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map[]In recent months the Canadian Government’s “Temporary Foreign Worker Program” has come under heavy fire for its flagrant abuse by businesses across the country. Businesses have been using the program to outsource domestic jobs to workers from overseas.
This program was designed to fill job positions in Canada that those living here cannot or will not. Although a useful program in theory there are many issues that need to be addressed for it to be fair and successful. map[]It was once noted that a true free trade agreement should only be a couple of pages long. This is just enough space for a title page, the definitions, and then codifying that all trade is tariff-free. Unfortunately free trade agreements in practice never turn out to be quite that simple. The North American free trade agreement is close to 400 pages long, and still manages to make reference to other documents which outline further restrictions. map[]With the Ontario budget scheduled to be release on April 23rd there are expected to be radical change to the way alcohol is sold in Ontario. Unfortunately the changes that are speculated to be in the pipeline may not be enough.
There is going to be no immediate change to the way that wine is sold as there are multiple international agreements that need to be consulted and considered in order for the province to make changes while still maintaining their protectionist policies. map[]Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
This is the opening of the Equality Rights, Section 15, of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This section codifies the idea that every single person in Canada has the same rights, and is subject to the same laws. map[]During the CFL’s first game back in Ottawa on July 18th there was much news about how well the stadium and facilities were coping with the return of Canadian Football to Ottawa.
What many people failed to notice in the coverage was the actions of the City of Ottawa By-law officers. Among the common incidents of parking for too long, or blocking entranceway’s, there was one case that stood out. Someone was ticketed for parking a car on their own property. map[]Canada, like many developed countries, has fallen victim to a pattern of disregard towards voting. In the 2011 federal election only 14 of the 24 million registered voters (61%) actually cast a ballot. These numbers are even worse at the provincial level, where the 2011 Ontario General Election saw a 49% voter turnout.
It is extremely sad to see something as fundamental to a democracy as voting being disregarded by so many people. map[]With the 2014 Ontario General Election coming to a close we can now take a look at the results and what they mean for Ontario.
Having managed to gain 10 seats from the PCs, Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals managed to pick up a majority. What makes this win interesting though is that she was able to do so with only 38.7% of the popular vote. With voters quite evenly split between the three major parties (Liberal, PC, and NDP) one would think this election is a perfect example of why Ontario (and most places that rely on First Past the Post election systems) needs to introduce some electoral reform. map[]People are afraid of change. And it’s this fear that’s keeping Canada from taking the necessary steps towards changing the way we elect Members of Parliament. The current First-past-the-post (FPP) system is a hugely flawed electoral system that has been used in Canada for far too long, and is in need to replacement. This replacement comes in the form of Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting, a system which eliminates essentially all the faults found in FPP. map[]In an attempt to generate support for the upcoming election the Ontario Liberal Party is proposing changes to the liqour control legislation in Ontario so that alcoholic products could be purchased at convenient stores. While this might seem like a purely political maneuver considering the Liberals have so far failed to tackle the issue since taking office in 2003, the issue of changing how people purchase their Alcohol in Ontario is still something that needs to be addressed. map[]The Supreme Court of Canada has been in the news more often in the past few months than it probably has in the past few years. This uptake in interest has come about do to the appointment of Justice Marc Nadon to the bench of Supreme Court of Canada. The controversy stems from Nadon’s appointed to fill Quebec’s empty third Supreme Court seat, having neither worked in a Quebec court (he has been working in the Federal Superior Court), nor in Quebec for over a decade. map[]When it comes to hospitals and health care in Ontario one of the most widely compared statistics are those of emergency room wait times. While wait times in Ontario for “Minor or uncomplicated conditions” have dropped from 4.8 hours to 4 hours, these patients account for nearly a third of all ER patients in the province.
I have only ever needed some form of professional medical care 4 times in my life. map[]In the past 20 years the population of Ottawa has increased at an explosive rate. In those days Kanata, Orleans, and Barrhaven were just small collections of houses tucked away outside the greenbelt. Today those areas are huge sprawling suburban neighbourhoods which have shown some of the fastest growth in the city. With new expansions being added every day these areas are indicative of the urban sprawl problems faced in Ottawa and many other cities.