Consequences to every action

I have tried to instill in my kids that there are consequences to every action that you take. For example, if you stay out past curfew you lose a privilege. There is nothing sinister here, nothing to take me before a Human Right Commission; the kids knew the consequences before they committed the deed. Just to be clear, there was no hitting, verbal or physical abuse. So don't report me.

The reason for this entry in the blog is to point out that politicians do not seem interested in looking long term for consequences to their actions. Their focus is now until the next election. If consequences happen between now and then, they go into damage control mode and look for someone else to blame it on.

Case in point #1: The city of Ottawa city has a master plan for transportation that includes a plan to widen a current two lane road to four lanes. The idea is to move traffic more efficiently from the southern parts of the city toward the city core. Sounds like a good plan until you look at the consequences of the plan. The four lane section of the roadway will terminate before you get downtown. Regardless of which way you go from there, you end up back on two lane roads. All you have done is moved the congestion, not solved the problem. A second consequence is that you are streaming four lanes of traffic past one high school and 3 primary schools. Kids as young six are going to have to cross 4 lanes of arterial traffic. Can you say DANGER?

Case in point #2: The federal government is pushing forward a bill to update the Copyright Act. The Act will make criminals out of most of the population and I am not talking about illegally copying movies. According to the revised Act, you can record a TV program on one of those Personal Video Recorders (PVR) that you can rent or buy; but if you copy the program onto a VCR tape, as is one of the options on the PVR menu, you get to join Paul Bernardo in Kingston. Consequences!

Case in point #3: The city of Ottawa has a screwed up financial picture. Spending is out of control; ideas to save money flounder with the partisan attitudes of some Councillors; the Mayor is under indictment for a crime but refuses to relinquish his post until he is cleared of the issue; Councillors and the Mayor are constantly taking potshots at each other thus poisoning the atmosphere at city hall; and the civil servants are milking the system for every advantage they can get. What to do? Oh, what to do? I know, says Councillor Cullen, let's blame in on the province!! The province is not clean on the issue (see case in point #4) but the city's mess is the city's mess.

Case in point #4: The Province of Ontario is, I believe, the only province left that forces the municipalities to live only on the taxes they raise from property owners. That system is broken and has led to major hassles for fast growing cities and towns with ageing infrastructure. The system needs to be fixed and not just ignored.

There are literally thousands of examples to illustrate my premise. You have any?