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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) 

 

Thursday March 29, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator (www.mackaycartoons.net) – Thursday March 29, 2018

Ontario Liberals bet big on seniors’ care, drug and dental coverage in 2018 pre-election budget

Ontario’s Liberals will plunge back into the red for at least the next six years to fund an array of big-ticket commitments outlined in the government’s pre-election budget on Wednesday.

August 17, 2016

The Liberals already unveiled a number of priority items in a series of commitments in the run-up to budget day, including major investments in health care, pharmacare and $2.2-billion over three years for free licensed daycare for preschool-aged children.

The primary themes of the 308-page budget were telegraphed in a Throne Speech last week that included the word “care,” or some variation of it, upward of 50 times.  It was clear that the budget would include substantial spending after Finance Minister Charles Sousa admitted the province would return to deficit to pay for it all, after running a $600 million surplus this year.

Despite Premier Kathleen Wynne’s recent flurry of announcements, there were a number of surprises revealed on Wednesday, many of them geared toward the elderly and affordability.

February 26, 2016

The budget includes billions in funding for seniors, including a $750 yearly benefit for those 75 and over who still live at home. The “Healthy Home Program” will cost $1 billion over three years. Another $650 million will go toward boosting the number of visits by caregivers to client’s homes.

For seniors in long-term care facilities, the Liberals plan to spend $300 million over three years to hire a registered nurse in every home in Ontario and provide an average of four hours of personal daily care for each resident by 2022.

The Liberals also plan to introduce a program to help cover costs of pharmaceutical drugs and dental care for Ontarians without workplace benefits, regardless of income or pre-existing OHIP+ coverage. (Source: CBC News) 

Letter to the Editor

Every Ontarian should be afraid

RE: March 29 editorial cartoon, Hamilton Spectator

I have just read a portion of the 2017 Ontario Auditor General’s Report. One excerpt from this document should scare every voter in this province.

In referring to the province’s accounting practices, she says, “As such, they obscure, or will obscure, the true state of the Province’s annual deficits and net debt reported on its consolidated financial statements at a time when Ontario already has the highest subsovereign debt in the world.”

Knowing this, the present government continues to buy our votes with our own tax dollars with no consideration as to how the next generation is going to pay this debt off. I applaud Mr. MacKay’s editorial cartoon. It really tells it like it is.

Ron French, Hamilton

Thursday April 13, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 13, 2017

Marijuana Legislation to be tabled Thursday

March 28, 2017

When marijuana becomes a legal recreational drug in Canada, the Liberal government wants Canadians to be able to hold up to 30 grams without fear of running afoul of the law, Radio-Canada and CBC News have learned.

That is just one of several details about what will be included in the federal government’s marijuana legislation, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday, according to a senior government source.

Other elements that will be contained in the upcoming bill include:

  • Introducing penalties for selling cannabis to minors and driving while under the influence of marijuana — both of which were contained in the Liberals’ election platform.
  • Rules that will set limits on how marijuana products are marketed, which are expected to be similar to the limitations on alcohol and tobacco.
  • Funding for a public awareness campaign.
  • The approval of roadside saliva tests to detect drug use.

December 16, 2016

Drugged driving presents a particular challenge. The cannabis task force noted that roadside tests to determine whether a driver is impaired because of pot use are still in development. Public Safety Canada has been working with police in several cities to run pilot projects on different roadside detection tests.

Legalization was a Liberal campaign promise in the 2015 election campaign. Both as Liberal leader and later as prime minister, Justin Trudeau has pitched to Canadians that legalization will make it harder for young people to access pot and will take profits away from organized crime.

It’s expected the government will follow a lot of the advice provided by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation.

According to recent reporting by CBC News, that will include:

  • A minimum age of 18 to buy marijuana, though provinces and territories will have the option of setting a higher age limit.
  • Allowing Canadians to grow four marijuana plants per household.
  • Licensing of producers, as well as ensuring the safety and security of the marijuana supply, will be a federal concern.
  • Provinces and territories will set the price for marijuana and decide how it is distributed and sold.

The prime minister has already suggested that any government revenues from marijuana sales won’t go toward fattening the federal bank account. Instead, Trudeau has said the money could go toward addiction treatment, mental health support and education programs. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Saturday April 4, 2015

Saturday April 4, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 4, 2015

City trashes Good Samaritan for downtown parking lot cleanup

Ted Pundey didn’t expect to be paid for his volunteer cleanup — but he certainly didn’t expect to be fined.

Tired of looking out his downtown condo window at a parking lot full of trash (one the city says has been identified as an illegal dumping “hot spot”), he decided on Tuesday to clean up the mess near King William and John streets himself.

But the intended good deed cost him $125 after he was slapped with a fine by bylaw officers who had witnessed the cleanup — one they alternatively call “illegal dumping.”

“They caught me cleaning,” Pudney — a CBC video editor in Toronto — said Wednesday. When three officers had showed up he was pleased, assuming they were there to help.

But when they handed him a ticket, he was baffled — for one, this wasn’t even his garbage. And he’d stacked the boxes just metres from where he’d collected the trash. In doing so, the city says, he crossed an invisible line in the lot, from private property to a public alleyway portion.

“We have no issues with anybody helping to clean up a property, but if someone is disposing what they’re cleaning up off that property onto city property … then the taxpayer ends up paying for that,” the city’s municipal law enforcement manager Kim Coombs says.

Pudney — who moved from Toronto three months ago — didn’t realize the distinction: “I was doing this strictly to be a good guy. I had no agenda, other than that the area needs some attention.”

He’d purposely stacked the boxes against a posted sign in the alley, advertising designated pick-up times between 10 a.m. and noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)