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Taking our pulse on health care
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
March 10, 2010
Including private health-care delivery options would… ease the burden on the public system. And it would provide competition, which would encourage the public system to find those efficiencies Canadians would like to see, but don’t trust the government to discover.
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s austerity is for other people
Monday, March 8th, 2010
March 08, 2010
Austerity was the message they wanted to send… it’s all pretty much a sham, with no real plan for deficit reduction to back their rosy projections… Just bringing polling spending back to the level it was at when Harper came into office would save $5 million. They’re spending 156 per cent more on management consultants than the Liberals did, costing a whopping $355 million. And then there’s the incessant, taxpayer funding advertising flooding the airwaves… government advertising, as well as travel and communications contracts, has increased by 31.9 per cent under the Conservatives, costing a staggering $820 million. On Economic Action Plan ads alone, the Conservatives dropped $100 million.
Tags: economy
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Soros is right about capitalism
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
March 6, 2010
“Two forms of economic organization — state capitalism and international capitalism — are in competition with each other and neither is attractive,” he writes. “International capitalism is inherently unstable because it lacks adequate regulation. It is also highly unjust favouring the haves over the have-nots. State capitalism will lead to conflicts.” By state capitalism, Soros is talking about the Russian, Chinese or Venezuelan models, where governments are players/combatants not referees. Somewhere between the two lies a better capitalism, along with rules that impose moral behaviour.
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Mr. Harper, cut down these tariffs
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
March 05, 2010
If tariff cuts that eliminate import costs are beneficial for manufacturers — freeing up money for productivity gains and other uses, creating 12,000 jobs — then cuts that eliminated costs for everybody else would be just as good. Canadians pay hundreds of millions of dollars in protective tariffs on clothing made in certain countries, agriculture imports, on shoes, on certain metal products and in anti-dumping fees on steel imports. Even though it will leave up to $4-billion in tariffs in place, the Conservatives are full of fake free trade bravura. The Speech from the Throne said the government “will oppose trade protectionism in all its guises.” What utter baloney.
Tags: economy
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Welcome to the jukebox economy
Friday, March 5th, 2010
March 04, 2010
When all spending is an investment in jobs, the jukebox must be continually fed lest the theoretical jobs stop materializing… the budget produced a “Job Impact” analysis that claims that by the end of 2010, Ottawa’s Economic Action Plan has “created or maintained” 220,000 jobs… But has the productivity of the auto sector improved? Possibly, but not likely.
The contribution of government handouts and spending to productivity — net increases in growth and prosperity — is at best suspect and likely non-existent. Some of this is obvious. The transfer of $1-billion to help companies bury carbon emissions creates jobs, no doubt about that, but the productivity gain can only be negative. Nothing is added to the economy.
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Soft on truth, not tough on crime
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
March 3, 2010
…an honest examination of the record compels one to acknowledge that the greatest delays to implementation of the government’s justice agenda resulted from the government’s own actions — sitting on bills and not bringing them forward for debate, delaying bringing legislation into force, and ultimately, of course, shutting down Parliament.
Tags: Senate
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Our health, our choice
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
February 24, 2010
My heart, my health, my choice. With those six words, Danny Williams neatly summed up the case for private health care…
There is one system for the rich and one for the rest of us. Mr. Williams and others in his income bracket can afford to jet down to a posh Florida hospital for the latest procedure. Joe and Jane Canadian cannot.
…private hospitals would not destroy the public system. Instead, they would provide incentive for the public system to improve, something missing in a state monopoly.
Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »
The Chopping Block: End corporate subsidies, save billions
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
February 22, 2010.
There are hundreds of corporate welfare items in Ottawa, too many to list or even count. Programs are buried within programs, with grants and loans vying with tax credits and direct subsidies to relieve Canada’s capitalists of risk and transfer it over to taxpayers.
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
What else have you got? [bullying awareness & prevention]
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
February 20, 2010.
Despite increased awareness, many adults still treat bullying as an unpleasant but inevitable part of childhood, acting on the theory that children must learn to fend for themselves. They fail to recognize the profoundly damaging effects this kind of playground torment has on its victims.
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
The dangerous evolution of human rights legislation
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
February 18, 2010.
…the-equality-of-opportunity model gave way to an equality-of-treatment model. The objective here was to identify, and eliminate, structural barriers to equality; it was contended that human rights commissions must superintend not just opportunity but all subsequent consequences, to ensure that social benefits were equitably distributed.
Tags: featured
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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