Summer

Tuesday August 9, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 9, 2022

Ontario legislature session begins as Doug Ford’s government pushes ahead with new mandate

Young Doug Ford: The Series

Opposition parties and critics are calling on the Ontario government to provide more relief to tackle rising inflation while also expediting solutions for hospital staffing woes when the legislature returns and the provincial budget is tabled this week.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government will again table its 2022-23 budget on Tuesday, originally introduced in April and put to the test as a main plank of the PC platform during the June election.

After being re-elected, Mr. Ford said the budget would remain largely intact with the addition of a 5-per-cent increase to Ontario Disability Support Program rates that the party campaigned on, as well as a pledge to tie future annual increases to inflation. The budget promises $4-billion in additional spending for highways and roads and $10-billion for hospital infrastructure over 10 years.

August 3, 2022

But with the cost of living on the rise, inflation surging over 8 per cent and hospitals facing significant staffing shortages, critics say more measures need to be introduced to provide support for Ontarians.

Official Opposition NDP interim leader Peter Tabuns said Friday his party is calling for a new budget that increases spending for health care and education, as well as raises wages for public-sector workers. Mr. Tabuns said this would mean repealing Bill 124, introduced by the government in 2019, capping public-sector wage increases at 1 per cent for a three-year contract period. (The Globe & Mail) 

Friday July 29, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday July 29, 2022

Education minister says Ontario students will stay in class for in-person learning this school year

January 31, 2020

Education Minister Stephen Lecce on Monday committed to keeping Ontario’s two million students in class for in-person learning this school year, as the province continues to face uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is so consequential to children’s mental and physical health,” Lecce said at a news conference in Ajax, where he announced his ministry’s “plan to catch up” for students who fell behind during pandemic-related school closures.

Ontario students were, cumulatively, out of in-person classes longer than children and youth in any other jurisdiction in North America after the pandemic began in March 2020.

Lecce’s commitment comes amid a backdrop of ongoing negotiations with the province’s education unions whose contracts are set to expire at the end of August.

Thursday July 21, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 21, 2022

Climate change deniers will need to face facts

4 Waves Cartoon

Taking to Twitter midday Tuesday, the U.K.’s national weather service didn’t need any scorching phrases to define the heat wave wreaking havoc on a nation more familiar with soggy summer picnics.

A simple graphic flashing 40 C did the job, plainly acknowledging the highest recorded temperature at London Heathrow. Ever.

Melting tarmac. Closed airports. Reduced transit services. Residents of the village of Wennington, just east of London, fleeing because their homes were on fire. “This is like the apocalypse,” said one resident.

And this is a scene already familiar this summer in France and Portugal and Spain and Italy and Croatia and Greece, and now green, temperate England.

Saturday September 4, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 4, 2021

Will voter engagement ramp up after Labour Day, political expert questions

The pandemic, a short election period and its timing are all having an impact on how voters are engaging in the current campaign leading to the Sept. 20 vote, says a local political analyst.

August 20, 2021

“As with everything else in our lives, the pandemic makes elections harder, the day-to-day aspects of an election,” said Michael Johns, visiting professor with York University’s department of politics. “We saw this in the U.S. (federal) election where they lost a debate.

“In the heart of the 2020 campaign, it was hard for them to even have two candidates on stage and have it aired nationally. That was hard. And now you’re trying to do it on a local level,” he added. 

The entire election process is complicated by the timing. The election was called for Sept. 20 in August, when people were still in summer or vacation mode, kids are home from school and when Johns says it’s typically more difficult to engage people.

This year, that campaign goes into the start of the school year.

“This election has been harder. It has been harder to get people motivated,” he said.

June 10, 2021

“Generally, I think, the pandemic and the timing of the election in both its duration and the time on the calendar. You put all those things together, I think this is what you end up with,” Johns added.

Even all-candidates meetings have become a challenge. 

“I think for a lot of people, they feel uncomfortable going to an all-candidates meeting,” Johns said. “Some of them might be so sick of doing everything on Zoom, the last thing they want to do is sit through a two-hour candidates meeting on Zoom”

In addition, some people might be uncomfortable using that technology, particularly seniors, who are typically the most engaged at election time.

Johns says he’s curious to see what happens after Labour Day. Will the pandemic have taken the wind out of the election, or will it ramp up in the last two weeks?

“That’s what we’ll have to wait and see,” he said. (Newmarket Today) 

Revised from a cartoon published Thursday August 1, 2013.