Canada‘s world ranking drops drastically!
In November 2010 the United Nations announced that Canada placed 8th in its annual ranking of countries according to quality of life. This is our country’s lowest ranking ever. Why should this matter to Canadians? The United Nations ranks countries based on a measure called the Human Development Index, a combination of average life expectancy, education attainment levels and gross national income. The ranking is an indication of how well a government is doing in caring for its citizens. Under Mr Harper, Canada has just received its lowest ranking ever. Here are some of Mr Harper’s decisions that explain Canada’s downward slide in the world:
Harper’s Actions: G8/G20 Boondoggle and massive spending on US-style mega-prisons. In just 72 hours the Conservatives spent 1 billion on the G8/G20 fiasco. That’s $333 million a day. Now they are planning to spend $10-13 billion on mega-prisons while crime rates are in decline. How This Affects Our Quality of Life: The Tories found the money to pay for a fake lake and for security measures that left downtown Toronto businesses reeling and violated the civil rights of Canadians. They plan to find the money for new US-style prisons. Yet they won’t find the money to help you save for your pension, support your aging parents, or to pay for your kid’s education. Harper’s Actions: Total Disregard for Canadian Women. The Conservative Caucus stood united in their opposition to Pay Equity, ensuring that women will not receive equal pay for work of equal value when they voted against a pay equity bill at Second Reading. Canadian women have long stood up for women’s and family’s rights both at home and internationally. The advice from Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth to women’s advocate groups was to stop talking about abortion or risk losing funding. Specifically Ruth told them to “Shut the f__k up,” and “if you push it, there will be more backlash.” How This Affects Our Quality of Life: Women make up over 52% of the Canadian workforce. They work they do is equal to that of their male counterparts. They deserve to be paid for their work on par with men. The day after Senator Ruth told women’s advocates to “Shut the f__k up,”, Canadians learned that that the Conservatives had cut funding to a dozen women’s groups. Supporting those who advocate for women is not a priority for Mr. Harper and the Conservatives. Harper’s Actions: Tax-breaks for family care-givers called “reckless”. Providing a tax break for family care givers would be “reckless”, according to Mr. Harper. When asked about allowing hard-working Canadians to access more EI benefits in order to take care of severely ill family members, the Tories dismissed the idea and instead suggested they should use their vacation time.” How This Affects Our Quality of Life: Alzheimer’s, cancer treatment, dementia, and all the other devastating health issues that Canadians who care for family members have to deal with just don’t stop after 2 weeks. Canadians deserve their government’s support to help with7 their loved ones. Harper’s Actions: Human Resources Minister attacks low-income seniors. The Tories secretly introduced a new policy in May 2010 potentially affecting 1.5 million seniors who are eligible for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) pension payments. How This Affects Our Quality of Life: Pensioners, who make an emergency withdrawal from a registered retirement income fund as they try to cope with unexpected emergencies such as medical costs and urgent home repair, will be cut off their GIS pension benefits as a result. Harper’s Actions: Abandoning our veterans. In 2010 the Conservative government drastically pared down their promise of $3 billion to veterans exposed to Agent Orange and their failed to fix the lump sum payment system for severally wounded modern day veterans. At the same time they fired ombudsman Pat Strogan for shining a light on the government’s appalling treatment of veterans. How This Affects Our Quality of Life: In November of 2010, veterans across Canada were forced to protest outside of Conservative MPs constituency offices and on Parliament Hill in order to have their voices heard by Stephen Harper. The Conservatives continue to let down Canadian veterans, both young and old.
Let’s stop the downward slide, invest in our people and improve our quality of life. Together we can make Canada #1 again.
Join me in making a change in Northumberland–Quinte West!
