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Friday May 31, 2019

June 7, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 31, 2019

Pence tells Canada he’s ‘proud’ to oppose abortion

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said the two men had a “cordial conversation” about abortion laws in the US despite their difference of views.

May 15, 2019

Mr Trudeau has said he is concerned about the “backsliding” of women’s rights south of the border.

The PM and the VP also discussed issues related to trade and China.

In the US, the contentious issue of abortion has been front-and-centre this year as nearly a dozen states have moved to pass new, stricter laws on abortion.

Critics have pointed at what they see as an orchestrated challenge to a decades-old US Supreme Court ruling that protected a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

Mr Pence is known for his staunch opposition to abortion.

Mr Trudeau, on the other hand, is outspoken in support of reproductive rights.

September 27, 2017

The two were able to diplomatically sidestep any tensions when asked about that discussion by reporters on Thursday.

Mr Pence said the Trump administration “will always stand for the right to life”.

“But those are debates within the United States and I know that Canada will deal with those issues in a manner that the people of Canada have determined most appropriate.”

Amid the political firestorm over state-level anti-abortion bills in the US, in Canada the Liberals have been pressuring their Conservative rivals over their stance on the issue in the run-up to the general election.

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer – who has supported pro-life legislation in the past – has vowed that if he were to form government he would not reopen the debate. (BBC)


Spec cartoon could put NAFTA at risk

RE: Hamilton Spectator Editorial cartoon, May 31

This cartoon is offensive, rude, and crude. It is an underhanded way of persecuting a man, the vice-president of the USA, a Christian, for his faith.

As a nation we are trying to build a relationship, a friendship with the USA and you find this mean and vindictive way of putting people down.

I hope that President Trump will not have second thoughts about having a NAFTA treaty with Canada. He is the most pro-life president ever and this kind of sarcasm does not build a nation or friendly relationships.

Did you consider Mr. Pence’s faith or feelings? Yes, we Christians tend to be pro-life, because God created us. I know God loves you too and He has given you have a talent but sometimes you misuse it.

Peter and Eline Homan, Hamilton

Posted in: Canada, USA Tagged: 2019-20, abortion, airport, Canada, cheerleader, Harjit Sajjan, Justin Trudeau, Mike Pence, Ottawa, USA

Friday May 3, 2019

May 10, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 3, 2019

Move over, Doug Ford. Jason Kenney is Canada’s new disruptor

Jason Kenney is back. First stop, Ontario. 

Days after being sworn in as Alberta’s new premier Tuesday, sweeping to power with a 55-per-cent majority unrivalled by any politician in Canada today, Kenney wants to win over Ontarians.

Direct and in person.

Best known as a savvy Harper-era federal minister, officially responsible for immigration and multiculturalism, but unofficially assigned to wooing and winning the 905 vote, Kenney has reinvented himself as a fiery prairie populist.

All these years later, the Oakville-born Alberta premier still has an eye, and an ear, for the GTA.

Now he wants to be heard.

Not just by the Bay Street crowd who rewarded him with standing ovations during a lunchtime speech on Alberta’s energy woes, or from the smiling Ontario premier who pledged his support Friday (after bearing a private grudge against him for years — more on that later).

The new premier is getting his message out any way he can, not least in the pages of the Toronto Star. Which is why he sat down for a wide-ranging interview about Alberta’s plight, his political fight, and his plan to disrupt Canada even if it means talking up disunity in a country that still frets about national unity.

Ontarians, he says, should hear him out.

“Obviously, Ontario is sort of the elder brother of the federation, and I think it can play a role,” he tells me. The response at Friday’s business lunch showed “they get what Alberta is going through.”

Many politicians lay claim to a 100-day plan of action. Kenney, however, has unveiled a 100-hour agenda of disruption that he has spent years mapping out.

And he is just getting started — threatening B.C. with a fuel blockade and confronting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a constitutional challenge over control of energy resources. (Continued: Toronto Star) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 2019-16, Alberta, Bill 69, bulldozer, Canada, Jason Kenney, Ottawa, oversight, Parliament, tour

Tuesday September 18, 2018

September 18, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday September 18, 2018

Trudeau’s to-do list just got bigger

If stalled pipelines and deadlocked trade talks have given Justin Trudeau a pounding head, he should brace himself — and Canada — for an absolute economic migraine.

March 24, 2016

Two sobering new reports warn that, unless Canadian governments take fast, aggressive action, this country’s economy will be hammered by a one-two combination of recently lowered American taxes and a sharp decline in business investment.

This is bad news for Canadians and comes at a sensitive time for our economy, as well as the prime minister.

Parliament resumes sitting this week and with the next federal election barely a year away the Liberals are working overtime to persuade everyone these are sunny days, economically speaking.

August 28, 2018

But the free-trade deal with the United States and Mexico, which has sustained millions of Canadian jobs and enriched the Canadian economy for decades, could collapse at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s plan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline — which it bought for $4.5 billion in taxpayers’ money — is going nowhere.

Now more storm clouds darken our horizon. A new report commissioned by the Business Council of Canada concludes the latest tax cuts in the United States could devastate Canada’s economy.

How bad could it get? The report suggests the damage could exceed the economic harm that would be caused by the end of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

May 18, 2018

years, businesses in Canada benefited from a corporate-tax advantage. That suddenly ended last December when the U.S. Congress passed tax reforms that slashed the federal corporate tax rate to 21 per cent from 35 per cent.

The report warns America’s tax cuts could cost Canada up to 635,000 jobs and reduce its annual gross domestic product by $85 billion — the equivalent of nearly five per cent of our economy. As governments could lose up to $20 billion a year in tax revenues, almost everyone in Canada would suffer.

The challenge to our economy from these tax cuts becomes even more serious when placed in the context of a growing reluctance to invest in Canada. A report released last week by the C.D. Howe Institute called weak capital spending a “threat to Canada’s future prosperity.”

October 19, 2017

Echoing the think-tank’s fears, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Victor Dodig, last week cited falling levels of foreign investment in Canada as he called on the country to set clearer rules to boost investor confidence.

Evidence from Statistics Canada gives credence to these concerns. In 2017, foreign direct investment in Canada declined for the third year in a row, dropping by a whopping 26 per cent.

It would be a mistake to consider any of these economic challenges in isolation. The failure to build a pipeline to carry Alberta’s oil to an ocean port where it can be sold for a higher price is surely convincing foreign investors to avoid Canada the way they would a patch of poison ivy.

September 21, 2016

Likewise, lowered American tax rates make that country a more desirable place to invest — once again to Canada’s disadvantage.

So far, Trudeau’s Liberals have dithered in their response to the U.S. tax cuts and investor flight. That vacillation must end.

In his economic update this fall, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau should offer concrete ways to improve this country’s ability to compete and make it more attractive for investment.

That may or may not bring corporate tax cuts and changes to regulations. It must translate into meaningful action. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: Canada, clouds, foreign, investment, Justin Trudeau, NAFTA, Ottawa, Parliament, pipeline, rain, storm

Friday May 18, 2018

May 17, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 18, 2018

Morneau says government willing to compensate Kinder Morgan against political delays

Canada is willing to write Kinder Morgan — or anyone else who steps up to the plate — a cheque to ensure the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion gets built despite British Columbia’s opposition, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday.

Morneau said the federal government is willing to compensate the pipeline’s backers for any financial loss due to British Columbia’s attempts to obstruct the company’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

“The indemnification would allow Kinder Morgan to finish what they started, what they received federal and B.C. approval to do,” he said Wednesday morning during a news conference that laid out in broad terms what his government is willing to do to move the project ahead.

Morneau’s statement came just hours before Kinder Morgan Canada’s stakeholders met in Calgary, and offers the company an incentive to proceed with the project just weeks ahead of its potential drop-dead date. Kinder Morgan has threatened to abandon the project if a clear path forward isn’t reached by May 31.

“As a government we need to ensure that the rule of law is respected and that investors have the certainty needed to complete the Trans Mountain expansion project, because it’s in the national interest to do so,” Morneau said.

Morneau said that if Kinder Morgan bails on the project, the government would reimburse any financial losses related to B.C.’s political opposition incurred by any other investor willing to take the project on — as long as reimbursement is “sound and fair and beneficial for Canadians.”

Morneau wouldn’t say if there’s a limit to how much the government is willing to spend to compensate the pipeline’s backer. (Source: CBC) 

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Posted in: Canada Tagged: Bill Morneau, Canada, cash, John Horgan, Justin Trudeau, Kinder Morgan, Ottawa, protest, Trans Mountain

Tuesday February 6, 2018

February 5, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 6, 2018

Drop the politics and fix 24 Sussex Drive

Few things better symbolize the stupid, counterproductive, hyperpartisan atmosphere that pervades Canada’s federal political scene than the on-again, off-again debate over what to do with 24 Sussex Drive.

It’s not new. The tempest in a teapot over investing in the residence intended to house the leader of the country has been blowing hot and cold for years.

Everyone agrees, this mansion is a dump. It has asbestos. Heating and cooling systems are out of date. While no national leader wants to live there, swarms of mice do. It has literally been dubbed unfit for human habitation by architectural and safety experts. Most recent estimates suggest Sussex needs $10 million in renovations and upgrades. They could have been done for much less in years past, but because no one had the guts to make the commitment, the situation has gone from bad to worse.

And even in its current unoccupied state, it’s costing taxpayers money. Between November 2015 and March 2016, it cost $180,000 to keep it heated, lit up and clear of snow. The hydro bills alone for that five-month period weighed in at $38,881. And the National Capital Commission, in charge of the residence, has let something like $133,000 in contracts related to the house since 2016.

Why? Because no political leader wants to be seen as feathering his or her own nest by investing the necessary money to make Sussex safe and respectable. The opposition would have a field day, which they did when Brian Mulroney raised the prospect of improvements. Paul Martin had the same experience. Kim Campbell said she wouldn’t touch the subject with a pole.

Justin Trudeau is much the same. But he’s trying, to his credit, to get an independent overseer to take charge and make non-partisan decisions in the best interest of preserving the monument. Even that effort is politically risky. The NDP has agreed to not go all-partisan on the matter. The PCs did too, and then broke that pledge by insisting they want something from the government in return for approving the plan.

In the scheme of things, the fate of Sussex is a trifle. But think about what our inability to maintain and preserve the official residence says about Canada. Can you picture the Americans devolving into partisan sniping over ensuring The White House is maintained?

Sussex may not be especially historic. It was built as a lumber baron’s home in 1868, and didn’t start serving as the official residence until the early ’50s. But since then, a dozen or so prime ministers have lived there. It is, after all, the official residence for Canada’s top elected leader. It’s a piece of living, if not healthy at the moment, history.

If there is collective national will, and we would argue there is, all three parties should agree to allow the National Capital Commission to make the necessary investment. It’s time to put this small but telling embarrassment to bed once and for all. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Posted in: Canada Tagged: 24 Sussex, Canada, Electoral reform, Justin Trudeau, Ottawa, Prime Ministers, promises, reno, Residence, scrap yard
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