Food Banks Canada released its HungerCount 2010 survey in November. The report paints a grim picture of poverty in Canada and the continued growth in the need for services like food banks and other charitable food providers in our communities. This snapshot from thousands of hungry Canadians and from hundreds of food banks across the [...]
Archive for the ‘Columns’ Category
Food Banks
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010Has Canada Lost Its Way – Part III
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010Foreign policy My impression is that the last decade can be characterized as a “shift” in the way Canada reacts to the world. This change has not been sudden but has slowly evolved as a result of what I would call an “anti-Canadian” outlook by our government regarding our place in the world. We used [...]
Home Heating Costs — Make or Break
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010When I think of winter coming, I imagine cosy weekends filled with children’s laughter and hot chocolate shared in the warm glow of a living room. But for too many people here in the BC Southern Interior, that first snowfall may feel a little more ominous. For some of our friends and neighbours—maybe even your [...]
Has Canada Lost it’s Way? Part II
Friday, October 29th, 2010HAS CANADA LOST ITS WAY? Free Trade has become the mantra of the corporate sector since the 1980s when Brian Mulroney’s Conservative Government signed us onto the Canada / US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and then the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The 1988 election was fought exclusively on free trade and even though [...]
CRTC and foreign ownership
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010New Democrats are asking tough questions about foreign ownership in light of the revelation that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has no research on the impact of foreign ownership in Canada’s broadcast and telecom industries. Speaking to the issue in late July, New Democrat Culture Critic Charlie Angus said the Harper government’s decision [...]
Census Decision
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010The recent announcement by the Conservative Government, to do away with the long-form census came out of the blue and left many wondering what the motivation for the decision was based on. According to the government, it is merely responding to the call it has been hearing to change the law. Judging from the outcry [...]
Has Canada Lost Its Way?
Friday, October 1st, 2010Part I I have long appreciated how fortunate I am to live in a country where fairness, tolerance, bridge building between nations and strong domestic social policies have always been championed. However, for some time I have grown increasingly concerned as I’ve watched our nation undergo a consistent and seemingly deliberate transformation away from these [...]
Prevent Job-Killing Foreign Takeovers
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010A private member’s bill tabled by New Democrat Mining Critic Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt) would amend the Investment Canada Act to prevent job-killing foreign takeovers of Canadian companies. As it presently stands, when a foreign company proposes a takeover of a Canadian firm, the information it provides to Industry Canada is confidential, and cannot be [...]
Gun Registry – Divisive Politics
Thursday, September 9th, 2010The current Bill C-391 to abolish the gun registry appears to be receiving a lot of media attention these days. The Conservative government is cranking up its publicity campaign to abolish the registry, pitting different regions of the country against each other. If we were to look at how this is playing out in the [...]
Poverty Elimination Bill
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010My colleague, Tony Martin issued the following Op-ed which I endorse and would like to share with you. On Thursday, June 17, 2010, Tony Martin introduced his bill, An Act to Eliminate Poverty in Canada This bill provides for strong federal leadership in partnership with provinces, territories and other key stakeholders including our First Nations [...]