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Voting: How high school teachers get students to think about their civic duty

in Education by
How high school educators get young people to think about voting

Recently, The Lindsay Advocate’s Mallory Cramp-Waldinsperger asked local high school teachers for their perspectives on how youth see the world, and what educators can do to get students to think about voting. This is what they had to say:

Is there anything unique about how up-and-coming voters see the world, and politics that you think readers should know?

Mark Robinson – Canadian and World Studies, LCVI

There’s a general sense of overwhelming complexity, and a feeling that individual action doesn’t amount to much against the powers that be. However, students do have strong feelings when they are engaged and have been introduced to current issues. Topics which inspire them include climate change and its consequences, and the growing awareness of gender identities and the acceptance of these differences. Students are quick to rally behind causes that try to redress injustices.

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‘Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?’ a provocative look at ‘economic man’

in Opinion by
Bay Street in Toronto. Is everything subservient to the market?

Katrine Marçal blows the whistle on the founding father of our economic system, Adam Smith, in Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?

When Adam Smith proclaimed that all our actions were motivated by self-interest, he used the example of the baker and the butcher as he laid the foundations for his ‘economic man’ theory. Smith reasoned the baker and butcher didn’t give bread and meat out of kindness, which was certainly an interesting viewpoint coming from a bachelor who lived with his mother for most of his life — the same woman who cooked his dinner each night and certainly not out of self-interest.

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For the Record: What did Laurie do? (Oct. 24)

in Local News by

A special mid-week edition of For The Record, since MPP and Minister of Labour Laurie Scott has been extremely busy and focused on the elimination of Bill 148.  The PCS are replacing  the previous Liberal government’s personal emergency-leave rules. Now workers will be able to take up to three days for personal illness, two for bereavement and three for family responsibilities — all unpaid. (Currently the rules allowed employees to take up to 10 personal emergency-leave days a year, with two of them paid.)  There is a strong look at the highlighted changes here.

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Fighting inequality makes all of society stronger

in Community/Opinion/Poverty Reduction by
Fighting inequality makes all of society stronger
The Nordic countries (like Norway, above) are among the most equal societies.

Like many people concerned about social justice, I read books and online resources about eliminating poverty and inequality.  About five or six years ago I read The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone and I began thinking differently about how we might address poverty.

What was so compelling about the ideas presented in The Spirit Level was that there were countries in which social and health outcomes were positive and these countries happened to be highly equal (as measured by the Gini coefficient). The authors, both epidemiologists, studied a number of health and social outcomes affected by social status. Income, education, or profession defines social status.

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How much is enough? The politics of capitalism and wealth

in Business/Opinion/Poverty Reduction by
David Thomson, who according to Canadian Business, has a family net worth of more than $41 Billion.

Many of us who work at The Advocate spend a lot of time thinking about how life could be better for people in our Kawartha Lakes community, and for all Canadians. That is, how do we achieve a more equitable society, within a capitalism framework, where there isn’t such a great chasm between the wealthiest and the poorest?

When we consider these questions we refer to the kind of wealth that defies all sense of decency. As of June 8 last year, the world’s richest five men owned over $400 billion in wealth. Thus, on average, each man owns nearly as much as 750 million people.

As I wrote in a feature story in last month’s Advocate, too many of us from all political stripes seem to believe that the ‘free market’ needs to be left alone to do its thing to make lives better for people. It is the ‘trickle down’ lie that has been perpetuated for decades, all the while inequality continues to increase.

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Need money? Still time to apply as Ontario Basic Income Pilot picks up steam

in Community/Poverty Reduction by

The new and innovative social program that Ontario is testing in Lindsay and two other Ontario centres – a ‘basic income guarantee’ — is surging in participant numbers.

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Need a better income? Open enrollment sessions here for Lindsay’s Basic Income pilot

in Around Town/Community/Poverty Reduction by
Need more money? Open enrollment sessions here for Lindsay’s Basic Income pilot
Open enrollment sessions for the basic income pilot will be held at Celebrations or Kawartha Lakes Library (pictured).

The Ontario government is now holding the first ever open enrollment sessions in Lindsay for its basic income pilot, with the first one scheduled in Lindsay for Nov. 30 at Celebrations (the old Queen Street United Church).

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Senator Art Eggleton: Will Lindsay be the next Dauphin, Manitoba?

in Around Town/Community/Poverty Reduction by

One of Canada’s most well-known inequality fighters, Senator Art Eggleton, inspired members of the Ontario Basic Income Network recently who were in Lindsay for their annual general meeting.

In his opening remarks, Eggleton wondered aloud if Lindsay would become known as “the Dauphin, Manitoba of this decade.”

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‘Welfare recipient’ asks: How will you judge him?

in Opinion/Poverty Reduction by
Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, reduce chronic homelessness dramatically
There are few extras but when there are they are celebrated.

Change is what we talk about. A possible Colborne Street bridge has been argued about in coffee shops in Lindsay since before there was a Tim Horton’s.

If you’re of a certain age, you might have argued about widening Highway 35 northbound into Lindsay — as your A&W waitress delivered your Teen Burger and root beer to your car on roller skates.

I don’t know about you but I have been in a ‘Will they ever build a Walmart?’ conversation a thousand times. With the possible exception of municipal amalgamation, we and our forbearers have been used to change that is often glacial in these parts.

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Hope says Lindsay residents will ‘rise up and contribute’ with basic income

in Education/Poverty Reduction by
Hope says Lindsay residents will ‘rise up and contribute’ with basic income

The leader of Trillium Lakelands District School Board has positioned himself squarely in favour of Lindsay’s basic income pilot, saying there are “so many possibilities” for it to do community good.

Director of Education Larry Hope says his “personal belief is that we have to look at the big picture for our citizens and for society,” he says, referencing the basic income pilot that begins this fall in Lindsay.

“If we can step back and take a look at this, we cannot deny that this will be good for our community,” Hope tells The Lindsay Advocate.

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