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TORONTO Ontario's Liberal government is promising to inject billions of new dollars into health care in its first balanced budget in a decade, a fiscal plan designed to appeal to nearly everyone in the province ahead of an election next summer.

Crafted by a party in power since 2003 that has been faring poorly in recent polls, the $141-billion budget has measures targeted at both young and old, people who access the health care system and anyone who owns or rents a home and pays an electricity bill.

The centrepiece of the plan is a $465-million-a-year pharmacare program for children and youth, which would cover prescription medications to treat most acute and common chronic conditions for people under age 25, with no deductible or co-payment. It would start Jan. 1.

Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa, right, delivers the 2017 Ontario budget next to Premier Kathleen Wynne at Queen's Park in Toronto on April 27, 2017. (Photo: Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

The plan will be most beneficial for youth who currently are not covered under private plans or the Ontario Drug Benefit program for social assistance recipients, but government officials weren't able to say how many people that captures.

In total, the government is promising $11.5 billion in new spending on health care over three years, including money to address hospital overcrowding, funding for mental health and addiction services, cash for hospital construction projects and home care funding.

The budget also includes funds for new child care spaces, money to build schools, measures aimed at seniors and previously announced cuts to electricity bills and plans to cool the housing market.

Much of the projected spending, however, is spread out over multiple years, well past the June 2018 election. But Finance Minister Charles Sousa said his "socially progressive" budget is not a ploy for votes.

"These decisions that we're making today are not based on election cycles, they're based on long-term benefit for the people of Ontario," he said.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said the budget is not, in fact, structurally balanced, because of one-time asset sale money such as the sale of shares of Hydro One and accounting "tricks," such as counting public pension surpluses as assets, against the advice of the province's Auditor general.

"This budget is a patchwork attempt by a desperate government to fix the mess they've created before the next election," he said. "If they lose this next election this is spending they'll never have to be accountable for."

The price tag for the Liberals' centrepiece pharmacare plan is not in the budget itself and was provided only verbally by staffers.

"Listen, that document is what, 296 pages long," Sousa said when asked about the absence. "You can't put everything in the document."

Plan seems last minute: Horwath

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who just this week announced a New Democrat government would bring in universal pharmacare for people of all ages, said the Liberal plan seems last minute.

"I think it's quite curious as well," she said. "All I can think of is that they made it up on the back of a napkin before they got to today."

The Liberals had promised no new taxes on families, though they are increasing tobacco taxes by $10 per carton over the next three years and giving municipalities the power to introduce a hotel tax.

In addition to balancing the books this year, the government is now projecting balanced budgets through to 2019-20. Despite reaching balance, however, the province's debt continues to grow.

It is projected to be $312 billion this year, growing to $336 billion in 2019-20. Interest on debt is the fourth largest spending area, at $11.6 billion.

Historically low interest rates helped the province get to balance, but interest on debt is still projected to be the fastest growing expenditure area, at an average 3.6 per cent from 2015 to 2020.

Nonetheless, the government paints a rosy economic outlook, projecting two per cent average GDP growth through to 2020, driven by exports and business investment.

On the infrastructure front, spending is growing from a promise last year of $160 billion over 12 years to $190 million over 13 years. The additional $30 billion will go toward new hospital projects, school renewal and child care expansion.

Ontario will also move ahead with planning a high-speed rail corridor between Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Windsor, the government said in the budget. The project could cut travel times from Toronto to Windsor from the current four hours to two.

Under the education banner, about $16 billion is earmarked over 10 years to build and improve schools at a time when the government is coming under fire for rural school closures. Another $200 million will go to creating 24,000 child care spaces and subsidizing 60 per cent of them.

Seniors are also specifically targeted in the budget. A public transit tax credit for people 65 and older will see 15 per cent of eligible transit costs refunded with an average annual benefit of $130. That is estimated to cost the government about $10 million a year. The measure comes after the federal government announced it was eliminating a 15-per-cent tax credit for commuters who buy a transit pass.

There is also $11 million over three years for a seniors community grant program and another $8 million over three years for new community centres with seniors' programming. The province has also earmarked $100 million over three years for a dementia strategy that will include helping patients and their caregivers find support and improve training for health-care workers.

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Ontario Budget 2017: Liberals Introduce First Balanced Budget In A Decade - Huffington Post Canada

A pair of popularDemocratic Party senators took shots at former president Barack Obamas $400,000 speaking fee for a future Wall Street event, a rate that equaled his yearly presidential salary. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders shared their opinions aboutthe fee with the media, although other Democrats and liberals have taken similar speaking engagements in times past.

After some time away from the spotlight, Obama has resurfaced much to the delight of his supporters. But like the adoration from the public has become a norm, so has criticism from his own party. When news that Obama would be accepting $400,000 to speak at Cantor Fitzgeralds healthcareconference later this year, liberals bristled at the idea. Cantor Fitzgerald is a New York financial firm that deals in equity and trading.

In speaking with SiriusXMs Alter Family Politics show, Sen. Warren of Massachusetts didnt mince words in answering Andy Cohens inquiry about the fee.

I was troubled by that, said Warren, writes Yahoo News. One of the things I talk about in the book [the recently-publishedThis Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save Americas Middle Class] is the influence of money.I describe it as a snake that slithers through Washington. And that it shows up in so many different ways here in Washington.

While Warrens point that Wall Streets influence on politics is troublesome, Obama is not in a position to run for office nor has made it known he has any aims to lobby to sitting politicians on behalf of the finance world.

Bloombergs Steven Dennis spoke with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, also levied his criticism. I think its unfortunate. President Obama is now a private citizen and he can do anything he wants to but I think its unfortunate, said Sanders, while adding the word unfortunate a third time in his reply to Dennis. Sen. Sanders also compared Obamas speaking engagement to that of former Goldman Sachs president and COO Gary Cohns position with President Donald Trump as the Chief Financial Adviser.

The Democratic Party and liberals, in general, have turned a critical eye towards Wall Street. Yet the practice of former government leaders and officials using their expertise to earn money in the speaking arena is not new. Former president Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have all taken high-paying speaker fees in varying intervals.

Also in place are lobbying bans that Obama himself instituted while in office that would hinder former employees to address government officials on behalf of Wall Street and other special interests.

To be sure, senators Warren and Sanders have long-standing issues with Wall Streets political influence and have said in previous times they felt Obama took it easy on financial institutions while shunningmiddle-class concerns.

Obama has yet to respond to the criticism.

What do you think? Sound off in comments.

SOURCE: Yahoo News

SEE ALSO:

Michelle Obama Tweets Her Love For Beyonces Formation Scholarships

Obama Delivers Message Of Encouragement To Chicago At-Risk Youth

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White Liberals Troubled By Barack Obama $400000 Speaking Fee - News One

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

The American left has a nasty habit of pretending that conservatism is somehow inherently anti-woman, anti-immigrant and anti-youth. And when a candidate like the latest potential GOP entrant into the New York mayoral race comes along, they lose all credibility.

Super liberal New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a middle aged white guy. has endeared himself to the social justice crowd with an anti-corporatism facade and attempts to restructure the citys government to make the Big Apple a friendlier place to people committing quality of life offenses, such as living in the country illegally or taking a dump on the sidewalk.

While not encouraging New York cops to take so-called broken window policing to insane extremes certainly isnt a bad thing, de Blasios New York certainly has its critics.

And rightly so.

No, correlation isnt causation but it certainly seems as though the mayors efforts to make NYC a better example of liberal utopia are having an opposite effect. Some even say the mayors policies are bringing the city slowly back to its bad old days of high crime and dirty boulevards.

Among the critics of de Blasios new NYC is the Trump administration, which undoubtedly would love to see the nations most recognizable city, and the presidents hometown, return to Republican control.

Of course in a city controlled by the liberal elites that worked overtime on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, taking power from a liberal like de Blasio isnt going to be an easy task.

But the GOP may have a secret weapon in the upcoming election.

As reported by New Yorks Spectrum News:

After beating an Democratic incumbent in an upset in 2010, Republican Nicole Malliotakis has been serving Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn in Albany ever since. Now, she is looking to take on Mayor Bill de Blasio, if she can first win the Republican primary.

I grew up with a strong sense of patriotism, she said. My parents always voted and were always very excited about being citizens and being able to contribute to the process. Especially my mother, who fled a dictatorship where they dont have the ability to elect their leaders.

Showing us around her Albany office, Malliotakis pointed to her sketches of Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, displayed photographs with her old boss, former Governor George Pataki, and let us know what a big fan she is of the singer Cher, whose book was neatly displayed between those about Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln.

Theres no doubt that Im unique, Malliotakis said. Im a woman. Im half-Hispanic. I am Greek. We havent had that combination in elected office in this city or state, for that matter, ever before.

One thing Malliotakis says she will be doing less of in Albany now that she is running for mayor is late-night karaoke.

I sing La Bamba. Thats my song. And once in a while, Ill participate in duet with Joe Lentol of Sonny and Cher. I Got You Babe,' she said.

While Democratic colleagues stopped far short of endorsing her candidacy, many encouraged her to take on the mayor.

If she does win the GOP primary, expect the Democrats knives to come out and expect yet another example of how the party only believes in diversity when they have the diverse candidate.

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Liberals hate her - Personal Liberty - Personal Liberty Digest - Personal Liberty Digest

A month after Malcolm Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott for the prime ministership, there was another coupin the Liberal Party.

The scene was Paddington, the affluent suburb in Sydney's eastern suburbs inTurnbull's electorate of Wentworth.

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Ahead of the release of a report into the 2016 election, where the Liberal Party scraped home, the party's director Tony Nutt has resigned.

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Elderly residents of Waterloo's social housing estate are determined to live their last days in the communities they have grown old in.

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Police report that a missing boy, taken from a Brisbane hospital, has been found in Newcastle.

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The 17-year-old has been charged with 74 offences over a series of school bomb threats across three states. Courtesy Seven News Melbourne.

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Police provide details of a missing boy taken from a Brisbane hospital.

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Long-time friend Mark Soper reads out a eulogy Andrew Chan wrote about himself before his execution in Indonesia.

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The Federal Police admit to illegally accessing a journalist's metadata while investigating allegations of an internal leak.

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The government now says it can't guarantee gas prices, a day after the Prime Minister said they should be halved.

Ahead of the release of a report into the 2016 election, where the Liberal Party scraped home, the party's director Tony Nutt has resigned.

Turnbull's son-in-law James Brown, an armyveteran turned academic, seized control of the Liberals' Paddington branch from long-time president and Woollahra councillorPeter Cavanagh.

Working with Brown behind the scenes was his close friend Andrew Bragg, a fellow branch member.

"I know he was backing James," Cavanagh said."Ibelieve he helped him to getpeople to turn up and vote."

Last Friday, the Liberal Party announced Bragg as the party's acting federal director following the resignation of stalwart Tony Nutt.

Unless something goes wrong duringhis probation, Bragg is expected to receive a permanent appointment inthe middle of the year.

That would put the little-known 32-year-old who has never run a state or federal election campaign in charge of theLiberals' organisational wing at one of the most challenging times in its history.

A damningofficial review of the last federal election campaign found the Liberals were comprehensively outgunned by Labor. The party's finances were so dire that Turnbull had to tip in almost $2 million of his own money to keep the campaign afloat. And the Liberals aretrailing in the polls, withBill Shorten increasingly confidentof winningthe next election.

The Liberal Party needs a hero andis set to turn to Bragg.

"People were a bit shocked," an insider close to Bragg said of his appointment.

"Everyone agrees we ran a terrible campaign in 2016 so it seems bizarre to put in someone without any nuts and bolts campaign experience.

"Not everyone thinks it was a wise decision."

Bragg's resume looks thin compared to his predecessors. When Brian Loughnane took the job he had beenchief-of-staff to two Liberal leaders and run the Victorian division of the party.Lynton Crosby had run the Queensland division. Andrew Robb had led the powerful National Farmers Federation and served as deputy federal director.

Bragg, by contrast, worked in senior policy roles at the Financial Services Council for seven years before joining the Liberal-aligned Menzies Research Centre as policy director.

"He's been considered more as a think-tank guy than a campaign director," a Liberal MP said. "But there was an absence of other candidates."

Federal directors are only chosen withthe blessing of the prime minister and that'strue of Bragg.

"The PM trusts Andrew and respects him," a Liberal source said. "He has complete loyalty to the PM and loyalty is important to Malcolm."

For several years Bragg, who declined to comment for this piece,was secretary of the Wentworth Federal Electoral Conference, thefundraising and campaigning vehicle in Turnbull's seat.

As well as being good friends with Brown, he was best man at the wedding of long-time Turnbull staffer David Bold.

While one confidante questions whether Bragg is"too close" to the PM, others point to his allies across the party.

Robb, who conducted the recent election review, is said to back his appointment as well as frontbenchers Josh Frydenberg and Alan Tudge.

Menzies Research Council executive director Nick Cater said: "A lot of people talkthe talk but he actually gets things done.

"He may not have the experience of a party insider but he certainly has the right skill set."

Cater has been impressed by Bragg's organisational skills, framing of policy issues and knowledge of digital media.

Businessman Tony Shepherd, who has worked closely with Bragg, said: "He's dynamic, has tonnes of energy and is strong on policy.

"He's a can-do person who brings a younger perspective to the job."

Bragg grew up in Shepparton in regional Victoria, where he attended the local Catholic school. While other students took gap years to travel overseas, he worked on the floors ofthe local fruit packing and dairy factories to save money to study accounting at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Many close to him express surprise he would take the backroomjob given his obvious ambitions to become a politician. Bragg unsuccessfully ranfor a Senate spot last year before narrowly missing out on preselection for theVictorian seat of Murray.

Victorian senator James Paterson, who entered the Senate at28, said Bragg is a "great liberal intellectual" who will one day enter Parliament.

"It's terrific to see the party place its trust and faith in a young person with ideas, energy and creativity," he said.

Another Liberal source, without excess optimism, said: "If we win the next election he can have a Senate seat in any state he wants."

More here:
Andrew Bragg: Can an inexperienced 32-year-old save the Liberal Party? - The Sydney Morning Herald

Immigration Minister AhmedHussensaid the federal government is clamping down on marriage fraud even as it scraps atwo-year co-habitation requirement for newcomers sponsored by their spouses.

Hussen said the conditional permanent residency, which was brought in by the Conservatives in 2012, wasleaving some women in harmful domestic situations.

"We're doing away with a measure that could potentially result in people choosing reluctantly to remain in abusive relationships as opposed to moving out and getting out of those abusive relationships," he said at a news conference in Toronto Friday.

The Conservative measure requirednewcomers to live in a conjugal relationship with their sponsoring spouse for two years or face deportation.

When the Conservatives enacted it, then immigration minister Jason Kenney said the change targeted con artistswho dupe Canadians into marriage then dump them once they get to Canada. Itwas also designed to deal with "marriages of convenience," where two persons pretend to be in love for one to gain entry to Canada, often in exchange formoney.

ButHussensaid the policy did not achieve itsintended outcomes, and that reversing course reflects the government's commitment to eradicating gender-based violence.

Rescinding the conditional permanent residency is also a recognition that the vast majority of marriages are genuine.

But Hussen said the government is "doubly committed" to detecting fraudulent marriages.

Frontline immigration officers will carry out stringent screening procedures, Hussen said. And a five-year waiting period will remain for people who have either sponsored a spouse or been sponsored themselves and who want to use the program again.

Continue reading here:
Liberals 'doubly committed' to tackling marriage fraud while ending 2-year spousal residency rule - CBC.ca