What Me Worry

What does the Premier of Saskatchewan

have to worry about

The most important issue in the election campaign for Brad Wall yesterday was to help out the province’s tourism industry by moving the school year start to after the Labour Day weekend. The industry evidently lobbied Wall and, what business wants here in Saskatchewan, business gets.

Apparently, no consultation with teachers or school boards was necessary. If it is good for business, it must be good for Saskatchewan.

All the while, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reminds us that:

•  115,000 people are living below the poverty line here in Wall’s backyard. That is about 12% of the population. 
• Aboriginal people fare far worse, with 37% living in poverty. 
•  Saskatchewan also shares the dubious distinction with British Columbia of having the worst early childhood poverty rate in the country, with close to 20% of children under six years of age living in poverty. 
• It’s also no secret that the province has an acute affordable housing crisis, with low vacancy rates and lack of regulation allowing rents to sky rocket by as much as 75% percent in some regions.  
• Saskatchewan currently has the third greatest after-tax income inequality in the country. 

Don’t expect anything from Wall to address those pressing issues. The premier and his cronies figure, if those people would just get off their rear ends and find jobs they'd be all right.

Next thing, we’ll be talking about will probably be daylight saving time. 

Here we go Again

Sometime I wonder who starts these fights. No matter what, PostMedia seems determined to put themselves right into the middle of it. No doubt, they figure, a good dust up sells newspapers.

A deer rifle?

Now the Stephen Harpers, the Maurice Vellacotts and the Tom Lukiwskis of the world have pretty much won the ban the gun registry fight, the gun nuts have moved on to the next battle, stopping any attempt to restrict semi automatic weapons. Despite the fact that Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews tells them not to worry. Just wait. The campaign is just getting started.

Just in case a stranger comes to your door?

We have moved from “farmers need to protect their grain from deer, their cattle from gophers and their grandchildren from marauding packs of coyotes” to “our fine fighting men and women back from war torn Afghanistan need to keep their skill fine tuned.”

For shooting gophers?

You might ask, who can we thank for all this fine mess? If you asked me, I'd say it sits firmly in Stephen Harper's lap. I don't know how the nerdy economist got so pulled in by the gun nuts of the world but he did. 

And of course, one for the ladies

If you want to figure out who loves these weapons, spend a little time on some of the Canadian gun forums on-line. So, to be frank, I wouldn't trust most of those guys with a butter knife. It doesn't make me feel more secure knowing that all the guns on this page are available from your friendly Canadian gun dealers, down the block.While little Stevie cozies up, I get more and more nervous.