Politics, Editorials & Letters

With pandemic concerns growing amidst the strongest wave yet, Monday’s budget offered a mixed bag of measures and highlighted the government’s reticence to ask Canada’s wealthiest  to contribute a little more to their country according to Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP, Carol Hughes. That was one of the biggest take-aways from the budget that Hughes is describing as more of an election document ...

Suze Morrison, MPP for Toronto Centre and NDP critic for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls response, issued the following statement on the tragic murder of Cileana Taylor, a young Annishnaabe woman from Curve Lake First Nation: “I want to express my sorrow and anger at the loss of Cileana Taylor. I offer my sincerest condolences to Cileana’s family, ...

J’attends avec impatience la semaine de circonscription d’avril. Je pense que je suis prêt pour un certain temps loin de Queen’s Park et une pause de cette longue route que je voyage dans les deux sens chaque fin de semaine. J’ai toujours soutenu que, loin d’être une perte de temps monotone chaque fin de semaine, cela me donne en fait ...

I’m looking forward to the April constituency week.  I think I’m ready for some time away from Queen’s Park and a break from that long road I travel both ways every weekend.  I’ve always maintained that, far from being a monotonous waste of time each weekend, it actually provides me with a wonderful opportunity to really think things through uninterrupted.  ...

On Saturday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh presented the NDP’s plan to help young people thrive instead of being buried in debt. The NDP’s plan includes putting a moratorium on student loan payments, cancelling up to $20,000 per student of federal student loan debt and giving new graduates a five-year head start without having to repay any federal student loan. While ...

NDP Environment critic Sandy Shaw is demanding the Ford government block Nestlé from handing Ontario’s water rights to an American private equity firm, One Rock Capital Partners, which is planning to buy Nestlé’s North American water-bottling operations. The province’s moratorium on new or expanded permits for water taking for bottling is due to expire on April 1. On Monday, United ...

Official Opposition NDP critic for Colleges and Universities, Laura Mae Lindo (Kitchener Centre) has released a statement in response to a government announcement regarding Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) for micro-credential programs: “Students don’t just need permission to borrow more money — they need a break on student loan repayments. COVID has taken away their summer jobs, and delayed their ...

Andrea Horwath’s NDP will use its Opposition Day Motion slot Monday to give the Doug Ford government another chance to give all Ontarians paid sick days​ to help end the pandemic sooner. “Paid sick days will help Ontario beat COVID-19 quicker, and end the frustrating cycle of lockdowns,” said Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath. “Workers without paid sick days are ...

In politics, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. Right? Obviously, there is a wide range of political perspectives that are aimed to achieve similar goals. The path to achieving those goals is often far more controversial than the actual goals themselves. The People of Ontario vote every four years to elect the governing party that they collectively believe ...

  The Ministry of Transportation has finally unveiled the results of its northeastern Ontario rail corridor survey. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of respondents indicate they would use a future rail service if provided with an option to depart once a day with costs equivalent to a intercommunity bus.   This concept shouldn’t be so foreign to politicians and bureaucrats working in North ...

Andrea Horwath et le NPD viennent de dévoiler le plan climatique le plus ambitieux, le plus efficace et le plus faisable qu’ait jamais connu l’Ontario. Dans Climat. Emplois. Justice. Pacte vert néo-démocrate, le NPD d’Andrea Horwath s’engage à metre en oeuvre une stratégie exhaustive pour faire de l’Ontario une province à zéro émission d’ici 2050, et à organiser une transition ...

Andrea Horwath and the NDP are laying out the boldest, most effective and achievable climate plan Ontario’s ever had. In Climate. Jobs. Justice. A Green New Democratic Deal Horwath’s NDP commits to a comprehensive strategy to make Ontario net-zero by 2050, and orchestrate a just transition including the creation of 100,000 permanent jobs from an ambitious building retrofit program, and ...

Small businesses hit hard by the pandemic have an ally in NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh who is revealing his party’s plan to help these businesses survive as cornerstones in our communities. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are ready to go to great lengths for big corporations, but since the beginning of the pandemic, they’ve done the bare minimum for the small businesses ...

      A group of self-proclaimed advocates is demanding the government immediately restore Ontario Northland Railway (ONR) passenger service, have that publicly-funded agency buy CN’s Algoma Central line from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst, restore the passenger train on that line and push a private freight operator off the Sudbury-Soo line.  These grand pronouncements are in their submission to ...

Dear Brenda It has been 2 years since the Ford government destroyed the Ontario Autism Program without a plan in place. During this time therapeutic capacity has been decimated and over 42 thousand families have been forced to wait, many in crisis, watching their children lose precious developmental time. While Northern Autism Families welcomes the recent return to open communication ...