Quote of the Day - October 15, 2008

We have shown that minority government can work and at this time of global economic instability we owe it to Canadians to demonstrate this once again ... We hold out a hand to all members of all parties asking them to join together to protect the economy and weather this world financial crisis.

Stephen Harper said this today in The Conservative Voice

Canada's Latest Report Card Terribly Disappointing

The Conference Board of Canada has released it's latest report card on Canada, giving disappointing marks in all catagories. Canada is in the middle of the pack of the 17 wealthiest countries in terms of social and economic rankings.

Canada's deteriorating transportation infrastructure, its longer hospital
wait times, and the collective sense of urgency about the affordability of
social programs are all directly linked to Canada's lagging productivity, which
in turn is linked to its innovation problem.

Read the CBC's coverage here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/27/canada-report.html. Be sure to read the comments. A lot of dissapointed Canadians out there.

Link to the report is here: A Report Card on Canada

Gas, food prices siphoning off savings, survey suggests

Nearly one-half of Canadians say soaring global prices for gasoline, food and other essentials, are eating away at how much money they are saving for retirement.

Despite the strong Canadian dollar, the proportion who say their saving habits have been affected is slightly greater than in the United States or Britain.

Gas, food prices siphoning off savings, survey suggests

Via Ottawa Citizen

Canadian health care system ranks poorly

 

Here is a wake up call for all Canadians who care about how much health care "bang" we get for our buck.  A new report issued jointly by the Winnipeg based Frontier Centre for Public Policy, and the Stockholm/Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse places Canada near the bottom, and in some cases dead last, out of 30 European countries when comparing medical patient satisfaction.  We have got to get better at this!

Here a several links to articles that discuss this report:

Canada's bedside manner ranks poorly

Health-care system takes beating in report

Canada ailing in health-care friendliness ranking

Canada at the bottom in 30 country health-care survey

RCMP should restrict taser use immediately: report

 

Paul Kennedy, commissioner for public complaints against the RCMP, has released an interim report on the use of tasers by Canada's national police force.  The CBC says that :

The report stops short of calling for a moratorium on the weapon, but says the force needs to limit its use, increase training for officers and conduct more research on the weapon's effects.

There are a total of ten recommendations in this interim report.  More can be read at CBC: RCMP must curb Taser use 

Brutal and Unjustified Act

Here are links to more articles about the Vancouver Airport taser incident that Polish officials have called "excessively brutal and unjustified".

Most people hit with RCMP Tasers unarmed

Mounties under pressure to explain Taser incident

Envoy expresses 'sympathy' over Polish man's death

Poland seeks to discuss Taser shooting with Canadian ambassador

It's encouraging to see the Canadian government is being hauled onto the international carpet to account for the actions of the officers and officials involved in the taser incident at the Vancouver airport. Especially since Stockwell Day rebuffs call for full national review of Taser use . Perhaps this will help motivate the government to reign in an out of control RCMP force.

Read more at the CBC website:
Poland seeks to discuss Taser shooting with Canadian ambassador

OPP seize 28 vehicles under new speeding law

 Wow!  Looks like they are really clamping down on this. Hope it helps.

At least 28 people temporarily lost their vehicles and their driver's licences on Sunday after police began to enforce a new Ontario law intended to crack down on street racing and dangerous driving.

Read more at CBC.ca ... OPP seize 28 vehicles under new speeding law

Canadian Dollar Reaches Parity With Greenback

 

We have been watching this one for a while now and today it finally happened:

The loonie briefly reached $1.0003 US on foreign exchange markets shortly before 11 a.m. ET, the Bank of Canada said. The loonie's stint at parity was brief, however, as it later slipped back to just under $1 US.

Read more at CBC.ca  $1 Cdn = $1 US

Loonie vaults over 99 cents US in overseas trade

 

Canada's currency continued its flight toward parity with the U.S. greenback as the loonie briefly breached the 99-cent US mark in overnight trading on global currency markets.

Loonie vaults over 99 cents US in overseas trade