Friday Afternoon Links

Content goes here.

- While all parties are at least claiming to be willing to keep boosting health care funding after 2014, the impending round of health-care negotiations with the provinces still offers a rare chance to shape and improve the system in the long run. And Jack Layton is rightly questioning what will happen if the Harper Cons are left in charge of that discussion:

Media in London say Mr. Holder’s campaign wrote to the London Healthcare Coalition, which is sponsoring the April 20 debate, to say they were "puzzled" as to why federal candidates would be asked to debate health care. "I'd think this is more an issue for Deb Matthews and the provincial candidates," the campaign reply said. "We're not attracted to see Ed debate on health care.”

When told about the refusal, Mr. Layton said it demonstrates the true face of the Conservative perspective on health care.

“They don’t believe it’s a federal issue. They want to leave it to the provinces, knowing that the provinces don’t have the resources that are necessary and privatization will become the only option,” he said.

That’s why Canadians cannot trust Mr. Harper to lead the national negotiations on the renewal of the health-care financing agreements that are set to expire in 2014, Mr. Layton said.

“If Stephen Harper ends up with a mandate, then attitudes like we’re getting from Mr. Holder’s staff person are what we’re going to see behind the scenes,” he said. “If Mr. Harper is in charge of the future of health care in our country, then Canadians should be very, very worried.”

- The broader picture behind the constant efforts to slash corporate taxes in Canada naturally features the similar campaign against public services and reasonable taxes around the world. And Michael Babad cites Jeffrey Sachs on how the push has been just as destructive elsewhere as here:

Jeffrey Sachs is the director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. (He’s also committed to fighting poverty and hunger, but he’s still a real live professor.) Here’s what he told the BBC only yesterday:

“Of course, all of our countries are caught in what you could call a kind of tax arms race or what could be called a race to the bottom in fact, which is that each country is trying to get the tax rate lower than the neighbours or the competitors. The result is that everybody is cutting corporate tax rates around the board.

“It is only causing fiscal crisis everywhere and it's a kind of negative sum game, meaning that when both sides do it, neither gains the advantage relative to the other. In fact both lose by adding to the fiscal pressures and the need to then cut the education spending or the social expenditures that are crucial for making sure that the poor half of our societies can also participate and be productive members of our economies in the future.”

He pointed as an example to Ireland, the one-time Celtic Tiger that’s now a pussycat on life support and was once the envy of Europe because of its low-tax regime.

“So you sure can make a little bubble in the short term, but it's not really building the long-term platform for prosperity. Second, I wouldn't say it to Ireland alone, I would say to the European Union, the United States, Japan, other high income countries, indeed in the G20 as a whole. Let's stop this horrendous process where we are being gamed by global companies that are playing off our governments, one against the other and ending up by depriving ourselves of the productive base of our societies which after all are our skilled and educated work forces.”

- Fortunately, there's a new voice working to counter the corporate spin, as Canadians for Tax Fairness is looking to lead the charge for a more equitable tax system.

- Don Mitchell comments on the hope to replace at least a few ineffective Saskatchewan Con MPs with NDP challengers:

It's not as if Harper's herd of 13 MPs has done much for Saskatchewan. They remained totally silent during the province's campaign to resist the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan takeover by an Australian/American giant. They've taken the lead in attacking the Canadian Wheat Board and eroding its power and resources. Curiously, Saskatchewan farmers who continue to elect progressives to the Wheat Board have also been a major factor in electing sworn enemies of the board as their Members of Parliament.

Some factors which contribute to the Conservative dominance will still be in play in this election. But there is a growing basis of hope for a shift during this campaign.

- Finally, Dr. Dawg points out how the Public Service Commission is trampling on the right of public servants to participate in the federal election campaign.