Don’t believe the recycled Liberal pharmacare plan 

The Liberal government has won a minority under Justin Trudeau, returning to the House of Commons as the party in power.

While the government has celebrated victory in what can only be described as a disastrous campaign after it became public the Prime Minister had worn blackface more times than he could remember, the nation should be wary about the rather large number of broken promises coming back with the Trudeau Liberals.

According to the Trudeau Metre, the Liberals broke 67 promises throughout their first term, accounting for 29 percent of all promises made.

These broken promises include massive campaign planks such as electoral reform, failing to properly restore the veteran’s pension system, and the continuation of massive deficit which put a balanced budget potentially decades into the future rather than 2019.

With the minority governments in Canada rarely lasting more than two years, it will be interesting to see what the government attempts to do in order to keep both previous promises made and new ones brought forth during the campaign. The Liberals must make compromises with other parties.

With both the NDP and Greens cash-strapped but needing wins, and the Conservatives facing an inner-party revolt against the current leader, we will likely see a relative calm as parties adjust followed by a truly harsh period as weakened parties attempt to regain ground lost in 2015.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Senate point men have tendered their resignations. Senator Peter Harder, the Government’s Representative in the upper chamber, and Government Liaison Senator Grant Mitchell made the announcement Friday.

“The start of a new Parliament is the best time to welcome a new face in the role of Government Representative,” Harder said in a statement.

“With the Senate now well advanced on the path to becoming more independent and less partisan… it simply made sense for me to pick this moment: a new cabinet has been sworn in, new Senate groups are emerging along non-partisan lines.”

According to Harder, his term as the Senate’s government rep will expire on Dec. 31, 2019 while Senator Mitchell said he would remain in his liaison role, previously called Government Whip, until Trudeau finds a replacement for Harder.

“Serving in this role has truly been a highlight of my career. It has been a privilege to have been so directly involved with Prime Minister Trudeau’s initiative to create a more independent Senate,” said Mitchell.

For nearly 150 years, senators were appointed by the sitting prime minister, and for the most part showed unbroken partisan loyalty to their caucuses. But that all changed in April 2014 when Trudeau cut existing Liberal appointees in the Upper Chamber from the national caucus.

The decision has factionalized the Senate with both Senate Conservatives and Liberal castaways coalescing in various groups, including the Independent Senators Group and a pair of nascent upstarts; the Canadian Senators Group and Progressive Senators Group.

Harder, who is a “non-affiliated” senator entered the upper chamber in April 2016, as the first “independent” appointed senator under a purportedly, non-partisan selection process. Mitchell was appointed to the Senate in 2005 by Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Known as the “chamber of sober second thought”, the Senate is intended to provide regional oversight for government bills as well as the power to introduce laws unrelated to spending.

A Quebec fat activist is fighting for the rights of fat people everywhere, as she moves to have fat rights in the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Edith Bernier, a fat rights activist, has launched the petition in the National Assembly this Thursday to amend an article of the Charter “to add discrimination based on appearance,” specifically when it comes to people of weight, ie. fat people.

Bernier is the founder of grossophobie.ca, which translates to “fatphobia.” Her petition is sponsored by Manon Masse, leader of the Provincial Quebec Solidaire.

The petition details statistics from the World Health Organization, which finds that fatphobia, or “weight-based discrimination” contributes to social isolation.

“Fatphobia is defined as ‘all hostile attitudes and behaviours that stigmatize and discriminate against fat, overweight or obese people’ and that it is a socially accepted phenomenon,” the petition reads, adding that “this discrimination is largely based on the belief that body weight is the result of personal choices, despite the fact that science has demonstrated the contrary.”

The petition has 477 signatures so far, and climbing.

A study has revealed that the life expectancy in America is declining quickly after decades of progress. This decline largely derives from drug abuse, suicide, hypertension, particularly amongst men aged 25 to 64. 

As a result of this, the U.S.A’s life expectancy has fallen dramatically behind other wealthy western countries. This is especially so with the 25 to 64 age bracket, whose decline is almost non-existent outside of America.

The study cited analyzed more than five decades of American medical data. This study revealed that America’s life expectancy grew between 1959 to 2014 and then began to decrease—coinciding almost exactly with the beginning of the opioid epidemic. 

The Ohio Valley suffered most significantly, acting like a scar on the statistical map of the United States. This particular region has been devastated by the collapse of the manufacturing industry, and 33 percent of the “excess deaths” have come from these states.