Bridge over troubling waters

Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Moving thing from from A to B, has announced, during a Montreal area by-election that the feds will build a $1 billion bridge across the St Lawrence River. Bribery, you ask? Pandering, you wonder? NOPE. Just good planning. If the bridge wasn't announced right away then it would delay the 10-15 years project by a few days. Hypocrisy, you muse? Right.

How stupid do politicians think we are? Well, quite frankly, we are that stupid. Cannon knows how to make hay when the sun shines. And we are the cows that eat up that hay.

So $1 billion for a Montreal bridge. There was no mention in Cannon's release about the province or city contributing to the cost. Just the feds - by themselves.

Wouldn't it be nice if the feds could extend that largess to Ottawa, the nations' capital? We have a $4-5 billion LRT/transit plan that is designed to draw us into the 20th century, at minimum, and possible into the 21st. So far the feds have earmarked $200 million for the project. We need a byelection in Ottawa to get that contribution up. I suggest that Pierre Poillievre, the Perfect PP, resign to trigger that by-election. Then Lawrence can dump some needed cash into Ottawa.

Dog-gone it!

The nightly news cast sounded like this: "There was a altercation today at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk that led to two women beating each other to death with curling irons. Our reporter, Viviane Mouthoff was a witness to the event and files this story." I am sure that the story was a good one, considering that the reporter was a witness, but a large question looms. If the reporter was a witness, why did she not put down her video camera and try to break up the fight before both women died of curls and flips?

This brings me to a sad story in the local Ottawa news rags. "Beloved dog in SUV when it was stolen." An 83 year old man went to a store and parked his car, with his dog inside. When he returned, his SUV was missing... so was his dog. The man collapsed later due to the stress of the incident. The man's son was reported as theorizing that the vehicle was stolen by professionals who stripped it for parts. "...the dog is probably dead", states the son.

Oops. The reality of the story is that the man forgot where he parked the vehicle and it sat in the shopping centre parking lot for four days... with the dog inside. This SUV had very unique plates so it should not have been difficult to find if someone had taken the time to look. It must have been visible for three evenings in that parking lot.

This is a sad story in many ways. The fact that an 83 year old man forgot where he parked is tragic. But the real tragedy is that two reporters and the man's son did not even investigate the scene of the incident before chalking it up to theft. Is that objective reporting? Was the theft reported to the police? Did the police even bother to investigate or go to the scene?

I am glad the man's dog was returned safe, if not a little thinner. I am more concerned with the low level of professionalism of our so-called journalists.

PP self-promotes himself into a hole

A local free rag, the Barrhaven Independent, on page 2 of the April 15 edition, has a news story entitled "Olympic Games reflect Canada's achievements". The article is by Pierre Poilievre, the dynamic MP for this area, a man who never misses a chance to shove both his feet into his mouth.

In 1984, Canada won 44 Olympic medals (OK the Russians were not there.). In 1996, we won 22 medals. In 2008... bupkis to date. According to PP's logic, Canada is worse off today than in 1996. Strange coming from a government mouth-piece.... but then again you can't argue with his conclusion.

His arguments are laughable in the article. For example, "Canadians are more unified than it has been in the past forty years", says PP. Forty years ago, and I know that he was not born at that time, Quebec was our major unity problem. Today, add Alberta, BC and Newfoundland to the list. There are even pockets in Ontario who want out. Now that's unity!

Military funding has gone up and the debt has dropped. But are Canadians better off now than 2 years ago? Has homelessness disappeared or child poverty been wiped out? Is there a plan to revitalize the crumbling infrastructure of our cities and towns? Is unemployment a thing of the past? Do the Russians care about our claim to the north? Are the three icebreakers you promised ready for delivery or have you reneged on that promise? Where are the new helicopters you promised? How much money are you investing to control the pine beetle infestation in BC. Are we on the verge of returning to fiscal deficits?

I could go on but what's the use. Politicians do and say what will get then elected and then re-elected. They do not give a hoot about Canadians as a whole. Pander to the influential... that is what it is all about.

It is time to think about voting for independent candidates in the next election. Screw party politics. It is time to strike back at the political parties.

Olympic support is a joke

Let me say right at the top that I know that our athletes in Beijing are trying their best. I know that there are only tenth and hundredth of second between first and fourth. Don't tell me that I do not support the athletes - because I do.

What I do not support is the way Harpo's government and many governments before this one treat the whole idea of Olympic sports.

Let me lay one fact on the table that seems to have eluded the bright spots on the hill. THE OLYMPICS ARE NO LONGER AMATEUR! The notion of amateur Olympics disappeared years ago, but no one in Ottawa noticed... or cared.

Kobe Bryant is in Beijing playing the same game that he gets paid millions to play. Roger Federer and Williams sisters are playing the same tennis game that they earn millions playing outside of the Olympics. Australia gives scholarships to athletes to spend time at the Olympic training facilities in Melbourne. I visited the Melbourne site a few years back and witnessed kids as young as 8 or 10 bouncing and flipping on gymnastic mats.

China identifies kids at the age of four and trains them at government expense until they win Olympic Gold.

Canada gives up to $20,000 to a very select athletes and tells them... good luck. By a very few, I mean that the maximum stipend goes to less than 500 Canadians. Most get little or no financial support. Those same Canadian athlete then go to their local olympic size pool to practice. NOT! Ottawa, the nation's capital, has no facility like this. There is no inside track facility (and don't try to convince me about the joke at Lansdowne Park). So off the athletes go to seek facilities in foreign territories where $20,000 is the cost of rent.

According to Sport Canada, they spend $23 million to support 1,900 athletes (that works out to about #12,000 on average). But the Sport Canada budget is over $111 million. Where doe the rest of the money go? Could it be to support an entire building dedicated to the beauracracy of Canadian sport? How about international travel for non-athletes to warm desitination in the winter months to view "best practices"? How about just pissing it away?

There is an article labelled news in the current Barrhaven Independent, the organ of the less-than-independent Con-sniffer, Jeffery Morris, that quotes the Perfect PP as saying "Olympic Games reflect Canada's achievements". How right he is... Canada hasn't won a gold, silver or bronze medal; or even Miss Congeniality.

Maybe the person at the right should be made head of Sport Canada?

Time to fight back?

On July 10, 2008 the price of oil peaked at $146/barrel. On that date the average price of gasoline in Ontario was $1.36/litre.

On August 12, 2008, the price of crude was $115/bl (a drop of $31/bl or 21% from July 10). The average price of Ontario gasoline on August 12 was $1.25 (a drop of $0.11 or 8.5% from July 10).

Can you say screwed? Vote Harper! NOT!

(all figures from gasbuddy.com)

The Bubble in Alberta

I lived in Alberta in the 70s and 80s. I went there just before the economy began booming and left just after it went bust. Ah, good times. I went back there recently and it came back to me why I left.

Calgary isn't a city... it is a parking lot. Things are so widely spread that you enter the city limits before you leave the country. Like it's sister city, Houston, if you live in the northwest, you have to pack a lunch to get to the southeast. There are very few local stores and almost no local pubs or restaurants in the newer sections of the city. Want a loaf of bread? Be prepared to travel for 10 minutes to the closest big box store.

But it is not just the travel time or size of the city. Just try to find a bottle of aspirin in a London Drug store. Hint? It is just past the electronics section between youth clothing and lumber.

What I experienced in the past is beginning all over again. I talked with a fellow in the north of the city. His house has been on the market for almost 3 months. His asking price is above what he paid for it but not by much. He admits that if he has to, he will take a loss just to unload the property. The real estate market is slowing to a crawl. I wonder if it will implode.

The guy driving the F350 at the FasGaz was livid when I told him that gas prices at the pump in Ottawa were on average three cents per litre lower than he was paying. Thankfully his gun rack was empty or there is no telling what might have happened.

I was out in the country on my trip and was confronted by a good ol' boy in jeans and a big straw hat. He was telling me that Albertans were rugged individualists... no need for government or hand-outs. I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel in his head when I asked him why Alberta had a Social Credit government for so long and why it was the home of the country's largest Co-op chain.

The bubble in Alberta has not burst, but the walls are thinning just a bit.

The Insanity Continues

News item #: The ADQ wants Harper to enshrine the nationhood of Quebec into the constitution. Leaving aside the fact that Quebec did not, and has not, signed the Constitution; why should Canada do this? What is Dumont's agenda here? If Harper does this to get some votes in Quebec, will the rest of the provinces go along with it?

News item #2: The National Chief of the AFN wants to open talks with Harper on reconciliation of aboriginal status with the rest of Canada What does that mean? Does Fontaine want aboriginals to become full fledged taxpaying Canadians with no less that the privileges and responsibilities of Canadian; but no more?

News item #3: While storm sewers, connected to sanitary sewers, continue to overflow in Ottawa, dumping raw sewage into the Ottawa River; while roads are crumbling and the city finances are in a shamble; the National Capital Commission (NCC), the federal commission which owns half of the city, wants to build a "grand entrance", for millions of dollars, to welcome people driving in from Quebec.

It's all insane!

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?

Making a better world

Henry Morgentaler, Order of Canada recipient, has a lot in common with an honorary Canadian citizen, a man who was given that honour by Canada's Greatest GovernmentTM and a government that is trying as hard as they can to distance themselves from the honour to Morgentaler.

Morgentaler was raised in an oppressive environment, including being a Polish Holocaust survivor. He saw that people (women in Canada) were being discriminated against and worked to help. He was jailed for his "crimes" and released. His convictions are seen by many as a travesty of justice.

Sounding a bit like Nelson Mandela also? It should.

When you mix the honour with the deed and are opposed to the deed; it does not necessarily follow that you should be opposed to the honour.

Open Con government

You have to love it when the party of openness and inclusion, Canada's Greatest GovernmentTM, makes two gadzillion appointments after consulting only their belly buttons. In a story in the Hill Times (I am hoping that they have more sources than they did with the PP love-in story!), the government announced the following appointments:

Effective beginning of August, Simon Kennedy, currently deputy secretary to the Cabinet for operations, will be the deputy secretary to the Cabinet for plans and consultation, replacing Margaret Biggs, who became president of CIDA on July 1.

Daniel Jean will take over Mr. Kennedy's post 15 days later, leaving the position of associate secretary to the Treasury Board to Bob Hamilton, who is currently the senior ADM, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance.

Andrew Treusch becomes ADM of the Environment on Aug. 1, leaving his position as executive director of the Competition Policy Review Panel Secretariat, Industry Canada.

On Aug. 15 Greta Bossenmaier will leave her duties as executive vice-president, Canada Border Services Agency to Luc Portelance, currently deputy director, Operations, Canadian Security Intelligence Service to become Foreign Affairs ADM.

The newly-appointed Minister of Public Works and Government Services Christian Paradis announced the appointment of Robert Presser as chair of Defence Construction Canada (DCC). DCC is a federal Crown corporation that provides contracting, construction contract management and related infrastructure services to the Department of National Defence.

Minister of Industry Jim Prentice, appointed Natalie E. Dakers to the Board of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

Mr. Prentice also announced the appointment of Brian Hayward and Henry Lee as members of the board of directors of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). Mr. Prentice, as the minister responsible for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), also announced the appointment of S.C. (Chan) Wirasinghe, Michael John Irwin, Charles Richard Bridges, David A. Robbins and Elaine C. Phénix as members of the council. Mr. Wirasinghe is a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary's Schulich School of Engineering with over 30 years of experience in the field of transportation engineering and planning.

Diane Finley, minister of Citizenship and Immigration, meanwhile, announced nine full-time appointments and 12 full-time reappointments to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). Éveline Fiset and Normand Leduc were each appointed for a three-year term; Guy Lebel was reappointed for a three-year term; Michel Jobin and Anna Maria Silvestri Corriveau were each reappointed for a one-year term, all in the Montréal office. Barry D. Barnes, Kirk Dickenson, Joseph Hunter, Judy Lewis, Michael Sterlin and Cynthia L. Summers were each appointed for a three-year term in the Toronto office. Clifford Daniel Berry, Stephen C. Budaci, Ana C. Costa, and Hazelyn Ross were each reappointed for a three-year term and Stuart J. Mutch and Harvey Savage were each reappointed for a five-year term, also in the Toronto office. Negar Azmudeh was appointed for a three-year term and Paulah Jean Dauns was reappointed for a one-year term and designated to be assistant deputy chairperson in the Vancouver office. Erwin Nest and Ross Anthony Pattee were each reappointed for a five-year term in the Vancouver office.

David Emerson, then minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, announced the appointments of Jeff Burghardt and Donald MacLeod to the Board of Directors of Export Development Canada (EDC). Mr. Emerson also announced the appointment of Rémy M. Beauregard as president of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Rights & Democracy contributes to Canadaís objectives of promoting democracy and human rights abroad.

Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day announced four full-time and two part-time appointments to the National Parole Board.

were appointed as full-time members and Mr. Lafrenière was also appointed vice-chairperson of the Prairie Region. Catherine A. Kennedy, Harvey Cenaiko, Sharon Perrault, and Michel LafrenièreHélène Lacroix and Gilles Roussel were appointed as part-time members.

Josée Verner, minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages and minister for La Francophonie, announced the appointment of Michael J. Tims as vice-chair of the board of trustees of the National Gallery of Canada, as well as the appointment of Luc LaRochelle as a member of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Lawrence Cannon announced the appointment of Claude Francoeur to the board of directors of the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited. Mr. Cannon also announced the appointment of Franco Pietracupa as a member of the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada and Denis Durand to the board of directors of VIA Rail Canada Inc. for a term of four years.

Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec Jean-Pierre Blackburn, announced appointments to the Council of Governors of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS); Matthew Firth as a governor representing workers, Gordon Lloyd and Murray P. Sunstrum as a governors representing employers and Susanna Zagar as governor representing the Province of Ontario.

Mr. Blackburn also announced the appointment of Sébastien Dhavernas as part-time Chairperson of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relations Tribunal (CAPPRT).

Minister of Health Tony Clement announced the reappointment of Harvey Max Chochinov to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Governing Council for a three-year term.

Anybody notice that Minister of Pro Salute Imperii, Sockdrawer Day, made six appointments but gave no names? What ever can that mean?

Can you say election time?

Canadians take notice of Order of Canada

Henry Morgentaler was a good choice for the Order of Canada. The Order was established to honour Canadians (and in some cases non-Canadians) for their extraordinary service to Canada. Like him or not, for what he does, for or against, but do not suggest that he has not made an extraordinary contribution to Canada.

Since we got your attention on the Order of Canada, how about a quiz:

1. Who nominates people to be considered?
2. How many nominees are there in an average year?
3. Can politicians be nominated?
4. How many persons make up the Order of Canada?

Winners get to explain the photograph to the left. It seems that the stork does not deliver babies, but rather FEDEX.

PP doesn't just make little errors

I recently decided to re-listen to Pierre (Perfect PP) Poilievre's little life-exposure on the mighty CFRA radio station with respect to his attitude toward aboriginals. I had a bit of interest in not just what he said but how he said it. This is what the press reports he said, in part: "Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years."

Leaving aside his error in inflating $1.9 billion in compensation to $4 billion, I was focused on his term "partook". You can listen to how he said it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUxjYAD1vHo&feature=related.

What he actually said was: "Now along with this apology comes another $4 billion in compensation for those who were at...ah... partook in the residential schools over those years." He deliberately changed his wording to include the word partook. Can you say racist?

Now the Hill Times reports that 95% of Nepean Carleton (riding of PP) voters agree with PP. The source of that statistic was the very non-partisan office of PP! I asked the Hill Times to provide their confirmation of the statistics but they declined to comment. In the same article, HT reporter Harris MacLeod also quotes CFRA as saying that 85% of their listeners supported PPs blather. Can I get a list of their poll data? No comment. The truth is that 85% of the brain-dead followers of the bombastic Madley and Green at CFRA would agree, if Madley or Green said so, that the moon was made of green cheese.