Man bites meter

On December 5th, I wrote about a transportation consultation/survey that I attended at Ottawa City Hall. In the entry I mentioned that answers given by the downtown core attendees seemed to be unanimous that the cure to Ottawa's transportation woes was to charge road tolls and higher parking fees to those gas guzzling, pollution spewing, grid-lock causing commuters that drove in from the (ugh) suburbs.

Guess what, the city is raising parking fees to $3/hour and eliminating free parking at meters for weekends and evenings. You would think that the centre town folks would be ecstatic including their generally left of centre politicians.

But no. Clive "I cycle to work" Doucet calls it a bone head move. "It's out of control," bellows he. He argues that parking meters were intended to keep traffic moving. His logic befuddles the best of us. I thought that Clive had always told us that we needed public transit to keep the traffic flowing.

"People are just not going to come downtown," cries Diane Holmes. George Bedard calls it "negative, bull-headed". He goes on to say, "If they want to kill downtown, they're certainly doing it."

I have a solution. Just eliminate those pesky polluting buses from the downtown core. They just impede traffic flow when I am looking for a parking spot. Plus those darn bus stops take up so much prime parking space on the roads. Finally, we subsidize the transit system to the tune of 50% of the cost to run it. Take the savings from the bus system and plough it into subsidized parking fees.

Hey, who says that the suburbanites can't come up with ideas for the urbanites?

Give me a call sometime, Clive... we'll do tofu!

Catching up before Christmas

This is probably my last post before Christmas so I thought I would just comment on a few things in the news.

I decided not to weigh in on the Elmwood School Silver Bells fiasco. I would, however, like to point out something to those progressive persons who believe in inclusiveness. Inclusiveness, the way you go about it, is really exclusiveness. When you change the lyrics of a Christmas song (by the way Mr. L Green of CFRA, Silver Bells is a Christmas song not a Christmas Carol) to make non-Christians feel included, you run the risk of excluding Christians.

Second, there was an article in the Ottawa paper the other day that reported that a neurologist was suspended from practice for a year for calling a rather corpulent patient "fat". I do not condone that type of behaviour but it did remind me of an incident years ago when I worked in a hospital. About 7 PM one weekend evening the emergency department called in a Plastic Surgeon to sew up the wrists of a women who had tried to commit suicide. This was her third slashing and the third time that this particular surgeon had been called away from his dinner and family. He was pissed.

I remember him looking the women straight in the eye and yelling at her to do it right the next time. He showed her the correct technique to get at the artery. While I did not condone his behaviour either, I do know that that women straightened up and became a nurse, working ultimately at that same hospital.

Sometimes a good kick in the ass can be good medicine, too.

Blogger apologises to PM Harper

On December 17, 2007, I admit that I made a terrible error. Trying to be typically glib, as blogger usually are, I quipped that Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper), also known as CGG, was a little less than forthcoming on the AECL isotope controversy. I now know that I was incorrect when I gave the impression that AECL did anything improper or that the head of AECL, Michael Burns, was fired over the issue. For any reader who was offended, and I am sure there were many, by my comments; I apologize.

So let me set the record straight. Michael Burns is the greatest AECL chairman's ever. No one is, was, or will ever be, better than he. He must be, because after he left AECL, due, I am sure, to the undeserved pressure put on him (and I am certain, on his family and various household pets) by this blogger, his other company, NaiKun Wind Energy Group, was awarded $10,000,000 in grants by the CGG.

The fact that NaiKun has a Boardroom filled with well connected Cons, including two former assistants to PM Harper is just a coincidence. Anyway it is a private company and can have anyone it wants on its board! Not like that Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) that is filled with Liberal hacks according to PM Harper.

As further proof that everything is on the up and up at NaiKun, I point to their own Sara MacIntyre, who used to be a policy researcher in Harper's office when in he was Opposition Leader. One of Sara's specialities was Indian Affairs Canada (Did I mention that NaiKun is getting ready to do a big off-shore wind farm deal with the Haida peoples of BC?). She left Harper's office to become BC director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation; that dedicated group of tax-fighters that, for some reason, sprouts a huge number of Con candidates. Sara plays a selfless role in protecting the environment with NaiKun.

Enough of all that. The purpose of this entry was to apologize to Canada's Greatest Government. I stand in shame and will fully accept a teardown from John "the screamer" Baird, the federal environment minister, as my punishment.

Big tax increases to come

Hey, you heard it here first!

There is a note on the MPAC (Municipal Property Assessment Corporation), the folks who establish the value of your property for municipal tax purposes, web site that reads:

"The assessment update of all properties in Ontario was cancelled for 2006 and 2007... Although the assessment updates for 2006 and 2007 have been cancelled, MPAC continues to inspect properties, update values and improve the accuracy of its information."

That means that our city councillors are going to stick us with a minimum 4.9% (probably about 6% when the dust settles) municipal tax increase in 2008 based on 2005 assessment values.

MPAC will report the updated assessments in 2008. You can expect that assessments, based on real estate sales reports over the past 2 years, will have increased by a minimum of 10 or 20%. Therefore, if your home is worth the Ottawa average of $250,000, your taxes will rise by about $400 in 2009.

That's a 15% increase in revenue without even changing the tax rate!

So here is the bottom line as I see it. City Council will bite the bullet in 2008 with a whopper of a tax increase (largest in their history) that will raise your taxes by about $180. Then in 2009 and possibly 2010, due to increased assessments from MPAC, they will freeze taxes at zero percent...

Just in time for the next election!

Je me souviens!

Damn, I missed a meeting with Maria McRea

Ward 16 Councillor McRea held a town hall meeting this week to discuss the widening of Prince of Wales Avenue from Woodroffe to Fisher. I wanted to go but got held up at work. Was I working late, you might ask? No, Councillor McRea meeting to get citizen's input was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Good timing if you want to hear from the mases. Even better timing if you don't!

I wanted to bring to Maria's attention the fact that, if you twin Prince of Wales up to Fisher Ave, you do not clear up traffic problems... you just move them around. Also, if you drive the Prince of Wales traffic on to Fisher Avenue, the increased traffic passes by, or close to, four... count them... four schools, including three junior schools. This is a tragedy waiting to happen.

The problem with the whole mess is that it is a half-assed planning job. You twin Prince of Wales to Fisher but not the rest of the way to Baseline Road. As a result, you will move the traffic onto Fisher, which is a four lane road, but when they get to Dynes Road they get funnelled back into two lanes until they hit Baseline. Then they go back to two lanes through the Experimental Farm all the way to Carling Ave.

Sorry I did not make the meeting, Maria. Maybe next time you can make it at 10:30 when I take my coffee break.

I hope that you take note of my concern.

The Nuclear Conundrum

A conundrum is defined as "an intricate and difficult problem". Such is the case with the recent series of Canadian Political Bloopers tied to AECL, CNSC, Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper) and MDS Nordion.

The Atomic Energy Commission (AECL) is a crown corporation who designs and builds nuclear reactors for distribution around the world. They also do research into reactor technology and maintains a couple of their own reactors in Chalk River, Ontario. CNSC is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose job it is to oversee AECL and to safeguard Canadians from nuclear accidents. Canada's Greatest Government (CGG) is... well, you know who they are.

MDS Nordion used to be part of AECL until it was sold off in 1991 (Mulroney era) to Medical Data Science, an Ontario based private company. Nordion buys radioactive isotopes from AECL, refines and packages them for sale (used in mostly diagnostic imaging and some treatment) across the world. About 93% of shipments are exports from Canada, according to Nordion.

OK, now that we know the major players, let's begin the tale.

AECL has a contract to deliver isotopes to Nordion. At this time, AECL uses a 50 year old reactor called the NRU for this job. This is the only job assigned to the NRU. Problem is that the NRU has some problems, including: in case of earthquake or terrorist attack, the NRU's cooling waters could leak out and set off a chain reaction that could wipe out multiple square miles of land and people, al la Chernobyl. Well, why not fix the reactor, you ask? Enter the CNSC.

The CNSC has been trying to get AECL to fix the problems for a couple of years but AECL keeps putting it off. In November of this year, AECL shuts down the reactor for some maintenance (not including the CNSC-required fixes) and CNSC jumps on the time frame and demands that AECL implement the fixes or they will not be re-licenced (another role of the CNSC) to bring the reactor back on line. In steps MDS Nordion.

With the reactor down, the supply of isotope flowing to Nordion begins to dwindle. Some of these isotopes have shelf lives of only days. MDS Nordion, and its customers, is crying that people are dying world wide because procedures and treatment are being delayed and cancelled due the shortages. In steps CGG.

"Safety be damned," bellows the government. "The CNSC are just a bunch of Liberal hacks, anyway," they continue to bray. "Get the reactor back on line and get those isotopes flowing!"

Yippee! The government, whose benches must be filled with nuclear scientists, as well as multiple space cadets, has come to the rescue of the downtrodden and the dying! All hail the CGG!

But hang on a bit... there seems a little bit more to this than meets the press. Seems that the problem is not the NRU or the CNSC, the problem is more to do with Nordion and AECL.

When MDS bought Nordion from AECL, the Mulroney government decided that, to sweeten the deal, two new reactors were to be built by AECL, to replace the ageing NRU. As part of the deal, the new reactors would be owned by Nordion! As well, AECL would look after (store, really) the waste products of the isotope production. AECL embarked on a plan to build the two new reactors called Maple for Nordion. Long story short - the Maples don't produce sap... they do not work. AECL has designed a reactor that is inherently unsafe and, having recognized that, Nordion sued the government, received $10 million in compensation and AECL had to take over ownership of the Maples.

So let's get this straight. AECL decides that they do not need to perform the safety upgrades to its NRU reactor in order to comply with the licence they have from the CNSC, the commission whose job it is to ensure that nuclear safety is job #1 at AECL. AECL are using the 50 year old NRU to deliver on their contract because the replacement reactors they designed do not work. Nordion and their customers complain when the reactor remains off line, with a campaign of "shock and ouch"! (It is never mentioned that a major complaint by Nordion is that their fourth quarter profit is taking a hit.) CGG steps up to the table and declares that they know better than the CNSC and the Liberal hacks that run it. (No mention is made of the fact that the head of the CNSC claims that she has no political affiliation and that before heading CNSC she has an illustrious career in the public service.) The NRU must come on line without its upgrades and start producing money making... oops, I mean, life saving isotopes for MDS Nordion.

Wow, that CGG! What a bunch of take-charge people. They put those stupid CNSC people in their place and then...

They fired the head of AECL.

What to do about the Mulroney misunderstanding

First let me say that I was disappointed, but not surprised. with Brian's performance this week at the Ethics Committee. He could have simply stated that he did a stupid thing in accepting the cash payments, apologized for being so stupid and then stated, correctly, that this is a personal issue between Schrieber and himself.

After all the police have looked into this thing and found that nothing illegal has taken place... and they are probably correct.

But what did Brian do? He slighted every person he could think of, told the committee that they were sold a basket of dog crap by Schrieber and accused Schrieber of everything from lying to having weapons of mass destruction.

Mulroney's appearance before the committee took four hours, in which he lectured rather than answering questions. He could have done it all in 10 seconds by saying," I was wrong, I apologize and I am taking Schrieber to court to clear my name." Then, if the committee asked any more questions, he would then answer with, "I cannot comment on the issue as it is now before the courts!"

Hey... it works all the time for politicians.

I have a bone to pick with "Eye on Ottawa"

After the last municipal election a group was formed to be a "watchdog" on the current Ottawa city council. I offered to join the team but was rebuffed because, as I was not a candidate in the election, I am a nobody. It is kind of interesting that when the team formed in 2006, there were a whole host of names of defeated candidates. Here we are in 2007, one year later, and the membership is one. Luc Lapointe was defeated in the downtown Somerset Ward (14), which is the 25 year (and counting) fiefdom of Diane Holmes.

I am less annoyed that I was not good enough for the "Eye on Ottawa"; I am more annoyed at all those former candidates that dropped away from the organization. If you are going to be a candidate for a council seat you had better be more than "just a candidate". You had better be dedicated enough to stick around, after your election loss, to act as a critic.

None of the original members of "Eye on Ottawa" who have since dropped out had better put their names forward at the next election. They have not earned the right.

But with all this said, that is NOT the bone I have to pick with the "Eye on Ottawa".

The "Eye", in its latest news release (December 13, 2008), slams the Ottawa Mayor for not delivering on his "Zero means Zero" election promise. Our "all wise" city council, not giving two hoots about fiscal discipline, is about to deliver a 4.9% property tax increase, plus a 2% surcharge for infrastructure maintenance, plus a 7.5% increase in bus fairs, abd including a 9% police budget increase... and they are not yet finished the process.

If the council had listened to Mayor Larry, and I do admit that Larry's message was not very succinct, they would have taken some firm stances on items such as the police budget and city staffing levels and forced some of the costs out of the system to save taxes. Could they have gotten to zero? Bloody right they could have!

The "Eye on Ottawa", and it appears that there is only one "eye", should be slamming councillors and backing the mayor rather than the other way around.

Mulroney got it partially right.

When Brian Mulroney took the witness chair at the Ethics Committee today I noted that he passed on the offer to be sworn in. It was his choice but I wonder why he decided against it and then launched into a tirade of accusations that Mr. Schrieber lied, even though he, Schrieber, was voluntarily under oath.

But that is not important, it is just a question.

The real issue on the table is why Mulroney's former talking head, Lucky Luc, maintained that after Mulroney left office he was in dire financial straights and needed the $300,000, or $225,000 depending on who you believe, to keep his family happy and himself in Guccis? Now it turns out that Mulroney did not need the money at all. In fact the first $100,000 went into a New York safety deposit box and was used to pay the expenses for his international travel. It seems that of whatever money he received from Schrieber, he only used about $120,000 of it. Where is the rest of the money?

Also, Mulroney could not remember if he filed a US tax return on the $100,000 he stashed in New York. Maybe someone should look into that? And did he use any of that money to pay expenses that he claimed against his income tax here in Canada. Remember, it is illegal to bring more than $10,000 into Canada without declaring it, including if you wire it into Canada or write yourself a cheque.

What Mulroney did get correct is that when he first met Schrieber, he, Schreiber, was a well known business man with a large arms manufacturer and not subject to German legal charges as he is today. True enough; but Brian is not a stupid person. Why didn't his antennae go up when Schrieber offered him cash in small bills?

The soap opera continues.

Liberal media? Bull feathers!

For years the Cons have been yelling and screaming that there is a liberal media in this country. Even the much-revered, voice of reason (copyright: L Green), L. Green at CFRA constantly spouts off about the commie-pinko mainstream media... those liberal-thinking, cappuccino-sucking, Birkenstock-wearing reporters and media outlets that are not part of CNN or working out of the "Broadcast Mega-Centre of the World (copyright: CFRA)

So why is it that a great majority of the media seem to think that Mulroney's crap does not stink and that Schreiber should not be believed. I would have thought that a liberal media's eye teeth would have been bared trying to go for Mulroney's jugular.

Why, for example, does the Ottawa Citizen buff-boy, Dan Gardner, suggest that the $300,000 cash payment Mulroney received from Schreiber shortly after leaving office and apparently negotiated while still in office is, "greasy and dubious but it barely raises the needle of public significance above zero." Sound liberal to you?

How about the liberal (must be 'cause he is with the CBC) Rex Murphy who asks, "Why are we listening to Schreiber?" Hey Rex, did someone forget to mention the $300,000 to you?

With a few notable exceptions, the media, who ignored this story for years, has rolled out the red carpet for the former Con PM. I hope that he does not disappoint them when he testifies on Thursday at the Commons Ethics Committee. I would hate to see so many pundits simultaneously swallow their chewin' tobacco.

And while we are awaiting Mr. Mulroney's testimony, I have a few questions that the Committee might want to ponder about asking the Great Man (copyright: B Mulroney) For example, "Mr. Mulroney, if you were so hard up for cash at the end of your tenure as PM, why did you not approach any number of companies to sit on their Boards of Directors and have them loan you $300,000?" I bet you that Quebecor would have helped out?

How about asking, "Given your poor state of finances, perhaps a multi-million home in Montreal, with a $600,000 face lift to it, might have been a bit extravagant expense and perhaps you would have been better off to use the $300,000 from Schreiber to put food on the table while living in subsidized housing?"

Better yet, let's get the non-mainstream media to ask the questions. There must one of you that would like to know the answers?

Larry's charges?

An interesting turn of events here in the nation's capital. Mayor Larry was being investigated by the OPP for trying to entice a fellow mayoralty candidate to drop out the race. Up until now the big slam against His Honour was the $30,000 he purportedly offered to the diminutive Terry. Of lesser importance was an apparent offer to get him a seat on the Parole Board.

The charges are in and they read as follows:

1.  Pretending to have influence with the government or
   a minister, contrary to Section 121(1)(d)(ii); and
2.  Negotiating an appointment contrary to Section 125(b)

Seems that the $30 grand issue has disappeared.

What is most interesting is the second of the two charges. Mayor Larry, it is alleged, negotiated an appointment. Even though the negotiation ended with a obvious no (because Terry did not get an appointment), who did Larry negotiate with? The Eastern Ontario Con responsible for patronage, or whatever new term that the Cons have for patronage, was John "the screamer" Baird, the illustrious Minister of the Environment. He says he never discussed the issue with Mayor Larry. If Baird is telling the truth, I wonder who Larry did negotiate with?

By the way, before John became Minister of Green Stuff, he was the President of the Treasury Board. He was in that position when the Mayor Larry misunderstanding was alleged to have take place. Who, I wonder, was the Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board. It is not possible that it could have been Ottawa Con Pierre P, whose name has obliquely been linked to this misunderstanding.

Hhmm?

Larry's been charged

Mayor Larry O'Brien has been charged with two criminal counts with respect to the Kilrea misunderstanding. Should he step aside as mayor until this case winds its way through the courts?

According to the voice of raisins (correct spelling), Michael Harris at CFRA, he should resign. On his program this afternoon, Harris, cited case histories from Lower Podunk and East-Central Mongolia, to support his assertion that Larry is guilty until he is proved innocent.

I disagree, as usual. What Larry does is entirely up to Larry and only Larry.

While on the Larry subject, does anyone else notice the number of Cons being mentioned in this investigation.

John "the screamer" Baird's lunch habits are up for examination. He was apparently having lunch with a constituent at Hy's when he was seen in the presence of Mayor Larry. How come we can't know the identity of the constituent? And who paid for lunch?

Pierre Poilievre's communication guy's name has been raised as someone who might know something in the case.

Now it appears that Lisa McLeod, the mighty Con MPP, may be an accessory after the fact in this affair. According to the Ottawa Citizen, she knew about a $20 or 30,000 offer to Kilrea by Mayor Larry, but forgot to mention it.

I wonder if the Ottawa Citizen has calculated how many extra newspapers have been purchased since they broke this fetid story?

$3.8 million goes poof!

There was a tiny little item in the Ottawa Citizen on Thursday. A total of 50 words on the second page of the City section. Seems that the City of Ottawa has not been paying OHIP fees for their 1,900 transit workers. That amounts to $800,000 per year and a back payment for four years of worker paid premiums to the tune of $3.4 million!

Now just hang on a second! This payment is due because an arbitrator ruled it to be so. But unless the collective agreement with transit workers is the most lucrative one in the whole wide world, this is surely a mistake on behalf of the arbitrator.

On the OHIP web site FAQ section there is a question asked and answered:

Q. If a collective agreement states that the employer would cover OHIP premiums, must the employer pay for the Ontario Health Premium?
A. Unlike the old OHIP premium, the new health premium would be a tax on individuals under the Ontario Income Tax Act. Unless employers have bargained to pay employees' taxes, we would not expect that this charge has been anticipated in collective bargaining agreements.
(http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/english/publications/healthpremium/healthfaqemp.html)

This means that unless the city has agreed in a collective agreement to pay the TAXES of the transit workers, they are not required to pay the OHIP premiums, As the answer says, the premium is treated as a tax on the individual.

So either the arbiter is wrong or the city was pretty dumb when it came to negotiations. Either way, the taxpayers are screwed again.

Watson gets it right, while McGuinty gets it wrong

Jim Watson told the Ottawa City Council to get their act together on transit so that the provincial government can release promised funds to them. Jim got that one right.

Ottawa's transit plan is not a plan at all. It is a wish list masquerading as a plan. As is typical of this bunch of expired-best-before-date politicians, not one of them can see the city as a city. They still see it as an assembly of fiefdoms. They each care only what is good for their area and not what is good for the city as a whole.

For example, why do they still maintain that Riverside South needs LRT? To connect the LRT from South Keys to Riverside South means building the line around the airport, without connecting to the airport, a distance of a bunch of kilometres of barren wasteland devoid of LRT commuters. Why not express bus the Riverside South folks to Barrhaven (via the proposed Strandherd Bridge, thus making it part of the transit plan) or to South Keys. Or how about an express bus route along Riverside to feed them to Billings Bridge.

In the meantime, Dalton McGuinty blew the city off with his refusal to grant any special funding or taxing power to the city to address the rebuilding of the rapidly deteriorating municipal infrastructure. Is it going to take the collapse of a bridge or two to clear the view toward the problem?

Psst, Dalton. I have a suggestion for you. Cut the PST by 3% and give the right to raise taxes to the cities. You will look like a god when compared to PM Harper who only cut the GST by 2%. Then tell the cities that they are on their own for municipal infrastructure. If they want it, they pay for it.

Running a city, a province or, for that matter, a country is not rocket science. You look after the basic needs of the country, the basic needs of the people and the infrastructure needed to support the country and the people. It only gets complex when the politicians begin to play their silly games.

My consulting bills will be on their way to the city and the province next week!

Select 1,2 or 3, unless you don't want to

I attended a consultation on Ottawa's Transportation Master Plan last night. The TMP, as it is called, is the blueprint that will carry (literally) Ottawans into 2031. That's well after I am dead and my body blown up by my kids.

There were questions about Light Rail (LRT) versus Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). There were questions about traffic congestion, how to clear it and, more importantly, how to pay for it.

But was I the only person in the room to roll their eyes at the way this consultation was carried out?

The session deteriorated from the very beginning. Two, count them, two City Councillors left the budget consultations to glad hand the crowd and tell us what great work they were doing. I would have preferred that Maria and Alex had stayed at the budget consult. It was also quite obvious, from the number of people that Maria recognized in the crowd of 77 or so, that this was not a random sampling of Ottawans.

Then on to the questions. An earnest pollster gave a bit of background to each question and then asked the assembled group to press 1,2 or 3 on our wireless keypads to give our choice.

It started with one guy who asked "what if I don't like the options you propose?" He wanted to answer the poll question with another question. Rather than the moderator saying "suck it up buddy and answer the question", she allowed the whole blessed two hours to turn into a criticism of everything from whether or not biodiesel fumes were safe to breathe to "we need a new poll question to determine if people think that this whole poll was comparing one fruit to another or not". What a waste of time.

One good "extra" question that was posed was "where do you live... urban or rural?" The answer to this was the most revealing of the whole tawdry affair and it was absolutely amazing to me that the pollsters did not have it on their list before they were nudged by an audience member. The majority of the attendees, who live in the core of the city, want commuters from outside the core to pay extra taxes and tolls for the right to drive to work or shop downtown. They could give a tinker's damn for the needs or realities of suburban and rural residents. I wonder what they would think if the Canadian government moved all of their offices to Barrhaven, Munster and Orleans and they, the cool and sophisticated core dwellers, had to commute to the burbs? Want to bet that the poll results would be different.

The city might also want to take a second look at Pace Consulting, the company that was hired to run this "consultation". They covered themselves by saying that this was a first of its kind consultation in Ottawa but does that mean that we have to pay them to test out their techniques? According to their web site, www.paceconsulting.ca, they are very experienced strategic planners with clients like: Ontario Hydro, Medtronic, TD Securities and many other names familiar to this blogger. I suggest that Pace regroup to get their message together before the next consultation.

The gnashing of teeth in Ottawa

The gnashing of teeth, ripping out of hair and general cries of anguish are being heard all across Ottawa these days. KarlHans is a pariah, Brian's crap does not stink and Luc is not abandoning a sinking ship... he has time problems.

Lowell Green, the jovial CFRA host, says that he is tired of the whole affair and that it is old news... so drop it and get over it. Seems that most of his brain dead Green Beanies agree. After all, the RCMP found no crime.

Where was this kind of logic from good old Lowell when Gomery was digging in the dirt and not coming up with anything against the Liberals?

Conservatives are a complex beast. The Mulroney Misunderstanding is old news, even though he was awarded $2.1 million of our money after making misleading comments about his relationship with Schreiber. Drop it because it is not important or it's old news? Or is just embarrassing for Cons to find out that they have problems in their camp also?

What do you think, dear Cons, the Mayor Larry bribery allegations are old news and should be dropped also? What about the Air India enquiry... old news? How about the Pickton trial?

OK, maybe Pickton stretches the point but do you get it? Old news is no news is the mantra of the Conservatives only when they are on the receiving end of the stick.

Suck it up lads and ladies. When the Libs are back in power you get to stick it to them again!