Need to Improve Government Decorum Since 2006, the Conservative government has become increasingly mean-spirited. Last month Conservative MPs referred... Full Article
Peter Stoffer MP
Need to Improve Government Decorum
Since 2006, the Conservative government has become increasingly mean-spirited. Last month Conservative MPs referred to former diplomat Richard Colvin as “a Taliban Dupe” in response to Mr. Colvin’s information on the Afghan detainee abuse issue. Last year, the Conservatives fired Linda Keen, the head of Canada’s Nuclear Safety Commission because she suggested the federal government was interfering with the commission’s independence and she shut down the Chalk River nuclear facility because of safety concerns. As well, the Conservatives tried to undermine the work of Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page because they did not like his independent financial and economic analysis on the state of the federal treasury.
As further proof of their growing mean-streak, the Conservatives attacked MP Irwin Cotler last month. The Conservatives mailed a pamphlet into Mr. Cotler’s Montreal riding. The pamphlet accused the Liberal party of being anti-Semitic because of their participation at an International Human Rights Conference (Durban 1) in 2001 and the conference’s position on the state of Israel. Mr. Cotler is a prominent Jewish MP and the Speaker has since ruled that the Conservative pamphlet was a personal attack on his credibility and reputation.
Just because the Conservative government does not want to hear a particular message, it is no reason from them to attack the messenger. These types of personal attacks and intimidation tactics have to stop. We don’t allow bullies in the workplace or bullies in our school. Why should we allow our federal government to act like bullies?
H1N1
I would like to thank all of the health care workers, doctors, nurses, administrative support staff, volunteers and others who provided care during the H1N1 outbreak. I know many of you worked long hours to vaccinate Nova Scotian’s and provide care for those who fell ill.
Solutions needed to Target Poverty
The recession has shaken the confidence of many Canadian seniors about their retirement security. We also know that currently more than 250,000 seniors live in poverty. Yet, Statistics Canada calculates the “poverty gap” among seniors at less than $700-million. The Conservative government could easily decrease seniors’ poverty by increasing Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) payments to seniors’. Raising the GIS to end seniors’ poverty would cost less than half of what Mr. Harper will spend on new corporate tax cuts in January. New Democrats have also suggested pension reforms by allowing Canadians to increase retirement savings in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), protecting workplace pensions with national pension insurance and ensuring underfunded pensions are protected when employers go bankrupt.
Happy New Year
On behalf of my wife Andrea, my family, and my staff, I wish you a very Happy New Year.
As always, please contact me with any concerns or questions at (902) 861-2311 or 1-888-701-5557.
I like the idea of protecting employee pensions when employers go bankrupt, but wouldn’t pension insurance create what Americans call a ‘moral hazard’, where pension plans would have incentive to abuse the insurance? How could this be avoided?
Allowing increased CPP contributions, and extending CPP to the self-employed seem like good ideas. I think this might reduce the dependency of employees on employers just a little (i.e. one less thing).