2019-15

Monday April 29, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday April 29, 2019

Canada working with Philippines for ‘timely resolution’ of waste issue

Canada on Wednesday expressed its commitment in collaborating with the Philippines to address the dumping of waste in the country.

The Canadian Embassy in Manila released a statement a day after President Rodrigo Duterte warned the North American country that he would be sailing to Canada to dump their trash back.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail, there in Canada, I will dump their trash there,” Duterte said in Pampanga on Tuesday.

The Canadian Embassy said a joint technical working group composed of officials from both Canada and the Philippines has been looking into the issues surrounding the removal of the waste in the country “with a view to a timely resolution.”

“In 2016, Canada amended its regulations around hazardous waste shipments to prevent such events from happening again,” the Canadian Embassy said in a statement.

Canada vowed to work with the Philippines in ensuring that the waste shipment will be “processed in an environmentally responsible way.”

In 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country was committed to addressing the issue of waste from Canada that was shipped to the Philippines.

More than 100 container vans of garbage arrived in the Philippines between 2013 to 2014.

“I committed to him (Duterte) as much as I am committing to you that Canada is working hard to resolve the issue,” Trudeau said on the sidelines of the 2017 ASEAN Summit in Manila. (Source: PhilStar)

Saturday April 27, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 27, 2019

Ontario budget cuts could pull millions of dollars out of Hamilton public health, child care programs

Ontario budget cuts will end an addiction counselling program for Hamilton welfare recipients and likely yank millions of provincial dollars from local child care and public health services, city officials say.

April 6, 2019

The Progressive Conservative government is shifting more of shared costs for public health and child care budgets to municipal taxpayers — the kind of move local politicians have long condemned as “downloading.”

The changes will be retroactive to April — meaning city council will likely have to choose between cutting services or forcing local taxpayers to cover extra costs, said Paul Johnson, general manager of healthy and safe communities.

Johnson said Wednesday he does not yet have enough information to predict exact budget shortfalls this year or possible changes to critical services like subsidized child care, for example.

March 19, 2019

“I have a level of frustration because I am unable to tell our councillors, our community, our residents what the next steps are or how their services may be affected,” he said. “We have many questions and we are seeking answers.”

The city will now be on the hook for a portion of $10-million in child care program costs previously fully covered by the province. Hamilton will also pay 30 per cent, rather than 25 per cent of public health program costs.

This year, local taxpayers put up $12.4 million for public health. If that number rises, council could look at program cuts, put off planned hires or dip into reserves to temporarily cover extra costs.

December 18, 2018

But Johnson said it’s too soon to “do the math” on extra costs because the city is not even sure which services will remain in the public health budget — and it is always possible the province will provide transition funding. (Ontario is also working on a plan to review responsibilities and merge municipal boards of health.)

The city is also bracing for news on budgets for Ontario Works, land ambulance and long-term care.

The only specific program casualty of the provincial cuts so far is the Addiction Services Initiative, a long-running pilot program that gives addiction counselling to welfare recipients aiming to rejoin the workforce. The province has confirmed it will no longer fund the program as of July. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday April 19, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 19, 2019

Historic result for PEI Green Party could mean bigger things coming

For the first time ever, the Green Party has risen to Official Opposition status in a Canadian province.

October 23, 2002

The party, led by Peter Bevan-Baker, won eight seats in Prince Edward Island in a vote that saw the Progressive Conservatives form a minority government under premier-designate Dennis King.  The Tory’s won 12 seats.

“It’s a historic night, and a big breakthrough for the PEI Greens,” says Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, “I think it’s really an indication, the fact increasingly more and more voters want to see a new way of doing politics.”

“I think Greens bring a fresh voice and a new perspective, and really a desire as much as possible to work across party lines to solve some of the big challenges that we face.  And do it in a way that puts people first, that puts good policy ahead of party.”

May 31, 2017

He says in the past, people thought success for the Greens were more of “a west coast thing,” alluding to federal leader Elizabeth May, who is MP for a riding in British Columbia, as well as three MLA’s holding seats in the BC legislature.

And then with members holding three seats in New Brunswick’s provincially, some were thinking it was a west and east coast thing.

But with Tuesday’s vote, along with Schreiner’s own successful election bid in Ontario last October, he says we’re seeing a “green wave starting to build across the country.”

Now, what could this mean for future elections?

October 14, 2015

Schreiner says we could see our first indication of it during the fall federal election, and even in the next Ontario election in 2022.

He indicates there were five “high quality” people seeking the Green Party nomination in Guelph last year, along with contested nominations in Waterloo Region.

And he is already fielding calls from people interested in running in the next provincial election. (Source: Kitchener Today) 

 

Wednesday April 24, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 24, 2019

D’Oh Canada! Canadian journalist voicing Trudeau on The Simpsons

Canadian journalist Lucas Meyer is putting the hours he’s spent listening to politicians to good use, lending his imitation of Justin Trudeau to The Simpsons.

March 24, 2017

Sunday’s upcoming episode, “D’Oh Canada,” will feature a subplot involving Lisa being granted asylum in Canada during a family trip to Niagara Falls.

Meyer, a lifelong fan of the show, said he was thrilled and a bit stunned to receive an email from a Simpsons producer last September. He auditioned a few hours later and found out he got the part the next day.

“I just couldn’t believe it, I sent it to my wife and she was losing her mind,” he said.

“A, it was unexpected. B, it’s not just a show it’s The Simpsons, one that I grew up with. And C, it’s not just a guest voice. It’s guest-voicing the prime minister.”

Meyer, who grew up in Montreal and Antigonish, N.S., has been honing his impersonation skills for years. He said Trudeau is one of his favourites to mimic, along with Don Cherry, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his mother-in-law, Esther.

August 15, 1997

While working as a reporter in Calgary in 2017, Meyer relented to urgings from friends and posted a compilation of his impressions on YouTube. The video has garnered about 32,000 views and caught the attention of The Simpsons producers.

Meyer kept the news secret for more than six months and finally shared it Monday on social media.  

“I never would have anticipated this,” he told CBC News with a laugh.

Tim Long, a Canadian-born consulting producer on The Simpsons, hinted the episode featuring Trudeau would touch on a “current scandal,” perhaps the SNC-Lavalin controversy.

“That may be one of those things that nobody in America is going to get,” Long, who was born in Brandon, Man., and grew up in Exeter, Ont., said in a recent phone interview with The Canadian Press.

“It’s funny, though, because of course America got used to the idea that, ‘Well, Trudeau is great’ — at least the liberal part of America has sort of got it in their head that, ‘Oh, he’s amazing and Canadians must love him’ — and I think they’re shocked to learn that he’s in a little bit of trouble right now.”

Meyer currently works as a reporter with Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and has had his own professional dealings with Trudeau on the scandal. (Source: CBC) 

Meme-able illustrations

Saturday April 20, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 20, 2019

Justin Trudeau finally got some good news this week. Courtesy of Jason Kenney.

The election of the old Harperite and his band of right-wing friends of the oil industry has suddenly made it clearer than ever the divide over the future direction of the country.

October 16, 2015

It’s clear where Kenney and the majority of Albertans who voted for him stand. Forget climate change and the catastrophe facing the planet. Albertans’ choice is a pipeline in every garden and a couple of pickup trucks in every driveway.

We now know that the NDP’s victory in 2015 was a fluke. Rachel Notley was an able politician but her attempt at a balanced approach to the issue of how a province hooked on carbon could make a reasonable effort at reducing the damage caused by its coal-fired power plants and GHG-producing oil sands was never going to win over voters long-term.

Like Philippe Couillard, who bravely and successfully tackled Quebec’s fiscal deficit and was rewarded for his efforts by being tossed out of office, Rachel Notley learned that voters don’t want politicians to take hard choices. They want to hear nonsense from their leaders, provided it doesn’t cost them a cent.

May 15, 2018

It’s the same idiocy that got Doug Ford elected. Remember him promising how easy it would be to balance the Ontario budget by simply getting rid of inefficiencies and cutting spending on “pencils and foolscap.”

I know Alberta is going through a tough time but that’s what happens when you live in a commodity-dependent economy. Prices go up and they go down, and you’re particularly vulnerable when prices sink and you’re a high cost producer.

Yet when times are good, Albertans convince themselves they’re rich because they’re so smart. And when boom inevitably turns to bust, they’re suddenly surprised. Who would have thought oil prices couldn’t tank? And of course, Justin Trudeau, not the world market, is responsible for oil prices.

All of this is made worse by Albertans approach to government finances. Alberta has made its own bed, deciding it wasn’t going to be Norway, which forces its citizens to pay their own way through taxes and squirrels away its petroleum windfalls for a rainy day. Instead, Alberta has modelled itself on a Mideastern petro-state. (Continued: iPolitics)