by alec on August 29, 2002
Rock’s team wants campaign ban lifted. OTTAWA — Members of Industry Minister Allan Rock’s leadership team want to begin their campaign now, and are concerned that the Prime Minister’s edict prohibiting cabinet ministers from actively campaigning has given Paul Martin a huge advantage. Interesting point of view from the Rock camp. My take is that the 18 month delay gives Rock an advantage. Either way, it emphasizes the fact that Chretien has made a serious tactical blunder with his 18 month timetable. The succession squabbling is underway within the Liberal party. Angelo Persichilli, writing for the Hill Times, outlines it succinctly in this piece titled Uneasy Truce. Laurence Martin, writing in this morning’s Globe and Mail, believes that the prime minister is already a lame duck and has no authority remaining to govern. And Adam Radwanski, in Timing nothing to get excited about, is saying that the entire government is a lame duck, and that Canadians should be concerned that their elected representatives don’t really understand what they want. Children, children!
by alec on August 29, 2002
School boards face big cuts after Ontario takeover. — Students in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa are at risk of losing key programs after the provincial government yesterday backed away from a commitment to prevent major disruptions in the schools in the coming school year.
The whole school board thing is just a huge mess. The papers this morning are full of all kinds of conflicting opinions. For instance, in the Globe, Reginald Stackhouse writes supporting the use of vouchers and suggesting that school boards can be abolished, while Clive Doucet takes the opposite position, bemoaning the lack of local democracy. Doucet also writes that private schools are booming in the Ottawa area. Interestingly, the Globe online only published Stackhouse… does this say something about their view? Margaret Wente writes about a Toronto parent who has finally yanked her child out of the public system, opting for private shool.
It’s been interesting around here as well. In our household, my father is an ex-school teacher. And of course, we have school age children. My father supports the teachers union, but my wife and I have a very difficult time accepting that Earl Manners could be so irresponsible, excercise his power over our children’s educations so nakedly, by threatening to send the Ontario Secondary School teachers on strike in February. The thread that I see throughout all of the editorial and the conversations I have with people is that we parents want some control. The most disempowered group in this discussion is the parents, and the most emperilled group is the children. Some parents are taking control by opting out, but then where does that leave public education?
