Life is too short to drink cheap wine

I Have Been on the CIA Website

2012-01-22T10:32:00.000-06:00

I have been on the CIA website the last couple of days. No, it’s not what you think. The CIA, nosey buggers that they are, have an amazing amount of information about countries around the world, including Canada. They have information about Canada, our own government isn’t all that open with.

I went onto the site because I got thinking about oil. All this talk about the Keystone pipeline and the newer Northern Gateway proposal, which would export oil to Asian markets through Kitimat. Our Prime Minister says we need these markets. The growth of our economy depends on it. We have to sell our oil.

Harper wants Keystone big time. He and the oil companies have been talking about how the pipeline is win-win for the USA and Canada. This pipeline will create jobs in Texas he says. Why do these guys keep putting roadblocks in our way?

I got thinking about pipelines and about imports and exports and thanks to the CIA I have a better idea of the lay of the land.

The amounts are up and down but on average, Canada exports about 2,000,000 barrels of oil and oil products a day, mainly to the USA. By coincidence, Canada also imports about 2,000,000 barrels a day of oil and oil products a day from the Middle East, the North Sea and South America.

So, how about this idea Stephen Harper? If, instead of concentrating on building a new pipeline to Texas and creating a raft of new jobs there, why not forget about any expansion of the market, build the pipeline around the Great Lakes to Eastern Canada. Create the jobs in Canada and significantly reduce our oil imports or eliminate them altogether.

Once we start shipping our own oil to Eastern Canada the existing level of export to the USA can be sent south via the existing pipeline network.

Just saying Stevie, it is time to think outside the box.

It Makes you Wonder

2012-01-18T10:05:00.001-06:00

If Harper says it. It must be true.

It is amazing how quickly the threat of budget cuts can erode the CBC’s journalistic ethics.

Just as Canada’s Premiers were meeting in Victoria to decide how to deal with the shafting they just got from the Harper Conservatives, Smilin’ Stevie turns up on the National to answer a few slow pitched questions from Peter Mansbridge. Harper could say, even the most outrageous things, to Mansbridge without the risk of being challenged. Harper looked good and unruffled by the easy ride Peter gave him.

What a great way to take the risk of having a bunch of grumpy provincial leaders trash your agendaand Harper can guarantee that whatever he says will be featured on CBC newscasts as the “honest to God truth.” Harper may be rethinking his dislike for the public broadcaster. Who knew they were so easy to manipulate?

The premiers meanwhile are being characterized on the CBC as being a disorganized, unruly bunch as Harper deftly plays one off against the other.

Even Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is a bit embarrassed this week or at the very least he should be.

At the beginning of the Premiers’ Victoria meeting Wall was playing down the health care funding issues blathering on about the possibility of a new Health Care Innovation Fund. Wall loves the word innovation. It is tough to find any statement by him that doesn’t use the word although I am not sure he really knows what the word means.

By the end of the conference even Wall, who has a reputation as a Harper toadie, had come to the realization that the innovation fund was a ruse, there was no extra money and that he had been, once again, hung out to dry by his buddies in Ottawa.

And all the Best for 2012

2011-12-24T11:06:00.003-06:00

All this ranting at the Blue Meanies can be a bit draining so, I expect this will be my last blog of the year.

Commentators were all a flutter, near the end of this year's sitting, about Justin Trudeau using unparliamentary language in the House of Commons even though what he said was much less of an obscenity than the statement by the scud stud's older and less credible brother, that he was reacting to. Shame on you Peter Kent.

I will leave the last kick at the cat to blogger Rob Shirkley who takes a look at the troubling Irwin Cotler incident. He has a few things to say about the Speaker of the House, Saskatchewan's own Andrew Scheer although. Few of us expected any truly mature rulings from the boy speaker but this pretty much takes the cake. After this, people here might find it more useful to send him back from whence he came.

That done, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2012.

Pinocchio Peter Strikes Again

2011-12-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

You have to admit, it does look a bit like our Defence Minister

I am no fan of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation but the media seems to love the right wing lobby group these days. Probably because the CTF does the digging journalists don’t seem to have the time for these days.

To be honest I usually find the CTF annoying and I usually think they should be left alone. If they aren’t going on about what the First Nations communities have done with the money, they are attacking public pensions or the cost of social programs. They are generally not nice people.

So you know, when they go after one of Harper’s gang of thugs, he must have done something, way over the top.

We all were a bit shocked when Peter McKay called up the helicopter flight, so he could leave an exclusive fishing lodge in Newfoundland to attend a photo-op in Ontario. He actually had the nerve to call it important government business. He tried to hide all this by claiming it was a search-and-rescue training exercise. No one bought that one and Peter’s nose grew a little longer..

Now, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has released new documents showing MacKay stayed in uber luxury hotels during trips to Germany and Turkey. During one stay in Munich, Mackay's bill was $1,452 per night during a two-night stay then in Istanbul MacKay's paid $770.00 a night.

Oh sorry, we old retired guys on pension, paid for it through our taxes, not Peter.

McKay also spent $4,752 for a pair of Executive Class tickets from Toronto to Edmonton so he could go to the grey Cup game. He had to be there to wallow in what most of us saw as the military's excessive presence in that event.

Air Canada must have been jumping for joy. Those tickets booked in advance are about $700.

It was also revealed that young Peter spent $3,167 on a trip to Boston for a seafood show. The CTF commented "Again, Minister Mackay regularly attends this event, although the usefulness of a senior Canadian minister attending a “seafood show” is even more debatable than attending the Grey Cup," Who can blame him? I’d love to go to Boston and eat seafood but I wasn't invited. I just don’t think Peter could pass up those free oysters.

Is Gerry Ritz above the Law?

2011-12-09T08:36:00.001-06:00

Need I say more?

Have we Lost our Way?

2011-12-08T09:42:00.001-06:00

I have been reading a good deal about bullying these last few weeks and we all are, or should be aware of some recent tragic cases of teen bullying. The thought that continued harassment at school and in the community has pushed some kids to decide the only way out is to take their own life is an appalling statement about where we have arrived as a society.

Schools ignore it or when it does become known, the other kids circle the wagons making it difficult for educators and parents to deal with.

Some Governments have concluded that the crisis has become so acute that they feel legislation is the only answer. Legislation is probably the easiest answer but I am not sure it is the best.

In my view, what we need is a huge shift in what we value as a society and I am not hopeful.

I am shocked to read that Christian and Jewish groups are fighting against the Ontario legislation because they see protecting gay youth against bullying as condoning homosexuality.
Kids’ coaches think it is appropriate to yell at 11 year olds, belittling them publically when they don’t play their best.
NHL teams pay millions of dollars to thugs whose only role is, not to score goals, but to intimidate talented players in the ice. Players hold workshops designed to teach them how to fight. Canada’s National Sport has deteriorated to such a degree that when a fight breaks out so called fans stand and cheer.
Workplaces can be just as bad. There is good reason why “going postal” is an accepted term for someone who goes off the edge after becoming so frustrated at work, they can't take it anymore.
While media columnists be may among those speaking out against bullying the “If it bleeds it leads” approach to news if still quite prevalent.
YouTube videos featuring school yard fights are common, shared and laughed about.
Try Goggling “Why psychopaths make good CEOs”
Our current Federal Government thinks they are above the law.

While I would agree with some that we really don’t need to continue to puzzle over the question “What does it means to be a Canadian” there might be real value in asking ourselves “What the hell has happen to us as a people?”

Politicians with Conscience?

2011-12-06T09:32:00.001-06:00

I have been thinking a lot these days, about politicians, the people who we elect to lead and shape this country of ours. About who they seem to be, what must motivate them and how they respond to issues.

Seeing them at work, generally isn’t a very pretty sight. Think of Peter McKay. It is embarrassing.

Then, yesterday, listening to the radio, I heard a story about Italy’s Minister of Welfare. When during a press conference, Elsa Fornero began to announce a rise in the age the people will be eligible to draw on their pensions and that many pensions will no longer be adjusted for inflation.

Ms Fornero said “We had to … and it cost us a lot psychologically … ask for a …” before she could not continue, breaking down in tears. Prime Minister Mario Monti had to step in to finish her sentence, with the word “sacrifice.”

I thought, how refreshing, a politician who actually gives a damn about the people she was elected to serve.

In contrast, with winter coming on in the Northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat, families are living in tents, un-insulated shacks and abandoned construction trailers, children are sleeping on mouldy carpets and there is a decided lack of running water and sanitary facilities. When the Stephen Harper Government was finally embarrassed by the media into reacting to the shocking conditions the PM’s first reaction was to absolve his government of any responsibility and blame the situation on financial mismanagement by the community.

How refreshing it would be to have our elected leaders taking part in the dialogue, speaking from the heart and working with us to find solutions. I am sick of scripted responses, talking points instead of speaking from the heart. I want politicians who do more than cover their asses when things get messy.

Sometimes I despair.

A Sad Commentary

2011-12-06T08:32:00.001-06:00

I am generally not a big supporter of armed conflict. I distrust military leadership and I am appalled by this new move by our Prime Minister to insert the military into Canadian life these days. Everything from citizenship ceremonies to the Grey Cup game.

I have mixed feelings about Remembrance Day. I see in it, too much celebration of the military and not enough thought about the futility of war. I do not wear a poppy in November and I don’t attend cenotaph services but I probably think about the sacrifices made by young men and women more than most.

This year, I was saddened by the Harper Government’s small-minded move to block the members of the Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois to say a few words in the House of Commons during the time set aside to honour the war dead.

As a result of the Conservatives’ petty response to the request to be allowed to say a few words I wrote the same e-mail message to 94 Conservative members of Parliament, including my own MP Tom Lukiwski, several cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister.

I said:

My father served in the Canadian Army during the second world war and when I was a boy was sent to Korea to take part that dispute, again as a member of the Canadian Army.
When I was 17, I joined the Canadian Navy and served on Canada’s ships and submarines for several years.
Given my background, I am sure you can imagine how upset I was to hear that when the House of Commons honoured our fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen. Your party twice denied the representatives from the Green Party and the Bloc Quebecois the opportunity to say a few words in the house honouring those brave young men and women.
From my perspective, this action by the Conservative Party of Canada was beyond the pale. It was unconscionable.
Too many young men and women died, and continue to die to uphold the democratic principles, which seem to mean very little to you and your party.
You should be ashamed.

I received 16 responses. Most of them simply said “Thank you for writing, We appreciate the feedback” This e-mail from MP Bruce Stanton is typical.

Hello:
Thank you for your email.
Bruce receives a large volume of email correspondence every day; it is difficult to respond to every piece in a timely manner. As such, Bruce prefers to make the correspondence of his constituents his first priority.
If you could please provide your civic address that identifies you as a constituent of Simcoe North, I would be happy to forward your correspondence to Bruce for his consideration and response.
Thank you for understanding and for taking the time to write.
Kind regards,
Ashley Brown
Parliamentary Assistant

Just one, Ed Komarnicki, actually responded to the issue saying;

Thank you for your note and for bringing the issue to my attention. I understand your frustration and upset.
Although I wasn’t part of the decision making, nor privy to the considerations that led to the decision, I do know that the consideration went beyond simply whether they could speak in the House of Commons on this issue or not. Each of the Bloc and the Green Party are not recognized as having official party status in the House.
Everything being equal and not having regard to these considerations, your desire to see them included in the speaking order is understandable.

It is a sad commentary on the democratic process.

So, In Saskatchewan Politics. Just Who Pays that Piper

2011-11-30T11:27:00.001-06:00

Just in case anyone thought the news media in Saskatchewan were neutral and unbiased.
this is a list of the corporate media contributions to the Saskatchewan Party over the last few years.

Anyone surprised?

565509 Saskatchewan Ltd. (Doug Rawlinson) — $113,098.36
629112 Saskatchewan Ltd. (Elmer Hildebrand) — $4,089.98
Access Communications Co-operative Ltd. — $48,037.99
Argus Corporation Ltd. — $25,000.00
CanWest Global Communications Corp. — $516.00
CanWest Mediaworks Inc. — $5,000.00
Central Broadcasting Company Ltd. — $272.00
CJWW/Hot 93/Magic 98.3 — $515.28
CTV Television Inc. — $11,547.15
Dekkerco Holdings Limited (Northwestern Radio Partnership) — $5,000.00
Global TV Network — $297.20
Harvard Broadcasting — $6,002.93
HDL Investments Inc. (CKCK Regina) — $6,151.69
Jilltd Investments Ltd. (Lana Jill Rawlinson) — $25,000.00
News Talk 650 — $295.80
Ravelston Corporation Ltd. — $25,000.00
Rawlco Capital Ltd. — $19,254.00
Rawlco Communications (Sask.) Ltd. — $7,300.23
Rawlco Radio Ltd. — $71,846.96
Regina Cablevision Co-operative Ltd. (Access Communications) — $500.00
Regina Leader-Post — $10,312.82
Rogers Group of Companies — $3,410.02
Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association — $1,517.64
Saskatoon Media Group — $1,502.40
Saskatoon StarPhoenix — $10,000.00
Shaw Cablesystems G.P. — $329.14
Shaw Communicatons Inc. — $10,458.22
Western Producer Publications — $360.00
Total: $412,615.81

I've Quit Trying to Figure it Out

2011-11-29T09:12:00.001-06:00

I live in the heartland of Canada’s gun culture. I don’t think there was an area of Canada that supported Stephen Harper’s move to get rid of the gun registry more than right here in Saskatchewan. People who would never even flinch at lining up to register their marriage, their car or even their dog balked at filling out a bit of paperwork to register their guns.

Saskatchewan gopher rifle

Filling out a form was characterized as some soviet style intrusion into their private lives. Nothing would lather up a radio call in show like the topic of gun control. Farmers after all need their guns to shoot gophers and to keep marauding packs of coyotes at bay lest they eat their grandchildren or worse still, their Pekinese farm dog.

Gun control is just an issue for bleeding heard Liberal and NDP city dwellers anyway. Isn’t it? Us folks out here in the country don’t have our firearm problems.

I frankly found it all quite unnerving.

Looking at the Regina leader post just this morning I noticed:

A man on the Cowessess First Nation was charged with careless use of a firearm, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public, unauthorized possession of a firearm, unsafe storage of a firearm and uttering threats as a result of a situation there. It took up to 40 RCMP officers to resolve the issue..
A Regina man was charged with uttering a death threat, assault with a weapon, pointing a firearm, careless use of a firearm and possession of a firearm contrary to a court order.
In Earl Grey, two men either killed each other, or there was a gun related murder/suicide yesterday.
And, there was a letter to the editor about a person who after threatening his former girlfriend had his firearms taken away said. He then told his former friend, “If you feel safe now, don’t. I have more guns hidden away on my farm” or something to that effect.

All that in one day.

Bear in mind, this is not big city violence. That is something else all together. Harper's law and order agenda will take care of all that.

Now if we follow these home grown cases, I am sure we will find out these people who were charged are all upstanding members of their communities. Good people who just, somehow fell into the wrong crowd and lost their way or that they didn't really mean to do those things but were driven to it by unique circumstances.

I for one would feel a lot better with effective gun control.

The politics of ruthlessness

2011-11-23T15:45:00.001-06:00

He Knows he's Right

This article by By Dan Gardner appeared in the Ottawa Citizen. It is worth reading

Not for the first time, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have puzzled many pundits.

They won an unassailable majority. Their party is united. They face an opposition that is weak, divided, leaderless. Their dominance is complete and while it’s possible to dream up challenges in the future, they are only the stuff of imagination.

Here and now, nothing can touch them.

So why do the Conservatives continue to act like the elbows-up, stick-swinging, trash-talking goons who bullied their way through five years of minority government?

Public safety minister Vic Toews has repeatedly accused those who oppose the government’s omnibus crime bill of being “pro-crime.” Environment minister Peter Kent said NDP MPs who went to the United States to voice opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline had behaved “treacherously.” Dean Del Mastro, parliamentary secretary to the minister of heritage, publicly suggested Liberal MP Justin Trudeau isn’t a good Catholic and shouldn’t be invited to speak at Catholic schools.

Each time the tone seems to have reached bottom, down it goes again. When the House of Commons marked Remembrance Day, each party stood to say a few words honouring the dead, but MPs from the Green Party and the Bloc Québécois needed unanimous consent to speak because they are not officially recognized in the House of Commons. They didn’t get it because some Conservative MP, or MPs, objected. The next day, with the support of the NDP, they tried again. Again the Conservatives blocked them.

Blocked them. From saying a few words in honour of the dead. Why? Who knows? The Conservatives never bothered to explain this shameful deed.

More substantively, the Conservatives have been imposing time allocation and closure — shutting down debate — at a faster rate than any government before them. The opposition is livid. It’s undemocratic, they say. And it’s hypocritical because the Conservatives furiously denounced the Chrétien government for using the same tactics more sparingly. In response, the government sneers. Literally. Peter Van Loan, the government House leader, has an impressive repertoire of smirking facial gestures and cutting insults.

All this is obvious to anyone who looks. But why is it happening?

Parliament has been a particularly nasty place for years but that was a consequence of minority government, many pundits said. The government was always in danger and so the Conservatives behaved as if they were in a non-stop election campaign. A majority would change that, the pundits said after the election. The Conservatives will calm down, drop the nastiness, and deliver a more statesmanlike government.

But that hasn’t happened. Puzzling, isn’t it? Well, the pundits say, that must mean the Conservatives are struggling to adjust to the new reality. They’re like a dog that has been chasing a car, wrote the Star’s Tim Harper. “Just as the dog has no idea what to do if it ever catches the car, the Conservatives seem unsure of what do with a majority after years of chasing it.”

Maybe. But I’ll venture another hypothesis.

It is who they are: They are the party of Stephen Harper.

Tom Flanagan recently described the prime minister’s personal interests. “He doesn’t really care much about money,” Flanagan told the Hill Times. “He likes to watch hockey and so on, but he doesn’t have a lot of active interests that he wants to pursue. He doesn’t play golf. He doesn’t play tennis. He doesn’t care much for travel. He doesn’t paint. He doesn’t fish. You know, he loves politics.”

Indeed. Stephen Harper has been obsessing about political power his whole life. It’s what he does. It’s all he does.

The same is true of many of the top people around him. John Baird, Jason Kenney, Tony Clement, Peter Van Loan. They’ve spent their entire lives in politics. It’s all they know.

But Harper is more than a political obsessive. He’s a passionate obsessive. Almost frighteningly so.

As Conservative strategist Rod Love told author Lawrence Martin, Harper and other Reformers seethed — and rightly so — at the way the Chrétien-era Liberals framed them as the lunatic fringe. “Others got over it,” Love observes in Martin’s book Harperland. “Harper? It was just burned in his psyche. So when he came to power it was payback time. This wasn’t just about going after someone in the Commons in the day, then going out for a beer at night. This was about destruction.”

The same description surfaces over and over. Stephen Harper doesn’t want to beat the other side; he wants to destroy them. They’re not opponents; they’re the enemy. As for the depth of his ideological feelings, the prime minister’s colleagues use the word “hatred” to describe his antipathy to liberalism.

When politics is everything, when opponents are enemies, when there’s hatred in your belly, certain things follow. Ruthlessness, for one. Personal attacks. A refusal to accept the legitimacy of different views and to work with those who hold them.

Stephen Harper is only one man, of course, but unlike every Liberal prime minister his dominance of his party is total. He effectively built it from the ground up. It is his party. And its personality mirrors that of its creator and master.

The Conservatives did not behave the way they did in the past because they had a minority of the seats in the House of Commons. They behaved that way because they are the party of Stephen Harper. They still are. And so they still behave that way.

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so. It would be better for everyone if the Conservatives would relax and govern with a little more dignity and respect for parliamentary tradition. But I fear they won’t.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/politics+ruthlessness/5751628/story.html#ixzz1eZExaEpE

Do you suppose they are lying to us again

2011-11-21T08:32:00.001-06:00

It is difficult to watch your country change in ways that make you feel uncomfortable. That is exactly what is happening to me. It makes you feel a little sick to your stomach.

Perhaps what is more worrying, is realizing that most Canadians don't seem to give a rats ass about it.

After years building a reputation as peacekeepers we got ourselves embroiled in Afghanistan for no reason other that to appease the Americans who were still annoyed at us for justifiably sitting out the Iraq war.

We lost too many young Canadians just to prop up a corrupt and ungovernable country. We did it in the name of building schools and educating girls. It was a failed mission.

Our Government lied to us about our reasons for getting involved in Libya. Our Defence Minister swore up and down that out involvement had nothing to do with regime change until we changed the regime and we helped take credit for it.

Now, emboldened by our "successes" that same Defence Minister and his boss Stephen Harper are musing about getting involved in a conflict with Iran. Make no mistake about it. They are sending out trial balloons to see how Canadians react.

It is all about the issue of Iran perhaps, building toward having the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

Before we all rush in, remember all the lies we were fed about Iraq having "weapons of mass destruction" There weren't any. The Americans had them and so do the British, the Russians and several other nations but not Iraq. It was a all a big ruse put in place to justify the unjustifiable.

It is all more than a bit depressing.

1960 Protest

2011-11-11T14:50:00.001-06:00

I have been sorting through old things of my mother's these last few days and found, folded and tucked between pages of her brother's old bible, this old photograph.

In the late 1950's the Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker, acting in accordance with a clause in the NORAD agreement, deployed 56 American-made Bomarc missiles in Ontario and Quebec. Initially, the government did not see fit to tell the Canadian public that the intention was to fit the missiles with nuclear warheads. This fact became known in 1960 causing quite a controversy.

My friend, Ivor Bigalow's parents were quite active in the Canadian Universities Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. We were encouraged by them to get involved and we did. It was 1960 and I was 15.

I spent quite a bit of time getting signatures on a petition demanding that the Government refuse to allow these nuclear warheads onto Canadian soil. I went door to door and stood outside churches on Sunday morning asking people to sign our sheets. We gathered quite a lot signatures but in the process we got chased off a few church properties by priests

My mother's younger brother and favourite sibling was killed when his bomber crashed in Scotland while on a training mission in 1944. It was right after I was born. Mum was pretty much a pacifist after that so she was pretty cool with my involvement.

On the other hand, my father was a sergeant in the Canadian Army. He wasn't very encouraging.

That spring my buddy and I marched with other anti-nuc protesters in downtown Montreal and we managed to get our pictures in the newspaper. Even though my face was obscured by the guy in the balaclava, My Dad wasn't very pleased and it made for interesting supper time conversations.

Interesting to note that we won the day, if only temporarily. Under pressure from Canadians, Diefenbaker reneged on the deal with the Americans and blocked the installation of the warheads causing no end of tension between Canada and the USA. By 1963 the Liberal government under Mike Pearson bowed to pressure from the Americans and agreed to let the nuclear warheads in.

The Real Brad Wall

2011-11-09T09:44:00.001-06:00

I will begrudgingly admit that Brad Wall impressed me with his performance during his victory speech Monday night. Like him or not, you have to admit he knows what to say and how to say it. With an engaging mix of Republican style family values and prairie humility, he had the crowd, and the Province, eating out of his hand. He played his audience like a pro.

The next day however, we saw another side of Brad Wall when he took a rather petulant shot across the bow of the trade union movement.

Wall complained that the SGEU had imposed an extra 1% dues increase on their members. The sole goal, he claims, being to defeat the Saskatchewan Party in the election. He said he was considering legislative changes, which would make it easier for union members to to better scrutinize how their unions dues are spent. Any changes the government intends to force on unions he said would be meant to provide greater transparency. "We're not going to be looking for arguments but if there's opportunities to increase accountability and transparency for union members we're going to pursue those,"

I thought the comments were interesting as he had already said that the members were told what the increase was going to be used for. No lack of transparency there.

All trade unions I know of, are required are required by their own constitutions to generate annual audited financial statements, which are available to their membership. I will agree that they are not any easier for the average worker to sift through than the average corporation financial statement but that, is neither here nor there.

It makes me wonder what Wall is up to. The Saskatchewan Party people really don’t understand trade unions. Being mostly small business people they have no experience with organized labour and have very little understanding of how they function. That bunch only know, they don’t like unions. No ands, ifs or buts.

When the Saskatchewan Party was first elected one of the first things on their plate was to pick a fight with organized labour. There was no reason for it except for a deep-seated visceral dislike for unions, particularly the SGEU.

The view, even within the Labour community, is that the SEGU leadership are not very likeable, they are not the sharpest tools in the shed and they can’t even get along with their own staff. The fact that the government doesn't like the union that represents the majority of their employees was no reason to bring in the punishing anti labour legislation, when a few tweaks would have solved the “problems.”

So what is next?

Wall wants changes in Labour legislation but will he stop a minor adjustments? History suggests not and he has already given us hints about where his thinking lies when he mused during the campaign that he might look at changing legislation so that dues would remain mandatory but unions would become responsible for collecting their own money.

The small business were all over that like a tent, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business spokesperson Marilyn Braun-Pollon, made it clear she and her members would support that. It is something they are already lobbying for. She said if unions had to collect their own dues, it might make them more accountable to their members.

Accountability is a good thing particularly at election time. I think everyone should remember it wasn’t the lack of trade union accountability that triggered the Global economic crisis.

So, stand by, yesterday was just a glimpse of the real Brad Wall.

Saskatchewan Election

2011-11-07T22:14:00.003-06:00

Now That is Depressing

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening working in a poll house trying to hustle up votes for Sandra Morin, making sure known NDP supporters got out to vote.

We all knew the New Democrats were going to take a drubbing but, we didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was.

Sandra lost her seat along with some other very good people. The challenge is to find the silver lining in all this.

The decision to elect Duane Lingenfelter to replace Lorne Calvert as party leader was a bad one. It was driven by the wrong headed dinosaurs who still populate the NDP back rooms. They rejected the new blood who could rebuild the party and instead chose to remain with their feet firmly planted in the past. People who did nothing but bad mouth Lingenfelter as he left the party and moved to Alberta'a oil industry, supported his leadership just because he was a link to what they saw as, the good old days.

Now, the NDP will have to give the newer, brighter and younger MLAs, Trent Wotherspoon, Warren McCall, Cam Broten and Danielle Chartier a chance to lead and to rebuild. They have their work cut out for them but, I think they are up to the task at hand.

The Saskatchewan Party may have 49 seats but, most of them are lightweights who simply rode the green wave. Let's be honest, not many are Cabinet material.

It will be another interesting four years.

Scrapping Keystone is OK with Me

2011-11-04T10:12:00.000-05:00

Many of us tried to stop the whole idea of shipping tar sands bitumen to the US via the Keystone Pipeline and others before it really got off the ground here in Canada. We thought that shipping an unprocessed resource from Canada to the USA did nothing to create jobs here where the oil is produced.

You know the old question. Are we doomed to be tillers of wood and drawers of water while foreign owned corporations ship our raw materials out of the country for processing, creating high skilled, well paying jobs elsewhere?

For a large part our concerns fell on deaf ears in Ottawa. Big Oil has a lot of clout here in Canada and our National Energy Board is not much more than a large industry rubber stamp.

Now it is the American's turn and they are having more success that we did here at home. They are raising quite a fuss about the pipelines. They just might block the whole idea and they have quite a few good reasons for doing so.

The American, National Wildlife Federations Says “The Keystone tar sands oil pipeline -- which would pump nearly one million barrels per day of dirty tar sands oil right through Nebraska and five other heartland states, putting the whooping crane at risk of a devastating oil spill.”

Many Americans call the State Department’s review of Keystone a sham suggesting “...the process...is a crime in progress.”

And the Ian Somerhalder Foundation, whoever they are, says Tar sands oil is amongst the dirtiest and carbon-intensive fuels on earth with a carbon emission three times that of regular oil.

The use of this tar sands oil could accelerate climate change at a time when we so desperately need to slow it down and return earth to a stable climate.
The Keystone XL pipeline will carry toxic tar sands oil 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada through the middle of the US heartland on its way to the Gulf. The pipeline would cross the massive Ogallala aquifer, which supplies drinking water in 8 US states, and irrigation for millions of acres of farmland that supply the nation’s food.
We've already seen the damage the thick tar sands oil laden with volatile compounds can do from the spill in the Yellowstone River last month and the Kalamazoo River a year ago.
Tar sands oil is more abrasive and corrosive than conventional oil and current regulations and safety standards are not fit for the transport of this kind of oil.
The first Keystone pipeline, developed with state-of-the-art technology, has already spilled 12 times in its first year in operation.
Canadian towns near the tar sands production are already reeling from the impacts of this dirty fuel. They have lost valuable Boreal forests releasing stored carbon and it has destroyed vital habitat for endangered species along with other large populations of wildlife. Waters have been polluted, wildlife has died, and health problems are increasing.
We can not allow the foreign corporation TransCanada to jeopardize America's drinking water in the name of profits for private industry.
The pipeline would keep our country addicted to this unsustainable and highly polluting fossil fuel even longer.
Denying the permit will send a powerful signal that the United States is boldly taking action on climate change and clean energy by refusing to be tethered to the energy sources of the past.

The Americans have never had much of a problem buying their oil from oppressive and dictatorial regimes as long as those countries were prepared to keep the US arms industry flush with orders for newer and better weapons but whooping cranes? That is another matter.

But, the big push in the US is starting to get under Big Oil’s skin. This week they are starting to push back saying if Keystone approval doesn’t come soon, they’ll simply ship this product to Asia opening up new big markets for Canadian oil.

Frankly, that is ok with me. I never was a fan of Keystone, and at least there is no free trade agreement with Asian countries which would demand that we continue shipping them oil at a fixed rate no matter what domestic demand in Canada happens to be.

Before we do that however, what I suggest that we do, is something that should have been done years ago, assuming we had any leaders in Ottawa, with backbone. That is to start the long overdue process of building pipelines around the Great Lakes and into Eastern Canada. Dig up those pipelines and insert a sharp left turn east of Regina and ship our own oil east. We then could open up some of those mothballed refineries east of Montreal and end our dependence on foreign oil.

Happy Birthday CBC

2011-11-02T17:41:00.001-05:00

Today was the CBC's 75th anniversary and to celebrate the nut bar who sits as a Conservative Member of Parliament in Harper's Government filed the following petition Monday calling for the de-funding of the CBC.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure today to present a large number of petitions from Canadians from coast to coast. The petitioners call upon the government to de-fund the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. They would particularly like to draw the attention of the House to the fact that the Government of Canada funds the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the sum of $1.1 billion per year and that the vast amount of the Government of Canada funding gives the CBC an unfair advantage over its private sector competitors. The petitioners call upon Parliament to end the public funding of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville) generally out of touch with most people but I suspect that these guys do very little that isn't endorsed by Stevie himself. Now they have made their gun control move and are working to dismantle the Wheat Board, I suspect the Corporation is next on the hit list.

How about a little Transparency

2011-10-31T11:15:00.004-05:00

A Secret Society?

Ok, I admit it, I find the Canadian Taxpayers Federation pretty annoying. Don’t believe for a moment that they, as they claim, speak for Canadian taxpayers. From where I sit they seem pretty much like a right wing lobby group.

They describe themselves as a non profit organization funded by Canadians. People like you and me. Somehow, I doubt it.

So where does their money come from? They describe themselves as a non-profit organization. What credible organization has no Annual General Meeting? They do have a Board of Directors although there isn’t any sense, judging from that list, that the organization is anything but a wing on the Conservative Party’s right flank.

They have a staff of 10 to 15 people who can afford suits and have offices, or at the very least a desk, in Ottawa, Toronto, Regina, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Quebec and Halifax. Not cheap.

They are not a charity so no contribution tax credit if you donate to them.

Most groups offer a bit more transparency than the CTF. What do they have to hide I wonder. I have never, ever come across any person who admits to being a member. Pretty shady I figure.

What annoys me more than anything else is that Canadian media outlets are constantly parroting the organization’s rhetoric along with the that from the Frontier Institute for Public Policy and the Fraser Institute, taking their research as gospel truth. They take their media releases at face value and uncritically spew them back at us on the public airwaves. I know it is cheaper that paying for research or giving your reporters a little time to dig around themselves but dammit, it ain’t right. I for one would like to hear a bit more from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Enough of this secret society stuff.

Saskaboom

2011-10-31T10:14:00.002-05:00

Ten ways to recognize a booming economy, the Saskatchewan way

Unless you are on a four-lane highway if there is any pavement at all, it is crumbling.
The Provincial Recreation Areas offer almost nothing in services and are maintained, if that is the word, in an appalling state.
Small towns are getting more and more run down, and smaller every year. Abandoned houses prevail.
The infrastructure is breaking down everywhere.
The government’s twisted logic boasts about the fact that it raised the minimum income at which its citizens had to pay taxes thus taking 114,000 people off the tax rolls altogether.
With rents increasing as much as 75% Low-income workers and students can’t afford housing and first time home buyers can afford to get into the market.
A significant number of students take six and seven years to get a four-year degree because they can’t afford to go to university full time even thought they live at home.
Thirty Seven percent of your First Nations people live below the poverty line and 20% percent of children under six, live below the poverty line, the worst level in the country.
People can’t afford to travel so with no comparator, they actually think Saskatchewan is booming.
Still too small for Ikea to even consider coming here

I have a Compromise

2011-10-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Canada's Favorite Rodent

Senator Nicole Eaton, a Harper appointed Conservative senator, is urging Canada to dump the beaver in favour of the polar bear as an official emblem of Canada.

Eaton, says the beaver is yesterday’s animal announcing that it is time to replace the a “19th-century has-been for a 21st-century hero. The polar bear,” she says, “with its strength, courage, resourcefulness, and dignity is perfect for the part.” She calls Canada iconic beaver “ the dentally defective rat” and suggests that it is a “nuisance that wreaks havoc on farmlands, roads, lakes, streams and tree plantations,”

I say, “Not so fast.” I like the beaver and even though I have spent more than one Canada Day trying to dismantle a beaver dam which often caused our Lake to rise and partially flood our dock, I prefer that to having a hungry, 600 kilogram bear lurking about the woods and around our cabin, gobbling up anyone who might linger on their way to the outhouse.

As a compromise, I suggest keeping the beaver and scrapping the senate.

What Me Worry

2011-10-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

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

2011-10-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

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.

I am Finding the News Media More, and More Annoying

2011-10-21T10:57:00.001-05:00

When did the European Common Market or the EU become the Euro Zone? Sounds kind of hip doesn't it? So kind of," in crowd" All reporters, not wanting to be seen as one of yesterday's journalist have abandoned the terminology we were all used to and are going with the new phrase.

The other term, and I think this has only surfaced in the last couple days with the awarding of the new federal ship building contracts is, "combat ships". A week ago they were "warships" but I'd guess that Stevie didn't like the message that term was sending and sent to the PMO scrambling to find something softer. Something more like a video game. Reporters, in lock step, picked up the term from the government handout and started using it.

It is a bit scary really. OK men and women in the media, pay attention, they are warships.

As I was driving back to Saskatchewan earlier this week I found the CBC's Morning show's treatment of protesters camped out in Victoria park more that a bit distressing.

The corporation sent out a reporter to find out what it was all about. They found a kid who, although he knew it was important and wanted to be a part of something big, spent the night in a tent in Victoria Park. They got, what I am sure they all thought, back in the newsroom, a bit of fun with him. He hadn't had media training and when asked what his goals were for the protest, he really couldn't articulate them.

A bit later in the show, a couple of old farts called up, mocking him which host Shelia Coles found quite funny. You know, I am getting old too but, I saw it all quite differently from the crotchety old buggers who called in and the host who understanding her audience, climbed right up on the mocking bandwagon..

To me, it didn't really matter that the young mad wasn't really able to articulate the issues. He understood that the protest, which took place all over the world was important. He wanted to do something. To take some sort of action to establish his presence as being on side with the protesters.

Good for him! Much better to do that than to sit home in your warm house, complacently watching a "majority" government dismantle the Canada we know and love, watching the global economy crumble and mocking the people who are actually trying to do something about it, as ill defined as their protest may be.

I've been busy

2011-10-21T10:15:00.003-05:00

Epson R3000

I feel kind of bad, not posting for almost three weeks now but I have been busy.

I have been doing a bit of consulting with a group in Saskatoon. I enjoy the work but, it does take up time I generally put to other things.

Then I bought a new photo printer. An Epson R3000 inkjet. It will produce very high quality, 13x19 prints on all kinds of different papers, art prints, glossy photographs and poster board.

It also consumes more ink than Oliver Reed did scotch and it is a bit time consuming, as I figure out the finer points this printer offers. It produces stunning prints out of the box but, as with everything, we strive to make them even better.

Back Country Lake

I also spent a few days in Banff and in the Kananaskis back country taking photographs. I love being in the mountains this time of year. It is getting colder. Ice is beginning to form on the lakes but, it is generally clear and sunny.

So, to make a long story short, that and other projects are taking the time I normally use for blogging. But hopefully, I'll be back at it soon.

I apologize. I am feeling a bit Cranky

2011-10-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

I think my blood sugars are out of wack again because I am feeling a little ornery this morning.

First, I think they have thrown away the style guide at the CBC. It is getting so bad that the news readers, reporters and sports commentators on the CBC can't seem to pronounce Montreal's hockey team properly. The way it is usually pronounced "on air" by people who should know better is, Canadi-ennes which might work if it was a woman's hockey team but, I'm sorry, not for the Habs.

It drives me nuts.

It might not be politically correct here in Saskatchewan to speak out against the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. At the first word of criticism you risk being labeled a raciest. Kind of like speaking out against Israel. But, those of you living in here must be appalled at the latest turn of events at the FSIN. The organization could give lessons on how to set up and maintain an old boys club.

We have all watched how the organization almost destroyed the First Nations University. Then when a Guy Lonechild, a reformer was elected Chief, they tossed him out of office and when the newly hired chair of the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA) started to look to closely at the Board's out of control expenses they tossed him out too. The FSIN claimed that the chair had a conflict of interest although no is willing or able to explain what the alleged conflict might be.

It was reassuring yesterday to hear some of the chiefs speaking out against the feeding from the trough and the abuse of power but, when it came time to vote on a motion to uphold the firing of the SIGA chair, not one of them would vote against the motion. My sense is break ranks and you'll never see another dime.

I believe in First Nation's self government but again and again the same old boys bring discredit to their own people. Some advice to the rest of the chiefs struggling to make things work. If you want to find your own worst enemy, look within.

Finally, it is interesting to see how much the CBC news and public affairs crews must be chomping at the bit to start election coverage.

Yesterday the Premier staged a press conference to announce that he was going to make an election announcement Monday. With fixed election dates, the announcement was pretty much a non event but that didn't seem to stop everyone at the CBC slathering over this latest bit of "news".

The Globe goes over the top on the Ontario Election

2011-10-04T10:44:00.001-05:00

I know that the Globe & Mail likes to think of itself as Canada’s only National newspaper but they are still pretty focused on an area within 100 km of Toronto.

To the G&M’s editors the Toronto International Film Festival is an annual event that we all should really care about. After all, how could we survive out here in the boonies, unless we were told about “who rocked, and who flopped, on the red carpet.”

We can suffer for weeks out here in the depths of winter, enduring wind chills of -50 without it being noticed in the centre of the universe but, as soon as it hits around -15 on Hogtown’s Younge Street, they will let us know how they are all suffering.

It is even more so what it comes to provincial politics. Oh sure the re-election of the PEI Liberals got a few column inches and the NWT election did get a short mention but they are obsessed with the three way race in Ontario which pits the Liberal, same old McGuinty against a knuckle dragging, right winger, PC leader Tim Hudack.

The Globe seems to be terrified that the New Democrats might hold the balance of power in what may be a minority government and they are doing everything they can to undercut their share of the vote.

This morning, John Ibbitson looks at the NDP platform and asks about the NDP leader, “What kind of Ontario would Ms. Horwath make, if she had the power to make it?” He goes on to say, “Populist pandering, impossible promises and fictional accounting are the stock and trade of minor parties the will never be allowed anywhere near the lever of power. But after the next election, M. Horwath could have the power to decide whether and when the government of the day falls, which means at least some of those NDP fantasies, could become dangerously real.” Ibbotson closes by saying that although there won’t be an NDP government, a minority of either of the other parties might see their leaders “...struggling to stay in power by keeping Andrea Horwath happy while doing as little damage to Ontario as possible.”

Margeret Wente on the other hand says that the NDP’s Andrea Horwath “...doesn’t really have a platform, but she is basking in the glow of Jack Layton’s halo.”

And, just in case anyone in Ontario was thinking of voting for the New Democrats, the Globe really comes into its own in this morning’s editorial however. The editorial writers tell us that “An interventionist and protectionist NDP holding the balance of power in Ontario would be a disastrous election result. Behind Andrea Horwath’s pleasant, amiable personality are policies that would send Ontario into a tailspin, undoing years of progress into a tailspin, undoing years of progress toward interprovincial free trade and violating trade agreements.”

It reads like a guest editorial written by Stephen Harper which I suppose isn’t all that surprising considering that the same editorial board endorsed the Harper Conservatives before the last Federal election.

I wish they would just butt out.

It is Comforting to Know that Labour Scares the Hell Out of Harper

2011-10-03T09:52:00.000-05:00

Harper’s Blue Meanies would have Canadians believe the New Democrats as the Official Opposition, is not much more than flash in the pan and something that doesn't worry them much at all. Their actions tell a different story.

I find it interesting that when Jack Layton died. Stephen Harper was falling all over himself saying how much he respected Jack but, now that the time has come to find a successor, he is back to treating the NDP as if they very scary. The barbarian horde camped just outside the gate.

What it shows, in my opinion, is that Little Stevie is much more afraid of the New Democrat’s than he ever would like to admit.

A case in point.

One of the leadership hopefuls in the bid to replace Jack is Brian Topp, a backroom strategist who worked here in Saskatchewan with Roy Romanow, back when Roy was the big cheese. The Harper spin doctors have gone to great lengths to characterize Topp as a “union boss” and raise the spectre of “big labour” taking over the NDP and potentially having labour control Canada’s agenda.

Anyone who understands “big labour” if there is even such a thing in Canada, would understand a few of things:

“Big labour” in Canada couldn’t get its collective act together enough to control anything outside it’s own narrow domain.
Topp as the Executive Director of ACTRA’s Toronto Branch, is an employee, and not a big player on Labour’s National scene.
ACTRA is a small player within the labour community and is certainly never thought of as one of the Labour heavyweights.

So, all said, it is good to know that labour scares the hell out of Stephen Harper.

Doer on Keystone

2011-10-01T15:56:00.000-05:00

I must confess that I was a bit disappointed in Gary Doer this week.

I met him at some point before he was elected as Premier of Manitoba and have always been a fan. He struck me as one of the good guys. After Harper appointed him to be Canada's U.S. Ambassador, I figured Gary was still OK in my books.

He was in town at the University of Regina talking up Trans-Canada's Keystone Pipeline and when criticizing the negative American reaction to the pipeline, which will carry Alberta Tar Sands bitumen to Texas to be refined, I was surprised to hear him say, "Would they rather buy their oil from Gaddifi?". It was as if saying no one in their right mind would buy oil from a dictator.

I agree with him on that front but, that is not the reality. Gary would, or should know that the Western World doesn't seem to mind compromising their principles for oil. In fact, Petro-Canada and now Suncor worked in Libya for years during the Gaddifi regime developing oilfields. At this point with the war quieting down, Suncor is chomping at the bit to get back at it.

Why would Canada do that when we have so much oil of our own? We don't need to import oil at all.

It is fairly simple.

Most of Canada's petroleum industry is owned by Americans. Those companies along with the Canadian corporation I must admit, are very keen to ship our oil including the tar sands product to the USA. Simply put it is a more lucrative market that Eastern Canada. There are shades of the old "Let those eastern bastards freeze in the dark" which, considering where the eastern oil comes from, was always a hollow threat.

So, Canada's pipeline people are building Keystone and other pipelines to ship our raw product to the States. American refineries are producing diluent, a thinner, and then shipping it north, via converted gas pipelines. Then, once it gets to Alberta, they dilute the thick tar sands bitumen and ship it back south to be refined. The government, those guys in Ottawa who are supposed to be looking after our interests, could insist we refine the raw product here in Canada and create jobs here but...the Harpers of the world and the Liberals and the PCs before him never saw this as an important issue. Or, dare I suggest, they are all afraid of big oil.

Canada in the mean time is importing oil from the North Sea and the Middle East.

Even more amazing, there is no pipeline running north around the great lakes. Why? It isn't, as many would have us believe, because it is difficult to do. They are building them through the Rockies after all. It is simply because the multi nationals make more money shipping it south.

What is good for business sometimes isn't good for Canada. It is just good for business.

Chasing Balloons

2011-09-26T09:02:00.002-05:00

The CTV balloon had a slightly ungraceful landing, tipping the basket.

Yesterday was another of those amazing days we seldom get in fall. Not warm but hot. Not what you'd generally expect for the end of September.

About 6:00 as the sun was getting lower in the sky a couple of hot air balloons slowly drifted by.

It was a spur of the moment thing. In minutes we were in the car, heading north and west, cameras in hand chasing balloons down grid roads, along farmer's dirt tracks and across the prairie trying to figure out where they were going to land.

We pulled on to the edge of a farmer's freshly harvested field, in behind the chase trucks, just before they landed and just before the sun slipped over the horizon.

Keystone Protest - Too little, too late

2011-09-20T10:26:00.001-05:00

I notice with interest the kerfuffle in the USA and Canada about the Keystone pipeline. After some considerable length of time, people are finally starting to think about this project. It is nice to see people taking notice but in truth, it is to little to late.

The truth is that Keystone is just one of many pipeline projects which will soon be pumping our natural resources south to be processed and to feed the hungry American market.

The controversy over these pipelines isn't new. In June of 2007 I wrote the following letter to the editor about the issue for my employer at the time.

Too bad no one paid any attention back then when it was still stoppable.

As the Multinationals get rich shipping Western Canada's raw materials south to feed the American market, Canada still imports a majority of the oil it uses from off shore, mainly the North Sea and the Middle East. There is no talk of building east-west pipelines to supply eastern Canada with western crude.

Is anyone in Ottawa paying attention?

Leader Post readers may have seen a notice placed by the National Energy Board (NEB) about an application filed by Enbridge Pipelines dealing with their “Southern Lights Project.” As we read through our morning paper, the NEB notice is the sort of thing most of us skim over, but we would benefit from taking a closer look.

The application, in part, asks that a pipeline which now moves crude oil south into the United States be converted to transport ‘diluent’ north to Alberta. Diluent is basically a thinner used to dilute heavy oil and reduce its viscosity for easier transportation.

Coincidentally, in the same edition of the newspaper, Enbridge announced it is holding an open house in Grand Coulee to explain their Alberta Clipper Project: A new pipeline designed to transport an increased capacity to the USA.

Using names like Alberta Clipper and Southern Lights, Enbridge makes these projects sound like some grand adventure instead of what they really are. These projects and similar ones by several pipeline companies are part of a grand scheme to move massive amounts of our unrefined natural resources south of the border for processing.

The diluent, produced in the USA, will be pumped from American refineries to Alberta, where it will be used to dilute bitumen, which has been extracted from the Alberta Oil Sands. When the huge new Alberta Oil Sands expansion projects are up and running, millions of barrels per day of diluted but unprocessed bitumen will be pumped south to the United States where it will be refined. This new source of oil will create thousands of jobs in the U.S., as refineries are expanded to deal with this new source of product. As well, several billions of dollars in building and upgrading facilities to handle the bitumen will be spent in the U.S. instead of in our own country.”

In the meantime, the multi national oil companies have mothballed a large number of refineries in Eastern Canada. These refineries could be upgraded and brought back on line if Canada insisted.

If Canadian citizens don’t speak out, all of the new jobs – other than a few short term jobs created during the construction and conversion stage – will be created in the United States, instead of here at home.

Although Canada produces more oil than it needs, if we continue to export to the United States in this way, Canada will continue to be an importer of crude oil and petroleum products. As demand increases, we will be buying our own resources back from the USA in the form of gasoline, if they choose to sell it to us.

The NEB doesn’t care, our Governments don’t seem to care but Canadians should. We are speaking out and challenging the National Energy Board policy. We urge you to do the same.

A few Short Political Notes

2011-09-19T10:04:00.000-05:00

Parliament is back this week which never has a positive affect on my blood pressure but what the heck...It gives me something to write about.

I see my friend, and newly elected MP Mike Sullivan (York South-Weston) got his picture in the Globe & Mail this morning. Mike is, quite appropriately, the first person on the left. He and about 50 other newbies were attending an orientation seminar on The Hill. I have a lot of time for Mike and think we'll hear more from him in the coming months.

The Blue Meanies are loaded for bear and the New Democrats have their hands full. Say good bye to the Long Gun Registry, a majority of wheat and barley farmers will see their wishes ignored as the government winds down the wheat board, stand by to get "tough on crime" and of course the government will most likely interfere once again in the collective bargaining process and order the Air Canada flight attendants back to work, should they exercise their right to strike.

There should be a few interesting debates about spending too. The Chief of Defense Staff thinks it is OK to spend $1.5 million using government jets for travel. He thinks he is much too important to travel on commercial aircraft. In fact he got quite uppity about it all.

Much of it was travelling to and from hockey and football games where we would take part in tributes to the armed forces. This is all part of selling the conflicts we, to an increasing degree, getting involved in since Canada, under this Harper Government, has moved from our long tradition of peacekeeping into a much more aggressive role. I understand the Chief of Defense Staff was in his role as a shill for government policy but, not at that price.

The PM will be working on strengthening his ties with Israel this week as Canada takes a strong position against the recognition of Palestine as a state by the United Nations. This time Harper isn't just parroting the American position but following his own blind support for the Israeli government. It all strikes me as odd. Once again it puts us out of step with most progressive nations. So stand by for Canada's currency to take another hit at the UN.

The Ritz Cracker Ignores Farmer's Wishes

2011-09-13T11:26:00.001-05:00

The Harper Conservatives made it very clear. Give them a majority, and the Wheat Board's monopoly as a single desk seller for wheat and barley would fade into history. Notwithstanding that, and with typical rural tunnel vision the farm communities pretty much voted as a block for the blue meanies.

Why the surprise then that Harper plans to follow through with his promise to "Give farmers the choice."

Former ostrich farmer, now Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz, or as he is fondly known, the Ritz Cracker, is once again carrying the torch for Harper on this issue. I heard him yesterday going on and on about democracy and how they won a majority so clearly Canadians support dismantling single desk selling. That is the democratic process he was saying.

Gerry however doesn't give any credence to the very direct democratic vote undertaken by farmers who actually use the Wheat Board. Given the opportunity to vote on the issue 400,000 farmers cast their ballots in favor of keeping the single desk. That overwhelming support for the Wheat Board doesn't mean a lick to Gerry. "Our government is committed to giving Western Canadian wheat farmers the marketing freedom they want and deserve" he said while questioning the legitimacy of the plebiscite.

The Wheat Board might not work for farmers close to the American market with low transportation costs but doing away to a cooperative approach to marketing, without question, will slam most farmers hard in the pocket book. You have to ask then, what were they thinking? Those agricultural communities were once the backbone of the New Democrats out here but, corporate farms brings big business thinking. It is everyone for themselves.

The one thing Gerry Ritz and I can probably agree on is "They were warned.". Harper and his cronies made it pretty clear. Did those farmers give a moment's thought about the consequences when they cast their ballots in the last election? My sense is they voted for doing away with the gun registry without thinking about the Wheat Board.

What a trade off.

I Always Liked Ottawa

2011-09-07T12:02:00.000-05:00

People like to slag Ottawa but I like to think they are just wrong about it, pushed into that mindset by their disdain for Stephen Harper or for the whole process of government. I like the place.

It is the sort of city you can walk in and if you ride a bike, even better, you can bike your heart out for days without repeating your route. Even downtown streets have dedicated bike lanes.

There are plenty of places to walk but, I love the walk along the river below the Parliament buildings ending at the stair step lock on the Rideau Canal. I can spend days exploring the museums and it is a photographer's dream.

I can't think of another Canadian city with a whitewater kayak course, a stone's throw from downtown.

After years of offering less than spectacular dining the restaurant scene is getting better and better. The Whalesbone is a favorite and this time we ate at Aroma a little Mediterranean mezes place. Quite good although their Retsina only comes in 500 ml bottles.

Give the city a try. Get out of the conference rooms, walk around a bit, get beyond the Byward Market and enjoy what the place has to offer. You won't be sorry.

Montreal

2011-09-04T12:08:00.000-05:00

Montreal is still one of my favorite Canadian Cities. You can forget how busy big cities are after living a few years somewhere smaller. The hustle and bustle was particularly noticeable for someone who had just spent a week on a Laurentian lake.

I love walking through the throngs along St Catherine Street Saturday morning or for that matter closer to midnight. The place always seems busy.

We wandered down and along, past the refurbished St James United Church, as far as The Main and savouring the smells of the small markets and restaurants down through Chinatown we headed to Old Montreal. The place still has so much old world charm, that film production companies often have it stand in, pretending to be some European location.

Get passed the overpriced restaurants on Place Jacques Cartier and ignore the junky souvenir shops and there are treasures here. Tiny bistros hidden away on side streets, streets paved with cobble stones sent over from Europe on sailing ships from Europe as ballast, great old stone buildings, artists tucked up in alley ways and buskers.

We walked back to Pointe St Charles along the Lachine Canal bike path, part of an urban revitalization project that is turning old abandoned factories and work yards into condos and parks.

Apportez Votre Vin

2011-09-04T11:25:00.000-05:00

One thing Montreal, and Quebec for that matter, has going for it is its liberal regulations regarding the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Bars are open very late and you can pick up beer and a good selection of wine at your local corner depanneur. That is a convenience store for the uninitiated.

But for me the most progressive part of all that is that a culture of restaurants which don't have a liquor licence but that allow you to bring your own wine has really come into its own. This way you can afford a great meal without feeling ripped off by that $40 price for the $15 red you are drinking. You can afford to bring something nice and the restaurant provides full service including opening the wine, supplying the glasses and if you are drinking white or rose, a cooler to keep it chilled. If you don't finish it all. Pop the cork back in a bring it home to drink at lunch tomorrow.

There are thousands of restaurants to chose from pizza joints to creative and modern French cuisine.

We went out to Le Pegase located in a hundred year old former residence on Gilford Street. I am sure the place doesn't sit more than 30 people, including the outside deck and has two sittings at 6:00 and at 9:00.

We brought a nice red and a rose which went really well with the pan seared scallops in a curry cream reduction and the stuffed rabbit that I had but the chef's special the night we were there was venison. It was all very good.

No question, it is time for the rest of Canada to catch up. Bringing your own wine is a really civilized approach to it all.without the bar, restaurants can focus on the food and you don't feel ripped off by the gouging markup we usually pay for restaurant wine..

Lac des Monts

2011-08-31T11:24:00.000-05:00

In the 1970's my mother bought an old log cabin in the Laurentians. Built in the 1930's, it sits on a quiet trout lake north of Mont Tremblant and south of Mont Laurier. A couple of hours north of Montreal and about two and a half from Ottawa.

Over the years a few more people have built in the area but it remains a real retreat, a refuge from the push and shove of urban life.

The swimming is great and we can spend a week without seeing another person. When we do see someone else they are quietly puttering along trolling for trout. They give us a wide berth. We are inclined to swim and dive boisterously and we disturb the fish. Sometimes we wave.

I just that don't get back very often.

About 20+ years ago my brother and I gave the old cabin some upgrades. We expanding the front porch and added a porch running along the side. After over 20 years it was in pretty tough shape.

This year we put together a work party made up of my brother and Chris who was just beginning to walk when the first one was constructed and me. We tore off the old porch and with the help of a borrowed generator we put the whole thing back together.

Chris and I stayed nine days in all, mostly doing minor repairs, roadwork, replanting trees and clearing brush. Oh yeah, we also swam in that pure cold lake, lay on the dock peering into those clear waters watching small trout and perch, we canoed and we watched the stars reflected in that calm northern lake.

On Home Gardening

2011-08-20T11:39:00.002-05:00

Photo - Shelley Banks

I try to put in a garden each summer with varying degrees of success.

My herbs have always done well and the thyme, oregano, tarragon and chives come back faithfully each year and from time to time my sage makes it but usually I have to but a new plant in the spring.. I never manage to winter over the rosemary no matter how carefully I try to pot the plant and bring it in.

I have done well with annuals like basil, cilantro, dill, fennel, arugula and sage but vegetables and I don't have a very successful relationship. My soil is just too much like clay to make any root vegetable happy.

My tomatoes either don't ripen or they get blight, my potatoes got a kind of fungus and the cabbage white butterfly just chews the hell out of anything that resembles, or even rhymes with any plant in the cabbage family.

So, this year I planted lots of onions, some leeks and tried carrots once again. They are normally stunted and deformed but this year we got a nice crop of bright orange carrots and even if they are a bit stubby. We are happy about it.

So, in October I'm going to put in some garlic for next year, I'll try mixing in even more peat and sand to try once again to make that soil a bit easier to work and hopefully in the spring I'll find that right combination of crops to keep us fed and happy next summer.

Some Thoughts About Employment

2011-08-19T10:32:00.000-05:00

The issues around employment and unemployment are complex. The questions about why people remain unemployed when jobs down the road go begging are many and I am not so sure I have many answers but I came across a couple of situations recently which, I thought, at the very least are interesting. They tell us a lot, I think.

First, when I was in Val Marie a couple of weeks back, having lunch in the hotel "dining room" three guys wandered in for a beer and a bite.I thought they were a curious trio, obviously not locals and a few miles off the beaten track to be tourists they were, as it turned out, Newfoundlanders working in Frontier about 70 km west of there. About 13 km west of Climax to be concise.

"You boys are a long way from home." I said, and asked what brought them to Saskatchewan.

Things are tough in Newfoundland since the fishery closed down they told us. The small town they are from has virtually no jobs but they were reluctant to pull up stakes and leave the family home. They had tried Fort McMurry and didn't like the raw atmosphere of the place, so quit.

They had been hired by an Ontario recruiter to work as assembly line workers at Honeybee, a farm implements manufacturer in Frontier who flies them home to Newfoundland for two weeks off, every seven weeks.

What a shift in lifestyle, from a Newfoundland outport to a small prairie village. It can't be easy.

What is it about the work that is so unappealing that Saskatchewan residents won't take the jobs?

The second odd situation is in the trucking industry.

Trucking companies are having a hell of a time getting, and keeping drivers. There are several factors at play here. Driving truck is a tough job. The work is solitary, the food is bad and the pay is worse. Drivers mostly get paid by the mile so generally drivers are only making money when the wheels are turning. If they get caught in a snow storm, have to wait a couple of days in some god forsaken place for they next load or if road construction slows them to a snails pace they are not often not making enough to cover the cost of their meals. If they are earning any money at all.

A large portion of the workforce is closing in on retirement and young men and women are not exactly lining up at the door, looking for a career driving a semi. Virtually every trucking company there is are looking for drivers.

A lot could and should be done to improve the lot of Canadian truck drivers' wages, working conditions and general quality of life but that would take a concerted effort and cooperation involving, the trucking companies, the unions, the manufacturing industry who are doing the shipping and governments.

Unfortunately for Canadian drivers, in a move which looks very much like collusion, instead of doing that, they have decided that instead of tackling the worklife problem, the best sloution is to bring in foreign drivers to fill the void. It started with drivers from the UK but, many of them got fed up and went home so the latest batch of drivers are from the Ukraine, Indonesia and Mexico.

Little is done by the employers to help them to integrate into the existing workforce, setting them apart and making it difficult for them to fit in. Driving conditions are quite different that what they are used to and many of them have never seen snow, not to mention drive in it.. For many it will be a very tough winter. Cranking down a set of dollies at minus 40 can be tough enough for someone born on the prairies but for a person who, up until now has lived their life in Veracruz?

Like I said. No easy answers but, lots of question about where we are going.

I Admit to Having Mixed Feelings

2011-08-16T10:18:00.003-05:00

Over the last few weeks there has been a growing movement against the plan to store, spent nuclear waste here in Saskatchewan.

Petitions have been visible at most public event and a walk against nuclear waste, left Northern Saskatchewan on July 27 heading for the provincial legislature in Regina. The trek, a 820 kilometre walk, arrived in Regina yesterday. They will present a petition to someone at the legislature, I assume today.

Their Facebook site says "The purpose of our Walk is to wake people up to the reality that northern Saskatchewan is being targeted to store millions of used nuclear bundles which would be highly radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. We will carry a petition to the Legislature that people may sign, directing the government to legislate a ban on nuclear waste storage and transportation in our province."

Well, Northern Saskatchewan is where that stuff came from to begin with.

I am not a big supporter of nuclear energy. We can't trust governments to tell us what is safe and what is not. It all makes me a bit nervous to be honest. And it didn't make me feel any better learning that some of the fuel "spilled" in the Japan nuclear disaster most likely originated in Saskatchewan.

I haven't signed the petition however. I can't help but think it is a bit hypocritical for us to take the huge uranium mining royalty revenue to fund provincial services, to promote the jobs created by uranium mining with much fanfare, to ship that uranium elsewhere for it to be processed as fuel. Then, when the fuel is spent, wash our hands of it and refuse to deal with storage.

Just saying.

The Last of Hellier's Plan

2011-08-16T09:46:00.003-05:00

Roger Laye and I wearing the square rig,
somewhere warm

I see that Harper has decided to unravel one of the few things remaining from Paul Hellier’s failed experiment to unify the Canadian Armed Forces into one cohesive unit.

If you will pardon this overused expression, unification represented a sea change in the way the navy identified itself and operated. The “square rig” uniform identified sailors as such and despite being a bit archaic, we preferred it that way.

I left the navy as most of these changes were beginning. We knew by the time I headed out to civie street that before long we would all be wearing green uniforms with shirts and ties. I got out just in time but, if you read No Badge Killick you will know that my leaving had nothing to do with Hellier’s bold plan. Other things were afoot.

I don’t know how those serving on ships today feel but to me somehow Royal Canadian Navy rings a bit more true than Canadian Armed Forces – Maritime Command.

Canadians for Tax Fairness

2011-08-10T20:30:00.004-05:00

There is a new group on the scene. Canadians for Tax Fairness say they promote a progressive tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the public services and programs required to meet our social, economic and environmental needs.

They also tell us a couple of things about money and who has it.

For example, what is rich, and what is really rich?

Last year, the average income for the top 10 US athletes was $44.6 million. Wow! The top 10 pop stars averaged $87.2 million. If you think that is over the top, right? Well, think again.

The average income for the top 10 hedge fund managers was $1.7 billion. Yes, that’s billion.

The term “billions of dollars” is now thrown around with such frequency that many people simply have no feel for what it means. In their book, The Trouble With Billionaires, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks put it in perspective: “Imagine this: you are given one dollar every second. At that rate, after one minute, you would have sixty dollars. And after twelve days, you would be a millionaire – something beyond most people’s wildest dreams. But how long would it take to become a billionaire? Well, at that rate, it would take almost thirty-two years.”

A billion dollars is an astronomical amount of money. And those with billions, hundreds of millions, tens of millions or even a few million can certainly afford to contribute more taxes to build and maintain a healthy 21st century society.

Taking a look at the corporate world. Do you wonder if Canadian Corporations are hurting so much that our Harper government has to give them tax cuts. No so, Erin Weir writes in Rabble, Canadian corporations sit on a huge amount of cash. He tells us that that private non-financial Canadian corporations held $471 billion in cash in the first quarter of 2011 saying “If corporate Canada already has half a trillion dollars more than it wishes to invest in physical or financial assets, there is no reason to expect that corporate tax cuts will boost investment. On the contrary, if the government collected more of this money and invested it directly, Canada would have more investment in total,”

To read more go to their site

The Western World isn't Broke. Just Misguided

2011-08-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

Standards and Poor's finally had the nerve to say out loud - albeit very softly - what everyone has known for years now. The American economy is in deep, over it's head.

The downgrading of the US credit rating down from the highest level to a notch below is sending waves through the global economic community. Everyone is jittery. You have to ask yourself why get nervous now? We all have known this for some considerable length of time. The rating agency probably should have done this years ago and should have moved with a stronger hand than it has.

It isn't only the US. A world economic reality check is well overdue.

Don't get me wrong. The United States is not broke. The United States is a very rich nation. In fact most of the countries in the Western World including, those in the European Economic Union, are doing very well. It is their government's that are screwed up.

We have all heard the right wing economic mantra about needed corporate tax cuts, lower royalties, business incentives and tax breaks for those who are best able to carry their fair share. We have been told again and again. "If it is good for business. It is good for the country." To my amazement voters bought in so for decades now, we have seen the tax burden shifted incrementally to the middle class.

The simple truth is that business is clearly, not pulling their weight. Any hint of increased taxes or royalties and they threaten to pull up stakes and to move their operations to the third world. Business has no loyalty so who do we pander to them? How many times have we seen multinationals pull up stakes after taking millions in government grants for retooling. How many corporations feel the need to contract services off-shore, putting those who built the company up from scratch out of work, before we say "enough is enough?"

I am convinced that future generation are going to look back at this time, shake their heads and wonder, "What were they thinking?"

The western world isn't broke. It is just misguided and gutless.

Bean counters, what do they know?

Regina is a Funny Town

2011-08-08T09:22:00.001-05:00

I don't think I've seen so many people on the Scarth Street Mall before - ever - but the Regina Folk Festival's Stage was packing them in on Sunday. The place was solid people

Hawkley Workman perhaps said it best, gesturing to Beer Brothers patio, "I don't know but, if that was my bar, I'd be open." Indeed. What a missed opportunity.

I could have used a beer and a late snack. Perhaps next year the owners will get a little better tuned in, to what is happening downtown.

What Are You Waiting For?

2011-08-07T12:18:00.005-05:00

I can't say enough about Grasslands National Park. It is a real treasure and one that, while I wouldn't want to see it over run with tourists, should be better promoted.

We stayed in Val Marie, the best bet for people wanting to visit the park. There are a few options open but those seeking a high end spa treatment, supper at the Keg and a round of golf might as well drive on to Banff.

The Crossing B&B and campground give you the option of sleeping in a tipi for a few days, Rosefield B&B is a bit more remote but not quite as off the grid as it claims to be but my favorite is The Convent. It is just that, an old convent, converted into a B&B by Robert and Mette Duncan. Breakfast of course is included but smart diners will chose to eat supper there as well. Mette does the cooking and it is the best place to eat in town, bar none. .

The couple also have a great house they will rent for a week at a time. Completely renovated by Robert it has all the amenities including satellite TV if you want to waste time watching the tube. There are three bedrooms, a couple of sitting rooms and a fully equipped kitchen. All for $600 a week. We stayed there and loved it.

Robert is they guy to talk to if you want to get off the beaten track. He knows the area like to back of his hand and is willing to share his knowledge with very little prodding. He steered us to a very special spot outside the park about 15 km from town. It has scores of tipi rings, a large medicine ring, a couple of ceremonial turtles and perhaps a few burial cairns. I have seldom been to a spot with so much historical significance and it has no signed pointing to it, no explanatory kiosks and isn't noted on any of the maps I found.

There are over 3000 archaeological sites within the park.

We spent a good deal of time exploring Grasslands. Photographing wild flowers, hunting out bison and looking for rattlesnakes. (We did find bison but struck out with snakes) We specially loved it during the time photographers call the golden hour, just before sunset. The light is magnificent and I took over a thousand photographs. Some of the sunsets would take your breath away.

So, don't wait, head to Grasslands and get out of the natural prairie grasses, hike up to the top of a butte and savour the prairie wind.

A gopher having a bad day

Silly Season

2011-08-05T10:23:00.003-05:00

OK, I can't sit on my hands about this any longer. Even my family are on my case wondering why I haven't blogged about it.

The NDP's interim leader, Nycole Turmel was a member of the Bloc. So what. Canada's English language mainstream media are running with a story that doesn't deserve much more than a nod. The Globe & Mail has their knickers in a knot and Christie Blachford, now writing for PostMedia, has worked herself into a lather about it.

It is no bloody wonder that Quebec feels a bit isolated from the rest of Canada. The Toronto based English media personify the cultural divide. They just doesn't get it and their ability to dismiss the Bloc as a one issue party baffles me. The Bloc's position in the House on most issues was very progressive and their commitment to enlightened social policy was commendable. A great many Quebecois supported them for that reason alone. After all, the Liberals blew it in Quebec with the sponsorship scandal, the Blue Meanies were just too far right and until this election, they just weren't sure about the NDP.

Now spurred on the the attention given to the matter by the media the political parties are in full flight and you have to wonder how they manage to dredge up the gall.

Even the Bloc got into the action. Their own interim leader, Louis Plamondon, was a Conservative Member of Parliament for the better part of a decade.
The Conservative Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Denis Lebel was an active member of the Bloc Quebecois.
The recently refurbished, Maxime Bernier was a political aide to former Premier Bernard Landry who made all employees declare their loyalty to an independent Quebec.
Bob Rae was the NDP Premier of Ontario.

Politicians have switched parties like it was Canada's national sport.

So, no need for Stephen Harper to climb up on his sanctimonious high horse about it all. Come on Canada relax, it is August, we don't have the energy for all this crap.

Turmel is a placeholder leader until, either Jack comes back or perish the thought, can't return and has to be replaced. Putting a competent person into place who is not a contender for party leader, when and if that situation arises, was a very honourable thing to do. Lets respect his decision and get on with summer.

Still in Grasslands

2011-07-31T16:56:00.002-05:00

The view from 70 mile Butte

We are still driving the back roads of South Western Saskatchewan, in Grasslands National Park and area, seeking out bison, black tailed prairie dogs, rattlesnakes and burrowing owls with mixed success.

Not to many pictures to post at this point as I am shooting using the Olympus Raw Format and the small laptop computer I have with me won't edit them. I have to wait until I get home to use Photoshop.

My partner in crime and other ventures however has a better equipped laptop than I than I do and is wisely shooting in jpeg. She has some pics posted on her site.

Snakes and Black Widows? What am I doing Here?

2011-07-27T17:17:00.005-05:00

Rest assured, I'll keep my eyes peeled

The signs tell me that the bison are wild and can be unpredictable and dangerous so be careful. Another warns me that there are black widow spiders out here and the last thing we see before we head onto the trail to 70 Mile Butte is a sign, in both official langlages warning us about rattlesnakes

I don't even like garter snakes. What the hell am I doing here? Worse still, this walk today was my idea.

Grasslands National Park, despite those aforementioned drawbacks is amazing. It is a huge, beautiful country out here. I am so glad they decided to save these grasslands. From the top of the butte you can see for miles. Incredible vistas.

Four more days of hiking and driving back roads, checking out old ranch sites, looking for bison and deer and things to photograph.

No rattlesnakes yet but you can bet, we are keeping our fingers crossed. .

The CRTC Meets to Look at Internet Billing

2011-07-13T11:35:00.003-05:00

Konrad von Finckenstein, looking interested

Anyone who reads this blog knows that the CRTC is not my favourite group of regulators. Not that I have anything against regulators in general, in fact I think we need more of them here in Canada, or at the very least, at least we could use regulators who actually do their jobs.

In Ottawa this week the CRTC is hearing submissions from Canada’s internet giants who are trying to gouge even more than they already charge us for the service. Canadians we are reminded, already pay more for internet service that most other people in the world.

The CRTC, if things run true to form, will try to find a way to give the big guys what they want. Screw the consumer.

I note that at the hearings, Open Media’s Steve Anderson, got a rough ride from the commissioners. First CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein - no, no that is really his name – got annoyed with Anderson who was trying to point out that internet costs were already prohibitive for some who live with within lower income brackets. Finckenstien pushed Anderson saying that he as well beyond the scope of the hearing. To be fair, Anderson most likely be unfamiliar with the finer points of the CRTC tango, a dance perfected by broadcasters, communications companies and the CRTC commissioners.

Then Vice Chair for telecommunications, Len Katz, started to push Mr. Anderson about Open Media’s “non-partisan” status in light what he saw as links to union groups. He also asked how many members it had, and who was funding it.

Katz who has a strong background with the industry giants Anderson is fighting against and one could easily assume is not pro-union, seemed to find fault with the fact that a couple of unions support Open Media. In fact the list of supporters is quite broad and includes 500,000 Canadian citizens.

The vice-chair of broadcasting, Tom Pentefountas, quoted Open Media as saying in the past that Bell’s position in the hearing is “self-serving,”. Pentefountas who seems to have missed the point of these hearings took Anderson to task for referring to Bell Canadian those terms said “Your interest is just as self-serving, is it not?”.

A Montreal lawyer and friend of Stephen Harper’s former communications director Dimitri Soudas, Pentefountas was named vice-chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in a storm of controversy earlier this year. He is startlingly unqualified for the job. I have more credentials than he does.

It was advocacy by Open Media that led to the public outrage over Internet pricing and download limits that prompted the hearings in the first place.

The commissioners would rather not be there.

If Craven is King. We Have to Ask Why

2011-07-13T10:33:00.003-05:00

Get drunk, fall down, miss the music

I can’t figure out why the Craven Country Jamboree is King here in Saskatchewan, but it is. We went once after someone gave us a couple of free tickets but, we never went back. I’m no prude, public nudity doesn’t bother me and I am always up for a party but...Craven just isn’t my scene and to be completely honest, I’m not a big country music fan anyway.

Craven sure is popular with the political crowd though.

First let’s get one thing straight. The Craven Country Jamboree is a business, no ands, ifs or buts. It is also a business with lots of political friends.

This year like much of Saskatchewan, the Craven campsite was well under water. Dispite other businesses, homes and farms that are still under water the three day festival was first in line for a handout.

Much to many people’s surprise, they were given a over $1.5 million by the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority to build berms to prevent future flooding of the site. Evidentially the business met the criteria for the emergency flood damage reduction program, and since it qualified, they got the cash. Not bad for a business that actually only provides service, if we could call it that, three days a year.

Then, festival organizers were pumping water out the area when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) grew concerned with the number of fish trapped within the site. They ordered the pumps turned off.

Then the area MP, Tom Lukiwski who you generally never hear from, saw an opportunity for a little media face time and stepped in. What is more important after all, spawning fish, or a three day piss-up.

Before you know it the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Keith Ashfield ordered the pumps turned back on. There was no way he was going to let those pesky fish get in the way of a private business’s ability of operate. The Minister reversed his own department’s decision. He obviously knew better what the Blue Meanies are all about when he said “ For such an important economic and cultural event to be affected in this way is contrary to the principles this government stands for." Even we bloggers couldn't have wrapped up the Conservative agenda better than that.

Now as the festival gears up we are gleefully told that taxpayers will provide the services of 36 RCMP officers for crowd control and that last year at 160 people were arrested and put into cells at least overnight for a variety of charges, including being intoxicated in a public place, public mischief, impaired driving, assault, theft and one sexual assault.

Some cultural event.

Don’t get me wrong, most festivals couldn’t survive without financial help from government. Festivals help to weave what is a part of our cultural fabric but there are community oriented festivals and there are business festivals. There is a difference and I for one am feeling ripped off.

This year, if you love good music in an outdoor setting and you don’t particularly like getting shit faced or taking your clothes off, come down to the more family friendly Folk Festival. Probably no one will get arrested, the music is great and you will have a wonderful time.

Reduce the Risks of Working Alone

2011-07-12T10:19:00.003-05:00

Early this summer, on the night of June 30th to be exact a Yorkton gas station attendant, working alone was murdered, for what was most likely, no more than a couple of hundred dollars. The victim, Jim Weibe was working alone. Not long after, police arrested 20 year old Kyle Furness and have charged him with first degree murder.

Weibe joins a growing list of people who met their ends while working alone, overnight for shitty pay, in gas stations and convenience stores across North America. They are basically sitting ducks waiting for the next lowlife to crawl out from under some rock.

Weibe’s friend Aaron Nagy is trying to do something about that. He has started an on-line petition and a Facebook site in an effort to convince the government to bring in legislation which would protect people in Weibe’s situation. He says, no one should be working alone. I agree with him, no one should be working alone, particularly in the middle of the night.

Nagy is on the right track but, I can tell you, he has an uphill battle. I would be amazed if this business friendly Saskatchewan Party Government gives the issue much more than lip service.

The issue of people working alone extends far beyond gas station attendants.

In 2001 after SaskTel employee John Davies was shot and died while trying to restore telephone service to the Star Blanket Reserve I looked very closely at the issue and wrote a Health and Safety report entitled Reducing the Risks of Working Alone.

I gave a few seminars on the subject trying to raise awareness of the risks and we talked to the government of the day, but from my perspective, not a great deal has changed in the last 11 years.

Information available to employees who are concerned about working alone in Saskatchewan are grossly inadequate and guidelines for employers lack strong legislation to back them up. Surprisingly even the Alberta guide on the issue does a better job.

It is time to fix this issue. Let’s get at it.

Personal Tragedy Becomes a Contest

2011-07-06T17:12:00.002-05:00

I always thought we Canadians lived within a caring society but the bottom line is that the fundamental responsibility for helping out the less fortunate and those in need lies within our social safety net. These days however we see the role of taking care of those less fortunate shift into the public forum. I can hardly buy groceries these days without being asked to donate a dollar for this and another for that. Since I shop every day it get a bit tedious but more than that it signals that the government isn't doing a very good job. Then I discovered that it was worse than I ever thought.

For a few Regina families real life took another step closer to the world reality entertainment this week as Rebuilding Dreams is pitting a group of families in desperate need, against each other, in an effort to "win" a house makeover.

In a move that I think is just about as crass as it comes, we are encouraged look on line and read about five families that are all facing very tough personal situations. Then we are asked to vote on line for the family that needs help the most. The last time I looked the Strong family was well into the lead which made me wonder how the Bridal or Nagy or any of the other families must feel.

All five families are facing a daunting struggle to survive within a social service system that is obviously very badly broken. We should be asking ourselves, even within what Brad Wall calls a boom economy, why do so many fall through the cracks.

I am intrigued as to why a community that elects right wing governments that barely maintain services, will support a contest where families have to "out tragedy" each other and ask you to donate on line. Surly, that is kind of like turning personal hardship into a sport. The Romans were more civilized that that.

Facebook is all a Twitter.

The prize is a big one. The group says the family that "wins" will receive:

A brand new home customized to the family’s needs. The website says their home will be rebuilt and furnished for the family. This will be similar but not quite as extravagant as the popular television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Assuming there are lots of donations the prize pack could also include debt reduction for the family if the fundraising events are as successful as we anticipate.

The family that comes second may, if there is enough money donated, get some basic renovations that will help this family get by for awhile and provide for any of their urgent needs they may have.

And if their fundraising far surpasses our expectations, the group says they will be providing a renovation package to a third family.

The group is hoping to raise $100,000. There is a very long way to go. So far they have raised $2,785.

Sponsors are lining up to provide goods and service to the family that wins. For example, Urban Sun provide the family with Tanning and Spa Services Package, Jump.ca is providing a couple of cel phones to the family and Group 5 Security will be providing secutity for the site during reconstruction.

It all just gives me a sick feeling in my stomach.

Climax is My Favotite

2011-07-03T12:29:00.003-05:00

Photograph by Shelley Banks

I love unusual place names and it is often fun to speculate why the founding families chose one particular name over another. Newfoundland has lots of fun names and growing up in Quebec St Louis de Ha Ha was always good for a chuckle.

Saskatchewan is no exception.

There is Forget which is no comment on how memorable the town may or may not be. It is actually named after Amédée E. Forget, the first Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.

These days Saskatchewan seems to have difficulty pronouncing French names. The town of Bienfait is pronounced Bean Fate out here.

Adanac of course is Canada spelled backwards.

My favourite town slogan has to be, “New York is big but this is Biggar” They are celebrating their 100th birthday this year.

Eyebrow is northwest of Moose Jaw and

You have to ask yourselves, what were they thinking when they named Smuts.

You can't get a good cup of tea in Earl Grey and I hope the local softball team in Penzance is called the Pirates.

One of my favourites has to be Climax. I have always wanted to drive down to see if there really is a sign that says “Thanks for visiting, Come Again.

Eastend is in the south-western part of the province and Southend is in the northeast.

Alsask is very close to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border so that kind of makes sense then, just down the road is the tiny town of Mantario which has to make you ask, “What were they thinking?”

Mantario is so small that they only have five streets. 1st Avenue runs basically east/west parallel to highway #44 then running north/south, each one block long there are 1st street west, Main Street, 1st Street East then 2nd Street East. You would think with a town that size they could have given the streets names instead of numbers without confusing anybody.

While we were driving to Grasslands park last week we drove through Mankota which is not all that far north of Montana, much further from North Dakota and about 450 km from Manitoba.

Go figure.

Happy Birthday Canada

2011-07-01T06:43:00.000-05:00

Despite our nation's move to the right, our warts and frustrations Canada is still a pretty damn good place to live.

Happy 144th Birthday Canada

A good afternoon to fly kites and being Friday. A good evening to play floor hockey

Just Another Imposter

2011-06-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

I'm Not Sure About the Honesty Part

I hate organizations and groups of people that give themselves names that misrepresent what they do, who they are or what they stand for. Groups that try to project one image while they in fact, are something completely different.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation for example. Not a group representing the interests of people concerned about taxes but a cranky, right wing group mostly funded by business interests. Their pro-Conservative stance on spending, particularly when it might actually benefit people, not private sector business, drives me crazy.

I am probably not much more than a cultural Christian but, I find it offensive that the term Christian has been appropriated by the relatively new fundamentalists whose use of the term, dismisses any of the more traditional churches as, not quite up to snuff.

Pro-life groups are not about celebrating life. Most of us, after all, are pro-life. We want to hang on to it as long as we can.

Pro-lifers lobby against a woman’s right to choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Surely that is something quite different.

The Progressive Conservatives did change their name to just the Conservatives. Now that was honest but I do admit, off point.

The latest in this long line of imposters I came across is HonestReporting Canada. They had a letter published in the Globe and Mail today complaining about a story which looked at the new flotilla trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza which featured an interview with a Canadian who was aboard a ship in the last attempt to bring supplies through the illegal Israeli blockade into Gaza, and who was arrested in the process.

Until today I had never heard of HonestReporting Canada but just a little investigative research would tell anyone who bothered to look that HonestReporting Canada are not what they seem.

Now I suspect that anyone who tries to criticize the organization will be labelled anti-Semitic, which I am not, but here goes.

HonestReporting, was founded in the UK in 2000, at the onset of the Palestinian uprising which by the time it was done saw a death toll estimated to be 5500 Palestinians and over 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.

HonestReporting's self-declared mission is to expose what its members consider bias against Israel in the western media.

HonestReporting Canada was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Toronto.

HR's self-declared mission statement claims that,

Israel is in the midst of a battle for public opinion – waged primarily via the media. To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately "'HonestReporting'" monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and effects change through education and action

HR defines itself "as an organization dedicated to defending Israel against prejudice in the Media" they will provide resources to anyone wishing to advocate for Israel. We have seen it again and again. Any attempt to offer both sides of the very complex Middle Eastern story with be met with howls of outrage and accusations of antisemitism. This group and others are basically propagandists all but working for the government in Israel and never far from the official party line.

If we take a good look at the honesty exprerssed on their website look no further that their description of
the organization’s Executive Director Mike Fegelman. They say Mike is someone who “specialized in broadcasting and international reporting. An eight-year veteran of the Canadian journalism industry, Mike was a former editor-in-chief, reporter, and anchor of various news programs and publications.”

I don’t know how they define veteran but if he is a “veteran” I must be the leader of the free world.

Mike it seems was the editor and writer of a free Ottawa weekly newspaper produced by Carleton University Journalism Students and his news anchoring experience was at the University Campus Television Station. Veteran - my ass. Talk about honest reporting.

Honestly, the group isn’t about honesty in reporting. It is basically a Jewish nongovernmental organization using what critics claim are coercive tactics to silence critics of Israeli government policy.

My New Favorite Spot

2011-06-27T11:19:00.004-05:00

Grasslands at dusk

After several years of complaining about the lack of facilities, the state of small town Saskatchewan motels and the legendary bad roads we decided to head down to Grasslands National Park (West Block) this week end.

We decided to leave the Trans Canada and wind our way from small town to small town across Southern Saskatchewan. It was an interesting drive, quite pretty but the state of many of those smaller roads put the lie to Brad Wall's claim that there is an economic boom here in Saskatchewan.

At this point the park encompasses about 500 square kilometres. It will be several years before the park is completely established but eventually, it will cover 900 square kilometres in two blocks along the Canada - U.S. border in southwestern Saskatchewan. It might take a while. The federal government will continue to purchase the land on a willing-seller/willing buyer basis and says there will be no expropriation . Ranching has got to be a tough life so bit by bit the old timers are retiring with no one in the family willing to take over the spreads.

Grasslands National Park is my new favorite spot.

The park is an amazing find. Miles and miles of grasslands, with barely a tree in sight it almost defies your imagination. After years of ranching, grazing destroyed many native grasses but with careful management those species are coming back along with prairie flowers.

Deer Feeding in the Coolie

Wildlife has returned as well. A bison herd was reintroduced a few years ago as were black footed ferrets which had become extinct in the wild. There are burrowing owls, black tailed prairie dogs, antelope, deer, swift foxes, coyotes and of course rattlesnakes.

There are at least 12,000 tee-pee rings in the park. This is where first nations peoples camped and hunted in summer months.

The challenge now is finding new undiscovered sites. They seem to be all over the park but, with all the rain this year, the grasses and flowers are so prevalent it is hard to make out the rings through the green growth.

There is no question that we will be going back again and again. The country is magnificent and we met some pretty interesting people as well.

We stayed in Val Marie in the old converted, Convent Inn, owned by Robert and Mette Duncan which while it isn't fancy, is very comfortable and the food was great. Robert loves to chat and tell stories and is more than willing to help you find new places to explore the area. I'd recommend the place without hesitation.

At supper we notices a group of about six women that it turned out were on a photo workshop with photographer James Page who recently moved from Victoria to Val Marie. We had seen his book Wild Prairie in the afternoon and we had a good chat with him about the park and the photographic opportunities there. We cross paths with them that evening as we moved through the park just before sunset.

The Duncans also have a lovely two story house in the village they rent out by the week for around $600. It would be a deal at twice the price.

If you want to camp, there is a campground in town or, about five km south at the Crossroads you can RV it, tent or rent one of their tee-pees for $20.00 a night.

You may not know much about the park but, if you like wide open spaces, there is nothing like it. Visit now before people from Ontario and Europeans discover it and over run the place.

And in the News Today

2011-06-27T10:27:00.002-05:00

Canada Post Fiasco

I am always impressed by how governments manage to turn public opinion in the face of all logic.

The Postal Workers were holding rotating strikes to put pressure on the Canada Post, a Crown Corporation, to put a better offer on the table. Canada post was determined, in collective bargaining to undermine pension benefits. While I might have missed the odd day’s delivery, I was pretty much getting regular mail delivery.

Canada Post then locked their employees out. The mail stopped. The Government then expressed concern about the stoppage.

Instead of telling Canada Post to lift the lock-out the government brought in legislation and after a NDP filibuster delayed the passing for some time, the legislation passed and the mail will move again on Tuesday.

Canada Post is legendary for their bad industrial relations record. The government has just rewarded Canada Post's bad behaviour by forcing workers back on the job, something they would have done willingly, just not for every day.

Listening to the debate around the dispute I was disappointed to hear some Canadians rise to support the Harper Government’s reaction. On the face of it no one will admit voting for these guys but too many are pretty eager to buy the Harper “For the good of the economy” argument hook, line and sinker.

I don't object to legislating Postal Workers back to work after a strike has actually begun to have a real effect on the economy but when they are locked out by the same government that controls the legislative agenda. That is another thing.

The Ugly Canadian

It’s an old story. Foreign companies come into a developing nation bring with them the promise of hard cash for a struggling government.

Resources are exploited, people are displaced and a way of life ruined all in the name of the economic good the benefit of which few but government officials and local businessmen ever see.

This time it is Peru and the companies are Canadian. Some are familiar, some not. I am sure there are good guys and bad guys although it is tough to sort out who is who. The list includes Barrick Gold, HudBay Minerals, Bear Creek Mining, Sukkiden, First Quantum and others.

The locals say that farmland is being destroyed, water polluted and although the government may be seeing an increase in revenue, local people have yet to see benefit from the operations. No schools, no good hospitals, no new roads.

Protests have become ugly and the government in response has revoked the mining rights from at least one Canadian Company, Bear Creek. In typical corporate bully boy fashion, the company says they will sue under the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement.

Hands up now, everyone who knew there was one.

Always There For a Laugh

Those of us who read the Regina Leader Post can always find a couple of things to post fun at.

In Monday’s edition of the paper lived up to expectations.

There is a special feature about what entertainers who are coming to Saskatchewan this summer. Reading about k.d. lang in this morning’s paper my breakfast partner pointed out that the reporter must not have been paying attention at J-School when they talked about, the backbone of any story, the 5 W’s.

Jeff Dedekker somehow managed to leave out the When, Where and the Why. For those who may be confused, k.d. lang is playing the Regina Folk Festival in Victoria Park, downtown Regina, August 6th at 10:45

We were also quite mystified by the headline, “On Line Dating Linked to Rise in STDs”

Frankly it defies imagination.

What Did They Expect?

2011-06-24T18:14:00.002-05:00

For all of us who thought the talk about the Vancouver debacle would be done by now – enough self analysis you commentators - we are sick of it.

I swore I wasn’t going to join the, hockey violence begets street violence crowd. In fact I swore I wasn’t going to comment at all but...

There was a riot
Most people with half a brain could feel it coming
Those who felt the crowd mood shift should have buggered off before there was a problem
If you don’t have that kind of street smarts, you should have stayed in Richmond or Burnaby .

The pundits now are getting their knickers in a knot over privacy.

Judging by the pictures I saw, the crowd was mostly made-up of the Facebook demographic and there were lots of cell phone cameras. The discussion now has shifted to the ethics of taking pictures of others setting cars on fire, breaking windows and looting and then posting those images on the web. Facebook shaming sites have sprung up like dandelions. They all have phones with the ability to post directly the internet so what else would one expect.

Privacy issues? Give your head a shake. Isn’t it more like “How stupid could you get?”

Wascana Creek Pelicans

2011-06-22T13:21:00.001-05:00

To be honest I don't know a hell of a lot about pelicans but, for reasons I don't understand, there are a whole lot more of them on the prairies these days.

They are pretty amazing to watch, huge birds really.

In recent days the water has been so high on Wascana Lake in Regina the city opened the weir at the Albert Street Bridge to see if they could get the water level down.

Tipped off, I went down to the dike to watch them this morning.

To see more pictures of pelicans feeding and swimming in the foam generated by the rushing water have a look at the blog, Latitude Drifts.

Should we be Worried?

2011-06-22T10:20:00.005-05:00

I often find it curious, the way issues seem to bounce off each other.

This morning's Globe and Mail has a page three story about Canada's Privacy Commissioner and her fight against some of the Internet's giants and the lack of respect given to privacy on the web.

It talked about her fight with Google and Facebook and the on-line dating site eHarmony as well as her discovery that Staples had been less that diligent about purging personal information from returned computer hard drives offered for re-sale.

Jennifer Staddart is a tough cookie determined to make sure your privacy is respected on the Internet.

It wasn't more than 10 minutes after reading the story that I checked my e-mail and found a link to an Open Media on-line petition warning me about what may be the greatest threat to our privacy. The Harper Government's proposed legislation which would allow the authorities to mine our computers for data without having to go through the bother of obtaining a warrant.

They tell us:

The government is trying to ram through an anti-Internet set of electronic surveillance laws that will invade your privacy and cost you money. The plan is to force every phone and Internet provider to surrender our personal information to "authorities" without a warrant.

This bizarre legislation will create Internet surveillance that is:

Warrantless: A range of "authorities" will have the ability to invade the private lives of law-abiding Canadians and our families using wired Internet and mobile devices, without a warrant or any justification.

Invasive and Dangerous: The laws leave our personal and financial information less secure and more susceptible to cybercrime.

Costly: Internet services providers may be forced to install millions of dollars worth of spying technology and the cost will be passed down to YOU.

The legislation, which in true Harper style is bundled with other "tough on crime" bills is described by the conservatives as one which will help track down "perverts and pedophiles." What could be wrong with that after all?

So is all this really a problem, or is Open Media over reacting? Internet expert and commentator Michael Giest thinks it is. He says:

There are several concerns with the Conservatives lawful access plans. First, it bears noting that these bills have never received extensive debate on the floor of the House of Commons and never been the subject of committee hearings. Police officers may support the legislation, but there has never been an opportunity to question them on the need for such legislation or on their ability to use lawful access powers if the bills become law. Federal and provincial privacy commissioners have expressed deep concerns about these bills, yet they have never had the opportunity to air those concerns before committee. Internet service providers, who face millions in additional costs - presumably passed along to consumers - have never appeared before committee. By making a commitment to passing lawful access within 100 days, the Conservatives are undertaking to pass legislation with enormous implications for the Internet that has never received parliamentary scrutiny and will receive limited attention.

Even that right wing rag Macleans Magazine is concerned.

Should we worry? I think so. All of us should be concerned but perhaps especially, guys like me, who spend the first few morning hours after coffee trying to hold the government's feet to the fire should take note.

These guys are mean spirited and I don't trust them as far as I can throw them and for our pudgy Prime Minister, that isn't too far.

Can it Get More Mean Spirited Than That?

2011-06-22T09:28:00.004-05:00

First the Harper Government signaled that they would bring in back to work legislation, so they could get the mail moving, after Canada Post locked out the postal workers. That, in and of itself was pretty outrageous, considering that the Government could simply tell the crown corporation to lift the lock out if they were concerned about mail service. Hell, I was getting regular mail delivery before the lock out.

But no, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, who claims to have a familial connection to labour - they must be estranged - did a quick jig around that issue and said the parties should get back to the table and that they were just trying to help.

So, the legislation hit the table this week. In it, she wants to force the parties into a final offer selection process which is at least more fair than having an arbitrator decide the outstanding issues.

What did shock most fair minded Canadians however was the way the government bill dealt with the wage issue. The proposed back-to-work legislation sets out a wage settlement that is actually lower than Canada Post’s last offer.

Raitt's legislation calls for a wage settlement of 1.75 per cent in the first year, 1.5 per cent in the second year, and 2 per cent each in the final two years.

At the bargaining table, Canada Post has offered 1.9 per cent in each of the first three years, followed by 2 per cent in the final year.

The Canada Post employees on average will lose over $800.00 just because they exercised their legal right to, try to bring pressure on their employer, through a series of rotating strikes.

The message is very clear. Don't mess with the the Harper Government or, you will pay.

Can it get more mean spirited that that? I am afraid it can.

Deepak Who?

2011-06-20T13:40:00.002-05:00

In a move that I thought bordered on an unfair labour practice Deepak Chopra, CEO of Canada Post, released a video message to unionized workers last week in which he said among other things that the union's demands would financially harm the Crown corporation.

I wondered who is this Deepak Chopra? So I Googled him. This what I found:

Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body healing, a best-selling author, and the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing.

Heralded by Time Magazine as the "poet-prophet of alternative medicine," he is ,,,a global force in the field of human empowerment, Dr. Chopra is the prolific author of more than fifty-five books, including fourteen bestsellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace. Dr. Chopra's books have been published in more than eighty-five languages

Oops, wrong Deepak.

The Canada Post head, appointed in January was touted to have wide experience and knowledge by Chuck Strahl, who was then Harper’s Transport Minister. At Chopra's appointment Strahl said "His extensive experience in dealing with government and postal officials around the world, as well as his vast knowledge of the regulatory bodies governing the mailing industry, will definitely be a strong asset to the corporation,"

I’m not sure what he knows about the mail but he how Conservative Governments work. He locked out the union workers, shut down the mail service and gave the Blue Meanies’ Lisa Raitt an excuse to introduce back to work legislation which she is expected to do later today.

A Few Thoughts About Canada's Military Engagements

2011-06-20T11:11:00.003-05:00

Royal Poobagh Muammar Gaddafi

The transition from peacekeeper to baby killer has taken us a while but, I think we have probably arrived.

For years we told ourselves that we, unlike some other nations, resisted getting our armed forces into messy wars. We preferred “police actions” and other peacekeeping roles.

Then some of our reputation got more than a little tarnished in Somalia and then Rwanda didn’t go well. Some of our military brass started telling Canadians we were kidding ourselves if we didn’t think our overseas military roles were a real shooting wars.

We managed to stay the hell out of Iraq thanks to Jean Chretian’s stubbornness but then, along came Afghanistan and in we jumped.

The government liked to characterize our involvement as being about building roads and getting girls into schools, but in the process, we managed to lose 156 mostly young men and women soldiers, one diplomat, two aid workers and one journalist.

Although our role in Afghanistan has shifted but our troops are still in harm’s way which seems quite absurd considering President Hamid Karzai’s recent statement that coalition forces remain in the country “for their own purposes, for their own goals and they are using our soil for that.” He probably isn't so wrong so what the hell are we doing there?

We have a Defence Minister who loves to play dress-up, American style, in his military outfits and a Prime Minister who too, loves to be photographed in a helmet and flak jacket, no matter how nerdy it makes him look.

We have moved from a government reluctantly bowing to international pressure to get involved to one eager to step to the front of the line.

Muammar Gaddafi, well known as when one of the world’s most notorious dictators, had been propped up by Western business, including one of our most high profile of Canadian companies, Suncor (Petro-Canada) worked in Libya for years and hardly for altruistic reasons. There was big money to be made. No one in Ottawa seemed to mind a bit.

When things began to go even more sideways that usual in the Arab world and Gaddafi resisted reform with bullets, Canada was one of the first in line, sending a Naval vessel soon followed by fighter jets.

I never quite understood how we made the switch do quickly but I am willing to bet that Harper saw this as a quick and dirty little engagement which would see the dictator move off into exile somewhere a few short weeks after it started. I think he figured it would look good in his ratings at home. He was probably right on that count.

However, politicians never seem to learn that often these little wars can take a bad turn when you least expect. So here we are, a few months in and Gaddafi or as he likes to be called, “The Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” is still in Tripoli, as large as life.

Canada’s engagement in Libya which was, and still officially is, to protect civilians – wink wink, nod nod – has been extended by an almost unanimous vote in the House of Commons. Despite the politician’s support for Canada’s continued role a Globe & Mail poll suggested that 71% of Canadians feel that our mission should not be extended there.

NATO forces have now bombed rebel (the official good guys) at least three times by mistake and late last week bombed an apartment complex in Tripoli killing nine people including two children.

NATO won’t say what country’s aircraft were involved in the raid which killed the civilians, with good reason. Knowing that your country’s aircraft were involved in that misdirected bombing never would play well at home and NATO countries desperately need support from their citizenry.

When a country gets involved in regime change like it or not they are involved in putting together the government which replaces the one you helped depose, no matter what rag tag group step up to the plate. I don’t think Harper thought much about it but like that retail saying goes, “You break it. It’s yours.”

So, we are in the game, won’t get out soon. Like it or not, Canada will be involved with Libya for a good long time.

What is Next on the Agenda We Wonder?

2011-06-16T13:35:00.045-05:00

There is a lot of speculation about all this

I noticed that the union and Air Canada reached a deal today. Well, considering that Harper and his bunch showed their hand over the disputes at both Air Canada and Canada Post it is no wonder. Any smart negotiator knows you can probably get a better deal at the table than you can from a legislated settlement.

Why wait to see what the Blue Meanies think is fair?

The Postal Workers are a bit more stubborn so it is anyone's guess what happens there but I would be surprised if they wait to see what Lisa Raitt thinks is a fair compromise..

Who knows what might be next. There seem to be two schools of thought in Canada.

Those who think the world as we know it will never be the same and;
others who are reasonably certain that this new "majority" government, after dealing with a few grass roots issues like the gun registry will settle down and take a more moderate path.

I for one, find it tough to think they won't take advantage of their new position to put their right wing stamp on our country. We will survive though. This isn't the first government with a get tough agenda. We lived through Brian Mulroney and I have spent most of my life fighting cuts to programs by the Liberals.

Never the less, they have a full agenda and as much as the graphic at the top right is a joke, it isn't all that far from reality.

This in no time to be complacent.

Right to Strike Means nothing to the Blue Meanies

2011-06-15T21:02:00.077-05:00

We are starting to get a taste of how this new Blue Meanies "majority" will play out. Not well if this is a harbinger of things to come.

Despite media reports that the strike by agents at Air Canada really isn't having much affect on the travelling public, the Labour Minister today said they will promptly legislate the employees back to work and may table legislation to do that as nearly as Thursday.

That is pretty amazing. They haven't even been out 24 hours yet.

More interesting perhaps is the Postal Workers' dispute. They have been carrying on rotating strikes across the country. Pretty responsible I thought, not wanting to shut down Canada Post all together. The mail was getting through albeit a bit slower that usual.

Canada Post then decided to go on the attack and locked the workers out to see if they could bring things to a head. The Labour Minister once again jumped into the breach and threatened back to work legislation.

I admit I don't know but, I suspect the conversations between Canada Post and the minister's senior people went something like this.

Canada Post: "Come on. You have to do something. We're losing money with damn rotating strikes. It is all a royal pain in the ass. You can't let those guys push us around.

Labour Canada: "I'm not sure we are prepared to bring in legislation to stop a rotating strike but...Let's see...What could we do?... Well, if no one was at working at all that would be another matter." Wink, wink, nod, nod.

Canada Post: "Oh yeah. Good point.

Canada Post locked everyone out this morning. No mail, whatsoever is being delivered from coast to coast to coast. Someone call Lisa Raitt.

If the minister had a lick of sense she would have simply told Canada Post, a Crown Corporation, to quit playing silly bugger, to pull the lock out notice and get people back to work. Some mail must be better that no mail. But no. She didn't see it quite that way.

With a total shut down she figured it was time to teach those Posties a lesson. I can just hear her saying, "Picketing Post Offices? Not on my watch"

Lisa says, the legislation will be ready in the morning. It will be back to work for those scoundrels.

Months of hard bargaining down the drain and just the way this government likes it. Yhe employers will get what they want. The Posties get screwed.

You can depend on this government.

Asbestos is Back in the News

2011-06-15T15:39:00.000-05:00

Blue Meanie Headquarters

Asbestos is back in the news with a United Nations resolution, attempting to ban the substance, coming up next week. One time asbestos was widely used in Canada but, it's use has been outlawed in this country for years after it was recognized that it causes lung cancer. Asbestos has killed millions of people world wide.

Canadians overwhelmingly support the ban, but to our shame, our government is the only developed country trying to block an agreement that will save lives.

Stephen Harper knows that he is isolated, at home and abroad, and he with his new majority his Blue Meanies can get away with blocking the deal quietly. Fat chance.

I blogged about this issue in early 2010 and wrote to my MP, Tom "do nothing" Lukiwski asking for a ban. The response I got was laughable. We need a major public outcry to make sure our government knows that Canadians are watching.

In an attempt to convince Little Stevie of the error of his ways a campaign website has been set up and I urge you to visit and join over 4500 Canadians who have already sent messages to our PM.

A Shift in Values?

2011-06-14T13:10:00.092-05:00

I've been in Ottawa these last few days so my blog posts are a bit behind.

I walked a lot while I was there, re-connecting with a city I really quite like.

Just along where the the Rideau River runs into the Ottawa we came across a bit of sculpture. The plaque says the "Monument honours Canadians' commitment to International Development and Humanitarian Assistance and pays tribute to all Canadians who gave their lives in pursuit of theses values."

I said when I read the inscription, "This is what I think of when I contemplate our country and this is what I think we stand for as a people. I don't want us to be the new tough guy on the international scene. We are, or at least we were, a country that cares."

We walked on another hundred metres or so to what used to be the Canada and the World Pavilion. A sign outside said that the pavilion's purpose was "..to share Canadians' international contributions with" us. The pavilion and the exhibit are now permanently closed.

For me, that sign pretty much summed up the values of our current government.

Another thing I noticed was the number of people around the city in uniform. It wasn't so long ago that military personnel were instructed to wear civilian clothes to work. The government didn't want people to be conscious of how many military people actually worked in in the city. When you did see someone they were in dress uniform.

There days all the members of the army walk around the city in full camouflage which makes no sense at all except that this government wants to send a much different image to Canadians who see military personnel in the street. Harper's people see these camo outfits projecting a tough, rough and ready image. It might be practical to wear camo if you were crawling around in the bush trying not to be seen but on a city street?

I know that Defense Minister Peter McKay like to dress up in army gear every chance he gets, kind of like George Bush, but in truth, the only practical camouflage for most of these people would something that would let them blend into offices and filing cabinets.

I just don't like where we seem to be going.

Bubble Headed Bleached Blonde Falls Flat on her Face

2011-06-10T07:40:00.008-05:00

Out here, in the nether reaches of Saskatchewan to be exact, we don't get Sun News Network, also called, FOX North or as the Tories like to refer to it The Harper News Network.

It turns out it is just as well.

I think you will find the link to the below video interesting. Basically the Sun News "interviewer", to be generous, a Jersey Shore reject, tries to interview well known dancer and choreographer, Margie Gillis and falls flat on her face.

The Blue Meanies fought hard to get Sun News their broadcasting licence, overturning the CRTC. With the Sun News Network on air the Tories now feel that journalism in Canada is much more balanced than it once was.

I think it is an opportunity to look deep into the Conservative soul, just in case we 60 percenters weren't sure why we didn't vote for them.

Have a look at the interview here

I am sorry you have to sit through the commercial at the head but persevere.

And, just as a reminder about journalistic integrity take a few moments and listen to Don Henley

Here is a Question for you Jack

2011-06-08T08:56:00.020-05:00

So here we are. The election is over, Ottawa has a new, but not necessarily better look to it and many of the 60% or so of Canadians who didn’t vote for the Blue Man Group are wondering what happened. More and more are asking themselves, “Isn’t it time we took a hard look at our electoral system.” The first-past-the post system just doesn’t cut it.

All that considered I think that Fair Vote Canada has a great suggestion for Jack Layton’s first Question in the new Parliament. They are nudging the new Leader of the Opposition to ask:

Mr. Speaker, in 1996, when the right was divided and we seemed to be faced with the prospect of “Liberal government forever”, the current prime minister, who was then out of elected office, co-authored and published with Tom Flanagan a remarkable article entitled “Our Benign Dictatorship”. In this thoughtful and well researched article, they decried the way that our first-past-the-post voting system creates one-party rule “beset by the factionalism, regionalism and cronyism that accompany any such system.” They said, and I quote, “For Canadian democracy to mature, Canadian citizens must face these facts, as citizens in other countries have, and update our political structures to reflect the diverse political aspirations of our diverse communities.”

They went on to decry the hugely distorted election results in the 1993 election, in which the Reform party won 52 seats with 19% of the votes, but the Progressive Conservatives, with 16% of the votes, won only two seats, while the Bloc Quebecois, with only 14% of the votes, won 54 seats and formed Her Majesty's “Loyal” Opposition.

“Imposing a first-past-the-post voting system upon a society with deep ethno linguistic and regional cleavages,” they said, “inevitably fragments Canadian conservatism,” adding that, ”Our system has similarly fragmented social democrats.”

They encouraged the Reform and Progressive Conservative parties to advocate electoral reform, and suggested the NDP would vote for it too.

“No one who cares seriously about ideas,” they said, “whether conservative, liberal or socialist, should be happy with the thought of prolonged one-party rule,” because, they pointed out, it leads to cronyism, corruption, cynicism and chaos.” The absence of effective competition,” they said, “is just as bad in politics as it is in economics.”

“Voters on the left,” they pointed out, “are as much entitled as voters on the right to effective representation.”

They went on to point out that, “In today’s democratic societies, organizations share power. Corporations, churches, universities, hospitals, even public sector bureaucracies make decisions through consultation, committees and consensus-building techniques. Only in politics do we still entrust power to a single faction expected to prevail every time over the opposition by sheer force of numbers. Even more anachronistically, we persist in structuring the governing team like a military regiment under a single commander with almost total power to appoint, discipline and expel subordinates.”

They conclude by saying, “Many of Canada’s problems stem from a winner-take-all style of politics that allows governments in Ottawa to impose measures abhorred by large areas of the country,” and “Modernizing Canadian politics would not only be good for conservatism, it might be the key to Canada’s survival as a nation.”

Mr Speaker, we on this side of the House couldn’t agree more with all of that, so my question to the Prime Minister is this: Now that you have won a majority government on the basis of having received less than forty percent of the votes cast in the election, do you still believe in proportional representation?

Then Fair Vote suggests that Jack follow up with the following supplementary.

Mr. Speaker, historically, up to 80% of votes cast for the NDP federally have been wasted votes—they did not help to elect anyone, and our party has always had about half as many seats in this place as we should have won based on the number of votes we received. That has changed, Mr. Speaker, and today, the New Democratic Party is actually slightly over-represented in this House.

But Mr. Speaker, we are willing to put the interests of the country ahead of the interests of our party, and we call on the governing party to do the same.

We do still support proportional representation, Mr. Speaker, and my supplementary question to the Prime Minister is this: When will his government put forward amendments to the Canada Elections Act to give Canadians a modern, fair, proportional voting system, so that every Canadian can have a vote that makes a difference? When they do, Mr. Speaker, we will vote for it.

I don't know if Jack reads what Fair Vote writes about the issue but I hope he does. That question would get people's attention. Let him know this is a great idea.

The Harper Economic Record

2011-06-08T07:00:00.012-05:00

Jim Flaherty would have Canadian’s believe that the retread budget and the fiscal policy he intends to inflict on us Canadians will save us from another recession and bring prosperity back to the country. The only way to do that he says is through cutting fat in Ottawa. When he talks about bloated Ottawa administrations somehow I don’t think he is talking about the PMO. Don’t expect cuts there.

Flaherty expects Canadians to believe that the Blue Meanies alone can save us all from financial oblivion. I think he expects us to believe that if it wasn’t for him, Harper and the rest of the Blue Man group we would have gone the way of Ireland long ago.

Now he boasts that the Conservative policies will bring us out of deficit spending by 2015. A year earlier that expected. No one actually believes he will but, it gets good media coverage and Canadians are a forgiving lot. After all this government has the new and daunting task of keeping the spendthrift socialists away from the door of the Bank of Canada vault.

What Flaherty forgets is that without the unnecessary reduction he made to the GST, we wouldn’t need to make the cuts he is now suggesting are crucial.

The other thing that Harper and Flaherty don’t ever want Canadians to look closely at is what the Conservative financial record really is.

Brian Mulroney in 1993 had run up a $38 billion deficit. Canadians were shocked.

Under Liberal leadership, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin had beaten the deficient and by 2006 when he lost the election the Government was running a $16 Billion surplus.

Under the Harper/Flaherty regime the deficit is up over $55 Billion.

And these guys ran on their economic record. We must be really stupid.

I'll Always Have Time for Those Who Protest

2011-06-06T09:49:00.001-05:00

I was surprised by some of the reaction to Brigitte DePape brief protest in the Senate chamber last week. Not by the overwhelming on-line support, but by some of the politicians’ responses.

She has become a folk hero in cyberspace but, even politicians who we might expect to be a bit more tolerant of her actions pretty much trashed her protest.

It was expected that the Jason Kenny’s of the world would wade, outraged but I was a bit disappointed when Jack Layton gave us all a little lecture saying “We have been pushing for decorum in the House of Commons. You don’t have decorum if people are standing up holding up signs in the middle of debates and solemn moment. We encourage protests; it is part of a great long tradition of democracy. But it should be happening at the proper place and at the proper time.”

I have heard that kind of response from the “left” before. There is seldom is a "proper place and proper time" if it is inconvenient. Protest is great but just don’t do anything that might draw attention away from Jack.

Implying DePape used the wrong venue to stage her protest, even Elizabeth May waded in saying “Essentially, in theory, we’re in the presence of Her Majesty, that is the sovereign, That isn’t Stephen Harper’s room. That’s somebody else’s room.”

Oh Pleeese. In the presence of her Majesty?

It took 20 seconds out of Harper’s big day. No one was hurt. It wasn’t even noisy. Stephen Harper looked pissed off. So what?

She lost her job as a page but, I can’t imagine that paid very well anyway, knowing how the government is usually eager to exploit our youth. At least now she has a few better opportunities to choose from.

American documentary film maker Michel Moore offered her a job and issued a statement saying “For a young person to do that and to do it peacefully, and quietly and with grace, I thought it was a very powerful moment. Every now and then there is an iconic moment where an individual takes action, and it inspires others to think about, you know, what else we would be doing.”

The Public Service Alliance stepped up and said they would hire her if she wanted to work for the union, and the Council of Canadians offered her a job in their organization. Not bad for someone who just graduated.

I agree with DePape when she says, “Contrary to Harper’s rhetoric, Conservative values are not in fact Canadian values. How could they be when three out of four eligible voters didn’t even give their support to the Conservatives?”

Is a Harper Majority fair? Not in your life.

Is it legitimate? You bet.

The Blue Meanies did manage to gain a majority with less that 40% of Canadians supporting them but, they did it using the rules in place. Our first-past-the-post electoral system isn't fair but, Harper didn’t do anything the Liberals haven’t done before him.

And, we let them do it.

It takes guts to stand up and do what that young woman did. She gets my vote, hands down.

Time to Bring in Electoral Reform

2011-06-03T09:08:00.002-05:00

Hi there from the Speaker's chair

As one of the sixty percenters, those people who didn’t vote for the blue meanies, I couldn’t help to notice that while the big parties have been quick to defend our undemocratic first past the post electoral system when it comes to General Elections, they recognize how flawed the system is when the time comes to elect the Speaker of the House.

It took six ballots before Andrew Scheer got the keys to that lovely old residence in the Gatineau’s. If the House of Commons used the system, which they think is good enough for the rest of us; the Speaker would most likely be a New Democrat.

It is well past time for this country to talk about serious electoral reform and to join the majority of world democracies in embracing proportional representation.

Regina Leader Post's New Coat of Paint

2011-06-02T10:18:00.003-05:00

To much self-congratulation the Regina Leader Post unveiled their new format to readers this week.

Rob McLaughlin, the editor in chief of the Leader-Post tells us it is “...a thrilling opportunity to try new things, to meet new people and to go new places. Redesigned and refreshed from front to back, the new look of the Leader-Post is the first of many steps we're taking to better represent a city and a province in the middle of a significant transformation.

Brighter, bolder and easier to navigate from section to section, it's the first major overhaul of the paper in just under a decade. Our new look starts with a revised masthead on page one and extends through the paper with cleaner page tops, improved readability and better spacing of our columns and lines of type. And while we're preserving many of the existing features you've come to expect, we've also added a few new elements.

We hope it better reflects how we now connect with each other to express our opinions and debate the challenges facing our communities.”

Well, I’d say, it will take more than a fresh coat of paint to fix the old LP and based on the comments I’ve seen so far most readers agree with me. They find it disjointed and confusing and the new format uses too many conflicting fonts. The most common refrain is “Go back, go back.”

Format, shormat, I judge a paper by its content, the weight it gives to stories, its political biases and what it puts on the front page.

Anderson Clipping

Yesterday the northern Saskatchewan community of Wollaston Lake was served with an evacuation order because of threatening forest fires. There is no summer road in and out. Using small planes the town’s people were being airlifted out until smoke closed the airport. Now the only hope is that the still frozen lake has enough open water along the shore to boat the folks out.

Pretty dramatic front page news if you ask me but the editors stuck the story on the bottom of page two and it appears the LP couldn't even bother to send in a photographer. If Wollaston goes the way of Slave Lake perhaps the Leader Post can buy something from Reuters later.

This morning the Leader Post front page featured a large, poorly printed colour photograph of U2’s Bono and The Edge along with a story about a Regina woman who plans to attend eleven U2 concerts while they are on this tour. I have to ask why anyone might be interested in anyone who is dumb enough to do that and who at 34 should know better.

Next there is a story about the fact that veteran football player Chris Szarka has been cut by the Riders. Whoop de do. Why should I care? Szarka has already moved on and last year was elected to Regina’s City Council.

Next there is a story about a hockey player being charged as a result of a fatal accident outside Calgary.

So here are a couple of hints for publisher Marty Kline. Start with hiring some more reporters, assign more reporters to beats, so news isn’t reported by journalists who start each day with a blank slate, use less wire copy and if you have to use it at all rewrite it to give it a local slant and use a few op-ed pieces from people who actually know how to write.

If the LP wants to become relevant, it needs more than a new coat of paint

Blue Man Group Ready to Shake up Canada

2011-05-31T12:48:00.002-05:00

The Blue Man Group with Governor General David Johnston

I guess for a lot of us are waiting to see how our new Parliament will function as it starts the spring session June 2nd the next while should be interesting. There have been some changes since it last sat.

New opposition Leader Jack Layton says he will push for a new level of decorum insisting that the NDP will not heckle the blue meanies on the other side of the house. The new Conservative MPs in the running to be Speaker of the House all claim they want to put steps in to improve things, to make it more civil. It will be tough though considering the quality of the people lined up for the job. Andrew Scheer? Spare me.

The head of the blue man group has no love for the socialists and considering what Harper once said about the New Democrats, I don't think any new approach will last long.

A few years ago Harper told a U.S right wing think tank, "Let’s take the New Democratic Party, the NDP The NDP could be described as basically a party of liberal Democrats, but it’s actually worse than that, I have to say. And forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.

This party believes not just in large government and in massive redistributive programs, it’s explicitly socialist. On social value issues, it believes the opposite on just about everything that anybody in this room believes. I think that’s a pretty safe bet on all social-value kinds of questions.

Some people point out that there is a small element of clergy in the NDP. Yes, this is true. But these are clergy who, while very committed to the church, believe that it made a historic error in adopting Christian theology.

The NDP is also explicitly a branch of the Canadian Labour Congress, which is by far our largest labour group, and explicitly radical. "

Considering that June 2nd the NDP will be trying out their new role as the Official Opposition. Pushing their new found weight around. The Liberals, in their new role as also rans, will be working hard to punch above their weight. Harper will have to get used to the fact that he has be civil to them from time to time. It will be tough for him.

Potentially this next session will be a spectator sport like we've never seen before. So, hold on to your hats Canada.

Brad Should Think About the Kids

2011-05-26T11:02:00.004-05:00

Sorry Brad. Wrong again

I am getting a little fed up at the Regina Leader Post's editorial view of the teachers job action. This "Teachers should be thinking about the kids" attitude is puzzling. What ever happened to "The Government should be thinking of the kids"?

The Wall government has themselves in a bit of a jam these days. They have only themselves to blame.

First, Wall thought he was pretty smart when he had his people sidle up to the nurses in 2008 and slip them a 35% increase in wages. The move by Brad and the nurses threw a wrench into the works and undermined any efforts to build real collective action against the Government's hold the line bargaining. He out smarted most of the union side negotiators who thought they could wrestle something close to the same money for their members. They couldn't but, by the time they realized that, all the wind went out of the common front's sails.

Labour might not have won that round but, to their credit they have long memories.

The second thing that undermined Wall's bargaining position was his own love of the spotlight and his unchecked boosterism.

Wall is a born salesman. He should be selling vinyl siding. He even convinced the Globe & Mail that he was Prime Ministerial material.

Brad Wall has spent the last year telling all of us here in flat city and beyond, that now that the evil, job killing, small business hating, socialist leaning NDP have been dispatched, Saskatchewan is booming.

Things have never been better.
People are flocking back from Alberta.
We are encouraging immigrants from Ontario
Jobs, Jobs Jobs
Saskatchewan is the place to be

The Sask Party is running the show so, Sis Saskaboom bitta bah, let the good times roll.

Not so fast Brad.

During the tough times Saskatchewan workers, particularly Saskatchewan government workers were pressed to take less. The government, a generally labour friendly government, convinced workers to take less that they deserved because "the money just isn't there." Labour grudgingly took one for the team to try and keep things on an even keel.

The assumption was always, "Ok, we'll take the hit when times are tough on the expectation that employers will be fair when times are good."

Sorry folks. Duped again.

So now the consummate showman is in a jam. How can he continue to say;

You are asking for too much
We can't afford it.
That teachers and health care workers don't deserve even half of what his government gave to nurses.

after he and his cronies have made so much out of the Saskaboom?

I for one am happy to sit this one out and watch Brad squirm.

And in the News Today

2011-05-25T11:03:00.004-05:00

Well the rapture has come and gone and I haven't noticed anyone missing in action from the Harper crew.

Living with Conservative Economics

We heard a lot of good news about our economy from the Blue Meanies during the election. We were told, things are good, all thanks to Stephen Harper’s fiscal policies apparently, but flying in the face of that optimistic vision, a new Salvation Army report found that a surprising amount of Canadians have first-hand knowledge of being homeless or in need of outside help to stay afloat. Almost 25 per cent of Canadians have had to depend on services such as food banks and/or other charitable groups during their lives. Seven per cent of Canadians reported they had to sleep on the street or in a homeless shelter due to unavailable housing.

The report entitled Canada Speaks, found there was a clear division in the attitudes toward Canada's homeless population, with more than half of those polled feeling that any money given directly to those on the street would do more harm than good. Despite what the new data shows, about 40 per cent of people cited in the report believe Canada's homeless population choose to live on the street or in shelters,

Curiously, that figure just about matches the percentage of people who voted Conservative in the last election. Humm....

Harper not so Tough on White Collar crime

Stephen Harper may talk about his “tough on crime” agenda on the campaign trail, vowing to lock up criminals and throw away the key. He never has much to say about fighting the root cause of much of the low end criminality - poverty.

At the other end of the criminal spectrum Harper seems to have taken a hand off approach.

In an international report that points the finger at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's lack of commitment Canada has been singled out for failing to enforce anti-bribery rules abroad. The watchdog group Transparency International said this week "Canada is the only G7 country in the little or no enforcement category, and has been in this category since the first edition of this report in 2005.” The agency groups Canada with other laggards such as Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece and Slovenia.

In the past decade, only a single Canadian company has ever been convicted of foreign bribery and the $25,000 fine issued by the court was less than the bribe involved.

Canada is also one of a handful of nine countries that explicitly permits so-called “facilitation payments” to foreign officials for acts of a “routine nature” that may be part of their jobs.

Fraser's Good Work Noticed

Most of us political watchers eagerly await any report put together by Auditor General Shelia Fraser and her crew. She has a nose for screw ups and stuffed shirts like Tony Clement just hate her. She may not be a favourite with the Harper gang but thanks to WikiLeaks, we know that the United States government is was paying attention and was impressed with her work. Leaked, confidential diplomatic cables tell us that the U.S. nominated Fraser as their choice to run the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services, but she declined.

Apparently there is still a awful lot of work yet to do here in Canada.

The Gall of Some People

After a stinging rebuke following the U.S. President’s urging that Israel return to something that at least resembles the 1967 borders in an effort to get real progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, told the United States Congress this week that the Jewish state does not need America’s military help to protect his country. The PM says Israel can protect itself.

What he didn’t say was that Israel would foot the bill for that protection themselves.

His speech to the U.S. Congress was designed to build support for President Obama's request for further $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the 2011 budget. Obama made the request despite Netanyahu’s rejection of his new road map for peace in the Middle East.

While he U.S Government gives the Palestinian Authority less than $500 million per year.On average the American people send Israel nearly $2 billion per year, most of it in military aid. Since 2008, the annual amount of U.S. financial support to Israel has increased to more than $3 billion per year.

Apparently, He who pays the piper calls the tune is not a popular saying in Israel.

Is the End Nigh?

2011-05-20T09:49:00.003-05:00

Cancel the Saturday Restaurant Reservation

We usually go for a couple of beer after floor hockey Friday nights so, tonight should be no different except that according to a group of American, and we have to assume some Canadian Evangelical Christians, there will be a lot fewer of us around, Saturday morning.

Eighty eight year old Harold Camping says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Bible. He says with certainty, “The world will end May 21, 2011. These dates can be trusted entirely because they come right out of the Bible. “

Thousands believe Camping and are confident that early Saturday believers will, suddenly without warning, disappear from Earth in the "twinkling of an eye."

That creates some interesting situations;

What about those people’s pets? Surely the good people who are going to leave the rest of us and go directly to heaven, wouldn’t leave their poor cats, dogs, hamsters, pot bellied pigs and snakes starve? Of course not.

Someone has set up Eternal Earth-Bound Pets USA.. The company guarantees that when the Rapture comes, for the small fee of $135.00, in advance of course, the owner or one of his 44 contractors in 26 states will drive to your home within 24 hours, collect your dog, cat, bird, rabbit or small caged mammal, and adopt it. He has carefully screened all the rescuers. The contractors have to love animals, of course, but just as important is that they don't love Jesus. So for obvious reasons, they're all atheists.

Would it be ok I if, tonight after our customary visit to The Buskwakker we cruised through “good” neighbourhoods looking for signs that residents had been spirited away, so to speak? Could we just move in to their houses make ourselves a snack or help ourselves to their big screen television sets? I wonder.

Assuming I guess that restaurant chefs were among those who were going to be called to heaven on Saturday Elizabeth Gunnison writing for Esquire magazine asked some notable American chefs “Of all the dishes that you've made in your lifetime, what's the one that you want to be remembered for? They came up with some interesting and eclectic choices. Everything from fish and chips, shrimp alhinho made with olive oil, garlic, coriander and pimenton — complete with the pressed jus from the shrimp heads, Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes, and bone marrow and oxtail marmalade. You can read the whole list here.

I don’t know. It has become a pretty weird world. The one thing I am pretty confident about is that next week there should still be enough of us left to have a good sized group at floor hockey.

Our two Favorite Roadsigns

2011-05-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

In North Dakota they get it. Fairly flat, good, straight roads why dawdle along.

That is miles per hour

Makes sense to me

Don't Text and Drive

Welcome to the United States of America

2011-05-15T11:12:00.005-05:00

A bit of an Oxymoron

We decided that we just couldn't face another drive across the north of Lake Superior so thought why not cross into the USA at Sault Ste Marie and drive to Regina on an alternate route.

Now I confess that I haven't traveled to the States very often since 9/11 and I did know that these was a building sense of paranoia at border crossings but I am not sure I realized how nasty these people had become.

Most of our experience crossing borders in the last few years has been in Europe where it is pretty painless.

We got a fairly good start, drove onto the bridge, across to US Customs, looking forward to our visit. The Welcome to the United States sign seemed like a good omen but, that was before we met Dudley Doright.

We handed over our passports and were ready to answer the expected few questions about the purpose of our visit, were we bringing any alcohol or food stuffs in, how long did we expect to be in the states. Our good mood didn't last long.

The "Why are you travelling to the United States" question got fairly aggressive off the top as the border thug, who clearly had a poor understanding of geography, tried to understand why, in his view, we had gone so out of our way to cross the border where we did. "Because it is the quickest route", didn't seem to register with him.

We then got into extensive questioning about why Chris might have snapped a few photos while crossing the bridge. Apparently the bridge is a strategic bit of infrastructure and vulnerable to terrorists so, we had to scroll through all the photographs on the camera so he could make sure we were not plotting to blow it up.

Then he moved on to what Chris was studying at University. What did I do for a living before I retired? Trade union rep was not an answer he liked to hear. Have we ever been arrested?

Then we got into the drug issues. Did we have drugs or drug paraphernalia. We said no. He then pressed Chris. "You were about to say something" Were we sure we weren't carrying drugs?

We then moved on to "Open the trunk" He moved stuff around then said, is there anything here you wouldn't want me to find? "No" I answered. "What if we called the dogs out? Would they find anything?"

Finally, unable to find that big bag of cocaine or traces of THC in my shaving kit and reasonably satisfied that we might only be a minor threat to the stability of the United States and therefore acceptable, we were allowed to move on.

Welcome to the United States Indeed.

If I was a paranoid person I might think that Homeland Security reads this blog.

Trilliums

2011-05-14T10:44:00.001-05:00

One of the things that surprises visitors to Eastern Canadian forests in early May are the trilliums. About this time of year these flowers carpet forest floors in Ontario and Quebec and into New England. They are mostly white but in Quebec we used to find areas where most of the flowers were a deep purple with only a few white flowers and a very few pink ones. It is quite an impressive show

They are so prevalent that the white trillium has become Ontario's Provincial Flower

To be honest I had forgotten about them but as we drove by Hudson and into Ontario on our way to Ottawa the forest floor was covered in those white flowers.

I had Chris pull over so I could take a few pictures.

Boules in Pointe St Charles

2011-05-13T17:14:00.032-05:00

We were sitting on my brother's front deck, having a glass of wine when the cars started arriving. First one then a few more, then they filled up most of the available parking spots on the usually quiet street. In no time there were 50 or so men and women, most in their 60's filling the area around the boule courts in the park across the street.

Sandy said this was the second time this week that had happened. They milled around for 15 or 20 minutes, seeking out friends, shaking hands, renewing aquaintences and then someone with a clipboard kind of took charge and before you know it they had teamed up and six games were underway. An urban boules league. Who knew?

Boules is one of those games played with steel balls. Kind of like lawn bowling but, played on a dirt court and without the dorky clothes and the Pimms. You can almost guarantee that on any given evening in the south of France, a group of, mostly older men, will be playing boule. Its like Bocce or Pétanque but I don't remember it being popular in Quebec.

It was chilly but we sat out, watched for quite a while and marveled at the sense of community that obviously exists. Not quite all what we expected in Pointe St Charles.

The Simon Fraser House

2011-05-12T10:22:00.002-05:00

Simon Fraser House
Ste Anne de Bellevue, QC

I was just back to Montreal to visit my mother and to share driving duties as my son Christopher drove home for the summer.

When I was around 12 my mother enrolled in Education at MacDonald College and we moved to Ste Anne de Bellevue on the west end of the Island of Montreal. She still lives there.

The village was full of history and I was particularly taken by the Simon Fraser House, an old stone building built in 1778 located across from the Ste Anne locks.

I had a fascination with the Frasers. On my Mother’s side our ancestors fought with Wolfe as Fraser Highlanders. They were given land grants and stayed in Quebec.

I was disappointed to learn that the house was never owned by any distant relation of mine, nor did it belong to the explorer Simon Fraser.

This Simon Fraser was a relative new comer to Canada. He was businessman. One of the principles in the North West Company.

Aside from being a lovely old stone historical property, local scholars claim that Thomas Moore wrote the Canadian Boat Song while he was staying at the house as Fraser’s guest.

Not many years before Moore’s visit, Ste Anne was pretty much the edge of the “civilized world”

A chapel had been erected on the site in 1703 and the trappers and traders heading upstream on the Ottawa River would stop, give alms and pray for safe passage.

Many of them didn’t make it back.

Local historians claim that it was during his visit; Moore put the words to that piece.

We'll sing at St. Ann's our parting hymn.
Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The Rapids are near and the daylight's past.

In 1804 when the Boat Song was written, the village was a fur trading post. The rapids at Ste Anne meant the voyageurs had to portage.

The North West Company and the Hudson Bay Company both figured they would get a better deal if they did business there saving the voyageurs work of unloading the re-loading their cargo in Ste Anne. Something they would have to do again when the got to Lachine.

So, they bought furs from voyageurs heading south at the lowest price.

When those same voyageurs headed back into the wilderness to their trap lines, they would save two portages and a day’s paddling if they bought their supplies in Ste Anne de Bellevue. Of course the merchants by saving the voyageurs an extra day’s work could sell supplies to at inflated prices.

The merchants profited both ways.

Some things never change

Mesquite Smoked Paprika Chicken

2011-05-08T21:25:00.003-05:00

Is it any wonder that Spanish cooks love to use paprika? I am becoming addicted to its smoky flavour.

For supper this evening I picked up a small whole chicken, about $8.00 or $9.00 worth and cut out the backbone and laid it open and flat. I then rubbed about 4 tablespoons of hot smoked paprika into the chicken, added a bit of olive oil and put it into a plastic bag for 4 or 5 hours.

I soaked some large mesquite wood chips in water for a couple of house and when I was ready to go I lit the gas barbecue. When it was hot I threw on the wood chips. Then laid the chicken skin side up on one side of the grill, turned off the heat below it and let it cook for an hour or so.

It was a windy day so it was hard to keep the heat up so, after an hour or so I turned the oven up to 450 degrees and put the chicken in a roasting pan with about 3/4 of an inch of water in the bottom and popped it in.

When the chicken was done, I took the pan juices, added a bit of chicken stock and thickened it into a gravy.

I served the chicken with Caribbean style rice and peas, yellow beans an of course, the gravy.

It had a pungent smoky, slightly hot flavour and the mesquite really complemented the smokiness of the paprika. I don't like to boast but, it was delicious.

If you don't like things hot, use a sweet paprika instead. Be sure to buy the Spanish stuff too. My favorite come in a distinctive red can, La Chinata. They have hot, sweet and bitter.

If all you have is Hungarian paprika, either go out and get some of the good stuff or wait until you have it on hand. It is simply not an adequate substitution.

A Visitors Map

2011-05-07T21:22:00.003-05:00

Every once and a while I like to post where the visitors to my blog come from. This map represents the last 200 or so hits.

I some times wonder how they find me. There are lots of search engines out there but the main ones that point people my way are:

but at the end of the day, Google directs 94.7% of the traffic my way.

So, welcome and don't forget to leave a comment.

I Guess This Just Isn't Scilla Country

2011-05-06T08:54:00.002-05:00

I used to live on the west end of the Island of Montreal. In fact I lived in the area three different time in my life. Once in my teens, later when I worked at CFCF television and again for about 10 years starting in the mid eighties. My mother still lives there so, I am back fairly often.

It is a lovely mix of old suburbia and historic villages established in the 1700's.

There isn't a nicer time than spring on the West Island so it was the memory of front lawns blue with scilla that prompted me head to the garden centre a few years ago to find some bulbs and plant them in my lawn here in Regina.

I am not quite sure what went wrong but instead of a subtle blue carpet I managed to produce three scraggly blue flowers. Perhaps I should try growing wheat.

The Blue Meanies are not Really a Majority

2011-05-05T09:15:00.002-05:00

I think what will get under my skin over the next four years is that Stephen Harper will strut around saying that his government was supported by a majority of Canadians. It wasn't.

Figure it out.

There are over 34 million Canadians
24 million of them are eligible to vote
Roughly 6 million Canadians voted for Harper's party.
About 9 million of us voted for candidates who were not Conservatives.

So, like it or not Stephen, only about 25% of eligible voters actually supported you. Some majority!

There are a couple of things you can do.

Sign Fair Vote Canada's Declaration of Voter's Rights.
Remind the Prime Minister of the facts and ask him to change the electoral system

It will make you feel that you are doing something about our dismal political situation and hopefully you will begin to feel better about things.

Don't Blame me I Voted NDP

2011-05-04T08:59:00.000-05:00

Well, much to our surprise, the sun still came up Wednesday morning but no question, the political landscape has shifted substantially. This will be an interesting four years.

On Tuesday night, Canadians probably made the dumbest political we have ever seen in Canada. Four years of that bully boy strutting around pretending he represents the interests of a majority of Canadians may be more than I can stomach.

Looking for silver linings, perhaps the best news is that my friend Mike Sullivan, an NDP candidate got elected in the York-South-Weston riding in Toronto. He is one of the good guys. No question. Way to go Mike.

I am going to take a break from political blogging for a while and try to catch up with several things on my plate that have been slipping past me. I am working on a photo project which I am scrambling to complete by later this week and I have to concentrate on Folk Festival sponsorship a bit more than I have been.

Oh Canada!

2011-05-03T09:17:00.002-05:00

Of all the commentary last night and in the news this morning I think my son Christopher said it best in two words. His post on Facebook says simply "Oh Canada"

That is a sigh, not a reference to the National Anthem.

This may be a defining moment for Canada and I am not sure I will like the definition when Harper is done with us. I don't much like it, but I accept it, as flawed as it might be.

I have spent more of my life fighting against the political direction taken by the Liberals that I have the Conservatives in their several forms but, I am not sure their demise will help Canada much. No question, they lost their way. Can they find their way back to the Pearson/Trudeau style of politics that served them well? I wonder.

I am buoyed by the great orange surge but disappointed that it didn't extend much past Quebec. What is it that the Quebecois get, that Western Canada doesn't? Jack has his work cut out for him. To be honest I was looking forward to a positioning that would make a Liberal Democrat merger a powerhouse. I can't see it now. The Liberals will be sulking for months and months.

Here in Saskatchewan the voters returned the 13 Conservative MPs even though they have a reputation for being nothing more than Harper mouthpieces. Old red neck reformers who refused to attend all candidate's meetings and who are more like trained seals in Ottawa that they are representatives of the Saskatchewan people.

So what have we got? A strutting, arrogant, secretive Prime Minister with a majority government, who will claim to speak for a majority of Canadians, ignoring the fact that 60% of us didn't vote for Conservative Candidates. If anything screamed "Democratic Reform", surely that is it.

Oh Canada indeed. This will be a tough four years.

Fair Vote Canada Says, Canadians Cheated Again

2011-05-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Fair Vote Canada, Canada’s national citizens’ movement for voting reform released analysis of Tuesday’s federal election results showing that the outcome does not accurately reflect the way Canadians voted.

“The Conservative party increased their vote percentage by less than two points,” says Fair Vote Canada (FVC) President Bronwen Bruch, “but this allowed them to win 24 more seats than in 2008, when they were already over-represented. Stephen Harper calls this a ‘decisive endorsement’, but we call it a rip-off.”

At the time of writing, these were the actual seats won and leading for each party:

CON 167, NDP 102, LIB 34, BQ 4, GREEN 1

If the seats were won in proportion to the votes that were cast, the numbers would look like this:

CON 122, NDP 95, LIB 59, BQ 19, GREEN 13

According to these results, the Conservatives have won 54.22% of the seats with only 39.62% of the votes, one of the least legitimate majorities in Canadian history.

“This is a classic phony majority,” said Bruch, “and leaves us with a government that is completely unaccountable to Parliament. As long as they maintain rigid party discipline, nothing bad can happen to them for four years.”

The FVC analysis shows that the NDP, historically under-represented by Canada’s winner-take-all voting system, is now over-represented by seven seats, thanks to the “orange wave” that vaulted them into second place.

The Liberal Party, on the other hand, traditionally over-represented to the degree that they were regarded as Canada’s “natural governing party”, is now the chief victim of the voting system. While their vote percentage fell by less than 8%, they lost more than half their seats.

The Bloc Québècois, which has always previously been over-represented because their votes are concentrated in one region, has been decimated. Although their vote percentage has collapsed, they should still be entitled to 19 seats, but they are winning or leading in only four seats.

The Green Party is ecstatic to have finally won a single seat, but they actually received enough votes across the country to win 13 seats.

“Across the country,” added Fair Vote Canada Executive Director Wayne Smith, “vote splits between the Liberals and NDP allowed the Conservatives to steal seats. Once again, our antiquated voting system has given us the wrong government, a government that most of us voted against.

“It is truly time to change our voting system. If we want politics to be different, we need a vote that makes a difference.”

2011-05-01T09:29:00.002-05:00

This Time I'm Working the Election

2011-05-01T02:05:00.001-05:00

I have often worked on Election Day, driving people to polls or working as a candidate's representative or a scrutineer if you like.

This time I thought I'd give something else a try. Several weeks ago I applied on-line to Elections Canada saying I'd like to work for them. They hired me, I have been trained and Monday, will spend the whole day working as a poll clerk.

It should be fun working the election in a totally non partisan way for a change. It is all about process, enabling people to exercise their rights and making sure everything is run according to Hoyle.

None the less, even if I am out of partisan action for the day, I am still a political junkie so, as soon as those ballots are counted and the seals in place I will be racing home to eagerly watch the rest of the results come in.

Mintzberg on the Globe's Pick

2011-04-29T19:46:00.002-05:00

I came across this piece on the Catch 22 Harper Conservatives site by Henry Mintzberg commenting on the Globe & Mail's endorsement of the Harper Reformer Conservatives. I thought I should share it.

Voting for the Canada that Can Be

by Henry Mintzberg

Photo credit Owen Egan

That the Globe and Mail came out endorsing the Conservatives is hardly a surprise. Conventionally speaking, what else could its editors do? Endorsing the Liberals at this juncture would have seemed silly, and endorsing the NDP would hardly have endeared them to their owners, advertisers, and associates on Bay Street and in the corporations.

But beyond the conventional, the Globe did have options, just as do we, as voters on Monday―beyond what we might think. Let me get back to these in conclusion.

Stepping back and looking at the Harper Conservatives, as does the editorial in places, it is difficult to justify this endorsement—hardly a call to decency and in some sense even democracy. As I wrote in a commentary at the start of the campaign on the Globe website, a move to the extreme right, as in Thatcher’s Britain and Bush’s America, could very well happen here under a Conservative majority, and the Globe had no business ignoring that.

National? To me, the most striking point in the editorial is the reference to the Conservatives as “arguably the only truly national party.” Have the Globe editors been reading the Globe? By this point in the campaign, the NDP was clearly showing itself as the only party with significant support across the country. Look at the polls and you have to ask if the Globe editors think that Quebec has already left the country.

With Harper’s grip on the party, this is not even a Conservative Party. It is the Reform Party in all its dogmatic colors. What Canada needs desperately is a truly national, and decent, Conservative Party. Maybe, from Tuesday, we will get one.

Leadership? Why the surge―this sudden popularity of the NDP? That’s easy. Many Canadians have been concerned about country and integrity, and Jack Layton is the one leader who has come through as a trustable and regular sort of guy. Once the NDP gained some legitimacy―ironically, starting in Quebec, actually with an earlier election win in Outremont, the seat of the Francophone establishment―many people recognized it as an acceptable option, and moved to it. In football terms, you might say that Harper took out Ignatieff and Layton came up the middle (even if he was playing for another team!).

The Economic? The Social? That’s about leadership. Is there more to the election? I hope so. If I listen to Stephen Harper now, it’s all about issues, all of which happen to be economic. Do we Canadians live by economics alone? Reading the Globe editorial, you might think so. I don’t. Do you?

I agree with one point that Harper is making of late, that we are offered a clear choice. But not as he depicts it.

The finale of this election looks like a pitting of the economic against the social. That’s how campaigns sound, but they are a far cry from governing, where reality has to be faced. I can’t imagine anyone who doesn’t want some sort of balance in his or her life between the economic and the social.

So who can give us that balance in government? Jack Layton is an unknown quantity; Stephen Harper is not. He tilts excessively to the economic, and especially to the large corporations that his dogma tells him drive the economy. Layton is obviously sensitive to the social. The question is: will he undermine the economic, as Harper undermines the social?

I think not, for two reasons. First he is promoting small businesses, which evidence has shown can be more important to economic growth than the large ones. And second, Layton would hardly be able to govern alone. He would have the good old Liberals (the Martin-like ones) to keep him straight.

Options So what are the options, for the Globe last Thursday and for us on Monday? The Globe had all kinds of unconventional choices, suitable for this unconventional election. It could have endorsed no-one. It could have endorsed a coalition. It could have endorsed strategic voting (described below).

And what are the options for the rest of us? On Monday, you can vote leader, party, candidate, issues, or country.

Leadership, as I mentioned, is an unknown quantity, or in the case of Harper’s autocratic nature, known too well. So ignore leadership.

Parties are supposed to be about ideas, but especially during election campaigns, we get this dumbing down from all of them, with discussion of serious issues reduced to trivia, name-calling, ads that insult us as voters, promises in the form of bribes with our own money, and so on. Moreover, alongside their many decent candidates, some of whom have had no choice but to affiliate with one party or another to get elected, the sad fact is that each party also runs its share of political hacks, who cheapen and sometimes corrupt politics. So let’s leave party aside too and take a better look at candidates.

Find the candidate in your riding with the greatest integrity and strike a blow for greater decency in politics. Or else do that by voting strategically, for the candidate most likely to knock off the one from the party you feel has been most indecent, and would be most dangerous in power.

Issues certainly matter, not just single issues, but the whole mix of them. The Conservatives offer us a tough country that stands its ground on tough issues (guns, jets, lower taxes, less crime, etc.), while the NDP offers us a tolerant country that expresses itself in more socially progressive ways (public health care and broadcasting, climate and personal protections, etc.). That’s a choice.

On Monday, I personally will vote for country: for the Canada that can be. I will vote for a return to tolerance and decency, balancing the social with the economic. Canada can once again be a beacon to a world going rapidly out of balance on the side of privilege and greed. Henry Mintzberg (www.mintzberg.org), O.C., ONQ, is co-editing a collection of essays entitled “Canadians on Balance”.