cannon

Saturday May 11, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 11, 2019

‘We won’t back down.’ Donald Trump talks tough on China trade ahead of high-stakes meeting

On the eve of high-stakes trade talks with China, President Donald Trump used a rally in Florida to ramp up his rhetoric about the prospects of a new agreement to de-escalate a widening tariff battle with Beijing.

“We won’t back down until China stops stealing our jobs,” Trump told the audience of a rally in Panama City Beach on Wednesday. “We don’t have to do business with them.”

While claiming earlier in the day that a Chinese trade delegation is “coming to the U.S. to make a deal,” Trump also said the trade rivals may be pulling back from an agreement in the hopes that a Democratic president will be elected in 2020.

November 30, 2018

“They broke the deal,” Trump told supporters. “They can’t do that.”

U.S. and Chinese negotiators are scheduled to meet Thursday, four days after Trump threatened new tariffs if China refused to sign onto a new trade agreement.

While Trump said China wants a deal, he has said he is also happy with tariffs that he claims put “over $100 Billion a year” in U.S. coffers – a claim most economists say is the wrong analysis because China retaliates with tariffs of its own, and both countries pass on the costs of tariffs to consumers.

Tariff revenue “is a transfer of wealth from Americans to the government, with new tariffs hitting more consumer goods and lower-income households,” said Riley Walters, a policy analyst for Asia’s economy and technology with The Heritage Foundation. “Chinese don’t pay American taxes.” (USA Today) 

 

Tuesday November 20, 2018


Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 20, 2018

Why Doug Ford’s Franco-Ontarian cost-cutting could spell trouble for Andrew Scheer

What’s been called a “sad day for Franco-Ontarians” presents a challenge for Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer — not only in Ontario but in every part of the country where francophones live.

November 27, 2006

The Conservatives are hoping to replicate Premier Doug Ford’s electoral success in Ontario and see him as a key ally in the fight against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. But they also have great hopes of wooing Quebec voters — hopes that could be dashed if Scheer is unable to reconcile his support for Ford with his pitch to the francophone voters now angered by Ford’s actions.

In its fiscal update on Thursday, Ford’s government announced it would be cancelling a project to build a long-awaited French-language university in Toronto and would be abolishing the position of the French language services commissioner.

These decisions hit Franco-Ontarians hard and the reaction has been swift and furious. The front page of Le Droit, a major Franco-Ontarian newspaper, called it a “black day for francos.” Francophone organizations and associations across the province have denounced the move and say they are prepared to contest it in the courts.

But French-speakers in Ontario weren’t the only ones who took notice. In New Brunswick and Manitoba, concerns are being raised about what it signals for the francophone minorities in those provinces.

This is an especially sensitive issue in New Brunswick, where a new Progressive Conservative government is taking office that is dependent for survival on the People’s Alliance, a party that wants to roll back some parts of the province’s Official Languages Act.

Quebec’s French-language media — which normally would pay little attention to a provincial fiscal update in Ontario — also jumped on the news. Le Devoir reported the decision under the headline, “Doug Ford sacrifices Ontario francophones.” Le Journal de Montréal, a widely-read and generally conservative-leaning paper, called it a “sad day.”

Quebec Premier François Legault, a small-c conservative himself, also expressed his concerns and said he would take up the issue with his Ontario counterpart. The mayor of Quebec City — the municipality at the centre of the region where most of the Conservatives’ seats in the province are located — denounced the move as mean-spirited and provocative. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Monday August 20, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday August 20, 2012

It’s McGuinty versus Ontario teachers 

Through nine long years and three hard-fought general elections, Ontario’s teachers have fought doggedly alongside the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty, knocking on doors, pounding in signs and writing cheques that helped fund seven-digit ad campaigns.

But public displays of affection between McGuinty and the province’s two largest teacher unions, representing more than 93,000 members, have vanished. Unions say co-operation has been replaced by a deep sense of betrayal.

“Since 2003 we had a great relationship with this government, there is no doubt about that,” Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario president Sam Hammond says.

“We supported them in each of the last three elections and did that openly because this government did make substantial changes and sound investments in public education. We supported those – smaller class sizes, full day kindergarten, etc.

“As of Oct. 7 (2011), we’re dealing with a government, a premier, a minister of education, I don’t understand anymore. Quite frankly. Since Oct. 7, there has been no relationship with this government.”

Not surprisingly, it’s money troubles that are threatening to split apart this durable political marriage since last fall’s election delivered a Liberal minority – McGuinty is dealing with a $15-billion deficit that can’t be reduced without some pain for the more than 1 million workers in the province’s broader public sector, whose salaries make up a big chunk of that shortfall.

To that end, Education Minister Laurel Broten tried to convince teachers to accept both a two-year wage freeze and a freeze on salary grid movement – the automatic wage bumps teachers get as they accumulate years of service. (Source: Sudbury Star)