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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

Northern Light said:
TY for posting that.

Weak though it is, I did fill it out.

Supporting removing postal code as a basis for premium pricing.

Used the feedback box to suggest removing male/female for pricing as well (base it entirely on merit/experience/tickets/driving record/type of car and level of coverage)

As well suggested they try to address fraud by looking both at the permitted level of claims under pain/suffering for non-catastrophic injuries as well as measures to ensure
real therapy is taking place by considering having insurers deal directly w/physiotherapists as opposed to paying cash for this type of claim. (fraudulent therapy claims are a big thing)
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Used the feedback box to suggest government run auto insurance, like in Quebec. (Won't even be considered by the PC's.)
 
Thinker said:
$25 for a spaghetti dinner? Just wondering who is catering this slop? I have a friend who works in catering and he laughed, they either getting someone to open the Chef Boyardee can or someone is donating the slop because at 25 dollars not much to fundraise with. But yeah he is catering to his Folks base, so they probably don't expect a 3 course wet noodle dinner..
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Wasn't there some FoFam anecdote about types of cheese ("orange" vs "white", something like that)? I can imagine them having an equally rudimentary Old Spaghetti Factory-esque concept of Italian cuisine...
 
adma said:
Wasn't there some FoFam anecdote about types of cheese ("orange" vs "white", something like that)? I can imagine them having an equally rudimentary Old Spaghetti Factory-esque concept of Italian cuisine...
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Yes, this was at one of the airport convention centre events. 2 kinds of cheese, wow!
 
Doug probably remembers how popular spaghetti westerns were in the day. For 25 bucks the folks will be licking the plates.
 
Martin Regg-Cohn has a new column up about the minimum wage issue, very much in line w/my thinking and postings here.

As this is a provincial issue, this seems an apt thread for it.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/po...e-rates-will-trump-ontarios-wages-of-sin.html

Salient points:

In the year following the Ontario minimum wage increase to $14CAD, not only was there no net loss of jobs, there was a net increase of 77,500

Also, minimum wage in several US jurisdictions when converted from USD to CAD is or soon will be higher than Ontario's minimum wage.

Notable examples: Seattle $16USD = $21.25 CAD per hour, NYC @ 15USD is roughly $20CAD per hour; while Missouri of all places will reach $12USD in 2023 (only 4 years away) which will equal $16 CAD
 
Quiet. The grown-ups are talking in court. But only in court.

Teachers can still use 2015 sex-ed curriculum in Ontario as a resource, province’s lawyer tells court

From link.

Lawyers defending the province’s repeal of the 2015 sex-ed curriculum told a court on Thursday that teachers can still use it as a resource while abiding by the interim curriculum.

“There’s a lot of latitude because of the way the expectations are written,” Zachary Green told a panel of three judges in Divisional Court. “Teachers can use the 2015 document as a resource to meet the expectations in the 2018 document."
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He said they can use their professional judgment in selecting from a variety of resources and background material, including documents such as “How to Become a Super Rad Gender Warrior Classroom teacher.”

The judges pressed him on whether teachers would be sanctioned for using the modernized 2015 curriculum. Green said they would not, “provided it’s a reasonable exercise.”

“It’s not a blank cheque,” he said. “I can’t stand here and say teachers can say whatever they want. That goes too far.”


Judges also asked if teachers are free to talk about issues contained in the 2015 documents, such as consent, transgender and homophobia, to which Green replied, “Yes.”

It was the second of a two-day hearing that’s the result of separate legal challenges made by Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA).

ETFO says the Progressive Conservative government’s directive to scrap the 2015 Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum created a chilling effect amongst educators. That violates the rights of educators and students, because it limits their ability to teach material that keeps children safe, says ETFO.

Meanwhile, the CCLA argues the interim curriculum — a 2010 document that contains sex-ed material from 1998 — has erased references to sexual orientation, gender identity and same-sex relations. That, says the CCLA, violates the constitutional right to equality of LGBTQ+ students and parents.

Judges asked Green whether teachers could discuss key issues such as consent with elementary students, which are expectations of the 2015 curriculum, but not the current one.
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He said nothing prohibits talking about consent, if that’s something teachers want to draw upon in how they teach the current curriculum. Ultimately, he said, it’s up to the teacher.

“It’s a false dichotomy to say they can either use the 2015 (curriculum), or the 2018 one,” he said.


Green noted that various school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, have publicly stated they are following the current curriculum, but still tackling topics such as consent and are teaching in a manner that is inclusive of all students, including LGBTQ+.

Speaking outside the courtroom, NDP education critic Marit Stiles called the government’s arguments “pretty confusing.”

“It’s pretty clear to me that the government’s statements to date have caused many teachers, students, parents to question whether or not their children are going to be learning how to be kept safe from bullying . . . consent and LGBTQ and identity issues,” Stiles said.

She said the government has sent out “very confusing and conflicting” communications, about what the curriculum is and what the expectations are of teachers.

“Today was just another indication of this ongoing chaos and confusion they have created,” Stiles said.

Part of the confusion — and what ETFO says helped create a chilling effect amongst teachers — stems from comments made by Premier Doug Ford, when he announced the curriculum rollback in August.

“Make no mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act,” Ford said at the time.

Green said the premier’s comments were in response to an earlier ETFO press release urging teachers to follow the 2015 curriculum, which he described as “their cry of rebellion.” The province’s position is clear in that the current curriculum must be followed.

Sam Hammond, ETFO president, told reporters outside court that he was “pleasantly pleased” to hear the province say teachers can use the 2015 curriculum, but was also “absolutely surprised.”

“It’s the first time since this whole debate began that the government, or a representative of the government, said ‘Yes, teachers may use the 2015 curriculum as a resource in implementing the current curriculum,’ ” Hammond said.

Hammond said if the premier, and government, had made that clear at the outset, “We wouldn’t be here today.”

The current HPE curriculum is an interim document. The province has said it’s working on drafting a new document for the next school year that is based on feedback from a public consultation process that resulted in 72,000 submissions.

The judges asked Green if he could assure them that the government would release a new HPE curriculum in time for the next school year.

“It’s intended to be released in the fall of 2019,” said Green. “But I can’t make a promise. These are big tasks.”
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But that's the grown-ups talking, not Doug.
 
Why are the provincial government lawyers so incompetent? They seem to lose a lot of easy cases while private sector lawyers seem to pull a rabbit out the hat a lot of the time.
 
Leaving after only six months?

Premier Doug Ford is losing his most experienced political aide, the Star has learned.

Jenni Byrne, the premier’s principal secretary and a key architect of the Progressive Conservatives’ majority election victory last June, is leaving the office imminently.

Sources said she and other federal Conservative veterans had sparred with Ford’s mercurial chief of staff, Dean French, on matters of both style and substance. French, a long-time confidant of the premier, has frustrated cabinet ministers, MPPs, and Tory political staffers with his hard-charging manner.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/pr...rDougFordLosingHisMostExperiencePoliticalAide
 
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I remember when she arranged for Harper to do a rally with Rob Ford.

EDIT:

Christine Elliott is out as health minister?
 
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Somehow, when even hardcore Harpoons are having issues with Dean French, you know something's bound to shake to bits...
 
Videodrome said:
I remember when she arranged for Harper to do a rally with Rob Ford.

EDIT:

Christine Elliott is out as health minister?
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The Secret Moves to Increase Private Health Care
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...et-moves-to-increase-private-health-care.html


Found this in the opinion piece:
Merrilee Fullerton, a former family doctor and a long-time advocate of two-tier health care, could soon replace Christine Elliott as health minister. Fullerton, who currently is minister of training, colleges and universities, reportedly is favoured by Ford’s inner circle of health advisers over Elliott, who they see as resisting their privatization efforts. Many health-care leaders trust Elliott and see her as making sound, evidence-based decisions as opposed to the ideologically inspired actions often promoted by private health-care advocates.
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tiffer24 said:
Leaving after only six months?

Premier Doug Ford is losing his most experienced political aide, the Star has learned.

Jenni Byrne, the premier’s principal secretary and a key architect of the Progressive Conservatives’ majority election victory last June, is leaving the office imminently.

Sources said she and other federal Conservative veterans had sparred with Ford’s mercurial chief of staff, Dean French, on matters of both style and substance. French, a long-time confidant of the premier, has frustrated cabinet ministers, MPPs, and Tory political staffers with his hard-charging manner.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/pr...rDougFordLosingHisMostExperiencePoliticalAide
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She's getting a patronage appointment at the Ontario Energy Board
 
yrt+viva=1system said:
The Secret Moves to Increase Private Health Care
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...et-moves-to-increase-private-health-care.html
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Only if the Conservatives get a majority at the federal level.

From https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/canada-health-care-system.html .

The provincial and territorial governments are responsible for the management, organization and delivery of health care services for their residents.

The federal government is responsible for:

setting and administering national standards for the health care system through the Canada Health Act
providing funding support for provincial and territorial health care services
supporting the delivery for health care services to specific groups
providing other health-related functions
 
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