• Governance

    Posted on August 5th, 2009

    Written by michaelmotala

    Tags

    Non-Partisan Senators

    Non-Partisan Senators

    There are eight vacancies in the Senate; there will be four more by year’s end. If last December’s appointments to the red chamber are any indication, Harper will likely pick prominent Canadians who will tow the party line when it counts…Instead of shaking our heads are the shortsighted partisanship at play here, those interested in the future of Parliament should give some thought about how we might revitalize the Senate to harness its tremendous capacity to do good work, while keeping it from being a plum patronage appointment.

  • Immigration

    Posted on July 27th, 2009

    Written by michaelmotala

    Tags

    The Canadian Immigration Question

    The Canadian Immigration Question

    In 2008, recognizing the problems with the existing system, the Harper government wrote a reform into the budget bill in an attempt to deal with upwards of 1 million immigration applications. In essence, the Conservatives wanted to implement a system that moved away from a first-come-first-serve basis to one that gives immigration approval in conjunction with labour market requirements…Critics of this reform complain that Canada is making a return to the pre-WWII era where policy-makers handpicked immigrants based on ethnic preferences. Liberal leader Stéphane Dion calls the reform “unprecedented, sweeping, discretionary power”. Far from unprecedented, however, the reform is a pragmatic reigning-in of control over a country’s population that has grown by 2.4 million in recent years, nearly a 13.5% increase, mostly due to immigration.

  • Governance

    Posted on July 22nd, 2009

    Written by michaelmotala

    Tags

    … And Good Government

    … And Good Government

    When the Harper Conservatives swept to power in the wake of the Sponsorship Scandal, they vowed that they would forever sever the cozy links between consultants, lobbyists and pollsters and their friends in the government. They centralized control over budgets and introduced strict accountability rules that prohibited new program spending without arduous application procedures. While these reforms were certainly long overdue, they have stifled the creativity of bureaucrats, paradoxical though that may sound, to invent new approaches to Canada’s most serious social ills.

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