Meet James at Oakville NDP’s End of Summer BBQ
Sunday, August 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Join members and supporters of the NDP in Oakville for an End of Summer Barbeque on Sunday August 29th, 2 pm. It will be an afternoon of good food and good company. Please RSVP to jamieede@gmail.com for more details.Hope to see you there!
I have almost nothing to add…
Thursday, July 1st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
…to this great article.Omnibus Bill Promises Privatization, Oil Spills
Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Bill C-9, known as the “Omnibus Bill”, has by now unfortunately passed third reading in the House of Commons and moved to the Senate. This monster piece of legislation, which runs over 900 pages, is primarily related to the budget, also contains a number of non-budget regulatory changes that have serious consequences for our nation. Amongst these are measures that partially privatize Canada Post, pave the way for the privatization of Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd, allow the federal government to remove surplus funds from Employment Insurance, and most dangerous of all, effectively remove mandatory environmental assessments from major commercial projects, including resource and energy projects such as oil wells.As the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico shows us, removing environmental assessments from such projects is a terrible mistake. America has learned the hard way about the costs of deregulation. Now Canada seems to be headed to the same terrible lesson. What is needed is stricter environmental controls, not looser ones.
Because it is related to the budget, Bill C-9 is a confidence motion, and its defeat would trigger an election. Including non-budget items in a budget bill, when the government knows the Liberals will not oppose it for fear of an election, is a dirty trick, and not compatible with an honest and transparent democracy. It is a Trojan Horse move to sneak unpopular and dangerous legislation into law, rather than have it subjected to the full and separate attention it deserves. In light of the British Petroleum spill, it is reasonable to conclude that such legislation, if voted on separately, would not pass.
Unfortunately, the Liberals chose not to defeat this legislation, even though they publicly oppose it. They ensured that enough of their MPs were absent on the final vote to allow it to pass. Now Bill C-9 has moved to the Senate. I encourage everyone to contact both Marjory LeBreton, Leader of the Government in the Senate (Marjory.LeBreton@pco-bcp.gc.ca), and Jim Cowan, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (cowanj@sen.parl.gc.ca), to urge them to send Bill C-9 back to Parliament for its non-budget items to be taken out and voted on separately. I do not think that any Canadians want to see the oil spill in the Gulf repeated on Canadian shores.
Bask in the Glow of the Jobless Recovery
Saturday, June 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Not much surprising here. The relatively good-paying manufacturing sector jobs that were lost in the latest recession are being replaced with part-time, temporary, low paid and no benefit service sector jobs. And the general consensus amongst the Liberals and Conservatives (and Greens) is that more and more tax cuts will spur job creation. To be fair, the Liberals switched their position to oppose the Conservatives corporate tax cuts in the 2010 budget at the last minute, but their basic strategy remains the same as the Harper government: the private sector, if given enough tax breaks and deregulation, will create jobs. This has been the guiding economic philosophy for the past quarter century, from Mulroney to Chretien to Martin to Harper.What is missing is an acknowledgment of the fact that the quality of jobs matters as much as the quantity. When the majority of jobs being created don’t pay enough for people to live, then the economy becomes weakened by consumer debt and economic insecurity. What if the current level of employment in Canada is as high as it is going to get, no matter the tax cuts? I highly doubt the banks are going to use their tax cut windfall to create any new jobs. It will be pocketed, simple as that. Corporations in the resource sector are largely foreign, and will actually take the extra profit out of the country. Meanwhile the middle class continues to shrink, as even white-collar jobs are shipped overseas, and our economy stumbles from recession to recession.
What is missing is any courage in our government to stand up for employment, for the well-being of the nation. A Canadian economy left totally open to the free market will leave us with oil, minerals and low paid service jobs. That is simply all the global economy cares about from Canada. Of course we have banking, but how much more employment is really going to come from that sector? This is why governments from John A. MacDonald to Pierre Trudeau attempted to build up our manufacturing sector. That is why they intervened in the economy, to promote the development of a stronger national economy and the good jobs that came with it.
Now we see governments around the world with more foresight than ours investing money into renewable energy and green technology. They are doing so not just for long-term sustainability, but also to promote the development of the next wave of high-tech, high-wage jobs. Tax cuts and deregulation don’t bring in good jobs, that requires government intervention, and a very different perspective from that found in either the Conservatives or Liberals. It requires a government that puts people before profits.
Positive Change, not Power is the NDP’s Goal
Friday, June 11th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
There is much talk of a Liberal NDP coalition. Such is not my decision to make, of course, but if there were sufficient progressive gains to be made on policy, say perhaps extending pensions, EI, and increased funding for health care, education, welfare and green job creation, I don’t think it would be a bad idea. But as Thomas Walkhom points out, the Conservatives and Liberals are actually much more similar than the Liberals and NDP. Any description of the Liberals as a ‘centre-left’ party runs into trouble when you examine Liberal policy and platforms of the past 20 years. The deepest cuts to social policy funding were made under Chretien and Martin in the early 90s. It was they who expanded Free Trade with the US to include Mexico as well. A large part of the deregulation, tax cuts and other free market, right wing policy developments were made during the long period of Chretien government. Any talk of a coalition now is purely to serve the Liberal interest of regaining power, not out of any genuine similar policy goals with the NDP. The NDP must remain strong and proud as Canada’s only real left wing party. It has a positive vision for this country, of building an economically strong but also more caring society. After the recent recession, after global market chaos, after tainted meat and oil spills, the free-market vision held by both the Liberals and Conservatives is being questioned by more and more Canadians. By upholding this vision with honesty and integrity, and leaving political games to the other two parties, we will show Canadians that we are not interested in power, but in positive change.NDP in harmony on this tax
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
NDP in harmony on this tax
In response to Barometer: Bad Week For Provincial NDP (NOW, DECEMBER 24-30).
A tax shift that sees the poor and working class paying more for such necessities as heat and hydro? Why would the NDP oppose that?
The Tories’ opposition is based on a combination of opportunism and pleasing their rabid anti-tax fringe.
But I think it is totally appropriate for a left-wing party to oppose the transfer of the tax burden to the poor.
The Centre for Policy Alternatives report builds its case on the premise that by reducing costs for business, the HST will create jobs. Hasn’t that been the job creation strategy for two decades now? Has it worked?
James Ede
Oakville
Conservative Anti-Woman stance increasingly clear
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
The Prime Minister says that a new abortion law is ‘just not in the cards’. This seems to me like a carefully worded admission of the fact that while he personally would prefer to put an end to women’s reproductive choice, it is just not feasible under a minority government. Furthermore, in a million other small and not-so-small ways, the Tories have set themselves against the women’s movement and gender equality. They removed the goal of equality from the mandate of Status of Women Canada, and closed 12 of 16 of its regional offices (a 75% reduction). They are now telling groups seeking funding from the Canadian International Development Agency not to mention equality in their grant applications. They shut women out of their new ‘Canada Excellence Research Chair’ funding for academics, cut funding to women’s advocacy groups, and a Conservative senator told women’s groups to “Shut the F… up.”Whatever he claims, Mr. Harper and his party have reopened the abortion debate in Canada. There is simply no way that the Tories can have it both ways. They cannot claim that the policies they support internationally do not reflect upon their domestic priorities. How can our government promote one set of rights for Canadian women and another for women receiving foreign aid? If there are two fundamental goals of feminism, as I understand it, it is equality between men and women and equality between all women everywhere. Neither of these goals is being served by our current government.
If there is one ray of light in this, it is the fact that as with so many issues, the Harper government does not speak for the majority of Canadians, only about a third. Once again, they are acting as if they have a majority, when in fact they represent a minority view. Antonia Zerbisias at the Toronto Star asks if Ottawa is leaving women behind. I would say that rather than leaving women behind, the Conservatives are actually pushing them down.