That Man Behind the Curtain

While I strongly believe in being critical of unions when their behaviour warrants it, I am steadfast in my belief that they serve a vital role for the working person, which, essentially, is all of us, at least until retirement. I therefore must disagree with those who claim that the harsh measures about to be imposed by the McGuinty government of Ontario are somehow at least partly attributable to union intransigence.

In his Star column this morning, Martin Regg Cohn offers a good analysis of the politics motivating Mr. McGuinty as the legislature prepares to resume tomorrow to deal with something called the Putting Students First Act, a patently manipulative title confirming all that Mr. Orwell warned us about when he wrote his seminal essay Politics and the English Language.

While arguing that the legislation is little more than political theater designed to bolster the image of the Liberals, Cohn lays some of the blame at the feet of the federations that refused to negotiate. The problem with such a position, as I have previously argued, is the fact that the government never offered even the semblance of bargaining in good faith, essentially saying that the teacher groups had a choice: either accept the terms or have them legislated, the only flexibility being in how the stipulated savings would be effected, as seen in the OECTA deal that will now apparently form the basis of the legislation.

So what is my point here? Despite those who claim unions' intransigence has led to this pending legislation, from my perspective a capitulation to the gun put to their heads would have more seriously impaired faith in the efficacy of unions. To sell out its membership, as OECTA did by legitimizing a process that needlessly violates all good-faith concepts with which I am familiar, would have done far more damage than a steadfast refusal to return to the negotiating table.

And, of course, one thing the public needs to remember in this highly-charged political circus is the fact that a wage-freeze is something that teacher unions were amenable to almost from the beginning.

Just another one of those inconvenient truths, I guess, as Mr. McGuinty urges everyone to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Another Salvo Against Teachers

Just came back from a rather tiring two-hour plus bike ride against a head wind. Because I am too tired to write a lengthy post, and as a follow-up to yesterday's entry, for those interested in what is going on with teacher contract negotiations in Ontario, may I recommend Martin Regg Cohn's column in today's Star?

Normally a columnist with whom I agree far more than I disagree, I feel he has written a rather blinkered piece praising Dalton McGuinty's current political maneuvering with the federations that ignores the concept of good-faith bargaining and the importance of the retirement gratuity, which he dismisses as "anachronistic."

My Name Is Tim - Hear Me Roar

To what I suspect is the surprise of few, young Tim Hudak, to whom I have made the occasional reference in this blog, continues to underwhelm as the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. His latest 'policy', perhaps hatched at the supper table with wife Deborah, to make Ontario more 'attractive' to employers by breaking unions, is the kind of preposterous pandering to the extreme right that one would expect from an alumnus of the despotic Mike Harris era, when he served in the latter's cabinet.

Treat yourself this Canada Day by enjoying Martin Regg-Cohn's dissection of young Tim's fatuous thinking in a column entitled Tim Hudak’s Tory vision for a low-union, low-wage Ontario.

Liz Witmer's Political Karma

As a survivor of the Mike Harris years in Ontario, I have very vivid memories of what was undoubtedly the most mean-spirited and incompetent of provincial regimes I have ever lived through. Their economic 'strategy' of slashing and burning, selling key assets such as the 407 to foreign consortia to conceal their colossal fiscal ineptitude, and appeasing big business left a lasting legacy of discontent; as well, their divisive rhetoric pitted Ontarians against one another, much in the same manner as the Harper regime has done throughout Canada.

While she was Harris's Labour Minister, Liz Witmer set her sights on The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, slashing both the benefits paid to workers and the premiums charged to business. As Martin Regg Cohn points out in his column today, Ms Witmer, recently appointed head of WSIB, is about to experience some political karma as she contends with the results of her former intervention: the board currently faces an unfunded liability of over $14 billion.

No doubt Ms Witmer will bring her much-vaunted abilities to bear on the situation.

The Sad Saga Of Our Declining Democracy Continues

During the past year I have written many posts on the sad spectacle of a Canadian democracy in decline, citizen cynicism and apathy rather than vigorous engagement becoming the default position of more and more Canadians. I have also offered the opinion that this is in large part the result of practices purposely pursued by our political 'masters', most egregiously by the Harper regime, so as to leave the field pretty much clear for the 'true-believers' to exert a disproportionate influence on election results when they turn out and the rest of us tune out.

Extreme partisanship has relegated the public good to an afterthought, an example of which is highlighted in Martin Regg Cohn's column today in The Star. He writes about how the clash of politics has impeded anti-bullying legislation that was supposed to proceed smoothly as a response to the suicides of gay students, but has instead degenerated into open displays of bigotry, taunting, tweeting, sulking and shouting (or heckling, as parliamentarians call it).

An even more penetrating assessment of the price we all pay for the debasement of the political process is to be found in Chantal Hebert's column today, also in The Star. Entitled Ballot box seen as dead end rather than means to an end, Hebert first uses the ongoing Quebec student unrest to advance her thesis that our elected representatives are no longer looked upon as a viable source of representation, a notion which, when you think about it, strikes at the very heart of democracy:

Their movement increasingly boils down to an extreme manifestation of a widespread disenchantment toward Canada’s elected institutions; one that is leading alienated voters of all ages and in all regions to see the ballot box as a dead end rather than as a means to an end.

Hebert then turns her sights on the Harper regime:

In the national capital, a government elected with barely four in every 10 votes a year ago has since been going out of its way to disenfranchise the majority that did not support it.

Over the opening year of their majority mandate, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have moved to discourage civic dissent — in particular but not exclusively on the environmental front.

They have replaced federal-provincial dialogue with diktats and adversarial litigation.

They have placed themselves on a collision course with the courts over the place of the rule of law in the exercise of ministerial discretion.

The concept of ministerial responsibility has been reduced to a quaint historical footnote and parliamentary accountability is on the same slippery slope.

In the House of Commons, the government has moved to stifle the input of its opposition critics at every turn, systematically curtailing debate on bills or more simply subtracting legislation from competent scrutiny by cramming it inside inflated omnibus bills.

It should surprise no one that governments who treat the rule of law as a pesky inconvenience will eventually breed the same attitude in those that they purport to legislate for.

Hebert ends her piece by referring to ours as a debased democracy.

I have one questions that burns in my soul - Is there anyone or anything that can reinvigorate us at this point to reclaim our birthright?

The Art of the Possible

People have to give Andrea Horwath full marks for putting into practice the famous quote by Otto von Bismarck: Politics is the art of the possible. Through her willingness to compromise during negotiations with the McGuinty government, not only has she avoided an election that few wanted, but she has also managed to extract some significant concessions from the Premier, not the least of which is a surtax on those making over $500,000 each year, thus resurrecting a discussion that has been off the political agenda for some years now.

And my own political cynicism stands to be corrected. Wearied and jaded from watching the federal Liberals repeatedly debase themselves during the Harper minority years when the party would condemn and vote against confidence measures but always ensure there were sufficient members absent from the House to ensure the passage of the odious measures, I had erroneously predicted the same behaviour for Horwath.

The biggest loser in this entire process is, of course, young Tim Hudak, the increasingly hapless leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives who, in a reflexive move that yielded all of the power of the opposition to Horwath, rejected any possibility of compromise when the budget was introduced by flatly stating that his party would vote against it, once again demonstrating that he just doesn't have what it takes to be a political leader.

On a related note, while Hudak is busy recycling rhetoric from his Mike Harris years, advocating for smaller government, more tax cuts and a 'business-friendly climate,' the Wildrose Party suffered a crushing defeat in Alberta, despite all of the advance polls showing them on the way to forming a majority government.

One wonders if there is a message there for our Prime Minister?

BTW, for an insightful analysis of the Ontario compromise, take a look at Martin Regg Cohn's column in today's Star.

Sunday Reading Recommendation

For an insightful analysis of the choices facing both Andrea Horwath and Dalton McGuinty as they negotiate over changes to the Ontario budget that will win the support of the NDP, check out Martin Regg Cohn's piece in today's Star.

As he points out, there is considerable risk for both, but also potential benefits if neither is too doctrinaire in the final two days left in what could be an exercise in brinkmanship.

Where Do Justice and Morality Reside?

On this Easter Sunday, when many turn their thoughts from the secular to the sacred, it is perhaps a propitious time to remember that the elusive goals of justice and morality, so often seemingly absent from the world, can and must be pursued, however imperfectly, only by those living in the world; it is a heavy obligation that each of us must bear, no matter how busy our lives may be, no matter what social or economic tier we may occupy. To simply shrug off that responsibility and let others with baser motivations decide for us is to surrender a major component of what makes us human.

My reflections were in part prompted by an excellent piece by Martin Regg Cohn in today's Toronto Star about the Ontario government's addiction to gambling, or, more accurately, the putative profits that arise from it. Says Cohn,

We’ve lost our moral compass in recent years — not by embracing gambling, but eschewing taxes. We have been contaminated by the anti-tax compulsions of American political culture that prevent governments from maintaining a progressive taxation system. This pathological aversion to taxation has driven the explosion of casinos everywhere, as governments rely on gambling to take money from the poor while sparing the rich.

Something to think about as we contemplate the dismantling of Canadian values and traditions currently underway at both the federal and the provincial levels.

Two Sunday Morning Links

Echoing some of the sentiments I expressed the other day, this morning's Star editorial endorses the Toronto Police Services Board's decision to deny promotions to nine officers recommended by Police Chief Bill Blair. Is it possible that these officers, who behaved illegally by removing their name tags during last year's G20 Summit, were chosen by Chief Blair to be rewarded for their initiative? After all, if they couldn't be identified while violating people's Charter Rights, wouldn't they have in fact spared the good Chief more serious embarrassment and questions about his flawed leadership during the Summit?

Also in today's paper, Martin Regg Cohn's column, entitled Will Tory Trojan Horse hurt Hudak’s crusade? offers some interesting insight into an extreme right-wing faction of Tim Hudak's Ontario Progressive Conservative Party whose tactics, according to the article, "make the U.S. Tea Party look like … well, a tea party by comparison."

Enjoy the day.

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