wealth

Saturday October 29, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Saturday October 29, 2016 'Pretty Good Rich Kids': Reaching the OHL takes more than talent What does it take to make it to the Ontario Hockey League? Skill? Certainly. Speed? Sure. Strength? No question. But it also takes something else Ñ something over and above raw talent and physicality. To make it to the OHL, you also need a winning ticket in the lottery of birth. A year-long Spectator investigation finds a highly significant number of the league's Ontario-raised players are from suburban neighbourhoods where most people are well-educated, earn high incomes and live in expensive homes. The odds of them crossing paths with someone living in poverty are extremely low. For anyone familiar with the extraordinary cost of playing hockey in Ontario Ñ $15,000-or-so annually for an elite AAA player and getting higher Ñ this won't come as a shock. If you want to be the next Sidney Crosby, says Wilfrid Laurier University's William McTeer, "the first question you have to ask is how much money do your parents have and are they prepared to invest in your future as an athlete.Ó But cost isn't the only thing keeping children in Hamilton and across Ontario out of the game. Several factors, including geography, public policy and the funding mechanisms of non-profits, are making it increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income families to access the sport, particularly at competitive levels. "I think it's tragic," says Philip White, a sport sociologist at McMaster University. "You live in a culture where everybody is supposed to have an opportunity to advance and kids are simply shut out.Ó Our analysis is grounded in data. Stick with us while we get the heavy stuff out of the way. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator) http://www.thespec.com/sports-story/6931904--pretty-good-rich-kids-reaching-the-ohl-takes-more-than-talent/ Canada, Ontario,ÊHamilton, hockey, soccer, amateur, sport, professional, money, wealth,

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 29, 2016

‘Pretty Good Rich Kids’: Reaching the OHL takes more than talent

What does it take to make it to the Ontario Hockey League?

Skill? Certainly. Speed? Sure. Strength? No question.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday November 28, 2007 Probe into hockey brawl between 8-year-olds A decision on whether to lay a criminal charge in connection with a hockey brawl involving eight-year-olds at a tournament in Guelph, Ont. will likely come on Wednesday, says a police spokesperson.Ê "It's the interaction between the two coaches -- whether or not that was a consensual fight or an assault," Sgt. Cate Welsh of the Guelph Police told CTV.ca on Tuesday.Ê Niagara Falls Thunder coaching staff allegedly spat at a counterpart with the Duffield Devils, Welsh said.Ê But what had everyone talking is the bench-clearing brawl erupting at the game's end on Friday, which involved such young players. Players for both sides belong to Novice AAA teams.Ê "This is a really rare incident," Richard Ropchan, executive director of the Ontario Minor Hockey Association told CTV.ca, adding he can't think of a similar one in his nine years with the OMHA.Ê "Certainly the fact that eight-year-olds are involved -- well, that certainly got my attention."Ê Ropchan added that the brawl "points right to the adults involved. You can't blame the kids for that."Ê Witnesses say there were cheap shots throughout the game, culminating with a fight. (Source: CTV News)Êhttp://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2007/11/26/ontario_leads_in_child_poverty.html Hockey, fighting, contact, brawl, coaches, aggressive, brutality, history, Roman, gladiators, Rome, war, violence, editorial cartoon, 2007

 November 28, 2007

But it also takes something else — something over and above raw talent and physicality. To make it to the OHL, you also need a winning ticket in the lottery of birth.

A year-long Spectator investigation finds a highly significant number of the league’s Ontario-raised players are from suburban neighbourhoods where most people are well-educated, earn high incomes and live in expensive homes.

The odds of them crossing paths with someone living in poverty are extremely low.

For anyone familiar with the extraordinary cost of playing hockey in Ontario — $15,000-or-so annually for an elite AAA player and getting higher — this won’t come as a shock. If you want to be the next Sidney Crosby, says Wilfrid Laurier University’s William McTeer, “the first question you have to ask is how much money do your parents have and are they prepared to invest in your future as an athlete.”

But cost isn’t the only thing keeping children in Hamilton and across Ontario out of the game.

Several factors, including geography, public policy and the funding mechanisms of non-profits, are making it increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income families to access the sport, particularly at competitive levels.

“I think it’s tragic,” says Philip White, a sport sociologist at McMaster University. “You live in a culture where everybody is supposed to have an opportunity to advance and kids are simply shut out.”

Our analysis is grounded in data. Stick with us while we get the heavy stuff out of the way. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Friday August 26, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Friday August 26, 2016 Ontario Liberals wonÕt ban cash-for-access events OntarioÕs Liberal government has bowed to public and opposition pressure to tighten caps further on political donations, but is still not banning cash-for-access fundraising. Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi on Monday released proposed amendments to Bill 201, the LiberalsÕ campaign-finance reform legislation. TheÊbill is under review by a legislative committee, which has been holding public hearings for the past two months. The changes include a $3,600 limit per donor Ð divided among the central party office, riding associations and individual candidates Ð in a year withÊan election or by-election, or $2,400 in a year without either. Currently, donors can contribute up to $33,250 annually; the original text of the billÊwould have brought that down to $7,750 in a year with an election or by-election. But the Liberals opted not to make cash-for-access illegal, allowing the controversial fundraising practice that started the furor over campaign financeÊto continue. Instead of a legislated ban, Mr. NaqviÕs office said he will consult the opposition parties on a code of conduct for MPPs that would offerÊguidelines for raising money from stakeholders. The government turned down an interview request for Mr. Naqvi. His spokesman, Kyle Richardson, refused to answer questions directly on why theÊLiberals are not prohibiting cash-for-access. ÒGovernment amendments are based on the feedback heard at public hearings held across Ontario. We are committed to working with theÊopposition,Ó Mr. Richardson wrote in an e-mail. Under the cash-for-access system, revealed by The Globe and Mail this spring, corporations, unions and wealthy individuals paid up to $10,000 forÊaccess to Premier Kathleen Wynne and members of her cabinet, typically over cocktails and dinner. At most events, corporate and union leaders in aÊgiven sector Ð including const

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 26, 2016

Ontario Liberals won’t ban cash-for-access events

Ontario’s Liberal government has bowed to public and opposition pressure to tighten caps further on political donations, but is still not banning cash-for-access fundraising.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday March 30, 2016 Ontario, the Wild West of Political fundraising Kathleen WynneÕs Liberals will rake in roughly $3 million in a single fundraiser Wednesday night. At their sumptuous Heritage Dinner, ÒVictory TablesÓ are priced at $18,000 for corporate high-flyers, and the biggest donors are feted at a private cocktail reception by a grateful premier. But thatÕs only half the story of how the governing party raises big money. In Ontario, the Wild West of fundraising, cabinet ministers are assigned secret targets as high as $500,000 a year, the Star has learned. The unsavoury spectacle of OntarioÕs politicians supplicating big business and big labour for events such as the Heritage Dinner is only a small piece of the fundraising puzzle glimpsed by the public. Beyond the showy hobnobbing, shadowy appeals by cabinet ministers for corporate money are the untold story at QueenÕs Park. Corporate and union contributions that Wynne persists in publicly defending create a demonstrable conflict of interest for cabinet ministers, which is why they were banned for federal parties in 2006, and are no longer legal in four other provinces. And yet, according to multiple sources, top cabinet ministers at QueenÕs Park are given financial targets that are typically in the range of $250,000 annually Ñ double that amount in some cases. These quasi-quotas are never written down, conveyed instead by the Ontario Liberal Fund through confidential meetings and phone calls. They are the price of admission to power, revealed here for the first time, and they are astonishingly high. The two most marketable ministers are Charles Sousa, the minister of finance, and Eric Hoskins, who helms the provinceÕs $52-billion health care budget. Both are expected to bring in as much as $500,000 a year, well-placed sources have confirmed. SousaÕs control of the provincial treasury, tax policy and auto insurance makes him a prime t

March 30, 2016

Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi on Monday released proposed amendments to Bill 201, the Liberals’ campaign-finance reform legislation. The bill is under review by a legislative committee, which has been holding public hearings for the past two months.

The changes include a $3,600 limit per donor – divided among the central party office, riding associations and individual candidates – in a year with an election or by-election, or $2,400 in a year without either. Currently, donors can contribute up to $33,250 annually; the original text of the bill would have brought that down to $7,750 in a year with an election or by-election.

But the Liberals opted not to make cash-for-access illegal, allowing the controversial fundraising practice that started the furor over campaign finance to continue. Instead of a legislated ban, Mr. Naqvi’s office said he will consult the opposition parties on a code of conduct for MPPs that would offer guidelines for raising money from stakeholders.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð

April 7, 2016

The government turned down an interview request for Mr. Naqvi. His spokesman, Kyle Richardson, refused to answer questions directly on why the Liberals are not prohibiting cash-for-access.

“Government amendments are based on the feedback heard at public hearings held across Ontario. We are committed to working with the opposition,” Mr. Richardson wrote in an e-mail.

Under the cash-for-access system, revealed by The Globe and Mail this spring, corporations, unions and wealthy individuals paid up to $10,000 for access to Premier Kathleen Wynne and members of her cabinet, typically over cocktails and dinner. At most events, corporate and union leaders in a given sector – including construction, finance, insurance and pharmaceuticals – gave money to spend time with the cabinet minister responsible for making policy decisions and handing out contracts in the donors’ industry. (Source: Globe & Mail)

 

Friday January 15, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 15, 2016

Ex-dragon Kevin O’Leary mulls Conservative leadership bid

Donald Trump is not the only celebrity businessman with his eye on high political office.

Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of O’Leary Funds, probably best known to Canadians as a former investor panelist on the CBC show Dragon’s Den, said he is considering running for the federal Conservative leadership.

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday, December 2, 2015 Ontario to lose equalization payments as Alberta's economic fortunes fall Ontario will shed its status as a poor cousin of Confederation in the coming years, not because its economic fortunes are rebounding, but because resource-rich Alberta is falling on hard times. The federal government is expected to announce how much each province will receive in the fiscal year 2016-17 from transfer payment programs, which include equalization, before Finance Minister Bill Morneau meets with his provincial and territorial colleagues in Ottawa on Sunday evening. The equalization program redistributes national income to help poorer provinces provide services comparable to those of their richer counterparts. But equalization experts say the formula for calculating the payments is slow to respond to changes, including volatile commodity prices, which will leave Alberta carrying a disproportionate burden when the numbers are announced this weekend. Ontario began receiving equalization for the first time in 2009, a dramatic reversal of fortune for the countryÕs one-time economic powerhouse. It is now set to reclaim its status as a ÒhaveÓ province because the disparity between its economy and that of Alberta is shrinking. ÒWhat weÕre talking about here is the bad way of coming out of equalization,Ó economist Don Drummond said. The Ògood wayÓ to come out of the program, he said, is for a provinceÕs economy to rebound so that growth in its revenues offsets a loss of equalization payments. Because the equalization funding is based on a three-year national average of gross domestic product, next yearÕs calculation will still include times when oil prices were high and Alberta was booming. This means Ontario will not get Òkicked outÓ of the program for another two or three years, Mr. Drummond said. Alberta pulled up the overall standard of living in Canada when the countryÕs wealth was sh

“I thought at some point, someone is going to say to me, if you can be such a critic, why don’t you do better? Why don’t you try it? I thought to myself, hmmm, maybe I should,” O’Leary told CBC News.

That criticism made headlines earlier this week when O’Leary said he would invest $1 million in Canadian oil industries on the condition NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley resign.

The Conservative Party of Canada is expected to hold its leadership convention to find a successor to former prime minister Stephen Harper sometime in 2017.

Rona Ambrose is currently interim party leader.

Wednesday December 9, 2015O’Leary, who did not immediately respond to an interview request with the Star Thursday morning, also told CBC News that he was inspired by the campaign of Trump, who is currently leading the pack of those running for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination.

“I know Trump. I know his family. I’ve watched him work. I think he’s smart as a fox,” said O’Leary, who is currently an investor on the ABC reality television show Shark Tank, where he is known for his brash personality and often harsh advice.

O’Leary has named the economy as the main focus of his potential leadership bid so far, saying the primary test for the success of any politician — at the municipal, provincial or federal level — should be whether or not they have created any jobs.

“Did what that person, man or woman, say create one incremental job in Canada? Yes or no?” O’Leary said during a Thursday morning interview with John Moore on Newstalk 1010.
On that front, O’Leary said, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has failed.

“Our prime minister, in his first 60 days on the job, left the country, committed $4.2 billion around the world and didn’t create one incremental job for a Canadian. I call that a fail. I think I can do better,” O’Leary said. (Source: Toronto Star)

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016

Published in the Winnipeg Free Press, January 18, 2016

 

Wednesday January 28, 2015

Wednesday January 28, 2015Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 28, 2015

What is the Middle Class?

Canada’s finance minister insists low- and middle-income families will see two-thirds of the benefits from the government’s contentious multibillion-dollar tableau of family-friendly measures.

By that measure, Joe Oliver is suggesting families with annual incomes as high as $120,000 qualify as middle class.

Friday April 25, 2014The Finance Department’s own internal breakdown of the distribution of relief from the family package shows 68 per cent of the benefits — about two-thirds — will go to families that earn as much as $120,000 in 2015.

The Canadian Press obtained the figures under the Access to Information Act.

“Two-thirds of the benefits will go to low- and middle-income families,” Oliver said Monday while defending the government’s family package during Question Period in the House of Commons.

“I’m proud that our government has presented a plan, a benefit plan for four million Canadian families — every one of them.”

That family plan, including a controversial $2-billion-per-year income-splitting component, is expected to be a centrepiece of the Tories’ re-election campaign when Canadians head to the polls later this year.

It has also become a preferred bull’s-eye for their adversaries.

Political opponents have zeroed in on the income-splitting element, calling it an unfair policy that provides no relief for 85 per cent of all Canadian households and provides more benefits to wealthier families.

Looking at the family tax-and-benefit package as a whole, however, the subjective nature of the so-called “middle class” means who exactly stands to benefit — and who does not — remains an open question.

There is no universal definition of the middle class, a term frequently trotted out by politicians as a way to connect with a large group of voters. (Source: Toronto Star)

 

Published on Yahoo Canada News, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, and The Ottawa Citizen.

 

 

Feedback: From (name pixelated), or someone who’s NOT Charlie Hebdo, evidently:

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - January 28, 2015 feedback

 

Wednesday August 13, 2014

Wednesday August 13, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday August 13, 2014

Justin Trudeau Vows To Scrap First Nations Financial Transparency Act

Justin Trudeau has promised to scrap a controversial law forcing First Nations leaders to disclose salaries and band financial statements online and replace it with something more “respectful” if he becomes prime minister in 2015.

Trudeau told The Vancouver Sun the First Nations Financial Transparency Act, passed in 2013 amid complaints from many aboriginal leaders, has been used as a “weapon” against critics of the Stephen Harper government.

Saturday July 20, 2013“I wouldn’t keep the legislation in place,” Trudeau told the newspaper. “I would work with First Nations to make sure that a proper accountability act that would have disclosed any excesses we see, but is done in a way that is respectful of the First Nation communities.”

Thursday, January 10, 2013The law requires First Nations bands post audited financial statements — including remunerations of chiefs and councillors — on their websites within 120 days of the end of the financial year. Smaller bands without websites can post them to the sites of larger First Nations groups or a site hosted by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Monday, January 21, 2013The department is publishing the documents online as they are received from more than 600 First Nations bands. As of Monday afternoon, documents from less than 250 bands were posted, despite a deadline to submit the information by July 29.

After the rules came into effect two weeks ago, it was revealed Kwikwetlem First Nation Chief Ron Giesbrecht received nearly $1 million in remuneration last year for serving as leader and economic development officer of his B.C. band. (Source: Huffington Post)

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From the Hamilton Spectator:
From: http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/4756600-august-13-editorial-cartoon/