As hunger rises amidst pandemic, Canada can and should make an impact
“When we were home, we used to eat good things, now there is nowhere to farm—it is too dry,” said Martin, a refugee from South Sudan, living in Uganda’s Rhino Camp Settlement. By 2017, there were more than one million South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, forcibly displaced by violent conflict. Conflict, climate disasters, and economic […]
Pandemic risks undoing progress at achieving gender parity
Sunita is 16. She has been married for four years. At the age of 12, she became a child bride—forced into marriage and out of education by her parents in the Indian state of Bihar. “It felt terrible because I was still very young and was attending school with my friends,” says Sunita. “All my […]
Taxing wealth inequality key piece of Canada’s economic recovery
Canada’s minority Parliament has outlined major goals, from reforming the EI system for the 21st century to establishing a national child-care program. While some critics have called the plans reckless and excessive, the Liberals can afford these investments if they follow through on a key promise in the Throne Speech: to tax extreme wealth inequality. […]
Pandemic throws line-by-line approval of billions of dollars in spending off course
Billions of dollars in spending to keep government operations going have yet to be formally approved by the House after the pandemic forced MPs to defer scrutiny to December, throwing off the usual course of parliamentary business. This year’s main estimates, setting out $304.6-billion in federal spending, were first introduced in February but were never […]
Bold aspirations are not enough
TORONTO—It is quite a promise. But in its recent Throne Speech the Trudeau government pledged it would “ensure Canada is the most competitive jurisdiction in the world for clean technology companies.” It didn’t spell out how we would know it had kept its promise. Until we know, it’s just a boast. While promises come easy, […]
‘There needs to be real honesty from our leaders’: feds can’t falter on ‘once-in-a-decade’ investment opportunity in reshaping economy, say top experts
Confronting the immediate economic fallout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will be the primary focus of the federal government in the weeks and months to come, according to experts and economists, especially as the ‘second wave’ is likely to flatten any economic growth Canada has seen following the reopening of major parts of the economy […]
Improved mental health access tied to workforce capacity
Canadians’ mental health has faced significant challenges during the pandemic. Stress has gone up, whether from uncertainty or from very serious problems such as job loss and the dramatic rise in violence against women, which the UN has called the shadow pandemic. Canadians are drinking more and the opioid crisis has gotten worse despite the […]
Redrawing the political landscape as COVID becomes a way of life
OTTAWA—Throne Speeches are always aspirational, but the blueprint for the future that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has rolled out goes a step beyond. It stands as the kind of comprehensive policy wish list political parties normally accumulate over the course of an entire election campaign. Touching on the full spectrum of social and economic policy, […]
If we are truly ‘strong and resilient’ the government should act on the debt
OTTAWA—Like many Canadians, I skipped watching the Speech from the Throne and the prime minister’s “non-political chat” last week. It was unusual, as I have always been interested in the speech, especially as a public servant when I contributed a sentence or two. This time, I thought it was a waste of time, as I […]
Parliament returns with the theatre of building back better
CALGARY—It’s Fall 2020 and we still have a government. That’s nice. It’s the best one can hope for in the midst of a global pandemic, economic disintegration, and a society that is held together, not by a common purpose, but the tenuous glue of predictable racial fragmentation. A lot of people are telling on themselves […]
