Ottawa City Staff Heading To Spain?

Mulder

I don’t normally criticize Jan Harder much. She is one of the Ottawa City Councillors that, typically, is on the ball when it comes to what is right or wrong. And I was pleased to hear that she was cleared of issues surrounding inappropriate aid to her daughter’s campaign. Today, Susan Sherring is reporting on an upcoming trip to Spain for four city employees, including Harder.

And why are they heading to Spain? To see an operational Plasma Waste Conversion facility in Castellgali in light of the Plasco pilot program going into the Trail Rd. Waste Facility in Harder’s riding.

Now I am all for PGP or (plasma gasification processes) that convert biomass to burnable gases which are then used to create electricity, but this is an unwarranted and not necessary.

At the end of the month, Kirkpatrick, Harder, acting deputy city manager Richard Hewitt and director of utility services Ken Brothers will go to Spain on Plasco’s dime. Plasco Energy Group, owned by Rod Bryden, has inked a contract with the City of Ottawa for a pilot plasma waste conversion project at the Trail Rd. facility The Spanish plant located in Castellgali is owned by Plasco, and operated by HERA Holdings, in which Plasco has a 40% share. The four leave on Feb. 25 and return to the nation’s capital on March 4.

Why would four senior level city employees head off to Spain for a week to view a facility we will have a pilot program for locally? The deal for the pilot facility has already been inked? Why not just drive a few miles down the road once it is built and see how it is going?

Don’t mistake my disdain for this trip as some slight against Rob Bryden. On the contrary, I think he has been an exceptional businessman in the city and built up some of the most interesting, socially responsible organizations. But I do question public servants, (and that’s just what these four nation hoppers are) with inappropriately accepting gifts/donations which they cannot reciprocate. This is the rule for our City employees.

Now, the only ways this trip could be done would be to say either 1) yes we can reciprocate, which puts us on the hook for carting four businessmen around the world, or 2) having the city pay it’s own expenses, which defeats the purpose and was already discounted as a reasonable expenditure above.

Auditor General's Awards Don't Go Far Enough

Mulder

Auditor General Sheila Fraser gave out the awards to the Crown Corporations submitting the best annual reports. The program has been around since 1993 to help promote good reporting.

The AG, with a team of 7 judges, determined that the winners for this year were Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) and the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation. CDIC won in the larger corporation category.

What I find amazing is that they had reviewed the reports of 46 Crown Corporations yet only select the top two.

The AG could take a lesson from Neilson ratings or the best to worst college lists published annually. They should lay it on the line and rank them 1 to 46. Wouldn’t this put some pressure on the organizations to put accountability into their reporting? Naming 2 while 46 get off easy could be reversed to pegging the worst 2 so they know where they rank and can get their asses in gear.

Simply announcing intentions to rank the Crown Corporations reports would whip them all into line in a year or two.

Pictures Depicting Mohammad Are Not New, So Why The Kerfuffle?

Mulder

Listening to Lowell Green this morning, he mentioned hearing that images of Mohammad were not new. So I quickly did some googling and came up with this gem from the Washington Post.

While rare in the 1,400 years of Islamic art, depictions of Muhammad are found in the collections of such institutions as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris and the Edinburgh University library. Muhammad has been portrayed in the work of revered Muslim artists and of such Western figures as William Blake, Auguste Rodin and Salvador Dali — as well as the creators of the cable-TV cartoon series “South Park.”

In addition, we have the the website Answering-Islam.org.uk siting the Qu’ran with the following support.

Numerous passages in the Qur’an prohibit idolatry, and worshipping statues or pictures, but there is not even single verse in the Qur’an that explicitly says not to have any pictures of Muhammad. This bears repeating: There is not a single verse in the Qur’an that prohibits making or having pictures of Muhammad or people or animals or trees. In fact, there are some verses in the Qur’an which mention images in a positive context and which therefore presuppose that some statues or images were approved by God, see the article Muhammad and Images.

But the article continues with a very critical point that must be made. This MUST be read.

It is clear that making pictures is a horrible sin in Islam. There are dozens of narrations that emphasize and reiterate this point. However, it is always said that Allah will punish those people on the Day of Judgment. There is no command for Muslims to go out now and punish those painters themselves. This is particularly relevant since Muhammad was not shy in this regard.

I am not sure about this source, but if this is the case, then the rioting and uproar over this whole issue is, again, invalid. The Day of Judgment is where those who portray images will get their just due. In addition, there is continued growth of support that the whole concept of no images is to prevent idol worship. Which, again, supports what I said here. I think that portraying images of anyone, including Mohammad, is actually within the guidelines of the Qu’ran because images in a newspaper, cartoons, educational imagery, are fine, as long as you don’t idolize the photo or painting by putting up on the wall in a place of honour. I can understand the disdain for the disrespect of certain cartoons, but again, why are people rioting? Are people afraid of images in general? I am not sure, but I think the reason may have something to do with this or this. You can read more from other bloggers on this subject here, and here, and here

Munter Gives Kilrea A Valentine's Day Gift

Mulder

It may be 9 months before the municipal elections here in Ottawa, but the polls are already starting up.

An informal poll on the Ottawa Sun website today already is showing the Munter effect.

At the time of this post, there were 384 respondents with Terry Kilrea being favoured by 33% of them. But the left wing vote (47%) is split between Munter (27%) and current Mayor Bob Chiarelli (10%).

Munter’s impact will be much more quick and painful than the left can imagine. If the right can keep Walter Robinson from running, Kilrea has a real shot at dethroning the two term Mayor.

I will update this post again later when there are more respondents.

All I Want For Valentine's Day…

Mulder

Am I being unromantic when I tell my wife that I would love to get one of those sheepskin hats our Canadians are wearing in Torino as a Valentine’s Day gift? I hope not, because I did. Man, they look sooooo warm, and how much more Canadian can you get with this one.

I really do want to congratulate HBC for this one. The Canadians look so, for lack of a better word, Canadian!! I love the fact that they take the Olympic uniforms to a new level each time. The Roots outfits were instahits on a global level, and I can see these fur trader hats being a huge hit. What I found to be funny was that in light of the pending sale of HBC, Canada’s oldest company, to an American conglomerate, HBC put a perfect touch on the uniforms with these trader caps. The creation of the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company so long ago was based on the fur trade, and the trader cap is such a symbolic Canadian headgear. Even more than the toque!!

So if anyone out there has a heart, please comment in this post and let my wife know that I REALLY REALLY want one of these hats!

I wonder if it fits over my Tory baseball cap.

Will Jack Backtrack On Ontario NDP Decision?

Mulder

In a divisive turn of events, the Federal NDP is looking to reverse the decision to eject Buzz Hargrove from the party as a member. The Ontario branch had removed Buzz on constitutional grounds, and because of the way the party is structured, this effectively booted Buzz from the national party too.

Jack Layton called Buzz Hargrove last Friday, leaving a positive voice mail which indicated Jack was looking forward to working things out with Buzz to ensure he is on board with the NDP fully next election. They are even meeting today. The party is now looking at ways to reinstate Buzz nationally.

This begs the question: With Toronto being such a core support location for the NDP, does the decision to boot Buzz create a division between Ontario Dippers and the rest of the leftist group in Canada?

I don’t know. But I will say this. A large group within the party wants him out (including Judy Wasylycia-Leis). The leader sounds like he likes Buzz and wants him in. Sound familiar? It should. It parallels the Emerson/Fortier appointments.

Jack’s next move will be watched closely. How sweet would the irony be if he reversed the Ontario Dipper decision.

Harper's Cabinet More Bilingual Than Martin's

Mulder

Today, Jack Aubry of the Ottawa Citizen, reports on the bilingualism within our new federal Cabinet.  The results are surprising, but again, show that the Tories are working hard to ensure Quebec feels like part of Canada.

The Tory Cabinet has 15 of 27 ministers who fall into the bilingual category (55.5%), whereas, the Liberal Cabinet under Paul Martin had 19 of 39 bilingual ministers (48.7%).

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

This supports my recent post about the diversity within the Tory ranks.

Iran Backpedals on Non Proliferation Treaty Stance

Mulder

Well, in a sudden twist to their threat to pull out of the NPT, Iranian officials are turning their view around.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi urged a peaceful solution to the dispute over his country’s nuclear program.

“We are still committed to the provisions of the NPT. But we can’t accept its use as a (political) instrument. We will co-operate in the treaty and the safeguards’ framework,” Asefi said at a weekly news conference.

A day earlier, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had hinted at a pull out.

Diversity Thy Name Is Tory

Mulder

I just surfed over to the Phantom Observer’s site to get the URL for one of the bloggers that showed up at our Ottawa Blogfest from the other night.

I glanced at the photo and was reading the Phantom’s post when something struck me. It may not be the most politically correct thing to note, but still, it is reality and I thought I would mention it here.

Six of us bloggers showed up. All were Conservatives. And to throw something in the face of anyone who thinks Tories are nothing but rednecks, I noted the following.

Two of us were visible minorities. One was a student. One has French background. One is Greek in ethnicity and one lives in Ontario but has roots in Quebec.

How diverse can you get? I’m incredibly pleased to know that there is such diversity among conservative minded people in this country.