the anti-love letter

Tired of hearing about how crappy New Brunswick is? Me too. Why are practices that seem so logical as to be automatic, entirely--systematically--overlooked by our Conservative government? (Is the answer in the statement?) Thankfully Lord finally called an election (er, well, he sort of did). I’ll be writing all candidates with a short concise list of the many ways the Conservatives have turned our province into an extremely unwelcoming place to live--for everyone.

1. Instead of legislating mandatory pay equity, they instead proposed a five-year “voluntary” plan, in which businesses can opt to pay women their fair share, if they want to (equal pay for equal labour). The government (a new one) will review the situation in five years to see if anyone actually changed their policies, once all momentum has been lost.

2. Planned Parenthood has just announced that after 34 years, it will be forced to suspend all services in September due to lack of funding, and a lack of doctors to keep the Second Story Health Clinic running. This one makes me sigh very exhaustedly and deeply. Why is women’s health so completely undervalued? no midwives, no abortions, no clinics, no free condoms, no free paps, and hell no there won’t be a free HPV vaccine...

3. Apparently, Saint John has the highest percentage of lone parents living in poverty (60%) of all Canadian cities! Most of them are single mothers, a huge percentage are teen mother’s who are unable to complete their high school education due to lack of daycare, and integrated programs in the schools to assist pregnant/parenting students. 
See Influencing Healthy Public Policy For Pregnant And Parenting Young Women and Closing the Gaps: Ensuring Pregnant Teens and Young Women Succeed

4. Stop violating the Canada Health Act: PROVIDE abortion services. FUND abortions. It’s really that straightforward.

Funny how all our problems seem to be related.