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<div class=Section1>
<h1 style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:20.25pt;background:
white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#AF5721'>Canadian Charger<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:20.25pt;background:
white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#AF5721'><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:20.25pt;background:
white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#AF5721'>Ontario’s NDP Government: A Sad History<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#868D90'><img width=75 height=75
id="Image_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D2ACC4.8F70D670"
alt="http://www.thecanadiancharger.com/cms/contributors/images/5/RA-new.jpg"></span><span
style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#868D90'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h2 style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><span
lang=EN-CA style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#868D90'>Reuel
S. Amdur<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#868D90'><a
href="http://www.thecanadiancharger.com/page.php?cid=5&id=5"
id="more_author"><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:8.5pt;color:#AF5721'>More by
this author...</span></a></span><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#868D90'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white'><b><span
lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>The
current official abandonment by political parties of concern for the poor, in
their focus on "the middle class," calls to mind the Ontario NDP's
disregard for the poor going back to the days when they were in power, from
1990 to 1995. At the time, I was working first at Seaton House, a men's shelter
and residence operated by Toronto's welfare department, and then as a
supervisor in Ottawa's welfare department.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>When Bob Rae’s NDP
government was elected, those of us concerned about the poor thought we had
died and gone to heaven. Not. Under Rae the poor endured one blow
after another. Prior to the Rae election, each December there was
provision for a token amount added to the check as a Christmas bonus.
During Bob Rae’s term in office, the Christmas bonus was abolished across
the province.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>As far as rates are concerned,
prior to the Rae régime, each year it was practice to increase rates in
recognition of changes in the cost of living. Rae interrupted that
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>Then there is the matter of a
form colloquially referred to as the layman’s medical. This was a
form that a welfare worker could fill out in aid of a client applying for
disability benefits. I remember being in a meeting with a physician who
was on the Ottawa board which determined eligibility for such benefits.
He waxed enthusiastic about layman’s medical forms completed by Holly
Murphy, an Ottawa welfare worker. The form was the only designated input
by the welfare worker about the condition of the client seeking designation as
disabled. The doctor’s comment was an indication of its potential
impact, but the Rae government abolished it. It became that much harder
for someone to get the higher disability rate of assistance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>Rae’s government also hit
welfare recipients with cars. They were allowed to have a car so long as
its value was not greater than $5,000. ($10,000 is the current
limit.) Welfare offices all began buying automotive red books, to
determine the value of cars. The regulation went on to specify what would
happen if someone showed up with a car worth more than $5,000. The person
was given six months to dispose of the car. In fact, burdened by a rule
book bigger than the phone book, workers frequently failed to apply the regulation.
In her book<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><em><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Hope and Despair</span></em>, Monia
Mazigh describes her experiences in applying for welfare while she had a
car. The first time, she was told that she was not eligible till she got
rid of the car. The second time the worker ignored the car and put her on
assistance. There was a complicating factor that was never raised with
welfare: it was not her car. It was her husband’s, Maher Arar, who
was in a Syrian prison at the time. Fun and games with a stupid
regulation. The regulation is still in effect.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>Sponsored immigrants were a
special target. If a person applied for assistance because of a
sponsorship breakdown, the immigrant’s assistance was dinged $50 a
month. There were a few exceptions, but, for example, if the sponsor had
left the country the deduction still applied. Fortunately, this
regulation is now unpleasant history. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>Another measure applied to new
applicants for assistance. While the rules for the amount that recipients
may keep from any earnings on welfare vary from time to time, leaving
recipients confused and fearful about any work, at one point the Rae government
decreed that new applicants would be docked 100% of earnings for the first
several months on assistance. I remember one young man who had been on a
federal make-work program in Kingston, silk-screening t-shirts. He could
not make a living at it and came to Ottawa and applied for welfare. I
told him about the rule. He told me that he would not be looking for work
for that period of time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0cm;background:white'><span lang=EN-CA style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#324960'>The sad experience with
Ontario’s NDP government carries an important lesson. Do not be
lulled to sleep by a government labelled NDP, or socialist, or social
democratic. Assume that, whatever government is elected, it is the
enemy. </span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#324960'>Make it prove otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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