Advocacy Susan Eng
What Are We Voting For?
30 – MARCH 2014 everythingzoomer.com
lion but, according to ex-senator
Hugh Segal, this is five per cent of
the federal budget and half the cost
that poverty has on the economy.
The provinces would save these billions plus the administrative costs.
Municipal subsidies would be reduced
or unnecessary. Segal suggests we use
the income tax system as a national
streamlined delivery mechanism.
Critics who say this would discourage work should note that the current welfare system docks you for
every dollar earned past a small buffer and comes with its own share of
indignities. There would be broader support than you’d think. Just
ask those in over their heads in debt
and one false step from being homeless; some are already food
bank clients.
Implement a national
pharmacare program for
all Canadians, not just for
seniors or those on welfare.
Most routine medications
can cost upwards from $50
to $100 a month. Buying
your own health coverage is
expensive. Affordable and comprehensive coverage requires national
buy-in and more of the co-operation
that the provinces were forced to
adopt to contain their drug budgets.
Establish a universal supplementary pension plan. The best
news out of the recent high-profile
tension over increasing the Canada
Pension Plan is that people now
know what’s at stake – their own financial future – and who it benefits
– younger generations.
Bring in and fund mandatory
standards of access to affordable
housing, long term care and home
care and punish those who let tragedies happen to people under their care.
The merits of such ideas might
seem so self-evident that they could
sell themselves. But they need politicians at all levels of government to
co-operate. Instead, we get narrowminded, jurisdictional squabbling,
ideology or simple self-centredness.
And so many Parliamentary votes
are whipped that politicians often
have to choose between party discipline and their commitment to an
issue. So character matters.
Most of the elections this year will
be at the municipal level, but politicians have a way of migrating,
“We need to get past shiny
objects like a $90,000
personal cheque or Rob
Ford’s bright red nose”
and that dim, albeit jolly, neighbour’s son you elect as councillor could one day be your mayor or
cabinet minister.
So choose wisely – think of the
things you’d like to change in our
country, starting with your neck of
the woods, and then consider which
of the candidates on offer has the
political spine to see it through.
Susan Eng is vice-president of advocacy for
CARP and is a regular spokesperson on
government policy.
ILLUSTRATION, MONICA HELLSTRÖM
L
ET’S BE HONEST. How
many times have you
picked up that little pencil stub behind the cardboard barrier and voted for the name you recognized? You could decide based on
a major policy position if it were listed beside each name. But there’s no
such implied contract – it’s a pencil,
after all – hence, no accountability.
In 2014, Canadians will go to the
polls in most provinces for municipal councils and at least three provincial legislatures. We won’t get to factor in the Senate scandal until 2015
– but then Prime Minister Stephen
Harper pulled the plug a full year before his 2009 “fixed” election date.
We need to get past shiny objects
like a $90,000 personal cheque or
Rob Ford’s bright red nose to get at
the issues – unless you have an issue
with politicians lying! Certainly, the
Toronto mayor has people around
the world asking how someone like
him can get elected into public office. Good question.
At least, it puts our electoral choices
into sharp relief. Most people only
have limited bandwidth to think
about politics. That’s why “gravy
train,” “job killers” and “death panels” have such traction and can derail perfectly good public policies.
People get elected because we don’t
want that – real or imagined!
Can I interest you in some things
you might want to vote for?
Replace all welfare programs with
a guaranteed annual income. We
are a First World country, and no one
should be starving on our watch. The
cash outlay would be high: $12.6 bil-