election

Wednesday June 14, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 14, 2017

Ontario offers public servants ‘unprecedented’ contract extensions, 7.5-per-cent raises over 4 years

July 20, 2010

Ontario is offering public servants a four-year contract extension with 7.5-per-cent raises, which, if ratified, would avoid possibly contentious bargaining before the next provincial election.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union workers would get 1.5 per cent on July 1, then one per cent on Jan. 1, 2019 and another one per cent every six months for the life of the deal. The approximately 35,500 workers and correctional staff represented by OPSEU are employed across the public sector, from administration and enforcement to social work, IT and laboratory staff.

The possible deal follows the Liberal government’s successful offering to teachers and education workers of two-year extensions that came with four-per-cent raises and more than $275 million in additional funding.

OPSEU president Warren (Smokey) Thomas called the scope of the latest contract extension offer “unprecedented” and said he suspects it is related to the June 2018 election.

“I’m kind of shocked the government actually made us any kind of an offer,” Thomas said. “It’s no secret that my union and myself, my executive board, we’re always in a battle with the government…We’re at odds with them on a lot of fronts.”

But, Thomas said, the offer contains a number of positive changes with no demands of concessions for members, and no matter the motivation he’s looking for the best deal for the workers.

Premier Kathleen Wynne disputed that the offer was about the upcoming election.

“My position has always been, since I’ve been in elected politics, has been that good working relationships with our labour partners is good for the people of the province,” she said.

For many years now, the government has only been able to offer public-sector workers small increases, as it worked to eliminate a multi-billion-dollar deficit, but the budget is now balanced.

“One of the reasons that we have been able to come to this position now where we are able to balance the budget, where we are able to make investments, is that we’ve worked very well with our labour partners,” Wynne said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

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Tuesday May 9, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday May 9, 2017

Twitter explodes with hilarious debate over whether Emmanuel Macron or Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau is the ‘sexiest G7 leader’

April 16, 2015

As Emmanuel Macron was elected as the youngest President of France, many were more concerned with debating if he is ‘hotter’ than Canadian PM Justin Trudeau.

Twitter was filled with Macron-Trudeau fantasists, many saying their dreams would come true when the liberal-left pair meet in person.

One fan wrote: ‘Liberals really do have the hottest politicians’, while another joked: ‘ Justin Trudeau has called Emmanuel Macron to concede in the race for Sexiest G7 Leader.’

May 11, 2016

The other G7 leaders are Shinzō Abe of Japan, Italy’s Paolo Gentiloni, Donald Trump, Theresa May and Angela Merkel.

Another fan joked: ‘Already two Macron vs Trudeau hotness smackdown threads on my timeline. When will the sexual objectification of male politicians end?’

The pro-EU politician Emmanuel Macron, 39, was tonight elected as France’s youngest ever president with a projected landslide of 65.5 per cent.

Macron, 39, beat far-right National Front (FN) candidate Marine

October 23, 2015

Le Pen, 48, in an election that will have widespread repercussions for the future of Europe.

An official preliminary result released at 8pm local time showed Macron received 65.5 per cent of the vote and had earned a clear 31-point victory over Le Pen.

Just 15 minutes after the exit polls were announced, Le Pen conceded and revealed she phoned Macron to ‘congratulate’ him on his election victory.

She had hoped that the surprise election of Donald Trump in America, and the Brexit result in the UK, would favour her hardline opposition to the EU, globalisation and immigration.

But instead it was Macron who was preparing for a victory celebration in front of crowds of supporters outside the Louvre in central Paris. (Source: Daily Mail)

 

Saturday April 29, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 29, 2017

Proposed: Publicly funded drug plan for all Ontarians under 25

Give one cheer for the Liberals. Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario government has finally bit the bullet on publicly funded pharmacare.

February 24, 2017

Their scheme to provide those under 25 with free prescription drugs isn’t comprehensive. Nor, in spite of Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s boast, is it exactly path-breaking.

Saskatchewan already offers a similar, albeit less generous, drug plan to children 14 and under.

But it is a start.

The plan, announced in Thursday’s budget, would allow any Ontarian age 24 and under who needs prescription drugs for medical purposes to receive them at no cost.

March 10, 2017

Unlike the province’s drug plan for seniors, there would be no co-payment and no deductible. Unlike the drug plan for welfare recipients, there would be no means test.

Rather, like medicare, it would be universally available and cover the entire cost of roughly 4,400 drugs.

Experts can argue whether the Liberal pharmacare plan is better or worse than that pitched by Andrea Horwath’s Ontario New Democrats. The NDP proposes a scheme that would cover everyone under 65 but only for 125 commonly prescribed drugs.

But the Liberals have the advantage of being in power right now. If they follow through on their promise, their truncated pharmacare plan will come into effect next January.

March 8, 2016

For these reasons, any move toward universal publicly funded pharmacare is welcome and probably irreversible. Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown told reporters Thursday that he would prefer a scheme that is means-tested. But Ontario already has a drug benefit program for the poor.

What is useful about this scheme is precisely what Brown doesn’t like about it: It is a step on the road to universal pharmacare.

Sousa told reporters that he hopes Ontario’s move will persuade Ottawa and other provinces to act. Perhaps it will. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Friday April 21, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 21, 2017

Snap Election called in Great Britain

 

March 30, 2017

In a dramatic statement on the steps of Downing Street, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, fired the starting gun on a poll that she hopes will deliver her an unassailable majority to shape the country’s future.

She blamed opposition parties who have been trying to frustrate Brexit for her sudden change of heart after months insisting she will not hold an election – singling out Nicola Sturgeon’s efforts to exploit the situation to tear the UK apart.

The bold move took even Cabinet members by surprise, having been kept a closely guarded secret between a handful of the premier’s closest allies and aides.

March 14, 2003

Brexit Secretary David Davis and Chancellor Philip Hammond have been jointly pressing the PM to call an early vote for some time, and were informed of Mrs May’s decision at a meeting yesterday. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Amber Rudd are understood to have been told this morning shortly before the gathering of her top team in No10.

Mrs May revealed the shift was driven by soul-searching while she hiked in Snowdonia with husband Philip over the Easter break.

The media were given barely an hour’s notice of the speech this morning, and there had been no rumours at Westminster about her change of heart. Even as the Cabinet meeting began this morning, aides to senior ministers were still sending out updates on other areas of government business.

Mrs May said Britain needed strong leadership to navigate the fraught divorce talks with the EU, insisting she was now convinced an early poll was in the ‘national interest’.

She said ‘every vote for the Conservatives would give her a stronger hand when she sits across the negotiating table from the EU’s presidents and prime ministers to hammer out a Brexit deal.

The election is an astonishing U-turn from the Prime Minister who has repeatedly said she would not call another ballot before 2020 – insisting it would cause instability and hurt the country. (Source: Daily Mail) 

 

Friday March 10, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 10, 2017

All parties should lay out their plan for hydro

Next year’s provincial election could be called the hydro vote. Of course there other issues — the length of the Liberal party’s rule, the economy, and others. But nothing resonates with Ontarians right now like hydro rates.

It’s understandable, even though some of the hyperbole being bandied about is over the top. So is laying all the blame at the feet of the Liberals when the Progressive Conservatives also played a role in setting the table.

But whether you agree with the weight being attached to energy as an election issue or not, it is what people are talking about. That’s why the Liberals have finally moved on plans to reduce bills. According to Alectra Utilities, Hamilton ratepayers will get a bigger than average break on their bills, with residential fees set to drop 27 per cent, and small business rates 28 per cent. That’s not insignificant.

The Liberal plan, though, is something like remortgaging your house. The money will be paid back over a longer period of time, so the resulting interest payments will end up costing more. Does that really matter to people if their bills go down? We’ll see.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath won’t be outshone. She has put forward a plan she says will save up to 30 per cent on bills and doesn’t involve remortgaging the house. The plan would allow consumers to opt out of time-of-use pricing, cap profits for private power producers supplying the grid and return Hydro One to full public ownership by buying back shares. This plan will appeal to many, especially since the partial privatization of Hydro One is widely opposed.

But wait, say the Liberals and other skeptics. The money from privatization is being used to fund health and education among other key areas. If that money is used to buy back shares, it will be at the expense of those other priorities. Now the NDP plan doesn’t sound quite so solid.

At least the two parties are putting out (relatively) clear messages. And by getting her party’s oar in the water on the most significant issue of the election, Horwath automatically positions the NDP as a credible alternative, on this matter at least.

Patrick Brown, come out, come out, wherever you are. The Progressive Conservatives have yet to outline in detail what they’ll do on energy. Perhaps because there is still a lot of time left. Perhaps because it’s a sticky issue for them, too. After all, it was Brown’s party that initiated the last attempt to privatize, which blew up in their face. And it’s going to be difficult for a party that believes in privatization to argue for making Hydro One public again. Then again, who would have predicted that the PCs would favour a carbon tax and support a modernized sex education curriculum. So who knows what they might have up their sleeve? They’d be smart to get at least some cards on the table soon though. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial)