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Saturday September 9, 2017

September 8, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 9, 2017

LCBO to run 150 marijuana stores

Premier Kathleen Wynne is cornering Ontario’s recreational marijuana market by restricting sales to 150 LCBO-run stores.

June 20, 2017

The standalone cannabis outlets, separate from provincially owned liquor stores, and a government-controlled website will be the only place weed can lawfully be sold after Ottawa legalizes it on July 1.

In a move that will close scores of illegal “dispensaries” that now dot Ontario cities, the LCBO will get its product from the medical marijuana producers licenced by Health Canada.

Only those 19 and older will be allowed to purchase or possess marijuana and pot consumption will be limited to private homes.

Smoking weed will continue to be illegal in any public space, including parks, workplaces and motorized vehicles.

Prices will be kept competitive to curb the black market.

November 27, 2015

The government expects a boost in tax revenues.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa, Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, and Health Minister Eric Hoskins unveiled the plan Friday at Queen’s Park after months of work from Ontario’s cannabis secretariat.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which runs the province’s 651 liquor stores, using workers who are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, will oversee all retail sales and run the online service.

But the branding of the government’s new pot chain will not necessarily include the LCBO’s name.

September 24, 2015

“When it comes to retail distribution, the LCBO has the expertise, the experience and the insight, to ensure careful control of cannabis, to help us discourage illicit market activity and see that illegal dispensaries are shut down,” said Sousa, who has not yet determined how much tax revenue legalized weed will bring in.

Naqvi said the government has “heard people across Ontario are anxious about the federal legalization of cannabis.

“The province is moving forward with a safe and sensible approach to legalization that will ensure we can keep our communities and roads safe, promote public health and harm reduction, and protect Ontario’s young people,” the attorney general said.

There will be 40 LCBO weed stores in place across the province on July 1, 2018, 80 by 2019, and 150 in 2020. (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday February 1, 2017

January 31, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 1, 2017

John Tory ‘encouraged’ by Kathleen Wynne’s words on housing

Toronto Mayor John Tory was sounding somewhat mollified on Monday after meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne, just days after announcing she’s rejecting the city’s request to put tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway.

Speaking to reporters after the hour-long meeting at Queen’s Park, Wynne hinted at a willingness to boost provincial funding for Toronto’s affordable housing needs.

2007

Tory said he’d pressed the housing issue during the meeting.

“I stressed again, now more than ever, that the province must immediately come to the table to address our city’s social housing crisis,” Tory told a news conference at City Hall on Monday. “I was certainly very firm, again, that we need that help, that some of the most vulnerable people in our city need that help.”

Based on discussions in Ottawa last week, Tory said he is confident the federal government will put “substantial funding” for housing in its upcoming budget. He wants the province to match that money.

In a separate news conference at Queen’s Park, Wynne referred to her “recognition for the need for increased housing support,” but stopped short of promising money.

“We need a three-way partnership on affordable housing — the municipality, the province and the federal government working together as we move into this budget cycle,” she said.

Tory said he was encouraged by Wynne’s message.

“I found that a significant step forward because I’m not sure that I’ve heard those words said before,” Tory said.

Wynne meets Tory on an almost-monthly basis. Monday’s meeting had been scheduled well in advance of last week’s announcement about tolls.

The pair usually hold a photo opportunity inside Wynne’s office as their meeting wraps up, then a joint news conference. This time, the cameras were not allowed inside, the pair shook hands quickly outside Wynne’s door, then Tory departed for City Hall. It created the appearance of a less-chummy-than-normal get-together. (Source: CBC)

Friday, July 24, 2015

July 23, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, July 24, 2015

Feds can’t avoid $1-billion deficit, budget officer says

The federal Conservatives will fail to accomplish their key promise of balancing Ottawa’s books this year, instead running a $1-billion budget deficit in 2015, the parliamentary budget officer says.

Budget watchdog Jean-Denis Fréchette said Wednesday that the economic picture had changed since the Conservatives’ budget in April, which predicted surpluses in 2015-16 and over the next several years.

“Economic data has since indicated declines in real GDP (gross domestic product) that were not reflected in the government’s assumptions,” Fréchette said.

He noted that the Bank of Canada, in its quarterly forecast last week, had chopped its prediction for economic growth this year from 2 per cent to about 1 per cent.

The worse than expected economic conditions will reduce federal tax revenues, trimming $3.9 billion from Ottawa’s fiscal accounts in 2015, the budget watchdog said. But taking into account the $1 billion set aside as a rainy-day fund by Finance Minister Joe Oliver and factoring in other impacts, Fréchette said the Conservatives will run a $1-billion deficit this year.

With an eye on the Oct. 19 election, opposition parties seized on the report to slam the Conservatives’ handling of the economy. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised for years that 2015 would be the year his government puts an end to a seven-year string of budget deficits.

“That was supposed to be the Conservatives’ hallmark branding, wasn’t it, balanced budget?” NDP leader Thomas Mulcair asked during a campaign-style swing through southern Ontario. “We now know that’s not going to be the case.”

Mulcair said Harper put the economy at risk by relying too much on the oil and gas industry as an engine of growth. “The Conservatives put all of our economic eggs in the resource extraction basket, and now that that sector is having considerable difficulty, it’s affecting everything else in the Canadian economy.” (Source: Toronto Star)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Posted by Project Democracy on Friday, July 24, 2015

Thursday January 22, 2015

January 21, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 22, 2015

Kathleen Wynne issues infrastructure ‘challenge’ to federal leaders

Premier Kathleen Wynne wants all levels of government to invest about $100 billion a year to close Canada’s infrastructure gap.

With a federal election later this year, Wynne was in Ottawa on Tuesday to urge voters to opt for the party that will invest the money needed to build up the country.

“This isn’t about politics or who gets credit,” the premier told a Canada 2020 luncheon audience.

“I would be happy to put up as many ‘Economic Action Plan’ signs as it takes to help advance the economic strength of this province,” she said, referring to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s familiar blue billboards that spring up wherever Ottawa is spending money on a new project.

“As we enter an election year, I issue a challenge to all the federal parties and their leaders.”

Wynne urged Harper, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to “tell Canadians how you will help to build a stronger economic union across our country.”

“Tell us what you will do to help Canada catch up and ultimately take the lead when it comes to the kind of infrastructure that is essential for our economic competitiveness,” she said.

While Wynne often campaigns with Trudeau, she emphasized she is burying the hatchet with the Harper after more than a year of frosty relations with the Conservative prime minister.

“Two weeks ago, I had a positive and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Harper. We discussed a range of pressing issues, including the progress that is being made under existing infrastructure agreements,” she said. (Source: Toronto Star)

Wednesday January 21, 2015

January 20, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 21, 2015

Stephen Harper’s economic luck runs out

Five years ago, as the world economy was still trembling in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Canada hosted a meeting of the G-7 finance ministers and top central bankers.

The man in charge was Canada’s late finance minister, Jim Flaherty, who decided to hold the meeting in Iqaluit in early February. A simple glance at weather history would tell you that not only was it likely to be extremely cold in Iqaluit in the depths of winter but when storms brewed in the Arctic, Iqaluit’s airport could be shut for days. Not a welcome prospect when your guest list included U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.

Flaherty went ahead, convinced a meeting in Iqaluit would be a great way to highlight Canada’s Northern presence. The weather turned out to be sunny and relatively mild. The world’s top financial leaders were rewarded with Canada Goose parkas and got a chance to go dog-sledding. The meeting was a huge success. Lady luck had shone down on the government.

Luck had served Flaherty and the Harper government well from the moment they took power in 2006, particularly when it came to the economy. The Liberals had bequeathed the Tories a sound fiscal situation and a string of surpluses, so much so that in its early years, the Harperites could cut taxes and still boost spending on their favourite causes like the military, with seemingly no consequences. They also inherited a well-regulated banking system and an earlier ban on bank mergers that meant no Canadian bank was big enough to swagger on the world stage and do the kind of foolish things their U.S. and UK counterparts ended up doing. These factors, the consequence of Tory fortune rather than policy decisions, made a real difference when the financial crisis hit.

But the Tories’ real stroke of luck was that resource prices, particularly oil but also coal, iron ore and other commodities, remained strong even after the financial crisis, reflecting China’s continued growth. As manufacturing in central Canada collapsed, the West surged, filling federal coffers and providing jobs to unemployed workers from Central and Eastern Canada.

What’s more, real-estate prices not only didn’t dip, they kept roaring ahead. Again, luck was the major factor at play. Like other bubbles, Canada’s real-estate boom was powered by its own internal logic, as well as low interest rates. It didn’t really make any sense but the politicians weren’t about to complain. When it came time to vote, Canadians peered south of the border and saw devastation when it came to employment and house prices. Canada was doing pretty well so they held their noses and voted for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in 2008 and 2011.

Now, almost a decade on, Flaherty is gone and the Harper government’s remarkable stretch of luck is at an end. The collapse in the price of oil isn’t the fault of Harper or his hapless finance minister, Joe Oliver, but neither was the run-up in the price to their credit either. There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of fortuitous circumstances. The problem occurs when you take that luck for granted, promising tax cuts and a return to surplus when prudence would have told you to hold off. (continued: Toronto Star)

Social Media
Published on Yahoo News Canada.

Eggs in one basket, Prime Minister? #cdnpoli http://t.co/V8cXXpht8j pic.twitter.com/FzqmvmFgun

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) January 20, 2015

This cartoon is perfect.

Posted by Meanwhile in Canada on Wednesday, January 21, 2015