Straight Goods' own mouthpiece extraordinaire

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Vol. 2, 2001

What's got your goat in this year's federal election?

  This week Larry Solway discusses nine election irritants that drive him batty. His comments are driving others batty including:
- Journalist Michele Landsberg, with some advice for the "choleric" Larry.
- Sandra Tam - in an unsolicited commentary - says youth deliberately choose not to vote, disguising resistance as apathy - on the same wavelength, if not the same age as Solway, he says.
- pollsters Marc Zwelling and Jim Matsui say they're not to blame.
- CA candidate Jeffrey Dorfman on why it's OK to be Jewish and CA.
- Ontario NDP health critic Frances Lankin says Kings Health Centre does represent two-tier care in Ontario.
- Housing consultant David Foster says Larry is all wet on affordable housing.

Now it's your turn. What's bugging you about this election? * What do you see happening locally? * Have western Canadians all turned into right-wingers overnight? * What's become of national Canadian politics? * Was this ever a reality? * Are youth less involved politically than in the past? * Are any generations as involved as in the past? * What are you most sick of hearing about in this election campaign? * Where did Jean Chretien find Stockwell Day anyway?
See what others have written and add your views.

Canadians lying? Why love health care and vote for tax cuts?

Why do Canadians say health care is the most important issue when most of them intend to vote for politicians who have either cut health care spending or plan to do so? This week's Straight Goods forum with Larry Solway basically says Canadians are jiving when they say health care is their top concern.

Former BC premier Dave Barrett isn't so cynical despite his years of battle and thinks things will swing back for the left.

National Post columnist Roy MacGregor is reporting on the Day campaign bus. He thinks there's something shaking that media and political hacks haven't sense yet. And Straight Goods' consulting editor Stephen Dale thinks democracy could be a populist ace in the hole for the Alliance - despite the contradictions noted by Gillian Steward in this week's Straight Goods exclusive.

What's your view?
See what others have written and add your views.

Incineration

A Straight Goods forum with Larry Solway on the burning garbage debate. Larry feels he's a good environmentalist but thinks there's a good case for state-of-the-art incineration to get rid of urban waste and generate power. Incineration engineer John Chandler agrees and supplies technical facts and arguments. Toronto mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg thinks it's a bad idea. So does Colleen Cooney, a concerned citizen from Orillia, Ont., where an incinerator was proposed. And former Ontario environment minister Ruth Grier says incinerators cause many problems and are just as hard to site as landfills and warns that Adams mine isn't dead yet.

For a journalistic account of how experts themselves differ on safety of garbage incineration plants, you might want to check out an article that ran in the UK last summer in The Independent: www.eastnorthumberland.com/...

Then it's your turn: Is incineration an unacceptable health risk? Is technology on top of this problem? Should Canada follow the lead of Europe and embrace the new technology? Can big cities handle composting? Stir it up! And see how others have responded! We want to hear from you - for, against or on the fence.

Working class hero or power monger?

  Larry Solway ponders whether CAW chief Buzz Hargrove has damaged Canada's trade union movement and Canada's Left by raiding other smaller unions for members and publicly trashing the NDP. Are trade unions about protecting workers, or building empires? And how has Hargrove's controversial style affected labour solidarity and the fortunes of the NDP?

We have responses from Buzz Hargrove himself and from one of his most vocal critics in the labour movement, Peter Leibovitch of the United Steelworkers. Plus facts, arguments and dirt from SEIU, Ken Brown (formerly SEIU, now CAW), and Judy Darcy (CUPE).

Then it's your turn:
  Is the union movement getting bigger and stronger, or has it lost its way? - Is Buzz Hargrove on a power trip, or is his position legitimate? - Are Hargrove's critics apologists for the NDP and corrupt unions? - Does your union represent your interests or is it all jockeying for power at upper levels? - What do you think is the real issue in this controversy?

Stir it up! And see how others have responded! We want to hear from you - for, against or on the fence.

Larry Solway says
  "I simply do not understand why Canadians suffer from 'Gold-medalitis'."

Canadian amateur sport icon and activist Bruce Kidd says we've nickeled and dimed athletes and amateur sports to death and Canadians feel badly about how obvious that becomes to the world in the Olympics.

Former CFL player turned philosophy professor John McMurtry says "The Olympics have been high-jacked as corporate marketing sites."

Another former CFLer, John Allemang, now Globe and Mail TV critic says he'll remember Larry's rant "when my daughter reminds me that she has no swim team at school" due to cuts to extracurricular programs.

Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae finds himself onside with Solway. He says "The Olympics are nothing more than a colossal ego hemorrhage," and thinks Toronto's Olympic bid is sure to result in wasted money if successful.

National Post columnist Roy MacGregor says most people find Olympic sports boring as compared with professional sports like hockey and there would be a lot less fanfare without footware marketing.

Straight Goods readers: Speak your mind!