Hey Dennis,

Good to hear from you.  Well, the vote here certainly indicated that
people were sick and tired of the National party and it's cold-hearted,
mean-spirited approach to government.  This is a small
country and there is not quite the same distribution of wealth that
you find in other places.  Basically, most people live a lot closer
to the edge and get by with less than people do in Canada.  So, as
people saw a small group of people taking more and more of a rather
small pie, they got angry.  It was certainly becoming a system where
"the rich get rich and the poor get poorer".

Social services were turning into a purely capitalistic enterprise -
if you wanted some type of social service, the idea was that you went
out and found the money yourself in the community.  If the community
couldn't pay, then that was an indication that whatever the service
was, it wasn't needed or wanted badly enough because if it were
really valuable, then people would pay for it.

Anyway, we are hopeful that Labour, and their governing partner
Alliance (somewhat left of Labour), and possibly the Green party
(we're still awaiting the counting of 'special' votes to see what
will happen with them) will be able to make some real changes to how
things work.  For example, if a student takes out a student loan,
they are charged high interest payments (higher than the mortgage
rate!) throughout the time they are still students.  One of the first
things Labour has said it will do is make the student loan
interest-free while the student is still in school.  That should be
good for us.

end
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Dennis R.

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   Where a great proportion of the people are suffered to languish
        in helpless misery,
   That country must be ill-policed and wretchedly governed:
   A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

   -- Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1770
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Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8
voice:    (416) 978-7567
fax: (416) 978-2087
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