sleep

Thursday June 9, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 9, 2022

October 29, 2014

‘A clear crisis’: Ontario voter turnout prompts renewed calls for electoral reform

Advocacy groups are renewing calls for electoral reform in Ontario after Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives were re-elected with another majority last week despite historically low voter turnout and most voters casting ballots for other parties — though experts say it’s likely a non-starter.

In the June 2 election, 40 per cent voted for the Progressive Conservatives, handing the party 83 seats. Close to 53 per cent in total voted for the NDP, Liberals and Greens, but those parties will have a combined 40 seats. The Liberals won nearly a quarter of the popular vote but will hold just eight of the 124 available seats. Turnout was a record-low 43 per cent.

“The Ontario election results were a gross misrepresentation of what voters said with their ballots,” read a Twitter post from Fair Vote Canada, an organization that supports moving to a proportional system. “Majority governments should have the consent of a majority of voters.”

Electoral reform advocates says the Ontario results prove the province should scrap the first-past-the-post system, in which voters pick one candidate in their riding and the person with the most votes wins. The successful candidate doesn’t need to win a majority of votes to take the riding.

September 11, 2007

Many would like to see proportional representation, under which the percentage of seats a party holds would reflect their share of the popular vote.

Cameron Anderson, a political science professor at Western University, said people are understandably frustrated with the outcome, though he noted that the results could have been murkier if, for example, the party with the most votes didn’t win enough seats to form government.

“It was a fairly decisive victory among those who cast ballots, but the aftermath is what it is, and it’s unpalatable to many, for sure,” he said in an interview.

Amid calls for change, Anderson noted that supporters of the current system can make the case that majority governments offer stability without disruption or fear of snap elections. He also pointed to referendums on electoral reform that have been held in a number of Canadian provinces — including in Ontario — that ended up sticking with the status quo.

In 2007, Ontarians voted against a mixed-member proportional voting system. That model — which the NDP campaigned on this time around — tries to lend some of the stability of the first-past-the-post system to a fully proportional government, by having some legislators elected in local districts and others from party lists.

September 3, 2021

“Changing the system is not easy and is no panacea,” Anderson said, adding that finding compromise or agreement on a new system is challenging when balancing the interests of citizens and political parties.

Three of the four major parties promised to change the province’s electoral system during the 2022 campaign. But Ford, maintaining that his party received a clear mandate, ruled out the possibility the day after the election.

“I think this system has worked for over 100 and some odd years. It’s going to continue to work that way,” he told reporters.

The federal Liberal government also promised — and failed to deliver on — electoral reform.

While campaigning in 2015, Justin Trudeau said the federal election held that year would be the last to use the first-past-the-post method, a pledge he would ultimately renege on. (CBC) 

 

Wednesday March 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 30, 2022

Bob Bratina announces plans to run for Hamilton mayor, says he offers ‘veteran knowledge’

Bob Bratina says he suspects there will be new faces around the council table come October and is making the pitch it would help to have a familiar one too — his.

The veteran politician said he plans to run for mayor when nominations open in May, promising a positive, forward-looking campaign.

“There needs to be a little bit of stability in terms of veteran knowledge of how a city council works,” he told CBC Hamilton Tuesday morning, the day after announcing his intentions to run during an interview on CHML.

“I think it’s hard to disagree with the fact that you can’t just completely throw everybody out and start all over again. There are ramifications to that.”

Bratina, a former broadcaster, previously served as Hamilton’s mayor from 2010 to 2014.

He was elected as MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek for the Liberals in 2015 and again in 2019, but broke with the party over its support of Hamilton’s light-rail transit (LRT) project.

Bratina has been a vocal critic of LRT since his time on council. In May last year, he announced he wouldn’t run federally again, and teased then about the possibility of throwing his hat back in the ring for mayor.

LRT Gallery

On Tuesday Bratina said he thinks people are “tired” of hearing about LRT, noting it’s “on a course of its own” and in the hands of councillors.

“If I were to become mayor, with the council, I would have one of 16 votes.”

Bratina joins Keanin Loomis, who stepped down from his role as the CEO of Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce in January to run for the top job on city council.

Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton’s current mayor, said Tuesday that he hasn’t made a final decision on whether to run again, but “I would not bet against it.”

He added the window for nominations runs from May to August and he will make a decision during that time.

On Tuesday Bratina declined to speak about it in depth, saying “the past is for memoirs” and adding that he believes that council at that time functioned well.

January 12, 2012

He did say most of the “antagonists of the past” have moved on, describing the municipal officials of those days as “an old boys group who were around since roughly the beginning of the century.”

Now, Bratina said, he’s focused on the future.

He’s 77, but said he views any suggestion that could preclude him from running as “ageism,” noting with a laugh that he’s healthy and even considered running Around the Bay this year.

“The main thing I have … is the passion for it,” he said. “If the electorate decides it’s time for me to go, that’s fine. It’s up to them. But it’s not up to pundits to say what I should or shouldn’t do.”

Municipal elections will be held on Oct. 24. All potential candidates have until Aug. 19 to file nomination papers. (CBC) 

 

Thursday March 5, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 5, 2020

I’m An Ontario Teacher But I Chose To Go Where Teachers Are Respected

February 4, 2020

“One of my kids threw a chair today.”

“My kid locked himself in the classroom at lunch and then threatened to run away.”

“A parent told me I should have noticed the signs of her daughter wanting to self-harm.”

It was 2018, and my college classmates and I were swapping horror stories as the final year of our teacher’s program came to a close. Tales like ours were the norm — 70 per cent of educators see or experience similar situations  in their classroom — so I would often think of the teachers I’d admired in my youth and wonder, “Were we this difficult for them?”

May 6, 2015

I always hoped I’d be like those teachers, one day: kind, fun and respected by all. But, I realized that I would not be able to start my mission to be that kind, fun and respected teacher if the drama outside the classroom continued to escalate in Ontario’s education system, year after year.

For all its prestige, I knew I couldn’t root my career in Ontario.

A job there didn’t always seem undesirable. I’d accepted my offer to a concurrent teacher’s college program straight out of high school in 2013, with the intent of graduating and immediately securing a job teaching French in Ontario. It was an easy decision: I loved working with kids, I wanted to use my French at work. I even dreamed that I’d teach at my old elementary school.

May 26, 2015

Yet, over the course of teacher’s college, I saw the reality facing Ontario teachers.

My mentors were burnt out from dealing with a lack of funding, administrative miscommunication, overly demanding parents, and governments that didn’t value the students’ opinion in their education. They arrived at school in the morning dreading the day ahead, tired from the work they took home the night before.

They often said that their work outside of the classroom detracted from their job inside of it. Even as a student teacher, I felt the same — and I didn’t even have to take the lead in all of it. It affected my mood  and the atmosphere in the classroom, and I knew that was no good. I would not be able to teach my students well like this.

Despite the challenges, the public expects teachers to be complacent when the government wants to make cuts that hurt the kids more than they do us.

August 20, 2012

Teacher contract negotiations always blow up into a province-wide scandal. It happened when teachers went on strike in 2003, and again in 2012 and 2015. Each time, I had to hear my family members and the public voice their discontent.

Naysayers drag the profession through the mud and harp on the pay, benefits, retirement packages and vacation time that teachers earn. What isn’t considered as often is how much of their own money teachers all over Canada spend  on their own class supplies and resources, and how many of the activities they do are voluntary.

November 13, 2019

In the latest strikes, Ontario teachers are once again taking action with students in mind. Since Premier Doug Ford assumed his role in 2018, the changes to the education system have been moving the province backwards: increasing class sizes, reducing funding for school programs and moving away from a much-needed inclusive curriculum. A student-teacher ratio reaching as high as 40:1 and e-learning won’t set students up for success.

I’ve seen this drama play out over and over again in Ontario, and I decided I wasn’t going to be part of it. After graduating in 2018, I moved to China instead. (Continued: Huffington Post) 

 

Friday July 26, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 26, 2019

‘Stop harassing citizens’: Brantford police receive angry response to Amber Alert

Stop unnecessary and health damaging alerts to people asleep. Respectfully, do your job and stop harassing citizens. What in the **** are you thinking?

These are just a sample from the flood of angry messages Brantford, Ont., police have received after issuing an Amber Alert overnight Thursday to help find a two year-old girl who investigators say was abducted by her estranged father.

The child was ultimately found safe in Hamilton and returned to her mother, but the police service says complaints from the public have continued to roll in by email and through calls to 911, and dispatch.

One person has even called them about the alert 11 times and is now being investigated for a potential public mischief complaint, according to police.

The response has been so overwhelming, Insp. Scott Williams with the investigative support branch issued a statement addressing concerns about the use of Amber Alerts. He described them as a way to quickly spread the word about an abducted child who may be in danger.

“The main objective of the Amber Alert is always the safe return of the child,” he explained.

“Time is critical in saving the lives of abducted children, and with time comes a growing geography of concern. Once a child is abducted there is no way to determine the exact location the abductor is headed.”

Williams says the investigating began before the alert went out and continued after it was issued. Police follow strict guidelines that ensure Amber Alerts are used appropriately, he said, adding the decision to send an emergency broadcast to the entire province is never taken lightly.

Backlash has followed every Amber Alert issued in Ontario this year, though the broadcasts also have plenty of supporters.

A petition has even been launched calling for the Ontario government to fine people who call emergency dispatchers to complain about broadcasts of Amber Alerts. (CBC) 

 

Thursday August 30, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday August 30, 2012

Federalist voters are faced with some difficult decisions

Jean Charest has called the latest published poll results, showing his Liberal party losing the Sept. 4 Quebec election, “unreliable.”

But the actions of Charest and his party say otherwise.

When the Liberals spend more of their campaign budget on English television spots than usual, and when their leader spends time in the West Island and Outaouais in the last 10 days before a general election, it means something.

It means they’re in danger of losing even seats formerly considered safe.

The poll results from a survey conducted by Léger Marketing for the QMI news agency after last week’s crucial televised leaders’ debates, show Liberal support cratering.

The Liberals were a distant third in popularity among French-speaking voters — the choice of only 18 per cent — and third in every region except Montreal Island.

The poll results indicated that, barring a miracle, the Liberals were facing their worst defeat since 1976.

They also showed the Parti Québécois with less than overwhelming support, but enough for a slim majority in the National Assembly.

So with less than a week to go until the election, the federalist voter is faced with a difficult decision:

Go down with the Liberals, the only major party that is truly federalist. (Source: Vancouver Sun)