Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Ontario budget: Make the rich pay, NDP demands

The NDP has named its price for supporting Premier Dalton McGuinty’s budget: a new tax bracket for personal incomes over $500,000 to raise $570 million a year.

Making the top one per cent of earners pay more would allow the government to remove the provincial portion of HST on home heating, create 4,000 new child care spaces and boost payouts to Ontarians on the Ontario Disability Support Plan by one per cent, New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath said Tuesday.

“If we have to choose between a working mom who needs help with the kids or a CEO who needs help with a seven-figure paycheque, let’s help that mom,” said Horwath.

“The choice should be very easy.”

Horwath said she is not “drawing a line in the sand” on the proposal but wants to see how the Liberal government reacts. She warned NDP support for the budget does hang in the balance on overall changes McGuinty is willing to make.

The government had no immediate response.

It was the first of several proposals the party will make in hopes of getting McGuinty’s minority government to change its budget presented last week and win NDP support to avoid an election so soon after last October’s vote.

“Ontario’s not going to prosper if households are falling further behind,” Horwath said.

Earlier Tuesday, McGuinty was at a Roots garment factory in north Toronto and said he hopes to avoid “an election that is unnecessary and very expensive” and asked for a “commitment to stability and certainty” from opposition parties.

He has repeatedly said no new taxes or spending measures would be acceptable but that he would “listen to any reasonable proposals…we’re not prepared to entertain any proposals for new spending.”

Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Rob Ferguson

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