As opposition candidates furiously scramble for your vote, try this one on them when they knock on your door: coalition government.
Other than oversized egos and playground immaturity, there is no good reason why the Libs, the NDP and possibly the Bloc and the Greens (if they elect someone) couldn’t cobble together a working – hell, an exciting – government that really does represent the majority of Canadians.
It’s either that or more of Harper’s take-no-prisoners minority stylings. So if you don’t relish the idea of another election in two years (that would make four in six years), there are alternatives.
But pols and the Canadian people need to fasten their seat belts and get ready for it.
Pre-eminent Canadian constitutional expert Peter Russell thinks that both Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton need to begin making a Plan B, assuming that each of their Plan As – becoming PM – doesn’t go as planned.
December 12th, 2007 Andrew Cash
Build it, they will come
That the board now has to ponder Africentric school is an indictment of its complacency
By ANDREW CASH
If faith-based funding is the third rail of Ontario politics, then this isn’t a good time for anyone to be planning a publicly funded separate school.
So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the Toronto District School Board’s ruminations on creating an Africentric alternative school are kicking up so much dust.
But here we are. Between 40 and 50 per cent of Caribbean-born students (most of them males) are in danger of not finishing school or have already dropped out.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Education, Now Magazine, Politics, Race Relations, Toronto, Youth Issues | No Comments »
October 4th, 2007 Andrew Cash
To topple a leader
Tory’s faith flub makes Don Valley Wynne’s to lose
By Andrew Cash
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Kathleen Wynne is supposed to do a quick blitz for votes in this Thorncliffe Park high-rise, but instead, on the 15th floor, she stops at the door of a young construction worker.
“If your age group doesn’t vote, that means someone old will vote in your place,” she says as her handlers pry her away.
Wynne’s daughter rolls her eyes, amused. “Oh no, Mom, were you lecturing that guy?” Mother and daughter banter humorously back and forth as they sprint down the stairs.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Education, Now Magazine, Ontario, Politics | No Comments »
September 27th, 2007 Andrew Cash
McGuinty’s taxing courage
Preem’s stirring defence of health tax shows tax rebellion has faded
By Andrew Cash
What’s worse, a government that breaks a dumb promise or a government that implements one? I would have been happy if Stephen Harper had broken his very dumb promise to cut 1 per cent of the GST. I’m okay with Dalton McGuinty breaking his promise not to raise taxes after the Mike Harris wrecking crew saddled the Libs with a $5 billion deficit.
Tax has always been the four-letter word politicians don’t use in polite company. But after last week’s leaders debate, that may be changing. During the televised showdown, we heard McGuinty not once but several times refuse to say that he would repeal a tax. That’s new.
Most pols are only too happy to out-slash the other guy, but it has always been a head-scratcher when political parties say they can both cut taxes and improve services. Neo-cons used this canard throughout the 90s, but today it’s only John Tory and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation who believe it. The rest of us aren’t buying.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Now Magazine, Ontario, Politics | No Comments »
July 19th, 2007 Andrew Cash
PORTLANDS power play
Residents walk out of consulting committee charging Energy Centre kept them in the dark
By Andrew Cash
Laundry isn’t the only thing being hung out to dry this summer in Smogtown. Take Toronto’s east-end neighbourhoods, which have always been our industrial ashtray.
In the bad old 80s, residential backyards in south Riverdale had to have their lead-laced soil removed, and the Commissioner Street incinerator was blithely burning garbage.
And while we can’t be sure that the dust on Riverdalian stereo speakers isn’t still laced with lead, locals also have to deal with the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant to the southeast, a grand contributor to the generally crappy local air quality.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Environment, Now Magazine, Ontario, Politics, Toronto | No Comments »
