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Why the poor cast votes for Conservatives
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
May 10 2011
Despite the fact that Harper has announced his priorities — which don’t include poverty reduction — anti-poverty groups are busy writing articles and circulating studies that bolster their case. But neither rationalization nor wilful blindness will get them far in the next electoral showdown… After being sidelined twice in the past eight months, anti-poverty campaigners need to figure out how right-wing cost-cutters connect with voters — especially low-income voters. My soundings are limited, but a few themes keep popping up…
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Left and right can unite to end corporate welfare
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
May 10 2011
By corporate welfare, think of direct cash payments to business — not for goods or services, but simply because a government wishes to retain or attract a particular business or industry. Sometimes the money is a grant, or a “repayable” loan (often never repaid), but it’s the same strategy: Governments pick winners and losers in the marketplace… Problematically, as governments grant such subsidies, more government “clients” are created at the expense of a more efficient tax system with fewer subsidies and lower overall tax rates.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Legislation will enforce disability-friendly service
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
May 07 2011
Businesses could face fines of up to $100,000 per day under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) if they don’t meet standards for accessible customer service by the new year. The law requires businesses to develop accessible policies and procedures and to train staff, volunteers and contractors to serve customers with disabilities… research by the Martin Prosperity Institute has suggested that the impact of AODA regulations on Ontario’s economy over the next five years could boost revenues for retail and tourism establishments by $4 billion to $11 billion a year.
Tags: disabilities, ideology, rights
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario Liberals helped hospitals hide embarrassing information: critics
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
May 5, 2011
Critics say Ontario’s Liberals are getting more secretive, despite their claims of making government more open and transparent. Liberals on the finance committee used their majority Thursday to exempt hospitals from the freedom of information law, an exemption they had been buried deep in the 2011 provincial budget. Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition, a patient advocacy group… calls it “the hospital secrecy clause” because it’s so broad it amounts to a blanket exemption that will let hospitals hide embarrassing information.
Tags: budget, Health, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario boots vaccine program
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
May 5, 2011
Ontario newborns will soon be able to receive a new, drinkable vaccine to protect them from diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. Nearly 140,000 infants will benefit from the oral rotavirus vaccine… Beginning this August, the government will offer two new vaccines — one for rotavirus and the other a combined chicken pox and measles-mumps-rubella vaccine known as MMRV. The government says the vaccine change will save families up to $350 per person.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | 3 Comments »
PM must listen to will of the majority
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
May 04 2011
His government carries far more seats than it does a percentage of Canadian support… 86 per cent support a strengthening of public health care over a switch to a system of both public and private health care… His mandate is not to protect the oil sands regardless of their impact on the earth. His mandate is not to continue defunding of women’s advocacy groups or international aid. His mandate is not to Americanize copyright law, political party funding, military spending and our legal system, or to give tax breaks for corporations at the expense of inner city literacy.
Tags: budget, corrections, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The centre cannot hold
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
May 03 2011
A core truth about contemporary politics is that a good many Canadians are fully prepared to see the welfare state significantly reduced. So we are back to old-style, left-right politics. Our debates are going to be a lot more impassioned, and angrier, than they’ve been in years. It’ll be less nice, even less Canadian. But it will be more real.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
No common ground left in the Commons
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
May 02 2011
Canadians turned their backs on more than a century of centrist elite accommodation on Monday and selected a Parliament where the populist right and the populist left will be going head to head for the first time… In the process, Canadians have traded a dysfunctional minority Parliament for a more polarized one… Once the NDP celebrations of Monday’s historic advance have come to an end, the realization will sink in that trading places with the Liberals on the opposition benches is not a cure to a split progressive opposition.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Where delusional does not equal criminal
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
April 29, 2011
There’s more than one way to dispense justice. The best, for some offenders with psychiatric disorders, is to keep them out of the courtroom altogether. Mental health court is already very different in its approach, with Crown attorneys, defence lawyers and judges working together to try to keep low-risk offenders out of the criminal justice system. Rather than punishment, the court seeks to offer them the support they need to get their lives back on track.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, disabilities, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
The trouble with the TFSA
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Apr 30 2011
While corporate tax cuts have been fiercely attacked in recent weeks as giveaways to big business, the Conservatives have managed to avoid controversy over another costly election promise that seems poised to deliver an even bigger windfall to the Bay Street crowd. The promise involves Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA)… the program does little for moderate earners, and is really about eliminating taxes on capital gains and other income from capital – something the financial community has long lobbied for but been unable to achieve.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
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