sinking

Tuesday March 7, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 7, 2017

Trump turns to Congress on wiretap claim, Obama camp denies it, FBI disputes it

President Donald Trump turned to Congress on Sunday for help finding evidence to support his unsubstantiated claim that former president Barack Obama had Trump’s telephones tapped during the election. Obama’s intelligence chief said no such action was ever carried out, and a U.S. official said the FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute the allegation.

Republican leaders of Congress appeared willing to honour the president’s request, but the move has potential risks for the president, particularly if the House and Senate intelligence committees unearth damaging information about Trump, his aides or his associates.

Trump claimed in a series of tweets without evidence Saturday that his predecessor had tried to undermine him by tapping the telephones at Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where Trump based his campaign and transition operations, and maintains a home.

Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said nothing matching Trump’s claims had taken place.

“Absolutely, I can deny it,” said Clapper, who left government when Trump took office in January. Other representatives for the former president also denied Trump’s allegation. (Source: CBC News) 

 

Friday, July 24, 2015

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday, July 24, 2015 Feds canÕt avoid $1-billion deficit, budget officer says The federal Conservatives will fail to accomplish their key promise of balancing OttawaÕs books this year, instead running a $1-billion budget deficit in 2015, the parliamentary budget officer says. Budget watchdog Jean-Denis FrŽchette said Wednesday that the economic picture had changed since the ConservativesÕ budget in April, which predicted surpluses in 2015-16 and over the next several years. ÒEconomic data has since indicated declines in real GDP (gross domestic product) that were not reflected in the governmentÕs assumptions,Ó FrŽchette 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 OttawaÕs 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, FrŽchette 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 ConservativesÕ 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. ÒThat was supposed to be the ConservativesÕ hallmark branding, wasnÕt it, balanced budget?Ó NDP leader Thomas Mulcair asked during a campaign-style swing through southern Ontario. ÒWe now know thatÕs not going to be the case.Ó Mulcair said Harper put the economy at risk by relying too much on the oil and gas industry as an engine of growth. ÒThe Conservatives put all of our economic eggs in the resource extraction basket, and now that that sector is having considerable diffi

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.

Tuesday July 14, 2015Budget 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.

Thursday November 13, 2014He 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.

Wednesday January 21, 2015“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

Wednesday April 22, 2015

Wednesday April 22, 2015Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 22, 2015

Pull comes to push as the EU wrestles with the migrant crisis

Last week, 400 or more, many of them women and children sheltering below deck, perished in a capsize off Libya. On Sunday, as many as 900 more lost in a single shipwreck. And on Monday, as the contingent agonized over what to do now, came heartbreaking shoreline-view footage of a sinking off the coast of Greek island of Rhodes. Mercifully, most made it ashore. Some did not, reportedly including a four-year-old boy.

Europe’s bad bet now is expected to be reversed quickly by the EU, which will meet Thursday in crisis mode, when it is expected to redouble formal search-and-rescue operations. Its efforts will be joined by a raft of aid groups attempting to bring global resources to bear.

“The world needs to react with the conviction with which it eliminated piracy off the coast of Somalia a few years ago,” said William Lacy Swing, director-general of the International Organization for Migrants (IOM).

“All of us, especially the EU and the world’s powers can no longer sit on the sidelines watching while this tragedy unfolds in slow motion and well over 1,500 have drowned since the beginning of January.”

But as the crisis deepened, agencies involved in the broader effort reminded us Europe is far from alone in this. Canada, let us not forget, was more than a little involved in Libya and now, more than a little involved in the madness that is Syria. (Source: Toronto Star)

Letter to the Editor

A picture is indeed worth a thousand words.
Spectator cartoonist Graeme MacKay has a powerful message. Canadian foreign aid should be used to help refugees, not bomb them! I hope someone sends a copy of Wednesday’s Spectator to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office.
Hughena Matheson, Burlington

 

Tuesday October 21, 2008

 

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 21, 2008

Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

Colin Powell, a Republican and retired general who was President Bush’s first secretary of state, broke with the party Sunday and endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president, calling him a “transformational figure” while criticizing the tone of John McCain’s campaign.

The former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman said either senator is qualified to be commander in chief. But after studying both, he concluded that Obama is better suited than McCain, the standard-bearer of Powell’s own party, to handle the nation’s economic problems and help improve its world standing.

“It isn’t easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he announced the endorsement and delivered a serious blow to the aspirations of his longtime friend, Arizona Sen. McCain.

But, Powell added: “I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain.”

The endorsement by Powell amounted to a stunning rejection of McCain, a 26-year veteran of Congress and a former Vietnam prisoner of war who has campaigned as the experienced, tested candidate who knows how to keep the country safe.

Powell’s endorsement has been much anticipated because of his impressive foreign policy credentials, a subject on which Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, is weak. Powell is a Republican centrist popular among moderate voters. (Source: Daily Herald Tribune) 

 

Monday May 15, 2006

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday May 15, 2006

Who’s minding the store?

Last week’s game of political dodge ball over the unionizing of city carpentry work was more evidence of a city hall malaise that should have Hamilton taxpayers incensed.

It’s not just the potential cost of this screw-up that’s troubling, though that aspect is deadly serious. The more exasperating problem is the culture of listlessness that, on too many days, seems to characterize municipal government.

In the carpentry issue, city councillors and managers failed to realize a union drive was taking place until it was too late — even though someone, somewhere at City Hall had been properly notified about it. Has anyone heard about communications protocols? How about accountability?

We now learn that the union monopoly over the city’s carpentry work, much of which was contracted out, could suck as much as $10 million a year from public coffers.

Guess whose pockets that will come from?

This debate is not about the merits of unions. It is about competency levels in a billion-dollar-a-year corporation called the City of Hamilton. Who’s running the ship, watching out for the public? The mayor? The city manager? Council? Staff? Hamiltonians should demand answers.

This debacle is the latest tile in a pattern that is unflattering.

Just last week councillors were startled to learn that a $14.5-million blue box contract with a private vendor has never been signed — after three years. There may well be good reasons for this, such as ongoing negotiations. But surely council — the corporation’s board of directors — should be kept apprised of such an important file as waste recycling.

Last month it was revealed that, for 10 years, city officials never conducted the mandatory annual performance review of Hamilton airport, a critical player in the city’s economic development, and which is contracted out to private operator TradePort.

The city of Hamilton is a big operation with thousands of employees. As with any large workplace, a certain percentage of things “fall through the cracks, ” and many dedicated people toil in thankless anonymity on tasks and projects that are well done. This spring’s rollout of the green cart program, for example, didn’t happen by accident. Many hands made it a success.

None of those facts, however, undo the expectation of accountability at both the political and staff levels. Public servants answer to the public. Government bureaucracies are often accused of lacking a sense of urgency, of being more concerned about surviving than thriving.

An unfair characterization of life down at City Hall? Given the nature and cost of the carpentry blunder, many furious Hamiltonians will think not and will want to know who is taking responsibility for this shocking disregard for public money in a city so strapped for cash. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, A16, 5/15/2006)