Even as the Tory’s draconian omnibus crime bill approaches the critical vote in the Conservative-dominated Senate, Canadians must still hope that sanity will prevail. The Senate, though unelected and dominated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s …Read More
Continue readingTag: Conservative government
Pop The Stack: Harper’s Win-At-All-Costs Approach Led to Electoral Manipulation
The first wave of dust is settling from the revelation this week that a company hired by the Conservative party made fraudulent calls to voters trying to mislead them about voting day locations. We still don’t know how high up the decision was made to make these calls. I think we
Continue readingPop The Stack: Harper’s Win-At-All-Costs Approach Led to Electoral Manipulation
The first wave of dust is settling from the revelation this week that a company hired by the Conservative party made fraudulent calls to voters trying to mislead them about voting day locations. We still don’t know how high up the decision was made to make these calls. I think we
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Stapleton on Harper’s Proposed OAS/GIS Changes
John Stapleton has an opinion piece out on Prime Minister Harper’s proposed changes to Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). I find the following quote from Stapleton to be particularly troubling: By providing OAS and GIS at age 65, Canada has greatly reduced the incidence of poverty
Continue readingPop The Stack: Tell Vic Everything…but don’t worry, he doesn’t want to know about your guns
Update 2: Some more great examples of inconsistency, remember when the government used private information on Vets to smear their spokesperson? Update 1: A version of this post can also be seen here at the Huffington Post. Maybe you can help me figure something out. How is it exactly that the same Conservative government
Continue readingPop The Stack: Tell Vic Everything…but don’t worry, he doesn’t want to know about your guns
Update 2: Some more great examples of inconsistency, remember when the government used private information on Vets to smear their spokesperson? Update 1: A version of this post can also be seen here at the Huffington Post. Maybe you can help me figure something out. How is it exactly that the same Conservative government
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Diane Finley’s Demographics
On CTV yesterday, human resources minister Diane Finley said (45 seconds into this interview): “As we go forward, we’re going to have three times the expense in Old Age Security as we do now, but we’re only going to have half the population to pay for it.” That sounds pretty
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Conservative Senator: “Every murderer should have a rope in his cell”
The Conservative government’s universally-condemned omnibus crime Bill C-10has a confirmed YES vote in the Senate. The name behind the vote: tough-on-crime Conservative Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu. Earlier today, Boisvenu said a prisoner “should have the right …Read More
Continue readingOccupy Ottawa: Conservative Senator: “Every murderer should have a rope in his cell”
The Conservative government’s universally-condemned omnibus crime Bill C-10 has a confirmed YES vote in the Senate. The name behind the vote: tough-on-crime Conservative Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu. Earlier today, Boisvenu said a prisoner “should have the …Read More
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Occupy Ottawa to protest Crime Bill C-10 on Parliament Hill
Hundreds of activists are expected on Parliament Hill at noon on Tuesday, January 31, to protest the Harper Conservative government’s widely condemned omnibus crime Bill C-10. The protest is being organized by the Political Action …Read More
Continue readingOccupy Ottawa: Occupy Ottawa to protest Crime Bill C-10 on Parliament Hill
Hundreds of activists are expected on Parliament Hill at noon on Tuesday, January 31, to protest the Harper Conservative government’s widely condemned omnibus crime Bill C-10. The protest is being organized by the Political Action …Read More
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Unless people take action, Harper’s scheme will mean ‘Goin’ Down the Road’ for Maritimers
By dramatically changing the health care funding formula, is Prime Minister Stephen Harper showing little concern for the future of the Maritime provinces? The Health Accord “deal” that Harper practically threw in the face of the provinces and territories this week, not only cuts health funding for all the provinces
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Deregulation: A Bad Idea Crosses the Atlantic
The Harper government announced today that federal “regulators will be required to remove at least one regulation each time they introduce a new one that imposes administrative burden on business.” At the risk of imposing a proofreading burden on communications staff, that sentence is missing the word “an.” I first
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy
December marked the three-year anniversary of Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. While I believe there is much to celebrate, much remains to be done. The Strategy surprised a lot of observers, especially in light of the fact that it was announced in December 2008, just as Ontario was entering a recession.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Is Money Enough? The Meaning of 6% and Flaherty’s Health “Plan”
A shorter version of this piece was posted on the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he’d increase federal funding for health care by six per cent
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Conservative Health Transfers
During the federal election, I noted in a Toronto Star op-ed that the federal Conservative platform entails significant fiscal costs for provincial governments. I accepted the Conservatives’ promise to continue the 6% escalator for the Canada Health Transfer, but worried that they might cut other transfers of similar value. Today,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Don’t let dubious political tactics turn us off politics
Here’s a guest post from Ben Gillies, a political economy grad from the University of Manitoba. Canadians Must Not Let Dubious Political Tactics Turn Us Off Politics Altogether By Benjamin Gillies Last week, the Conservatives admitted their party was behind a rash of phone calls to Liberal Irwin Cotler’s federal
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Inequality and Climate Injustice: A Durban Post-Mortem
The United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, ended 2011 with a whimper. After a year in which climate disasters rolled across the globe, major polluting nations like Canada chose to ignore them, seeking instead to disrupt the Durban negotiations, then blew the world a raspberry, by officially
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Conservatives Betray Canadians with U.S. Steel Deal
DECEMBER 12, 2011 | MEDIA RELEASE TORONTO – The Conservative government has betrayed working families in Hamilton and Nanticoke by dropping its court case against U.S. Steel despite the company’s clear violations of federal law. …Read More
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Housing in the Northwest Territories
Last week, I was in Yellowknife, where I released results of new research on affordable housing in the Northwest Territories (NWT). The research project was sponsored by the Social Economy Research Network of Northern Canada, and was a collaboration with the Centre for Northern Families. Research findings include the following:
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