Premiers – mackaycartoons

Thursday April 29, 2021

May 4, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 29, 2021

Ontario details plan for 3 paid sick days after a year of mounting pressure

April 23, 2021

After months of urgent calls about the need for paid sick leave by medical professionals, labour advocates, political leaders and even top doctors from some of the province’s hardest-hit regions, the Ontario government has announced a plan to provide three paid sick days through a temporary program ending in September.

The proposed Ontario COVID-19 Worker Protection Benefit Program would pay up to $200 per day for workers who are sick, have symptoms, have a mental health issue or need to be vaccinated, and will be retroactive to April 19. The sick days would not need to be taken consecutively and no sick note is required.

If the legislation is passed, the program will be administered through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and employers will be reimbursed in full, the province says.

April 16, 2020

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton also said the province has offered to provide funding to the federal government to double the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit payments, adding an additional $500 per week to eligible individuals, for a total of $1,000 per week.

Ottawa earlier this week rejected an offer by the province to top up the program, saying the federal benefit is designed to support workers who don’t have a regular employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford pledged that Ontario would soon unveil details of a paid sick leave program, claiming it would be “the best program anywhere in North America, bar none.”

But as reported by CBC News, the Ford government initially sought to top up the federal program, rather than create its own. On the same day as Ford’s emotional news conference, Ontario’s finance minister wrote a letter to the federal government proposing to top up Canada’s sick leave benefit.

October 8, 2020

Critics have long pointed out the federal benefit pays less than a full-time minimum wage job, involves days, if not weeks, of processing time and doesn’t guarantee job security for workers who use it.

The cost of the proposal announced today was not included in the provincial budget, unveiled in March.

Unlike Quebec and Prince Edward Island, where sick days are in place permanently, Ontario’s proposed program ends in just five months. The province has has passed legislation that protects workers’ jobs if they can’t work due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. (CBC)

Letters to the editor – The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 1, 2021

Blame Trudeau, not Ford

I have to say I was aghast at the editorial cartoon of Doug Ford being whipped. It is no secret that The Spec is no fan of Mr. Ford, however to publish him being whipped and the prime minister watching is way over the line of decency and respect. Has he made mistakes, of course, some big ones, however keep in mind it is the prime minster, who you show sitting eating popcorn, who is ultimately responsible for this mess, due to poor vaccine procurement. There is enough blame to go around these days. I fail to see what this piece of work does to move anything forward.

Robert Hague, Burlington

Outraged at cartoon

I usually enjoy Mr. MacKay’s editorial cartoons, although he can push the envelope at times.

But I must profess my outrage at Thursday’s depiction of the premier of Ontario being publicly flogged. We are constantly preaching about being against violence and hate in our province but here is a depiction of an act of torture aimed at the leader of the province. People may or may not like Doug Ford and have their own opinions but this is going too far!

Rick Allen, Hamilton Mountain

Trudeau didn’t belong there

This cartoon was spot on about Ford. But putting Trudeau in was unfair. Dealing with employers is provincial jurisdiction and it’s Ford’s problem to solve, not Trudeau’s.

Sarah Mueller, Burlington

Friday December 7, 2018

December 14, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 7, 2018

‘Expect a little dustup’: Trudeau, premiers brace for fractious first ministers meeting

Senior officials from multiple provinces are predicting a tense and difficult first ministers meeting when premiers gather to discuss the economy and trade with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal on Friday.

August 5, 2010

“You can expect a little dustup. There’s no doubt about that,” said one provincial source who spoke to CBC News on condition they not be named.

The tensions became obvious during a conference call between the premiers on Tuesday afternoon. According to sources with knowledge of the call, several premiers voiced frustration with the draft federal agenda, which sets aside a significant amount of time to talk about issues important to the federal government and leaves only an hour for the provinces to raise their own priority issues.

“The agenda as presented had the prime minister fitting in a train of his cabinet ministers to lecture the premiers on the topics of his choosing,” said a second source from another provincial government, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.

September 1, 2018

The main point of contention in the first ministers’ agenda is the plan to give three federal cabinet ministers — Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc — two hours and 45 minutes in the middle of the day to lead discussions on trade and competitiveness, climate change and interprovincial trade barriers. The premiers’ roundtable which follows is set to run only 60 minutes.

The PMO late Wednesday reached out to CBC News to say that the ministers will only be speaking for a few minutes at the beginning of their part of the meeting before premiers are invited to voice their concerns.

July 20, 2018

The provinces have been agitating to set aside time at the meeting to talk about the downturn in the oil sector and Bill C-69, which overhauls the process for major project approval in Canada. Critics say C-69 will make it harder to advance large scale energy projects for development.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe sent a letter to Trudeau this week demanding that the “crisis facing the energy industry” be added to the agenda. Other premiers argue it’s impossible to have a first ministers meeting about the economy without carving out time to discuss the impact of C-69 .

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe sent a letter to Trudeau this week demanding that the “crisis facing the energy industry” be added to the agenda. Other premiers argue it’s impossible to have a first ministers meeting about the economy without carving out time to discuss the impact of C-69 . (Source: CBC)

Wednesday October 21, 2015

October 20, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 21, 2015

Justin Trudeau’s turn to face the weight of expectations

Stephen Harper is a goner, and humiliated, too, to the near-erotic ecstasy of Canada’s chattering classes, who loathed him with such intensity it’s hard to think of a comparison in modern politics.

Well, maybe Dick Cheney, George W. Bush’s Darth Vader.

Suddenly, in Justin Trudeau we have a prime minister-designate who’s banging on about hope and trust and inclusiveness and believing in yourself and being better and listening to everyone and diversity and all sorts of other happy thoughts. He even threw in tolerance for hijabs.

2011-2015

Last week, Harper tried to say this wasn’t about him, but it was. All those Conservative candidates he muzzled and controlled are probably wishing they’d grown some spine and stood up to those PMO staffers who’ve been ordering them around for years.

The smile that spread across the lips of the Canadian elites during the last week of this election, when Harper was reduced to posing with Rob Ford and his brother in an attempt to shore up what amounts to the Canadian Tea Party vote, was almost wolfish.

It won’t be hard for Trudeau to keep his most prominent promise — to run a deficit for a few years. Spending more than you earn is always easy. He may already be inheriting a deficit.

But he’s taking power at a time of tremendous transformation. A housing correction may be coming. Younger generations are struggling with debt.

At the same time, entire cohorts of baby boomers are retiring. Try to trim their entitlements, which will almost certainly be necessary, and see what happens.

Or try to force some competition into the Canadian banking sector. Or the almost closed-shop telecommunications sector. Or try to cut red tape at the border, and encourage true free trade with the Americans.

Trudeau will need revenue to fulfill his agenda, but even Liberals won’t be keen on restoring the taxes Stephen Harper cut. They may not even really want a larger federal government.

Our new prime minister might say he’s going to sit down and negotiate with Canada’s premiers “with deep respect,” but wait until he gets a load of what’s involved with that. His father knew.

What Trudeau can do, of course, is change the tone. That costs nothing, and a lot of Canadians want it to happen.

He can make Canada’s positions abroad more nuanced, less absolutist and replace Canada’s swagger at the UN with some actual diplomacy.

He can walk back the talk about how terrorists threaten us daily in our very homes, and perhaps speak honestly about the effectiveness of our combat mission in Iraq and Syria.

He may end up joining the rest of the Western world in supporting the nuclear deal with Iran, and perhaps even recognize that there are two sides to the question of Israel and the Palestinians.

But sweeping reversals of Stephen Harper’s legacy? It’s been almost a decade, and Harper changed the status quo. Even Trudeau himself seems to understand that. (Continued: CBC News)

Wednesday August 27, 2014

August 26, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 27, 2014

Canada’s premiers running out of excuses for inaction: Hébert

Every summer the country’s premiers converge on some picturesque spot in Canada for their annual gathering.

Last year it was Niagara-on-the-Lake. This year it’s Prince Edward Island. The backdrop changes as do some of the characters but the script, for the most part, remains the same.

Year in and year out the premiers usually find one or more apples of discord with the federal government of the day to chew on.

Some years they are unanimously aggrieved over some action of their federal partner. Last summer it was Ottawa’s labour training scheme.

On other occasions it is perceived federal inaction — as in the case this year of infrastructure spending — that is in their sights.

Over the past decade Stephen Harper’s lack of interest for convening first ministers’ conferences has been a recurring theme.

This is not to say that some of the concerns raised by the premiers are not real.

Their grievances over the initial federal labour training reform were serious enough. The proposition stood to cause more systemic problems than it would have solved. And a united provincial front did go some way to bring the federal government to the table.

But it also seems that when the premiers spend time in the same room they conveniently forget that they are not, as a group, devoid of the power to do more than tear up their shirts in front of the cameras.

(Brian Simpson/Government of Prince Edward Island)

When repeatedly faced with what they collectively see as a federal leadership vacuum it apparently does not cross their minds to fill it with more than empty words. By all indications, thinking outside the federal-provincial box does not come easily to this generation of premiers.

It is not that they are not equal partners with the federal government in the federation but that they don’t often act like they are.

(Source: Toronto Star)

Thursday, July 25, 2013

July 25, 2013 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, July 25, 2013

Women run the show and the biggest provinces with 87 per cent of Canadians

The old boys’ club that once was the Council of the Federation is no more — women now run the show because they rule the biggest provinces.

When Canada’s provincial and territorial leaders gather for their annual conference this week in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., they will make some political history.

An all-male cast in 2007

More than 87 per cent of Canadians are governed by female premiers — in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut.

“It makes it historic and I’m aware of that,” Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne told the Star on Tuesday. “I’d like to think we can do a great job because of who’s sitting around the table,” she said, with a laugh.

“But I don’t have a point of comparison, because when there were 13 men around the table, I wasn’t there. So I can’t really judge the quality of the discussion or the approaches.”

Wynne, as chair of the council, is hosting the meeting that gets under way Wednesday when the premiers gather with First Nations leaders to discuss education and other issues.

“I would hope that we’d find that there is an even increased ability to have a collaborative and frank discussion although I understand that these discussions have always been collegial and they are pretty open,” she said. (Source: The Toronto Star)