Please List Improvements Liberals Made Over 13 Years

Something that's worth whining about
"All they do is whine. We are delivering."
That is Human Resources Minister Diane Finley's message to Canadians about Ottawa's hole-ridden Employment Insurance program.
The "whiners" are the three opposition parties. They want the government to provide coverage to all workers who pay into the program. Just 744,000 of the 1.4 million Canadians who have lost their jobs receive Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. The remaining 48 per cent don't meet Ottawa's eligibility criteria.
Here is what the government is "delivering":
Five weeks of additional EI benefits to workers who already qualify.
An extension in work-sharing agreements, allowing employees who split a job to use EI to supplement their wages for 14 additional weeks.
An extra $500 million for retraining.
Consultations on maternity and parental benefits for self-employed workers.
These measures are certainly welcome. But they don't address the central problem: Hundreds of thousands of workers who have contributed to the EI fund aren't eligible for benefits.
The exclusion rate is highest in regions where unemployment has traditionally been low. Applicants in Toronto, for example, need 595 hours of paid work in the preceding year to qualify for benefits (910 hours if it's their first claim). Their counterparts in Cape Breton or Newfoundland need 420 hours.
As far as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is concerned, these disparities will even themselves out as the unemployment rate climbs in Ontario. He sees no need to loosen the eligibility rules.
Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe are united in their opposition to this do-nothing stance.
But there the similarity ends.
The only opposition leader who has put forward a clear alternative to the government's position is Layton. His New Democrats want every Canadian with 360 hours of paid work to qualify for EI benefits.
The NDP has been consistent on this issue since the budget was tabled on Jan. 27. Last month, the party put a resolution before Parliament, proposing this reform. The Liberals and Bloc Québécois supported it.
The Liberals said afterward they voted for "the spirit of the motion." Ignatieff would unveil his own proposals soon.
Last week, he accused Harper of "trying to patch EI with duct tape while evading the real issue, which is eligibility." When asked what he would do, he said it was the Prime Minister's job to govern.
Ignatieff has done this repeatedly. He could have proposed an amendment to the budget, calling for specific EI reforms, but didn't. He could have endorsed the substance of the NDP motion as well as the spirit, but didn't. He could have told Canadians what changes a Liberal government would make, but hasn't.
Duceppe's objective has never varied: a better deal for out-of-work Quebecers. His demands, however, have shifted. For now, the BQ leader is supporting the NDP's 360-hour eligibility requirement.
Unfortunately, neither the New Democrats nor the Bloc have enough votes in Parliament to force this issue. That puts the onus on the Liberals to spell out what they want and what they're prepared to do about it.
This is not a time for posturing. Canadians are losing their jobs at a rate of 3,800 a day. Many paid EI premiums, believing they were entrusting their money to the government for a rainy day. Now it's pouring and they can't claim it.
Finley doesn't want to hear any more "whining" about it. Ignatieff doesn't want to commit himself to anything concrete.
The EI system isn't the only thing that's broken in Ottawa.