Merry Christmas $(*#&@$!!!

The Lowell Green Show on CFRA in Ottawa is discussing the fact that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's "Christmas" card does not come right out and wish recipients a Merry Christmas in English or French.

It is extremely offensive to me that Dalton McGuinty deems it offensive to say "Merry Christmas" and avoids doing so to stay in the good books of some minorities... but apparently not all. He doesn't say it in English or French, but he does in Filipino, Spanish and, apparently, in German too. Greetings are there in about thirty languages and it seems that "Merry Christmas" is OK in at least a couple dozen of them. Callers to the show are translating for those of us who do not speak the thirty languages Mr. McGuinty evidently can.

Earlier this morning I was told that employees at a rather large nursery off of Innes Road are told that they must express warm wishes of "Happy Holidays" to customers as they complete a sale. I will not shop at a store that has a policy prohibiting staff from saying "Merry Christmas". If I find out after a sale that there are such rules in a given establishment, I'll wander over to the refund counter to get my money back.

Each so-called "minority" who is asked by members of the media whether they are offended by "Merry Christmas" responds by saying it is utterly ridiculous that "we" in most part refrain from using the offensive statement. Rabbi Reuven Bulka has said so in each of the past three years. Many "on the street" new Canadians who are interviewed claim that Canada's diversity is one of the factors that attracted them here. Why can my culture and my Christmas not be part of our multicultural mosaic?

I'm not against multiculturalism, I'm not against equal rights. When one's rights become "more equal" than someone else's, however, I get annoyed. So Merry Christmas, everyone. If you don't want to wish people a "Merry Christmas" for fear of offending, then don't send greeting cards and just keep to yourself.

Humbug.

Ottawa Humane Society "bursting at the seams"

It seems that the Ottawa Humane Society issued a plea for people to adopt cats and dogs earlier this afternoon. They apparently have been "at capacity" a few times in recent weeks, something that is very unusual for this time of year.

The situation is so bad that they asking people to consider adopting a cat or a dog as a potential Christmas present despite the fact that they usually strongly advocate that people not do so, that it is unfair to the animal if it doesn't work out, and it apparently usually does not. To help facilitate adopting Kitty or Fido for Christmas, they're extending adoption hours.

That's a good thing, for if you read the chronicles of my adoption experience this past October on the subject of how easy (or not so easy) the adoption process can be, you saw that they aren't open for adoption weekday mornings. I think they also usually limit evening and weekend adoption hours as well.

You will have seen as well that it costs a little over two hundred dollars to adopt a kitten (well in excess of one hundred or one hundred and fifty dollars for an older cat) and between two and three hundred dollars to adopt a dog. Perhaps the Ottawa Humane Society, if their true intent is to help the poor homeless animals, will knock a good chunk off of the adoption fees to facilitate the adoption spree they're hoping to spur with all the publicity. It is, after all, the last week before the holidays come about, and cash isn't always plentiful at this time of year in households across the city.

Help us help you, Ottawa Humane Society!

Albion Rd. property becoming an albatross - let Super Ex stay at Lansdowne

The Central Canada Exhibition board of directors met last night. The budget meeting saw reports indicate that Super Ex will be unable to make the move to its "new" Albion Road site in 2008 due to financial difficulties.

Can't we revisit why the Super Ex must move out to the boonies anyway? We're told year after year that it must leave Lansdowne. Jim Watson tried his best to make it happen. Bob Chiarelli saved the park but did little (as far as I can recall) to further the cause of it staying put. To support the idea of making the move, some organizers will tell you that Lansdowne Park has been shrinking. They will also point out that some buildings that were once played integral roles in hosting the annual fair are no longer there. Apparently these points are factual, but are they big enough points in fact to justify the costly move?

As someone who has likely attended the Ex once in most of the last twenty-five years or so, I can't see what is missing. Well, there's the "stupid horse show" that used to be held inside the Civic Centre - my father used to drag me in there. I wanted to be outside where the air smelled like candy apples and the lights dazzled. Imagine my surprise when I tried to lumber into the Civic Centre a mere few years ago to discover that the show had long since headed to other pastures! Things change as you age a bit and I now fondly look back on those nights sitting there watching horses trot around on the dirt floor. Other than that, the rows of food vendors still line the path from the entrance down to the Cattle Castle. Car raffles are still easy to find. Carnies and their games are all there. So is the midway and pretty much everything else I remember seeing as a child.

I do not recall what was in the various buildings, but I can't help feeling that today's children could care less as long as mom and dad buy the expensive bracelet so they can ride the midway all day long and fork out a few bucks so they can try their best to win that big teddy bear!

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. The bottom line is that Lansdowne Park has hosted the Central Canada Exhibition longer than any resident of the City of Ottawa has been alive. As for those who initiate most complaints, the rich and pretentious residents of the Glebe have all (I believe) moved into the area knowing full well that an annual fair is held there for 10 days every year and has been at Lansdowne since 1888. They also moved to the Glebe knowing that the odd sporting event and concert is held at Frank Clair Stadium. Oh, and they also must have known that all of these events bring cars into their neighbourhood streets as well. Sure, those cars are a bit of a nuisance, but these people have no business complaining. They knew what was there when they bought there. Should we advocate that the Ottawa International Airport move because of the new residents of Riverside South might complain about airplanes flying overhead? I don't think so. The airport's been there for a while and it hasn't been much of a secret.

So, members of Ottawa City Council, Mayor O'Brien, board members of the CCE: why not sell the Albion Road property and use the proceeds to renovate the remaining buildings on Bank Street? The fair that generations have visited could then stay in its rightful spot? It's easy to get to, everyone knows where it is, and the economic benefits to the immediate area are incredible.

The field of dreams is quickly becoming the field of nightmares. Will the CCE board ever raise enough money to move the fair to the "new" site? Will it ever have enough money to put up buildings to host whatever it is that was in the razed Lansdowne buildings? Probably not. Lansdowne Park ain't broke... the CCE organization is.

Mayor O'Brien and everyone else who can make something happen - do what's right and let Super Ex stay in its current home.

Poor Canadian banks still sulking as feds continue to ban merging

An article in today's Ottawa Cititzen chronicles the devastating effect that not being allowed to merge is having on Canadian banks. Evidently, the federal government preventing BMO (were they not once known as the "Bank of Montreal"?) from merging with ScotiaBank, for example, results in their not being able to be competitive on the global market.

Who cares?

Should their goal not be raising the level of competition on the domestic market? Or are we, the mere plebes who own piddly bank accounts rather inconsequential in the grand scheme of things?

I wrote in March that in 2002, TD Canada Trust seemed content to have quarterly net profits in the $200 million range. In the first quarter of 2006, net earnings exceeded $800 million. That's more than four times the "good results" of only a few years earlier. Now that we are in Q4 of 2006, I'm fairly confident that the major Canadian banks will unveil total profits in the $4 billion range for the year. I could do the research to get the exact numbers, but I believe that all but one cracked the billion dollar mark in Q3.

When is enough enough?

Looking back at my March column, I pointed out how a letter received at my office from TD Canada Trust explained to me how TDCT had to "remain competitive" and thus had to start charging me for depositing cash and cheques. Again, as stated nine months ago, I thought that is what I was supposed to do at a bank. Years ago they started punishing us (I mean charging fees) for withdrawing money. Having jacked up "convenience charges" as high as they morally felt they could at that point (though nothing will stop them from hiking them again next September, I'm sure), they came up with the bright idea that depositing cheques into business accounts should result in a charge of about sixteen cents each and that depositing cash into these same accounts should cost, on average, $2.10.

Oh yeah - and these fees are coming about in order to "remain competitive". Hmmm... in my other business, remaining competitive means providing more service than a competitor, preferably at a lower cost to the customer. Not in megabank language, though, competitive means that profits at "bank X" are bigger than at "bank Y". And if Y exceeds X, X will have to do something else to level the playing field or tilt it back in its favour. How does X do that? Well, they cook up some other scheme. I think they should start charging us $5 just to walk into the stupid building starting in May of 2007. Yeah. Imagine how much more money they could make then.

For those of you who may not know, I help run a non-profit charitable organization. Some of my reasons for railing against the banking industry in March was because I knew that this new "fee structure" (remember, so that TDCT can remain competitive) would cost this charity way more. Did those who read that column think I was nuts? Here is how much we paid in bank charges in October 2005: $23.75. In October 2006? $86.14. No change in service, no changes in typical transactions. What did we get for the approximately 3.5 times the price?

Sweet precious nothing.

So for you bank executives who are crying in your Corn Flakes this morning because you are not allowed to merge in order to become competitive on the global market, stick it in your ear. Charity starts at home - and until you show Canadians how further mergers, degradation of service and service charge increases will benefit Canadians, shove the merger plans where the sun don't shine. Oh yeah, and who will be the first "poor Canadian bank" to raise the profit threshold to $2 billion? Better not be mine.

Then again, what will I be able to do about it? Oh yeah. Never mind.

"Go ahead with the LRT expansion, Ottawa, it's all OK": Baird

Rideau-Vanier Councillor Georges Bedard just stated at today's meeting of Ottawa City Council that the city recently received a letter from federal Treasury Board President John Baird. It said that after reviewing the contract and everything related to it, "all is OK" and that the City of Ottawa can now go ahead with the process without the fear of losing the federal funding commitment.

Interesting. I have not heard anything about this in the news.

When the Ottawa West-Nepean MP decided it was his duty to ensure that Ottawa residents' tax dollars were not being squandered by former Mayor Bob Chiarelli and his Council, his intervention was announced with great fanfare. The story made headlines for days in the middle of the municipal election.

Some people wondered if his move was politically motivated. His relationship with Bob Chiarelli was known to be less than peachy, and it might be conceivable in Baird's mind that it might be better if someone other than Chiarelli were in the Mayor's chair beginning December 1. Well, Larry O'Brien is now there. What a coup! Anybody who paid attention to the election had to see that in the end, this story had a big impact on the mayoral election results.

Now we hear today that Mr. Baird has very recently given the City of Ottawa the green light. This wouldn't only be a mere coincidence, would it? Where was the fanfare and where were the news releases or conferences that accompanied that announcement? Oh. I guess it isn't as sensational or politically beneficial to announce that "all was OK in the first place - run along, children".

To think that so many people have become so cynical when it comes to politics. I wonder why.

Follow-up: When speaking with a member of City Council this evening, I discovered that it wasn't "recently" that the City received a letter from John Baird, it was today. Isn't that convenient as it was very possible that a final vote could have been taken at today's meeting? I hope that this hasn't been political gamesmanship at its best (or worst?!) Perhaps this is exactly what Bob Chiarelli needs to convince him to run against Mr. Baird in the soon to come federal election. I can just see the debate now...