In the effort to reduce a budget shortfall of $774M in the City of Toronto, we may find that the city our forebears worked so hard to create will be drained of its essence. After promising in the 2010 mayoral election that taxes would be cut and services would be left alone – that tired … Continue reading »
Author: awreeves
the reeves report: Tim Hudak’s Hypocracy is Apparent in Recent Immigration Debate
Perhaps Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak would like to find a new issue with which to drive a wedge between the Ontario electorate and Premier Dalton McGuinty. Why? Because in recent days, his decision to use an immigration pledge in the recently-released Liberal platform shows both his lack of experience as a party leader and … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Feel Safer Post-9/11? Feel $92B Safer?
Earlier this week, the non-partisan (but left-leaning) Rideau Institute released a report on Canada’s defence spending since 9/11 entitled The Cost of 9/11 and the Creation of a National Security Establishment. It was written by economist David Macdonald, and it calculated that $92B ($69B adjusted for inflation) has been spent on ‘security’ in various forms … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Belated Review: ‘Ethical Oil’ by Ezra Levant
Dear Ezra Levant, Oh, Ezra. High off the success of your influential book Shakedown that targets the gross injustices perpetrated by Canada’s various Human Rights Commissions, you have written a book that doesn’t so much detail why oil from Alberta is ‘ethical’ per se (as your title supposes), so much as you have written a … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Jack Layton: Our Politics are Poorer for the Loss
The unthinkable happened twice this year for the federal New Democrats: their charismatic leader Jack Layton took them as close to the Holy Grail of Canadian politics as you can get as a ‘third party’ in doubling their historic seat count to form the official opposition. And then, as the euphoria proved short-lived, the NDP … Continue reading »
the reeves report: DNA evidence enough to cause concern over invasive Asian Carp
This past week, a multi-agency fishing expedition got underway looking for Asian Carp west of Lake Michigan in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. After catching a 19-pound Asian Carp (which is actually an umbrella term for up to nine difference species of carp introduced to North America from Asia) in Lake Calumet in Chicago … Continue reading »
the reeves report: The Politics of Wind Power: Liberals look to ‘John Tory’ Tim Hudak
The Ontario Liberals sent a message to the future this week: it warned Conservative Premier Tim Hudak that if he wants to keep his absurd, long-standing promise to put a moratorium on all wind turbine farms in Ontario, that he would have to do it at the expense of taxpayer dollars and well-paying jobs in … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Torontonians beginning to realize you get what you pay For(d)
Running through the public and media discourse during and immediately after the ‘Historic Toronto Council Sleepover,’ as it will be etched forever in city lore, were two dominant threads that reinforced each other while speaking to separate issues. The first: elections matter. The second: you get what you pay for. Mayor Rob Ford’s challenge to … Continue reading »
the reeves report: ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’: Bloomberg gives fight to Big Coal
Not content to have merely taken on the gun lobby, the tobacco industry, and the anti-gay marriage crowd, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has set his sights on picking a fight with Big Coal. Bloomberg, who also happens to be the 10th wealthiest person in America right now with an estimated personal fortune of … Continue reading »
the reeves report: GPO answers AMO’s call for a comprehensive waste strategy
On June 30th, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario issued a press release that challenged all political parties in Ontario “to demonstrate how they will support waste diversion strategies that ensure that industry cleans up after itself, property taxpayers aren’t left holding the tab for waste management costs, and fewer toxins are released into our … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Are the NDP too dependent on Jack Layton?
I’ll be brief this time, because I know every pundit and their brother will be covering this story and making this speculation. But it’s worth asking – are the NDP too dependent on Jack Layton for their success? True, this success has been incredibly recent, and it is an exception in Canadian politics that the … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Long-term thinking needed in the fight for Ontario’s Green Energy future
While in Vancouver last week as part of a First Ministers meeting, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made a direct link between subsidies paid out to the oil and gas industry in Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan, and the need for greater subsidies from Ottawa for Ontario’s green energy sector. According to the Vancouver Sun, McGuinty claimed … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Riding to ‘Save Jarvis’
At last count before the event started, the RSVP on Facebook claimed that about 900+ people would be attending the ride to ‘Save Jarvis.’ But like anyone who has thrown a party and relied on Facebook to count the attendees, I figured that number would drop by at least a third as things came up … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Ontario and Equalization Payments: ‘have-not’ actually means ‘has-no-oil’
In the two years since Ontario officially joined the ranks of the ‘have-not’ provinces, the volume of equalization payments received has jumped 534%. That’s right – 534%. From the first payment of $347M to this years whopping $2.2B – Ontario is officially suffering through a massive downturn brought on by the loss of almost 300,000 … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Parks Canada the Institution: Celebrating 100 years of Canada’s National Parks
No one can accuse Parks Canada of not pulling out all the stops to celebrate its 100th birthday in style. The Parks Canada website has been overhauled to reflect this important milestone; the establishment of the first urban new national park has been announced for Rouge Valley in Toronto; free parks passes have been granted … Continue reading »
the reeves report: AMO targets Tim Hudak over ‘eco-fee shell game’
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) issued a press release yesterday afternoon attacking Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak over his – and his caucus’s – confusion regarding eco fees. It appears as if the Tories are uncertain as to who exactly will be made to pay for recycling these hazardous materials if they win … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Compromising on Bike Lanes at Toronto City Hall: Pt. II
Yesterday afternoon, when onlookers in the crowd spotted Ford staffers handing out voting sheets to ‘Fordnation,’ as the right wing of Council is known, we who were there to support bike lanes should have guessed the issue was dead in the water. The slim chance that cyclists and their advocates on Council had in retaining … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Fighting for Bike Lanes at Toronto City Hall: Pt. I
“Dammit. My phone died.” “You can use mine.” “That’s okay. I kinda knew it would happen. I didn’t have time to charge my phone today on my morning off. ‘Cause I spent it here.” Andrea Garcia, Advocacy Director with the Toronto Cyclists Union, had already had a long day when I left Council at 7:00 … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Out on a Limb: In Defence of the (Political) Moral High Ground
This may be terribly naive of me (and I’m not ruling out that possibility, to be fair), but I am going to go out on a limb and make the following two statements: 1) the (political) moral high-ground is (often) worth defending; and 2) two wrongs do not make a right. I know, I know. … Continue reading »
the reeves report: Thinking about the universe in a post-shuttle world
Coming fast on the heels of Canada’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the official handing over control from Canadian to US armed forces is another milestone ending in Canadian – actually, world – history: the closing of the space shuttle program. Canada has played a significant role in outer space for a country of our small … Continue reading »