Is that the Sound of Balloons Bursting?

In March of this year Saskatchewan Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer said in his budget announcement, "This budget is designed to keep Saskatchewan's economy strong and steady in the face of the current global economic crisis. We will do so by delivering significant property tax relief, by delivering another $1 billion to build provincial infrastructure, and most importantly, by delivering a balanced budget."

We have been cautious in our revenue forecasts due to the high degree of uncertainty in today's economy and commodity price forecasts"

Here we are in August and Gantefoer is saying that at this point Saskatchewan is projecting a $1.3 billion drop in potash revenues and that the recession has hit Saskatchewan.

Come on Rod the potash industry was not so much an engine driving the Saskatchewan economy as they were a convenient cash cow. They were not creating jobs. In fact, the potash industry laid off scores of employees in the spring when they cut back production in an effort to create a phony shortfall in the market to drive prices up. Any fool should have been able to see that the industry simply was not in the good shape we were told.

The Saskatchewan Party has been operating with their heads in the sand for some time now trying to ride a economic wave which was pretty phony to begin with. The so called boom was a big help in some areas but did very little in others. For example, hundreds of students looking for summer employment went looking for jobs that just weren’t there.

Funny isn't it, this government announcement the same day that the news tells us that European countries have come out of the recession.

To deal with the shortfall the government says it will take a $185 million dividend from the Crown Investments Corporation and delay funding the Children's Hospital in Saskatoon and some schools.

Hey, what about that domed stadium Rod?

Red Tories, I Think Not

I was surprised to read stories suggesting that our Prime Minister is turning into a "Red Tory". Just because Little Stevie was embarrassed into putting some money into stimulating the economy after denying that there was no economic downturn in Canada for months, doesn't mean a shift to the left.

Stephen Harper is as right as they come, closer to Newt Gingrich than he is to Tommy Douglas (I can't say Jack Layton because is is really a centrist)

Give that man a majority and we'll redefine the "right" in this country. That is a scary thought. As it is, sometimes I hardly recognize my country and the positions the government takes.

When next you travel, if you have let your hair grow since your passpost picture was taken. Better have a DNA test result in your back pocket.

Sorry to Hear about Les Paul

Canadian Jewish Congress Has to Relax

I have been watching, with some interest, the flap, caused by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) about a few resolutions which came to the United Church conference this year in Kamloops. The CJC called them racist.

Political parties, trade unions, churches and other organizations, all which claim to be democratic, ask their members to submit resolutions which are designed to give direction to the leadership of said organizations. The CJC may do the same.

The messy thing about democracy is that you can't dictate what your members may submit for debate. Generally they reflect the broad ideological focus of the organization but, from time to time some wacko is bound to submit something which pushes the envelope beyond the leadership's comfort zone. Not that all the resolutions submitted to the conference about Israel were off the wall. They were not.

The fact remains that the conduct by both side of the conflicts in the middle east is suspect and should be challenged. Israel should not be immune from criticism because of the western world's collective guilt about the atrocities committed against the Jewish peoples during the second world war. It seems to many that Israel is given a free ride by most western states including our own, what ever their conduct.

There are plenty of reasons to find fault with the Israeli state and armed forces. Criticizing the conduct of the Israeli army and the Government is completely justified and a boycott of Israeli goods may very well be justified to get a message across. Calling for that action is not a racist act.

The Canadian Jewish Congress has to begin to temper its response to issues such as this. There is no reason to act like bullies and to try and stifle what can only be described as democratic debate. So take a Valium CJC and back off a bit. You current conduct will only lose you friends.

Acid Rain Sullies Saskatchewan's Northern Lakes

Living in a city served (I use the term loosely) by a CanWest newspaper makes it tough to keep up with what is really going on. It seems to me that much of the news we see in the Leader Post is pulled from other papers like the Calgary Herald, the Ottawa Citizen or some other publication owned by the Aspers. The Regina paper gets by with a bare bones staff.

So I wasn't that surprised to see, what seemed to me to be an important Saskatchewan story in the Globe & Mail with no mention in the Leader Post.

Most people know that the Alberta Tar Sands are very close to the Saskatchewan border. So close that the unchecked development of the tar sands is polluting Saskatchewan's northern lakes and forests. The Canadian Press story by Bob Weber tells us that more than 150,000 tonnes of acid rain causing gases every year are produced by the tar sands projects on the Alberta side of the border. Seventy percent of those gases end up in Saskatchewan.

The province, it seems, has been monitoring rainfall in the La Loche area, east of Fort McMurray and their finding show that the average PH level is 4.93. That is about the same acidity as in a cup of black coffee.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is well known for being light on environmental policy and for having a bad case of Alberta envy, so perhaps we shouldn't expect that he would speak out about the issue. But, it seems ironic that none of this emerged during the Premiers conference held here in Regina last week.

Regina Folk Festival , Ready for day three

The Regina Folk Festival sold out Friday and Saturday night. The forecast rain held off and now Sunday is sunny. Can the festival sell out three days in a row?.

Some bright spark agreed to let an Arrowsmith concert go ahead, in Regina, the last night of the Festival. There is no question that any other major event in the city of Regina would draw a crown at the expense of anything else happening in the city.

Now Steve Tyler fell off a stage in the U.S. and has had to cancel the Regina show. Big venue concert lovers have been left in the lurch. We'll see if that translates into a sellout at the festival Sunday night.

Regina Folk Festival

The 40th Anniversary Folk Festival starts tonight with Delhi 2 Dublin, Iron and Wine and runs all weekend.

Always a great deal, even in the rain, as anyone who watched Bellowhead last year would attest.

Don't miss it.

Fake Kenyan Birth Certificate

Canadian politics can be dull and since the coalition attempt nothing much has happened to liven things up at all. (It may be some time before I forgive Michaelle Jean for that one) Truth be known, Stephen Harper, our Prime Monster must be one of the most boring people on the face of the earth. As classic example of why a policy nerd should never lead a political party.

Now in the USA things seem to be different. Those people get worked up over almost everything and the yellow press can make a story over nothing at all. I have been intrigued by this recent flap about where Obama was born. Fox news and others are apparently looking for a Kenyan birth certificate to try and undermine the President's claim that he was indeed born in the USA.

I discovered that in the spirit of this discussion you can generate a fake Kenyan birth certificate, on line, just like mine above. You can click on the image to enlarge it and to see a clearer image.

I encourage you to get your own as a reminder of the stupidity of the American media. Be the first one on your block to have one.

Who'll Play Me?

Have you seen the trailers for the new Nora Ephron film Julie and Julia? From what I have seen so far, Meryl Streep, who plays Julia Child has done an amazing job in capturing Child's voice and mannerisms. It looks like fun.

The film is based on two books and weaves the two stories together. One follows My Life in France by Julia Child and the other is based on what was first a blog. Parts of that blog - I don't think the whole thing exists anymore - is on the net at The Julie/Julia Project , then a book by Julie Powell.

As I understand it, bored and fed up with her job Powell decided to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year and write a blog about the experience.

The blog description is "Government drone by day, renegade foodie by night. Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Julie Powell was looking for a challenge. And in the Julie/Julia project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job, and her cats’ well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment.

365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen."

The blog is fun to read as she works through the recipies. At some point after completing the task at hand and having written the book and managed to find a publisher, she wonders if she will actually sell 25 copies.

Still, I can hardly believe it. Nora Ephron wrote a movie based on a blog?

Perhaps there is hope yet. What could I say? Burned out and bored, retired trade union guy slaves away on his blog, holed up in his basement office, trying to be insightful, funny and provocative. That is it. Now I just have to wait until I am discovered.

I don't think I'll write the book. We'll go straight to the screen play. Dennis Hopper could play me. Now I'm getting excited.

We're Number 12, We're number 12

In a constant search for something to boast about, our leader in boosterism, the Regina Leader Post’s headline says. "Regina 12th on list of cities popular with young professionals." Now there is something to boast about.

Everybody chant with me, “We’re number twelve. We’re number twelve. We’re number twelve.” Ok, you can stop now. I agree, it sounds a bit lame.

The LP with its usual in depth reporting style found a "young professional" (27) who has moved to Regina from Swift Current. He likes Regina. I guess I can figure that out. And they talked to city alderman Michael Fougere who wouldn’t be described as a young professional even by the legally blind.

The study, done by Next Generation Consulting, a group in Madison Wisconsin calls its report their Next Cities ranking. They ranked Canadian cities with populations of over 100,000 as to which were the best places to live for young professionals. They must have been commissioned by someone but God knows who.

Let’s look at the list.

CANADA'S NEXT CITIES:

1. Victoria, 2. Ottawa, 3. Vancouver, 4. Kingston, 5. Halifax, 6. Toronto, 7. Calgary, 8. Saskatoon, 9. London, 10. Edmonton, 11. Winnipeg, 12. Regina, 13. Thunder Bay, 14. St. Catharines- Niagara, 15. Saint John, 16. Montreal, 17. Kitchener, 18. St. John's, 19. Quebec City, 20. Hamilton, 21. Sherbrooke, 22. Sudbury, 23. Oshawa, 24. Windsor, 25. Abbotsford, 26. Trois-Rivieres, 27. Saguenay,

I am not sure what it says about their eye for detail but their on line media release spelled Niagara wrong and listed Sherbrooke as being in Ontario. (Spelling isn't my long suit either so I kind of understand) I also note that there are no French speaking cities rated higher that Regina. Being quite familiar with some of those cities and I am curious to know if any of the Wisconsin research group could actually speak French, or if they just couldn't find enough English speaking young professionals to make their probe accurate.

So there you have it. Regina beat out cities like Kitchener, Trois Riviere and Oshawa. Is that something to boast about? There is nothing wrong with Regina. I like it here. It has improved by leaps and bounds since I first moved here 11 or 12 years ago. But, a message to LP editors, if there actually are any, don’t boast about being number 12. It makes you look like idiots.

Friday Night was a Great Show

The Calgary Folk Music Festival put together a pretty good line up last night. I really liked Gomez, an inde rock band from the UK and the Decemberists put on a great show to end the night.

Early in the evening lineup was a group I’d never heard of, The Mekons are a band from Leeds that dates back to the late 1970s. They are billed as one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands around. I wasn’t sure I’d call they Punk. They reminded me of the Spirit of the West at times. I wouldn't be surprised if the Melkons were an infuence. Their lyrics are political and uncompromising and hard driving and rooted in what I think of as an older british, folk, rock, storytelling tradition.

The band was formed in 1977 by a group of University of Leeds art students. They took there name from the Mekon, an evil, super-intelligent Venusian featured in a British comic book from1950s-1960s

That isn't my picture by the way. I can't get close enough to get a good shot.

Festival Food

I am really enjoying the Calgary Folk Music Festival. The music is great, the crowd is into it and I really like the atmosphere generated each evening. Prince’s Island is a great venue.

Festival food however can be spotty. I know it can be a challenge. Here in the prairies where tastes are conservative to say the least, this after all is where people really do think that Tim Horton’s makes a great cup of coffee, food never gets too spicy. And, of course, when you are trying to feed masses of people it can be a challenge so what we get is mushy almost tasteless Jamaican patties, mini donuts (who eats those things) greasy hamburgers, hotdogs designed to at the very least keep you regular and bad Indian food.

Speaking of which, the India Palace Restaurant’s booth here at the Calgary Folk Fest came all the way from Winnipeg to serve up the most appallingly bad dish of butter chicken I have ever tasted. I know it is tough to feed a crowd but this was over the top.

Basically it was un-uniform, cut up pieces of pre-cooked chicken put into a watery orangey pink sauce which had a faint butter chicken flavour. The rice was bland and the chick peas had a kind of tomato sauce which gave them the background favour of baked beans. The nan was good but it probably was made by someone else. Not much of a deal at $12.00.

It isn’t all bad. There is a guy here at the Calgary Folk Festival making pizza in a portable stone oven that looks great, there are some fairly healthy choices around and lots of laces to refill your water bottle. Then of course then is the beer garden. Always a great spot to get some shade and rest your feet.

Tarpies

At the Calgary Folk Festival they call them tarpies. Basically it works this way. People claim their space in front of the stage by laying down a tarp. It can only be so big but once you have claimed your spot. It is yours. No lawn chairs allowed but you can use "concert chairs"

I was amazed this afternoon, hours before the gates opened, people were lined up. Lots of people were lined up in the 30 degree plus sun to claim their spots. Mid evening I ducked out to take my camera back to the hotel and the tarpies lineup for the next day was already started.

They even raffle what they call the Golden Tarp. Front and centre, the best tarp spot possible for next year's festival

I drove to Calgary today to check out the Calgary Folk Festival. I always liked Prince's Island as a musical venue, at least ever since I worked on a Burton Cummings concert there for a CBC music special, years ago. It is a much larger space than Victoria Park in Regina can offer but you do lose some of the intimacy because of the size.

The locale is fantastic with the food stalls along the path under the trees.It was a pretty good crowd. People wandering around, laid back. The smell of reefer was fairly strong around the first aid tent which seemed appropriate to me.

My favorite t-shirt of the night was one that said Club sandwiches Not seals. I had to borrow a pen from someone because if I didn't write it down I'd forget it.

Thursday night's concert is always a bit more low key but tonight was even more so becuase Michael Franti was suddenly taken ill and they had to cancel his appearence. I heard someone say it was appendix but, I don't really know.

Iron and Wine closed the show. Somehow I thought it would be more that one guy and his guitar, He was very good.

Medicare Good for Canadians

It has been interesting to watch some of the debate, if we can call it that, around President Obama’s attempts to get some sort of medicare system working in the USA.

The has been a hot button issue in the states for some time now, perhaps it always was but, the rhetoric from the right is heating up and, if it wasn’t so downright dishonest, it would be funny. In fact, when you think about it, it is funny. Just ask Jon Stewart.

The main focus of the right has been to attack the Canadian system but the fact is that for the average citizen, our system beats the American one, hands down. There is no question that the Canadian system has some problems. It is expensive to maintain but, it is high quality, universal and it is free. I wouldn’t trade our system for the American one in a million years.

A peer-reviewed comparison study of health care access in the two countries published in 2006 concluded that U.S. residents are one third less likely to have a regular medical doctor, one fourth more likely to have unmet health care needs, and are more than twice as likely to forgo needed medicines. The Canadian infant mortality rates are lower and men and women live longer in Canada. What does that tell you?

Critics were scathing of Michael Moore when he put together Sicko accusing him of being dishonest. Michael can be a bit over the top but when you compare what he put together to the stuff the right wing is making up these days to fight Obama’s proposal, it pales in comparison. The medical insurance companies are running scared, and that is a good thing.

Too many people are getting their information from Fox News so, let me put it in simple terms.

Canadian heath care system good.

Medicine for profit bad.

Ok, we've got a few bucks. Lets spend it fast before the lean years come back.

Well after being coy about building a new stadium to replace Taylor/Mosaic whatever it is Field, the politicians have now confirmed that there is a very good chance that they will go forward with the idea of building a new domed facility at a cost of about $350,000,000. They even know where they want to build it. Their plan is to situate the thing where the railway tracks now bisect the city. The land will be freed up when they get the new rail terminal build west of Regina.

At least that seems to be their plan. In the mean time they intend to spend $1,000,000 on a feasibility study. I wonder how one gets on to that gravy train.

Months ago when the first sniff of an idea was out there my good friend Vance Reed told me with some confidence exactly what, in his view, the best plan was. You guessed it, a domed stadium, exactly where they have now announced it will likely be built.

Now, I figure Vance would have given them his opinion for about $20.00 leaving about $999,980.00 that could have been put towards something practical like, fresh drinking water for reserves or housing for the less fortunate who will never ever be able to afford to go to the new stadium anyway. We can never find the money to make sure that underprivileged kids have enough to eat but some how we can always find an extra $350,000,000 tucked away for football fans. After all it is Riderville isn't it Pat?

But, there I go again, off on another rant.

Does Tom Lukiwski Think I am Stupid?

My Member of Parliament is Tom Lukiwski and to tell you the truth, he is a bit of a disappointment. He is pretty much invisible in the community or, for that matter in the House of Commons. In fairness, he may be out there attending threshing contests and tractor pulls but we city folk really never see Tom.

I do hear from Tom though. As an MP he has the right to send me unsolicited junk mail using Canada Post and he does that with a vengeance. Tom doesn’t pay for that of course, we do as taxpayers.

I always thought the service was so Members of Parliament could keep the voters back home up to date with what their MP was up to. With Tom they are all pretty much campaign material churned out by the bright lights in Ottawa. Tom sends me quite a few of those mailings. They are very badly put together, kind of sophomoric in style and contend, and always offensive.

I’m getting used to them, in fact, I keep an eye out for them. They are easy to spot. They are uniformly grey and these days what we get are attack ads aimed at Ignatieff or Layton.

I think Tom figures this amateurish material will encourage me to vote for him but I can't imagine why. When I get his mail I either recycle it right away, or if it is particularly bad I write something encouraging on them like “God Tom you are an idiot.” And send them back by return post.

I am not going to support Tom for a list of reasons longer than my arm and I can't imagine how any body with half a brain would think this stuff would win me over. I have come to the conclusion that one of two things is going on:

Either Tom Lukiwski thinks I am stupid or;

Tom Lukiwski is stupid.

Frankly I am not sure which is true but I am beginning to lean towards Tom being a dunce.

Either way Tom, stop sending me your bloody campaign material.

Homophobia in Saskatchewan

Sometimes I just can’t figure out Saskatchewan. What is it with my fellow residents that makes so many of them comfortable supporting political positions and politicians that would make most Canadians cringe? Who are these people and what rock do they hide under day to day?

I am embarrassed by the latest Bard Trost rant against Tourism Minister Diane Ablonczy’s decision to provide $400,000 of Federal funds to the gay pride parade in Toronto. We aren’t sure if Ablonczy was actually disciplined for the decision or if Brad along with several other of the knuckle draggers in the Conservative/Reform Caucus just made it all up, to “look good” to his power base in Saskatoon. That is yet to be seen. I don’t know, perhaps Brad was concerned that Saskatoon’s own Gay Pride festivities only got a measly $9,000.

No, that can’t be it.

Maurice Vellacott, another of Saskatoon’s right wing loopy MPs is a bit uncharacteristically, more subdued on this issue. These days, instead of ranting from his pulpit, he speaks more or less in code about family values etc.

My own MP, Tom (A Team) Lukiwski has been surprisingly silent on this issue. I did notice that he once again snubbed the Regina Gay Pride bunch this year by refusing to attend their celebrations but, none of us really hears much from Tom anyway. He has become almost invisible except through the leaflets, his own kind of sophomoric rant, that he keeps sending to households at our own expense.

There is no word about whether Brad and the other twelve Saskatchewan lightweight Conservative/Reform MPs think the government should return the $18 million in Federal tax dollars generated by the Toronto festivities to the pride community. But don’t hold your breath on that one.

I don't know why they dumped Larry Spenser, he'd fit right it.

It must be the season for homophobia in Saskatchewan. While the Conservative/Reform Federal MPS work to embarrass most of us, I like to think most of us anyway, the Provincial Government is trying to find ways to pander to their own “conservative” members.

Justice Minister Don Morgan wants to see if legislation can be changed to allow Marriage Commissioners the right to refuse to perform any marriage between two people of the same sex. He says the government doesn’t want to force any commissioner to perform a marriage which goes against their values. To me that raised a few of questions.

• What does that say about the core values held by some of Saskatchewan’s marriage commissioners?

• Why do we tolerate people with these kinds of values performing marriages in the first place?

• Why would any self respecting gay couple, or anyone else for that matter, want to be married by a bigot?

Can you figure it out? If you do, let me know.

New Waterford Boy Makes Good

Well it was a great trip but, it is good to be home. I quite honestly was getting a bit tired of pub food.

While on our travels I did check up on Canadian news from time to time.

• Michael Ignatieff gets everyone in the media talking about election again and then as expected wimps out, again.
• Harper and his buddies are back into the attack ads.
• The RCMP withheld damning e-mail in the inquiry into the Robert Dziekanski tasering.

Not much new there but, I was encouraged by the fact that the NDP got themselves elected in Nova Scotia. On hearing that I said, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if my old buddy Frank is the appointed as the new Labour Minister" Frank is an old NABET buddy of mine from Cape Breton. I haven't seen him for 10 years or more when we shared a scotch or two in Halifax.

On return, I got a call from Nova Scotia and talked to Frank first hand. Oh, excuse me, The Honourable Frank Corbett, Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia.

Well done Frank.

Airbus A380

This monster was at the gate in Toronto when we passed through the airport on Monday. Double decker and VERY big. Who else but Emerites Airline could afford one

All images on this site will enlarge if you click on them.

I won't be posting to this blog very much until we are back in Canada. To follow our travels see the link to your left or click here to go to that site.