You either pay attention or pay through the nose. I would rather pay attention.
You would have thought they would have learned the first time around with the sponsorship scandal.
Click the above video ONCE to view. If that does not work for your browser, click the link below to view the whole video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpLX-gFkvhs
But don’t believe me…download the Liberal flyer yourself!
From their site.
or if removed
I’ve been mulling over the recent Ontario provincial election and wondering if the dark cloud is truly as dark as I thought it was on October 11th.
Well it isn’t. I believe I have found the silver lining.
As per the recent Throne Speech, the federal Conservatives will be doing three things in the coming session of Parliament that when taken together are greater than the sum of the parts.
1) They will be working to move the Federal government out of programs that are Provincial jurisdiction and
2) They will be cutting the GST another point to 5%, and
3) They will be making broad based tax cuts.
When you mix these three with the previous promise to correct the Fiscal Imbalance the sum is greater than the parts. The Feds will fix the Fiscal Imbalance by letting the provinces take more control of their own spending and programs, which costs the Feds less and the provinces more.
Well there is a rumour floating out there that if the GST is cut a point, Quebec plans to raise the provincial tax by that same point to compensate for these downloaded services.
Well if Quebec does it, you can be sure several other provinces will too. And that probably includes Ontario.
When you think about it, if the provincial Tories won the election and then had to raise taxes, they would never have been able to live it down or criticize Dalton McShifty again.
But if services are downloaded to the provincial Liberal government and Yellow Bellied McShifty is required to raise taxes to compensate, you can be sure that tax payers will not treat the Liberal brand in Ontario well.
When Dalton first said he would not raise taxes and did, we were upset but we swallowed it. In the last election he also promised that he would not raise taxes. But if PST goes up to 9% when the GST drops to 5% then you can be sure that the Liberal name will be as good as dirt for one, two and maybe even three elections.
So there is the silver lining for you Ontario Tories out there.
In my honest opinion, Danny Williams needs to shake Newfoundland up and not shake the Federal government down.
Terry Stratton seems to agree that Williams is focussing his energy in the wrong place.
Click the above video ONCE to view. If it does not start playing, you can click the link below to view the video in another browser window.
I was going to save this piece for next week, but in light of the story breaking on the CTV about General Rick Hillier being replaced, I felt it was necessary to address something right away.
In reading the comments on the above news article, I am shocked at how many Canadians actually think it was Rick Hillier that rebuilt the military and restored the faith and groundswell of support for our troops.
A General within the military does not have the power to acquire Billions of dollars of funding from the Finance Ministry to rebuild the military. That feat was accomplished by the Honourable Gordon O’Connor.
A General within the military is not the one that stick handles billions of dollars of expenditures through committees and the House of Commons in a minority government to ensure the purchases of equipment get made. That feat was accomplished by the Honourable Gordon O’Connor.
A General within the military cannot swing deals with Boeing to get Canada’s C-17 heavy lift moved up to the front of the queue so that we can get our aircraft years ahead of schedule. That feat was accomplished by the Honourable Gordon O’Connor.
The list goes on and on.
The groundswell of support for our troops was not headed up by Hillier either. A big part of this was started by Lisa Miller and Karen Boire, the two young ladies who started the “Wear Red Fridays” drive. This single handedly has to be the one thing that has started to spread across the nation as a show of support for the troops and their families. I still wear red every Friday, even if it is just a small red ribbon pinned to my lapel with a Canada flag pin.
I am not saying Rick Hillier should or should not be removed from his post. My opinion on that is neither here nor there. But what I am saying is that if praise is to be given for the restored quality of our military, and renewed faith that our forces are one of the best outfitted in the world, that praise should be given to the previous Minister of National Defence, Gordon O’Connor.
I for one am extremely proud of Gordon O’Connor and all he has done to ensure our military is well outfitted. Below is a list of accomplishments Minister O’Connor accomplished while he managed the Defence portfolio.
Major Accomplishments
Budgetary Accomplishments:
-Increased Defence budget by $5.3 billion over 5 years
Procurement Accomplishments:
A 3-OCEAN NAVY, A ROBUST ARMY, AND A REVITALIZED AIR FORCE
·Announced up to 8 Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships ($7.4B)
·100 modern main battle tanks (Leopard 2) ($650M)
·Purchased 4 C-17 strategic airlift aircraft ($3.4B)
·Announced the intention to acquire 17 tactical airlift aircraft (C-130J) ($4.9B)
·Announced the intention to acquire 16 medium-heavy lift helicopters (Chinooks) ($4.7B)
·Announced the intention to acquire 2,300 medium-weight trucks ($1.2B)
·Announced the intention to acquire 3 Joint Support ships (JSS) (2.9B)
·25 New Nyala Armoured Patrol Vehicles ($31M)
·82 Armoured Heavy Support Vehicle Systems (AHSVS) ($87M)
·5 Buffalo, 5 Cougar, and 6 Husky mine-protected vehicles ($29.6M)
·6 M777 Howitzers
·Announced the modernization of 12 Halifax-Class Frigates ($3.1B)
Policy/Operational Accomplishments:
·Announced the establishment of an Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagotville
·Announced the re-opening of the College Militaire Royal (CMR) St-Jean
·Extension of Afghan mission until 2009
·Extension of NORAD Agreement, incl. maritime surveillance
·Deployment of HMCS Ottawa to the Gulf under Operation ALTAIR
·An infantry to protect the PRT
·A Leopard tank squadron to Kandahar
·Military engineers to PRT’s
·Counter-mortar capability
·Opening of the Sergeant David L. Pitcher NORAD facility at North Bay
CF Force Expansion:
·New Recruit Advertising Campaign Launched
·In 2006 the Total Paid Strength of the CF grew by over 2,000
·In October 2006, the recruiting process was streamlined
Quality of Life/Other:
·Introduction of a modernized pension plan for CF reservists
·New operational allowance for CF members who are medically repatriated
·Opening of the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) facility at Gagetown
·$19 million provided to 41 Military Family Resource Centers
·Clifton Wenzel receives compensation
… a Dipper supports it.
Click the above video ONCE to begin watching. If the video does not play, try clicking the link below.
When I asked McDonough to name one single fact in the Karzai speech that was untrue, she said this issue wasn’t about the truth. The former boss of the New Democratic Party spoke volumes with that little chestnut. Ideologues care little about the truth.
…
The NDP could learn a lot from the graciousness of the Afghan leader. He has far more respect for our military than the NDP does. And it isn’t because military communications people laid down a few words on a piece of paper to help him get his message across. It’s because they laid down their lives to give his people an opportunity to have a life.
I don’t know if it can be said any clearer than that.
In this interview Charles does what he does best. He puts the facts out for Alexa and she trips on them over and over and over. A must listen.
For 10 days CFRA radio along with three other affiliated stations here in Ottawa held a contest where they gave a clue to the whereabouts of a key to Colonel By’s treasure (which is $50,000 in cash).
I slowly collected each clue and worked on an answer until I came up with the location I believe the key is. Below is the list of clues and my answer.
Since the answer had to be entered today by three pm, I don’t mind sharing these results. The answer will be revealed Monday. I will let you know how I do.
Clue 1: Colonel By worked with five of the best contractors. Only one will be the right man. Name him.
Answer: Well I had a few and one was named Philemon Wright, but after reading more I discovered that Thomas McKay was the primary contractor so I went with:
McKay
Clue 2: There was a chap who leaked the tale of the treasure to me. He penned himself a bit of a book, but made no mention of the treasure. Funny how he only spent a few of these in Canada.
Answer: The author is a John MacTaggart who penned a book entitled “3 years in Canada”. So the answer is
Years
Clue 3: The year was 1819. No, No, it wasn’t. That’s something else. Where was I? Ah Yes. Today there’s an upper and lower but when I navigated my way to Bytown, I travelled rapidly through them.
Answer: This one could have been a few as there is an Upper and Lower Brewer’s Locks, an upper and lower Rideau Lake, but the rapidly through them leads me to think it is rapids and we have upper and lower
Nicholson’s Rapids
Clue 4: Here’s a combination to help you find the key: 45 22 75 43
Answer: I thought perhaps highways as three of the four are in Ontario with 43 being a prominent one in the area, but after looking at Google Earth I determined these co-ordinates are the lattitude and longitude that point ust west and slightly north of the Hog’s Back locks. Since it actually pointed to a street named Vanson with absolutely no tie to the rest of the clues, I left this blank. I was later told to not overthink it and that this could simply be pointing to
Ottawa
Clue 5: It was 1827. Between Wardsville and Edmund’s Rapids is where Colonel By first heard of my plan to capture his treasure.
Answer: Every map I looked at simply points to
Old Sly’s
Clue 6: The key to Colonel By’s Treasure, I have no doubt, is covered with this.
Answer: I originally thought it had to be water as sunken treasures seemed to fit with all the locks and the canal. But after getting clue 10, I simply thought I should change it to either Sand or Stone and since either fit the final answer I submitted, I just chose
Stone
Clue 7: Life jacket’s on. The treasure was carried on one of Captain Cook’s most famous ships, whose whereabouts is still a secret. Name it.
Research garnered a ship named
Endeavour
Clue 8: You’ve done well to come this far. Thomas and John were related in one way but not another. Find them in Canal Lore.
Answer: I first assumed this may be referring to Thomas McKay and John Redpath, two of the original contractors, but later was pointed to two gentleman named Burrowes and Burrows who both painted. So the answer I chose was
Burrowes
Clue 9: Google Y (WHY?) Your answer will be found on that page.
Since googling either Why, Y or Wie garnered littel so I used some Freud and said to myself ” sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and chose the letter
Y
Clue 10: Nag A Ram
Answer: Nag A Ram is an anagram for the word “anagram” so I assumed that the final clue means the answer is an anagram. I included the final clue answer which was
Anagram
Taking the first letter of each word, I came up with
M, Y, N, O, O, S, E, B, Y, and A
These letters can be rearranged to spell out
MOONEY’S BAY
If you took part in this contest, I urge you to post your answer in the comments. I am also open to opinions on my work.
I have sat by too long watching as bleeding hearts rip our nation to shreds for the sake of personal gain.
*Axe hit*
I have listened to far too many lefties spread propaganda about issues that favour their own agendas of make work programs
*Axe hit*
I have watched too many City of Ottawa vehicles get first class treatment at the high end carwash in this city on my tax dollar.
*Axe hit*
I have listened to No Balls McShifty attempt to buy my Provincial vote this coming Ontario election with my own money after doing nothing with the extra money he took from me after he got elected last time around.
*Axe hit*
I think I have been officiallyscrewed too many times and I am losing my sense of being a hard working Canadian.
Heeeeeeereeeeeeee’s Mulder……
Whenever someone slams the CBC for being left leaning, the comeback always seems to be that the CTV is the exact opposite and a strong supporter of the Conservative Party. I am quickly seeing that this is also a complete load of hogwash.
My personal friend “Dudley Dooright” pointed this information out to me and I thought it was important enough for me to share with my readers.
This is to bring to your attention an urgent matter concerning the Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Gordon O’Connor.
There have been recent reports that Minister O’Connor will be removed from his current post of Minister of National Defence during the week of August 13. What follows are some details regarding the background, and how you could express your support for Minister O’Connor if you choose to do so.
Please note that since the cabinet shuffle might take place as early as Monday August 13, it is important to voice your support before 5 PM on Friday August 10 when Prime Minister Harper’s office closes for the weekend.
On Saturday August 4, 2007 CTV news reported:
“Prime Minister Stephen Harper will demote embattled Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor in a cabinet shuffle expected in the week of August 13, senior government insiders told CTV News.”
Link To August 4th CTV news story
The same news report also stated:
“Sources say the Prime Minister decided he had to shift O’Connor out of Defence after he gave an interview on CTV’s Question Period two weeks ago, in which he suggested Quebec’s famed Van Doos would spend their six-month mission in Afghanistan training Afghan army troops rather than fighting the Taliban.
Families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan were deeply upset at O’Connor as were members of the Van Doos, government officials told CTV.”
The first sentence refers to another CTV report published Sun. Jul. 22 2007, but the assertion that Minister O’Connor suggested that the Van Doos would be engaged in “training Afghan army troops rather than fighting the Taliban” is incorrect. The linked video clip posted on the CTV website, records what Mr. O’Connor actually said: http://tinyurl.com/29og5e
CTV’s Graham Richardson: “Will the mission change or be tweaked in any way? Will there be fewer patrols given what Canadian forces are facing in the south?”
Minister O’Connor: “It was part of our plan to go through essentially a three stage transition. When we arrived in the south, because of the situation with the Taliban, and the situation with the Afghan army, there was very few of them, we had to take on the bulk of the fighting.
And in the last few months we took over sponsorship of one of the infantry battalions of the Afghan army. We’ve trained it to a very high level and it’s out there now conducting operations.
Over the next four or five months we’re going to be picking up four or five additional Afghan battalions to train and mentor and get them out into the field.
And were hoping that by the end of this rotation that’s going in now, the so-called Van Doos rotation, we’ll have about 3000 Afghan army operating within the Kandahar province.
As we train more and more of the Afghan army to carry out their own operations, we will continue to withdraw, train them, put more emphasis on training, and at some stage, basically be in reserve.
CTV’s Graham Richardson: “If all goes according to plan, Canadians will be doing less of a combat role in the south, correct?”
Minister O’Connor: “That’s correct.”
Link to July 22nd CTV news story
Mr. O’Connor was describing a transition plan that was already in progress before the Van Doos arrived, and he did not suggest that the Van Doos would be engaged exclusively in training of the Afghan army in Kandahar.
Yet, CTV reports anonymous “senior government insiders” stating that Mr. O’Connor will be shuffled out of his Minister of National Defence position for a suggestion he never made in that news report.
On Jul 12, 2007, General Rick Hillier seemed to agree with Minister O’Connor regarding the recent successes training the Afghan army battalion, and with the plan going forward.
“This battalion has actually come an incredible long ways. Our soldiers were telling me it’s like looking in a mirror and seeing their own tactics and drills and skills being implemented by these guys,”
“They’re very professional. … They’ve actually been very successful in most operations against the Taliban,”
“I believe that by spring … this organization will be very capable. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be stand-alone. But it will be ready to help play a huge role that essentially has not been played at all until now by themselves,” he said.
Link to July 12th, 2007 Toronto Star news story
During his tenure of some 18 months as Minister of National Defence, Gordon O’Connor has secured the reinvestment in Canadian Armed Forces’ equipment which was depleted by years of neglect by previous governments. Examples of orders secured include heavy lift aircraft, transport helicopters, tanks, and arctic patrol ships. The Canadian Forces are making a significant contribution to the security of Afghanistan, and their morale is reported to be high.
If you believe that Gordon O’Connor is doing a good job as Minister of National Defence and would like to show your support for him, below are a few ways to do so:
1. Phone the Prime Minister’s Office at 613-941-6888 to speak to an assistant to express your support for Minister O’Connor in his role as Minister of National Defence. Business hours for the Prime Minister’s office are 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. If you phone after 5 PM, you will be transferred to a voice-mailbox in the Prime Minister’s office, where you could also leave a message.
2. Email The Right Hon. Stephen J. Harper, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada at [email protected] expressing your support for Minister O’Connor in his role as Minister of National Defence. You might also consider copying Minister O’Connor’s parliamentary office at [email protected] .
3. Fax The Right Hon. J. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada at 613-941-6900 expressing your support for Minister O’Connor in his role as Minister of National Defence.
Cabinet Ministers have been ordered to be available to meet with the Prime Minister as of Monday August 13, 2007 so there is very little time to get messages of support for The Hon. Gordon O’Connor to the Prime Minister. If you decide to voice your support for Minister O’Connor, please do so before 5 PM on Friday August 10.
Thank you.
It seems the only thing Minister O’Connor is guilty of is letting the press play tricks with his words. If you feel like me and know that Minister O’Connor is doing a fine job, then I urge you to let the PMO know with one of the methods pointed out above.
I would like to add that under Prime Minister Harper and Minister O’Connor, I have regained a faith that Canada is once again becoming the True North, STRONG and free.
Not only was the pension fund being mismanaged but now we have the ex-Commissioner of the RCMP blowing tax dollars on expensive alcohol.
At a modest 16% income tax rate, the average person would have to earn $500 to generate $80 of taxes so that Julian “Livin’ The High Life” Zaccardelli could expense that $80/Glass Cognac.
Just something to chew on if you want to get your blood pressure up.
Talk about getting OfficiallyScrewed!!