Ontario

Saturday July 8, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 8, 2017

Tom Thomson on the 100th anniversary of his death

On a rocky, windswept point jutting into Canoe Lake, up a little trail in a sunny clearing, a modest cairn stands next to a gaudy totem pole. One hundred years ago, a troop of artists and admirers, led by the Group of Seven’s J.E.H. Macdonald, paddled to this very point to erect the memorial to their dead friend, the “artist, woodsman and guide,” Tom Thomson.

He lived humbly but passionately with the wild. It made him brother to all untamed things of nature. It drew him apart and revealed itself wonderfully to him. It sent him out from the woods only to show these revelations through his art. And it took him to itself at last. — Excerpt from the inscription on the Tom Thomson Memorial Cairn on Canoe Lake

It was here in Algonquin Provincial Park where Thomson found himself as an artist, setting out with his cedarstrip canoe and paint kit to collect inspiration for masterpieces such as “The Jack Pine <https://www.aci-iac.ca/tom-thomson/key-works/the-jack-pine>” on protracted backcountry sketching trips he began taking in 1912.

And it was here, at Hayhurst Point, where Thomson most loved to pitch his canvas tent, with the wind keeping off the bugs and the cool, murky water shimmering below; then, at night, the lights of the now-abandoned town of Mowat sparkling across the lake; a beer and warm bed and body only a short paddle away.

And it was here, too, on Canoe Lake where Thomson’s bloated corpse was found on July 17, 1917. He had set out on a solo fishing trip eight days prior on July 8 — 100 years ago today. He was only 39. (Continued: Toronto Star) 

 

Saturday June 24, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 24, 2017

Queen Park Priorities

What is going wrong with math in Grades 4 to 6 in Hamilton, Burlington and across the province?

September 3, 2013

Perhaps the hardest equation to solve right now in Ontario’s education system is why half of Grade 6 students are failing to meet the provincial standard with fewer succeeding each year. 

“I wish I had the golden answer,” said Ian VanderBurgh, the director of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo.

“We need to figure out why.”

In the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) a mere 42 per cent of students had the mathematics skills the Ontario curriculum expects by the end of Grade 6, according to provincial tests from 2014 to 2016. 

To compare, 74 per cent of those same students meet the benchmark in reading and 73 per cent in writing. 

Year-by-year results show the problem in Grade 6 math is only getting worse.

“It’s time to do a reset,” said Peter Sovran, executive superintendent of student achievement and school operations at the HWDSB. 

“We are not pleased and I don’t think anyone should be pleased in the province.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

June 23, 2016

Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has a public opinion problem at home, and elsewhere.

She scored the highest disapproval ratings among any Canadian premier in Ontario, and across Canada, in a Mainstreet Research/Postmedia poll that was released on Thursday.

In Ontario, Wynne scored a 70 per cent disapproval rating and a 19 per cent approval rating.

Her disapproval rating was close to last year’s, when she scored 71 per cent in Ontario. Her approval rating in her home province was unchanged from 2016.

Wynne scored the strongest disapproval rating nationally, hitting 48 per cent, which put her just above Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard. (Source: Global News) 

Thursday June 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 15, 2017

Today, some unsolicited advice to Ontario’s three political leaders.

In a Toronto Star interview, Kathleen Wynne warns of the dangers of electing a PC government. Say goodbye to a new minimum wage. Goodbye to pharmacare. Goodbye to new initiatives toward accessible, affordable child care. She may be right. But if the Liberals think they can improve their election chances by arguing why someone else is a worse choice, they’re wrong. The tactic has a tinge of desperation about it. A defensive strategy isn’t the answer, nor is political blackmail.

April 29, 2017

The Liberals have had 15 years in office. They have more than their share of baggage. But of late, they have been putting forward significant policy initiatives that are finding favour among voters. They have a vision for a more socially democratic Ontario. That’s what they ought to be marketing if they hope to get back into serious contention.

Brown’s PCs are playing rope-a-dope with the electorate. That’s the strategy boxing great Muhammad Ali employed to defeat George Foreman in 1974 — lie on the ropes, take the punches, wait until your opponent tires and then go on the offensive. The fact that Brown can do the same thing and still be far ahead in most opinion polls is a reflection of how unpopular the Liberals and Wynne are. But it’s not sustainable or appropriate for the man who would be premier.

March 10, 2017

Brown’s current advertising campaign shows him taking part in Pride events and doing other things to demonstrate how he’s leading a big-tent party as opposed to one tied to social conservative values. Good for him. But beyond that, he remains too much of an empty vessel.

We know he favours some form of carbon tax. But Brown’s policy on hydro? Nothing. Child care? Zilch. Pharmacare? Zero. Housing? Very little outside vague commitments to address supply, red tape, demand and establishing a panel of industry experts. Minimum wage? The government’s plan is too much too soon, Brown said, but nothing more.

February 24, 2017

Brown thinks all he has to do to win is not be Kathleen Wynne. He may yet be wrong about that.

Andrea Horwath went on a rant recently about the Liberals stealing NDP plans. No doubt she’s right. But rather than cry sour grapes, the NDP would be wise to announce their platform planks first, full out and in detail. State clearly what the NDP would do on issues like child care and minimum wage. Basically release platform planks before the Liberals can claim them. That’s what they did with their pharmacare vision, and as a result Ontarians have a clear decision to make about which model they like best. That’s the way it should work. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

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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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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)