[steveintoronto]

Bad example. Italy has a weird hybrid system where 40% of seats are FPTP.

.....aaaaand other issues.

There's many examples discussed on-line, France is presently debating it. The point remains, the Constitution in Canada makes Prop-Rep at the federal level highly problematic. I'm not going to list the opinions on the matter, Googling shows many.

For the provinces, it's a different matter, but some have short memories it seems:

Ontario rejects electoral reform in referendum
CBC News Posted: Oct 10, 2007 9:11 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 11, 2007 12:20 PM ET

Ontario voters have rejected a proposed electoral reform that would have seen some provincial legislators chosen based on a party's share of the popular vote, results showed Thursday.

The system was the subject of Ontario's first referendum in 83 years during the provincial election on Wednesday. However, Ontarians headed to the polls amid criticism and confusion over how officials spread the word about the mixed member proportional (MMP) plan.

On Thursday afternoon, with 99.8 per cent of polls counted, the proposal had the support of 36.85 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, 63.15 per cent of voters cast their ballots in favour of the existing first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

Only five ridings, all of them in Toronto, showed a majority supporting MMP.

The MMP proposal required 60 per cent support to become the new electoral system. As well, it had to win a majority in 64 ridings.

A citizens assembly was appointed by the previous Liberal government to study the issue. It recommended MMP to replace FPTP, which has been in place in Ontario for 215 years.[...]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario-rejects-electoral-reform-in-referendum-1.632735

 

[Northern Light]

I’d like to see full OHIP coverage of dental, optometry, podiatry, dermatology, psychotherapy, physiotherapy, prescriptions, elderly home-care and several other healthcare items we pay out of pocket for before we start helping people make babies. It’s still a good thing to support, but it’s not a top priority in my mind.

Try being someone who is struggling to make babies.

Can I perhaps split the difference (as I'm prone to trying to do) by suggesting that while its absolutely morally justifiable and reasonable public policy to support fertility there is a certain oddity to the notion that women (over 24) don't get cancer drugs paid for; EVEN if they are pregnant.

Put another way, healthcare should be comprehensive and that includes fertility coverage.

However, there is a legitimate argument that if the system is not to be fully expanded all at once, that priority should go to life-saving treatments, before other coverages.

 

[PinkLucy]

Calling it now. Doug Ford wins with this:

https://twitter.com/EvanLSolomon/status/973657950714724358

Heck, I'm tempted to vote for Ford with this promise.

Conflict of interest?

 

[steveintoronto]

Can I perhaps split the difference (as I'm prone to trying to do) by suggesting that while its absolutely morally justifiable and reasonable public policy to support fertility there is a certain oddity to the notion that women (over 24) don't get cancer drugs paid for; EVEN if they are pregnant.

Put another way, healthcare should be comprehensive and that includes fertility coverage.

However, there is a legitimate argument that if the system is not to be fully expanded all at once, that priority should go to life-saving treatments, before other coverages.

There's very real irony in your points, and these are very good points to be discussing, especially in light of gender votes being so crucial to the actual provincial vote, the irony being that *parental leave* and *support for childcare* are prominent points in Conservative governments in other nations, especially European ones.

It's considered an *investment* with guaranteed returns for the future of the society and nation. But that illustrates another point, the misuse of persons like Ford of the "Conservative" label. He isn't, by any established uses of the term. He's a renegade, a populist and a Nihilist.

while its absolutely morally justifiable and reasonable public policy to support fertility there is a certain oddity to the notion that women (over 24) don't get cancer drugs paid for; EVEN if they are pregnant.

That would be an excellent question/point to put to various parties for an election platform.

Of course, Canada is a rare exception with the US to developed nations' comprehensive health coverage, many including dental, and we now see Morneau backtracking on his pledge for prescriptions. Ontario has pushed ahead where the Feds have failed on senior and junior plans though.

 

[SunriseChampion]

For the provinces, it's a different matter, but some have short memories it seems:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario-rejects-electoral-reform-in-referendum-1.632735

Don't you worry about my memory; it still serves.

PEI had the most recent. We'll see how that goes. Or, where it goes, rather.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Of course, Canada is a rare exception with the US to developed nations' comprehensive health coverage, many including dental, and we now see Morneau backtracking on his pledge for prescriptions. Ontario has pushed ahead where the Feds have failed on senior and junior plans though.

I must have missed something. Hoskins went to join a federal taskforce that was to study the feasibility and implementation of a national pharmacare programme. Has that been cancelled?

 

[Northern Light]

An anecdote to offer, that somewhat concerns me.

As readers/posters here should be able to surmise, my political inclinations would not lead me to support or be happy about a Doug Ford premiership.

But I'm just back from getting a hair cut.......

While i don't think my hairdresser is a sage.........

She is: A woman, An immigrant from Europe, not religious, favours social programs, and seems likely to vote Doug Ford.

Needless to say, I quizzed her about her views and challenged some as well.

But her reasoning went something like this:

a) My power bill is ridiculous, that's Wynne's fault.
b) Too much debt, we need to get it under control
c) I like what Wynne did on Min. Wage and Pharmacare, but I don't trust her, and she did it just because an election is coming.
d) She also didn't mind his apparent stands on abortion and sex. ed. The latter seemed completely inconsistent w/who I know her to be......
so I challenged that and got this back... "Sex education is good, its important, we got it back home at 10, 10 is young enough, 8 is too young." and "I'm pro-choice
but if we have sex-ed and birth control, I don't know why we need abortion too, especially for young kids" (Needless to say we had an involved conversation about her line of thinking)

All of that is not to say that Mr. Ford will be our premier or that my hairdresser is a bellwether voter; but if she thinks/feels that way, it strikes me as very possible she speaks for a sizable number of voters
who would not normally vote PC.

That may spell real trouble for the Liberals.

 

[Northern Light]

I must have missed something. Hoskins went to join a federal taskforce that was to study the feasibility and implementation of a national pharmacare programme. Has that been cancelled?

Morneau backpedaled the next day to imply that 'comprehensive' pharmacare was not really on the table, but rather some sort of expanded coverage that would assist those w/o any other form of coverage.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Conflict of interest?

I'd like to hear his actual plan, if he has one.

How they would hand out licences, for example....or, if they would. Maybe he just wants an actual free market.....like we have now.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Morneau backpedaled the next day to imply that 'comprehensive' pharmacare was not really on the table, but rather some sort of expanded coverage that would assist those w/o any other form of coverage.

Like me! Great!

No, wait.....probably people who make just less than me. I'll be stuck with nothing, yet again. Thank the universe for my (knock on wood) good health.

So, the taskforce is just a waste of time patronage shindig then? Typical.
Sounds like they know what they're after and don't need to pay Mr Hoskins those hefty per diems to repeat it to them.

I can't believe I missed that. I think I've been reading too much Euro news lately. Haven't watched CPAC in weeks.

 

[BurlOak]

Can I split my income with a friend, since I'm single? I have lots of friends who make way less than me.
That'd be fair, no?

Of course, assuming one of those friends is a parent along with you.

 

[BurlOak]

I'd like to hear his actual plan, if he has one.

How they would hand out licences, for example....or, if they would. Maybe he just wants an actual free market.....like we have now.

I suppose you can go into any grocery store and buy alcohol?
I'm not sure what part of the City you work in, but here it's only at select stores - not free market.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Of course, assuming one of those friends is a parent along with you.

No, I'm quite single. I don't even have any pets. A few plants and my music collection but I suppose that won't fly.

No problem, I'll get the bill!

 

[Northern Light]

Like me! Great!

No, wait.....probably people who make just less than me. I'll be stuck with nothing, yet again. Thank the universe for my (knock on wood) good health.

So, the taskforce is just a waste of time patronage shindig then? Typical.
Sounds like they know what they're after and don't need to pay Mr Hoskins those hefty per diems to repeat it to them.

There is an all-party committee report coming which I expect will recommend some variation of universal coverage.

The government as 'coverage of last resort' is not a terribly attractive model, it has actually lead to higher drug costs in Quebec, which has this model.

It also fails to improve the competitiveness of business by removing a fixed cost (employee prescription benefits).

Hoskins, FWIW strikes me as a 'true believer' in Pharmacare.

I think you will see something proposed which is different from Morneau's starting point; however, the likihood it will be an all-in, comprehensive plan, implemented prior to the next Federal election is beyond slim.

 

[steveintoronto]

I must have missed something. Hoskins went to join a federal taskforce that was to study the feasibility and implementation of a national pharmacare programme. Has that been cancelled?

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...wise-decision-to-backtrack-on-pharmacare.html

I see Northern has addressed the point, but this link is reference.

An anecdote to offer, that somewhat concerns me.

Huge groan. Ford's mime of Trump is true only in certain aspects, one not being a mimic is the embrace of immigrants. He's "their man". God knows how, save for speaking in broken English....and I have to be delicate on this. Note that I don't use "small"...but I will use "simple" minds. Like with Trump, he appeals to the "simple folks", those with little or no education, let alone a real awareness of what it is to be Canadian (and I state that as a Dual, I'm emphatic about the need to understand and value this nations's past and present systems, balances and advantages.)

I say this with trepidation...huge trepidation as it lends itself to 'elitism', but in a way, the 'dumbing of the masses' is one of the unfortunate aspects of too lenient an immigration policy. Much of that wasn't driven by altruism at all. It was driven by greed in the need for 'work units'. Nuff said on that, it plays into the reactionaries' hands. It is tied to the Conservative leaning in other nations for increasing the domestic birth rate with support and perks.