PLWBlogSpot2

By a single vote, President Barack Obama's health care overhaul survived a painstaking Supreme Court review that consumed thousands of pages in legal filings and an extraordinary six hours-plus of oral argument time back in March. In the end, the court upheld the law, with a minor change, and dashed Republican hopes of bringing down what conservatives deride as "Obamacare" on constitutional grounds. The outcome surprised many who thought tough questions from the conservative justices during the arguments foreshadowed the demise of the far-reaching legislation. The decision leaves a trail of winners and losers, from Main Street, USA , to the very steps of the Supreme Court. For some, it's a mixed bag. Here's a look: WINNERS Casey Quinlan, a 59-year-old breast cancer survivor who lives near Richmond , Va. , and millions of other uninsured people. Starting in October 2013, the uninsured will be able to sign up for taxpayer subsidized coverage either through private ...

The mineral rich Ring of Fire is Ontario's "oilsands" and the province should take a page out of Alberta's playbook by developing it quickly. The remote Ring of Fire area, located nearly 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, it is said to hold more than a $30 BILLION haul of chromite — the key material used to make stainless steel "In many ways, the Ring of Fire is Ontario's oilsands — an enormous wealth beneath the earth that can break open a new frontier for job creation and investment in Ontario. Sometimes we look (with) wonder and awe at what Alberta can do; we can do that in Ontario and we can do that with the Ring of Fire. Mining it  creates an open pit mine and a transportation corridor to be built through one of the last intact boreal forests. Most people have no idea what the Ring of Fire or chromite is but everybody knows what the oilsands and potash is, "We have our own oilsands, our own potash potential in the far north. It is a treasure c...

We cruised through this week's record-breaking temperatures with only minor glitches. And while the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty would like you to believe it's their energy policy that's saved us, in fact it's their economic development plan — or lack thereof— that's freed up massive amounts of electricity. Ontario has lost almost half a million manufacturing jobs since McGuinty came to power, so we just don't need the same kind of generation we once did. Worse, they were in industries, such as auto companies, that provided good, high-paying jobs that had a multiplier effect in their communities. The bad news is, GM recently announced it was shutting another line in Oshawa — despite the $10-billion bailout the federal and provincial governments gave it in 2009. The good news is it will free up even more electricity so the government can brag about its conservation policies. Thursday's peak power demand was 24,000 megawatts at 5 p.m. On a similar day...

Denial of OHIP help for the little boy with sight problems is going to be paid for by a Alberta Frim. Geez talk about good PR for this firm. A brick to OHIP and The rich Ontario Firm's who did not lift a finger, a bouqet for the generous Alberta Firm. McGuinty's ear's must be glowing red,but he saved the Ontario taxpayers about $45,000 -Way to go Dalton.

This week's decision to let Canada into talks for a new Pacific free trade pact. Canada already has free trade agreements with four nations taking part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks — Mexico, Peru, Chile and the crucially important United States. The remaining six—Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Brunei — aren't giants of the world economy. We could probably survive quite well without, say, a Canada-Vietnam free trade deal What is important about the proposed Trans-Pacific pact, however, is that it may end up becoming the world's premier trade arrangement,but since 2001, the WTO has been mired in a grinding dispute over agricultural subsidies and manufacturing tariffs. Meanwhile, Canada responded to the WTO  deadlock by negotiating a dizzying array of bilateral trade pacts with countries ranging from Israel to Colombia The trend accelerated under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who opened free trade talks with Japan and the European Union. Fo...

The Eraser Institute — the Vancouver think tank that calculates the date each year when the typical Canadian stops working for governments and starts working for him- or herself — figures in 2012 the average Canadian family will earn $94,259 in income and pay a total of $41,627 in taxes, or 44.2%. That means they will work until June 10 to discharge their obligation to government. Then beginning June 11 they can start earning the money they need to put a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food on the table. Taxes now consume more of a family's budget than food, clothing and shelter combined. This is better than it was under the former Liberal government. In 2000, while Jean Chretien was prime minister, Tax Freedom Day fell on June 25 — a full two weeks later than this year — the latest TFD in Canadian history. Still, this year's TFD of June 11 is more than six weeks later than it was in 1961, the first year for which Fraser has done detailed calculations. Canadia...

Family begs Ontario Health minister to intervene after OHIP refuses to pick up tab for surgery in U.S. Liarn Reid needs eye surgery to save him from blindness but the Ontario government is refusing to pick up the cost of the procedure. The Whitby boy, nearly 3, has a retinal condition known as Nome 's disease. Without surgery, he'll lose his vision by the time he's 4. But with no qualified surgeons able to treat Reid in Ontario , the Reid family said they have no choice but to seek treatment in Michigan . However, they have been refused coverage by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan multiple times. The Reids came to Queen's Park Thursday to try to persuade Health Minister Deb Matthews to intervene. Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott, the health critic, brought up Reid's condition during question period: "Minister, Liam needs your help. There are no specialists in Ontario who are able to treat this child .... The appeals process — you know or shoul...