It is a huge honour to have been elected in the most recent federal election. I look forward to serving the people of Davenport and advocating on behalf of the great city of Toronto in the 41st Parlaiment of Canada.
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AC
By Andrew Cash
Well, we knew there had to be a hitch when Stephen Harper got up at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to sing a Beatles song. Setting the bar sufficiently low – it was a song Ringo sang, after all – is a Harper specialty.
But as the country woke up to the image of our wooden PM at the piano, many Canadian recording artists were twigging to yet another arts cut – one they say will hobble Canada’s specialized music community.
And like Harper’s arts misstep in the last election, this one – the chopping of the Canada Music Fund’s Canadian Musical Diversity component – has once again engaged and enraged a grassroots arts revolt. Read the rest of this entry »
By Andrew Cash
A flash of deja vu hits me as i sit in the beautiful Victoria College Chapel at U of T on October 20 last week listening to the Council of Canadians’ Maude Barlow talk about free trade.
My first awareness of this human rights champion was during the great debate in the 80s over Canada’s free trade deal with the U.S. I can’t help feeling a little nostalgic for that simple time when the story was a bit clearer: you were either for or against closer ties with our huge neighbour to the south.
But Barlow and fellow panelist Sid Ryan tell the almost 200 people in attendance that while 20 years ago there were very few bilateral trade deals, there are now 2,600 around the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Tories favouring Tory ridings with stimulus money! Should we be shocked? We should but alas we’re not. We should at least be able to trust that our government is disbursing our money in an even handed way across the country and directed where it’s needed most. Shouldn’t we…at the very least?
Reminds me of the black cats/ white cats Tommy Douglas riff.
The legacy of Reaganomics: historic deficits and mounting debt in the U.S.
Our Mulroney: the last year of the Mulroney reign Canada posted, a record deficit for its day of $42 billion
George W. Bush–stratospheric debt and deficits
Harper–debt and deficits as far as the eye can see.
But that doesn’t seem to worry the Reform/Conservatives who never see a tax dollar they don’t think can be used for partisan purposes. To wit, this piece which surfaced in the dailies at the top of the week. Seems those tight fisted fiscal fighters don’t bat an eye when they can drop 100k on a photo op though they could have announced their fiscal update for free in the House of Commons.
For a lot of folks that is a very good question. After this summer’s garbage strike in Toronto I heard many people grousing about unions. It’s understandable given that so few people in Toronto get any sick leave at all let alone 18 days…oh ya, and bankable ones at that. If you’re not in a union chances are you’re not so sure these days how a victory for unionized workers is a victory for all Canadians.
That’s why I love this little spoof–you laugh and you learn. We need more like this.
The tireless folks at The Stop have come up with a fairly chilling little on line tool called Do The Math that compares our ideas of what it costs to live with health and dignity in Toronto with what a person actually makes on minimum wage or receives on Ontario Works. It takes a few minutes to fill out the survey that asks you to estimate the various costs from shampoo to cable, food, rent etc that are incurred in an average month. I filled out the survey skimping on a number of things. For example I didn’t include any car costs and listed entertainment and recreation at $50 bucks a month which includes cable. My total was $1980 a month. If you want to get really basic and cut out the entertainment and recreation you’ve got it down to $1780. But, according to the site a person working 35 hours a week at minimum wage makes $1429. And that is the best case scenario for many folks. If you are a single person on Ontario Works you’re getting $572. If you are on Ontario Disability Benefits you are getting an income of $1429.
I urge everyone to go to the site and do the math. It is quite sobering.
Saving Ontario’s backbone means more than bailing out cars
By Andrew Cash
The hate-on for artists and cultural workers as whining pigs at the public trough is alive and well across Tory land.
The latest round of this particular blood sport occurred in the last few weeks, when the feds forced a crisis on the CBC by withholding bridge funding, necessitating the cutting of 800 broadcasting jobs.
The provincial Liberals, it’s true, have a more civilized take on the creative class, but they weren’t exactly going all out for culture in last week’s budget either. McGuintyites handed over 20 mil to the Ontario Media Development Corp, $77 mil to film and TV in tax credits and $17 mil per year in tax support for interactive digital media products.
Still, compared to the gnashing of teeth over the decline of manufacturing, forestry and steel and the consequent $26 bil increase in new provincial infrastructure spending, arts and culture seem like bit players. Building cars, making steel, chopping trees – now, that’s where the big boys play; that’s the economic backbone of the country, isn’t it?
By Andrew Cash
My plan is to cab it up to Dundas West to Gerard Kennedy’s election party, soak up a few losing vibes there and then head back down to Bloor for the Peggy Nash victory bash.
The atmosphere is muted just after the polls close, a few dozen Kennedy faithful and some television cameras sitting around in the Flamingo Banquet Hall on what I presume is Kennedy’s political death watch.
Soon, however, Kennedy is 1,000 votes in front of Nash. Suddenly, there are more people in the small hall, the volume is louder, the beer caps are popping and, oops, looks like I went to the wrong party first.
Yet it’s a victory that comes with mixed feelings, and those are on display. The crowd cheers when Kennedy arrives, but there’s none of that unbridled enthusiasm usually on display at election-night victory celebrations, especially unexpected ones.
Kennedy dodged a bullet here. If he hadn’t won Parkdale-High Park, not only would his political career have been over, with hundreds of thousands of dollars still owing on his leadership campaign, but history would remember him primarily for his decision to back the hapless Stéphane Dion.
Perhaps the reason for the muted enthusiasm here is the Liberal bloodletting ahead.
Kennedy’s victory is a loss for Parkdale-High Park. Sure, he’s a compelling figure – he’s hard not to fall for. But he’s going to be subsumed by the Liberal psychodrama in Ottawa whether he wants to be or not.
We don’t care if our leaders are strong – we only want them to look it
By Andrew Cash
With the financial crisis deepening day by day, the pundits are finally framing the election as “Who will be the best leader in a disintegrating economy?”
But I’m doubtful that’s what the discourse is really about. More likely, the real question is: “Who has the best look of leadership?”
Stéphane Dion appears sincere, emotional but ineffectual; Stephen Harper avuncular, measured but oblivious. And Jack Layton? He looks like he’s going to run a half-marathon as soon as he finishes the interview.
So what do we want in a leader anyway?
According to former Jean Chretien strategist Warren Kinsella, “Leadership hinges on portraying strength, certainty and the sense that this leader is someone who is like you. It boils down to 70 per cent appearance, 10 per cent what you actually say and 20 per cent how you say it.”
Generally, experts say the public prefers candidates who broadcast steadfastness but stay cool. “Usually, those who show a lot of emotion tend not to get elected,” says Harold Simpkins, a marketing prof at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business in Montreal.
