government

Tuesday October 26, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 26, 2021

Freeland positioning herself to take over as Liberal leader

August 24, 2021

A breathless account of Chrystia Freeland’s heroics in Ukraine published over the weekend must’ve put a smile on the face of our Deputy Prime Minister.

According to the American university professor who wrote the glowing article, she was so darn good at what she did that she had the grudging admiration of the KGB, that couldn’t keep up with her! The stuff of real-life Marvel heroes…

Let’s face it, Chrystia Freeland is positioning herself to take over as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and this type of publicity is tailor-made to help her achieve that ambition.

April 21, 2021

Much like Michael Ignatieff, Chrystia Freeland became almost famous south of the border with her writings and media savvy.

Unlike Ignatieff, she’s actually got some experience in government having ably run key ministries and, most admirably, outfoxed Donald Trump during the renegotiation of NAFTA.

If she succeeds, she’ll be taking over from one of the world’s major media figures, Justin Trudeau. A little bit of profile doesn’t hurt.

November 3, 2015

Trudeau’s inexplicable decision to disappear for a vacation on the very day he’d set aside to commemorate truth and reconciliation was more than just a heartless move. It was so hurtful to his brand that many are wondering if it isn’t also a sign that he’s had the biscuit.

We’ll no doubt have an avalanche of “progressive” promises as Trudeau swears in his new Cabinet and hands out mandate letters to the chosen few. It won’t really matter. Canadians have seen and heard enough.

From purchasing a pipeline, to continuing to subsidize oil and gas companies, to skipping out of town on a new national holiday, to complacency with sexual misconduct in the military, the lecturing and moralizing tone of Trudeau simply doesn’t carry much weight anymore. Key progressive issues such as climate change, reconciliation and women’s rights will need a new champion, one without the credibility issues that Trudeau now drags with him.

July 7, 2021

In fact, it’s Freeland’s presence during the worst of Trudeau, like the sacking of Jody Wilson-Raybould, that risks holding her back. She wasn’t content to just back Trudeau. When Wilson-Raybould resisted PMO interference in the prosecution of SNC Lavalin, Freeland attacked her for not being a team player

Freeland won’t get the top job without an examination of her role as Trudeau’s proxy and without a fight. There will be other contenders. (CTV) 

 

Saturday October 23, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 23, 2021

CRB, wage and rent subsidies will all end on Saturday as pared-down benefits take their place

The federal government will spend $7.4 billion on a revamped suite of targeted pandemic supports in the months after several major relief programs expire on Saturday.

September 19, 2020

As the Star first reported late Wednesday, the Canada Response Benefit (CRB) — which replaced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit last year — will wind down for good on Oct. 23.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Thursday morning that the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) will also officially expire on the same day.

“Our economy is rebounding, and we are winning the fight against COVID. However, it’s also true that the recovery is uneven, and that the health measures that are saving lives continue to restrict some economic activity,” Freeland told reporters alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outside a children’s hospital in Ottawa.

“That is why today we are announcing what we very much hope and believe is the final pivot in delivering the support needed to ensure a robust recovery.”

August 26, 2021

From Oct. 24 until May 7, the new Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit will provide $300 a week to workers facing local lockdowns, including those who are not eligible for Employment Insurance. The benefit is intended to assure other levels of government that if they impose a temporary lockdown, those who may lose out on work will still be able to get help.

Anyone whose loss of income is due to their refusal to follow vaccination mandates will be excluded from accessing the aid.

On Thursday, the Conservatives declared that Trudeau “followed” Erin O’Toole’s fiscal plan by choosing to end the CRB.

“Yesterday, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said he would not support CRB benefits being extended past Nov. 20, citing skyrocketing inflation and ongoing labour shortages across the country,” Tory finance critic Ed Fast said in a statement Thursday.

April 2, 2020

But NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Trudeau was “cutting help for people” amid a fourth wave of COVID-19.

“He has the power to extend these benefits to the end of November, but has instead chosen to give the people depending on these benefits only a few days’ notice. It’s unacceptable,” Singh’s statement read.

Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske told the Star that replacing the CRB with a support program keyed specifically to lockdowns freezes out a swath of struggling workers.

“There are workers who are not yet back to full employment and the discontinuation of the regular benefits is going to be challenging for many,” Bruske said. (KW Record) 

 

Friday April 16, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 16, 2020

The Bank of Canada rolls the dice

Coronavirus cartoons

If desperate pandemic times demand desperate government actions, the Bank of Canada just delivered big-time. 

It’s printing money out of thin air to fund an estimated $200-billion-plus spending-spree intended to keep the nation’s economy alive. 

The best name for this historic and, frankly, alarming intervention is quantitative easing, and every Canadian should pay close attention to what amounts to a roll of the dice by their central bank.

That’s because while quantitative easing is justified under the circumstances, it’s unconventional, controversial and highly risky. Our 85-year-old central bank has never tried it before, and no wonder. It may cure what’s ailing the Canadian economy today only to infect it with new illnesses a year from now.

It all began at the end of March when the Bank of Canada announced it would spend at least $5 billion a week in the coming months to buy Government of Canada bonds on the open market. In other words, it would buy up much of the federal government’s debt.

That action was meant to ease the pressure on the federal government’s growing debt burden while injecting badly-needed cash into an economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

And that part of quantitative easing makes sense because it works. The mind-bending part of it comes with the realization that all these billions of dollars are being created digitally. 

It’s as if Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz had donned a magician’s cape, put his hand into a top hat and — poof — the Canadian economy had what it needed to buy its way out of this crisis.

What Poloz did was correct, according to experts such as former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge. At the time of Poloz’s intervention, the rapid spread of COVID-19 across Canada had already triggered government-imposed business shutdowns, huge job losses and what could become the nation’s sharpest economic downturn ever. 

The federal government was mobilizing its fiscal forces to prop up revenue-starved businesses and extend a financial lifeline to the newly unemployed, whose numbers could reach 2.8 million this month.

Other governments around the world were doing the same. And other central banks, most notably in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, were also playing their part by making new money to ease the debt loads of their governments.

The Bank of Canada doubled down on that strategy this week when it expanded its bond-buying program to include purchases on the open market of the debts of provincial governments and corporations. They need help, too, but it will mean pulling another $50 billion in new, digitally-created money out of Poloz’s magic hat. 

The sheer magnitude of all this newly manufactured cash is worrisome. If countries can get everything they want by simply printing more money, why doesn’t everyone do it all the time? 

The answer is the world’s financial markets wouldn’t let them get away with it. The U.S. Fed and the European Central Bank are considered to be big and powerful enough to do what they deem necessary. 

Canada, with its much smaller economy, probably won’t be cut the same slack. The value of its currency may slide if quantitative easing lasts too long. Inflation could rise to unmanageable levels even as millions of Canadians remain unemployed and the nation’s economic engines are struggling to fire on all cylinders. 

This spring, the Bank of Canada had no choice but to experiment with quantitative easing. In short order, it must provide Canadians with a plan and timetable for getting out of it.

Canada, with its much smaller economy, probably won’t be cut the same slack. The value of its currency may slide if quantitative easing lasts too long. Inflation could rise to unmanageable levels even as millions of Canadians remain unemployed and the nation’s economic engines are struggling to fire on all cylinders. 

This spring, the Bank of Canada had no choice but to experiment with quantitative easing. In short order, it must provide Canadians with a plan and timetable for getting out of it. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

Tuesday December 3, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 3, 2019

Ottawa must lead on e-cigarette regulation reform

It’s time for the federal government to get over its timidity around regulating the vaping industry.

It is no longer acceptable to take a cautious approach. That evidence is now in, and it shows that vaping can lead to serious lung disorders, and more frequent users are at greater risk.

October 5, 2018

That would be bad enough if the risk was largely to the original vaping audience — adults using e-cigarettes to reduce or stop consuming combustible tobacco products. The risk for reforming smokers is real, but vaping remains preferable to continuing to smoke tobacco and inhaling the related toxins.

But the growth isn’t among adult smokers. Vaping rates among that group are stable. It’s among kids, most of whom start vaping not to quit tobacco but because it’s considered cool. One health survey of 75,000 Canadian students in Grades 9 to 12 asked about reasons for vaping. Only 4 per cent of e-cigarette users said they used them to quit smoking, another 4 per cent said they used vaping to reduce cigarette consumption — and 73 per cent said they used out of “curiosity” or “to try something new.”

This is not what Canadian health authorities had in mind, although it’s good news for vaping companies, many of which are affiliated with or outrighted owned by Big Tobacco companies. Vaping defenders argue companies are not “targeting” young consumers, but we’ve heard that line, before it was illegal for Big Tobacco to market its products to vulnerable kids.

In any case, whether Big Vape is intentionally targeting kids or not doesn’t matter as much as the reality — more and more kids are starting on e-cigarettes and getting addicted to nicotine. Modern vape devices are sophisticated and efficient tools with which to deliver nicotine to the body.

Health Canada is now officially warning about the health risks involved with vaping. Some provinces are taking action. Ontario recently moved to ban e-cigarette advertising in convenience stores. It’s a half measure at best, but it’s something.

But the federal government, for some reason, continues to drag its feet. Now, with the new minority government settling in and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thinking about the mandate letters (marching orders, if you prefer) he will be handing over to his ministers, is an ideal time to get very serious about regulation.

An example: Legal marijuana products have to carry ingredient information. Vape products don’t. That makes no sense. Also, the piecemeal approach now in place around marketing needs to evolve into a national strategy. No exceptions, no loopholes: E-cigarettes and affiliated products must never be marketed to minors, and if they are, penalties need to be stiff, public and consistent. The government should also consider lowering nicotine limits in vape products. In Britain, where e-cigarettes have a track record in reducing adult smoking, nicotine limits are lower than for North American markets.

Some argue an outright ban is justifiable under the circumstances. We disagree. A ban has a certain appeal, but it’s a safe bet any attempted ban would lead to a black market for vaping products. That would lead to even less control and more risk for vulnerable consumers.

E-cigarettes remain a viable option for those who smoke traditional tobacco products. There’s no need to overregulate that part of the market. But when it comes to nicotine addiction among young consumers, we’re losing the battle. The federal government will have no trouble finding allies to pass thoughtful and forceful new regulatory measures — the NDP and Greens, at minimum, would be supportive.

Time to get moving before this problem escalates further. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Thursday March 28, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 28, 2019

Fact-checking Lisa Thompson’s controversial comments on class size in Ontario

Bigger class sizes make students more resilient.

That was just one of several eyebrow-raising claims that Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson made during an interview last week. Her comments quickly provoked a deluge of criticism from many members of the public, educators and the opposition parties.

In an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, Thompson said that businesses and post-secondary educators relayed to her during recent consultations that students are “lacking coping skills and they’re lacking resiliency.

“By increasing class sizes in high school, we’re preparing them for the reality of post-secondary as well as the world of work.”

Thompson was defending the government’s recent decision to increase high school class sizes in the province from 22 students to 28. Since that’s a board-wide average, some classes — especially important pre-requisites — could swell to as many as 38 or 40 students, educators have warned.

Grades 4 to 8 will see a more moderate average increase of one student per class, while earlier grades will remain the same.

So does the government’s plan make sense? CBC Toronto took a deeper look.

The impact of class size on students has been debated for decades, both in the halls of academia and among policymakers. Numerous studies, conducted worldwide, have produced varied results.

Generally, there is scholarly consensus that smaller class sizes improve academic achievement, particularly among vulnerable student populations. But the extent, scope and ultimate value of those improvements is limited, and the benefits diminish as students get older. And it is far from a magic bullet.

In her interview, Thompson said: “The biggest factor in student success is actually how effective the teacher is” — and there is research that supports this assertion when it comes to high school-aged children. (Source: CBC)