christmas

Wednesday November 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 30, 2022

Doug Ford has no mandate to sell off the Greenbelt

The Ford government is messing with the Greenbelt and Ontarians should be furious.

March 9, 2005

I say this as someone who was part of the McGuinty government that brought the Greenbelt to life in 2005 — one of the most important accomplishments of my time in office.

The idea was simple — take two million acres of environmentally sensitive forests, wetlands, and prime agricultural farmland off the table for development. The result was the largest Greenbelt in the world, enhancing our environmental ecosystem, curbing urban sprawl, maintaining precious farmland, and creating greenspaces for recreation and tourism.

The key to the exercise was its permanence — it would never be developed.

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Tuesday December 28, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 28, 2021

Hamilton’s Efforts to Combat Homelessness this Winter

While the debate rages on about the dismantling of homeless encampments in Hamilton. City staff are gearing up for providing shelter for the homeless this winter with approximately $3 Million in projects. These include:

August 26, 2021

Transitioning the former Cathedral Boys School into a temporary shelter for women (approximately 80-100 beds) at an approximate cost of $1 Million.

Adding approximately 28 temporary emergency shelter beds as men’s overflow at an approximate cost of $350,000.

Something new would be the establishment of a $500,000 fund to support churches, social clubs who have expressed interest in supporting vulnerable residents through the winter months until March 31, 2022 but who may not have the operational funds to be viable.

Creation of a special fund of $500,000 to address homelessness experienced by Indigenous community members who are overrepresented in the homeless population of Hamilton.

A grant of  of $500,000 to the YWCA Hamilton for capital renovations required to continue to operate Carol Anne’s Place as a temporary drop in program for 22 single homeless women.

A grant of of $150,000 to the Good Shepherd Centre Hamilton for capital renovations required to continue to operate Cathedral as a temporary shelter for women.

December 17, 2020

Staff are also recommending that a consultant be hired  to evaluate the feasibility of implementing a New Westminster style bylaw which was used in that BC city to combat renovictions. The city has already taken preliminary steps recently to discourage renovictions by denying some develpers tax increment grants, which were designed to encourage the construction of residential units in the city core.

Director of Housing Services, Edward John also presented Emergency and Community Services Committee with a detailed snapshot of the homelessness situation in Hamilton. The report says over 15 percent of Hamilton residents are experiencing housing need which is defined as requiring more than 30 percent of household income for shelter. The report also says there are 1375 persons in Hamilton identified as homeless. (Bay Observer) 

 

Friday December 24, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 24, 2021

The ghosts of a pandemic Christmas

A lot of Canadians will empathize with Ebenezer Scrooge on this second COVID-19 Christmas Eve.

December 24, 2016

It’s not that they share the opinion of Charles Dickens’ infamous miser that the holiday is nothing but “humbug.” It’s simply that as they take stock of life at the end of 2021 they will, like the hero of “A Christmas Carol,” be haunted by three phantoms: the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: The first spirit will be the most amiable, but unfortunately in ways that make the other pair seem even more worrisome. Somehow those childhood Yuletides are always gold-plated.

We might remember nervously sitting on the knee of a shopping-mall Santa, listing our heart’s desires for Christmas Day. Or we’ll recall laying a stocking by our bedside on Christmas Eve, secure in the knowledge it will magically be filled to the brim next morning. Helped by the Ghost of Christmas Past, we’ll hear the songs of carolers and, perhaps, of a church choir singing “Silent Night.” And we’ll laugh, perhaps even blush, at the antics of bygone Christmas office parties

Was it only two Christmases ago that people still came together in large gatherings, where a card table would be set up in the dining room and lawn chairs hauled in from the garage to handle the mob of relatives and friends cramming our homes to the rafters? People still shook hands and hugged in those days. Imagine that.

November 28, 2020

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: The smiles inspired by the Ghost of Christmas Past might turn upside down when this grim reaper drops by. What will Christmas 2022, 2023 or 2024 be like? We might shudder to think, as Scrooge did when his phantom of the future finally led him to a graveyard.

What variant might we face in a Christmas or two? What pandemic wave might engulf us then? Will the antivirals coming our way cure us if we catch COVID? Will the vaccines we have now still work? Christmas or not, there’s no denying that two years into COVID the situation is still disastrous and there are no guarantees it won’t be this bad next year. Which brings us to the ghost that matters most.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: Whatever rose-coloured glasses we put on to view the past, it is gone and unrecoverable. As for the future, despite our valid trepidation, it nonetheless remains within our power — as it did with Scrooge — to determine what it will be. We should reach out and grasp that power.

If we’re responsible and respect the new provincial guidelines set down just days ago, many of our gatherings with families and friends will be smaller this year — or even cancelled. Loved ones who’ve tested positive — a growing trend with the emergence of the Omicron variant — will be absent. The latest advisories against nonessential travel will keep others somewhere else, far away. So yes, a lot of people won’t be home for this Christmas.

March 26, 2020

But there is still this stubborn, resilient holiday waiting for us. Though we may not be able to mark it as we once did, we need it more than ever as 2021 staggers to a close. We need its peace, its joy and its unquenchable spirit of giving — especially to the sick, the homeless and all those living in great want. Even wearing a protective mask, we can celebrate the hope found not only in all the wondrous Christmas stories but in what we have done together to survive nearly two years of pandemic. We should never forget that those game-changing, life-saving vaccines developed in record time are themselves veritable miracles worthy of continual thanks.

And finally, whether we celebrate the special day in a church, around the tree in our living room, or even if this holiday is not part of our own tradition, we should all be able to perceive the inestimable value of human love wrapped up in the gift it leaves for us. In the darkest time of year, the days are finally lengthening again. So, when the Ghost of Christmas Present comes knocking at your door, let him in. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)  

 

Wednesday December 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday December 22, 2021

One senator just blew up Joe Biden’s presidential plans

A single U.S. senator has detonated a political bombshell whose wide-ranging blast radius has touched his political party, his country and his planet.

December 14, 2021

Let us sift through political wreckage over the horizon and count the effects unleashed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

He has, until further notice, killed President Joe Biden’s hope of signing major legislation. Resurrecting the Build Back Better mega-bill could happen but it won’t be easy and it’s dead in its current form.

Because he holds the 50th vote in a 100-seat Senate, Manchin’s statement was a game-changer on multiple fronts.

It’s rocked Biden’s presidency, enraged the Democratic Party, imperilled about two dozen major initiatives affecting millions of Americans, undone economic forecasts, torched the U.S. climate plan, tossed into doubt a global tax plan, and, perhaps to Canadians’ benefit, paused a major Canada-U.S. irritant, a potential violation of trade agreements.

His move unleashed recriminations within the Democratic Party as some of Manchin’s colleagues castigated him; questioned his integrity; said he couldn’t be trusted; and some even raised money in fundraising letters trashing his decision.

February 23, 2021

That acrimonious climate is hardly propitious to getting Democrats back to the negotiating table to try saving bits of the 2,468-page Build Back Better bill.

There’s a silver lining in all this for Canada.

The Canadian government was deeply worried about the green rebates and preparing for an economic war over them. 

That’s because Build Back Better offered tax credits for the purchase of U.S.-assembled electric cars, which Canada and others called a violation of trade agreements that would kill jobs abroad.

It’s no accident a Canadian auto-parts representative happened to be meeting with Manchin’s staff on Friday, lobbying against the measure.

Flavio Volpe said it’s too soon to assume this irritant is gone. Ottawa appears to agree. Nobody in the Canadian government has been willing to comment on Sunday’s developments, suggesting they’re not final.

“I don’t feel like we’re out of the woods yet,” Volpe said. “We’re [still] on DEFCON 1 for Canadian prosperity.” (CBC)