- Almost three-quarters of Canadians asked said they don't expect politicians to keep their promises once they're in power.
- 56 per cent expressed little or no confidence at all in federal political leaders.
- 63 per cent said all the federal political parties are pretty much the same when it comes to honesty and integrity - yet 94 per cent said honesty and integrity in government are either somewhat or very important in determining how they plan to vote.
It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, December 01, 2005
CBC Poll-It's Health Care Stupid.
Wal Mart Exploits Child Labour
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, is promoting a corporate code of conduct that it calls one of the strictest in the industry. But an investigation by SRC, the French-language service of the CBC, casts doubt on the company's capacity to enforce that code in dealing with Third World countries.
For less than $50 per month, workers in Bangladesh knit, sew and pack clothes for sale around the world, and some garments end up at Wal-Mart stores in Canada.
SRC journalists posed as buyers in the Canadian garment industry so they could videotape inside factories in Bangladesh with hidden cameras.
In one factory, typical of many in the country, children were busy with lower-skill tasks. In badly lit, dirty and overheated workshops, young boys were everywhere.
A label reading Simply Basic, one of Wal-Mart's in-house brand names along with the number CA 28885, the corporate ID of Wal-Mart Canada, was seen in the factory.
The same factory also produces Wal-Mart's corporate T-shirt for Canada.
The factory manager told SRC that the children are working on domestic production.
"They do not work on export garments, like Wal-Mart's," said Liakot Patwary. "I can give you [a] guarantee."
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But after filling many orders, Patwary said he had never met inspectors from the company and Wal-Mart had not visited the factory.
When shown the images from the report, Wal-Mart explained that the factories were subcontractors with no direct business link with Wal-Mart. Still, the company's representative in Montreal acknowledged the problem.
Yep Just Do It....exploit child labour but blame it on the subcontractors, just like Nike does........
Still Radical after all these years
TODAY'S FAMOUS BIRTHDAYS
- Martin Klaproth
chemist (1743) - Marie Tussaud
modeler in wax (1760) - Walter Alston
baseball manager (1911) - Minoru Yamasaki
architect (1912) - Mary Martin
singer, actress (1913) - Woody Allen
actor, writer, and director (1935) - Lee Trevino
golfer (1939) - Richard Pryor
comedian, actor (1940) - Bette Middler
singer, actress (1945)
Tory Opportunism
He has issued a press release denouncing the controversial Etobicoke-Lakeshore Liberal candidate Michael Ignatieff.
Hmmm, now why would he care about a Liberal, even such a high profile one, running in Hogtown?
Well their ridings share something in common, both have lots of Ukrainians in them. And low and behold the Liberal candidate in Edmonton East is Ukrainian.
I love this quote though; "Mr. Ignatieff is descended from Russian royalty,” said Goldring
I thought Goldring and the rest of the anti-Bolshevik right whingnuts loved the Tzar and Russian Royality.
A tip o the blog to Daveberta for this. He also noted that NDP looks like it might take second place in some Edmonton ridings since the Liberals have been so slow off the mark to get anyone nominated. See I am not the only one who says Redmonton ain't a sure thing for the Conservatives or Liberals.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Jobs Not Tax Cuts
As manufacturing declines in North America its impact on the industrial working class in Southern Ontario is devistating. Not only on those currently being laid off but those who have retired and rely on their pensions and long term benefits for their daily bread. The impact on the local economy is is increased personal and business bankruptcies.
Canadian job cuts highlight decline of North American manufacturing "The real story is what doesn't happen in the headlines; it's the five or 10 jobs that are lost each week or each month and eventually they really tend to add up."
In the last two weeks we have had announcements of the pending layoffs of 6717 people. Literally a small town wiped off the face of the map.
Tax Cuts have not paid for the technology upgrades to make these companies competitive. They have been invested in the market in order to make quick profits off high interest rates, meanwhile Canadian workers lose their jobs. As do workers in all the advanced industrialized countries, capitalism functions the same world wide. This election the issue for workers has to be jobs and pension security.
While jobs are booming in the West and in the North in resource extraction whether Tar Sands in Alberta or Diamond mines in the NWT, these construction jobs are temporary and the actual plant workforce is small and will not be working for a number of years yet.
As the Liberals and Conservatives promise more tax cuts for corporations and Income Trusts, ask them how these are going to guarntee jobs for Canadians.
Cause they don't right now.
What Does It All Mean?
Last updated Nov 29 2005 11:22 AM EST
CBC News
Canada's three main political parties each enjoy about the same amount of support in Ontario now as they did coming out of the last federal election, a CBC poll has found. The Environics poll found the Liberals have the support of 44 per cent of Ontario voters. The Conservatives have the support of 32 per cent, while 22 per cent say they support the New Democrats. Coming just as the current campaign begins, the poll results can't be considered an accurate prediction of how the 2006 election will end, said Environics vice-president Donna Dasko. However, Dasko said, "it certainly looks like a deja vu right now." Environics interviewed 626 Ontario residents between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25. The results are considered accurate within four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.