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The first time you come across them, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. They could be family members, co-workers, neighbours, or friends--and yet you can’t understand them: the sometimes NDP, sometimes Conservative voter. The kind of people who give generously at anti-poverty fund-raisers, but look forward to their share of the tax-cut pie—as if the two are not connected. How can someone hold both progressive and conservative values at the same time?
Co-op Week, which runs Oct. 15-21, provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the role of co-operatives in our communities. Many Nova Scotians are proud of the co-op tradition. The growth of co-ops is closely associated with the Antigonish Movement in the 1930s and ‘40s which promoted co-ops as a path to social change and community development.
When U.S. investment guru Warren Buffett donated $31 billion last June to the foundation headed by software mogul Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, visions dawned of a new golden age of philanthropy. The mammoth gift doubled the size of the Gates fund, making it by far the world’s largest charitable foundation. Buffett was effusively lauded by politicians, media pundits, and even by many civil society groups, who welcomed the prospect of more aid in their efforts to reduce world poverty, AIDS, and other afflictions.
“I think legislators made a mistake.” Those are the words of BC’s recently retired Auditor General Wayne Strelioff in his final report. He was referring to the government’s decision to cut his office’s funding at the same time that his list of responsibilities was getting longer. These are strong words, and they should worry all of us who want our provincial government to be accountable and transparent.
(Vancouver) A report published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that BC ranks 8th among Canadian provinces on per capita funding for the Auditor General’s Office, and 6th out of eight provinces that have stand-alone Information and Privacy Offices.* In addition to BC’s poor inter-provincial ranking, the report finds that:
Two of my oldest friends died during the past year: Malcolm (“Mac”) Maclaren late last summer and Harold Horwood a few months ago. Of course, the laws of time and mortality being immutable, I’ve lost quite a few old friends over the past few decades. But those two were special. The three of us set up and published a progressive alternative weekly newspaper in Newfoundland in the early 1960s. Looking back, I would describe it as an early forerunner of The CCPA Monitor in the sense that it had the same purpose: to find and print news and views not readily found in the commercial media.