Jack Layton Uses New Math … And He Gets An "F"

Mulder

It’s been a week since the Honourable Jim Flaherty gave us all a big gift in the Fall Economic Statement and I just have to point something out.

Jack Layton and every NDP pundit and MP have been prattling on and on about how we have missed a great opportunity and how the statement is giving big business a huge tax break.

Well let’s get some of the math straight. The total cuts in the statement are a whopping $60 Billion over 5 years and approximately $15 Billion of that was targeted at businesses. This means approximately $45 Billion was targeted at Canadians.

Considering over half of the about a quarter of the income taxes collected by our government are paid by corporations, they are actually getting the disproportionately low portion of the tax cut.

I think it is quite disingenuous of Mr. Layton to say that the government is giving big tax cuts to the banks and oil companies when the truth is obviously clear that the average Canadian is the one coming out ahead.

And taking into account the high value of the Canadian dollar, our businesses can use, and deserve, a break.

So hit the road Jack….

The Meaning of Service

Mulder

At one time in my life, I thought I had a handle on the meaning of the
word “service.”

“It’s the act of doing things for other people.”

Then I heard these terms which reference the word SERVICE:

Postal Service
Telephone Service
Cable Service
Public Service
Municipal Service
Customer Service
Service Stations
Etc.

I became confused about the word “service.” Doing things for other people?? Just exactly what??

That’s not what I was seeing.

Then the other day, I overheard two farmers talking, and one of them said he had hired a bull to “service” a few of his cows. BAM! It all came into perspective.

Now I understand what all those “service” agencies are doing to us.

H/T to my friend Frank

Ottawa Bloggers Meet At Mexi's November 3rd

Mulder

Well, it’s that time again. For those of you out there in the Ottawa area, the next Ottawa blogger get together is happening on Saturday November 3rd, at Mexicali Rosa’s at Dow’s Lake.

The address is 1001 Queen Elizabeth Drive.

The time is 730pm(ish)

Please feel free to share this with any other Ottawa Bloggers you feel might want to join in on the fun, lighthearted evening. (All political party bloggers welcome … Dippers and Libs, we don’t bite!!)

mieximap.jpg

I Found The Silver Lining

Mulder

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.

Smackdown – Senator Terry Stratton Lays Into Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams

Mulder

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKnxM3Pzc4Y

Yellow Bellied McShifty Breaks Another Promise – Class Sizes Won't Reach 20

Mulder

Geoff Matthews points this out in today’s Sun newspaper. Not that class sizes need to reach 20, but what the heck was Dalton doing making this promise in the first place?

Now comes word that the provincial government hasn’t a chance of meeting its self-imposed target of cutting classroom sizes for primary grades to no more than 20 students by this September — a promise that was made during, you guessed it, the 2003 election campaign.

The question isn’t whether the goal can be met. It’s why did the premier make the promise in the first place?

Is there some magical reason why a class with 20 students can be managed, while a class with, say, 23, will spiral out of control?

Couldn’t a class of 30 kids work perfectly well in some instances, while in others anything more than a dozen would be a challenge?

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old geezer, let me point out that when I was in school, we had classes of well over 30 students, and we never seemed to lack for a bit of personal attention from the teacher when it was required.

You got it right on the money Geoff. When I was in public school, there were well over 30 kids in my class just about every year. The only time there were less was if a grade only had 25 or so kids or if there were 50 or 55 in the grade and two classes were split.

The issue isn’t class size. It’s how the teachers control that class. And this day and age, they just don’t have the skill or desire to do it. They blame things like ADD or ADHD for their inadequacies in controlling children. They push them along year after year just happy to get the troubled ones out of their class, watering down the value of a high school diploma.

The above article was originally posted on March 8th, 2007, but I thought it was generic enough to repost today. Choose well today at the voting booth.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Mulder

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