Entry #7 November 6th

How Justin Trudeau picked his new cabinet: Hepburn

By: Bob Hepburn Politics, Published on Sun Nov 01 2015

Overview:

Since Justin Trudeau and the liberals majority win with 184 seats on October 19th election, people said it would be very difficult for Trudeau to pick his cabinet from the “abundance of riches”, but as it turned out, it was said to be quite easy. It is said that Justin has already picked his team of just 28 members, compared to last year’s cabinet from Harper consisting of 39 members, Trudeau says he wants to run a leaner, more efficient cabinet than his post rival. Justin will have his team released on November 4th, 2015, showing the people he felt should be a part of. When deciding his cabinet, he looked for a few main factors which included the size of the cabinet, gender equality, ethnic equality, regional distribution and a balance of new and old MP’s, leaning more to the young and new rather than old. When Trudeau released that his cabinet will consist of 14 men and 14 women, many people were quickly asking questions for obvious reasons. People were asking why instead of trying to make it equal in genders, why he couldn’t just pick the top 28 most qualified people for the job to make sure that it’s the best it can be. These 28 people are also all spread out around Canada coming from the western area, to central and all the way to the east coast in Atlantic Canada. People don’t know how Trudeau’s decisions in picking the cabinet will go, the people of Canada can only wait and hope for the best. 

Above is memeber of the new cabinet

My opinion:

In my opinion I don’t necessarily agree with Trudeau when he selected half females and half males because what happens on some cases is that maybe there is a more qualified person out there who didn’t get the job because there would be an unequal amount of either males or female. By selecting only 28 members instead of last year’s 39 members, that’s 11 less members which means that when selecting your cabinet you would need to pick the best ones because of the less spots. I feel that this year’s cabinet will do well, but it may not do as well as it could have if the sexes were not equal, again due to the loss of the better cabinet person. I see where Trudeau is coming from wanting to pick equal numbers because of the society now a days but at the end of the day you want what’s best for your country, and by doing this you may not get the cabinets full potential. 

Entry #6, Finsihed October 20th

Canada’s budding marijuana industry could blossom into a $5-billion market if Liberals make recreational pot legal

Peter Koven | October 20, 2015 | Last Updated: Oct 21 12:01 PM ET

Overview:

Justin Trudeau’s majority win in the past election, makes a clear path for Canada to legalize marijuana. Although marijuana in Canada is illegal, there are a few licensed dealers that provide the substance to over 35,000 people who use it for treatment (medical marijuana). Health Canadas medical marijuana program is estimated between $80-100 million dollars. If it is legalized to the public, the estimated price could run the market price to upwards of $5 billion dollars. This causes problems for the licensed dealer’s as they think I will lower their worth of the company. Oregon and Colorado who have already legalized pot and they say since the law was passed the prices have not dropped. Besides the business part of things, they are saying that they will raise the punishment for users driving under the influence of the substance, as well as higher the punishment to any person selling it to minors. This makes sense as it would hopefully keep everyone in line. Trudeau says that legalizing pot will reduce the amount of arrests to people who have small quantities of the substance when it is illegal mainly because he says that it is not a serious offence and police could be stopping worse things from happening. Even though it is still early, you can expect a law being passed about the legalization of marijuana within the next few months.

 In the piture above is just Justin Trudeau next to his substance he wants to legalize. 

Opinion- Since I do not known much about the business side and the money problem for organizations, I’m going to write my opinion on the new punishments with marijuana and what I think about legalizing it. If Trudeau decides to legalize his substance I think it may be better for the government, users and police around the country. In the past if someone had this substance and was caught, police had to use action and waste time on this person rather than stopping someone from doing something way worse. With this legalized, it will reduce the amount of police trying to stop these people and getting away from actually working for the people and helping them. This will be better for users and the public for many reasons, one being to help them. Some people believe that cannabis helps them with the problems they have so they can now to that legally. This is better for the government because they can now tax people off the substance and get money from people buying it.  For the punishment side, I agree with making the consequences worse such as selling to minors or driving under the influence. In my opinion if they want to legalize this substance, then the users should follow the new laws and regulations that apply with this and understand and agree with the new consequences. So with all being said, in my opinion legalizing marijuana is a good thing for Canada.  

Entry 5

Seniors in Canada outnumber kids under 15 for first time ever

Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press | September 29, 2015 | Last Updated:Sep 30 1:09 PM ET

Overview:

As of today Statistics Canada released their numbers of seniors above age 65 and kids under the age of 15 to find out that for the first time ever, seniors are outnumbering kids from the most recent study conducted July 1st, 2015. Stats Canada says that the aging of our baby boomers (babies born between 1946-1965) are what is the cause of this rare event where the seniors are more plentiful than young kids. The agency said the population growth rate for Canadians over the age of 65 was 3.5 per cent, nearly quadrupling the national average by 0.9 percent. The most serious implication of this happening is the increase of the Health Care System, this means that taxes may increase. A study done by Western University says that this impact of aging citizens isn’t just issue in Canada, but as well as Europe and Asia, which as of now has a much higher citizen rate than Canada presently. In Canada, New Brunswick currently has the highest senior rate with 19%, while Nunavut has the lowest with only 3.9% seniors. Another reason that they suspect is the cause for this is international migration rate is dropping each year. This means that family’s from around the world that has young kids are not coming into Canada, therefore not increasing the youth population. Last year the number was 0.7% for families coming to Canada and this year it’s dropped to 0.4%. With more seniors than youth, you would expect a bunch of new problems to arise over the next few years.

The picture above shows an elderly person and a younger person holding hands.

http://wpmedia.business.financialpost.com/2015/09/0929hands.jpg?w=620

My opinion

My initial reaction to first hearing that seniors for the first time are over populating the youth really surprised me, I did not expect that to happen. Seeing that I will be getting a job and starting a career for myself in the next few years as the baby boomers retire, I am worried that this may cause a large increase in my tax’s I have to pay so that it can go towards seniors health. By all means I am not saying I do not want to put some of my money to help others, I’m just saying that maybe Canada needs to start letting in some immigrants so that they can help pay those fees. Since they are saying there are more seniors than youth, that means that each young person making a living will have to pay a lot more money, rather than if Canada lets immigrants come in and help. In my opinion we need younger workers to help this economy grow and thrive, it would be not only beneficial for our nation but also for each individual citizen. In my conclusion to this, I hope that the newly elected government recognizes what is going on and makes a change, helping the seniors, the youth/developing workers and the country. 

Entry #4

Kelly McParland: Liberals release budget plan. Now they need to hope no one reads it

Kelly McParland | September 28, 2015 6:17 PM ET

Overview:

Justin Trudeau and the liberals just this past few days unveiled their budget plan, but they were hoping no one would see it. Yesterday when almost all of Ontario, and most the country, were watching the jay’s game, the liberals thought it would be a great opportunity to release their plans about their budget. Their plan was to release this information when the majority of the people would not see it, as well as there are not many Sunday newspapers anymore, it was the perfect time. They are seeking to get $3 Billion to try and balance their budget out, but are yet again targeting the rich. Trudeau wants to start taxing the small businesses and the wealthy Canadians who’s income are more than $200k a year. The second part of the plan was to find hidden “savings”, which basically means again, taxing the rich. The liberals did not want to reveal this information when most of the people could have accessed it because they think it would change some of the peoples vote and change their opinions on him and his group. For the people who did see it, they are angry that they would try to do slip the budget plan under the rug, and feel that the plan is stupid.

Above is just a picture of the liberals and a book with a quote by them.

http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2015/09/fedelxn_liberals_20150926-1.jpg?w=620

Opinion:

My opinion on this is I don’t agree with what they were trying to do. If Trudeau and the liberals are trying to win this election, every single thing they say should run through the voters first. If they say something that the voters do not like, then that’s it, you can’t try and reveal information that you don’t want the voters to see. I do not agree at all with them trying to come up with $3 Billion by taxing the rich and small businesses. The way I see it is like this; for people to become wealthy, somewhere in the family someone worked as hard as they could to make a good living for themselves and family so from them doing well in life and being successful means that the government will take more money from them is just stupid. As well as taxing small businesses. My opinion on that is small businesses are what run this country, what they should be doing is giving them money to help them out instead of taking money from them. Eventually these businesses will not thrive and may end up leaving. I do not stand by Trudeau at all, and you shouldn’t either.  

Entry #3 Wednesday, September 30th

The days when bad police can abuse their authority must be ended

Chris Selley | September 23, 2015 | Last Updated: Sep 23 9:34 AM ET

Overview:

Over the past couple years, citizens from around the world (mainly North America) have started to realize for themselves, and seeing from others, that Police are abusing their authority. Each day there is tons of new videos of police abusing people from different areas, such as beating, shooting or just being treated unfairly. Police chief Bill Bratton of New York got together with New York mayor Bill De Blasio after meeting with retired pro tennis player James Blake regarding a recent incident where an officer attacked him when he was just minding his own business. This is just one of the many recorded incidents that have been recorded and are being watched globally on computers, TV’s and smartphones. They talked about trying to strengthen the relationship between the citizens and the police forces, even thought to start with, the should be on the same side as each other to begin with. A recent statement was quoted by an anonymous source ‘to many lives have been lost, when instead they should have been directed to the right path in life, now they are gone.’ Recent incidents regarding police include an Ontario police who has been secretly recording nude women over a 10 year period, got a demotion. Another where a cop was drunk driving and instead of facing jail time, he got 5 days without pay. Citizens hate this, good cops hate this, and they say there is a long overdue re-read of the piece of legislation of cop’s rights that needs to change.

On the top a demonstrator holding a sign saying 'No to police racism' 

http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2015/09/police-1.jpg?w=620

My Opinion:

In my opinion I agree with the fact that police are abusing their system and are getting away with way too much, simply because they are a cop. There’s been so much evidence of police doing dangerous, illegal and life threatening acts towards the people, yet there is nothing but minor things happening to them, if that. Seriously an incident where a cop stumbles into their station drunk and lets off a canister of tear-gas causing $52,000 in damage just gets docked 100 hours of pay. That’s it. Not even considering the murders that have happened where police shot down a homeless man or another man who was obeying orders and had no weapon. I think there’s needs to be big changes in the way they run whatever they have going on right now or there might be riots or uprisings against the police in different places. Police have a duty to help the city, town, people and things inside so why are they destroying it and hurting people? The need to serve and protect, that’s their job and obviously some (not all) are not doing what their supposed to but instead going completely against that. I also think that if a cop does do something illegal their punishment should be way worse then what they have been getting. On certain occasions these police should be serving jail time. I’m not saying that this is all cops by any means, there are great cops out there, but for the ones that think they are beyond the law, need fixing. I think the issue is it's too easy to become a cop, I feel they should be more strict to who could be employed to serve and protect.

Entry #2 September 24th

Man who pushed woman off cliff during hike in the Colorado Rockies convicted of murder

Sadie Gurman, The Associated Press | September 22, 2015 10:35 AM ET

Overview:

Last Monday a federal jury convicted a 59 year old man guilty of murder after pushing his second wife off a cliff in the Rocky’s of Colorado after failing to prove that it was just an accidental fall. Believe it or not this is not the first time Harold Henthorn was in a situation where his wife was killed by accidental causes. In 1995, Harold’s firs wife, Saundra, died after her and her husband were changing a flat tire when the jack ‘failed’ and fell on top of her where she died of result to her injuries. About 20 years he got away with this incident where they blamed the jack for the death, but when a reoccurring incident such as another wife dying, they looked even deeper into what really happened. Officials said that it was their 12th anniversary and that Harold took her to a well know hiking destination that he picked out, not expecting his wife to ‘fall’ when she was taking a picture. They said he traveled this hiking spot over 9 times to find the right spot to push his wife over a cliff where survival was very minimum and witnesses could not see. When park rangers asked why he had a red X marked where she fell, he could not give them a reason. They say he staged her death so he could get the $4.7 million in life insurance, but instead all he is getting now will be a life sentence in prison.

The picture to the left is the mother of the woman who pushed killed, giving her prayers. 

  http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2015/09/national_park_anniversary_death_40142445.jpg?w=620&h=465

Opinion:

    In my opinion I cannot believe what mental state this man could be in, in order to kill two of his wives for his own ‘benefit’. When you read about the time when he first wife died by a failed jack, and then read about the footprint on the side of the car that indicates he kicked it for it to fall, it just doesn’t seem right. When this case arose not too long ago, I’m glad prosecutors, the police, jury and judge did what was right and convicted him to life in prison. This guy obviously thought that he was a smart person who could get away with whatever he wanted, but the evidence he left behind proves his thoughts and actions were very idiotic. Leaving a big red X on a map right where you wife fell… probably not the smartest thing to do when trying to get away with murder. The amount of greed this man had to try and gain $4.7 million from Tori (wife) when she didn’t even know about is just awful, I do not know how that man can live with himself from day to day. This article just proves to me that there are indeed crazy people out there with insane thoughts, even from the people you might least expect. This is just an outrageous article, I hope I never come across something like this again.

Entry #1, September 22nd 2015

Cold weather may increase heart attack risk

Dario Balca, CTVNews.ca 
Published Sunday, August 30, 2015 10:57PM EDT 

Overview: 
     Over the past 6 years, Shuangbo Liu and her fellow researchers from the University Of Manitoba looked at every ST-elevation myocardial infraction (STEMI) that occurred in Winnipeg. In other words, they studied every severe heart attack that happened in the province throughout the 12 months of the year for 6 years. The cardiology expert and her helpers from the university found out that during the colder parts of the year in Canada, your chances of a heart attack raise 7% for every 10 C it drops below 0  C. In Winnipeg, the days that daily high was 0 C or below, the heart attack rates for 0.93 per day. When the temperature low was above 0 C , the heart attack rates were 0.78 per day, this stayed consistent throughout the 6 years. Even though the heart rate risk increases as temperatures drop, they say that does not make the cold the ultimate cause for a heart attack. Liu and her researchers said they can use this methodology to help prevent heart attacks in the future. Since Winnipeg has a population of over 700,000 and has very cold winters, it made it the perfect place to conduct the experiment. The next step for Lui and her team is to conduct these experiments outside of Winnipeg, and use what they find to hopefully in the future help predict heart attacks days prior to the day it really happens.  

 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/cold-weather-may-increase-heart-attack-risk-winnipeg-study-1.2540367

Opinion: 

     When I first found this article and started to read it, I became more interested as in went on mainly because I know people who have had heart attacks during the cold months of the year. I find it very interesting that the lower the temperature drops, the higher the risk of a heart attack becomes. To conduct an experiment about this for 6 years and finding a slimier pattern throughout that time, makes the data they collected seem fair and reliable. The only thing I came up with in my head to know why you're more likely to have a heart attack when its cold is because I think the cold air when in hailed may shorten your breath and not give your lung as much oxygen as normal air. That is just my thought from experience, when its colder I find it harder to breath. One question that I have which was unanswered and makes me wonder is how they can use this data to help prevent heart attacks for the future. If they can use this data to one day help find a way to prevent or give notice when a heart attack will happen, it may be very crucial to saving lives. Overall I found this article to be very interesting and gave me more knowledge about something I did not know before.