to individual and social well-being, and viewed both as a public right and a collective obligation. However, the events surrounding the birth of universal health insurance in Canada were full of irony on several levels
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health History | 1 Comment »
Canadian Internet lags behind the rest of the developed world
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Jun 27, 2011
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released data comparing Internet connectivity in the developed world and the results do not look good for Canada. The data shows that Canadian Internet users pay some of the highest prices in the OECD, for slower connections than in many other places… The problem is that the Canadian ISP market is effectively a duopoly, with services being provided by the incumbent phone and cable companies in most major centres.
Tags: economy, globalization, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Without Canada, French Quebec would be lost in a generation
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Jun 23, 2011
The survival of language is directly tied to economics. No money, no clout, no French… In Louisiana, Acadian French-speakers had no state-ordered linguistic protection, whether in the form of subsidies or legal guarantees. They had to speak English to survive, and were assimilated by economic necessity. The same would happen to an independent Quebec. If Quebecers want to continue living and working in French, their best option is to remain part of Canada
Tags: economy, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
The Quiet Revolution is over
Friday, June 24th, 2011
June 23, 2011
Quebec’s intelligentsia focused on the obvious inequality in wealth and education of French-speaking Quebecers. In explanation, the political class applied to Quebec the theories of decolonization advanced by Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Memmi, Frantz Fanon, according to which all inequalities and dysfunctions among the colonized was caused by the colonization, hence by the colonizers. C’est la faute des Anglais!… It was the legacy of French colonization, not British or Canadian, that kept the Québécois poorer till recently.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
Today’s Tories look a lot like Liberals
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Jun 24, 2011
… the federal government continues to spend more than $1-billion, mainly in direct grants to businesses. What do we get for that money? It’s hard to tell. None of them provide the number of jobs created with the money, or the amount sales have increased in the companies supported. All have rather nebulous performance targets… This is what economists call an “infra-marginal investment” — one that would have taken place anyway… even when jobs are created, federal studies have shown that they are few in number and that costs per job created are high.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Pre-schoolers prefer same-ethnicity playmates: study
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Jun 21, 2011
The Montreal study attributes the rift between the Asian-Canadian and French Canadian children to nothing more than cultural awkwardness. Rather than being driven apart by animosity, the two groups are simply baffled by one another… the Asian-Canadians and French-Canadians ultimately learned to overcome their differences and play together… “Each was able to import the culture of the other,” says Ms. Girouard. “Children, regardless of their ethnicity, want to play together and understand each other.”
Tags: multiculturalism, participation
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Ontario publishes accessibility standards
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Jun 10, 2011
The Ontario government has released the final Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005. The regulation, which comes into force on July 1, 2011, combines information and communication, employment, and transportation standards… the regulation “represents a significant shift in human rights and accessibility law affecting nearly all organizations in Ontario with respect to their human resources practices and in the way they do business.”
Tags: disabilities, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
The jobs crisis
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Jun 13, 2011
… the central objective of national economic policy until sustained recovery is firmly established must be increasing confidence, borrowing and lending, and spending… it is a false economy to defer infrastructure maintenance and replacement, and instead take advantage of a moment when 10-year interest rates are below 3 percent and construction unemployment approaches 20 percent to expand infrastructure investment. It is far too soon for financial policy to shift toward preventing future bubbles and possible inflation and away from assuring adequate demand.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Student money: Ending the cycle of poverty
Friday, June 10th, 2011
Jun 9, 2011
As a single mother who entered university to try to break the cycle of poverty, I now find myself in a $48,800/year job (for which having a degree was mandatory) and carrying monthly Canada Student loan costs of $544/month and BC Student Loan costs of $200/month… My son will be entering university in 6 years, at which time, I expect to still be carrying my own debt, and will be unable to provide full support for his educational costs, and so the cycle of poverty continues as he will be forced to amass debt as well.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax, women, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Canadians have soured on Big Government
Friday, June 10th, 2011
Jun. 9, 2011
Canadians’ confidence in the ability of government to fix our problems is clearly fading. Three times as many people say they’re losing faith that government can solve social challenges, like improving health care and education, or environmental issues, as those who say their confidence is growing in government remedies; twice as many Canadians report decreased confidence in the government’s ability to addressing economic challenges than are encouraged by the government’s record.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, poverty, rights
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
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