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Time to put the capita back in GDP per capita

Thursday, March 7th, 2024

The more societies set the stage to maximize their macroeconomic potential, the more they can make the impossible possible…the challenge isn’t about finding a better metric; it’s about putting the focus on the capita in GDP per capita. Because money doesn’t make an economy. People do. They — we! — are the true measure of an advanced economy.

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Canada should support G20 plan to tax billionaires

Thursday, March 7th, 2024

In an unprecedented development, the G20 has announced it is exploring the idea of co-ordinating efforts to ensure the world’s billionaires pay annual taxes worth at least 2 per cent of their wealth… By co-operating, the world’s leading economies could curb the ability of the superrich to play countries off against each other, and incentivize nations to tax their own billionaires… It’s a plan Freeland should support, even enthusiastically champion.

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What Brian Mulroney got wrong on free trade with the U.S.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2024

Mulroney, Reagan and Thatcher sang a siren song. Get governments out of the way! Let the market rule! Economic globalization, with its program of free trade, privatization and deregulation and everyone would benefit. Corporations surely did… And Canadian CEOs did too… the richest CEOs are paid 246 times more than the average worker.

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Against incredible odds, Canada is getting universal pharmacare

Monday, March 4th, 2024

… this week, the tide seems to have finally turned in favour of the people — with the introduction of a pharmacare bill that defies decades of industry pushback… For years, these powerful industries marshalled enormous resources to derail progress on a national pharmacare plan, pressuring the government to reject the principle of universality, keep our current mixed public-private system in place, and limit drug coverage to the uninsured.

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Trudeau government unveils national pharmacare bill

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

Health Minister Mark Holland has unveiled the Liberal government’s plan to kick-start a national pharmacare program, introducing a bill that spells out a single-payer plan to cover prescription drugs and related medical equipment for diabetes and birth control… Holland introduced a short bill in Parliament Thursday that sets out steps to create the broader plan, all of which will depend on provincial governments’ agreement

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I had to turn another patient away: It doesn’t have to be that way

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

It’s actually physically impossible for a solo family doctor to keep up with all the needed acute, chronic and preventive care, let alone look after their many results and consult notes while running what amounts to a small business… Primary care teams are urgently needed to share these responsibilities and make the most of family doctors’ skills… also needed is a clear vision and a steadfast commitment to reconstructing primary care.

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Here’s why Doug Ford can get away with squeezing Ontario’s colleges and universities

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

This week, Dunlop ‘s ministry had fun with figures by coughing up — and then dressing up — roughly $1 billion in one-time funding, stretched over three years, spread across so many areas that it amounts to a rounding error and a strategic error… In truth, their policy is neither idiocy nor ideology, merely expediency. There are no votes to be had in higher tuition for higher education, and there are no votes to be lost in starving the system of proper funding to keep it afloat

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Ontario adds $1.3B in post-secondary funding, freezes tuition for three more years

Tuesday, February 27th, 2024

Ontario ranks 10th out of 10 in every comparison of interprovincial post-secondary financing, according to a report last year by Higher Education Strategy Associates. International students now give more money to Ontario’s institutions than the government does… Raising Ontario’s level of per-student funding to the average of the other nine provinces would require $7.1 billion per year in additional spending — much higher than the current level of operating funding at around $5 billion

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The crisis hitting small-town Ontario

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

Communities across the province are grappling with overdoses and appealing for more resources to deal with the crisis… According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, the opioid death rate is three times higher in northern than southern Ontario… While we often hear complaints about the lack of sufficient treatment and harm reduction facilities in large cities like Toronto, smaller communities are lucky if they have any at all.

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Why is Ontario embracing private health care? The Scandinavian experience shows it hurts both the quality and choice of care

Tuesday, February 20th, 2024

A new report examines trends in Sweden, Norway, the United States, France and Great Britain, where the pursuit of profit by financial capital is systematically devouring public funding, eroding quality of care and degrading working conditions. Sound familiar? It should: The tapeworm economy has arrived in Ontario, and we need to control it… The escalating profitization of care gobbles up funds that could improve care.

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