The EU economic plan will leave it in tatters.
austerity measures
Toronto at a crossroads: Will Ford's austerity agenda be derailed?
On June 20, 2011, Mayor Rob Ford and his allies on Toronto City Council Executive Committee turned down free money.
The Ontario government had offered $170,000 to cover the cost of hiring two public health nurses. One nurse would have worked with new immigrants on disease prevention. The other would have worked in low income neighbourhoods to promote health services. While the province had committed to ongoing funding for these two positions, Ford refused to hire the nurses.
Talking the world into taking the wrong direction
Attending last week's G8 summit hosted by American President Barrack Obama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper characterized the Canadian economy this way: "Thanks to strong fundamentals, Canada's economy is performing exceptionally well by international standards."
The statement is simply not true. Economic fundamentals in Canada reveal growing inequalities, stagnant incomes, high unemployment, and for 2011, a 2.2 per cent economic growth rate (after inflation) that according to an agency popular in Canadian Conservative Party circles -- the CIA -- puts Canada 149th out of 215 countries in the world.
The Harper regime in question
Stephen Harper and his government are in trouble. Charges of concealing the real costs of the F-35 fighter jets, confirmed by the auditor general, a Harper appointee, are not going away, despite an Easter parliamentary recess. These $10 billion in hidden costs were revealed by the parliamentary budget officer (an innovation of the Harper government) prior to the May 2, 2011 election, and led to the government being found in contempt of parliament, provoking a non-confidence motion, and the May election.
