Hi there and welcome to my blog. This is the portal page and where I will post whatever interesting is happening in my life or, anything that has piqued my interest or, what ever happens to piss me off on a given day. A kind of diary. On the bar below and on right side of the page there are some links to things that interest me as well.
Thanks for dropping by and by the way. I like your shirt.
Many of us were wondering this week why Mordon, Manitoba’s own Candy Hoeppner wasn’t around to respond to the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police endorsement of the Long Gun Registry.
It wasn’t as if the conference was a surprise. It is always held in August. So, as her divisive Bill to scrap the long gun registry was once again thrust back into the limelight Candy was nowhere to be found.
Instead of setting up guest spots on the dependable right wing, radio talk shows or meeting with the editorial board of the National Post to defend her bill against this latest blow by the police chiefs, her office simply says she is “away” and not available for interviews, even as "she" continues to put out press releases on the issue.
Media are being redirected to another PMO approved spokesperson, Conservative MP Shelly Glover. This is what she had to say about Candy’s disappearance:
“My understanding is that Candice Hoeppner isn’t available because she is away.” Where is she?
“I have no clue.” It seems odd she’s not available to do interviews on her own bill on the very week the issue is heating up.
Glover said, “The woman is away. She is human. I don’t know where she is, you’d have to ask her office. I’m told she’s away.” It seems like an odd time to take a vacation.
“I don’t know if she’s on vacation even. I don’t know if she’s on Parliamentary business. I don’t know.”
It turns out Candy and a bunch of her MP buddies were in Taiwan on a junket paid for by the Taiwanese government.
Perhaps Harper and his gang have figured out this no-brainer. "Long Gun Registry good." and are starting to soft peddle it. No, that would be too much to hope for.
Ok, I think it official now. Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks we are stupid.
He would have Canadians believe that we were on the edge of being attacked by Russia. His comments today claiming that the scrambling Canadian military fighter jets somehow stopped Russian bombers from entering Canadian airspace is specious at best.
It is just another example of Harper being fast and easy with the truth.
The Russians have been conducting exercises with those old bombers for longer than a mojority of Canadians have been alive. It is a game. They never enter our airspace. We always send out a couple of jets to greet them. The pilots wave, shadow them for a bit then both sides go home.
No big deal. No one get pumped about it but the Prime Minister and perhaps Peter McKay who is a bit of a flake to start with.
Over the last several years the Governments have been refurbishing the buildings on Parliament Hill. They sand-blasted the exteriors and replaced the existing roofs with new copper sheets and have done massive upgrades to the interior offices etc. Not that I think that has been a bad idea. I nation should be proud of the seat of government and the repairs and renovation were well over due.
Harper loves to help Canada’s military put a shiny new face forward too. Little Stevie's enthusiasm for the dirty little war in Afghanistan has helped Canada’s warriors upgrade their rolling stock and to be honest I don’t begrudge them.
Now the Harper government is also about to spend an obscene amount of money on new state of the art fighter jets for the Air Force. Why exactly we need new fighter jets I’ll never know particularly when most of the combat missions we have seen in recent years involves IEDs planted by men in sandals and wearing what the Globe & Mail tells me the American military calls “man dresses.”
I read one commentator recently who suggested that it would be a lot cheaper just to buy all those young men with a need for speed new Porsche Carrera GTs. It would help get that out of their system and it would kill a lot fewer people.
I was thinking about all that today when the traffic on Albert Street here in Regina had to stop to let a train go by. I was struck by the state of disrepair the grain cars were in. They are so dirty and the paint is so corroded off these cars that you can hardly read where it says Government of Canada on the side. What a mess!
I remember when those cars were brand new. They looked great. It made you think that the Government actually gave a damn about getting Canada’s wheat to terminals. It made you kind of proud.
The only newer ones I’ve seen these days are owned by the Government of Saskatchewan either re-painted or refurbished during the NDP’s days in power. It makes me think of the old days when signs heralding improvements here in Saskatchewan used to say “Brought to you by the people of Saskatchewan.” What a concept.
But I am getting off topic.
What the government spends money on reflects who is in power. Harper and his gang love the military and these days they happily pay truckloads of money to promote them. Here in Regina everything from rock concerts to football games get a military jet flyby. I have often wondered what budget that comes out of, probably promotion and recruiting.
They love showy stuff like the Olympics and hosting the G8 but they don't like the arts, immigrants or any group that might actually criticize them.
And, when it comes to practical stuff on the ground, like grain cars, who in Ottawa actually gives a damn. Agriculture Minister Gerry “The Cracker” Ritz obviously doesn’t. Stephen and the Harpettes don’t really think anyone out here will notice and anyway, our flawed electoral system almost guarantees him a clean western sweep.
I for one miss the time when our government actually gave a damn.
