The Christy Clark Government: Balanced Budget at the Expense of the Poor, the Middle Class but not the Rich

The Christy Clark government is touting their balanced budget and in fact, the Liberals have not only one but four consecutive balanced budgets under their belt.   While Ms. Clark has been busy crowing about the Libs fiscal stewardship, many sectors and demographics in our province continue to wallow in economic stagnation due to chronic underfunding.  One can argue that these balanced budgets have been accomplished on the backs of these more vulnerable and marginalized sectors.

Over the past several years, the BC Liberal party has presided over the worst child poverty record in the entire nation.  According to First Call-BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, the British Columbia child poverty stands at 20.4% compared to a national rate of 13.3%.  This translates to one in 5 children in our province living in poverty.  The long term societal damage that this chronic poverty has on this vulnerable group in terms of educational opportunities and general health will continue to be devastating.

Other vulnerable and chronically underfunded groups are those British Columbians on social assistance.  In an article by Keith Boldrey, he points out that Social Assistance rates have been frozen for several years despite inflationary trend increases.  However, the government did provide a $72 dollar increase for British Columbians with disabilities.  This altruism was of course only smoke and mirrors, because at the same time they “clawed back” a monthly bus pass allowance of $52, so that the net rate increase was minuscule to say the least.

In public education, our province once again ranks last in terms of per pupil spending allocations.  Referencing a 2014 Stats Canada report that enumerated the percentage of provincial education spending allocations from 2002 to 2012, our province managed to rank 10th.  According to this report, the percentage increase between these two bench mark dates was the lowest in Canada.

Unfortunately, as of April 1 2016, our province holds the distinction of having the lowest minimum wage in the entire nation.  Up until now our rate of $10.35 was 9^th, however we were pushed back into 10^th place when Prince Edward Island raised the minimum wage to $10.65.  Once again, this government seems to be fine with this even though on a provincial comparison basis we have the highest wealth gaps between rich and poor in the entire nation.  The Inequality of Wealth Report by the Broadbent Institute (September 2015) cited that the top 10% of British Columbian families have more than half of the provinces wealth.

The balancing of the books has been done through the sale of valuable crown corporations for pennies on the dollar, draconian taxation that favours the wealthiest amongst us and one of the most contentious and unfair policy concerning MSP premiums . We remain the only jurisdiction in Canada that charges directly for MSP payments.  This has long been the favourite tool that the provincial Libs have used to balance the books.  Analysts have pointed out that our residents pay the same flat rate premiums whether you earn $30000 or $3000000 a year.  No surprise, this policy favours the wealthy over low income British Columbians and those on fixed incomes.  In a seemingly incredulous and fiscally insensitive move, our government is set to put in place another 4% increase in premiums this year.

While our provincial government continues to crow about their balanced budgets, it would be great if it  were more forthright   regarding the exploitive and socially unfair ways that this feat continues to be accomplished.

Peter Pagliocchini

 

 

 

 

(Strongly concerned citizen and advocate for public awareness).

As always your feedback is welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christy Clark Government: Balanced Budget at the Expense of the Poor, the Middle Class but not the Rich

The Christy Clark government is touting their balanced budget and in fact, the Liberals have not only one but four consecutive balanced budgets under their belt.   While Ms. Clark has been busy crowing about the Libs fiscal stewardship, many sectors and demographics in our province continue to wallow in economic stagnation due to chronic underfunding.  One can argue that these balanced budgets have been accomplished on the backs of these more vulnerable and marginalized sectors.

Over the past several years, the BC Liberal party has presided over the worst child poverty record in the entire nation.  According to First Call-BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, the British Columbia child poverty stands at 20.4% compared to a national rate of 13.3%.  This translates to one in 5 children in our province living in poverty.  The long term societal damage that this chronic poverty has on this vulnerable group in terms of educational opportunities and general health will continue to be devastating.

Other vulnerable and chronically underfunded groups are those British Columbians on social assistance.  In an article by Keith Boldrey, he points out that Social Assistance rates have been frozen for several years despite inflationary trend increases.  However, the government did provide a $72 dollar increase for British Columbians with disabilities.  This altruism was of course only smoke and mirrors, because at the same time they “clawed back” a monthly bus pass allowance of $52, so that the net rate increase was minuscule to say the least.

In public education, our province once again ranks last in terms of per pupil spending allocations.  Referencing a 2014 Stats Canada report that enumerated the percentage of provincial education spending allocations from 2002 to 2012, our province managed to rank 10th.  According to this report, the percentage increase between these two bench mark dates was the lowest in Canada.

Unfortunately, as of April 1 2016, our province holds the distinction of having the lowest minimum wage in the entire nation.  Up until now our rate of $10.35 was 9^th, however we were pushed back into 10^th place when Prince Edward Island raised the minimum wage to $10.65.  Once again, this government seems to be fine with this even though on a provincial comparison basis we have the highest wealth gaps between rich and poor in the entire nation.  The Inequality of Wealth Report by the Broadbent Institute (September 2015) cited that the top 10% of British Columbian families have more than half of the provinces wealth.

The balancing of the books has been done through the sale of valuable crown corporations for pennies on the dollar, draconian taxation that favours the wealthiest amongst us and one of the most contentious and unfair policy concerning MSP premiums . We remain the only jurisdiction in Canada that charges directly for MSP payments.  This has long been the favourite tool that the provincial Libs have used to balance the books.  Analysts have pointed out that our residents pay the same flat rate premiums whether you earn $30000 or $3000000 a year.  No surprise, this policy favours the wealthy over low income British Columbians and those on fixed incomes.  In a seemingly incredulous and fiscally insensitive move, our government is set to put in place another 4% increase in premiums this year.

While our provincial government continues to crow about their balanced budgets, it would be great if it  were more forthright   regarding the exploitive and socially unfair ways that this feat continues to be accomplished.

Peter Pagliocchini

 

 

 

 

(Strongly concerned citizen and advocate for public awareness).

As always your feedback is welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labour Unions, the Last Defence against the Continued Ghettoization of Our Workforce: By Peter Pagliocchini

 

 

 

Prior to labour unions, workers were treated as a dispensable commodity of little value. One of the most glaring watershed moments in labour history which brought this assertion into clear focus was the infamous fire of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory of 1911 in New York’s Garment District. In this factory, women and children comprised most of the company’s workforce who worked for poverty wages, in unsafe and unsanitary working conditions with extremely long hours without breaks. One of the characteristics of most of these enterprises was that employees were locked in because employers feared that their employees would steal from them. On March 25th 1911, this factory burned to the ground killing 146 workers many as young as 12 years old. As mentioned previously, the doors were locked making escape from the flames impossible. We have just past the 104th anniversary of this dark stain and testimony to the dangers of unbridled and unencumbered greed of the early 20th century corporate enterprises.

Why Does the Harper Government keep silencing Scientists, Health and Safety Officials and Data Gathering Agencies?

 

By: Peter Pagliocchini

 

Over the years we have been flabbergasted by the level and depth that our Conservative government has gone to in order to muzzle scientists, food inspectors, senior government bureaucrats and data collectors.  Since taking office, the Harper Government has attempted to silence their critics by eliminating information outlets, underfunding those that remain and in general muting any official that speaks on issues that the Government does not want to be made public.  At first blush you may say that the government has the right to censor certain information that would compromise national security and on this point I would unequivocally agree.  However, since taking office in 2006, what previous governments allowed as a matter of course, such as Environment Canada reporting on research concerning climate change or the Chief of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission warning about safety concerns with our nuclear plants; this government has treated them as threats to their survival. The irony in all this was that in the early days, Harper campaigned on the platform of transparency which in reality transformed to a veil of secrecy and hugely restrictive access to important information.  Here is a listing of some of their more blatant science and safety muzzling measures:

 

*Nuclear Safety Commission: In the case of Linda Keen the former President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission who was summarily dismissed in January of 2008 for going public regarding safety concerns with the Chalk River Nuclear Reactor.  It was later demonstrated that radioactive tritium had been vented into the atmosphere and that a cracked pipe at the power plant had leaked large quantities of tritium into the Ottawa River on December 5, 2008.  The reason given for her dismissal was that she was playing partisan politics by publically airing these safety concerns.

 

*Environment Canada: In 2007 the Harper Government put into place new rules prohibiting Environment Canada Scientists from speaking to the media without permission from high level government officials at the Ministerial level.  The new rules resulted in a dramatic reduction on research and data being disseminated to the general public regarding the negative impact that global warming is having on our environment.  In fact, government research agencies such as (PEARL) the Polar Environment Atmospheric Lab which had been monitoring the Arctic ozone hole, discovered in 2011, has been closed.  Similarly, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Services, Canada’s main research foundation on climate change was also axed in 2012. Other scientific environmental agencies that were axed in that same year included, Urban Watershed Program, Smokestack Emissions Monitoring, Hazardous Material Information Review Commission which was an independent agency that ensured that fracking companies complied with safety and environmental regulations.  These are all but a few of the monitoring agencies that acted in the public interest that are no longer in existence.  In fact, this type of silencing climate change research in our country has not gone unnoticed by the international community.  On November 22, 2013, Canada received the embarrassing “Lifetime Un- Achievement Fossil Award.” We earned this dishonour after winning the ‘Colossal Fossil Award’ five years in a row.  It seems that knowledge and research pertaining to environmental degradation is what the Harper regime wants to eliminate entirely.

 

*Food Inspection: One of the most basic and fundamental oversight organization in any society is that of Food Inspection.   The Harper regime, in keeping with their cow towing to the major corporations, decided to allow the food processing companies to do what is known as self-policing.  As absurd as this sounds, the Harper Government thought that not only would it save money by cutting the number of food inspectors, it would allow these companies to be their own overseers.   Most of us are thinking that corporations only have profit as their driving force, and rigorous inspection costs a good deal of money making  trusting these companies to properly self-monitor is a bit risky to say the least.

Prior to April 1 2008, CFIA inspectors actually toured their plants that they worked in to get the general feel for conditions.  After April 1, inspectors were no longer required to tour the plants, they were provided information by the company and spent their time analyzing the information that they were given.   At first read, April 1, is April fool’s Day, and many probably thought that this was indeed a practical joke in terms of inspection and surveillance, sadly it was all too real.   Fast forward to August 2008, and the infamous ‘Listeriosis outbreak’ that was responsible for 20 deaths across five provinces in which listeria was the underlying or contributing cause of death.

This was a bit reminiscent of the days of Mike Harris former premier of Ontario who headed a similar low information and anti-regulation Conservative regime.  The Harris government held a steadfast belief that government regulators were really a bother and of little use other than costing money.  The folly of this approach was soon uncovered by the Walkerton Disaster of May 2000.  In this travesty, the Ontario government of Mike Harris was blamed for not enforcing regulations and guidelines concerning water safety and inspection.  It should be noted that the water testing had been privatized in 1996, by the Harris government.  The consequences of this deregulation and lack of oversight, was 7 deaths and over 2500 people becoming ill. (Walkerton Report Part 2: A Strategy for Safe Drinking Water May 2002).

According to the latest stats regarding the Canadian Food Inspection Agency contained in their 2014-2015 Report on Plans and Priorities, there will be 35 million dollar cut from an already thread bare agency.  The number of full time employees will be down by 200 in 2015-2016.  Fewer inspectors will give more power and latitude to food companies to take a larger role in their self-policing. Seems as if this government and others of their same ilk do not learn from their past mistakes by making us more vulnerable to another food contamination crisis.

 

*Data Gathering (Long Form Census): Consistent with this government’s continued planned agenda of restricting information, the Harper regime eliminated the long form census which was touted by experts as the most reliable information gathering tool. The obligatory long form census helped to inform government, industry and businesses regarding growth strategies and program effectiveness.  Previous governments and in fact in most democratic countries, use a mandatory long form census in their respective nations.  In 2010 the (LFC) was eliminated and replaced with the National Household Survey which was voluntary and watered down relative to the long form census.   When a comparison was done between the (LFC) and the (NHS) the long form census in 2006 had a 93.5% response rate.  The voluntary (NHS) in 2011 had a 68.6% response rate.  When the 2011 data were released, the data came with prominent warning about contamination due to “higher non-response error. “  So why did the Conservatives replace a highly credible source of information gathering with an inferior, more costly and less accurate National Household Survey? (The NHS cost taxpayers 22 million dollars more than the Long Form Census).  According to a wide range of health policy, experts, urban planners, and various consultants have surmised that the data quality is worse than they anticipated, masking poverty and income inequality and preventing analysts from accurately tracking historical trends.  For example, currently there are 4.2 million people living in poverty in Canada.  Once poverty issues are no longer verifiable, they will no longer need to be thoroughly addressed.  For Harper, a statistically and empirically flawed census will be given little credence and the true state of our national infrastructure, education levels, poverty growth and wage stagnation will be insulated from any serious credible analysis.

It is my sincere hope that this government has not succeeded in dumbing down our population to the point that they cannot see the foolishness and dangers of the anti-science, anti-empirical data collection, anti-Health and Safety oversight legislation that the Harper regime has foisted  on this nation since 2006. Fortunately, there are approximately 65% of the voting public that do see the foolishness and do want change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voter Apathy Has Dangerous Consequences

Voter Apathy Has Dangerous Consequences.

Voter Apathy Has Dangerous Consequences

 

 

 

 

Voter Apathy Has Dangerous Consequences

By Peter Pagliocchini

 

Many of us feel that our individual vote is of little to no consequence.  We have become so disenchanted with the political system, we tend to believe that lies and broken promises are the only constants.   The end result is that we are disengaging from the electoral process in ever increasing numbers. In fact, according to Elections Canada, voter turnout from 1867 to 1997 averaged just over 72% with the highest totals reaching 79% in both 1958 and 1962. From 2000 to 2011 our overall average fell to just over 60% with 2008 reaching an historic low with just 58% voter turnout.  Another sad fact is that since 2006, the Harper Conservatives have been at the helm of government and yet they have averaged only 34% of the popular vote, yet his party continues to hold the reins of power.

What does this all mean?  Simply put,  less and less of us are bothering to have any say in the type of governing party we want to represent the vision and hopes that we have for our nation.  Though disheartening, this trend would at least not have had as dangerous a consequence to our nation during the era when we had three democratic and enlightened parties. These included the Progressive Conservatives, New Democrats and Liberal Party of Canada. Unfortunately, the old Progressive Conservative Party has been replaced by a virulent amalgam of Reform/Alliance/Conservative which came into existence in 2003. Ever since this union, our nation’s democratic institutions have been under attack

From the time the Harper Government came into power  our country has gone from a respected nation on the international scene to one that has lost a good deal of prestige and moral authority internationally. To illustrate this point, in 2010, Canada was seeking a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, this had been a “slam dunk” for Canada in previous bids.  Historically, Canada has sought a seat on the Security Council approximately once per decade for the last 60 years and had always been successful when it had applied for admission.  This string of successful bids was embarrassingly broken in September of 2010 when the Canadian bid for a seat on the Council was rejected.  The Harper government had managed to denigrate the Canadian international profile with many member nations in just 4 short years of being in power. The unfortunate reality is that our continued small electoral turnout and vote splitting has put this party in power even though the vast majority of Canadians do not support the Conservative party or its policies.

To further exacerbate matters, on the domestic scene, Harper and his cabinet have flagrantly ignored freedom of speech and information tenets by muzzling government scientists, senior bureaucrats, withholding and even altering documents and launching personal attacks on whistleblowers.

Here is a litany of the anti-democratic, thought suppressing, scientist muzzling measures that have been initiated by this regime:

1. In 2006, the Harper Government severely slashed funding to the Status of Women Council resulting in the closure of 12 of the 16 regional offices. In the same year he also shut down the Court Challenges Program, which had worked on behalf of the rights and equality of women, immigrants, gays and lesbians to help fund court challenges to discriminatory laws.

2. The elimination of the per vote subsidy to political parties. Robert MacMemid, a political science professor at York University in Toronto stated, “the per vote subsidy was a great equalizer for political parties, ensuring parties weren’t just being funded by wealthy corporations and donors who could afford to donate more dollars more often. “

Most of us know what is happening in the US with ‘Citizens United, ’an infamous Supreme Court decision that allowed corporations to have no limits to the amounts that they could spend in the political process.  It prompted President Obama to decry the decision by saying, “it is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street and other powerful interests to marshal their power every day in Washington and drown out the interests of every day Americans.

3. In 2009, Harper approved cutting funds to ‘Kairos’ an organization of church groups that advocated for human rights.

4. In 2010, Harper slashed funding to the Canadian Human Rights Commission so deeply that the agency had to close offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Halifax.

5. In 2010, he refused a House of Commons request to turn over documents on the ‘Afghan detainee’s affair’ until forced to do so by the Speaker, who ruled he was in breach of parliamentary privilege. More recently, he refused to submit to a parliamentary request, this time on the costing of programs. This led to his being charged on March 25^th 2011 of Contempt of Parliament. This was the first time in Canadian history that a Prime Minister has been so charged.

6. Following the 2011 elections. the Conservative Party plead guilty to elections overspending and submitting inflated elections returns, this came to be known as the In and Out Scandal. This was quickly followed by Conservative Party being found culpable for another election fraud concerning Rob-calls. Federal Court Judge Richard Mosely noted that electoral fraud did occur during the 41^st General Election and he stated that: “I am satisfied, however, that the most likely source of information used to make the misleading calls was CIMS database maintained and controlled by the Conservative Party of Canada. 

7. In 2014 the Conservative Party introduced using Orwellian double speak, the Fair Elections Act otherwise known as Bill C 23.  Here is what the Bill will do:

– It will get rid of the Voter Information Cards that are designed to allow Canadians already marginalized from the electoral process such as students living away from home, seniors in long term care facilities and aboriginal people living on reserves to vote by showing their VIC alongside other officially recognized identification.

– Disallow the long standing practice of vouching.

– Under the new rules, the Commissionaire of Elections will no longer have the power to properly investigate electoral infraction, compel witness testimony or inforce the necessary compliance on rules such as spending limits.

So, all and all, our vote does matter.  We have it in our power to take back our Democracy and vote this anti-democratic entity out of office.  Voter apathy does have very real and dire consequences; it has allowed our nation to be taken over by a party that has abandoned our long held democratic values of fair elections, freedom and access to information, embracing scientific investigation and analysis and the proper funding of our key programs that make up the social compact between the government and its citizenry.

Denying Science Can Be Dangerous To Our Collective Survival as a Species

 

By Peter Pagliocchini: kelownaspeakout.wordpress.com

Many of us have shaken our heads over the ever increasing and vociferous group of science deniers.  Of course we have our vintage denier groups that take issue with Climate Change and the old standby Evolution.  Most of those that deny Evolution come from the fanatic evangelical right that believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible.  This is the group that feel that the earth is 6 000 years old and that Adam and Eve were literally and de facto parents of all humanity.   These folks are for the most part, well-meaning though woefully misinformed.  Somehow the scientific proofs dating back to Charles Darwin and the plethora of fossil evidence still does little to dissuade them from their opposition to embracing the reality of Evolution.

Another group of deniers are a little more daring in their beliefs than the literal interpreters of the Bible. This group gives credence and support to Evolution, but they have the proviso of a Prime Mover that set all of creation into motion.   Members of this faction believe in Scientific Creationism and they are usually well educated and fairly high on the evolutionary enlightenment scale.

Then, there are the Climate Change deniers. It should be noted, that it is more than likely that the non-evolution believers are in this low information camp as well.  They are definitely not mutually exclusive.  With this faction, regardless of the preponderance of evidence collaborating and affirming that our planet is indeed getting warmer due to human activity, continue to disbelieve.  These deniers usually explain their collective disbelief of Climate Change by asserting that though they are not “climate scientists,” they feel that it simply is not true.  They truly believe that their gut feeling trumps scientific and empirical studies that indisputably support global warming due to human activity.   They are easily duped by propaganda that is disseminated by pseudo news organizations such as Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. This network supports right wing parties that are in the back pockets of fossil fuel corporations that have a vested interest in denying human facilitated global warming.  In fact,   an independent media oversight organization called Politi Fact published this interesting statistic regarding Fox News.  The latest scoreboard showed that more than 60% of the claims made by Fox News were mostly false or worst and that half of all claims were either demonstrably false or outright lies.   This audience is exactly the demographic that such an organization caters too. The unfortunate part is that they support parties that do not endorse any measures to help change the factors that continue to be harmful to our planet.  They are the ones that vote in large blocks against their own self-interest and to the detriment of the environment. This gives huge credence to my initial assertion that science deniers have potential to do great harm due to their lack of knowledge and their propensity to vote for anti-science parties that serve only the corporate agenda.  Their uninformed voting patterns places all of us at risk.

 

Then, there is another group of science deniers that has emerged over the past decade.   This group is perhaps the most frightening because they are, for the most part,  well-educated and articulate,  but somehow have latched on to a fallacy that vaccinating their children is linked to autism. The media has named them the “anti-vaxxers.”  The movement really began after a 1998 study conducted by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in England and was published in the British Medical Journal, the Lancet.  This now discredited study erroneously showed a link between the MMR vaccines (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) and autism.   Even though the study has been repudiated by hundreds of peer reviewed articles, this remains the bible for the anti-vaccine supporters.

 

Having said this, one certainly should not think that we have to blindly follow everything that the scientific community puts out there. We are capable of reading and researching the data that is available to us regarding new medicines, pharmaceuticals and their overall efficacy.   However, when one looks at the multitude of  positive health outcomes that have been achieved over the last 50 years thanks to vaccines, I begin to question why people want to put their children and other people’s children at such great risk.  This seems to be the new “yuppie” wave of ignorance under the guise of reasoned thought.

When discussing any controversial topic it is always prudent to obtain some historical perspective. For this, we can go back to 1921, the U.S. recorded 206 000 cases of diphtheria resulting in 15 520 deaths.  Since the introduction of immunization in the early 1920’s, diphtheria rates dropped dramatically.  In fact, during the time period of 2004-2008, no cases of diphtheria were recorded in the United States according to the Centre for Disease Control.

Pertussis (Whooping Cough) another potentially fatal disease, especially to children, was brought under control thanks to the development of a vaccine.  Prior to the vaccine’s availability it was estimated that about 10 000 deaths per year were attributed to this terrible and now preventable disease. Now, according to Kids Health, it is responsible for fewer than 30 deaths per year.

Following the advent of the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine the rate of infections have fallen by 99% for measles, 98% for mumps and 95% for Rubella.  It should be noted, that these diseases also have the potential for dire medical consequences for those afflicted.  In the case of Rubella, though relatively mild symptoms in young children; it remains extremely dangerous to pregnant women.  If a pregnant women becomes exposed to this disease it can have harmful consequences for the fetus.

As for mumps, the most common effect is the swelling of the cheeks and jaw.  This is caused by an infection in the salivary glands.  In most cases, it can be relatively mild, however about 1 and 10 people with mumps get meningitis, fortunately, mumps meningitis does not usually cause permanent damage.  When a boy who’s gone through puberty or an adult man contracts mumps, the disease sometimes affects the testes and causes an inflammatory condition called ‘orchitis.’ According to a review published in the “International Journal of Clinical Practice,” in June of 2006. The article stated that, “orchitis develops in 20 to 30 percent of post pubertal males.” The good news according to the study is that it rarely leads to sterility among this population but can contribute to sub fertility.

However, thanks to complacency and wrong minded thinking, the United States and Canada are in danger of re igniting the epidemics of yester year. In an article in the Globe and Mail article/04/07/14 entitled: Measles in Canada: Why This Infectious Disease is Spreading.  The following infection rate stats for Canada prior to full-fledged immunization were enumerated.

“Before the vaccine became widely available in 1963, virtually every child contracted measles; and full-fledged epidemics were recorded every 2 to 3 years, affecting up to 350 000 children and filling hospitals.” The article went on to say, “The disease is highly contagious in which a carrier can infect 12 to 18 others who are unvaccinated and 6 to 7 others who are partially vaccinated.” People that are described as partially vaccinated are those who had only one of the two recommended inoculations. First inoculation at 12 to 15 months and the second when they are between the ages of 4 and 5 prior to entering school.

In another study, by the World Health Organization, deaths related to measles reached 122 000 worldwide in 2012 which calculated out to 330 deaths a day. However, on a more positive note, this same study cited that more than one billion children in high risk countries have been vaccinated since 2000.

So, we need to be ever vigilant in exposing those that deny science and empirical data and replace it with suppositional anecdotes and good old “gut feelings.”  These are the ones that continue to place all of us at great risk.  Politically, in terms of the low information voters that continue to ignore the social realities of their support for right wing parties that only have the corporate agenda at their core.  Environmentally, those that ignore science and continue to set aside the realities of carbon pollution and the effect it is having on our climate. Medically, the “anti-vaxxers,” those that should know better, but feel that medical evidence can be discounted and replaced by ignorance under the guise of reasoned thought.

In short, we need to put more solace on science, research and critical and informed thought.  I dread the day when the majority of those amongst us will become the perfect demographic audience for the Fox News crowd.  When that happens, God save us all.

 

I invite your comments to this as well as my other blogs at kelowanspeakout.wordpress.com

My other articles were: -An Informed Electorate: The Right Wing Parties Greatest Threat

-Income Inequality

-Voting Against Our Own Self Interest

-Corporate Greed + Conservative Right Wing Parties = Marginalization of the

Majority

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Informed and Educated Electorate is What The Conservative Party in Canada and the Republican Party in the United States Fear the Most

By: Peter Pagliocchini

In my continuing quest for the truth and dispelling inaccuracies regarding some widely held perceptions, I am going to tackle the long held belief that our Conservative Party and the ultra-conservative Republican Party of the United States are the so called Parties of Fiscal Prudence.  As you will see, based on actual statistics over the past 40 years, nothing could be farther from the truth.   Yet, this perception has for decades allowed these fiscally irresponsible parties to take credit for being something that they are indisputably not.  As I have done in the past, I am drawing parallels from both the Republican Party and our own right wing Conservative Party of Canada. Although I must admit that the new Conservative Party under the leadership of Mr. Harper has transformed into an even more virulent form of conservatism more akin to the Tea Party Wing of the Republican Party.  Most assuredly, this is because it is an amalgam of the extreme right wing Alliance/Reform of old.  A party which Mr. Harper was one of their esteemed ideological proponent.

Let us begin by briefly reviewing the fiscal policies of Reagan and his Canadian counterpart Brian Mulroney.

In the case of President Reagan, most economists will point to his administration as the facilitator in ballooning the United States debt. His now infamous “Trickle-down Economics”, a policy in which large tax breaks were given to the upper echelons of the tax grid while simultaneously slashing many critical social programs that assisted the poor.  The net effect of this policy was to increase the federal debt from 934 billion in 1981 when he first took office, to a staggering 2.7 trillion in January of 1989 when he left office.   Under his successor, George H Bush, the national debt reached 4.2 trillion.  One need not be reminded that this massive debt was accumulated in only one term.

Around the same period in Canada, we had our own Conservative Government led by Brian Mulroney. Mr. Mulroney was Prime Minister from 1984 to part of 1993. Like Republicans, the Conservatives had the erroneous reputation of being the party of fiscal prudence and debt reduction; and just like the Republicans, the Conservatives proved to be pretenders to the moniker of fiscal prudence.  For the sake of historical accuracy, Mr.  Mulroney announced his retirement from politics in early 1993 and he was succeeded as party leader and Prime Minister Kim Campbell that June.

From an economic perspective, the Mulroney years were characterized by massive budget deficits.  In 1984, according to Statistics Canada, his government amassed a 37.2 billion dollar deficit.   Using the same source, from 1985 to 1993, his government had consecutive deficits that averaged 32 billion dollars per year over that time period.

Back in the United States, following, twelve years of Republican Presidents, and continued out of control spending, a fiscal renaissance occurred. In 1993 President Bill Clinton took office as the 42^nd President of the United States.  The cycle of ballooning deficits, was broken under the two terms of this Democrat President. When Clinton first took office he inherited a multi trillion dollar debt and out of control budget deficits.   According to Politi Fact, Clinton’s first four complete fiscal years from 1994 to 1997 the nation incurred a deficit.  However, for the first time in decades the deficits declined every year from about 203 billion to 22 billion.  In 1998, the country reached a balanced budget and for the fiscal years 1998 to 2001 the US achieved surpluses each time for a combined total surplus of 559 billion.   Clinton accomplished this by discarding the failed policy of Trickle Down and increased taxes on the upper echelons of the tax bracket.  According to the Congressional Record, from 1993 to 2001 revenue increase: 72%; spending increase: 32%; GDP growth 54%.

In Canada, we had our own Fiscal Renaissance during the Chretien era.  Following the massive deficits that were racked up by the Mulroney Conservatives, Mr. Chretien and his Liberal Party began the process of placing the Canadian Federal Budget back to black.  In 1994-95, the cost of maintaining the massive debt that he had inherited from the Conservatives, was estimated at 42 billion, accounting for 26% of the annual federal budget. (Source: Statistics Canada).  He, along with his much celebrated Finance Minister, the Honourable Paul Martin, made debt reduction the highest of priorities. During his first term, many government services were initially cut back, corporate taxes were increased and additional revenue streams were maximized. Following these necessary but fair austerity measures, the Liberals facilitated the first balanced federal budget in 1997. In that year the Liberal government posted a 2.9 billion dollar surplus.  From 1997 to 2005 under the leadership of first Prime Minister Chretien and then by his successor Paul Martin, the surpluses over those years averaged approximately 9 billion dollars.  The highest surplus under Chretien’s tenure was a whopping 19.9 billion in 2000 and the highest surplus under Martin was 13.2 billion in 2005. (Sources: Statistics Canada and Finance Canada).

South of our border, following a disputed election and a Supreme Court Ruling that gave George W Bush the Presidency in 2001 the era of huge deficits were re-ignited with a vengeance. The Republicans were once again in the White House, and it did not take long for the surpluses to be turned into deficits.  President Bush cut taxes in 2001 and 2003.  These cuts hit federal revenues, while in typical Republican fashion, federal spending continued to grow.  According to the Treasury Department Office, the national debt in 2001 was 5.73 trillion and when he left office in 2009, it had increased to 10.63 trillion.  He left his successor with one of the worst economic recessions dating back 80 years.

In our country, the new Conservative Party with Stephen Harper as leader came into power on February 6, 2006.  In his first year, he inherited a 13.2 billion dollar surplus from Paul Martin’s Liberal Party.  Unfortunately, by 2008 the “Harper Government” as he egotistically refers to the governing party,   recorded the first of 7 consecutive budget deficits.  In 2009, the Harper Government, amassed a 55.6 billion dollar deficit which is indisputably the largest deficit ever recorded in Canadian history.  When one takes an average of the deficits from 2008 to 2014, the dollar value is an astounding 26 billion.

So, when you hear the myths surrounding the fiscal prudence of these right wing parties, please take a moment and reflect on the reality of the situation. Also, take the time to be informed and educated on the important political issues facing our nation.  These right wing parties thrive on an uninformed public; an informed and educated populace is what these parties fear the most.

Corporate Greed + Conservative Right Wing Parties = Marginalization of the Majority

 

 

BY: Peter Pagliocchini

 

My undergraduate degree was in History with a minor in Political Science.  Through the study of these two disciplines I never ceased to marvel at the repetitious nature of human society in making the same mistakes and miscues over and over again.

As George Santayana, author in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century,

wrote in his book the Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

 

Case in point, the underlying ethos of all corporate entities and industrial cartels throughout the ages is the pursuit and maximization of profits at any and all costs.  This philosophy was just as prevalent and pervasive in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries during the “Industrial Revolution.”

One does not have to be an astute scholar of history to know the conditions that were inflicted upon the masses during this period in human history. Factory work was often difficult and extremely dangerous. Normal shifts would run from twelve to sixteen hours.

Worker protection laws were non existent; if you were hurt on the job and could not work you were fired and if you complained about the horrendous conditions you were fired.

By far the most infamous of abuses took the form of “Child Labour.”

Charles Dickens referred to the factories that utilized children for their enterprises as “Dark satanic mills” of the Industrial Revolution.

His literary exploits represented sentinels for change against the blatant human injustices perpetrated against these defenseless masses.

 

Nothing has really changed, look at our North American companies that outsource clothes manufacturing to Asia and in particular Bangladesh. Remember the fire in November of 2012 that killed 112 workers and the collapse of Rana Plaza factory that killed more than 1000 workers.  Despite world outrage and the false sense of sorrow from Corporations that ordered and used these factories so disingenuously expressed, nothing changed.   As soon as the media lost interest, the companies went back to business as usual.   Unfortunately, the promised oversight and the corporation’s vow to put pressure on local government to enforce the most basic of labour protection were quickly withdrawn and the need to maximize profits once again became preeminent.

 

Time and time again, we are sickened by the power that these companies have over every aspect of our society.  In the United States organizations such as ALEC, the Alliance for Legislative Change, is one of many umbrella organizations for several of the richest corporations in America that continue to promote the conservative social and corporate agenda. Together they have joined forces and spent millions of dollars to codify the corporate ethos into State Legislatures. ALEC has worked hand in hand with the right wing Republican Party to facilitate an unfettered political environment for corporations to maximize their profits at the expense of everyone else except the top one percent.  In a nutshell, here are some of the legislative initiatives that have been executed in State Legislatures throughout the US under the auspices of the Alliance for Legislative Change:

-Repealing Labour Right Laws and replacing them with Right to Work Legislation that would make it virtually impossible to unionize.

– Promoting and funding legislative initiatives to gut Environmental Protection.

-Combatting any attempt to restrict firearms and supporting “Stand Your Ground Laws’ in over 30 states.

– Initiating and funding restrictive voter ID laws that took millions of legitimate voters off of voting lists.  Unfortunately, these restrictive laws disproportionately disenfranchised African Americans, Hispanics and the Poor, exactly the demographic that would not typically vote Republican.

– Privatizing Education so that Public Schools would be economically marginalized and become the “choice of last resort,” thus significantly eroding the central tenet of a true democracy, free accesses to a quality public education that does not discriminate on the basis of socio economics.

-Fighting against any attempt to raise minimum wage laws that are currently at 7.25 at the Federal level.

-Continuation of their judicial challenge to the Affordable Health Care Act, which has provided countless millions the ability to finally be able to afford health insurance. The Affordable Health Care Act has made it illegal for insurance companies to drop their clients due to ‘preexisting conditions.’  Prior to the Act, millions of Americans were bankrupted because of medical costs that were not covered due to this preexisting clause or because they had reached their maximum amount for treatment.   When one considers the costs of cancer treatments and the like, the maximum dollar threshold is quickly reached and no further reimbursement for treatment would be offered. So, many simply could not get further healthcare and died needlessly because of it.

 

In short, these right wing obstructive initiatives were not and are not in any way beneficial for the majority of the citizens. However, they certainly facilitate an economic climate that allows the Corporate Ethos to flourish unencumbered by government oversight for the benefit of the top one percent. These very same corporations pay little if anything in taxes due to tax shelters and loopholes that allow them to offshore their corporate profits.

 

It seems that these right wing and some might argue, anti-democratic measures have continued to be propagated north of the US border by our own Conservative Party.

 

In Canada, our present federal government is doing its best to bring in the kinds of legislation that many US states are presently subjecting their citizens to.   However, Canada still has stalwarts of institutionalized Federal Acts that are providing obstacles in the Harper Government’s attempt to bring the ALEC type legislative barrage into Canada.

First and foremost under attack is our Single Payer Medical System.  Our Prime Minister has long lobbied for a two tier Medical System.  In their last budget, the Conservatives passed legislation to cut Health Care funding by over 36 billion over the next 10 years.  They also got rid of the Health Council of Canada formed in 2003, following the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada.  The Council’s main purpose was to provide accountability, oversight, planning and national coordination to our Health Care System. Without this key component, our health care in Canada has been dealt a severe blow.  These actions will serve to make it ever more difficult for our provinces to continue to adequately fund and monitor our most treasured national program.  This will and in some cases already has allowed for further privatization of more and more medical procedures.  Unfortunately, this will inevitability lead to what Mr. Harper lobbied for when he was with the ‘Alliance Party of Canada;’ a two tier non socialized Medicare system.  The type of system will make it harder for the majority of Canadians to be able to access and to afford.

Another area in which our federal government has succeeded in gutting, is that of our former Environmental Protection Legislation.  The Harper Government’s Bill C-38 facilitated the repeal of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act so the federal government can sidestep environmental reviews of potentially harmful projects.  Also they weakened several environmental laws, including laws protecting species at risk and water.  It also gave cabinet the authority to approve pipeline projects and overrule the National Energy Board.  One of the major pieces of the Bill repealed the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act to fight climate change.

Finally, our Federal government continues to mirror the Republican Party by its disdain for “Labour.” This was made very clear when it introduced Bill C-377.  The Bill was written to severely tilt the scales in favour of employers to the detriment of employees.  Some of the key measures of the Bill include the following: Require incredibly costly micro-detailed accounting of union activities. Would vastly increase costs to unions and their financial reporting. Severely restrict the formation of unions in any given workplace.  So, all in all, it would serve to further silence the last bastion of “worker’s voices” who continue to stand up for proper working conditions revolving around health and safety as well as fair remuneration.  These same ‘voices’ that continue to advocate for governments and legislators to move away from the present trend of low minimum wages and the part time employment model that further ghettoizes our labour force, are being diminished and ignored.

 

I am a proud Canadian, who still believes along with the majority of us in a fair, just and equitable society; not the environmental and social denigration and marginalization that our Harper Government has perpetrated since taking power.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Voting Against Our Own Self Interests

Voting Against Our Own Self Interests

It never ceases to amaze me when people vote against their own self interests.

The United States just held their midterm elections on November 5 of 2014.  The Republicans were the resounding winners of this election cycle, despite being the party of “NO.” (Granted, the voter turnout percentage was in the low 30’s, as many decided to stay home). The House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans passed the least amount of legislation in the history of the Republic.  In fact, from October 1 to 13 2013, the Republicans refused to pass essential legislation that would keep the government running.  This move cost the American economy over 24 billion dollars and basically did nothing except put a lot of people out of work.

In the same legislative year they continually refused to pass President Obama’s omnibus Jobs Bill that would have served to fix and replace bridges and roads that were in need of repair.  This initiative would have created over two million jobs with the added benefit of repairing aging structures that were in many cases unsafe. They also refused to pass legislation to increase the minimum wage from 7.25 to 10.10 per hour.  The minimum wage has not been increased since the early 1970s.

However, the Republicans did pass legislation that would severely restrict voting rights and serve to disenfranchise millions of African Americans, Hispanics and the in general the poor.  Their infamous voter ID legislation that was taken up by many states controlled by Republican Governors.  These Draconian voter ID laws have since been challenged by the US Attorney General who is bringing these cases to the United States Judiciary.  The Republican Party also seemed to have platforms that were not in sync with the majority of Americans.  These included their anti-science agenda, a total disbelief in Climate Change, removing federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, reducing banking oversight legislation such as Dodd Frank and so on.

Now, here is the part that is perplexing. In polling prior to the midterms the majority of Americans favoured raising the minimum wage, continuation of the Affordable Health Care Act, and removing restrictive legislation concerning voting rights as well as bolstering environmental protection and strengthening Dodd Frank legislation. When various interviewers spoke to voters as they exited polling stations, they first read the list that included raising the minimum wage, environmental protections etc.  The majority said yes, they were in favour of those items.  Then, the interviewer asked who they voted for? To the interviewer’s surprise, the majority said they voted for the Republican candidate.

The party that is on record as being diametrically opposed to raising the minimum wage, affordable health care, and were the authors of Draconian voter ID laws and legislation to destroy environmental protection agencies.  It was both perplexing and unfathomable that these voters did not seem to see the utter illogic in their decision to vote for the party of NO rather that the party that would be four square behind the items that they were in favour of.  Was it simply a case of uniformed and low information voters not seeing the folly of their vote? I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Now, in Canada we have our own version of the Republican Party, the Conservative Party led by Mr. Harper.  Here are some of the interesting legislative initiatives that this party has executed over the past several years.  You may find some similarities in terms of attack on voting rights,  Draconian legislation regarding labour, cuts to science, reducing data gathering by eliminating the Long Forms Census and a deep love and affection for corporations, especially oil companies and of course major financial institutions. The government’s continued attack on science and health and safety agencies was best encapsulated by words of James Turk, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers. Here is an excerpt from a recent interview he gave.  “What’s important is the scale of the assault on knowledge, and on our understanding of the world.  In the past 5 years the Federal Government has dismissed more than 2000 scientists, hundreds of programs and world renowned research facilities have lost their funding. Programs that monitored such things as smoke stack immersions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality and climate change have been drastically cut or shut down.”

Unfortunately, in a recent political poll, the Conservative Party is in the lead again.  This, despite all of the above, as well as a continued cut backs  on Veteran Services and on our Health Care System.

Both these right wing parties have incredibly similar agendas and ethos. Unfortunately, to the detriment of all but the corporate and the top 5 percent class.

 

Now, the good news is that the combined percentage of Liberal, NDP and Green Party support is over 64%.  Strategic voting for a party that actually reflects the views of pro science, fairness in wages, equitable tax distribution, making corporations pay their fair share of taxes, universal health care and most importantly an unencumbered democratic system will be the key to taking back our country.  Ideally, the NDP and the Liberal Party would amalgamate in a similar fashion that the Alliance and Progressive Conservatives did in 2004.  Unfortunately, this will not happen in time.

 

Solution: Vote strategically!