Features

Scale of robocall scandal

Mar 132012

Widespread voter suppression big league for Canada.

by Linda McQuaig

Perhaps it's our Canadian modesty that prevents us from thinking we could have a scandal as big-league and important as Watergate.

But that modesty may be misplaced.

When it comes to democracy, nothing is more basic than the citizen's right to vote. So the deliberate attempt to prevent voters from casting their ballots amounts to a stake through the faintly-beating heart of democracy as surely as attempting to wiretap the headquarters of a rival political party.

Judge health care spending by results

Jan 032012

Features

Flaherty's plan to tie funding to GDP violates economic principles.

by Gordon Guyatt MD

Jim Flaherty, representing the Conservative government, has delivered a unilateral declaration to his provincial finance minister colleagues. After 2017, federal health transfers to the provinces will not exceed nominal GDP growth.

Glorifying the War of 1812

Jan 032012

Features

PM has an agenda behind proposed celebration.

by Mel Watkins

The War of 1812 was the least of wars. That great popular historian, the late Pierre Berton, described it as "foolish and unnecessary." After the war, the border was the same as it had been at the beginning.

Health care: money without a plan

Jan 032012

Features

Conservatives increase health care funding, with a catch.

by Armine Yalnizyan

As Christmas presents go, this one was a shocker: Over lunch on Monday, cash-strapped Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised provincial and territorial finance ministers he'd increase federal funding for health care by six percent each year for the next five years. No strings attached. No negotiations. A done deal. With a catch. The provinces and territories have five years to figure out how to make health care sustainable on their own terms, every Premier for him/herself.

Newer Entries