Why the Coalition should topple the Cons

Montreal Simon: Why the Coalition Should Topple the Cons < read the whole post.

It spews money in every direction to try to buy votes. It depends too much on shared funding from cash-strapped municipalities, its tax cuts are peanuts that will cost us dearly later on. It does almost nothing to encourage a greener economy. And it continues this foul Con government's war on Canadian women, with nothing for childcare spaces, and an assault on pay equity.

But its most catastrophic
omission is that it it fails to adequately reform the Employment
Insurance system and prepare it to cope with the enormous tide of human
misery that could be coming its way. Because as I pointed out yesterday
EI in Canada these days is completely inadequate.

Cuts
in the early 1990s mean barely half of the country's unemployed today –
and fewer than a quarter in Toronto – are eligible for benefits. Those
lucky enough to qualify often get far less than poverty-level incomes.
And for almost everyone scrambling to find work as the economy
crumbles, benefits run out too soon.

And
if more people don't become eligible, and benefits are increased,
millions of Canadians could be forced into lives of grinding poverty,
welfare rolls could swell, and our whole safety net could collapse.
















But its most catastrophic omission is that it it fails to adequately reform the Employment Insurance system and prepare it to cope with the enormous tide of human misery that could be coming its way. Because as I pointed out yesterday EI in Canada these days is completely inadequate.

Cuts in the early 1990s mean barely half of the country's unemployed today – and fewer than a quarter in Toronto – are eligible for benefits. Those lucky enough to qualify often get far less than poverty-level incomes. And for almost everyone scrambling to find work as the economy crumbles, benefits run out too soon.

And if more people don't become eligible, and benefits are increased, millions of Canadians could be forced into lives of grinding poverty, welfare rolls could swell, and our whole safety net could collapse.