Budget

Friday March 5, 2010

Friday March 5, 2010Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 5, 2010

MPs thrown by anthem debate

A move to change the words of the national anthem caught MPs on all sides of the House of Commons by surprise on Thursday.

And for many, the issue has lit up the switchboards back in their constituency offices.

Industry Minister Tony Clement, who represents a central Ontario riding, said his staff fielded calls on the issue. “And they’re 100 per cent against it,” Clement said in Ottawa.

The government, in the speech from the throne on Wednesday, said it would simply refer the anthem to a Commons’ committee to study its gender neutrality.

Jim FlahertyMany believe the phrase “in all our sons command” could be changed to the original 1909 lyric “in thou dost us command.”

Defence Minister Peter MacKay told a Halifax radio show Thursday he wants O Canada to stay the way it is.

Anita Neville, a Liberal MP from Winnipeg who is also her party’s critic for the status of women, said when she sings the national anthem, she sings her own verse, using “in all of us command,” in place of “all our sons” command.”

But she said the government is trying to distract Canadians from substantive issues with the surprise announcement to change the anthem. (Source: Winnipeg Free Press)

Monday July 20, 2009

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday July 20, 2009

Astronauts call for mission to Mars

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the man’s first steps on the moon on July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin said Mars should become the focus of renewed commitment to space travel.

The second man to walk on the lunar surface, he called for the United States to set a goal of reaching the planet by 2035: “To realise that dream we need a unified space vision. The greatest challenge for us is this: ‘Americans, do you still dream great dreams?’, ‘Do you still believe in yourselves, are you ready for a great national challenge?'”

Speaking at a commemorative event at Washington’s National Air and Space Museum, the 79-year-old called on the next generation and our political leaders to follow the president’s campaign slogan of “Yes we can!”

Neil Armstrong, the Apollo 11 commander and the first man on the moon, made a rare public appearance and offered tacit support for his former colleagues. Touting the benefits from the Cold War competition with the USSR to reach the moon, he said: “It was the ultimate peaceful competition. I won’t go as far as to say it prevented war, but it was a diversion, it allowed both sides to take the high road with objectives in science and engineering and provided an engine for cooperation.” (Source: Telegraph) 

 

Monday January 26, 2009

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday January 26, 2009

Government will run $34B deficit

The federal government will run a $34-billion deficit in the coming fiscal year, and a $30-billion deficit in the following year, a senior government official said.

The spokesman said Thursday that the federal government will return to running a surplus within five years.

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is due to present a new budget on Jan. 27.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told reporters the government decided to announce the size of the deficits now because of intense speculation about the budget.

The release of the budget details is, nevertheless, an extraordinary step. The secrecy around federal budget planning is legendary.

By releasing the size and nature of the deficits ahead of the federal budget, the government might be hoping to soften the impact of the deficit blow.

The size of the deficit is largely attributable to the Conservative government’s decision to include billions in stimulus spending beginning in this year’s budget. That includes immediate spending on infrastructure and help for Canadians hit hardest by the economic downturn. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Thursday March 13, 2008

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 13, 2008

Tories set to survive two more confidence votes

Two more confidence votes are scheduled Thursday, during which the Liberals will emerge to see the shadow of their electoral prospects and scurry back underground, presaging at least six more weeks of frosty partisanship.

“About an election, look, not this week,” Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Wednesday following a caucus meeting.

A vote on extending Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan to 2011 is assured passage after a compromise was hammered out between Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government and Dion’s Liberals.

And a budgetary ways-and-means motion, which guts a new Liberal private member’s bill that would make Registered Education Savings Plans tax deductible, will be allowed to pass the House late Thursday – provided Speaker Peter Milliken doesn’t rule the government tactic out of order.

The votes will effectively end a six-week period of brinkmanship in the Commons that saw the minority Tories survive their third federal budget, a government-manufactured crisis on crime legislation, the Afghan debate and an NDP confidence motion on climate-change policy.

But as parliamentarians embark on a two-week Easter break beginning Friday, the season of resurrection ensures that nothing, politically, has been settled. (Source: Sun Media) 

 

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, March 24, 2007

Hamilton a poor cousin

Did the flat-earthers have the right idea? Does the earth really end, drop off into oblivion, at the western border of Burlington?

Sure feels that way in Hamilton as the dust settles after this week’s provincial budget.

Hamiltonians will likely continue to see increased user fees, cuts in services and property tax hikes to cover the most basic of services. That’s what Greg Sorbara’s budget will look like here.

There is no doubt the Dalton McGuinty government has recognized the negative impact of downloading on older cities such as Hamilton. For the past three years, the province has come through for this city with top-ups for downloading: $19.5 million in 2004, $15 million in 2005, more than $20 million last year. This budget continues that recognition, even though it falls short of expectations. As well, the province has set up a panel to review the downloading of provincial programs onto municipalities, scheduled to report next February.

Why then, does Toronto get a good dollop of social services relief in this budget? Why are the GTA municipalities — newer, wealthier and with more growth potential and fewer infrastructure crises than Hamilton — off the hook for pooled social services costs? The pooling will be phased out and those municipalities will benefit. We never even had a chance to get our feet wet in that pool. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)