Child Poverty in Canada
Tuesday was the 20th anniversary of Canada’s parliament passing a resolution to end child poverty by the year 2000. All members of parliament at the time voted in favour of the resolution, but here we are twenty years later and the goal was not achieved. In fact, successive governments (and opposition MPs too) have done pathetically little to end child poverty. What seemed like a great idea at the time has become an embarrassing failure. I think the problem lies in parlamentarians’ failure to do something very simple that was once told to me: “Plan your work. Work your plan.” Parliamentarians certainly had a great goal, and gave themselves a reasonable time-frame, but they didn’t have a plan to follow. It’s time for Canada to accept its failure and start looking at how we can succeed on this issue. We should be looking at what other nations have done to eliminate child poverty and devising our own plan using what worked best for those nations.
Ed Broadbent, the man who came up with the end child poverty resolution in the first place, has an idea. It sounds good to me. At the very least, it would be a good start.
It’s time for a raise!
Eight years is far too long for the lowest paid workers to wait for a raise. Good for Carole James for pushing this issue. Minimum wage should be at or above the poverty line!
New Democrats join British Columbians to mark eighth anniversary of BC’s minimum wage freeze
British Columbians believe hard work should be rewarded. It’s a core value that we all share.
That’s why the anniversary we marked this week was such a sad statement on the BC Liberals’ priorities.
Eight years ago this month, BC’s lowest paid workers got their last raise. Eight years ago.
In that time, costs have risen for all of life’s essentials.
And the new HST will make life even more expensive.
British Columbia now has the lowest minimum wage in the country.
And that means for tens of thousands of British Columbians getting up and going to work just doesn’t pay.
That has got to change.
To grow our economy and secure our future, every British Columbian who works hard, pays taxes, and contributes to their community should share in the benefits of BC’s economy.
But under the BC Liberals more and more British Columbians are falling behind.
BC has the highest child poverty rate in the country.
The gap between the rich and poor is growing.
And the middle-class is getting squeezed by rising costs and stagnant wages.
New Democrats believe it’s time to give minimum wage workers their first raise in eight years.
And it’s time to invest in the fundamentals to support a growing economy, a strong middle-class, and healthy communities.
Sincerely,
Carole
Tags: BC Liberals, BC NDP, Carole James, Gordan Campbell, minimum wage, poverty
Conservative Candidate Silenced
Once again, Stephen Harper has slapped the PMO muzzle onto a fellow Conservative. This time it was the Conservative candidate in the New Westminster-Coquitlam by-election. I guess it’s ok to share Harper’s views on destroying Canada’s medical care system, you’re just not supposed to talk about them in public. He’s saving that descussion for when he gets his majority.
Reality check: Harper scrambling to hide candidate’s support for health privatization
Fri 06 Nov 2009With only days until voters make their choice in the New Westminster-Coquitlam by-election, Stephen Harper is trying to hide his candidate’s comments in favour of private health care.
Speaking on local radio, Diana Dilworth expressed her willingness to allow more private medical care as an option for health reform:
“There’s a lot of different things that we could consider. And certainly private medical care is one of those options.” – Conservative candidate Diana Dilworth, CKNW’s “The Christy Clark Show,” 26 October 2009
Since she made her statement, Dilworth has all but disappeared.
“Over the next few days, I learned that with the exception of a tightly structured appearance on CKNW’s Christy Clark Show, Dilworth has yet to participate in any all-candidates’ debate. A New Westminster community group called Tenth to the Fraser abandoned plans for a debate after Dilworth declined to participate.” – The Tyee.ca, “The Curious Case of the Missing Tory,” 5 November 2009
If Stephen Harper disagrees with his candidate on private health care, why doesn’t he just say so instead of hiding her from voters?
Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t.
Tags: by-election, Diana Dilworth, health reform, healthcare, medicare, mujzzle, New Westminster-Coquitlam, PMO, privatization, Stephen Harper
Political favours influencing H1N1 vaccine
Stephen Harper has long campaigned on a promise to end Liberal political patronage in Ottawa. That’s why many Canadians were surprised when he appointed 18 CPC friendly senators at a time when he didn’t have the confidence of the House of Commons. It’s now been revealed that senators are costing taxpayers almost 220 per cent more for expenses while working less and less.
And as if political patronage when it comes to the Senate wasn’t disturbing enough, it turns out political patronage has played a role in the distribution, or lack thereof, of lifesaving H1N1 vaccines.
Stephen Harper proves once again: Liberal, Tory, same old story.
Tags: Conservative, H1N1, Liberal, patronage, senate, Stephen Harper, Tory, vaccine
NDP the balanced budget party?
New Democratic governments have the best record when it comes to balancing their budgets and staying out of deficit. Even the Conservative federal government agrees.
Tags: balanced budgets, deficit, economy, government, NDP, New Democrats, surplus
Does Google Streetview help thieves?
Last month CBC News reported on Google Streetview’s emergence in Canada and how some people are now concerned about their security and privacy. Patrick Mates, a home security inspector”, says “this is scary” and then claims that Google is making it easy for thieves to case people’s houses. I have news for Mr. Mates. Having a public road in front of your house makes it easy for thieves to check out your house too! Google Streetview doesn’t show anything that a normal walk or drive down the same street would show. In fact, from what I’ve seen of the Streetview images cruising down the street in reality would give you a better idea of what houses are vulnerable. Streetview isn’t available for my current city; Kelowna, B.C., but I was able to check out my former address in Calgary. For starters, I typed in the address and Google showed me an image of the house a block down the street. When I moved down the street to see the house I lived in, the image was blurry and parts of my car, that was parked out front, appeared twice. I was actually quite disappointed in the quality, but not enough to bitch and moan about it in CBC News’ comments section.
And that brings up this question: Of the many people who commented on CBC’s story and complained that their security and privacy have been violated, how many felt so violated that they wrote to Google and asked that the image of their home be removed?
Tags: CBC, Google, Google Streetview, privacy, Streetview, thieves
