christmas

Saturday December 24, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday December 24, 2016 Trump Tower failing to do its bit to Make Christmas Great Again At a Òthank youÓ rally in early December,ÊDonald TrumpÊpromised that he would Make Christmas Great Again. ÒWeÕre going to start saying ÔMerry ChristmasÕ again!Ó Trump told the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.Ê ÒHow about all those department stores?Ó he mused. ÒThey have the bells and they have the red walls and they have the snow. But they donÕt have ÔMerry ChristmasÕ.Ê ÒI think theyÕre going to start putting up ÔMerry ChristmasÕ.Ó Given this full-throated pledge, it might come as a surprise to learn that Trump Tower, the golden jewel in TrumpÕs property portfolio and the building where he is currently plotting his first term, has no signs saying ÒMerry ChristmasÓ whatsoever.Ê Not one. Visiting the Trump Tower on Wednesday, it was clear that holiday decorations have not been eschewed altogether. In fact, itÕs the opposite. The interior of the building is festooned with festive frippery. There is a 30ftÊChristmasÊtree. There are four-foot wreaths all around the entrance area. There are scores of golden boxes, tied up with ribbons, laid around the place, as if Santa Claus gave up on his way to the Trump residence and dumped the presents in the lobby. There are life-sized nutcracker statues, some holding trumpets. But no Christmas signs. The only mention of Christmas the Guardian could find in Trump Tower was in the gift shop, where a little Christmas tree bauble, which showed Santa Claus lying down on top of a yellow taxi, was described as a ÒChristmas ornamentÓ. The ornament had been made in China. Trump has promised that he will return Merry Christmas to common parlance before Ð most notablyÊin November 2015, when he was gearing up for the Republican primaries. It makes sense. The idea of a war on Christmas Ð that Americans are being forced to say Òhappy holidaysÓ instead of Òmerry ChristmasÓ because

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 24, 2016

Trump Tower failing to do its bit to Make Christmas Great Again

At a “thank you” rally in early December, Donald Trump promised that he would Make Christmas Great Again.

“We’re going to start saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again!” Trump told the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“How about all those department stores?” he mused.

“They have the bells and they have the red walls and they have the snow. But they don’t have ‘Merry Christmas’.

“I think they’re going to start putting up ‘Merry Christmas’.”

Given this full-throated pledge, it might come as a surprise to learn that Trump Tower, the golden jewel in Trump’s property portfolio and the building where he is currently plotting his first term, has no signs saying “Merry Christmas” whatsoever.

 

Not one.

Visiting the Trump Tower on Wednesday, it was clear that holiday decorations have not been eschewed altogether. In fact, it’s the opposite. The interior of the building is festooned with festive frippery.

There is a 30ft Christmas tree. There are four-foot wreaths all around the entrance area.

There are scores of golden boxes, tied up with ribbons, laid around the place, as if Santa Claus gave up on his way to the Trump residence and dumped the presents in the lobby.

There are life-sized nutcracker statues, some holding trumpets.

But no Christmas signs.

The only mention of Christmas the Guardian could find in Trump Tower was in the gift shop, where a little Christmas tree bauble, which showed Santa Claus lying down on top of a yellow taxi, was described as a “Christmas ornament”. The ornament had been made in China.

Trump has promised that he will return Merry Christmas to common parlance before – most notably in November 2015, when he was gearing up for the Republican primaries.

It makes sense. The idea of a war on Christmas – that Americans are being forced to say “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas” because of political correctness – is a popular theory among some conservatives.

Trump has four years to force “merry Christmas” upon the American public, so perhaps change will eventually come to the US. He could certainly start by using the phrase in his own building.

But anyway. Happy holidays. (Source: The Guardian)

 

Thursday December 15, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Thursday December 15, 2016 ÒI failed my kidsÓ: An Ontario momÕs story on soaring hydro When Cambridge mother Adele Benoit sees an electricity bill in her mailbox it is a reminder of the constant sacrifices her family must make. Fearing the worst, she will often open the envelope slowly, unfold the bill and hold her breath. "Then you see the amount due on the bill," she said. That statement's final tally has been skyrocketing steadily, she explained, rising to amounts of more than $600 every two months. Not so long ago her hydro bills were half that amount. It's a tough haul for a mother of three boys, aged 16, nine and seven, who takes care of her family in a modest Cambridge Housing Authority affordable unit. With little choice but to pay that bill, Benoit is forced to ask her children to accept less than she knows they deserve. At this time of year that means fewer Christmas gifts and even limiting the time the family's tree is lit. "Our Christmas tree gets lit up for an hour and a half or two hours, and then I shut it off.Ó Though she is employed, her paycheques are no match against rising household costs like electricity. She has even borrowed money to buy winter coats and hats for her sons. The struggle is not an easy one to share. "It makes me feel like I failed my kids," she said. Though in tears at times when describing her family's financial troubles, Benoit shared her story with Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath while sitting together at her kitchen table Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 13). Horwath is on a tour meeting with residents about the rising costs of electricity as part of a bid to force the provincial Liberal government to make hydro more affordable and to "humanize" public policy around energy. Horwath is also aiming to generate more support to block Premier Kathleen Wynne and the government from further privatizing Hydro One. Using Quebec and Manitoba as examples, Horwath said

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 15, 2016

“I failed my kids”: An Ontario mom’s story on soaring hydro

When Cambridge mother Adele Benoit sees an electricity bill in her mailbox it is a reminder of the constant sacrifices her family must make.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday November 22, 2016 Wynne calls high electricity prices her ÔmistakeÕ Premier Kathleen Wynne is calling high electricity prices her "mistake," sounding a note of contrition on one of the major issues threatening the Liberals' re-election bid in 2018. Amid the usual rallying of the troops at the Ontario Liberals' annual general meeting Saturday, Wynne addressed her poor popularity numbers, which she called the "elephant in the room.Ó "I think that people look at me and many of them think, 'She's not who we thought she was. She's become a typical politician. She'll do anything to win,'" Wynne said. "Frankly, I may have and I think I sometimes have given them reason to think that.Ó Wynne said part of convincing Ontarians that she wants to do what is in their best interests is admitting when she has made a mistake. "People have told me that they've had to choose between paying the electricity bill and buying food or paying rent," Wynne said. "That is unacceptable to me. It is unacceptable that people in Ontario are facing that choice. Our government made a mistake. It was my mistake.Ó An eight-per-cent rebate on electricity bills comes into effect Jan. 1, but Wynne said she will find more ways to lower rates and reduce the burden on consumers. After her speech, Wynne wouldn't point to any specific decision on the electricity file that she deems a mistake, but said her focus was on the big issues facing the system and she hasn't always paid enough attention to how costs were accumulating on people's bills. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)Êhttp://www.thespec.com/news-story/6975602-wynne-calls-high-electricity-prices-her-mistake-/ Kathleen Wynne, Ontario, Hydro, Cap and Trade, politics, honesty, taxpayer, rocket, launch

November 22, 2016

Fearing the worst, she will often open the envelope slowly, unfold the bill and hold her breath.

“Then you see the amount due on the bill,” she said.

That statement’s final tally has been skyrocketing steadily, she explained, rising to amounts of more than $600 every two months. Not so long ago her hydro bills were half that amount.

It’s a tough haul for a mother of three boys, aged 16, nine and seven, who takes care of her family in a modest Cambridge Housing Authority affordable unit.

With little choice but to pay that bill, Benoit is forced to ask her children to accept less than she knows they deserve. At this time of year that means fewer Christmas gifts and even limiting the time the family’s tree is lit.

“Our Christmas tree gets lit up for an hour and a half or two hours, and then I shut it off.”

Though she is employed, her paycheques are no match against rising household costs like electricity. She has even borrowed money to buy winter coats and hats for her sons. The struggle is not an easy one to share.

“It makes me feel like I failed my kids,” she said.

Though in tears at times when describing her family’s financial troubles, Benoit shared her story with Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath while sitting together at her kitchen table Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 13).

Horwath is on a tour meeting with residents about the rising costs of electricity as part of a bid to force the provincial Liberal government to make hydro more affordable and to “humanize” public policy around energy.

Horwath is also aiming to generate more support to block Premier Kathleen Wynne and the government from further privatizing Hydro One.

Using Quebec and Manitoba as examples, Horwath said other provinces are keeping energy rates down and are not privatizing, ensuring their electricity systems are about people, not profit.

In Ontario, she said, it’s private companies that are reaping the benefits. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday December 24, 2015

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday December 24, 2015 Where will the cold come from? Warmer weather forecasted in Hamilton T.S. Eliot wrote that the cruelest month is April, when flowers emerge from "the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." But the poet never experienced our December, which may end up the warmest on record, with confused buds blooming on land that doesn't know when to die. Cruel? "People are loving it," said Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips. "Forget about the whole Great White North reputation, people see this as payback for the last two winters, which were brutal." The Hamilton forecast not only calls for a green Christmas, but the temperature spiking to 15 C Thursday. Mild weather has been influenced by the impact of El Ni–o Ñ unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. Phillips cautions that December is not over yet, but offers these highlights: ¥ Hamilton's average 2015 December temperature has been 4.8 C; the normal is -2.3 C, a seven-degree difference that Phillips calls "shocking." ¥ Total snowfall has been 1.8 centimetres; the lowest on record from fall through to Jan. 1 was 5.4 cm ¥ It can all change fast, but: "I see no end in sight for 2015. Because of El Ni–o, I don't see where the cold will come from. The ground is warm, lakes wide open, and any cold air that comes from the north is being moderated." Reaction depends on who is weathering the warm snap. Golfers delight: Knollwood golf club in Ancaster, for one, reopened, heralding on its Facebook page it's "the season that never ends" and noted 174 golfers teed-off one day. Commuters like it, as well as joggers, and those who never tire of talking weather Ñ the last refuge of the unimaginative, said Oscar Wilde. (And journalists.) Squirrels in Hamilton, meanwhile, have been spotted looking noticeably plumper from eating everything in sight like it's an end

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 24, 2015

Where will the cold come from? Warmer weather forecasted in Hamilton

T.S. Eliot wrote that the cruelest month is April, when flowers emerge from “the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

But the poet never experienced our December, which may end up the warmest on record, with confused buds blooming on land that doesn’t know when to die.

Cruel?

“People are loving it,” said Environment Canada climatologist David Phillips. “Forget about the whole Great White North reputation, people see this as payback for the last two winters, which were brutal.”

The Hamilton forecast not only calls for a green Christmas, but the temperature spiking to 15 C Thursday.

Mild weather has been influenced by the impact of El Niño — unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.

Phillips cautions that December is not over yet, but offers these highlights:

• Hamilton’s average 2015 December temperature has been 4.8 C; the normal is -2.3 C, a seven-degree difference that Phillips calls “shocking.”

• Total snowfall has been 1.8 centimetres; the lowest on record from fall through to Jan. 1 was 5.4 cm

• It can all change fast, but: “I see no end in sight for 2015. Because of El Niño, I don’t see where the cold will come from. The ground is warm, lakes wide open, and any cold air that comes from the north is being moderated.”

Reaction depends on who is weathering the warm snap.

Golfers delight: Knollwood golf club in Ancaster, for one, reopened, heralding on its Facebook page it’s “the season that never ends” and noted 174 golfers teed-off one day.

Commuters like it, as well as joggers, and those who never tire of talking weather — the last refuge of the unimaginative, said Oscar Wilde. (And journalists.)

Squirrels in Hamilton, meanwhile, have been spotted looking noticeably plumper from eating everything in sight like it’s an endless September. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Ontario to lose equalization payments as Alberta's economic fortunes fall Ontario will shed its status as a poor cousin of Confederation in the coming years, not because its economic fortunes are rebounding, but because resource-rich Alberta is falling on hard times. The federal government is expected to announce how much each province will receive in the fiscal year 2016-17 from transfer payment programs, which include equalization, before Finance Minister Bill Morneau meets with his provincial and territorial colleagues in Ottawa on Sunday evening. The equalization program redistributes national income to help poorer provinces provide services comparable to those of their richer counterparts. But equalization experts say the formula for calculating the payments is slow to respond to changes, including volatile commodity prices, which will leave Alberta carrying a disproportionate burden when the numbers are announced this weekend. Ontario began receiving equalization for the first time in 2009, a dramatic reversal of fortune for the countryÕs one-time economic powerhouse. It is now set to reclaim its status as a ÒhaveÓ province because the disparity between its economy and that of Alberta is shrinking. ÒWhat weÕre talking about here is the bad way of coming out of equalization,Ó economist Don Drummond said. The Ògood wayÓ to come out of the program, he said, is for a provinceÕs economy to rebound so that growth in its revenues offsets a loss of equalization payments. Because the equalization funding is based on a three-year national average of gross domestic product, next yearÕs calculation will still include times when oil prices were high and Alberta was booming. This means Ontario will not get Òkicked outÓ of the program for another two or three years, Mr. Drummond said. Alberta pulled up the overall standard of living in Canada when the countryÕs wealth was sh

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Ontario to lose equalization payments as Alberta’s economic fortunes fall

Ontario will shed its status as a poor cousin of Confederation in the coming years, not because its economic fortunes are rebounding, but because resource-rich Alberta is falling on hard times.

2005

The federal government is expected to announce how much each province will receive in the fiscal year 2016-17 from transfer payment programs, which include equalization, before Finance Minister Bill Morneau meets with his provincial and territorial colleagues in Ottawa on Sunday evening.

The equalization program redistributes national income to help poorer provinces provide services comparable to those of their richer counterparts. But equalization experts say the formula for calculating the payments is slow to respond to changes, including volatile commodity prices, which will leave Alberta carrying a disproportionate burden when the numbers are announced this weekend.

2008

Ontario began receiving equalization for the first time in 2009, a dramatic reversal of fortune for the country’s one-time economic powerhouse. It is now set to reclaim its status as a “have” province because the disparity between its economy and that of Alberta is shrinking.

“What we’re talking about here is the bad way of coming out of equalization,” economist Don Drummond said.

The “good way” to come out of the program, he said, is for a province’s economy to rebound so that growth in its revenues offsets a loss of equalization payments.

Because the equalization funding is based on a three-year national average of gross domestic product, next year’s calculation will still include times when oil prices were high and Alberta was booming. This means Ontario will not get “kicked out” of the program for another two or three years, Mr. Drummond said.

2008

Alberta pulled up the overall standard of living in Canada when the country’s wealth was shifting west to the resource-rich provinces. Now that Alberta’s economy is faltering, the reverse is happening. Ontario will no longer be eligible to receive equalization once its standard of living is aligned with a lower national average.

Any province that falls below the national average is eligible for equalization. In fiscal 2015-16, Ottawa distributed $17.3-billion in equalization payments to six provinces. Ontario’s share was $2.4-billion. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Canada, Alberta, Ontario, Rachel Notley, Kathleen Wynne, Christmas, Equalization, have, have-not, province, Christmas, stocking, coal

Friday December 18, 2015

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday December 18, 2015 OPP charge two former McGuinty aides in connection with gas plants scandal Ontario Provincial Police laid criminal charges Thursday against two top aides to former premier Dalton McGuinty in a gas plants scandal that cast a cloud over his final days in power. David Livingston, McGuinty's former chief of staff, and Laura Miller, the deputy chief who went on to work for British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, are each charged with breach of trust, mischief in relation to data and misuse of a computer system to commit the offence of mischief. The charges stem from the destruction of thousands of government emails about the Liberals' decision to cancel planned gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election. The province's auditor found the move will cost ratepayers up to $1.1 billion. McGuinty's lawyer, Ronald Caza, issued a statement Thursday saying the OPP had made clear last June that the former premier was not the subject of their investigation. "Today's events again confirm there was no wrongdoing on the part of the former premier," Caza said. Miller issued a statement announcing she had stepped down as executive director of the B.C. Liberal Party, and accused the OPP of having a bias against her because of a complaint she filed with the Ontario Independent Police Review Director. The director ordered the OPP commissioner to hold a police misconduct hearing for Det.-Const. Andre Duval, but the commissioner "resisted" this finding by appealing it to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, said Miller. "Officers involved in a substantiated complaint should not have been allowed to continue investigating," she said in her statement as she vowed to vigorously defend herself against the charges in court. "Every Canadian expects and deserves impartiality and fairness in police charging decisions. I do not believe that to be the case here." Both Livingston

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 18, 2015

OPP charge two former McGuinty aides in connection with gas plants scandal

Ontario Provincial Police laid criminal charges Thursday against two top aides to former premier Dalton McGuinty in a gas plants scandal that cast a cloud over his final days in power.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013David Livingston, McGuinty’s former chief of staff, and Laura Miller, the deputy chief who went on to work for British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, are each charged with breach of trust, mischief in relation to data and misuse of a computer system to commit the offence of mischief.

The charges stem from the destruction of thousands of government emails about the Liberals’ decision to cancel planned gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga prior to the 2011 election. The province’s auditor found the move will cost ratepayers up to $1.1 billion.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

March 21, 2013

McGuinty’s lawyer, Ronald Caza, issued a statement Thursday saying the OPP had made clear last June that the former premier was not the subject of their investigation.

“Today’s events again confirm there was no wrongdoing on the part of the former premier,” Caza said.

Miller issued a statement announcing she had stepped down as executive director of the B.C. Liberal Party, and accused the OPP of having a bias against her because of a complaint she filed with the Ontario Independent Police Review Director.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

December 18, 2013

The director ordered the OPP commissioner to hold a police misconduct hearing for Det.-Const. Andre Duval, but the commissioner “resisted” this finding by appealing it to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, said Miller.

“Officers involved in a substantiated complaint should not have been allowed to continue investigating,” she said in her statement as she vowed to vigorously defend herself against the charges in court.

“Every Canadian expects and deserves impartiality and fairness in police charging decisions. I do not believe that to be the case here.”

Both Livingston and Miller are scheduled to make their first court appearances in Toronto on Jan. 27. Like Miller, Livingston’s lawyer has also denied he did anything wrong. (Source: Canadian Press)