Milton NDP Blog

As COP26 gets underway in Glasgow we’ve been thinking about reducing our carbon footprint here at home. Getting around town and heating our homes seem to be the biggest slices of our personal carbon pie. What can we do? What can governments do to make it happen? Switching to Electric cars is on everyone’s mind. First we need to learn some new terms like EV, PEV, PHEV and HEV. We need to think about charging the vehicle at home and, ultimately, how much carbon was produced making the electricity and the batteries going into the car. Maybe we can leave that new EV plugged in at the GO station and take the train in to see that Leafs game? At home we can improve our windows, furnaces and insulation with a bit of help from the government. We can turn the thermostat down and replace incandescent lighting with LEDs. Maybe we can capture a little more carbon by planting a tree in that barren piece of grass or replacing that dilapidated old fence with a row of cedars? All of this sounds reas...

Lately I’ve been reading and hearing that media, including social media, has been responsible for an increasing polarization in politics. This Freakonomics episode shows that the use of negative headlines outnumbers the positive more than six to one. The episode explains that negative news, especially negative news about the outgroup, left if you are right, right if you are left, tends to get amplified through social media. It discusses how politicians need to walk that fine line between negativity (about the outgroup) and staying popular. Rathje’s “ research would suggest that social media amplifies the bad and it amplifies the ugly. “ The next episode focuses on our addiction to contempt . According to Brooks, 93 percent of Americans are fed up with how divided their country has become. OK. This is not the USA. It’s Canada. But I see in the media, especially in social media, that we are headed down the same path. Brooks suggests there is a kind of latent demand for a better, more as...

According to the Star, Ontario Provincial Health Care spending in 2019 was $3903 per person. Toronto.com claims that spending increased to $4730 per person in 2021. That’s a 21% increase. Of course, the cause is clear. It’s a bit hard to make comparisons during a pandemic. The Ontario government spent $466 million less than planned pre-pandemic. We can see the claims coming. “We’re spending more.” “We’re doing all we can.” “It’s not our fault.” “It’s the unions.” “It’s the pandemic.” “We inherited a broken system from the Liberals.” Actually, that last cry is not too far from the truth. The previous Liberal government froze hospital budgets and cut 1600 nursing positions. But instead of fixing the problem the current government continues to add stress to the system with a wage freeze bill and a refusal to examine the real factors that make work during a pandemic seem like a war zone. Ontario needs more nurses and PSWs but instead they are leaving due to the stress their jobs creat...

What happened to the OAP, the Ontario Autism Program during the last few years is complex and troubling. The government’s own FAO, Financial Accountability Office report contradicts itself. It states that the number of children on waitlists grew to 24,900 in 2019-2020 and that the year before the waitlist grew by 47.8%. Then, by using the tired old trickery of cancelling a program and starting a new one in its place and splitting other programs the FAO report says the PCs can pat themselves on the back and say everything is fine if they allow spending to increase from $600 million to $696 million by 2025. The report does state that spending would need to increase to $1.3 billion in order to clear the waitlist but seems, in the conclusion, to be OK with a waitlist. In the meantime we hear about people like Stacey Kennedy who’s child has been waitlisted for 4 years. Stacey camped out at the Premier's office for several days and got nothing for her child. According to this UNIFOR ...

Doug Ford is set to give a throne speech Monday and with the Provincial election just down the road we can expect another round of "I'm gonna put ten bucks in everyone's pocket, buck a beer, I'll cut gas prices," etc. etc. "Look at me. I'm a good guy." rhetoric. Insiders say the speech will focus on Covid 19 recovery but all that means is he will continue with his agenda and claim it contributes to recovery. If we look at what he did in his first 100 days in office you have to wonder where’s the “progressive” in Progressive Conservative? Cutting Toronto City council, rolling back the sex ed curriculum, cancelling cap and trade, halting new safe injection sites. It all sounds very “regressive”. Recovery is a progressive thing. It’s hard to imagine this government even understands the word “recovery”. If we examine what Ford did accomplish when he was first elected, they were back-page platform issues. So what about his big front page campaign promis...