Posts Tagged ‘ideology’
Ontario got two things right with post-secondary funding — and one thing very wrong
Saturday, February 21st, 2026
Increasing tuition and provincial funding will improve the financial conditions facing colleges and universities. However, shifting OSAP from majority grants to loans will make it harder for students, particularly those most economically disadvantaged, to attend, persist, and graduate. There are other, more equitable pathways forward.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Getting rid of school board trustees is the right thing to do
Saturday, February 21st, 2026
Calandra’s stated goal is to restore solvency and stability — fiscal and pedagogical — to the system. The minister has catalogued a litany of unauthorized budget deficits, implausible fiscal plans, botched agendas for staff and students, and classroom funding sacrificed for pet projects or fanciful causes. Opposition critics suggest Calandra has a hidden agenda to disempower trustees.
Tags: Education, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Doug Ford’s changes to university funding is good news for universities and terrible news for poor students
Wednesday, February 18th, 2026
Ontario will still be tenth out of ten provinces for per-student funding. But Thursday’s announcement will bring public funding back roughly to its previous all-time high of about $8.5 billion per year. Some of the $5.3 billion is genuinely new. But over 50 per cent of the new money going to universities and colleges is being reallocated from within the Ministry — specifically, by taking about $700 million/year away from… OSAP
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
What Alberta is doing with its health care is a threat to every Canadian
Monday, February 9th, 2026
The Health Statutes Amendment Act will allow physicians to practice in both the public and private system for medically necessary care — meaning that they can both bill the provincial health care plan for some patients and charge other patients out-of-pocket or through private insurance… Dual practice does not address the real problems in health care because it does not involve adding more health care professionals to the system or enable more organized, efficient care.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Finally Mark Carney delivers a breakthrough for Canadians asking for help. Will it be enough?
Wednesday, February 4th, 2026
The federal government recently announced the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB), an income support designed to help Canadians afford the basics of life. For millions of people struggling to put food on the table, this announcement will mean immediate relief… it treats hunger as a policy problem rather than a charitable one… Ultimately, Canada’s food insecurity crisis isn’t caused by a shortage of food; it’s caused by a lack of income.
Tags: featured, ideology, philanthropy, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Why we need to talk about the root causes of food insecurity
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
Research shows that when more people have adequate incomes, food insecurity declines, and that policy changes are essential to ensure that wages, social assistance and pension rates provide a livable income and greater income equality… most children’s fiction suggests individual choices or life circumstances are to blame for food insecurity and that charity, kind strangers and luck are the solutions.
Tags: Education, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
We’re already facing the consequences of two-tier health care. Doug Ford is opening the door to make it even worse
Tuesday, January 20th, 2026
… the door is now wide open to a major expansion of for-profit health care thanks to Ontario’s Bill 60. The bill contains no obvious limits on outsourcing publicly funded health services to the private sector… While reducing wait times is a goal we all share, funding private, for-profit expansion while publicly funded operating rooms sit underused and nurses remain unavailable is not the solution.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
The hoarded wealth of the superrich can do more good in the public’s hands, so let’s tax it: a book excerpt
Sunday, January 18th, 2026
… the wealthiest one per cent of Canadians increased their share of total Canadian wealth from 18 per cent to 26 per cent between 2010 and 2019, while the share of wealth owned by every other income group in Canada declined… while Canadians at almost every income level pay a substantial portion of their incomes in tax, billionaires do not… a wealth tax… could raise billions of dollars that could create a better-functioning democracy with a more hopeful, well-nourished and empowered citizenry.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Donald Trump’s war on narcoterrorism is misguided: Cocaine is not the problem
Monday, December 22nd, 2025
The opioid problem is not an import… it is sustained by cheaper, and even more dangerous, synthetics prepared (often domestically) in illicit labs… It is traceable, in microeconomic terms, not to the abundant supply of illegal opioids, but to the widespread demand for them… A great many Americans feel hopeless. Their lives have been immiserated, socially and economically… Maybe they could… bolster the welfare state, or create jobs that lift people out of poverty?
Tags: crime prevention, globalization, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Blame Doug Ford, not international students, for the catastrophe facing Ontario colleges and universities
Tuesday, December 16th, 2025
… years of underfunding, mismanagement and neglect, colleges and universities across the province are slashing programs and cutting jobs… the harm may become irrevocable. Even in the best case, it will take years, and perhaps decades, to repair the damage already done… postsecondary education is a provincial responsibility…
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, immigration, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
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