The second session of Canada’s 41st Parliament opens today. And early word about the Speech from the Throne is that PMS (Prime Minister Steve) will make a move towards consumer rights. Funny. He was against pick-and-pay cable and satellite, before he was for it. He was for long term cell
Continue readingAuthor: BlastFurnace
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: My thoughts on "death with dignity"
The recent passing of Dr. Donald Low, who guided Toronto through the SARS crisis in 2003, unexpectedly sparked a revival of the difficult issue of assisted suicide when his widow, CBC alumna and medical expert Maureen Taylor, released Low’s final home video where he asked Canadians to consider what it
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Why I’ll be voting in Ontario on the minimum age
Currently, the minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25 per hour. Presuming a 40 hour week, no sick days and two weeks vacation, that works out to about $20,500 per year. Not a bad piece of change; but with the lowest marginal income tax rate of 20% and payroll taxes of
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: My take on Line 9
Over the last year, there has been a huge amount of debate over Enbridge wanting to reverse the flow of oil in a major pipeline — “Line 9” — from east to west, to west to east. The claim has been made that an already fractured pipeline could become even
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: What? Wireless companies can’t take the heat?
Over the last few weeks, the three big players in Canada’s wireless business — Bell, Telus and Rogers — have been running two separate but related series of ads which are related to the almost certain reality that America’s largest phone, cell and IPTV company, Verizon, will made bids to
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Guest post: The Reserve Paradox (Part II)
[Guest post continued …] Aboriginal people in Canada today suffer from much higher rates of poverty, illness, dysfunction and incarceration than non-Native Canadians. Many non-Native Canadians believe that this is due to the Indian Act and the reserve system which set Aboriginals apart from other Canadians. When these non-Natives see
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Guest post: The Reserve Paradox (Part I)
Once again, I’m happy to lend over this space to my colleague Jared Milne. This time, Jared talks about the troubles that the Aboriginal community has been in for years — or in his words, “how the reserves and the Indian Act, which are seen as ways by which Native Canadians are
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: OMB caves in to idiots at Hamilton City Hall with "Aerotropolis"
Earlier this week the Ontario Municipal Board gave final clearance to Hamilton destroying 555 hectares of virgin farmland for “development” lands around the Hamilton airport, when at least half that much exists in the wasteland of brownfields in the lower city. The so-called “Aerotropolis”. The claim is that businesses
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: A more perfect "union" closer than ever
A huge, huge victory for human rights today in the United States with two decisions from the US Supreme Court. And it means the States is one step closer to joining the civilized world regarding equal marriages. First, in United States v. Windsor (12-307) the court voted 5 to 4
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Can boomerangs swing back out, after coming towards you?
It’s a fair question, because there was another putsch in Australia today. Three years after Kevin Rudd was forced out as Prime Minister by the ruling Labour Party in favour of Julia Gillard, today Gillard herself was shoved aside when it became clear her party has no chance of winning
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Raising the cap — still not a good reason to approve Northern Gateway
The Con government has announced that Canadian energy companies who cause an environmental disaster will be liable for a much larger amount. Currently, it’s just $30 million for the east and west coasts and $40 million for the Arctic. Now it will be $1 billion. That’s fine, but when one
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Do the Cons support free enterprise, or not?
As Canada gets ever closer to signing a free trade and labour agreement with the European Union, where free enterprise is alive and well despite a much more comprehensive social net than we have here, I’m piqued by something. It seems incredible to me that the Conservative Party, the party
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Rathgeber leaves Cons — others should follow
Brent Rathgeber resigned from the Conservative caucus last night, after his proposed private member’s bill was basically emaciated by his fellow backbenchers. His proposed bill, C-461, has one very simple purpose — requiring that all public servants as well as CBC employees who earn more than $188,000 must have their
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Henry Morgentaler dead
Love him or hate him, you can’t deny Henry Morgentaler — who died today age 90 — changed the way we Canadians thought about the rights of women.
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Isn’t it time Parliament was like this EVERY day?
How refreshing it was to see a real Question Period in the House of Commons yesterday. No histrionics. No shouting. No talking points that totally ducked the issue asked about. No “impromptu” and grandstanding standing ovations. Instead, Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau asked short, straight and specific questions about Senator
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Blast Furnace Canada Blog 2013-05-27 20:00:00
I often don’t change my mind on a lot of issues unless I can be convinced. But this is one of them: LRT is a stupid idea for the City of Hamilton. We would be much better off with BRT – Bus Rapid Transit. Metrolinx has said, along with the
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: NDP — socialist now a dirty word?
Barring a huge shock, it’s almost certain Justin “Not Ready for Prime Time” Trudeau will become the leader of the federal Liberal Party, tomorrow. But the one I’m watching this weekend is the NDP convention, and their mulling over whether to eliminate or significantly tone down references to its being
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Gay marriage getting closer in States — hopefully
After two days of hearings at the US Supreme Court it’s not for certain whether gays and lesbians will finally win their hard fought for right to marriage equality across the States. The transcripts don’t in my opinion give too much of a clue, at least in the first case. But
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Let the "muzzled" speak
As disgusting the comments are from several MPs from the far right of the already right-wing and ruling Conservative party, I think they have a point about being muzzled by PMS, and should have the right to speak their minds in the Commons unimpeded. After all, several MPs from the
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Gender identity wins, and Justin proves he`s a loser
What a pleasant surprise to hear that the House of Commons gave third reading to an opposition bill, C-279, that would include gender identity as an aggravating circumstance in determining if a criminal act was motivated by hate and therefore deserved an extended sentence. More astonishing is that 18 Conservatives,
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