| Federal study suggests
relocating EI recipients |
A
new study from the Human Resources Department
suggests Ottawa is looking at ways to get people
receiving employment insurance to move to other
regions with more jobs. MORE... |
- Hockey
Night in Canada’s
days may be numbered
Dowbiggin: These are trying times for Hockey
Night In Canada. No Canadian teams left in
the playoffs, diminished advertising revenues
as a result, and the prospect of negotiating
a new national TV and digital rights contract
in the next two years.
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FEATURED INK
Hard times for the Artful Dodger
L. Martin: Is John Baird, the government’s
dean of damage control, the team’s most
artful dodger, running out of tricks? Is the
Eddy Haskell (“Leave it to Beaver” fame)
of Canadian politics losing his way? “That’s
a lovely dress you’re wearing, Mrs. Cleaver,” Eddie
used to say. Just like J.B., he was an ingratiator
non-pareil. |
Thomas
Mulcair disease: Canada’s would-be
PM slips on the oilsands
Goldstein: Prime-minister-in-waiting
Thomas Mulcair is sounding downright paranoid
in defending his theory the oilsands are inflating
the Canadian dollar and hollowing out the country’s
manufacturing sector. Never mind that Jason
Myers, president of the Canadian Manufacturers
and Exporters Association, disagreed with this
argument... |
Mulcair takes page out of 1980s'
Grits playbook
Gunter: Remember the 1980 federal election?
It pushed out the short-lived Joe Clark government
and ushered in yet another Liberal majority
under Pierre Trudeau — a majority that
gave us the National Energy Program, among
other treats. The Grit campaign that year was
run by Keith Davey, Trudeau’s crafty,
longtime strategist. |
Politicians pull country apart
StarPhoenix: The continual
and growing dispute among the premiers and
the two major federal
parties over whether the country has come
down with a bout of the dreaded "Dutch
disease" is the greatest threat to Canada's
continued prosperity. A report released this
week by the Montreal-based Institute for
Research... |
NDP making inroads among traditional
Conservative demographics
Anderson: Chances are I’ll be watching
Grey’s Anatomy tonight. Truth be told,
I watch it a fair bit. What’s a guy to
do? After a long week and a seemingly longer
battle to get the kids to bed, it’s not
a good idea to try to wrest the remote from
my wife’s hands. So Thursday nights,
I hang out with McDreamy. Sigh. |
Thrill is gone in Canadian marriage
Duhaime: Are English Canadians on the verge
of kicking Quebec out of the Confederation?
The person responsible for the National Post
opinion editorial must have been flabbergasted
at readers’ responses to this issue
in the last few days. More than 60% of the
paper’s respondents said it was time
to let Quebec go. |
EI
urgently needs reform — but is
reform what we're going to get?
Coyne: It is called
employment insurance for a reason. Well,
the employment part is a little hard
to figure out. It used to be called unemployment
insurance, meaning it insured you against
unemployment. But at some point under
the Liberals (you remember them) the
name was changed to employment insurance. |
Jim
Flaherty calls a family meeting
Selley: The government
plans, maybe, to toughen the criteria under
which Employment Insurance recipients can
decline work — for example, work
that offers less money than one is used
to or unsuitable working conditions, or
that is not in
one’s field — and keep claiming benefits. “I was brought up
in a certain way,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty... |
Bad Liberal habits amplified
by Tories
Fingas: Since they took power
in 2006, Stephen Harper's Conservatives have
made a habit of
turning their list of grievances against the
Liberals into an operating manual. In opposition,
they decried the centralization of power in
the Prime Minister's Office. But since assuming
power, they've taken that philosophy to unprecedented... |
New Tory laws set for collision
course with the courts
Mulgrew: Juges across the
country concerned over mandatory minimum sentencing
provisions.
The courts are on a collision course with the
federal government over its belief in minimum
mandatory sentences that provide judges with
no discretion. A Victoria Provincial Court
judge on Monday became the latest jurist to
bristle... |
Quebec’s
streets not unique in staging discontent
Hébert: Is the Quebec’s
spring of discontent just the latest manifestation
of a distinctive micro-climate or is it the
harbinger of an angry Canadian season? As the
confrontation between premier Jean Charest
and the Quebec student movement continues to
spiral out of control, the tentative answer
is a little of both. |
Doctor-bashing’s
not the cure for health-care costs
Wente: Here in Ontario, the government has
gone to war against the doctors again. This
happens every time we are in the hole and the
government has to rein in health care costs.
The Health Minister goes on the radio to explain,
more in sorrow than in anger, that the doctors’ demands
are completely selfish and unreasonable. |
The
politics of generating power — and
winning it
Cohn: Provincial politicians run the energy
sector the way thrill-seekers tackle Niagara
Falls — by defying the laws of physics
and going over the cliff. At least Nik Wallenda,
the daredevil now training to walk over Niagara
Falls next month, knows how to harness the
peril. His family secret: walk the walk and
be sure not to stumble. |
Redford fumbles the oil sands
file
Mason: When Alberta’s
Progressive Conservatives defeated the upstart
Wildrose Party in the
province’s recent election, there was
a shuddering relief in the environmental community.
During the campaign, Wildrose Leader Danielle
Smith questioned the science of climate change.
She was critical of the provincial... |
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- 29,600
PS jobs to be cut by 2015: economist
Tally
includes 10,400 full-time positions lost
in previous budgets. Federal departments
are girded to lose more than 10,000 jobs
over the next three years before they swallow
the $5.2-billion spending reductions announced
in the federal budget that will wipe out
another 19,200 jobs in the same period.
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- Infighting plagues military watchdog
The office of Canada’s military Ombudsman
has become dysfunctional, with an employee
turnover rate of 50 per cent, complaints
about sexist and off-colour jokes, and some
investigations into issues affecting soldiers
dragging on for years, say former and current
staff.
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- Opposition wants answers on
Chinese firm's telecom deals
The opposition is demanding to know what steps
have been taken to address security concerns
over foreign companies operating in Canada's
telecommunications industry, in the wake of
a CBC News report about a Chinese firm's contracts
in Canada.
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- Hypocritical UN council sends
envoy on Kafka-esque Canadian visit
Ivison: Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special
Rapporteur on the right to food, came to
Canada at the behest of the various despots
and potentates
who make up the UN Human Rights Council,
in order to point out what he called “unacceptable” rates
of food insecurity in this country.
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- Soft drink industry fights back
As soft drink sales fizzle amid growing concerns
about rising obesity rates, the fiercely
competitive industry has banded together
to strike back.
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- Ornge key legal adviser introduced
Mazza to McGuinty
Ornge chief executive officer Chris Mazza was
keen to share his vision for creating a world-class
medical transport business with Ontario Premier
Dalton McGuinty, and he got his first chance
at an exclusive fundraising reception back
in 2007.
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