Does orange paper sound to you like one of those things, such as the NDP’s Halloweenish colours, that should have been thrown out at the end of the 1960s? Dubbed the “Orange Paper” for its Austin Powers-eque cover, was a commendable attempt at a comprehensive review of Canada’s welfare state under then-minister of national health and welfare Marc Lalonde. Some blame the unaffordable failure of the welfare state on the alleged shredding of social programs by every incumbent from Brian Mulroney to Stephen Harper and even Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. Yet the welfare state was in trouble from the outset, and has resisted all attempts to make it work since, even by generations of dedicated, compassionate people capable of writing blank cheques on the taxpayers’ account. If that doesn’t tell us anything about the problematic dynamics of social programs, it sure tells us something about ourselves.

Source: National Post August 23, 2016 18:45 UTC