2 weeks Ago
, Oct. 3 I was deeply angered by Premier Doug Ford’s comment that healthy individuals on Ontario Works or experiencing homelessness need to “get off their a-s-s and get a job.” This statement reflects a disconnect from the realities faced by many hardworking Ontarians.
It’s not that simple. My husband and I have worked in the film industry for more than 10 years. However, due to the current crisis in our industry, we were both laid off.
For 38 weeks, we were on EI, applying to countless jobs, revising our resumes, and attending interviews. Despite our efforts, we couldn’t secure employment. Once our EI ran out, we had no choice but to turn to Ontario Works.
Before this we were earning around $8,000 a month. Now, we are living on $1,100. Do you really think we want to be in this situation? We’ve applied to jobs in retail, bus driving, and more, but have been turned down repeatedly.
Employers often view us as overqualified or are overwhelmed with applicants — up to 700 for a single job posting. This situation has severely impacted my mental health. It feels like the government is doing very little to support those of us who have worked hard our entire lives.
Instead of offering baseless judgments about people’s work ethic, address why so many people are on Ontario Works, Premier Ford. We need support, not uninformed criticism. Oct.
23 I read with disappointment a recent letter accusing Toronto’s bike lanes of being ageist and ableist. In my experience, the opposite is true. Ageism manifests itself in many ways, against the young and the old.
Without robust bicycle infrastructure, it’s simply too dangerous for a child to ride a bicycle on major thoroughfares. And it is often necessary to use major thoroughfares to get where one needs to go. The disabled benefit from bike lanes too.
My wife and I are full-time caregivers to my brother-in-law, who has Down’s syndrome. We use a tandem bicycle to get around the city with him. He is terrified to ride in traffic, but comfortable in the bike lanes.
Enabling different road uses empowers different road users. By making roads safer for people of all ages and abilities, bike lanes make roads safer for all of us. Bruce McKean’s CAMH donation beautifully personifies an essential adage: “leave the world better than you found it.
” Just reading about it left my day better than expected. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is too arrogant to accept the fact that he is the biggest reason Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (despised by some and mistrusted by many) will become the next prime minister of Canada. What a legacy of selfishness.
Now Trudeau is making a big deal about reducing the number of immigrants coming to Canada. He expects a pat on the back for trying to fix one of his blunders. His government irresponsibly allowed too many people into Canada when there were already insufficient accommodations for many Canadians.
Perhaps he doesn’t understand basic economics: i.e., scarcity drives up prices.
. Current polling indicates Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is nosediving the Liberal party toward a devastating defeat in the coming election, possibly to third party status. Trudeau’s long record of loose promises — his admitted duplicity on proportional representation elections in 2015, his refusal to tax the financial and market assets of the wealthy the way Canadian homes are taxed, his refusal to redirect $18 billion per year in oil and gas subsidies into clean energy, his anemic energy transition support for ordinary Canadians, his willingness to see average Canadians crushed by dizzying interest rate hikes “to fight inflation” rather than regulate the price-gouging corporate executives whose record profits are actually driving the inflation — have all earned him a united front of enemies from across the political spectrum.
It’s telling that Trudeau still refuses the one thing in his power that would prevent a Conservative majority from sweeping in this coming election: enacting Proportional Representation elections (equal representation for every vote, with no vote splitting). Trudeau would rather let Poilievre win absolute control of government with only 40 per cent of the votes, than give up Liberal/Conservative disproportionate control of the political system . It is well past due for the Liberals to call an emergency leadership review and replace Trudeau and his luggage with a progressive team player, like MP Nathaniel Erskine Smith, for 2025.
The coming months will tell where the Liberals’ real priorities lie — with the corporate aristocracy, or with the rest of us. , Oct. 23 Acts of vandalism should be addressed not only with university discipline but also potentially with charges under the Criminal Code.
University students should be sufficiently articulate that they can express themselves verbally and in print without the need to resort to spray paint. In the short time since the sale of alcohol products in convenience stores began, I have found an increasing number of beer and other such beverage cans on my trash-collecting walks around Oakville. On a recent hour-long walk, I added 10 beer cans to my bag of discarded coffee and soft drink cups, cigarette packs, water bottles and plastic bags.
It’s nice, I’m sure, to enjoy a beer while waiting for the bus or walking home, but when an empty doesn’t even make it to a garbage can, how can we expect it to end up in a blue box or carried to the Beer Store for a 10-cent refund? We already had enough trash thrown into bushes, discarded along sidewalks and collecting in the gutters, without adding alcoholic beverage containers to the mix. My mind boggles at Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s refusal to get top security clearance. Big boys take on responsibilities.
So do prime ministers and other leaders in this world..
