I am in the midst of reading Michael Ignatieff's glory piece given to him by Macleans. This jumped out at me.
We also have an education deficit that needs to be addressed. A staggering nine million working-age people, or 42 percent of Canadians, have literacy skills below the level considered necessary to function in society
From which I can conclude only one of two things:
1) Mr. Igantieff has his facts completely wrong because if 42% cannot function in society would have a disfunctional society - I mean 42%! Can someone please check the math!
2) Mr. Ignatieff has his facts correct and we must immediately dismantle public eduction because it is failing 42% of Canadians
You decide. I personally think the 42% is bogus.
Update: Here is another doozy:
Our citizenship expressed the ideal that all Canadians should stand equal before the trials of life and that all Canadians should benefit equally from life's opportunities
Because hard-work or intelligence should not matter - all "should stand equal before the trials of life", besides what incentive to you have to put in extra effort if "all Canadians should benefit equally from life's opportunities". This is complete nonsense. All Canadians should have equal opportunity not equal benefits - your individual actions should determine your benefits. We need to help those with less but equality of outcomes necessitates horrible outcomes for all. This was the painful truth of the 20th Century.
And just in case you think I am quoting out of context.
...the federal government could become the ultimate guarantor of income security for all Canadians
All Canadians should benefit equally and the government should provide a guaranteed income. He is a Trudeau Liberal afterall.
Comments (7)
There is a very easy solution to this conundrum Greg.
Take the Macleans to work and ask your co-workers to read the piece and tell you what it is about. I bet all could do it. Then after work go out onto the street and stop people randomly and ask them to do the same. I think the numbers would be close to 100%.
Factor in the homeless population into your numbers on a per capita basis and you should still be well ahead of Ignatief’s numbers.
Posted by Colin | August 25, 2006 11:54 AM
Posted on August 25, 2006 11:54
I’ve heard numbers similar to this before. Some of these measures not include include basic reading comprehension but also language skills (grammer, spelling, etc.) and basic mathematical skills. The test is not one’s ability to read but one’s ability to understand and complete a tax form or do basic personal banking or have the ability to comprehend other more complex forms. The ability to write proper sentences and paragraphs is also measured I believe.
Maybe I’ll do a little research and get back to you these forms of evaluations. There was an article, I believe in the Globe, about a year or two ago with a similar study done in Ontario that showed nearly half couldn’t pass including many recent high school grads. It is worrying indeed.
Posted by Michael | August 25, 2006 12:15 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 12:15
“the federal government could become the ultimate guarantor of income security for all Canadians”
Gosh, Mike, do you suppost that’s why 42% of adults don’t have literacy skills “necessary to function in society”? Because in Trudeaupia, the government takes care of you no matter what? Iggy?
Posted by Joan Tintor | August 25, 2006 12:47 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 12:47
suppost? Duh. suppose. I do have literacy skills. It’s just my typing that’s not so hot sometimes.
Posted by Joan Tintor | August 25, 2006 12:49 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 12:49
I think Iggy is referring to the 42% of Canadians that are going to put a check mark for a Conservative candidate in the next election. He assumes they must be illiterate if they don’t vote NGP.
Posted by nomdenet | August 25, 2006 2:47 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 14:47
42% sounds about right. It takes more than just literary skills to function as a constructive citizen, far to many in this country run into a simple problem and are stymied until some outside source either fixes the problem or explains it in elementary terms to them.
Posted by Durward | August 25, 2006 6:58 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 18:58
Excellent catch and analysis, G! Read this closely and see if you can spot the mathematical error:
“A staggering nine million working-age people, or 42 percent of Canadians”
Canada has a population of 32.615 million as of this moment (http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/clock/population.htm). 9 million is 27.59% of 32 million, not 42%. One explanation is that he meant to say: “42 percent of WORKING AGE Canadians…”. Another explanation is that Iggy purposely fudged it. In either case it is a serious error for a man running for the highest office in the land.
Posted by CLS | August 25, 2006 7:14 PM
Posted on August 25, 2006 19:14