Harper, wife on different pagesLaureen joins literacy crusade
On Monday, Tories cut reading programSep. 29, 2006. 05:26 AM
OTTAWA—Literacy — it's all about reading, writing and getting your story straight. Or so it seemed this week in Ottawa. On Monday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government axed $17.7 million from the human resources department's Adult Learning and Literacy Skills Program as part of a wave of spending cuts.Yesterday, Harper's wife Laureen was on the streets of Ottawa, promoting literacy. Clad in a yellow T-shirt and handing out newspapers in the drizzle as part of a CanWest media company promotion of child literacy, it seemed that perhaps Laureen Harper hadn't seen the memo about the literacy cuts earlier in the week.Ditto for Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie, who coughed up a $20 literacy donation when he came across his boss's wife on the street in front of the Parliament buildings.Treasury Board President John Baird, who announced the cuts on Monday, was also part of the CanWest street campaign. "It appears that the Prime Minister and his wife are reading from different pages these days," Bonnie Brown, the Liberal MP from Oakville, said yesterday in the Commons."Now that the Prime Minister's wife has publicly demonstrated the error of her husband's government's ways, will the Prime Minister immediately restore funding to literacy programs?" The CanWest promotion is called "Raise a Reader" and is aimed at improving literacy in children.
The Conservative cuts are directed at adult-literacy efforts.
So the difference, it seems, revolves around when the government should pay for people to learn to read and write.
An Internet Fisherman who uses barbless hooks and this one dimensional world as a way of releasing the frustrations of daily life. This is my pond. You are welcome only if you are civil and contribute something to the ambiance. I reserve the right to ignore/publish/reject anon comments.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Don't Schools Teach Children To Read
I thought that is what they are supposed to do and if that is true then why do we need Adult Literacy programs. I can see ESL funding and would make it mandatory for all immigrants.
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