I had a nightmare that I kept waking up and it was 1993….. and Chretien was in power…. and they wouldn’t get rid of the GST….
*shiver*
Why does this give me, and Stephen Harper, grey hair?
I am surprised I haven’t heard more about this from the Tories out there. Manitoba MP Brian Pallister is thinking about stepping down to run for the head of the Provincial Tories.
When referring to “the Orphan”, Adler means Brian Pallister.
| Memo to Manitoba: The orphan was never on the list.
Fact: The Harper government will have fewer people in cabinet than its predecessor. Fact: Several members of the Harper caucus in Alberta, who are far more qualified than the orphan, won’t be in cabinet. Fact: Harper wants to give some seats to less qualified members in Central and Eastern Canada. Call it geographic balance. Fact: The orphan knew all this before the election. Fact: Manitoba Tory boss Stuart Murray announced last fall that he was surrendering leadership. That’s when the orphan started mapping out this strategy. Pallister now has the chutzpah to tell Manitobans that he has made a sacrifice in not accepting a cabinet invitation that he never had. He has the chutzpah to tell Manitobans that he is only now seriously considering a departure from federal politics despite telling political intimates months ago that he was eyeing the job of provincial Tory leader, and despite taking a poll to find out whether voters could stomach the words “Premier Pallister.” |
I hate to admit this, but I think Adler is right on this one. If Pallister does resign to run for the Provincial big chair in Manitoba, it will put his riding into a bi-election. For the sake of his constituents, I hope he stays on through this parliamentary session. He is a bright, well spoken MP, and he would definately be an asset in Harper’s caucus.
I hope other Tories out there don’t ostracize me for feeling this way, but I do think we owe more due diligence when our party of choice is in power because we put them there. You might call it being ummm… for the sake of argument… being accountable.
Drop And Give Me Twenty Private Martin!!
General Rick Hillier has publicly admonished the Liberals for the anti-soldier attack ads promoting a Conservative government would put soldiers in our cities. The head honcho of our military forces was probably staying non partisan before the election, but barely a week after election day and he has the Libs going through Basic Training drills.
| Hillier pointed out that there are already soldiers living and working in every Canadian city prepared to help in the event of a crisis, emergency or natural disaster.
Hillier also criticized the Grits for failing to back up their promise to the military to hire 8,000 new soldiers, noting there were only a few hundred recruits since Martin first announced an initiative to swell the military’s ranks in 2004 because the money to pay for them was slow to flow. He lavished praise on the Conservative defence election platform, which pledged to boost the military’s ranks by 13,000 soldiers. |
It would have been nice to have a statement like this made before the election, but I understand General Hillier’s reservation in waiting until after the public has spoken. I’m just glad he said it. This is something to remember for the next election.
$10,000 Study Calls For More Study – How Screwed Can You Get?
Susan Sherring’s article in the Ottawa Sun today tells us about a consultant’s report on the delivery of French language recreational and leisure services. The report’s content?
Services are not meeting the needs of the francophone community. So what is the result?
| Let’s start with setting up a task force, establishing a “work unit” responsible for planning recreational and leisure services in French, developing a five-year operational plan for the delivery of recreational and leisure programs responding to the needs of the francophone population, and for the city to “analyze all services offered by the parks and recreation branch.”
Bureaucratic blabber — and it cost taxpayers $10,000. A task force made up of representatives from the city and interested parties in the community? Isn’t that what the French Language Services Advisory Committee is for? This seems like nothing more than throwing good money after bad |
What’s that? The French Language Services Advisory Committee? What’s this? Well the City Of Ottawa website says the following:
| Mandate
The mandate of the French Language Services Advisory Committee is to provide advice to Ottawa City Council and its Departments, on issues that impact official languages in the City. Responsibilities The French Language Services Advisory Committee shall be responsible for: * Providing a forum for citizens to raise issues and concerns; |
(emphasis added by me)
So we already have an advisory committee tasked to do exactly what we just paid $10,000 for. We also have an advisory committee that should be doing what this task force is going to do, which would cost us nothing.
At least one councillor is on board with me here.
| Rideau-Vanier Coun. Georges Bedard dismissed the report, suggesting it doesn’t advance the issue at all and does nothing to deal with the heart of the issue.
“It’s very disappointing, it doesn’t give us any practical solutions to the problem. In actuality, they should be making some firm recommendations. It has basic motherhood statements, like we should be respecting bilingualism,” Bedard said. The report suggests the rate of registration by Francophones in programs offered in French “is disappointing, leading even the city to wonder if Francophones are interested in these activities. |
I have a big suggestion. Quit cutting services, and start cutting consulting fees. Take the savings, and as a council, investigate one service or item at a time, and fix it. Then move on to the next item. How’s that for some common sense.
Our city council starts up the hot water and soap for the dishes, then runs off to clean the bathroom (no reference intended) and by the time they come back to the dishes, the water is tepid and suds are gone.
When you leave people like these consultants unattended, you get what you pay for. In this case nothing. This is not the fault of the consultant. It is the fault of a city council not vigilant enough with our tax dollars.
Flight Attendant's Fight For Wage Parity With Pilots Gets Supreme Court's Attention
This news article has to be the most ridiculous, OfficiallyScrewed thing that the Supreme Court of Canada has ever gotten involved in….. aside from Flipowich’s battle of the cow. The CBC is now reporting that the Supreme Court of Canada has opened the door for the Human Rights Commission to investigate if flight attendants, mechanics and pilots deserve the same pay.
| Canada’s top court has given the country’s human rights commission the go-ahead to investigate whether flight attendants should be paid the same as pilots and airline mechanics.
The case involving Air Canada employees dates back 15 years. |
Are we kidding here? This has been on the agenda for 15 years and no one told these people the three jobs have different criteria, different levels of education, and different supply curves creating for variance in the salaries?
| The commission had never analyzed pay rates because the dispute got hung up on the legal question of whether flight attendants, who are mostly women, and pilots and mechanics, who are mostly men, worked in the same “establishment.” |
And I suppose we should begin paying orderlies who clean up the bloody mess in operating rooms the same as the surgeon doing the cutting? Or how about paying the court recorders the same as the judges? Get stuffed.
| Air Canada held that the three groups should be treated separately in legal terms because they worked in different establishments. The human rights commission agreed, but two court cases followed, which delivered split decisions.
Air Canada appealed to the top court and lost. Now, the Supreme Court has ruled that the three groups do work in the same establishment. With that preliminary question resolved, Section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act comes into play. The section says it is discriminatory for an employer to pay different wages to male and female employees in the same “establishment” who are performing work of equal value. |
Aye, there’s the rub. You can’t equate the work. Any way you slice it, the duties of both have similar aspects, as all jobs do. But the precision required, and knowledge and training, are quite different.
Does a flight attendant not take the safety of passengers into their own hands? They MIGHT in an emergency situation. But a pilot takes passenger’s safety into his/her hands the whole flight. It’s like comparing apples to oranges.
H/T to Black Sheep Press for this one.
GiGi's $7,750 Stay At Chateau Laurier On Taxpayers Tab
The Ottawa Citizen is reporting PM Paul Martin putting up the Governor General Michaëlle Jean, and some extended family, at the famous Chateau Laurier hotel for two nights. The total cost in room, food, wine, etc?
Over $7,750 for two nights.
Reprinted in it’s entirety:
Jean’s tab for two-day hotel stay hit $7,750 Governor General spent $1,500 on food, $380 on wine Jack Aubry, The Ottawa Citizen Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean’s secret two-night stay at the Chateau Laurier in August 2005, just before Prime Minister Paul Martin announced her surprise appointment, cost taxpayers $7,750, documents obtained through the Access to Information Act reveal. Determined to keep Ms. Jean, her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond and daughter, Marie-Eden, out of sight of regular patrons at the hotel, officials at the Privy Council Office put them up in one of the Chateau’s swanky presidential suites, at a cost of $1,800 a night, while staging day-long briefing sessions in nearby rooms on the eve of the Aug. 4 announcement by Mr. Martin. The hotel bills indicate three rooms were booked for nine people, including the large suite for Ms. Jean, her husband and daughter, as well as rooms for Mr. Lafond’s two adult daughters, from his first marriage, along with their husbands and children. Ms. Jean and her immediate family also rang up $1,533 in meals while eating in the dining room of the presidential suite, along with about $388 worth of wine. The hotel bill indicates that the dinner on the eve of the announcement totalled $841, including a single charge of $172 for wine, along with a second one for $84. The hospitality claim filled out later on Aug. 22 for six adults, calculated that the cost per adult was approximately $1,300, with a final tally of $7,757.65 for meals, accommodation and flowers. The documents were obtained by researcher Ken Rubin. |
Unbelievable….. simply unbelievable
We Have Our Version Of Florida, But No Hanging Chads In Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River
I was so proud when I reported my riding had a 74% voter turnout, one of the highest in the nation, but the Saskatchewan Riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River had polls regularly exceeding 100%.
In a slowly brewing situation, more and more are calling for a recount, and possibly even a bi-election. Allegations of tampering, prizes to vote and polls reporting three and a half hours late have the results of this riding falling into a cloud of suspicion. The Liberal candidate, Gary Merasty beat Tory incumbent Jeremy Harrison.
With all but one poll remaining, the Tory was leading by over 200 votes, but the last poll, which had a 104% voter turnout, swung the vote the other way with 93% of the poll voting Liberal.
The whole article by Danielle Smith can be read here. Below is a snippet of additional speculation on foul play.
| More trouble: Chief Guy Lariviere of the Canoe Lake First Nation signed an affidavit declaring that Liberal candidate campaign literature was present in the ballot boxes in his polling station. This would also be contrary to the Canada Elections Act, Section 166.
Others have come forward to tell the Harrison campaign team they were bullied and threatened into voting Liberal. The consequences of voting otherwise are no small concern to people who live on small, remote reserves that can only be reached by plane, and who rely almost entirely on their band council for financial support. |
H/T to Jesse Gritter and Adam Daifallah on this one
New Zealand Doc Turns Pimp: And You Thought We Had Problems!
I just heard Michael Harris of CFRA mention this, and quickly found an article in the New Zealand Herald about the story.
A doctor, who was getting flack from an organization about leaving his medical clinics open after hours, has decided to turn them all into brothels.
| A disgruntled doctor plans to open the first licensed brothel in the Far North.
Neil Benson aims to base his new venture in his former medical centre at Coopers Beach. In the switch from medical practice to the world’s oldest profession, it will be called Whalers. |
All this because he wasn’t allowed to stay open later to be profitable. Not that I condone the prostitution, but I do think the guy has a right to earn a living and not lose money. Read on…
| A person in the sex industry had looked at renting the unused medical centre and said it would be a perfect brothel.
‘I thought, why don’t we run it ourselves? It would be a viable business and I was unemployed.” While he had never considered working in the sex industry, Dr Benson sees similarities between the world’s oldest profession and medicine. “It’s about providing a private service and maintaining confidentiality, which is what my medical practice was about – so it’s not a big leap, really. “Everything I have ever done is high quality. The standards of my medical practice were high and that will cross over to the brothel environment.” Dr Benson said the service would cater for the “top end” of the market. “It will be officially registered as a brothel and it will meet public health criteria,” he said. “It will employ beautiful women who are highly paid in their profession and who know what is expected from them in their line of work.” |
Is this what we have to look forward to from our doctors? In some US States, you can go get a private massage from a registered therapist (not the illegal kind), and they provide you with service in private, paid for in cash by the customer. I am not coming straight out and saying we need private clinics, but providing services from a private clinic at the public expense, when monitored will ease our overloaded system.
Not that I think the local “Med-Team” or “Appletree” Clinics will become “Sex-Team” Clinics, but you can’t help but wonder about your own society when people who legitimately want to help the system, and are qualified to do so, are kept from their practice by red tape. It just means more red tape for you and I to get the treatment we want, and according to Quebec Superior Courts, deserve as part of our Charter rights
Facts About The New Footbridge Over The Rideau Canal
If you live in Ottawa, by now you may have heard about the new 5+ Million dollar bridge being erected over the Rideau Canal at the end of Somerset. The bridge is already under construction, but rumour has it, the price tag will be more than expected.
It may be too late now to stop the construction, but for posterity, I thought I would do my own analysis.
(click to enlarge)
The nearest bridge to the new footbridge heading north along the Rideau is the Laurier bridge. As you can see from the image (click to enlarge), the distance one way from the location of the Rideau footbridge to the Laurier bridge is 0.4 Miles, which makes a round trip at it’s longest point 0.8 Miles.
(click to enlarge)
The nearest bridge heading south from the location of the footbridge is the Hawthorne Ave. bridge which is 0.6 Miles one way. This means the worst case scenario for walking is 1.2 miles.
Lowell Green and his listeners are pretty livid about this bridge and its’ cost. And it seems that there is now a push to make the bridge a “toll” bridge with some kind of turnstiles and tokens or monthly passes. Not a bad idea. Considering the cost may run as high as $10 Million dollars by the time it is complete, at least this would help with the overrun. When the total cost of the bridge is recuperated, the proceeds could then be given to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. When all those who petitioned to reduce their walking and have this bridge built get older, many are going to have wished they had chosen the excercise.
Tougher Than Quitting Smoking, But I Am Putting Tim Horton's On Notice
Well, I never thought I would say this, but I am going to join a couple of other bloggers, Wonder Woman and Brent Colbert in a boycott of Tim Horton’s.
Why you ask? Well you see, the 3000 plus troops being stationed in Kandahar are hoping for some creature comforts. The Kandahar air force base has other American fast food places, and our boys in tan… errrrrr…… bright green jungle attire, would like a bit of home as well. Tim Horton’s the mega-chain in Canada has said that a Tim Horton’s in Afghanistan does not fit into their business plan. They say that they give a care package to every deployed soldier at Christmas time.
But as Brent points out, Tim Horton’s has thrived on tying itself to Canadianism. They co-sponsored the special Poppy coins from our Dingwall run Mint. They brag that no matter where you go in Canada, Timmy’s is home.
Now for some statistics.
-There are over 2350 Tim Horton’s coffee shops in Canada.
-There are ~30,000,000 Canadians
-That comes to ~12,766 Canadians per store.
There are 3,000 Canadians stationed in Kandahar. This is nominal when you consider the other troops based there. The business model should stand up fine and Timmy’s should be able to outfit a mobile truck to move with the armed forces, and ship in the goods.
At first I thought an airport kiosk would be best (as I commented at NAP’s Site) but the more I think about it, the more I know this business model would work.
So until Tim Horton’s agrees to give our boys a taste of home, I am going to visit other coffee shops like Coffee Time, Second Cup, etc. (No Starbucks, they charge too much and I don’t need an Italian lesson to order coffee).
I highly urge everyone who reads this to e-mail Tim Horton’s and let them know you want them to support our troops.
Addendum – January 30th, 2006 – 10:53 am EDT
FYI, for those of you in Ontario you can Click Here For CountryStyle Store Locater and find one nearest you.
Something I also forgot to point out is that of that 30,000,000 Canadians, many are children. When you think that the 3,000 troops plus other nations soldiers are all adults, you can see the business case look better and better.