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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

Friday January 19, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 19, 2018

Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals may surprise in upcoming provincial vote

Kathleen Wynne will shuffle her cabinet on Wednesday, six months ahead of the next provincial election. It didn’t take long for the jokes to start after the news broke on Tuesday night. Rats from sinking ship was a common theme.

November 28, 2017

One wise guy on Twitter simply responded to the news of the shuffle by tweeting out a video clip from James Cameron’s Titanic. What particular scene? The band stoically playing on as the ship slides beneath the waves.

She’s smart and shrewd and connects well with people, particularly in small settings.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is quite good too, and the Conservative leader, Patrick Brown, though still to some measure unknown, certainly seems to hold his own. But Wynne, at the very least, will not be at a material disadvantage here. She will surprise people.

And then there’s the goodies. Lower hydro rates. A higher minimum wage, with a politically helpful spat with some rich Tim Hortons heirs thrown in, might impress  some middle- and lower-income voters the Liberals urgently need aboard. And the so-called OHIP+ plan, essentially universal pharmacare for young Ontarians, might not be the whole smash pharmacare advocates would want, but it’s a big step in that direction. And Lord only knows what else they’ll roll out in the months to come.

October 24, 2017

None of this will erase their record over the last 15 years. There is a lot of anger out there against this government, much of it deserved, but the fact remains that the party and the Premier will be in a decent place to contest the next election.

Whatever problems the Liberals have going into this campaign, someone still needs to beat them at the ballot box. The parties can’t all lose, someone needs to win. The Liberals are getting to set to do that, and the NDP and Conservatives are going to need to fight back. (Source: Global News) 

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Saturday October 26, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 26, 2017

Bill Morneau vows to donate share profits

On Thursday the embattled finance minister said he will donate the profits earned on his Morneau Shepell shares since he was elected to charity.

The finance minister met with the conflict of interest commissioner earlier in the afternoon.

“I told her it was the intent of my family to donate any difference in value from my family shares from the time I was elected on Oct. 19, 2015, until now,” he told the House of Commons.

Morneau said he doesn’t know what the value of the proceeds is yet.

Morneau said he will unload the million shares, worth about $20 million, he has in Morneau Shepell, the human resources and pension management company his father founded.

“If he hadn’t owned those stocks over the last two years while ministers are banned from owning stocks then he wouldn’t have those profits in the first place,” said Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre.

“Can he confirm now if he will donate the resulting tax savings that he will enjoy from the charitable tax credit to help pay off his deficit?” (Source: CBC News) 

Letter to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator  (Saturday Nov 4, 2017)

One-sided cartoon unfair to Morneau

RE: Oct. editorial cartoon

This amusing cartoon, portraying our finance minister doing hoops for his salvation from not putting his family business in trust, is surely very one sided.

He originally sought the advice of our ethics commissioner, who told him that it was not a necessity for him to do so. Now that he is trying to rectify his “mistake” he is subjected to much scorn by the opposition parties.

A cheering Justin Trudeau reminds me that it is hard to recall one MacKay cartoon with something positive about our PM.

A bigger concern is the lack of media support for left-wing Canada. It is easy to list six families/corporations who own the majority of our major print and broadcast media and are all supporters of the Conservatives. Even the CBC, with its president and eight Harper-appointed directors, too often follows suit.

The Star and Spectator used to provide regular support but these days, I find that to be hit and miss. All issues should be subject to scrutiny but it would be refreshing to have more balance.

Richard Ring, Grimsby

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Saturday October 21, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 21, 2017

Bill Morneau bristles at questions about personal finances

Finance Minister Bill Morneau dodged questions about his use of numbered companies to hold investments Friday, suggesting he does not have to defend his personal financial choices to journalists.

September 22, 2017

After a week of questions about his own fortune, Morneau showed signs of exasperation during an event in Waterloo, Ont., where he was pitching the government’s “step back” on proposed changes  to the small business tax regime.

Morneau batted away a question about why he held some of his investments in an Alberta company rather than one domiciled in Ontario, where he lives.

“So, is the question why are they numbered companies and they don’t have names?” he said with a shrug.

“Seriously, what I’ve done is expose all my assets to the ethics commissioner. The process we have in our country isn’t that I report to journalists on my personal situation. It’s that I report to the ethics commissioner and I make sure she fully understands my situation so we can get to the recommendations.”

Owning investments in a personal holding company can provide various tax and non-tax benefits. Income in an operating company can face a lower tax rate by using small business deductions, for example.

Morneau said he has now agreed to do more than what the commissioner, Mary Dawson, recommended he do when he took office.

Morneau did not place his considerable holdings in a family company — the publicly traded human resources firm Morneau Shepell — in a blind trust because Dawson had only recommended the creation of an “ethical screen” to ensure he wasn’t making policy decisions to his own financial benefit. The screen was to be administered by Morneau’s chief of staff. (Source: CBC News) 

Letter to the Editor

One-sided cartoon unfair to Morneau

RE: Oct. editorial cartoon

This amusing cartoon, portraying our finance minister doing hoops for his salvation from not putting his family business in trust, is surely very one sided.

He originally sought the advice of our ethics commissioner, who told him that it was not a necessity for him to do so. Now that he is trying to rectify his “mistake” he is subjected to much scorn by the opposition parties.

A cheering Justin Trudeau reminds me that it is hard to recall one MacKay cartoon with something positive about our PM.

A bigger concern is the lack of media support for left-wing Canada. It is easy to list six families/corporations who own the majority of our major print and broadcast media and are all supporters of the Conservatives. Even the CBC, with its president and eight Harper-appointed directors, too often follows suit.

The Star and Spectator used to provide regular support but these days, I find that to be hit and miss. All issues should be subject to scrutiny but it would be refreshing to have more balance.

Richard Ring, Grimsby

 

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Wednesday October 11, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 11, 2017

As Trudeau heads to Washington, Trump again muses that ‘NAFTA will have to be terminated’

As he prepares to welcome Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump is musing again about terminating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

July 17, 2017

“I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if we’re going to make it good. Otherwise, I believe you can’t negotiate a good deal,” Trump told Forbes magazine  in an interview published Tuesday.

“(The Trans-Pacific Partnership) would have been a large-scale version of NAFTA. It would have been a disaster. It’s a great honour to have — I consider that a great accomplishment, stopping that. And there are many people that agree with me. I like bilateral deals.”

Trump is scheduled to meet with Trudeau at the White House on Wednesday, the same day the fourth round of NAFTA renegotiation talks will begin in a Washington suburb.

August 24, 2017

Trump has threatened to terminate NAFTA on several numerous occasions, appearing to see such threats as a useful negotiating tactic.

The latest remark was slightly different. In the past, he has usually said he will cancel the agreement if the U.S. cannot secure a good deal. This time, he suggested that a good deal can only be secured after a cancellation.

Canadian officials have brushed off the Trump administration’s previous harsh rhetoric, saying such words are inevitable in any trade negotiation. And Trump has frequently declined to act on his musings about trade and other subjects.

Trump spoke amid growing concern that the negotiations could be headed for failure because of the Trump administration’s positions. The fourth round, scheduled to run Wednesday to Sunday, is seen as a crucial test of the level of U.S. interest in reaching an amended deal. (Source: Toronto Star) 

Letter to the editor (October 18)

RE: Oct. 11 Hamilton Spectator editorial cartoon

The price for disobeying your elders

Mr. Mackay’s cartoon shows what happens when immature manic leader of the entitled millennials tries to outplay his fatherly opponent. Lack of respect for seniors wisdom of maturity and elder persuasion at any time eventually gets the results that are duly deserved.

As a member of a 212-year old immigrant family from the U.S. that was asked to leave over concerns of loyalty for the USA, I would venture that Mr. Trudeau and his team have fumbled the ball on the goal-line, mainly because of he and his father’s socialistic communist attitude toward answers for all things.

This is bankrupting Canada and its neighbour’s ability to support and defend it and is deserving of the cards that have been dealt!

Larry Pedlar, Burlington

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