I’ve just written a ‘top 10’ overview of the recent Alberta budget. Points raised in the post include the following: -The budget lays out a four-year strategy of spending cuts, letting population growth and inflation do much of the heavy lifting. -After one accounts for both population growth and inflation,
Continue readingTag: Health Care
Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – In an excerpt from his new book, Martin Lukacs examines the disappointment Justin Trudeau has inflicted on anybody who thought his carefully-cultivated progressive image would be matched by action: Long before photographs of Trudeau partying in black-face and brown-face in his twenties
Continue readingwmtc: september 28: international safe abortion day
Today is International Safe Abortion Day. Because without access to safe, legal abortion, women can never be free. In North America, you can help ensure that women are able to access safe abortions, is to donate to abortion funds. The National Network of Abortion Funds (N-NAF) can show you how.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here (via PressReader), on how the Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that Canadian voters can choose substantial social and environmental progress that’s well within our means – even if the two main parties are determined to offer far less. For further reading…– Jeffrey Brooke wrote here about the origins of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kate Aronoff asks how much destruction is needed before we’ll start taking climate change seriously – though the answer at this point looks to be that no amount of damage will be enough to move a substantial number of politicians off their insistence
Continue readingwmtc: three questions for readers: instant pot, green smoothies, golden milk
I’d love reader feedback on these three questions. I know most people will reply on Facebook, which makes it really difficult to save reader reaction. But there’s no stopping that train, so… copy/paste/save. Instapot Yes, I know it’s an Instant Pot. I like to call it an Instapot. I think
Continue readingwmtc: my experience with bc (and small town) health care so far
So far, my experience with health care in our small BC town has been excellent. Limited sample size, anecdotal, non-scientific, yes. I’m just reporting on what I’ve experienced and observed in the past nine months, plus a few facts about funding. Port Hardy Our town of about 4,200 people has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – John Nichols interviews Bernie Sanders about the importance of resurrecting the principle of economic rights. Gallup examines how the American public is again recognizing the value of unions. And Simon Goodley writes about the positive effects of shortening the work week to 4
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Richard Cannings comments on the need for governments to collect a fair share of revenue from wealthy individuals and corporations. And Erin Weir argues that Canada’s federal government shouldn’t subsidize Jason Kenney’s corporate tax giveaway with abatements on federal taxes. – Meanwhile, Paul
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Seth Klein summarizes new polling showing that Canadians are eager for far stronger action to fight climate change than the Libs or Cons will even consider. And Andrew Leach points out that the Cons’ excuse for a climate plan is a study
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Conservative mismanagement of health care, which we’re about to see return to Alberta, is a feature, not a bug
Last Thursday, Tyler Shandro advised Albertans that the promised United Conservative Party review of Alberta Health Services is rolling ahead. Well, he did once tell us that things tend to happen in due course. This is pretty much the first we’ve heard from Alberta’s baby-faced health minister since he famously demonstrated
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Ernest Canning writes about the importance of treating corporatism as a specific and extreme position, rather than allowing it to define the political centre. And Norm McKee rightly argues that Canada’s federal election campaign needs to include a focus on ensuring the rich
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how a public drug manufacturer could both secure Canada’s supply of needed medications in the face of threats from both corporate greed and U.S. policy threats. For further reading:– Adam Houston and Amir Attaran have been warning about the dangers of a U.S. importation scheme for some time
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Derrick O’Keefe writes that our federal election should be focusing on the growing climate crisis, not being sidetracked by such trivialities as chocolate milk. (Though I’ll argue that the two issues may sometimes point to the same key structural problems.) Cam Fenton
Continue readingwmtc: three thoughts arising from a focus on the housing crisis
Today I attended a working meeting that included almost all the service providers in the region. These service providers were brought together by the Mount Waddington Health Network to build a coalition that will deal with the housing crisis. I was there mainly to stay informed and to network, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – PressProgress examines Statistics Canada’s latest research on the tens of billions of dollars in taxes being dodged by multinational corporations. And George Monbiot offers an inside look into the crushing power of billionaires once they sense a threat to their sources of wealth
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about this year’s Alberta Alternative Budget
The Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) is an annual exercise whose working group consists of researchers, economists, and members of civil society (full disclosure: I’m the Editor). Our general mandate is to create a progressive vision for Alberta to boost economic growth and reduce income inequality. This year’s document was released
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: MEDIA RELEASE: Alberta should increase social spending; cuts are not the way to go
(June 24, 2019-Calgary) With Alberta’s economy still facing challenges and vulnerabilities, the Alberta government should not be doling out tax cuts or cutting social spending, according to the Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) released today. “Alberta still has, by far, the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio of any province,” says Nick Falvo, editor
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Nick Hanauer discusses the futility of “educationism” which treats schools as the only factor in social outcomes without recognizing the importance of inequality and precarity in restricting opportunities for far too many children. And PressProgress points out that Brian Pallister’s Manitoba PCs –
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jonathan Aldred calls out the combination of handouts to the rich, cultivated attitudes of self-reliance and antisocial assumptions which have exacerbated inequality over the past few decades: European countries have, on average, more redistributive tax systems and more welfare benefits for the
Continue reading