The ever ballooning Senate spending scandal has been instructive for political watchers as it highlights how our democratic institutions operate in a self-policing manner that can be secretive, self-serving, and difficult for people to make sense of. Amidst the understandable public outrage there [Read more]
This week I met with representatives from ALS Canada who explained they were concerned about the impact the conservative budget is having on their organization. They are looking to have parliament reinstate the funding they were receiving up until 2012 that had been cut in last year’s omnibus, [Read more]
It’s been quite a week on Parliament Hill with most of the attention being paid to the Senate while the House of Commons largely evaded the headlines. That might change with another omnibus budget implementation bill. With time allocation immediately put in place, there is no chance this [Read more]
We hear a lot about the disappearing middle class these days and we should be hearing as much, or perhaps even more, about the plight of seniors mired in poverty. Whether it is because of pensions that underperform or vanish altogether, more seniors are requiring assistance from the [Read more]
It is pretty easy to view drug companies as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type entities. For those who are relieved of symptoms or illness by proprietary drugs, they do good and important work. For those who struggle with side effects, receive little or no relief, have adverse reactions – or [Read more]
not rushing back to difficult question periods: Hughes ELLIOT LAKE, ON – Just days ahead of the International Day of Democracy (September15th ), the Prime Minister announced he will prorogue parliament which will delay the start of the fall sitting for a full month. While the move was [Read more]
It is well established that poverty has a strong correlation with life expectancy. It is one of the big holes in the government’s reasoning behind their plan to increase the age of eligibility for OAS. The government used numbers that tied the life expectancy of wealthier baby boomers to the [Read more]
If you watched Question Period during the last five weeks parliament sat in the spring, you didn’t see much of the Prime Minister. When Stephen Harper was around over that stretch, it was anything but smooth sailing. Day after day he faced a tough line of questioning from Tom Mulcair about [Read more]
A few years back I wrote about the challenges for bees (especially honey bees) as colony collapse disorder was a growing concern and phenomenon. Recent news items show the problems aren’t reversing but are only getting worse. This is significantly bad news and the implications could be felt [Read more]
More and more people want to be able to eat locally produced food. Whether the motivation is political or merely based on a desire to support local producers and get fresh food, the idea of eating locally is on an upward trajectory. Recently, the Manitoulin Island Community Abattoir (MICA) [Read more]
Anyone in business knows that when money doesn’t come in the venture won’t last long. This critical point seems to escape the minds of Conservatives who have allowed uncollected tax to balloon under their watch. It is hurting Canada and punishing those who play by the rules. Since the [Read more]
“We must clean up corruption and lift the veils of secrecy that allow it to flourish. We must do nothing less than replace the culture of entitlement with the culture of accountability.” That was Stephen Harper’s opinion only one year before he became Prime Minister. Much has changed [Read more]
The Auditor General gave the Conservative government a $3.1 billion dollar black eye this week when he revealed that amount of money is missing in action from Canada’s anti-terrorism efforts. Stephen Harper says this is just ‘an issue of lack of clarity,’ but for a party that rode into Ottawa [Read more]
Give’em enough rope: Senators doing a great job of showing why we don’t need the place The recent investigation into questionable housing allowance claims for Senators has put the Red Chamber under a spotlight that leaves many Canadians wondering how useful the institution really is. One [Read more]
Just like the corner store or local diner, the family farm is disappearing from Canada at a rapid pace. Since 2007 Canada has lost over 22,000 family farms as the trend toward corporate agriculture picks up steam. While this may seem like an inevitable conclusion, we should seriously consider [Read more]
