This afternoon I gave a presentation to Professor Ted Jackson’s graduate seminar course on higher education, taught in Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration. The link to my slide deck, titled “The Political Economy of Post-Secondary Education in Canada,” can be found here. Points I raised in the
Continue readingTag: social policy
THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: The Four Walls of My Freedom – Why I Wrote This Book
“The trick to helping communities find their own answers to caring for their citizens is not in locating charismatic leaders, but in forming “leader-full” alliances of of elected officials, bureaucrats, members of the medical community, caregivers and care receivers.” From the updated paperback edition of my book, “The Four
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: “Why Would You Ever Spend Money on the Death Penalty?” – Words from an Executioner
The entire article is available on Alternet.org, but I found this section in particular very moving. “Even when I was on the job, I was always asking, what can I do to prevent these guys before they get there? I used to bring kids down from schools. I would allow
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A symbol of failure. A reason to change. #nlpoli
A couple of weeks ago, the St. John’s media devoted huge amounts of of the reporting space to the death of a woman who spent most of her time beating the streets of St. John’s. The word the news writers settled on to describe her was “iconic”. People started a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Social Assistance in Canada
This week I am attending a conference entitled “Welfare Reform in Canada: Provincial Social Assistance in Comparative Perspective,” organized by Professor Daniel Béland. The focus of the conference is “social assistance,” which typically encompasses both last-resort social assistance (i.e. ‘welfare’) and disability benefits. In Ontario, the former is known as
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Socially-responsible reporting trumps irresponsible government every time #nlpoli
For starters, the messenger the provincial government comms geniuses selected to scold CBC wasn’t their best possible choice. Well, not if demonstrated credibility was the global Charlene Johnson has a long history of bungling, of coming off as condescending and arrogant without even the slightest possible justification for being so.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Homelessness Policy
This afternoon, I gave a presentation on public policy responding to homelessness in Canada, with a focus on the past decade. I gave the presentation at this year’s annual conference of the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association. Points I made in the presentation include the following: -Once inflation is accounted for,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Housing Policy Under Harper
Today I gave a presentation on Canadian housing policy at the annual conference of the European Network for Housing Research. Points raised in the presentation include the following: -Fiscal context, more so than which party has been in government, appears to have shaped federal housing policy in Canada over the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Child poverty rampant in Canadian cities
The story of child poverty in Canada is very much an urban story. One out of every 10 children living in urban areas was poor in 2010, compared to one in 20 children living in non-urban areas. Three quarters (or 76%) of all poor children in Canada lived in one
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM - A Blog by Donna Thomson: When A Family’s Love is Not Enough
There are some people who, in the prime of their lives, cannot conceive of getting old. They imagine that only other people have babies with disabling conditions. They champion independence and despise infirmity. Those people might believe that if anything catastrophic ever DID happen to them, then surely the government
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Christmas Message
As a retired teacher, I am well familiar with the works of Charles Dickens. Although his literary legacy is one of predominantly lengthy works, he is probably best remembered for his shortest one, A Christmas Carol, the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a nasty man consumed by the cost of everything
Continue readingcmkl: Social impact bonds: totally whack
Human resources minister Diane Finley announced this new thing this week – social impact bonds wherein the federal government contracts with a charity or NGO to provide some sort of service and floats a bond tied to the project. Socially minded investo…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: To address health inequalities, look beyond the role of individual responsibility
A new report by the Canadian Medical Association provides a timely reminder that money buys better health, even in a country with a universal public healthcare system. A poll commissioned by the CMA found a large and increasing gap between the health status of Canadians in lower income groups (household
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s Self-Imposed Crisis in Post-Secondary Education
On June 7, I gave a keynote address to the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Education Sector Conference. My PowerPoint presentation (with full references) can be found at this link. Points I raised in the address include the following: -Canada’s economy has been growing quite steadily over the past three
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Missed Opportunity for PEI Poverty Strategy
The government of Prince Edward Island has introduced a Social Action Plan to Reduce Poverty, found online at PEI CSS. This Action Plan follows community consultations, including face-to-face meetings and written submissions by community groups. The government of PEI seems to take very seriously a Social Determinants of Health approach
Continue readingpragmaticcanadian: An Ounce Of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure- Healthcare Cracks
Last year, my daughter, Hannah, 11 months old at the time suffered through a respiratory illness, commonly known as the common cold, but dangerous to those under the age of one. It was likely contracted from her two older school aged brothers. This illness, Respiratory syncytial virus, forced her into a general
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Quebec Tuition: Between a Rock and Hard Place?
In the context of student protests over Quebec tuition fees, my friend Luan Ngo has just written a very informative blog post on Quebec’s fiscal situation. While I encourage readers to read his full post, I do want to use the present space to make mention of three important points
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Quebec Student Protests: ‘Going International’
A recent article by Stefani Forster, of the Canadian Press, suggests that the Quebec student protests may be starting a larger social movement outside of Quebec. According to the article: In the last few days, Quebec’s student protests have received coverage in French news outlets like Le Monde and Agence
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Quebec Students: “Faire Leur Juste Part”
Simon Tremblay-Pepin, an emerging social policy scholar, has recently blogged here (in French) about Quebec tuition fees. He points out that, when one adjusts for inflation, Quebec tuition fees are headed into uncharted territory. Indeed, contrary to some recent spin from the Charest government, Tremblay-Pepin makes two important observations: 1.
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