The World as I See It

Every individual is equal before and under the law... political correctness be damned

2012-01-11T18:05:00.008-05:00

It's funny how we're told that under the law we cannot discriminate based on a number of factors. It's even funnier that people are advocating that hockey coaches and police chiefs be hired as long as they aren't unilingual anglophones. Imagine if these same people said that the next Prime Minister could be anyone other than an Asian female? How would that go over?

The challenge here for me is to NOT write a 1,500 word dissertation on the subject - one cannot, after all, be too politically incorrect in Canada. Were I go to on forever on the subject, I could be wrongly accused of being intolerant or even racist. That I am not would be largely irrelevant in the eyes of many.

Why this is, I have no idea - one of the basic fundamental freedoms we have as Canadians is freedom of speech... as long as the political correctness police or those who hang out on the left side of the political spectrum don't disagree with you. If they do, they can easily accuse you of being intolerant or racist and can even file complaints against you with (as Ezra Levant would say) kangaroo court "Human Rights" tribunals. You don't want to mess with them, as they will go after you funded with your own (seemingly unlimited) tax dollars while you have to figure out how to defend yourself.

Perhaps there is a difference between a private company (the Montreal Canadiens) and a public agency (the Ottawa Police). I use these examples as they are fairly current in today's current affairs. Full disclosure, I work for the Ottawa Police as a civilian and I'm not a big Canadiens fan as I strongly support the Ottawa Senators. I do, however, firmly believe that both these organizations should strive to hire the best available person for the job at the time where they're looking to fill a position.

After all, section fifteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says: "Every individual is equal before and under the law..." Anyone and everyone should stand a fair chance at being coach of the Montreal Canadiens or Chief of the Ottawa Police - provided they're the best person for the job. Anything that excludes someone from that is discrimination, no matter how the mainstream media might want to spin it.

Who cares about veterans anyway? Grandstanding Liberal today no different from grandstanding Conservatives of twenty years ago.

2011-11-05T17:51:00.004-05:00

I am so mad I could spit nails... to watch the six o'clock news today and see Liberal Member of Parliament Sean Casey (of Charlottetown no less) deploring the actions of the Conservative government is sickening. Where was he fifteen or eighteen years ago when his party was in power and did the same thing?

For those who might accuse me of being overly sympathetic to the party currently in power, they're no better. I once worked (volunteered, really) with Reform Party MP Peter Goldring in denouncing the actions of the Chretien government - much of this I previously documented. But once the Reform/Canadian Alliance/Conservatives got into power, it is clear that they opted to switch roles with their former foes and adopt the same sort of stance and plans of action.

To see opposition members stand up to "support" veterans and then do the same thing they once vehemently opposed should be called out and they should be held to account. The problem is, that never happens. Chretien said he'd kill the GST if elected. Canadians elected him and then he basically said he never said such a thing. Dalton McGuinty once said he wouldn't raise taxes - he became Premier and we all know how that worked out.

Stephen Harper's Reform Party stood tall against Liberals' treatment of veterans and now his Conservative Party of Canada government is doing the same thing.

I've always wondered if politicians see veterans and seniors as people who will die soon and get out of their hair, leaving them to govern for those who really matter - who those people are, I have no idea. The thing is, our aging population will continue supplying us with freshly-minted seniors and with what has gone on in the Middle East since 2001, we have a new generation of veterans who will age and eventually need our help more than they do today.

When will politicians learn? They're all too happy to send them off to defend us and our country, but when those who actually survive come back home, we wish they would just go away. That might not exactly be the way it is, but it sure as hell looks like it. I've written a letter to the editor to both the Ottawa Sun and the Ottawa Citizen. It may or may not get published... but if the lessons I've learned since the early 90's hold true, it won't matter anyway.

I won't forget. Neither should you.

Has your income gone up 43% since 2003?

2011-09-09T15:55:00.004-05:00

I almost drove off the road this afternoon when I heard that Ottawa taxi drivers are asking the city for a 2.5% fare increase. That isn't so bad, but did you know that taxi fares have gone up by 43% in this fair city since 2003? If this increase is approved, I believe a 10km taxi ride will cost $22 and that puts us in the #1 spot in all of Canada.

I just wrote a letter to two city councillors and the mayor - I know it will most likely get nothing more than a "thanks for your views" form e-mail, but still... they won't be able to say that NOBODY told them they were against the idea. Here's the letter - I just have to share because we have to start standing up and telling them we won't take this sort of thing anymore!

To my Councillor Mr. Chernushenko, Mayor Watson and Councillor Taylor:

The City has decided in recent years that it is going to support and encourage any mode of transport over personal motorized vehicles. I submit that it is rather impractical to ride a bicycle from downtown to just east of Arnprior or to just west of Rockland - it takes far too long yet those are where the city limits are found. Has anyone considered the sheer size of our city when trying to spend so much money on promoting the wonders of the bike? It's fine if you live within a 10km radius of downtown, but if you live anywhere else, to suggest that a bike is a commuter vehicle for the masses borders on delusional. OC Transpo service is acceptable if you're going to and from downtown during rush hour Monday to Friday but try to go from one random area of the city to another, and it is virtually impossible to do so in less time than it would take to drive... and that brings me to taxis - I can barely afford to take a taxi from downtown to the west end and back... at my salary - but imagine how a senior on a fixed income views the fact that taxi fares have jumped 43% in eight years and now they want another 2.5%?

When will the elected officials who purport to represent Ottawans stand up for Ottawans and tell these drivers that enough is enough?

Councillor Taylor recently said on CTV news that seniors living in his ward (the largest concentration of seniors in a given area in ALL of Canada), particularly those on McEwen Avenue, should try to schedule their medical appointments around the reduced OC Transpo bus schedules in their area OR to secure alternate methods of transportation (taxi, anyone?) when they demanded that the City reconsider its position on chopping bus service to their community. Anyone who is lucky enough to have a doctor knows that a patient hardly is in a position to dictate when they'll be seen - and if they need to see a specialist, they're lucky enough to get an appointment - to tell them to have that specialist bend to OC Transpo schedules to accommodate a patient is, with utmost respect, utterly ridiculous.

What really gets my goat is how candidates while campaigning or elected representatives during key times of the year pretend to be the great supporters of seniors by having quaint tea parties or by visiting retirement homes. For twenty years I have seen municipal, provincial and federal politicians launch inquiries and finance studies to see what seniors need, want, etc., and yet when these studies are completed and results are published, little if anything is ever done - other than starting the cycle over and over again... just like a soon to come Seniors Summit.

Mr. Mayor, you want to know how to save more money? Quit financing these studies (both within the city's bureaucracy and through grants or funding to organizations like the Senior Citizen's Council) and dust off those you've already paid for and see what they say. You'll only hear the same story year after year, decade after decade. Why keep throwing more money into the fire? Sure it makes for a great press release and it makes it look like the City (or province) cares, but when these studies yield nothing but reports and no results, who are you really fooling? Most people don't pay close enough attention, but those of us who do, we see it in spades and it drives us nuts. Again, Mr. Mayor, you spoke about Barbara Lajeunesse and myself on a number of occasions in the Ontario Legislature over the years, and I submit that Barbara could tell you more about what seniors need in this city than any report you could commission would ever tell you. She (and I!) will be more than happy to speak to you for free - we might even pay for lunch!

This brings me back to my original intent here - please bring some sort of sanity to committee/council when the time comes and shut down this latest (apparently) staff approved request to hike taxi fares by 2.5%. If they haven't been able to cope with a 43% increase in eight years, they need to re-examine their business model. The argument I just heard that there are more drivers than ever out there is a red herring - having fifteen taxis in front 2651 Regina Street doesn't do anyone any good if they can't afford to pay for them... and none of you can tell me truthfully that residents of that building (or most Ottawans for that matter) have seen their income increase by anything close to 43% since 2003.

Do what is right and help the people who elected you - stand up for us... and we'll stand up for you.

Take a minute or two and let your councillor and mayor know what you think too... it's your civic duty!

The city is so poor, (insert second part here)

2011-04-04T15:30:00.002-05:00

Councillor Churnushenko,

I realize your political background and leanings mean you will likely trend in certain directions on certain issues. That you will support the concept of yet another multi-million dollar foot bridge over the canal boggles my mind.

The city is crying poor, so much so that we’re cutting back OC Transpo service, resulting in seniors and anyone without cars to be inconvenienced to various degrees, garbage collection (I’ve tried to “discuss” this with you, getting a form letter in return) being scaled back, and other services being restrained because the city can’t afford them moving forward.

How you can justify investing millions into something that is NOT a core city service at this time is beyond me. You want fiscal responsibility and to dial costs back so that the city can continue to be the great and wonderful city it can be for decades? Then vote NO for anything that isn’t a CORE city service. A bridge that won’t enhance emergency services’ abilities to do their work, a bridge that won’t stop sewage from backing up into citizens’ houses, a bridge that won’t get make an 80+ year old couple walk blocks so they can catch a bus to get to church on Sunday is NOT a core service.

Times are lean, we’re told? Then we must vote no for all frills. This is one of them.

Please revise your position and remind your fellow councillors what the theme of this Council is.

If you want a bridge, support it when we can afford it – please.

Yasir Naqvi and the Liberals just don't get it

2011-04-01T16:14:00.002-05:00

I really thought that my Member of Provincial Parliament Yasir Naqvi was having a two-way conversation with me. He did, after all, respond to messages sent via Twitter almost instantly - something unheard of in the world of politically measured responses. The fact that the responses were nothing but party line was not unexpected, but when Mr. Naqvi asked for an e-mail address so that he could "write back [...] in detail", I seized the opportunity and asked a number of questions followed by a few comments regarding his political future and that of his party.

A month went by and I didn't get the detailed response. I decided to fire off another Twitter message and I was e-mailed soon after stating that a response had been written but was being "reviewed" prior to being sent... and that it would be sent by the end of the week. At 5:10pm on Friday I received the response in a tidy three page letter packaged as a PDF file, letterhead and all.

The initial reason why I started asking questions of my MPP was after the Ontario Energy Board ruled that utilities could "recover from ratepayers the $17.7 million cost of settling a class-action lawsuit over excessive late fees previously charged." A complaint had been filed in 1998 in reference to fees charged by utilities in the 1980's and made its way through the Ontario court system. Mr. Naqvi is quick to point out that the decision was made by the judicial system and the Ontario Energy Board which of course doesn't reflect any decision made by the Ministry of Energy or the provincial government. Oh, and Mr. Naqvi also points out that the utilities had to charge the excessive fees and would have been "out of compliance" had they not. Who made it such that it was necessary? The provincial government of the 1980's. Who was in power then? The Liberals. Conveniently he seems to forget that governments not only enact laws, but they can CHANGE them as well.

Of course this decision that negatively affects Ontarians doesn't reflect any decision made by the provincial government... had the decision somehow resulted in Ontarians benefiting, the Minister of Energy and the Premier would have bought air time on all networks to hold a press conference to show how great they are at standing up for consumer rights in the province of Ontario.

Yeah - and as Lowell Green says, my name is Napoleon.

So how does this decision work out? It should have forced utilities to somehow eat the $17.7 million fine and explicitly prohibit it from passing it onto consumers, the very consumers who were unjustly charged excessive fees in the first place. The end result? The utilities who "screwed" their customers (forgive the term, but let's call a spade a spade) were told they were allowed do it again and make the same customers they screwed the first time pay the fine that was imposed on them. So you screw the customer, you get punished, but you can pass the punishment on to the customer. Nice.

Of course Mr. Naqvi wants to distance himself and his government from this. There are no ways to positively spin this... or are there? Oh yes - the Ontario Energy Board mandated that two thirds of the settlement costs ($12 million) be used to "fund low-income energy assistance programs to help protect Ontario's most vulnerable consumers".

That does nothing for me. I, however, have to nonetheless pay my share of the fine. He claims that the Minister of Energy directed Hydro One (owned by the province) to recover the costs internally rather than to charge the "rate base". That's us! And, leading by example (incidentally, there's only one tax payer and regardless of where the money comes from, since it's a province-owned company, it will come from US THE TAXPAYERS), he goes on to tell me that Hydro Ottawa is owned by the City of Ottawa and it is the City's decision whether to charge ratepayers or not. He kindly gave me my City Councillor's name and e-mail address.

Then I get 2+ pages telling me that he is proud of the direction the Liberal government has taken and outlines all the good things they have done: "significant personal income tax cuts" - haven't see them on my pay stub this year, oh yeah - and 83% of consumer spending did not see a change in tax as a result of the HST. That is true when it comes to potato chips and video games. The problem, my blind to reality MPP, is that the 17% is what is KILLING US! Gasoline went from around 98 cents a litre on June 30, 2010 to about 107 cents a litre on July 1st. HST did that. And as people stated before, as GST was a tax on tax, the higher the price of gasoline skyrockets, the higher the GST (and now HST) goes. So the provincial government is laughing all the way to the bank! Heating oil instantly went up 8%. Electricity instantly went up 8%. We cannot live in Canada without gasoline, heating oil and electricity. SO HOW IS THE HST GOOD FOR ME? Oh yeah - don't forget the massive hikes in electricity rates since these people got elected - the HST appllies on the whole thing... but no worry, they're giving us a 10% reduction. Aren't we paying almost double now what we were before the Liberals came into power? Thanks for the 10% bucko.

I even tried in my e-mail to impress upon him that Ontarians appear to have had it with this government. Right out of the blocks they brought in the health tax (not mentioned in the election) and then out of the blue "eco-fees" and the HST came along (again not mentioned in the election) and lots happened between those two incidents and since then as well. Poll after poll is showing that this government is going down in flames and careers are going to be ended in a matter of months.

He doesn't care.

He is "proud to be part of a team that has the vision to lead" - yeah - right off the edge of the cliff. Well as my ex-boss once said, "include me out" - I live in Ottawa Centre and am likely to do something unheard of in October - I'm going to vote NDP so that Mr. Naqvi is booted out of his office as quickly as he was voted in. The Tories are likely to sweep them to a historically low number of seats across the province (oh how I wish they could be obliterated like the PC party was by the Chretien Liberals in 1993 - when two poor PC members were re-elected and the rest were left licking their wounds) and I know that Ottawa Centre will not elect a Conservative unless he/she is the only candidate running and even then...

Why Bob Chiarelli came back in a by-election into a hornets nest of political quick sand I'll never get. He's about to get booted too. Yet these three Ottawa area Liberals (don't forget Premier McGuinty!) all spout the same nonsense about how great they are and how wonderful everything is. They don't see the forest for the trees and I have to wonder why.

Take off the blinders, boys, and come see things as the great unwashed see them. Only then will you suddenly realize how you look in the eyes of those who care and actually know a thing or two about how things are run over there... and more importantly, have the ability to THINK INDEPENDENTLY.

Happy retirement (early retirement to some) - don't let the door hit you on the way out. In a number of months Ontarians will have a chance to wag these self-congratulating form letters at you all and yell "WE TOLD YOU SO".

They can't say they haven't been warned.

Maxime Bernier stands by his word - a rare occurrence indeed!

2011-02-06T17:03:00.004-05:00

I was surprised to see this article appear in today's Ottawa Citizen: http://tinyurl.com/6dm6bht - Maxime Bernier speaks out against Bill 101 while expressing his opinion. I was saddened to see a 'clarification' in the National Post, figuring that Mr. Bernier was going to distance himself from the comments, claiming he was taken out of context. After all, doesn't that happen all the time these days?

Much to my surprise, he didn't distance himself from his quoted comments at all. In fact, he explained further: http://tinyurl.com/65lwzyl Since this sort of thing doesn't happen often, I took a moment to write a quick note to thank him.

Mr. Bernier,

People can be quick to complain, but there are far too few people out there who will take the time to compliment. I was happy to read your comments about the antiquated Bill 101 and was disappointed to see that there was a subsequent ‘clarification letter’ in the National Post… until I read the letter.

Congratulations for taking a stance and sticking to it. It is very rare that a modern day politician keeps his or her word when a statement generates negative feedback or controversy. It is even rarer when that politician is a member of a governing party. Please stand strong and resist any temptation that might come from members of the Bloc Quebecois or its provincial counterpart in the days and weeks to come. It seems that these days only certain people have an unfettered right to have their own opinion. As for the rest, they’re only allowed to have their own as long as the ‘court of public opinion’, one that usually represents a vocal minority, agrees with it. If they don’t, as you know, it isn’t uncommon to have these people demand apologies and/or resignations.

Thank you for having the courage of your convictions. Not many have that intestinal fortitude, particularly in this political climate.

Regards,
Michael Mason

I can only hope that others see what he has done and that this starts a new trend towards seeing politicians (governing or in opposition) having the cojones to stand up for what they believe. Is that not why they jumped into the fray to begin with? I fear too many have forgotten why they put themselves up for election in the first place once they get there.

Why are governments or government agencies giving weight to single complaints nowadays?

2011-01-14T03:47:00.006-05:00

Here is a letter I sent to my Member of Parliament, Paul Dewar, after reading this article in the Ottawa Sun yesterday (http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2011/01/13/16877796.html) - I do not support or condone the use of any word or expression now deemed politically incorrect or "insensitive", but recent stories about re-writing literary classics to "sanitize" them and today's story about this classic rock tune is taking things to a level I fear is going way too far. Here's the letter:

Dear Mr. Dewar,

It seems that as every year goes by, Canadian society is getting more and more out of hand and government is helping it along. The news yesterday about the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council banning the play of the 25 year old "Money for Nothing" song by Dire Straits is incredible. How one single individual can have the power to make a complaint that results in such serious consequences borders on ridiculous. More and more revisionists would prefer to re-write history and pretend that bad things never happened. We cannot selectively teach the 'good things' that made Canada the country it is today, nor should we ignore the darker side of history. The totality of it all has worked over centuries to build the homeland in which we currently live.

For twenty-five years, I believe, radio stations from coast to coast have played the above-mentioned song. An Ottawa Sun article characterizes it as being a "staple of rock radio". One person makes a complaint based on one word and the Council can then essentially ban its airing and presumably sanction radio stations who play it? One single person should not have that power. Sure, the Council should file the complaint for future reference, but one complaint from one person out of the entire Canadian population should carry no significant weight.

The action of the CBSC risks setting a precedent that could encourage others to sift through decades worth of songs and have them picked off one by one, creating a list of 'non-desireable or politically incorrect' works to be banned. Why should one person be given that power? One cannot argue that it is not just "one person", as the CBSC allegedly works in the best interests of all, but as it clearly works on a reactive basis, investigating complaints even when made solely by one person, that power is effectively being given to individuals by the CBSC.

Like it or not, society changes over time. That does not mean that history should be whitewashed, altered or be made to disappear.

Please stand up as a leader and denounce the actions of the CBSC and please work towards establishing some sort of reasonable guidelines that will assist them in further reviews as more will inevitably be requested as a direct consequence of yesterday's news.

Thank you.

While I would expect Mr. Dewar to support the sentiment of the complainant based in the ideals his party likely hold, I hope that he will take a moment to consider and give the same amount of weight to my concerns/complaint as he would give to the complainant who ultimately convinced the CBSC to issue the ruling it just released. We'll see!

You don't live on a residential street, OK?

2010-12-11T14:49:00.002-05:00

Years ago I got into a tiff with a few vocal residents of Maitland Avenue who complained about traffic volumes that passed by their homes, day in and day out. They didn't like the number of cars or trucks that went by, they didn't like the speed at which they drove, they pretty much didn't like anything that went by on four (or more) wheels. Some suggested that the city should consider traffic calming measures... I'm sure some might even have wanted "local traffic only" designations at one point or another.

The big topic of the week is King Edward Avenue. I see it now has a 40 km/h speed limit, likely due to the city bowing to pressure from area residents being unhappy with the "typical" 50 or 60 km/h speed limit this sort of street should (and did once) have. Residents are unhappy with the trucks that drive down their street. They are unhappy with the volume of cars that drive past by their homes, some at somewhat higher than legal speeds. They want this to stop - and now.

A group has spent $250 on a radar to keep tabs on the speeds of passing vehicles. They hid behind poles and bushes because, according to today's Ottawa Citizen article, they don't want people to slow down while they measuring. I wish elected officials would have the intestinal fortitude to say that King Edward Avenue is NOT a residential side street.

If you do not like it, move to the suburbs and find a nice quiet cul-de-sac to live on. The fact of the matter is this: if you live on Pinecrest, Woodroffe, Maitland, Kirkwood or Bronson, you live on a major arterial road that leads directly to and from a 400 series highway designed to move people from one part of the region to the other. Quickly. Unless you built your house and/or moved into it back in the 1950's, you knew what kind of road you were moving to. When you decided to have kids while living on these major roadways, you must have known they would never play road hockey or hopscotch out front. If you didn't, you're an idiot, as House would say on a popular television show.

Yep, I'm telling it like it is - something many don't have the guts to do these days.

Is it right for someone to (allegedly) drive 103 km/h in a 4o zone, as a volunteer claims one recently did? Absolutely not. Is it right for someone to go 65, though? Probably - were it not for the artificially low politically correct speed limit. Does Carling Avenue have a 40 km/h speed limit? Nope. Isn't it a similar type road to King Edward? Yep. Carling probably has more residential properties on it than King Edward does, but you don't see its residents crying bloody murder.

Many major Ottawa roads have seen their share of tragic collisions. Some will argue there have been some bad "accidents" involving transport trucks on King Edward and any collision involving one of those monsters can't end well for the most part... but what was the truck driver supposed to do a couple years ago when a car ran a red light in front of him? Any answers, King Edward activists? I do not believe the truck was speeding... but because someone got seriously injured or killed in that collision, the design (since changed) of the roadway and its use was once again debated. No debating and discussion in the world will change anything if an idiot driver goes through a red light in front of a transport truck, I'm sorry.

My new councillor (who must be insane) wants to financially compensate people for walking and riding bikes to meetings. My past councillor worked so hard to make life miserable for drivers it nauseated me. It's time to be realists, folks - the City of Ottawa is massive. You cannot walk from the outskirts of Arnprior to Canaan Road on the 174. You can't bike from Britannia Beach to the 43rd kilometre of highway 416. OC Transpo can't help you with that either.

So until people get it through their thick skulls that public transportation, bikes and skateboards can't get us around all the time, and that cars are a fact of life (as are trucks on King Edward until another community out there joins reality and allows another bridge to be built), we have to learn to peacefully co-exist - humans and cars.

And if you don't like cars and trucks zooming past your house at the rate of hundreds if not thousands per hour, move to a REAL residential street. Don't try to drag us back to 1823 and hope that the major arterial road you live on will ever return to a peaceful greenspace where the antelope play with children from dawn until dusk.

For those who are still confused, call 311 and have someone explain the difference between residential, collector and arterial roads are for a start. Then re-evaluate your living arrangements. Things change - and they never go back back in time. If you choose to live on King Edward Avenue or any road that leads to or from the 417, you must learn to live with the consequences. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That's why the trucks that provide us with the food we eat each day must use that road. You don't like it? Find another place to live.

Good bye Primus... pretty much!

2010-10-01T13:20:00.003-05:00

A follow-up to the never ending saga of my adventures with Primus Canada: when I "settled" the whole modem return issue a while back, resulting in yet another credit (which ran out this month) and my being given 400 AirMiles to placate me, I decided that I would terminate my relationship with Primus as much as I could, as soon as I could.

So... earlier this week I called Rogers and got myself set up with them for a high speed cable internet account. It took a few minutes to confirm that my existing cable service combined with the high speed internet would cost about ten to fifteen dollars more a month than I was paying for cable only. A confirmation e-mail a few minutes after the phone conversation ended "put on paper" the elements of the discussion most important to me - financial and date-related terms.

That was easy.

Just now I called Primus and asked to downgrade my DSL account to their cheapest dial-up account so I can maintain/phase out the e-mail address I've been using since 1996. Despite a few hiccups, likely due to the fact the person I spoke with likely had English as a second language, it looks like I have succeeded in getting them to understand my request and put the wheels into motion. Time will tell if this might be the first time Primus actually gets something right after being asked.

I will never, never, never again sign up for anything named Primus ever again - and no one ever should. Customer service is NOT their forte... and their DSL service seems to be unimproved in 2010 as compared to the late 1990's - in spite of developments in technology over MORE THAN A DECADE!

It's the end of an era - anyone care to join me in a celebration?

Primus keeps letting me down

2010-06-08T16:27:00.002-05:00

I am willing to take part of the blame for one of these 'issues' but the inability of Primus Canada to keep its act together and continuously provide superior/excellent/adequate customer service continues to astound me.

For previous unfortunate episodes, scroll through the archives.

Two incidents have come about in the past few months. The first happened when I called one day to inquire about replacing my (then) current high speed modem after being at a friend's house earlier that afternoon. I noticed the he was able to get between 1,000 and 2,000 kb/s download speeds from Rogers and I could only get 400-600 at the best of times. Even my dad could get close the the 1,000 mark with his Sympatico/Bell service.

As my modem was failing to maintain a constant connection, I deemed it defective and pleaded my case to a technician on the phone. To Primus' credit, I spoke with a Canadian in Canada which was so nice compared to previous efforts to talk to 'customer service' agents over in India back two years ago. The technician agreed the dropping connections did merit sending me a new modem, so he arranged for one to come my way. When I asked him about my transfer speeds compared to Rogers' (I knew that there was no way DSL could match, but surely something should have changed in DSL land since I first got DSL through Primus/Magma back in 1997) he put me on hold to look into things. Sure enough, my 1997 vintage 'package' no longer existed and I could be 'upgraded' to something newer. This new package would more or less cost the same... and when I asked what improvement I might get in speed, I was told nothing would change.

While technology has drastically changed since 1997, it seems that DSL service has not. Nice.

Content to being able to look forward to not losing connections on a random basis, I closed off the phone call, satisfied I had pretty much accomplished my goal. Soon enough the new modem arrived and I swapped it out for the old one. I put the old one in the box Primus provided for me to send it back to them (for what purpose, I to this day do not understand as it was close to ten years old) and put the box aside.

Weeks turned into a couple months or three. This is where I claim responsibility for my actions and will concede that I was a bad boy and did not send the modem back in the postage-paid box. One would think that a customer service oriented company specializing in communications would take a moment to auto-fire off an e-mail gently reminding me to put the box in the mail. Failing that, one would also expect that a 'dear deadbeat' phone call would be made, escalating the 'gentle reminder' process somewhat.

Nope.

Much to my surprise, I got a monthly bill including my regular usage costs and a hundred dollars for the non-reliable technological relic that would soon find its way to a recycler (or more likely, a garbage dump... I mean landfill site) PLUS TAXES of course. Irritated that Primus never bothered to send an e-mail or make a phone call and opted to go straight to the 'deadbeat charge' really got my goat.

Hoping there was still an ounce of customer service common sense at Primus I immediately drove to the local Primus office where Magma Communications once provided the best customer service I have ever seen from an internet provider company in the past (at a premium cost I was always happy to pay) over on Antares Drive. I was annoyed instantly when the nice receptionist(s) I met over the years had been replaced by a phone and a piece of paper indicating that some time in the last year or so, the receptionist position had been terminated and that incoming individuals had to call an extension number to reach someone.

If memory serves, I did not reach someone in Ottawa (surprise!) and had to be transferred. When I spoke to someone who could 'help' me, I was told that this was a corporate office only and they would only speak to business account holders. There was no office a residential customer could visit in person. Trying to keep calm I suggested in no uncertain terms that customers paying for service from Primus should all be able to get help from Primus staff in Primus buildings. After being put on hold for a good chunk of time, someone finally agreed to come downstairs to meet me.

I pled my case and after some time convinced the nice lad to take the modem off my hands. I was told, however, that the modem would not be deemed 'in the hands of Primus' until it would be manually shipped to an appropriate Primus building and manually signed for by a Primus staff in that said building. That person would then have to alert the accounts people, and... well you can figure out the rest. I was very annoyed by now because I had zero interest in paying in excess of $100 for something deemed missing that was no longer 'missing'. Doomed to having to put my fate in the hands of this gent, I meekly left and hoped for the best.

Some two months later and after I called looking for an update I was informed my account would be credited with the fee I had paid as the modem had in fact been documented as being back in Primus hands. Praise the lord!!! I thought that was the end of it.

Boy, am I stupid!

This morning I looked at my e-mail and found one from Primus indicating my new monthly bill was available for viewing. I am out of town and can only read it from my tiny Blackberry screen, but I wanted to see if my negative balance days were a thing of the past. To my surprise (!?) the bill was for way over a hundred dollars again. I called customer service straight away and got a female from Canada (at least they're consistent in THIS regard - they claim to have Canada only phone customer service since my 2008 complaints were made) who said she would look at my bill and break down the charges.

She told me there was a non-return fee for that modem...........................

I was in a meeting room so I stepped up my tone of voice while maintaining a respectful volume and threatened to terminate my service once and for all (as I did for the phone service some time ago) at which point she chimed in with an assertion that I had not given her a chance to speak.

This is where I get confused. Again.

She had just told me that the bill included a non-return fee... then after I mildly blew up (nicely) informed me that my bill was actually around two dollars and not the $100+ I had seen a few moments earlier and not the amount she had quoted me including that fee. Bizarre. On an aside, after pleading with Primus ages ago to just reverse the charges upon receiving the modem and being told that was not possible, I had received an e-mail some time later apologizing, stating it could and should have been done.

Pleased that my 'problem' had been rectified by this nice female representative, I went upon my business through the rest of the day and returned to my hotel room to check the facts one more time. I logged onto Primus e-care and checked my account's current status... that web page told me my balance was actually $15 and change. Which is it... $100+, $2 or $15 and change? Do I believe the e-bill, the customer service rep or the web site?!

I guess I will have to wait and see what they eventually process when they yank the bucks out of my bank account.

And I guess I will at some point this summer downgrade to the cheapest dial-up account I can get to preserve my 14 year old e-mail address for a while and get the faster Rogers service which is 4+ times faster and about 20% cheaper... and be rid of Primus once and for all.

Some way to run a business.

French immersion in English schools as good as studying in a French school? I think not!

2010-03-15T15:42:00.003-05:00

An Ottawa area English language school board is offended and the Ontario Education Minister seems irritated by a local French board advertising that to get a REAL chance at getting a quality education in French is to go to a REAL French school.

What's there to be offended about? It's true - I've lived it!

I spent my first ten years of schooling in French Catholic schools before switching gears and finishing my last four years of high school in an Ottawa Board of Education public high school. By the time I graduated in 1994 and having had the opportunity to observe the abilities of those who studied all their lives in an "immersion" environment, there's simply no comparison. Sure, there were a few (less than 20%, perhaps?) who were likely on par with their French school board cohorts, but it seemed to me that they also lived in households where French was one of the languages spoken on a regular basis.

Back a number of years ago as I discussed children with my then-fiancee, I strongly suggested that our future kids would go to French schools to make sure they were truly functionally bilingual at the end of their schooling - she agreed.

In an era of political correctness and a time where kids are taught that "there are no winners and losers", it's impossible to fail a class or be held back a year, I am not surprised that the English boards would get their noses out of joint... but sometimes it's entirely appropriate to call a spade a spade. As such, any ads marketing the merits of schooling in French schools, claiming that they're clearly superior to English schools with 'core French' or 'immersion' programs should be acceptable and not subject to abusive complaints from competitors or education ministers.

Perhaps things have changed in the last sixteen years... I doubt it... and the best way to defend libel or slander suits is the truth - and in this case, the truth is in the end product. Try to interview English speaking individuals who studied in English schools and others who studied in French schools - in both languages, switching back and forth. You'll see that the French board "claims" are very accurate.

I'm the last person to stand up screaming from the language rights soap box... but if the Ontario Education Minister forces the local board to change its advertising strategy, it will simply be covering up something that cannot be disputed. Let each board toot its horn about what it does best and forget about what the other one says... as long as everyone is being TRUTHFUL. Let those who matter most make their own decisions: the parents.

Reality bites when it comes to health care spending in Ontario - let's figure it out before it's too late

2010-02-03T22:46:00.008-05:00

It's about time that organizations in the health care continuum stand up and tell the McGuinty government that enough is enough. After nearly a decade of criticizing the Conservative government for the way it handled its affairs, the leader who asked us to 'choose change' implemented a new health tax and came up with a new bureaucracy to manage its proceeds. We were told by Opposition Leader McGuinty that closing hospital beds and amalgamating organizations was not acceptable. Yet, that is precisely what the new Premier and his "Local Health Integration Networks" across the province essentially advocate years into the "change" for which Ontarians got suckered into voting into power.

I had to leave my career in the sector after twelve years because I could not take it anymore. Anyone who cared more about those needing the service of our health care system would be shunned and stonewalled by the "new" government and, here in Ottawa, by Dr. Robert Cushman as they were fed a steady diet of "needing to find efficiencies" to the point that the LHIN allocated $100,000 or more on computers and programs for area home support agencies while these same agencies were denied requests for a few thousand dollars for day programs for seniors or respite services for harried caregivers of ailing seniors or Alzheimer's patients. Untold millions were spent over the years on new staff dedicated to overseeing how hospitals, CCAC's, community health centres or home support agencies could discover 'efficiencies' after being victims of funding freezes through the early 1990's, increases below the rate of inflation in the 2000's, all while the population aged and grew by leaps and bounds year after after year. For the larger hospitals, I'm sure more than a million dollars have been spent in Ottawa alone to study studies while people waited and waited for desperately needed medical attention.

It's one thing to seek efficiencies, but it's another thing to be blind to the fact that a growing and aging population will simply cost hospitals, CCAC's and home support agencies more as the demand for their services continue to grow. It isn't 1978 or 2002 anymore, Mr. Premier.

Our governments need to plan today to head problems they seem to be creating for tomorrow. We no longer have a population of 300,000 in the City of Ottawa yet we are expected to figure out how to provide medical service to three times as many people with fewer and fewer "real dollars" as each year passes. If they don't rectify the problem today, the problem will increase in size exponentially in the next fifteen years. Most governments don't plan that far ahead, but we'll never get anywhere when it comes to having manageable hospital budgets if we do not factor in basic realities. It's time to wake up, Mr. Premier, before it is too late. Where are those health tax dollars going? New buildings are nice but give those who run those buildings the dollars to operate in them!!

Clive Doucet doesn't return Greenberg's calls - will he answer my e-mail?

2009-11-15T19:11:00.005-05:00

It's starting to look, reading local newspapers, that Councillor Clive Doucet is developping a reputation for refusing to speak to or interact with people who sit on the "other side of the fence". With everything going on lately (Lansdowne, green bin, budget, etc.) I thought I would try again to introduce myself to my "new" councillor. I e-mailed his office last spring and got a quick response from an assistant, but I thought that in a time where the councillor who knows what's best for everyone, he might relish the opportunity to try and turn me around.

An e-mail was sent almost a week ago and with public consultations on Lansdowne having come and gone, I wonder if my thoughts sent prior to the meetings on Laurier have met deaf ears or not. Here's what I had to say... will I get a response? I hope so. If I do, an update will be posted. This Council seems to be getting out of hand - and nobody seems to be able to do anything about it.

Councillor Doucet,

I realize that I am not likely to get a sympathetic response from you but I have been around municipal politics for long enough that I know that I don’t want you to be able to say you “didn’t get any constituent response on this subject”.

Several years ago I e-mailed Council as a whole, irritated about the newly-discovered ‘tactic’ of moving things “out” of the property tax bill and “in” the new budget as a “user fee”. This shell game has been a favoured ploy of Council ever since. I really resent this new green bin program and further resent being forced to pay a “user fee” for a program I will not be using.

So many Councillors have been around for so many years I am shocked that I have not heard one member of Council stand up and remind newer members of the last attempt from the City to divert “organic waste” from our landfills. Do you not remember when the City handed out big brown compost bins to be used by citizens in their own yards? After that one time investment, the cost of that program to the City was ZERO. Most people I know still use that system. The City has been so keen on “educating” constituents since amalgamation, so I can’t help but wonder why it decided to spend so much money on something like this when it could have reminded people they could ‘recycle their organic waste’ in their own back yards. Oh, and at the same time that the City has been spending money on planning and implementing this green bin program it has also been working with Plasco, a far more effective way to divert waste from dumps. But I digress.

Can you assure me and every other resident of your ward that the other new “user fee” (for the blue and black boxes we’ve been paying for in property taxes for as long as I can remember the program being in place) will be offset by an equal reduction in the property tax bill? Somehow I doubt this, because this new “user fee” would then be revenue neutral, thereby likely negating the purpose of bringing this new “user fee” into place. Am I being too cynical on this subject? I’m just asking for honesty here.

Finally, on the subject of the revitalization of Lansdowne: while I do not support your position on the matter, I would ordinarily unconditionally support your decision to speak out on it. I do have to say, Councillor, that I would expect more from a man of your age, wisdom and experience. Using sandbox tactics and acting in a manner more becoming of a selfish teenager is not one that is likely to bring people onto your side. If you would use tact, maturity and logical arguments, I might come to understand your point of view and adopt it as my own. I once thought that the local media distorted their coverage of yourself and your office, but far too much time has gone by that I no longer can give them the benefit of the doubt.

I have listened to “anti-Lansdowne Live” arguments and I have listened to those from the Greenberg group. It is fascinating to listen to those opposed continually use the same arguments over and over again despite having their distorted view corrected with fact time after time after time. Consulting documents provided at consultations and at meetings make me wonder how it is that intelligent humans continue to mis-interpret and single out falsehoods in an attempt to use scare tactics in the hopes to have wide-spread support for their dissent.

Why do I support the redevelopment as it is? You may tell me that I am not a resident of the Glebe on Plymouth Street, but I do consider myself as being on the fringe. For groceries I currently travel to College Square, Richmond/Kirkwood or Vanier… the main reason for this is that the two grocery stores in the Glebe are very inaccessible for those who drive cars (it’s impossible to bring $300 of groceries home on your favoured bicycles or busses, Mr. Doucet) and the one on Isabella (not sure if it’s in your ward) is too small, doesn’t offer the variety other stores offer and, frankly, is too old.

I walk to the Home Hardware on Bank/2^nd Avenue regularly. I do not travel outside of my community for that kind of purchase. I would love to be able to go to Lansdowne and pick up groceries, watch a movie or a sporting event – all things available to me as a local resident if and when the current plan goes ahead. Those who have determined that the redevelopment will encourage more people to shop in their neighbourhood are correct. I know I will. However, until that happens, I will continue to spend thousands of dollars in Vanier, Westboro or near the old Nepean City Hall as they all are more convenient despite the somewhat significant time that must be spent getting to and from those locations.

Finally, I fail to understand how people seem so keen to cry wolf every time something new is around the corner. People said Westboro would die when Loblaws redeveloped the site at Richmond/Kirkwood – quite the contrary – it has flourished and is now an area that rivals Bank Street in atmosphere and diversity. Look at what the Palladium did for west Kanata!

You really want to be “progressive”, Councillor? Don’t stand in the way – work CONSTRUCTIVELY to shape progress into a way more acceptable for you (and in Lansdowne’s case, NOT AS A USELESS GREEN SPACE!) and the silent majority that always falls victim to a very small but very vocal miniority.

You are one of the most intelligent members of Council, Sir. Remember that the next time a camera is in front of you. One last thing… I see that you and your office has refused to meet with the very man who could make changes to Lansdowne plans that might be supported by yourself. Why is that?

I hope that you take the time to, at the least, send me a one-lined response to this correspondence from one of your constituents. It would be much more appreciated and show a sign of good faith outside of an election period than my being sent a “thanks for your views, they’ll be forwarded to the Councillor” from one of your assistants…

With great respect,

Michael Mason

[Edit - as of Christmas Eve, the last day mail was delivered as of right now, no response from Councillor Doucet by e-mail or Canada Post... so if my experience is at all similar to Mr. Greenberg's assertions ON THE RECORD that The Councillor was refusing to take his calls are any indication, Mr. Doucet is only likely to get back to people who support his position. Time will tell, but I fear that as has been the case with many who came before him, I may only hear from him if he declares his intentions to run again in 2010. I might have supported him if he gave the faintest of possibilities he was listening and acknowledging dissenting views from his constituents.]

"It becomes a separate tax... that can be raised..."

2009-11-04T18:09:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Councillor Rick Chiarelli.

So our fine not-so-feathered friends at Ottawa City Hall are looking at raising property taxes by about 6% this year. I shouldn't single out Rick, as he was likely one of the few (aside from Alex Cullen, but maybe he's out of town) who would stick his neck out to get chopped off in front of local TV cameras... but I just did.

They want to "introduce" yet another annual user fee for recycling we've been paying for for years ($41) and another for the organic recycling ($68). Are any of us stupid enough to believe that tax bills will be lowered by $41 when this "new" user fee is added to the so-called utility bill? Yeah, and pigs fly.

I wrote in the past about this ridiculous shell game scam these politicians have been putting on at our expense, year after year after year. So the goal is 6% this year. Does this mean that net disbursements from residential taxpayers will be 6% higher than last year? Are you nuts? Of course not! They never are. Those "invisible" user fees keep getting jacked up, but we don't see that at budget time. When Council rises and toasts itself for another job "well done", settling for yet another tax hike, they quietly look the other way while the price of doing everything at the city goes up by 5, 10, 15, 20 or 50%... sometimes more.

After spending twelve years working for an autonomous organization operating in a city-owned building, watching as the price of everything went up while quality of service (anyone who has watched the quality of work contracted cleaning companies, for example, go down the tubes because of one reason or another - accountability to the signed contract be damned for one...) got worse and worse... I couldn't take it anymore. The problem? Neither elected officials, nor bureaucrats whose job it was to monitor the contractors ever seemed to care.

The bottom line seems to be, thanks to bad tax policy almost 20 years ago now, we keep paying more and keep getting less. If this organic recycling project is so expensive, turf the damn thing until we can afford to implement it. When times are tough, you don't set out to find new things to spend money on. I want to opt out of this latest fad, but a green box was dropped off last week. I have put it in the back - it won't see the light of day again. I still believe in the city's last attempt at dealing with yard waste - anyone remember the big brown compost bins the city gave out years and years ago?

City Council seems to spend more and more year after year... raising our taxes year after year... and we keep putting up with it, re-electing the same people election after election. We tried electing a new mayor last time around - but without electing new councillors, one person cannot turn things around on his own.

Will we ever learn? I don't think so.

PC police strike again - can't anyone take a joke anymore?

2009-08-18T16:54:00.002-05:00

Cheers! Coors Light is getting thousands of dollars in unexpected free publicity thanks to what is likely less than a handful of sour pusses who just can't take a joke.

I could almost understand those who complained about Ottawa Virgin Radio's ad campaign a while back... but what do you expect from this sort of station? Whatever happened to "if you don't like it, change the channel", can someone explain that to me? But this?

Thirty. Thirty billboards throughout British Columbia extolling the greatness of Coors Light beer and playing on a never ending east-west (or west-east?) rivalry (remember "SOUTH SIDE SUCKS!" from Ottawa Rough Rider games?) How offensive were these billboards? Here's the text: "Coors Light - colder than most people from Toronto".

Had I driven or walked past one of those billboards I would have laughed to myself and possibly even shaken my head, thinking about how brilliant this simple ad is because it made me (a non-beer drinker) pay attention... in which case the ad did its job.

But nooooooooo... some politically correct idio... I mean individuals complained and as seems to be the case each and every time these years, the big and mighty conglomerate bowed down and opted to pull the billboards down.

Why must we bow down to the individual soul each and every time someone gets "offended"? I mean, I know we're not allowed to make fun of Torontonians here in Ottawa due to a special bylaw authored by Alex Cullen (joke, folks), but it's open season everywhere else in Canada. With all these new Canadians coming over without knowing the first thing about our culture year after year, a whole new phobia of offending anyone has taken us over. Funny thing, though, how I as an individual don't seem to have the right to be offended by the fact that they're offended. That's just not politically correct.

Anyway... on behalf of planet earth and its surrounding moon, I apologize to the (likely) six people across the country who were offended by the funny ad. I do not apologize for thinking that it was funny. That, you call can stick in your ear.

Laugh a little - it'll do you some good!

Oh boy - court says we MUST bring Khadr back!

2009-08-14T14:28:00.006-05:00

Bleeding hearts rejoice - "accused" terrorist Omar Khadr must be repatriated. One must love our court system. Can't we repatriate and DEPORT? If scum decides to commit illegal act on foreign soil, shouldn't we let the foreign country deal with said scum? Apparently not.

Come on back "home" little Omar... apparently we want you here. O Canada. Who, again, stands on guard for us? Not our court system, evidently. Oh yeah, I know, bleeding hearts, he was born here. But what was he doing in Afghanistan shooting it out with the US Army, lobbing grenades at a medic? But he's a mis-understood angel. Right.

Would we have been so quick to jump to the defence of the "Canadian" son of a Nazi who had flown to Europe and fight against his country's allies in World War II? Somehow, I don't think so. That is why I am having such a hard time understanding why any Canadian would so adamantly support the concept of bringing an "accused" terrorist, the prodigal son of such a great Canadian family.

I know we can't deport the guy, but must we spend hundreds of thousands if not into the millions of dollars to bring this model citizen back?

We have much more important things to do with our tax dollars. Fortunately, it looks like the federal government will die trying to ensure justice for all. When did "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" see an untimely death? Surely this would be a shining example of this old adage.

Come on, Prime Minister Harper - appeal this decision to the Supreme Court!

CTV "unfair and unethical": Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

2009-05-28T19:22:00.003-05:00

Lowell Green has to be running head first into his brick wall today.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled that CTV was "unfair and unethical" when they aired that now infamous Stephane Dion interview. A Canwest News Service report states that the CBSC claims that "a poorly framed question that Dion didn't understand was confusing and that CTV was wrong to broadcast the outtakes after promising the Liberals not to do so."

I personally don't understand why CTV would have promised not to air the interview. Surely the promise came after some senior aide, knowing it would make the "leader" look like a second rate hack, begged to have the tape burned and tossed out.

The question that caused the former Liberal party leader to blunder so badly is the following: "If you were prime minister now, what would you have done about the economy and this crisis that Mr. Harper has not done?"

Would the CBSC kindly explain what exactly is confusing about this question? Sure, the grammar isn't spot on, but come on... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand it, does it?
It seems that all opposition parties do these days criticize, bringing little substance to the table. They yell as loud as they can about how bad the other side is... yet do little to show what they would do differently. Given this, how can Mr. Murphy's question be confusing? All he did was ask Dion if he were PM, what would be do that the other guy hasn't. Not once, not twice... you know the rest of it.

The fact that this national party leader was (supposedly) unable to understand the question IS news. I would argue that it was CTV's DUTY to air a story about it.

Anybody with a basic understanding of the English knowledge and with a basic understanding of the job description of an opposition party leader (at the least, the part of the job conducted in front of the media) should have been able to put two and two together and understand the question. "You're so smart, what would you have done?" That's what it boils down to. Some argue he didn't understand the so-called poorly framed question because English is his second language. Isn't it convenient? Accuse the big bad media guy of being anti-French and watch the knee-jerk reactions start.

That's the new Canadian way.

A good lawyer will never ask a question in open court to which he doesn't know the answer. Dion pounded Harper for weeks about how he dealt with the rapidly sinking economy. Was it such a stretch to expect someone to ask what he would do, he who is so critical of the other guy during an election campaign?

Apparently it was. CTV was "unfair". If Dion, the Liberals and small-l liberals in Canada can't take the heat, they shouldn't thrust themselves into the spotlight. Dion proved he couldn't handle it over and over again. Get over it, it's over. Let's see if the new guy is any better.

And let's let broadcasters and journalists do their jobs, shall we?

My thoughts - sent to a member of the Ontario Legislature

2009-03-26T11:59:00.003-05:00

I couldn't hold back any longer. Here is an edited version of a letter I sent to an Ottawa MPP who I respect as an individual but have a hard time swallowing his or her being part of a government that has stepped back from its own ideals time and time again... to the detriment of each and every Ontarian.

Had I known that helping get you elected as a member of a majority government would result in what has come down over the years, I would never have agreed to support your nomination. You were (and remain) far too valuable an asset to the community to end up being a puppet who is forced to nod and shake your head on cue when the leader of your party speaks.

What this Liberal government has done to the health care continuum in Ontario is laudable in some respects – the cranes in the ground in the Ottawa area are definitely numerous – but is for the most part reprehensible. Despite repeated efforts to cut down wait times, the line keeps growing for MRI’s in Ottawa. Newspapers have documented over and over again that the time one has to wait for certain forms of “elective” surgery (as if someone “elects” to walk properly) keeps growing. What good comes from putting up buildings without putting dollars into the budgets to efficiently make use of those buildings never come? I’m not talking LHIN efficient, I’m talking let’s fund the use of that new MRI machine 24 hours a day… or let’s fund the use of the new operating rooms at the Queensway Carleton Hospital 24 hours a day – your waiting lists will soon disappear! Well that’s not what Dr. Cushman has accomplished in this part of the province!

The “new Liberal government” screwed up when it introduced the new “health premium” – denying it was a tax until the courts ruled that the government would have to cover its payment due to the language in many collective bargaining agreements across the province, forcing the Minister of Health to admit at one point that it was in fact a tax. At least the government conceded that it was wrong in that respect but the possible “temporary” tax as we know was not temporary and will live on in perpetuity. Had this tax been part of Dalton McGuinty’s election campaign, he might have seen the same fate as John Tory saw. Ever brilliant, Mr. McGuinty feigned surprise when he got to see the province’s books and used them as an excuse to making the implementation of a new tax one of his first acts as Premier.

My second bone of contention is the ridiculous “LHIN” concept. I’ve held my tongue on this one but the main reason why I am no longer part of the “long term care continuum” at the Olde Forge – I worked twelve years to climb that career ladder to help seniors only to suddenly jump off in January 2008 to join the Ottawa Police Service – but one of the dumbest and short-sighted irresponsible moves your government has made is the closing down of District Health Councils and replacing them with the Local Health Integration Network.

What really gets my goat is how Dalton McGuinty and his robots argued over and over again how irresponsible and stupid the Harris regime was for amalgamating municipalities, hospitals and school boards. It was argued that true savings were never achieved and taxpayers (or end-users) only lost in the end. Then what happened? Some bright person in the Ministry of Health (or the Premier’s office) decided that the best way to “improve” and “save costs” in the health care continuum was to “integrate” organizations into one another. Not wanting to use Harris-like language, amalgamation was a term never used, but it’s one and the same.

Sure, the government finally got us the van we so desperately needed – yet we could not get day program funding… getting money moved from the Ottawa Hospital to the Olde Forge “funded” the program – and put it under the knife as well… for strings were attached. We were told we had to speak with a neighbouring multi-million dollar organization about finding “administrative savings” and other “efficiencies” – completely losing sight that forcing organizations like Nepean Seniors Home Support (oh – that’s right – they changed their name eliminating seniors because the geniuses at the Champlain LHIN forced seniors home support agencies to provide services to “adults with physical disabilities” while never once increasing funding to offset the massive expenses that came up as a result! Where did you think we would get the volunteers and paid workers to provide service when we did not have enough for the seniors to begin with? All that and not one nickel to do so! But I went off on a tangent there – but how will Nepean seniors benefit from seeing their organization swallowed up by the monolith in Kanata ? How will your Ottawa seniors benefit when the Olde Forge is swallowed up by the PQ centre?

You guys once screamed to anyone that would listen that amalgamation never benefits the taxpayer, client, patient, etc., and yet that is precisely one of the next ideas put into motion once the health tax was put in place.

Finally, another stealth sneak attack hits Ontarians at the worst possible time – “integration” of the Ontario Sales Tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax. Sure – people complained about the impact that this move would have on feminine hygiene products, baby diapers and books… resulting in the “rumoured” plan being modified to exempt these items from an 8% tax hike McGuinty and his cohorts are about to impose on us today. What about services? The $400 plumber’s bill will go from $420 to $452 with this change. Will gas prices go up if the “GST” in Ontario goes up to 13%? All this to save some admin time to the small businesses? What about those that might go out of business when people cannot afford to buy their services when they go up 8% overnight? And will the PST office disappear? I doubt it - so who's going to win here? Why are you guys so hell-bent on compromising your past ideals and raising taxes again and again?

I’m shocked that you have silently stood by watching this Liberal government systematically destroy grass-roots organizations from one of the end of the province to the other. The Olde Forge is on borrowed time – you may not admit it today, but your government has that organization on rails that will inevitably lead it to its own demise – and it’s a shame. All the other community-based organizations are headed that way too – for those who are not forced to look at it today will be some day. And finally, those who somehow escape Dr. Cushman’s grip will eventually initiate the process themselves – I saw more than one Executive Director lose sight of the fact they came into the field to help people… only to resort to contemplating how taking over a neighbouring organization might end up seeing them lead a bigger one with a slightly bigger budget – meaning their paycheque might be bigger as a result. "Why worry about the seniors? I’ll be ok!" What they don’t know is that they may not survive the process. I didn’t… but am much better off where I am.

Why am I ranting like this? Why am I speaking to an MPP like this? Because I know that years ago you would never have stood for this kind of thing. Now it seems that you’re telling all of us that we have to like being given money in one hand but having it taken away from the other… (referring to this one-time $1,000 payoff being offered today) and then to support you again next election. Remember how Dalton asked us to “choose change” way back when? I think the time is coming that we do so again - this sort of change we can do without… yet it keeps coming.

Is the real you still there somewhere? Come on out so we can see you again! You're not just another McGuinty drone!!

Being a politician means you MUST say sorry?

2009-03-26T11:50:00.002-05:00

Ottawa Sun columnist Susan Sherring wrote a ridiculous column yesterday opening with the following: "Apparently, being a city councillor means never being forced to say you're sorry."

We have, in the last decade or two, become a society where we must make sure that we offend nobody... to the last possible individual. Why? One person gets offended by someone else's opinion and therefore the offender must be tarred and feathered? Fired? Forced to resign? Here's a link to the column in question, followed by a letter to the editor I wrote immediately after reading it.

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists/Sherring_Susan/2009/03/25/8876116-sun.html

Susan Sherring comments that it seems that "being a city councillor means never being forced to say you're sorry". When did it become absolutely essential for politicians to bow down and crumble each and every time someone is "offended"? Why should we be shocked that Gord Hunter told a constituent "tough luck" upon receiving a complaint that someone told him to stop smoking marijuana outside a comedy club? Shouldn't we be shocked that someone would have the gall to write to a city councillor about this in the first place?! Gord Hunter should be applauded for telling this guy what to do with his complaint and he should be applauded for sticking to his story. Hold your ground, Councillor - you have just as much right to free speach as anyone does - city councillor or not.

It's time for the pendulum to swing back to the other side a bit. It was not so long ago telling someone to stuff it didn't result in cries demanding your resignation.

You can have your opinion... why can't I?

When will Liberal Party of Canada leaders smarten up?!

2009-01-15T20:01:00.002-05:00

We've been told over and over again that Michael Ignatieff is some great intellectual, possibly one of the ten smartest people in the world. If that is the case, what could possibly have possessed him to utter this ridiculous statement:

"Bloc MPs are duly elected by Québec voters. They are not traitors, they are not the enemies of Canada."

This quote appeared in Le Devoir in Montreal today. Bloc MPs, their leader and any candidates or staffers are not "enemies of Canada"? Their sole reason to exist is to separate Quebec from Canada. To break Canada up. What part of that could possibly make them "friends" of Canada?

If you're not with me, you're against me. If you want to break up my country, you're a traitor.

Not according to His Saviour Michael Ignatieff, you aren't.

Why not just fold up the Liberal Party of Canada and put it to rest once and for all? Canadians laughed Stephane Dion out of a job due to his ineptness and Liberal MPs picked Ignatieff to lead because he was a big step up in the brain department.

Step up? Smarten up, Michael - you won't win the hearts of western or eastern Canada voters making idiotic statements like that. It wasn't too long ago people advocating to break up a country were accused of treason. Death was a popular penalty for committing that crime. The big and evil United States of America would not allow a political party like the Bloc Quebecois to exist - not with its self-proclaimed mandate.

Why do we? Oh yeah - we don't want to offend the poor Quebeckers. Well if they want to break up my country (the separatists, that is) they ARE traitors. Each and every one of them.

I'm sure that some people who were willing to lend their support to the Liberal party to get the "evil" or "scary" Stephen Harper out of office in the next election will have yet another reason to give it a second thought and walk... no run away from voting for an intellectual "leader" who clearly is completely clueless.

When will CANADIAN companies realize that shipping service overseas to India p***es people off?

2008-09-26T16:50:00.005-05:00

Remember the good old days when you called customer service for one utility or another and you actually spoke with someone in your own country? Maybe even someone in your own city?

Understanding the petty nature of politics these days, I realize that what I'm about to write will likely end up being dug up by some other party's dirt diggers should I ever decide to put my own name on the ballot. Nobody can write (or say) anything that might offend anyone... and if they do, they'll be fired by party leadership or forced to resign by the mob-like media "covering" the elections.

I last wrote about my experience with Primus "Canada" on December 6, 2007. I wrote about how I got sucked into switching to Primus "Canada" from Bell... it seemed like a good idea at the time: "I figured that I'd take advantage of their offer to provide home phone service at a 25% discount. Better to have the money in my pocket rather than theirs." The ever so polite customer service representative wasted no time signing me up when I agreed to make the switch. I had been promised that the change would be virtually seamless. It was very, very painful. The "seamless" transition meant that my Bell service was disconnected sometime early on December 3rd. I would not hear a dial tone again until around dinner time on the 6th.

While I cannot complain about the service that I have since received (in other words, the phone and internet have worked without any problems, they have failed me yet again after a service request was made.

On August 28th I called to have my service transferred to a new address - I am moving on September 30th. After waiting on hold for almost 90 minutes (they gave me a BS message about "we're experiencing a higher volume of calls and you can expect to wait over 20 minutes... we're hiring new people to rectify the problem") I spoke with a bloke from India for over one hour and fifty minutes. At first he told me that I could not get phone service at my new address - turned out 30 minutes later he misunderstood my spelling out of my street name and address - 2-1-5 I told hom, not 215, figuring he'd mistake 250 for 215. Giving each individual digit still resulted in a misunderstanding. After going back and forth for another hour and discovering (horror of horrors!!) that I had two account numbers - one for home phone and one for my internet - I was told that this was a problem! EXCUSE ME?! Dear, oh dear. I was eventually promised that the changeover would take place on the 30th of September... but that they couldn't give me my existing phone number as Bell owned it. They would have to assign a new number... but they couldn't do that at that time. They'd get back to me.

Fast forward to today. I'm moving on Tuesday. Today is Friday. I got the same message "we're experiencing a higher volume of calls and you can expect to wait over 20 minutes... we're hiring new people to rectify the problem". Today I waited 45 minutes for another guy who turned out to be in India to come on the line. I guess Primus "Canada" doesn't have any employees in Canada anymore. Did it?

So buddy comes on the line and after confirming my information, he gives me little more than dead air. Silence. He put me on hold and came back a number of minutes later (forgot to count this time). When he finally came back on he informed me that an "error" occurred while processing my order and as a result, it would have to be re-processed and I could only get service in about 10 business days. Once again, Primus "Canada" gave me a case of apoplexy. After confirming that I actually did hear exactly what this guy was feeding me, I demanded to speak with a manager. He told me he'd get one.

Twenty-five painful minutes of hearing "thank you for your patience while on hold..." buddy came back with a message from a manager, stating that my order will be processed and service would be restored in 10 business days. This time I blew my top, speaking to the machine that is allegedly taping the call for quality assurance purposes, asking it if it is catching all of this. I then asked buddy if he would accept such ridiculous service after going through my experience with Primus "Canada" since day one. I again demanded a manager and told him that he had better not put me on hold again for twenty-five minutes. I'm about 10 minutes into it as I type.

Having checked the Better Business Bureau see that some Primus "Canada" entries at the BBB site have an unsatisfactory record or a satisfactory record with resolved issues. Had I see that before getting sucked in, I would have avoided them like the plague.

So... what's next? I'm sure buddy will come back on stating that no manager is working or a manager will come on and give me some useless platitudes. Yep, that's pretty much what happened. I went through my history with the manager and he told me the same thing buddy did. As the manager was as useless as buddy was, I asked if he could guarantee that if I switch to Bell due to their incompetent inability to actually provide service when service is requested from a customer, he answered in the affirmative. Not believing him - I mean, when I get a bill at my new address in six (or sixteen!?) weeks demanding some ridiculous cancellation fee (I agreed to combine my internet and phone service for a lower rate agreeing to a 12 month contract when making the address change - I should have run at that time) who would believe me?

Manager guy then told me he'd give me a reference number... and put me on hold! Then came back 3-4 minutes later telling me he'd be a bit longer generating that number and thanked me for my patience.

I'll probably get my confirmation number before 7pm eastern time and then I'll call Bell. I know Bell will likely tell me I can't get service right away as well, and I know I'll likely speak with someone from India again (I'll update if I get someone from anywhere within a couple thousand kilometres of Ottawa!), but I'll have stuck it to Primus "Canada" and will learn the time tested adage of:

"IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT"

I don't think I actually saved much by switching and I'm almost certain my life has been shortened by a few months as a result of my having to interact with them. I have no issue with people who live in or come from India - it just pisses me off that we have people longing for jobs in Canada and that there's no address in Canada that I can drop in to make a service request in person anymore.

All in the name of the almighty buck.

Come on, Canadian corporations, let's bring these operations home. Crappy service on the phone from India and poisonous food and toys from China... when will it stop?!

UPDATE: 22 minutes after starting to dial Bell Canada I spoke with a representative in Canada who transferred me to someone in New Activations who not only was in Canada, was right here in Ottawa. I'll have phone service from Bell on October 3rd. 22 minutes beginning to end. I'd have waited an hour before talking to anyone with Primus. When Primus comes calling, HANG UP AND RUN LIKE HELL! DO NOT BUY PHONE SERVICE FROM PRIMUS!

It's a bad, bad joke

2008-09-12T12:39:00.004-05:00

So after doing a good deed last night I'm driving home, listening to CFRA as I usually do. John Counsell is bleating about the price of gas. I think to myself that finally, someone is complaining about the fact that oil market prices are at a what, six-month low, and prices at the pump have not followed. Sure, they came down a bit when the barrel fell below $145, but they have recently been a holding pattern of sorts despite a price free-fall on the international market.

After listening for a few minutes I realize that the so-called "price watchdog" Liberal MP actually warned us that the prices at the pumps would be going up an unprecedented 12.9 cents per litre overnight in most parts of the country. I'd love to know if prices went up 50 cents a gallon down south.

The ironic thing?

The big talking heads that run the mob here in Canada... I mean oil companies... are blaming incoming hurricane Ike and its effect on Texas oil refineries. OK, that "excuse" has proven to be an effective one in the past, causing the international oil market to spike the prices which in turn magically inflate the price of gasoline that has already been delivered to retailers.

Someone forgot to tell the international oil traders. The barrel has consistently fallen throughout the week, Ike be damned! In fact, after watching some of CBS' Early Show taped this morning on my PVR, I see that Ike is real and he's coming. Yet, at 11:42ET this morning, oil was trading upwards... but not up $38 to go back up over $131 a barrel, but up 38 cents.

Why is it, then, that the commodity itself has not zoomed upwards, yet the retailers hike pricing like they never have before? It seems that the speculators have finally moderated themselves on an international scale. I get it that production might and will fall as a result of this storm, likely resulting in price hikes some days or months down the road. What I do not get, however, is how these bozos have come up with yet a new way to stick it to each and every one of us and to such an unprecedented degree.

They can't blame it on the barrel - it's still trending downwards and traders are yawning as they watch Ike make landfall! Oh that's right, it doesn't matter why. They do it because THEY CAN. There's no collusion, there's nothing untoward or illegal going on. Maybe we should all vote for Jack Layton's NDP - he was heard on the radio today saying he'd take care of Canadians and stop all of this.

Riiiiiight. And Dion's Green Shift will be revenue neutral. Oh yeah, I believe everything politicians tell me - they wouldn't lie, would they?!

PS: As I clicked on PUBLISH an e-mail from CNN found its way to my mailbox. It was titled "Oil trades below $100 for first time in more than five months." Explain last night's move to me then, crooks who run Petro Canada, Esso, Shell et al. Just try reconciling the two.

Dreams of utopian nanny state have to go if Ottawa's to find fiscal sanity before we all die

2008-07-08T05:06:00.006-05:00

Left wing members of Ottawa City Council (one in particular, but that councillor does have some support around the table most of the time) have been telling us to reduce, reuse and recycle for years, regardless of the cost to the City of Ottawa. Some of that plastic wasn't recyclable and had to be shipped to China, to go to landfills there, if memory serves.

They proclaimed that incandescent bulbs are evil, instructing city residents to use CFL bulbs, forgetting how much energy is spent manufacturing those bulbs and overlooking for a time the fact that these bulbs become hazardous waste when no longer in use. That costs money to dispose of them.

Further, they'll tell anyone who will listen that people should take public transportation instead of driving their own cars (regardless of the fact it can for some people significantly more time to get from A to B on the bus) because building roads is evil and costly. How much will the defunct light rail plan cost us? A quarter billion dollars, maybe?

Pesticides are soon going to be on their way out, smoking is illegal just about anywhere, and don't even think about letting your car idle...

Oh yes, and one member of the above-mentionned group's first item on the agenda (and if it wasn't, it was up there on his to-do list) after amalgamation was to try and get the traditional prayer erased from City Council meeting rituals.

It's almost been a decade since the provincial government forced area municipalities to amalgamate. One of the benefits to amalgamation was a cost savings to tax payers. Record tax hikes year after year after year have been the result. Sure, the city has grown - and we're told the City of Ottawa payroll has grown but at a lesser rate - but it hasn't been any cheaper to run.

A new mayoral candidate came around and promised 0% tax hikes. Maybe he can be excused for not really knowing what he was getting into, but much time has passed and the 2009 and 2010 budgets don't look good from the taxpayers' perspective.

Sure, I realize that nobody wants to pay higher taxes... and nobody wants service cut either. It's the conundrum faced by Council each year they debate each and every line that makes up the budget. Service for seniors? Growing population - cutting them would be irresponsible. Snow removal? Um, we saw what last year brought and can only pray it was an abnormal year (bring on global warming!) Make garbage pickups every two weeks. No, that idea stinks and nobody likes that one.

Here's a suggestion, to both the right-wing and left-wing members of Council - give up the freakin' need to head up a NANNY STATE. Govern, for pete's sake, and do your job. How many times have we heard we need to get back to "basics"? Few people can define what the "basics" are, but spending millions one one make work project after another rather than focusing on the big issues, none larger than our aging and decaying infrastructure, is bordering on being irresponsible.

Sure, some councillors believe that the City is some sort of board of health. It is if you make it be so... but who decided it must be so? Who says banning trans fats and handing out crack pipes and hypodermic needles to crack addicts is something a municipality MUST do? Shouldn't water mains and the sewer system take precedence?

I'm getting sick and tired of watching the same song and dance each year. Staff is given an objective. It comes back with some doom and gloom scenario that will cause all groups to come out of the woodwork and complain about the planned cuts to social services. The same scenario inevitably recommends closing a library branch (or six) and a fire station or two for good measure. Who would actually agree with that? Council can't vote for that, so they vote those cuts back into the budget and "settle" for some lame pre-determined number (remember that 2.9% or something along those lines, when councillors left the budget meeting with pre-printed signs held up for the media cameras) proclaiming some sort of victory.

It's all horse feathers. Get back to basics, stop making up things to spend money on when the real priority is making sure the 80-year old couple relying on Guaranteed Income Supplement (otherwise known as also being on a fixed income) can actually stay in the home they bought 55 years ago. Stop dreaming up utopian ideas and work on fixing things that have been allowed to decay despite staff reports desperately asking for dollars to replace sewers that are over 80-100 years old.

Sure, lots of this trouble really started in the early 1990's when a right-wing (of sorts) Mayor froze taxes for years and years. The bottom line is we were given an opportunity early on in this decade to make things right. Well, we're soon going to wrap the "new" decade and we're going to be worse off than we ever have been... with no light at the end of the tunnel.

It's simple folks... closing libraries and fire stations, cutting much-needed social services and slowing/stopping investment into infrastructure ("let's move money from the capital budget into operations") and thinking people are stupid enough to believe that a 2.9 or 3.9 or 4.5% tax increase is just that, all the while doubling and tripling user fees and hiking the water rate year after year (over and above the hikes targeted to go towards infrastructure this past year), hoping they don't realize this annual shell game is nothing but a scam.

Give up the nanny state utopian dream for a few years, Councillors Cullen and like-minded folk, and focus on fixing what is broken and arrive at a solution for once. Soon enough nobody with incomes under $100,000 will be able to afford to live in this city.

Is that what we want?

Time to fire CBC brass - or can the CBC altogether?

2008-06-09T15:27:00.002-05:00

So let me get this straight... the CBC wouldn't pay an extra 15% to secure the song rights to the holder of the iconic theme song played before every Hockey Night in Canada show? A news report last week reported that the contract that recently expired saw the CBC pay a measly $500 per show and a new contract could easily have been signed had network brass agreed to a small 15% increase on cost.

This after the head honcho came out asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional subsidies from the federal government and its taxpayers.

If this wasn't enough to get your knickers in a knot when it comes to CBC in the news recently, how can one reconcile the two above stories with yet another bizarre CBC move? I was watching live television the other day (as opposed to watching taped shows on my PVR where I get to skip commercials) when an ad proudly announced that Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy were moving from their existing Canadian television homes.............

TO THE CBC!!!!

What in tarnation do American game shows do to further CBC's role in promoting Canadian culture? What does the addition of these programs do for the airing of Canadian content? It doesn't get more American than Wheel of Fortune at 7:00pm and Jeopardy at 7:30pm. How much is this going to cost Canadians who pay dearly for coast to coast Canadian broadcasting giant CBC?

And the genius who runs the joint couldn't come up with a few thousand dollars a year to keep the rights to what has to be one of the most well-known, and one of very few entities that so clearly reflect what is Canadian?

This doesn't make sense. And don't increase my federal tax deductions that I have to pay every two weeks to increase government contributions to this network's bottom line, Mr. Harper. Geez.

Well, this just in - CTV GlobeMedia, owner of TSN has snapped up the rights to the song. Yep, when hockey is on TSN next season, they'll be playing the song that we've been hearing on CBC for 39 years. What a way to usher in the 40th anniversary, eh?! Way to go, TSN - good to see there's someone over there with business sense, common sense and a good old fashioned horse sense - one that can see when one has (or can acquire) a good thing.

What's CBC thinking? Some stupid contest cannot come close to replacing a song that has inspired generations of hockey players and fans from coast to coast since the sixties.

Saturday night will never be the same again. Thanks a million, CBC. Maybe it's time for the Harper government to look into divesting itself of the so-called people's network. It ain't the people's network no more... at least, the Canadian people's that is. Let's all get ready to watch Vanna White in September... wow - I can't wait.

Red Sox fan in NYC should go down in history - not to jail!

2008-04-15T00:29:00.003-05:00

The New York Yankees are currently building a new stadium. It's due to open next year. A story aired on CTV Newsnet a few moments ago and it left me shaking my head. I think this world of ours has just gotten way too serious for its own good in recent years.

A construction worker had been rumoured to have buried a Boston Red Sox jersey, presumably while pouring concrete some time ago, as an attempt to start a new curse - one that would haunt the New York Yankees, sort of in revenge for the curse that menaced Sox fans after Babe Ruth was traded to the hated Bronx Bombers.

As an Ottawa Senators fan, I see this sort of prank as being positively brilliant... perhaps a thousand times more impressive than had someone buried Toronto Maple Leafs memorabilia in the foundation of the Palladium, new home of the Ottawa Senators built in the mid-1990's. I hate the leafs as much as Yankees fans hate the Red Sox (and vice versa), and as a consequence can really appreciate the irony and fantastic amount of planning (and intestinal fortitude) that this construction worker had put into executing his plan.

This story had unimaginable legs. Members of the media were present after the culprit was identified and possible burial ground was (presumably) forcefully extracted from the nasty soul who dared soil the sacred new-Yankee-grounds-to-be. Sure enough, jackhammers eventually unearthed a David Ortiz jersey. According to the CTV story, officials are actually looking into whether or not the construction worker should face CRIMINAL CHARGES.

Come on...

Should this guy be hated by Yankee fans just like the male who interfered at a Chicago Cubs game a few years back, resulting in the Cubs losing a chance at going to the Big Show known as the World Series? Absolutely, maybe more. Should Boston fans hoist this guy up on a pedestal for a day or a few weeks for pulling off an unimaginable caper - where nobody got hurt?

You bet. Nobody got hurt. It's funny. HAHAHAHA...

I'm going to see if I can keep track of this story in the days and weeks to come. If he does end up facing criminal charges, I'm going to look for a Boston group that I'm sure will happily build a defence fund for the pour soul. I'll send twenty bucks!! If he's a construction worker living in or near the Bronx, he'll likely need it. Lawyers don't come cheap, and he'll need a good one if a District Attorney is stupid enough to lay a charge.

Is this the ultimate rival sports team prank? I don't know - but it sure is way up there... and it should end up being a chapter in the history books of both teams and Major League Baseball. Not the epitaph on the gravestone of one man's professional career.

Way to go Gino Castignoli - you have impressed this Canadian baseball fan!

Just what is the goal of our education system?

2008-04-07T17:28:00.004-05:00

What exactly is this world coming to?

Kathleen Wynne, Ontario Minister of Education appeared to lend her support to a report submitted to Toronto school trustees last week. What's wrong with that? The report basically stated that students were getting too much homework. If the report causes a school board to draft and implement some new policy, homework will be banned on holidays and limited to one hour per night for children in grades 7 and 8 and to two hours for high-school aged kids.

Excuse me? Where do these people come up with these ideas?!

Back in the 1990's the thought of the day was to "destream" classes and have every student in a one-size-fits-all classroom. I predicted at the time that it would not work but it was nonetheless implemented... only to see that decision reversed when it became clear that nobody benefitted from the ill-conceived plan. Students only suffered in the end.

Later on, a "nobody can lose, everybody wins" policy became the rage of the day. You see, "losing" would scar the poor little kid for life, so games with "winners and losers" were either banned or redesigned so everyone came out winners. Everybody got trophies, all would live happily ever after.

Finally, it essentially became impossible for a teacher or school to make a student "repeat a grade" or "fail". You see, that too would "permanently scar" the fragile psyche of the student, and we couldn't have that, could we?

Today, the "fact" that students are getting too much homework is now being debated. What's next? Ban school altogether because it's hard?

I'd love Kathleen Wynne to answer one question for me. When, exactly, is the school system supposed to prepare students for life in the "real world"? If teachers can't punish children for mis-behaving, give them failing grades for substandard work or missing deadlines, how are they supposed to learn how to act responsibly as employees when they get their first "big person job"?

Too much homework? When is the last time a lawyer was allowed to go home at 5:30 and told not to bother preparing for the big case tomorrow? Was I ever allowed to not prepare a financial statement or some proposal for a funder when I worked in the non-profit sector? Of course not!

In the real world, deadlines are real. In the real world, failing to meet standards is not an option. Or is it?

Perhaps not. I still can't get over how an employee told me last winter that he or she was shocked when I expressed my being unhappy with repeated tardiness when it snowed. Not only was I to expect him or her to be late, I was told that to expect otherwise was unreasonable! Shocked that I, a superior in the office, might chastise an employee for not meeting obligations and expectations?

Well, that's what the school system seems to be breaching. A child can never be wrong - a child can never lose... one must give time outs, one cannot discipline. If one is never taught in school that there are consequences to one's actions, when does one learn?

60 Minutes aired a story about some "generation y" or whatever came after it. The general idea behind the story is that 20-somethings are hitting the job market and they're expecting high salaries for little work and, further, they expect their employers to be happy that they are working for them. Excuse me? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Employees should consider themselves lucky to have been hired!

That story described how boundaries are being pushed by these young upstarters... and how their sheer numbers are in some cases forcing that invisible line to shift ever so slightly. This is the case, apparently, because they know that if one employer doesn't "endure" it, another will. Will the IRS allow Americans to file their taxes when they want to because that's what they were taught? Don't think so! Should an employer be able to fire someone for insubordination? Absolutely... and should be able to do so without fear of some crazy wrongful dismissal suit. Insubordination is insubordination.

I started a new job in January. There were certain legislated requirements I had to meet throughout my training. Had I not met them, I'd have been thanked for my efforts and I would have been shown the door.

That's the REAL world, kids. What happened to "suck it up" or "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger"? Those were the real lessons to be learned. These days, however, we're dumbing down requirements and settling for the lowest common denominator seems to be the encouraged way to go. That might work in the academic world, but when Junior gets fired for showing up late three times before his probationary period is over, he'll wonder where he went wrong. The sad thing is, he'll think he was the victim of injustice. He never was taught how to be responsible.

Come on, Minister Wynne, you wouldn't tolerate second-rate service from your staff - so why cater to the bizarre whims of some unknown force that is dumbing down our education system so much that a diploma soon won't be worth the paper it's printed on?

Think about it - kids are supposed to learn in school. If not through academic standards and homework, how? School isn't supposed to be fun or easy. It's supposed to help students become productive members of society after they graduate.

Hair brained schemes like "homework is bad" won't do that. When will we learn?!

Only when it's too late.

Winter's back in 07-08... where'd Al Gore go?!

2008-03-09T15:45:00.002-05:00

As I sit marooned at a friend's house this sunny Sunday afternoon, I can't help but wonder where Al Gore is hiding today... or where he's been in recent months. A little over a year ago, he could be seen on one network or another telling anyone who would listen that evidence was overwhelmingly proving that he was right and everyone who criticized him had to be idiots.

The message that global warming was coming and would soon be here to stay started to grate on people's nerves. His pointing to the fact that we were living through one of the warmest years in history, citing the lack of "winter" in north eastern US states, he almost gleefully gloated everyone HAD to admit that he was right. Apparently, naysayers no longer had a leg to stand on.

Sure, the last 4-5 years saw very little snowfall here in Ottawa. It's been that long since I last spent any time on local ski slopes... mainly due to the increased amount of freezing rain and scarcity of snow. Mr. Gore said that we had to get used to freezing rain, the "new snow" of the future for the northern inhabited regions of North America. Well, as I sit at this very moment, we're now a hair away from blowing away the all-time snowfall record here in Ottawa.... here in 2008....

Winter is back and it's back with a vengeance. Could it really be, as I've written before, that some cyclical and (usually) unpredictable factors conspired to give us "milder" winters than usual in recent years? Could it be that this year's snow accumulation is just another stat on a chart of numbers from which nobody can truly extrapolate any trends?

Who knows!

All I know is that I have seen more snow fall this year than I ever have since being born in 1975. I'm stuck at a friend's house because the street outside has five foot snow drifts that are impassable even for my trusty Ford Escape that has bailed me out of more than one tough snowy spot in the past. Yes, smarter people than me have pointed out that I should have stayed home yesterday, but I'd be stuck there too -- but that's a landlord-related story for another day.

Mr. Gore once pointed to scientists who supported his claims. Some of those scientists (and more are coming along each day) now believe that we might soon enter an era of global cooling.
Does anyone really know? I don't really think so.

All I know is that I have started my golf season around March 30th twice in the past three years. Now, April 30th seems rather optimistic. I have an OC Transpo travel plan to whip out tomorrow morning if I don't get out of here. I love my friends, I love my truck... but this snow is getting ridiculous.

And there is NOTHING I can do about it!

If we repackage, maybe they won't notice!

2008-03-07T15:12:00.002-05:00

I am certainly not quitting after making my 100th post - but I'm telling you, that new job takes more of my time than I could have imagined that it would! Add to that I've been on nightshift for the first time ever... that's why I've been scarce lately. Now that the bulk of the "full force" 100mph initial training bit is over, maybe I can get back to my regular "schedule" here.

Anyway, what's my problem today? Remember when a pound of coffee really was a pound of coffee? Then one day out of nowhere it was turned into 400 grams? Cool scheme, eh? Well this time the scam is a bit too obvious for people not to notice.

Alcohol is not my beverage of choice. I don't drink tea, and I don't line up thirty times a day at the local Tim Horton's. I do, however, very much like a nice cold Diet Pepsi when time comes to relax and "crack open a cold one". Prices have been creeping upwards for a while now... earlier this week I noticed that Coca-Cola and Pepsi mysteriously both raised the prices on their "convenient" 12 packs to about $5.09. It was not so long ago the case of 24 was retailing for $5.99 or less, but what can you do - that was too long ago, I suppose. The 12 packs have hovered in the $4.29-4.59 range for the longest time, now but I guess that just wasn't high enough of a price. I must wonder how Shoppers Drug Mart manages to put on the sales they do from time to time... back to the topic...

Fearing that my case of 24 might be over ten bucks today, I headed to Loblaws to pick one up before the storm of the century hits us this weekend. Turning into the aisle, I noticed that the Diet Coke package looked different. "Neat looking," I thought. Then I came across the Diet Pepsi and saw that the old tray and plastic top were in vogue on the shelf... and suddenly realized that cans were missing -- what has been a case of 24 forever is now a case of 20! The inventory tag said 24 cans = $8.99... but that's not what was on the shelf.

Running back to the Coke end of the aisle, the "neat" package also contained 20 cans!!!

So... have our mighty cola producing competitors decided that forcing a four digit price tag on consumers was so unattractive that the only way to jack up their precious margins without anyone noticing was to take 1/6 of the product out and charge a slightly lower price... hoping that people think they're getting a great deal?!

I guess I'll go back to Loeb and see if they still have the good old 2-4's once the dust (or snow, that is) settles. Then back to Costco to get their cases of 30 for $8-something. Geez. What's next? Going back to the 280ml cans of twenty years ago? Hey Pepsi - you heard the idea here first!!!!

Can the Government of Canada and Bank of Canada still seriously expect us to believe the inflation rate is around 2% these days? Have they not bought a case of Coke and gasoline lately?

Guess not.

Loeb no longer resembles the company Bertram started years ago

2008-01-30T17:05:00.000-05:00

I'm sure Bertram Loeb would go on for days if asked what he thought about the direction his former company has taken in recent years. I worked for a franchise store from 1990 to 1994 and my experience there gave me the tools I needed for what turned out to be an excellent career in the community service sector.

SERVICE. Loeb once stood for that. When Richard Ladas owned Loeb Lincoln Heights, he personally stood for first grade service. I applied for a job there in early 1990. Pretty soon I was asked to take on a "Service Clerk" position. That was fancy speak for "packer" or "buggy retriever". A crew of packers stood behind the checkout lines, eagerly awaiting to bag customer orders as passed through to them by cashiers. Another crew waited at the exit, asking people if they required help with their bags. If someone said yes, they'd take the shopping cart and push it to the customer's car, carefully placing the bags inside and finally, they would bring the cart back to the store for someone else to use.

I eventually got to represent the store out in the community. You see, back in the early 1990's, Loeb reached out to the community, putting on barbecues in various neighbourhoods. Your charity had a fundraiser on Saturday? Loeb would bring a few industrial-type barbecues and would provide hamburgers and hotdogs. Profits would be turned over to the group and Loeb would pack up, satisfied that it had done another good deed. This program became so successful, all local Loeb stores acquired big chipwagon-like trailers. People working in the trailer had "luxurious" quarters to work in and passers-by couldn't help but notice the big white and green LOEB barbecue smoking away. Quite the marketing coup on the part of Loeb. I got to run this trailer for a few summers and loved every minute of it.

Richard Ladas also had a soft spot in his heart for seniors who lived near his store. He hired a school bus that would go to area buildings to bring seniors to the store and return them home with their groceries. The Olde Forge Community Resource Centre, a non-profit charitable organization up the street that helps seniors stay independent in their homes, would help coordinate the weekly bus.

I left Loeb in mid-1994 and Richard Ladas got booted out soon after. It seemed that the corporate suits wanted more control of all stores (that should read - more control of stores' profits) and terminated franchise agreements with the men and women who invested their time and money into building community businesses under the Loeb banner. A lawsuit was filed and later settled, but the grocery store chain became just another grocery store chain. It seemed that there was little if any regard for the community after the franchisees retired, for the reigns of the Loeb empire were soon handed over to a mega corporation based in Montreal. Profits was goal number 1.

It didn't take long for the packers and outside help to disappear. Heck, the number of people staffing checkout lines diminished - all to help boost the bottom line. Loeb still claims to provide service that cannot be beaten, but when I stand in line for 10 minutes at a 1-8 item express lane, only to be told to wait while the cashier leaves the till to help someone at what was called a "courtesy counter" when I worked there, I can't help but slowly become infuriated. Back in the day, a person was posted there specifically to help people process returns, buy lottery tickets or cigarettes. Now? Nobody's there at my neighbourhood store - someone has to juggle two registers and two lines of customers whose opinions about the degraded service be damned.

I once tried complaining to the corporate office but they basically told me to deal with it. I have... about 90% of my grocery shopping is done at Loblaws or Price Chopper. Based on recent events, 100% of my shopping will be done at any store other than Loeb. That grocery bus the Olde Forge ran to Loeb Lincoln Heights every week? It's gone.

One "store director" after another has tried to run the bus out of town for years. The current one has finally decided to pull the plug. Based on my discussions with him, it was getting "too expensive" and the store was "losing money" when they paid the 150 or so dollars to bring up to 70 seniors to the store each week. When I asked Richard Ladas whether this was reality of fantasy, he responded with "horsefeathers" - or something to that effect.

Where has customer service being priority #1 gone? Is the grocery industry turning into a business not unlike the petroleum or banking industries? Over there they could care less about the customer as long as shareholders are kept at bay with annually increasing earnings reports.

It's all about the almighty buck. I get that, they're in business for a reason. But at what cost? I guess Loeb doesn't care if I spend my money elsewhere... after all, it's a small "family of 2" where I live, and we don't spend tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Will we ever stand up for our rights and demand to be dealt with in a humane and courteous way? Or will we keep lying down like doormats, allowing these mega corporations walk all over us? I know what most of you will do. I'll try and do my part and hope more like me come out of the woodwork.

Boycott Loeb. They don't deserve our money anymore.

Things sometimes work out just fine...

2008-01-22T20:12:00.000-05:00

When I started my "#2 car" this afternoon, looking to drive away from a friend's house, a battery light stayed on. Somewhat alarmed, I stared at it as I proceeded down the road. It went away but quickly turned back on. Half-way up my parents' street I abandoned my plans to stop for dinner and beelined for Canadian Tire in Bells Corners. The dash lights had been dimming, helping me come to that decision.

As I turned back onto Richmond, internal lights started to fade. I turned the heater and radio off to buy some time, not quite knowing what was going on. By the time I made it passed Bayshore, all internal lights were out. Car sounded like it was still running OK. I thought - car still running, maybe battery's going... it'd be an alternator if it just plain died.

By the time I waited impatiently at a few stop lights I was mid-way through Bells Corners and knew I had NO lights outside either. Car started to sound funny. Stroking the steering wheel and pleading with Sir Grand Marquis to give me another 400 yards I wished I had the flashers and sirens I kind of had at my disposal yesterday -- realizing that they wouldn't work anyway, with no lights working!

The last light (at Moodie) turned green so off I went - barely getting off the starting line. I knew I was in trouble but plead desperately that SGM get me another few hundred feet. As I started the turn into Canadian Tire, I felt the steering wheel go heavy on me. I had lost all power - the engine was gone. Hoping nobody was at the stop sign, I resisted braking... needing precious inches now, purely on momentum. No ABS to help, I came to a sliding halt, almost perfectly within the lines of a parking spot. The poor car was hurting bad... yet it somehow managed to get me there. How, I'll never know. I owe it an oil change, as well as something special. What do you buy for a 15+ year old car with 210,000km?

What happened? It turns out, as I finally suspected when I lost power, that the original alternator decided to give up the ghost. The Canadian Tire parts supplier was still available at that late hour and they rushed one to us (none were in stock at the store). All was fixed an hour later. Thanks to Canadian Tire for the quick and effective service, and to whatever helped the poor old Mercury limp in!!

Out of the fog into a brave, new world...

2008-01-18T15:17:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a month since my last post... a span of time I have not let go by before. My father asked me why I've made it look like I've fallen off the face of the planet, so it's time to get "back on the horse" - I certainly have not lost my critical eye when it comes to current or municipal affairs.

What has been going on? The holidays, for one, and what might be viewed by some as a sudden change in career. The time spent as a senior administrator for a local non-profit organization came to an end shortly after the new year rolled around. At this very moment, I am in training for a communications position in a local law enforcement organization. Today marks the end of my first week of training - and while I've been a fan of Law & Order or CSI over the years, or while I've had a marked interest and basic curiosity about everything police-related, nothing I had experienced prior to this week could have prepared me for the onslaught of information I would come across in my first days.

Don't get me wrong - it's fun... and there isn't one un-interesting moment, but the comfort associated with being in a position for twelve years gets tossed out the window when you revert to rookie status in a field that is completely foreign as far as your background experience is concerned.

So... I'm working on a couple posts right now, the first of which will be on the subject of the City of Ottawa parking fiasco in which we seem to be embroiled at the moment. I wrote not too long ago that budget decisions made in relative isolation in November are far too easy to make - and Councillors don't seem to keep this in mind when they quickly vote on something without contemplating the potential ramifications and consequences. I could go on, but I'd rather do so in a separate post in a day or so.

It's been a whirlwind 4 weeks... I'm settling in and am looking forward to facing whatever is coming.

Are they lying to us about the "real" inflation rate?

2007-12-20T10:48:00.000-05:00

Rob Snow, CFRA's afternoon drive host, routinely snickers on the air each time Canada's inflation rate numbers are released by the Canadian government.

He usually wonders aloud about how it can be that the inflation rate magically hovers around 2% - the latest release in November is 2.5% - while commodity prices continually creep or skyrocket upwards with no end in sight. Gasoline prices are 17.6 percent higher than they were in November 2006, and they went up 4% in the past month alone! Coffee is getting more expensive (Tim Hortons hiked their prices this past summer) and fruits and vegetables regularly spike. Statistics Canada pointed out in its November release that mortgage "interest cost index" has increased by 7% and restaurant meals are close to three percent more expensive than they were one year ago. Let's not even mention the increased hydro rates and property taxes!

Apparently, one "justification" for inflation rates remaining "stable" in recent years (according to the government, that is) is the fact that car purchase costs have decreased by 3.9% year to year. Costs associated with buying a computer have fallen through the floor in recent years, 14.9% in the last year alone! Sure, but how many times a year does an average Canadian buy a car and a computer? Compare that to the frequency of gasoline, citrus fruit and coffee purchases made by families from coast to coast and you can see how ridiculous this comparison scale really is.

It's all a scam, Rob Snow has speculated, and I think that a key indicator to show that he's right on track is a CNNmoney.com report today. Statistics Canada says that fruit and vegetable prices are down by 6.2 to 11 percent as compared to the previous month. CNN states that food prices have gone up 4.7% since January 2007 (led by an increase in fruit, vegetable and milk prices), "outpacing the 4.3% overall cost of living increase", led by a 23.2% increase in the price of milk alone. If their fruits and veggies are "leading the upward charge", how come our prices are down so much for the same products? It doesn't make sense!

Can both governments be telling the truth? Might Rob Snow be right? Are we being "snowed" by the great economic leaders of our country?

If milk, vegetables, cereal, beef and poultry are on the rise just a few hours south of here, how can it be that vegetables have decreased by 11% and fruits went down by 6.2% here in the great white north? Are we buying cheap fruits and veggies from Cuba (which would obviously be illegal in the States) or have we started growing our own oranges, bananas and carrots somewhere in the snow up here? Where's the discrepancy coming from?

It just doesn't add up. Who suffers? The first people who come to mind are our seniors who have seen their Canada Pension Plan benefits go up by about two percent (if they're lucky), based on what seems to be fudged CPI numbers. Many seniors are on fixed incomes. The Government of Canada bases their "raise" in pension rates on CPI numbers.

It's a shame, really, for anybody who signs personal cheques, keys their PIN numbers into debit machines or forks out cold, hard cash for goods and services knows that living in an average Canadian village, town or city costs more than ever. I'd love for someone from the Bank of Canada or Statistics Canada to justify their numbers - when property taxes alone are going up by 5% or more in cities from coast to coast, it's a farce to expect us to believe that things (overall) are only about 2% more expensive this year as compared to last.

All that when an economy far larger, yet pretty much identical to ours just a few hours away is up by at least double that amount? What's going on!?

No politically correct BS here - MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

2007-12-19T10:14:00.000-05:00

So the principal of Elmvale Public School says we should be "inclusive" and celebrate the "festive day" that is coming next week. The "day before Boxing Day" is called Christmas. As far as I know, the vast majority of Canadians celebrate Christmas. Who's agenda is this principal putting forth?

Members of the Jewish community celebrate Hanukkah - but nobody demands that the Jewish community change the name given to the occasion they celebrate. Another segment of the population celebrates Eid. Does anyone dictate that they rename that particular day? No!

So why should we, the majority of Canadians who still hold on to the "Canadian tradition" of the Christmas season, bow to a so-called group of "progressive" people who relentless try each year to make us "accommodate" everyone while compromising our own culture and beliefs?

These so-called progressive people (who, incidentally, rarely are minorities themselves) tell us we must be inclusive. I have no problem with Hanukkah, Ramadan or any other religions or cultural celebration... as long as I can have mine too, thank you very much! We must be "inclusive" as long as we "exclude" ourselves from the list of politically correct celebrations.
Look - I'm all for being inclusive as long as I, someone still in a vast majority of Canadians who celebrates Christmas, am INCLUDED.

It is OK, acceptable and ENCOURAGED to yell "Happy Hanukkah" at the top of one's lungs or wish a follower of Islam whatever one does at Eid (forgive me, but I haven't seen anyone say "Happy Eid" before, but I'm sure there is a greeting of sorts for that holiday), but it is seemingly unacceptable to say "Merry Christmas" on the air anywhere, for fear of someone filing a complaint with the CRTC. Why? More people in Canada celebrate Christmas than every other group put together.

Wal-Mart jumped on the PC bandwagon two years ago and were soundly criticized and even boycotted last year. Guess what - the largest corporation of the world decided to re-introduce Christmas to its stores this year! I must remember to go buy more stuff there this year.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone to whom it is applicable. If you don't celebrate Christmas, it's your right - but don't infringe on my right to enjoy time with friends and family in this festive time of the year. Oh, and by the time I have a kid in school, I'm telling you, they better wish me Merry Christmas too. And have a good "Christmas Pageant" too...

The snow is coming... ARE WE GOING TO DIE!?!?!

2007-12-15T17:36:00.001-05:00

"Environment Canada has issued a severe winter storm warning for Eastern Ontario."

We've heard this a million times the last few years or so in spite of the fact that we have had below-normal accumulations of snow. Some say that the declining snow amounts have been the result of global warming, explaining that our traditional snowfalls have been replaced with more freezing rain storms than we have ever seen in the past.

We're still in the dying weeks of autumn right now, and if forecasts for this weekend prove to be true, we might see more snow fall so far than all of last winter! And Christmas isn't even here yet!

Now... what exactly has a "severe winter storm" been in recent years? Pretty much any "storm" where 10cm of snow might fall. 4 inches. One-third of one foot. Barely over the tops of our shoes - if we were stupid enough to wear running shoes outside in the snow.

Not so long ago, we made fun of cities like Washington DC, Vancouver, or even Toronto for grinding to a halt any time a sprinkling of snow dusted the lawns of those fair cities. So, now that a "severe storm" really amounts very little to worry about, a forecast predicting up to sixty centimetres (yes, that's TWO FEET) of snow between some time after midnight tonight and around the same time tomorrow, what are we supposed to do? All hell breaks loose when we see an inch or three, what about twenty-four inches? Dust off your bomb shelters, folks!

The snow is coming tomorrow and tonight, Environment Canada is warning us that a "near-crippling snow storm" is approaching. It goes on to tell us that: "This massive snow storm has the potential to cause near-paralyzing conditions as road travel on any unplowed streets may become next to impossible on Sunday."

Near-crippling, near-paralyzing... Next to impossible to drive...

Whatever shall we do?! My wife has to work tomorrow night!

What has happened to us? I've seen pictures of my father's house on Baseline Road some thirty-five years ago. The snow was up to or beyond the roofline! How did people get around back then? Everybody drove big boats with rear wheel drive! Did thousands upon thousands of Ottawans disappear that winter? Have their bones and skeletons been found in local snow dumps? Come on, give me a break.

When area golfers were chasing their little white balls through New Year's last year, David Suzuki and Al Gore were falling all over themselves warning us about global warming, alerting us that "winter" as we knew it was becoming a mere memory and predicting that snow accumulations we once saw would never be seen again. Yep, that snow would inevitably turn to more and more freezing rain... seeing Ottawa's climate become more like Victoria, BC.

What are they saying this year? We can't find them on the air anywhere! Scientists are starting to come out of the woodwork and are calling out the "Nobel Peace Prize" winner on the junk science in his movie, The Inconvenient Truth.

This winter is starting to be kind of inconvenient, isn't it, Mr. Vice-President? Perhaps the so-called warming we've seen in recent years was another example of temperature and climactic fluctuation that the world has seen over hundreds, thousands and perhaps even millions of years.

Well, I'm going to gather the pictures I have of my wife tomorrow when she heads to work. I will pray that by some stroke of luck I might see her again some day... or maybe even later on in the evening. Meanwhile, folks, let's make sure we all head to Wal-Mart to buy water, batteries, canned goods and generators. THE SNOW IS COMING!!!!

Please... it's Canada, for God's sake. It's going to snow. Deal with it.

Customer Service: Chapter #3 - AVOID Primus Home Phone!

2007-12-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

Boy, do I wish I had been anywhere other than at home one fateful night about three weeks ago. I was watching television, minding my own business when I answered the telephone. Boy, do I miss the sound of a ringing home phone, but more on that later! My caller ID told me that it was an 800 number with an unknown name.

Maybe it was Ed McMahon calling to tell me I had won a million dollars. Nope. It was Primus. I was a Primus (formerly known as Magma Communications) customer for over ten years, so I figured I'd talk to the guy.

Magma Communications became my internet provider in early 1997, at first through a dial-up line and eventually through a very good high speed service. When I needed to downgrade for eighteen months when my wife-to-be moved to Ottawa burdened with a punitive Bell Sympatico contract, they allowed me to maintain my e-mail address while we both waited to get Magma High Speed back in my homestead by temporarily downgrading my service. Anytime I needed anything, Magma was there.

Then Mr. Byers sold his company to Primus. Magma was becoming a part of a nation-wide company. At first, I was afraid that the locally-owned company would degenerate into a one with spotty or questionable customer service like Rogers and Bell seemed to have at the time. While this pair of giants has continually worked on its customer service offerings, it still lagged behind Magma. Would Primus drag Magma down to the other national competitors' level?

For the longest time, I'd have to say that it didn't. To this day, I am still the proud owner of a "magma.ca" e-mail address with no danger of losing it any time soon. Given that I haven't yet been disappointed by Primus, I figured that I'd take advantage of their offer to provide home phone service at a 25% discount. Better to have the money in my pocket rather than theirs.

A week or two passed and one day I discovered that a voicemail had been left for me by Primus. It informed me that my line would be converted from Bell to Primus on Monday, December 3rd. It cautioned me that if I ordered "personalized voicemail", I should be ready to spring into action that afternoon and "set it up" as soon as possible. I was also assured that the transition would be seamless.

That couldn't have been further from the truth. Problems began while I was away at work. When I got home some time around six, I picked up the phone. SILENCE. For almost thirty years, each time I've picked up a phone receiver I heard a dial tone. Not this time. What happened to the seamless transition? I'd soon learn that seamless couldn't be diametrically opposed to what I actually would experience in the days to come.

Figuring that the "transition" was in progress, I eventually went to bed hoping to hear the reassuring sound of a dial tone the next morning. Much to my chagrin, none was to be found. Off to work I went, eagerly anticipating the resolution of the situation after a call to the "customer service" department.

I could go on and on about how the conversations went on Tuesday, but let us say that I was promised a swift resolution to the problem at hand. Three conversations later I was told that due to whatever complication, I could expect to get my service activated (I'd say restored) within 24-48 hours.

Wednesday morning came and no dial tone was to be found. A handy supervisor named Kelly tried to help me by assuring me that the predicament had been brought to the "executives" at 6am. Whether that was supposed to impress me or not, I'll never know. By noon, no change. At about 5pm, I called and reached another person who tried to tell me that service could be back within 24-48 hours. I loved the revolving window idea... but it didn't help me any. When I expressed my disgust for what had transpired to that point and complained that I'd been promised updates and had never received one call, he insisted that they did try. Maybe they tried the very home phone number that they disabled, but the number they should have tried was my cell phone. Verification of my call log confirms that no call had been placed. Please don't lie to me, folks!

I got home late on Wednesday night and the first thing I did was try the phone. No dial tone. Day three has come and gone and the "seamless" transition had a hole in it bigger than Larry O'Brien "zero means zero" plans.

Thursday morning came along and, surprise, no dial tone! I placed yet another call to yet another "customer service" staff member. This person was able to tell me that the case had just been forwarded to Bell Canada. Why it took them three full days and change to do that, I'll never know. When this person told me that it could take 24-48 hours to resolve this newest tribulation, I went ballistic as kindly as I could.

What really gets me is had I known what a couple friends would have told me about switching to Primus before speaking to the sales guy on that fateful evening, I would have stayed miles away from them and would have hung up the phone (while it still worked!!!) That is why I am writing this today.

When will I get phone service? Who knows! 48 hours from now takes me to Saturday morning. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: I received a call at 11:27am from someone at Primus who did not identify herself. She told me that my service had just been activated. Either Bell Canada is really quick or they fed me yet another line to keep me at bay for a few more hours. I dialed my home number and discovered that the old Bell voicemail message was gone, so it seems that the lady might be right. Do I have service? I'll see when I get home. The challenge will be to find a dial tone AND a working DSL connection. Is it too much to expect that the four day journey might be over? I'll find out in an hour or so. But regardless, if they phone you, DON'T SWITCH TO PRIMUS!!! It's not worth the aggravation.

When is a murder charge NOT shocking?

2007-11-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

Today's article in the Ottawa Sun about Stephanie Young was so typical of so many others that have come before it. The "girl" accused of killing a fellow human being on Saturday night is being depicted as a happy-go-lucky person who nobody would ever have thought was capable of committing such a heinous act.

Young is described as someone who enjoys snowboarding, playing soccer and a lover of the Ottawa Senators. She is said to be feeling "very badly about what happened". So? Ask Tammy Couture's friends and relatives about how concerned they are about poor Stephanie being so torn up about what she did on Saturday.

Sure, our pathetic justice system wants to see remorse. Our judicial system seems to provide convicts more benefits and support that it gives to victims and their families. So why should we be torn up about how this "poor 18-year-old" feels the morning after she murdered someone?

Every single time this happens someone is interviewed and says something like "I didn't think she was somebody who would do that." Just last week, the man who killed three family members before taking the coward's way out and blowing his own brains out was described as being nice and quiet. Is there anyone out there who would stand up and say "I was just waiting for Johnnie to kill his family, it was just a matter of time" when asked by a reporter?

Of course not.

So here we go... the spin has started. Poor Stephanie Young, the girl who loved snowboarding, playing soccer and was planning to get married in a few years is about to be painted as being the victim. Her friend Brandi Leduc says in the Sun today that "She would never hurt anybody because she wasn't like that" - well guess what... she IS someone like that now. She might have always been there for you in the past, Brandi, but aren't you happy you didn't cross her?

I must commend the Ottawa Sun for having the editorial intestinal fortitude to print a quote from someone who said that they never really liked the accused because of her tendency to start problems. That doesn't happen very often.

November 24th became a tragic day for someone in Ottawa... but not for Stephanie Young. She's not the victim here. It's Tammy Couture, her friends and family whose weekend went to hell in that one moment where Stephanie Young (oh yeah, allegedly) stabbed and killed her. True, it's never a good thing for the accused, but let's not try to paint her as being some poor martyr who would take it all back, if only she could.

She can't.

Just behave if you don't want to be Tasered!

2007-11-21T15:59:00.001-05:00

I can't believe the attention some segments of our population and media are giving lately to the Taser and its use. The story seems to have started with the unfortunate death of a Polish man in British Columbia, but I heard at lunch today that Customs officials will be releasing some possibly enlightening information about the incident on Friday.

Too bad it's too late to reserve judgment on the RCMP officers who "pulled the trigger" and on the weapon itself... but with the instantaneous nature of how news propagates itself from coast to coast and into people's homes, knee jerk reactions are becoming commonplace these days.

Take today's Ottawa Sun, for instance. Some poor "30-year-old mother of two" feels "lucky to be alive" and hopes that witnesses will come forward to, I guess, enlighten her as to why she was Tasered the other night.

Well, Marlena Sarazin, how about you read the police report?

According to the Sun article, a vehicle she was driving was pulled over as police suspected she was driving while impaired. She took off, running over a police officer's foot and managed to hit a taxi and another police cruiser before deciding to stop for good. If police had to break the vehicle's windows and pull her out of the car, she clearly did not obey orders to exit the vehicle. If she had to be subdued by being hit with a Taser shot after being removed from the vehicle, she clearly wasn't obeying any commands issued by the police and was likely agitated and possibly appearing to the police as posing a potential hazard to herself and those around her.

Harsh treatment? Has anyone ever watched COPS on American television before? If you lead the police on a chase after running over an officer's foot and sideswiping two cars (including a police cruiser), you get pulled out of a car by an officer who's surrounded by countless colleagues with drawn guns.

This woman is trying to pass herself off as being a victim... here are the charges she's facing: impaired driving, dangerous driving, failing to remain, failing to stop for police, resisting arrest (maybe that's where the Taser came into play, wouldn't you think, ma'am?) and driving with a suspended license. I guess they didn't charge her with causing bodily harm or something for running over the cop's foot, but the fact she did so will likely figure prominently when the Crown presents its evidence.

The Polish man in BC was clearly shown throwing tables and chairs around. He was in a fit of rage minutes before RCMP officers tried to subdue him. Marlena Sarazin ran over a police officer's foot, hit a taxi and a police cruiser while fleeing from the police and (likely) refused to obey commands to exit her vehicle.

She can't remember being Tasered and hopes witnesses can help her out. She was (allegedly, right?) drunk! She clearly had no ability to think properly but had she not had those drinks or driven while under the influence, she wouldn't have been in the situation that eventually led the police to Taser her. The Taser wasn't wrong. The police weren't wrong.

But it's their fault. Sure... save the tears for court.

Before we are so quick to indict the police and the Taser (would we prefer that these people be shot?!), let's wait for all the facts to come out. The Sun story makes it clear that Ms. Sarazin was no angel on Saturday. The report that Canada Customs will release on Friday might shine a whole new light on what happened in BC when a man died after being Tasered twice.

Odds are good that all people who get in confrontations with police were breaking the law. The way to avoid getting Tasered or shot is pretty clear to me. Obey the (*$#@(*@) law! Pure and simple!

What's so complicated?!

Suggestion to help eradicate possibility of having to hike municipal taxes

2007-11-15T21:04:00.000-05:00

Members of Council and Mayor O'Brien:

While I understand and almost unconditionally support the attempt to balance the books for 2008, I could not believe what I read in today's Citizen. It seems that Council pulled a fast one when the lights dimmed after the Albion Road reconsideration vote and the initial budget presentation took place.

To what, exactly, am I referring?

A motion to nix the ridiculous $50 charge that a taxpayer must incur in order to acquire a paper copy of this year's budget documents was defeated in the name of saving a few bucks. While I believe we should all be able to get a copy to examine in the privacy of our home (as opposed to travelling to a "library to be closed later" to see the copy in the reference section), I could buy in to the concept if those who voted against the motion were also against the so-called expense the city would have to cover each time a citizen dropped by to request one.

Amount the city saved by killing that idea? Around $6,000 according to Councillor Deans or $12,000 if one were to believe the staff response to someone else's question prior to voting.
But once that "fiscally prudent vote" was taken, another vote loomed ahead: not only will the City of Ottawa hand over a prime parcel of land to Algonquin College (a provincially funded educational institution) for nothing more than a song, Council voted to allocate $5 million for a pedestrian overpass! According the tiny Citizen article, councillors apparently believe that this bridge will help with some mixed-use development project. Did members of City Council not learn a lesson from the Rideau Canal pedestrian bridge fiasco?

While I understand the difference between the operating and capital sides of the budget, I cannot understand how any Councillor can look at a taxpayer in the eyes and explain why they have to pay higher taxes (and $50 for the budget document) because the City has to tighten its belt and then vote two hours later to spend millions for a bridge! I know that Woodroffe Avenue is a busy and possibly "dangerous" arterial road, but that's what the traffic control signals are for. They're working just fine right now.

Spending $5 million on a bridge rather than asking people to use the already available signals is utterly ridiculous when you're telling communities across the city that libraries, community centres and wading pools have to close. It's assinine when you're hiking user fees for those who use skating rinks for recreational skating or Oldtymers hockey. It is unfathomable when another item on the chopping block is graffiti removal or grass cutting. Has Council not learned its lesson on that subject? It's easy to cut grass cutting in November or December. Remember how quickly the dandelions and weeds take over and grow to two or three feet high in the spring? Council after Council votes to cut grass cutting at budget time, only to reinstate the funding after residents complain about how unsightly the City keeps getting year after year.
I think we all agree that raising taxes is undesirable. A neat trick past Councils have used has been to move fees (and then hike them) to the water bill. Most have yet to catch on to that shell game.

Let's assume we don't want to do this again this year - here's a tool that I don't think anyone has considered in the past... and it's guaranteed to increase revenues and yet residents will be COMPLETELY in control of whether they will incur the expense - meaning it gets the City and all elected officials off the hook! Double all parking fines effective January 1, 2008. Bylaw control officers will always be needed to write tickets because people are too stupid to see or obey directional signs. Stupid might be a bit harsh, but how else can one explain the ever-growing revenue associated with parking tickets?

While the inconsiderate sod who parks in a handicapped spot near the shopping mall will be hopping mad when the fine he faces grows from $300 to $600, he'll think a thousand times before doing it again... and that extra sum of dollars can go towards keeping skating hours for children affordable, an extra wading pool might stand a chance and a few extra bucks might save a library or two.

Think about it! Everybody is affected by a tax hike. Everybody hates rising taxes. Find your administrative efficiencies, kill the ill-timed bridge idea (anybody up for a reconsideration vote on that one?) and double the City's take associated with parking infractions. The vast majority of Ottawans can then be spared a tax hike and Mayor O'Brien can keep the "zero means zero" promise. I can't find the numbers for Ottawa, but the City of Toronto issues 2.8 million tickets each year - even if Ottawa were to issue but 25% of that sum, that's lots of tickets and at the average current cost for an infraction, that's a few bucks. Multiply it by two and all of a sudden there's that much more room in the budget.

Just think about it!

Does MADE IN CHINA mean "standards be damned"?

2007-11-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

Yet another huge toy recall was announced yesterday.

Once again, it was a product that was made in China. Once again, according to a Wall Street Journal article published today, this recall is the result of cutting corners by substituting safe ingredients or materials with cheaper ones in the manufacturing process. It wasn't lead paint this time, but it is only be a matter of time before another announcement of seventeen million toys contaminated with lead paint being pulled off the shelves will come along.

What's the latest "error" or "flaw" coming out of the Chinese factories? A cheap glue that has properties that mimic GHB, the date rape drug, when swallowed. The kicker? This toy, Aqua Dots, was on Wal-Mart's "Top 12 Toys of Christmas" list and consequently was expected to be one of the most requested toys this holiday season... and we know how TMX Elmo and other "top toys" of years past have sold. That is lots and lots of presents under lots of trees. Or was, anyway.

The North American distributor of Aqua Dots has recalled three other products made in China in the past and any Google search will yield dozens (if not hundreds) of hits when one searches for recalls of hazardous Chinese products of all kinds. When will these companies learn? In the case of Aqua Dots distributor Spin Master Ltd., how many more recalls will it have to issue before it reconsiders using Chinese plants to manufacture its products?

What's it going to everybody to take notice? Earlier this year, countless families lost their pets due to poisonous food that came from a Chinese company. Contaminated wheat gluten was the culprit. Aqua Dots are being pulled from the shelves because, among other reasons, a 20 month old child went into a coma after ingesting several dozen Aqua Dot beads. Fortunately, the toddler lived - but what if he hadn't? Who would end up being accountable for that death? It seems that nobody has suffered any significant setbacks stemming from the pet food deaths as yet, so what kind of recourse do we as consumers have?

Far be it for me to be anti-capitalism, and just like everybody else, I do love a bargain, but where do we draw the line? If it's not poisonous dog food, children's toys containing lead or chemicals that can have the same effect on a human as an illegal substance currently used to mentally incapacitate victims in bars and pubs... where exactly is it? Sure, China is becoming an economic super power, but in the quest for the almighty buck, accountability and safety must always be in the back of company executives' minds. Is Fisher Price making a few bucks more on a given toy or a mom saving those same dollars buying the toy worth the risk?

Why is it that some US toy company executive can be tarred and feathered (and jailed!) for stealing a few dollars from the company or overstating revenues in fiscal reports, but other company officials continue to get "get out of jail free cards" while watching their companies outsource the manufacturing of products and use banned materials in the process?

I have a new nephew of sorts now and I will some day have children of my own. Before heading out shopping for Christmas, I will to go check a US government website I read about earlier this week. The Americans have put a recall database online for consumers to check and it has lots of valuable information. I'd love to go to a Canadian site, but as of yet, there is no centralized source of Canadian information on the subject of safety recalls.

This business of killer toys and other consumer products coming out of China has to stop. This Christmas season, try to find something "Made in Canada" or even "Made in the USA". It will be tough and might cost more, but at least you'll be supporting North American workers and their families. You'll know that North American standards will be met or exceeded and that toy or gadget won't potentially make you sick or kill your child.

We need to take a stand - and now is as good a time as any.

Stick your $200 bill idea in a deep dark place, Bank of Canada!

2007-11-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

A story in today's Montreal Gazette reports on two studies commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 2005 that examined the Canadian currency system. One of the new "currency models" would see $5 coins and $200 bills introduced to our coin purses and wallets some time in the not so distant future.

It seems that they have understood from the start that taking the five dollar bill out of circulation and replacing it with a coin might not be very well received. They do not, however, seem to have the foggiest clue about their $200 bill idea.

Not too long ago, I decided not to bother getting into an argument with a gas station clerk about using a crisp new $100 bill to pay for $70 of gasoline and convenience store merchandise. My payment for these goods with that note was refused, citing some company "policy" where no bills larger than $50 are to be accepted. I would have loved to grab another $30 of merchandise and leave in a puff of smoke after dropping the $100 payment on the counter, but I'm hoping to get a job offer soon and having a police report (right or wrong) with my name on it right now would not advisable... even if an ensuing court case might better the retail side of Canadians' lives from coast to coast.

One hundred dollars doesn't buy what it once did. One wouldn't have to stretch things too thin to equate the purchasing power of today's $100 bill with that of a $20 bill from twenty or thirty years ago. That must be why the Bank of Canada believes that introducing a $200 bill is worth contemplating. Though the economy may make the use of $100 or $200 bills more commonplace and convenient when handling larger quantities of cash, virtually nobody will accept one of these bills despite the Bank of Canada's continuous efforts to make counterfeiting more difficult as each year passes.

Here's a bulletin, retailers, $10 and $20 bills are counterfeited much more regularly nowadays than $100 bills are. When will "policy" dictate that only debit and credit cards will be accepted? After all, coins should be outlawed too due to the greedy and irritating banking industry that has recently made coin deposits a chargeable transaction... so businesses won't want to accept bills because they can be copied and coins because it costs too much to bring them to the bank!

All this to say that our currency system doesn't seem to be broken right now... it works reasonably well as it is. If this new "system" were to be introduced right now, I'd have over $27 in change on me right now with the twonies, loonies and three five dollar bills I currently have in my wallet. Forget it. As for $200 bills, find me a gas station that charges a buck a litre or more for its product AND will accept a $100 bill as payment and then I'll think about buying into the idea that we need a $200 bill floating around.

Until then, stick to reality, folks - nobody wants a $5 coin and nobody will take a $200 bill. Any money spent studying our money right now is an outright waste.

Dion has to be insane - what's he thinking!?

2007-10-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

94 Liberals didn't bother to show up for the "mini-budget" vote in the House of Commons today. Why? They couldn't vote FOR it - that would just be wrong for Liberals to do that, right? They also couldn't vote AGAINST it either, because doing so would set off a sequence of events that would immediately lead to a general election.

Stephane Dion doesn't want to fight an election now because: a) his party can't afford it, and b) he knows he can't win. He is in over his head and is fighting for his political life, so if that's the case, why make the idiotic statement today that, if elected, the Liberals would consider repealing the cuts that the Harper minority government have made to the much maligned and hated Goods and Services Tax?

Nobody likes the GST. If Dion thinks that launching some kind of idiotic debate on the merits of raising taxes is going to help his party rise from the ashes, he's living in some fantasy world. If he seriously thinks that Canadians from coast to coast might embrace the idea of electing a party that promises to consider hiking taxes, he must believe that Jack Layton is one heck of a threat to his political career. Canadians will elect Layton's New Democratic Party before they elect a "Dion-led Liberal Party of Canada that might hike taxes" to government.

We all know that will never happen.

I don't know what the Liberals were thinking when they selected Mr. Kyoto as leader. They had to know he wasn't marketable in each and every corner of this country. They had to see he lacked the charisma to make up for whatever he lacks in political smarts and experience and needs to be an effective party leader and Prime Minister in waiting. So why pick him in the first place?!

What do these Liberal delegates think now as they look to the horizon, fearing the inevitable conclusion of the yet-to-be contested general election? Do they seriously think that giving Stephen Harper a majority government and six years or more in power is just what their party needs? What's it going to take? A leader almost nobody likes is proposing tax hikes before the writ is dropped. I supposed that's better than promising no tax hikes and then later implementing one of the largest tax increases in Ontario history (a la McGuinty back in 2003), but why make getting elected even more remotely possible than it already is?

Mr. Dion, if you have any aspirations whatsoever, fire your PR team and fire your policy hacks that can't seem to forsee the massive chasms you seem to be so prone to gleefully leap into.

They say that no publicity is bad publicity. Promising to consider raising taxes at this stage in your career is NOT what you should be doing right now. Think about it for five minutes and try to convice the press you were taken out of context or didn't quite get the words out right. They might buy it and you might still possibly be forgiven before you further damage your chances.

This is your last chance. You can still save yourself... I think...

Dr. Robert Cushman not the man to lead Ottawa area health care system

2007-10-31T08:42:00.000-05:00

An article on the front page of today's Ottawa Citizen blew me away this morning. Dr. Robert Cushman, the man who runs the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (the new arm of the Ontario government that plans and carries out the delivery of health care in the greater Ottawa area) stated in an interview yesterday that it's "time to balance fight for life with ballooning health costs" and that "we have too much of an emphasis on the cure when the returns on the cure can be very low".

So seniors are too old to be bothered with? A cost/benefit analysis of treating what ails them cannot be justified because dollars would be better invested in curing someone who still has a future?

I remember watching Dinosaurs - some sort of animatronic live action cartoon for children. When dinosaurs got to a certain age, they would get up and wander off to the tar pits to die. If they didn't do it on their own accord, their family members would have to see to it that they did what was expected of them. That's just how it was done. Is that how we should now deal with the elders of our society?

Given that I'm in my early thirties, I should be impressed that Dr. Cushman is standing up for me and making sure that the health system is ready to meet my every need instead of wasting countless millions on people who would soon die anyway. What a waste it would be, right?

I don't think so.

If this "doctor" thinks that this is a debate we should be having, he's not the man to be overseeing the delivery of health care in this district. These "old people" or the "frail elderly" built and helped modernize our country... and this "doctor" tells us we need to balance the fight for their lives against the costs of delivering health care to the population as a whole?

How would your father feel about that? What would your grandmother think? We should be demanding this man's resignation - clearly, he's not up to the job.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/2332dz

BP to pay hundreds of millions to end investigation into the manipulating of energy markets

2007-10-25T12:56:00.000-05:00

CNN is reporting that BP will pay $373 million in fines and restitution to end an investigation into allegations that it manipulated energy markets and violated environmental laws. Four former employees have also been indicted for their roles in a price fixing scheme.

While BP is Europe's second biggest oil and gas company, its reach can arguably be described as world-wide. The way crude oil and gasoline world market prices are affected by the tiniest of incidents anywhere on the globe, their actions almost certainly have had an impact of sorts on North America - and most importantly, here in Canada.

Among other things, BP Products North America Inc. apparently bought huge stocks of propane in 2004 and essentially sat on them. Basic laws of supply and demand resulted in propane prices escalating in several US states. I don't buy propane very often so I don't remember any price spikes... but I know that if one "oil giant" isn't above scheming to pump up profits, others likely aren't above it either. Gas prices started their never-ending upwards trek right about then, didn't they?

News stories like this one make me think. Nobody can ever explain the ebb and flow of gas prices at the pump, nor can anyone explain the correlation between crude oil market prices and their effect on how much it costs for an average Ottawa to fill his tank. The Canadian government has concluded on more than one occasion that they could find no evidence of Canadian oil companies colluding (or working independently, I'd imagine) to keep prices artificially high.

Could it be that this BP story is the tip of the iceberg? Might it be the first of several investigations that are on the cusp of putting the spotlight on what governments haven't been able to prove while millions of individuals in all corners of the world have suspected?

I hope so - fear mongers were warning us earlier this week that we may be paying more than $1.50 per litre for gasoline next summer. I'd love to know how their crystal ball works - I want one for myself!!

It's time to resolve the Albion Road issue once and for all

2007-10-23T07:43:00.000-05:00

An Ottawa Sun article reports today that the Albion Road through traffic issue will be debated again at a meeting of Ottawa City Council tomorrow. Here's hoping common sense prevails and they can proclaim "case closed!" at the end of the debate.

Albion Road has been an arterial road for just about as long as anyone still living today can remember. According to the Sun story, "a consultant revealed traffic on Albion Road north of Lester had far exceeded the limits for a residential collector road" back in 2002. If memory serves, this road closure was in response to a very small handful of complaints to the City resulting in a knee jerk reaction that caused all kinds of problems to residents living south of that particular area. For those who blame Rideau Carleton Raceway, Albion was a busy road before the racetrack was upgraded to a casino of sorts... yet many moved there despite the traffic count. What gives them the right to complain years after settling in? They knew what the road was like when they got there!

There are many who will loudly proclaim that an excess of cars is threatening the neighbourhood's quality of life. I've heard people living on Bronson, Maitland, Kirkwood, Baseline and Pinecrest whining about the traffic whizzing by their front doors too over the last decade. Tough, folks - if you want a quiet residential street, move to a cul de sac and don't try diverting traffic from your arterial road to the immediate area's side streets!

Why politicians feel the need to bend over and take it from a vocal minority most each and every time, I have no idea. When I someday get elected to City Council and a resident calls my office to complain about how hard it is to back out onto Carling Avenue or how airplanes flying over their new terrace home near Hunt Club and Riverside, I'll ask them how long Carling has been the road it is now or how long the international airport has been where it currently sits. I might lose their vote, but there's far more people out there who knew what they were getting into and they're not complaining.

Same thing goes for the whining millionaires living in the Glebe. If anybody there is 140 years old or older, they have the right to complain each and every August. Anybody else should shut up and grow up - the Central Canada Exhibition has been around longer than each and every resident of this fair city.

Come on, folks, if you choose to live on a busy street, next door to a mall or a few blocks away from a major airport, you made your choice - it's not the politicians' role to legislate whatever perceived nuisance into oblivion.

So Albion Road residents - if Council comes to its senses and the former regional road is re-opened to through traffic, move if you don't like it. That road's a heck of a lot older than you are and if you were surprised by its constant use by motorists after settling in, you didn't do your homework before buying there in the last forty or more years.

That's not the City of Ottawa's fault.

Holy ladybugs!

2007-10-22T07:46:00.000-05:00

It looks like the Ottawa area is getting hit with another attack from evil orange or yellow ladybugs. I work in an old building and despite fighting for window screen restoration for a few years, I have not been successful - and now about about 20 friends crawling up and down the walls and ceiling in my office.

Not so long ago I remember playing golf at the Manderley on the Green course near Manotick, Ontario. A ladybug landed on me... I had always been told that it was good luck. Little did I know that there was a distinction between the red ones and those that are more orange in colour. The latter are evil and like to bite. What seemed to be a stroke of good luck quickly turned into a menace and irritant beyond any other I had ever experienced when it came to insects of any kind.

We had a power cart, that day, and the moment we'd get up to play our shot, dozens (if not hundreds) would descend on the now vacant cart seat and take it over. Several hours later, our game was over, I had been bitten a half dozen times, and I returned to my car to see that many had somehow crawled into it. It took weeks to get rid of them!

They're back!! Not quite in the same number as a few years ago, but I suspect this might just be the beginning of "ladybug season" and will continue to worsen until the snow flies.

If anybody out there knows how to get rid of these pests without staining walls and furniture (and smelling up the place - my boss told me that her daughter-in-law says they smell like peanut butter when squished), please leave me a note in the comments section. In the meantime, if you see one nearby, make sure you keep your windows closed or tightly screened.

Now... how can I get Alex Cullen to ban these from the City of Ottawa?

Internet Explorer 7 now available for all Windows XP users

2007-10-08T14:48:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to everyone out there who may not have a "genuine" copy of Windows XP on their computers: Microsoft has disabled the "Windows Genuine Advantage" validation requirement for people to download and install Internet Explorer 7.

It's nice to see Microsoft taking the initiative and helping combat the spread of viruses, malware, spyware and other bugs out there that compromise the integrity of the Internet. If you haven't upgraded yet, head over to www.google.com and seach for "Internet Explorer 7". Download it and run the install program. It will take about ten minutes to go through the whole process (and might at times look like the computer isn't doing anything.) Let it do its job and then restart your computer. Favorites/bookmarks will still be there - nothing will be lost.

The interface looks a little different but works the same way IE6 did - only in a somewhat better security environment. Things will never be 100% secure, but IE7 is heads and shoulders above IE6.

If you're an Internet Explorer user, take advantage of this turn of events and do what any responsible internet user should do - upgrade!

Politicians desperately seeking relevance whining to the media - grow up and look around, folks!

2007-10-05T07:33:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning to a news report about New Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton crying to the media. He's unhappy that none of the issues he's trying to shed light upon during this Ontario provincial election are making it to the headlines.

Why nobody is paying attention, Mr. Hampton, is because you lead a marginal third party - a party and platform that suffers from having a lack of relevance when it comes to the vast majority of average Ontarians.

The latest (October 2, 2007) Harris-Decima poll results show that Hampton's NDP has the support of 14% of decided voters polled and predicts that, based on the polling results, an election would yield him 5 seats. 5 seats. Out of 107. If there is a reason for sparse coverage of the NDP in this election and its "ideas", there it is. How much of an impact can a party with that many seats have on the Legislature? About the same impact the party has on the headlines.

Deal with it.

Besides, Howie, how are we supposed to take you and your ranting about the media seriously when you were scheduled to appear on Steve Madely's show on CFRA in Ottawa this morning... and cancelled? No reason has been given for the sudden sprinting for the hills, but cancelling interviews won't help you get your "message" out there. And then you whine about not being able to make an impact with the media? Toronto aside, Ottawa's a pretty big market and bailing out on an interview while complaining about lack of media interest is a bit rich.

Think about it.

If that wasn't bad enough this morning, I sat down to breakfast and unfolded the Ottawa Citizen. The headline below the fold is "Quebec City accused of shedding 'nationalism'" - the separatists are whining about the Liberal government taking down the "Welcome to the National Capital" signs that I have ranted about in the past. A Quebec government has the intestinal fortitude to undo something that never should have been done in the first place? It's about time and congratulations!!!

Whine all day, separatists... if I were in power I'd dust off the good old treason laws and lock you all up for plotting and conspiring to break my country up. From today's Citizen:

Francine Lavoie, the head of the Quebec chapter of the council of sovereignty, is even more outraged and sees it as a setback for the separatist supporters.

"It looks as if they (Jean Charest's government) are trying to weaken the national nature of Quebec. And it's an enormous contradiction with the motion recognizing Quebec as a nation adopted by (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper's government," said Ms. Lavoie.

The council is a body that promotes sovereignty and includes members of the Parti Québécois, the Bloc Québécois and Québec Solidaire party, as well as others outside political circles.

Poor separatists. Their cause has been "set back". And when, exactly, did Quebec ever have a "national nature"? Last time I checked, it was one of ten provinces and three territories that make up the country known as Canada. The Bank of Montreal has figured it out, it seems, with that mural it's painting, depicting Quebec as just another province. Way to go BMO! I'll overlook the next service fee hike you announce as an "improvement to client services" and will take one for the country. And if we're going to start playing around with Stephen Harper's lame recognition of Quebec being a "nation", well, that further makes my point from several months ago - whatever gesture that was supposed to be got lost in the lack of detail... nobody knew what it meant then, nobody does now. "Nation" does not have to be the same thing as "country" but the separatists seem to equate the two. One cannot... but who really cares anyway - a growing minority of Quebeckers (and no, not Québécois!)

Why it has taken so long for a "federalist" Premier to take action, I'll never know. You're either with them or against them. Screw them! They want to break the country up, so they're no friends of mine, nor should they be coddled by governments of any level.

So let them snivel, Mr. Premier. Don't back down and stay true to the country you once aspired to lead. This action might be the very key that saves your political career. Separatism is dying - it will never go away, but it can be weakened to the point it can be marginalized... so don't break down and

Once again, to the marginalized NDPers and Péquistes who are unhappy with being marginalized, maybe it's time to look in the mirror. And for pete's sake - stop whining... that activity's reserved for little children!!

Customer service redux

2007-10-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing my wife shaved my head again last night - I'd be pulling what's left of the hair I have out by now. I'm listening to my father talk to yet another Bell "Canada" call centre employee in India. He's been having nothing but trouble with his Bell ExpressVu setup (which is why I am quite happy with my problem-free Rogers cable setup at home). Whenever he tries to get some help from the technical support department of Bell "Canada", he ends up getting transferred to a country on the other side of the planet.

Sometimes there's a language barrier. Most of the time, it seems that the "first level technical support" robots - I mean technicians - don't seem to know a television from a computer monitor. This one was just trying to tell my father that the TV was on the "wrong setting"... how one can screw up putting a television to channel 73, I have no idea. Where was this tech going? Nobody knows.

Aside from cutting costs (while cutting quality of service - but who cares... it's just a customer), what possible benefit is there to BCE or Bell Canada or whatever they're called? Watching my father struggle with this company has convinced me that I will never, ever, do business with them. Considering that I spend around $1,500 a year on television services, over the next 50 years (assuming the price never goes up - right - and that I live that long), that's $75,000 in lost revenues. Of course, bringing economic factors into consideration, that sum will likely exceed a quarter of a million dollars in cable services alone in my lifetime.

I know they don't care... they only seem to care that quarterly profit earnings continue to inch or skyrocket upwards.

To be honest, Rogers isn't much better, but I seem to remember spending 62 minutes activating a friend's digital box, going in circles with Rogers techs... but they were located somewhere outside Toronto. Maple Leafs aside, I have little against people who live there. At least Rogers is keeping its money here in Canada, investing in the economic area in which it operates. What does Bell "Canada" do in India?

Outsourcing is proving to be a real dud. We're not the only ones complaining here in Canada - US residents are losing jobs to Mexico, China and countless other places every day. What outsourcing technical support to India gets Bell and what Mattel, Fisher Price and other toy companies (or just about every remaining product manufacturing company in the world) get from outsourcing manufacturing to China where standards wouldn't meet those we had here in the 70's, I cannot fathom. Toys are being recalled... dog food killed family pets... Chinese WHEAT (why we import WHEAT from China I can't understand - what's wrong with Saskatchewan?!) has been tainted too...

It's time we bring our product and service industries back home. There's nothing wrong with "Made in Canada" or "Made in the USA" - and what's happened to Taiwan anyway? Didn't they make everything a few years back? What's it going to take for corporate fat cats to realize that the buying public is as important, if not more important, as are earnings reports.

We supposedly have the power. Let's refine it and wield it... come on, Canada!!

The golf season's not over yet!!

2007-10-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

My buddy Steve has asked me a number of times why it is that I haven't written anything about golf since putting The World as I See It online. Here you go, Steve!

They announced on the weekend that "Fairways and Flag Sticks" will be airing its final show for the 2007 season on CFRA this coming Sunday. The "fall deals and closures" page is up on ottawagolf.com. Dragonfly is closing on Hallowe'en! Fair weather golfers are packing it in for the season - God forbid they play with a few leaves on the ground... who can believe the mid-June type weather we've been experiencing the last week or so?

I have to admit that I am getting a little long in the tooth this year, and for the first time in ages, I can honestly say that I wouldn't be too depressed if it snowed on Friday. Or would I?

Why? It's been a frustrating year. I've improved my game's technique. The lessons I took last fall have improved my short game and the tips I've been given by a few pros throughout the season have been paying off - sort of. I've had fewer 100+ rounds (that's good) and improved my games in the sub-90 scoring range, but the consistency isn't there...

I know, join the club - it's the same for everyone. It shouldn't be for me, right?!?!

Golf is a fascinating game where you can experience highs and lows - sometimes from one minute to another - and I "saved" a game from heading into triple digits on Sunday, but no thanks to my abilities. 17 and 18 at Renfrew ate my lunch again. Aw well, I conquered (or something to that effect) Falcon Ridge this year... Renfrew's got to be coming sooner or later.

When I look back on the season that was - likely in about six weeks - I will see that I improved over last year and I should be content and simply clam up. However, in the never ending pursuit of greatness, another year has passed and I only have seventeen more years to get my game into good enough shape to take a shot at making it on the Senior PGA Tour (or the Champion's Tour as they call it today).

Lofty goal? Sure - likely? Not really. But hope lingers forever.

Here's to what many call the greatest season for golf - Fall or Autumn... may it be long and warm! Let's leave snow to Christmas Eve, no??!

Customer service just not what it used to be... and we're to blame!

2007-09-24T07:48:00.000-05:00

I headed home last Friday, looking forward to a quiet evening and a weekend on the links. Before I got all the way there, I decided to veer off path and pick up some provisions at the local Price Chopper. A half-dozen or so items found their way into my basket as I wandered through the store. Satisfied I had everything I wanted, I headed over to the front end checkout stands.

When I made it to the end of the aisle, I saw almost thirty people waiting in line - at two cashes!

That's right - there were two cashiers dealing with the hoards of people stopping by to pick up dinner on their way home from work. Based on my experience working in a grocery store in the early 1990's, this is "prime time" for weekdays. If there is a time on a quiet Monday or Tuesday where there should be a few more staff on hand, it typically is some time between 4pm and 7pm. It's even more critical on a Friday, especially if it's a Friday that comes before a long weekend.

I waited about fifteen minutes to make it to the front of the line and was slowly becoming irritated about how slow the so-called express line was moving. Just before my turn came, the lady in front of me decided to say something and told the cashier how ridiculous it was that they only had two people checking people out at that time of the day. Obviously oblivious to what was going on, the cashier stated that they always have three cashiers working at any time and they add additional help only when lines get to a certain length. I couldn't help but point out that there were only two cashiers and the "certain length" had at least doubled in the time I had stood there waiting.

Undaunted, the cashier told the woman there was nothing she could do about it and started scanning my items. No thanks for the outgoing customer and no hello for me... no apologies were to be had for the inconvenience of being held up due to some unforeseen circumstance.

Now I know, someone might be tempted to point out to me that I was shopping at Price Chopper, the lower price or "discount" brand of Sobeys store. That someone might try to tell me that I decided to sacrifice service for better prices. They might be right to a point - my Dempsters 100% whole wheat bread sells there for $1.89 instead of $2.39 at the 100,000+ square foot store down the road - but even if I were to expect a somewhat lower quality of service at the "discount" store, in this case, Price Chopper's wasn't living up to its lower standards! And nobody seemed to care!

This wasn't the first time I came across sub-standard service at this particular store. On three separate occasions early this year I checked out the expiration dates on a squeezable Heilmann's mayonnaise bottle. The first time I actually wanted to buy some and had to dig through the bottles on the shelf to find one that hadn't yet expired. Knowing that using expired mayonnaise is akin to playing Russian roulette, I wandered around for five or ten minutes to find an employee. Once I found what appeared to be a grocery clerk, I pointed out the problem and was promptly told that this was a known problem (!) that they had been trying to address for some time. I was assured that a manager would be notified and that they would most likely get this cleared up sooner than later.

The next two times I visited the store I checked the same aisle out. Both times I had found expired jars of mayonnaise! On the third visit I ended up speaking to the same person I had talked to the second time around, and this time she shared tales of exasperation. She was painfully aware of the problem but didn't want to say too much about it on too many occasions to management for fear of being labelled as a complainer. I offered to tear a strip of the guy for her, but of course, he wasn't around. No management ever seems to be around at that store.

My point? Waiting in line at a cash is one thing. Knowingly selling merchandise beyond its expiration date is a public health issue. I suppose I could have called the City of Ottawa to see if they have a mayonnaise police squad, but I gave up, hoping that anybody looking to pick up perishable food would have enough common sense to check out the dates on the packaging.

I've done my part.

In an era where profit seems to trump client satisfaction and the bottom line outweighs any perceived need to "go the extra mile" for someone, I can't help but look at some people I know who worked in retail forty or fifty years ago. This was a time where working for Ogilvy's or Simpsons-Sears was seen as a having a reputable job. People back then took pride in their work and retailers guaranteed satisfaction, often going that extra mile to make sure that customer would come back again and again.

That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Companies like BCE or Rogers contract customer service call centre work to some foreign country like India, sacrificing quality of service in order to make a few more dollars at the end of the year. That we sometimes cannot understand what these people on the other end of the line are saying seems to be irrelevant... as long as the shareholders are happy with the quarterly results, right?

Companies like Imperial Oil or Petro Canada all love to claim they're not gouging people at the pumps while recording record profits. Who cares if customers are happy if the shareholders see yet another record earnings report?!

Companies like TD Canada Trust and BMO (didn't we once call them Bank of Montreal?) hike fees indiscriminately and expect people to believe that with skyrocketing costs service will improve... sure, banks are getting "prettier" recently, but who cares if a charitable organization has seen its fees go up ten-fold... provided that profits are at record levels, securing the board members' positions because again, happy shareholders keep the heat of the senior administrators. Besides, where else can the public put its money?!

"Screw everybody" seems to be the motto that has replaced "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back". Why? Shareholders drive companies now, not customers... Why? Because we've let them. What to do about that, I have no idea. I'll keep talking to store managers about poisonous mayonnaise and griping to supervisors when it takes me 62 minutes to get my new PVR activated by some guy in India.

Will it make any difference? Probably not. We've become such a complacent society... but that's a post for another day.

Ontario health "tax" or "premium" - where has it brought us?

2007-09-19T10:18:00.000-05:00

I'm beside myself after listening to a caller on CFRA's Lowell Green show just now. Samantha, a 35 year old woman just called in to lament the fact that she has been waiting for months and months for a "positron emission tomography" or PET scan test here in Ontario.

She has breast cancer that has spread to her liver, and I gathered from her interaction with Lowell that things are grim and there won't be any happy ending to this story.

A PET scan was had in Montreal in exchange for cash early on. The problem is that things have progressed and she needs another scan so that a future meeting with her oncologist will be based on "recent" test results. The cancer is particularly aggressive and having up-to-date information on which to formulate a battle plan is critical.

The most shocking part of the call was the numbers she quoted... and she sounded credible, so I have no doubt the numbers are valid. The province of Quebec "funds" 16,000 PET scans annually. Here in Ontario? 750! She stated that there is one such device at the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital, but that it is only used for research purposes. She did not fit some "criteria" that would qualify her for whatever it is she needs to satisfy in order to get a scan done there. She further stated that there are two at the Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital but qualified it by saying they're located in the University of Ottawa Heart Institute - and that getting a scan done there for cancer is next to impossible.

Here we are in the midst of a provincial election and much of the talk has been funding private faith school systems for Jewish people and Muslims who make up approximately 1% and 2-3% of our general population, respectively.

What about a much larger segment of our population who suffer from medical conditions that could be more easily treated if facilities were made available?! What has Dalton McGuinty's precious health tax or premium done for people like Samantha?

Some have said that it's easier to get an MRI in Ottawa for a dog or cat than it is for elective joint replacement surgery planning. While I love Jersey (cat) and Digger (dog) dearly, neither one of them are as high up on the priority list as Samantha should be... or anyone else in her shoes.

She said that none of the major party platforms have anything within them to address any of the above points. What's it going to take?!

Bank of America raises ATM fees by 50% - everyone else will soon follow, I'm sure...

2007-09-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

Using the same lame excuse (I mean explanation) I've heard other thieves (I mean, bank executives) use here in Canada, Bank of America (BoA) spokeswoman Betty Riess says that BoA wants to make sure that its ATM system is convenient and really awesome for its customers.

Or something to that effect - I'm taking liberties here. But so are they.

The fee is going up from $2 per transaction to $3 - a 50% increase... just like that. The worst of it? There's not one thing the poor American saps can do about it and every other major bank will follow suit within weeks, I am sure. Once the "BoA Constrictor" takes the lead, why wouldn't everyone else? Doesn't everyone want to increase an income stream or six by 50% OVERNIGHT?!

Wait - that's not the worst of it... Canadian banks will recognize this as an opportunity to seize the day and raise their fees from the paltry sum they currently charge - an average of $1.50. Hey, TD Canada Trust, Bank of Montreal (or BMO as they call it these days), Royal Bank of Canada (or RBC as they call it these days) and ScotiaBank, and..., and..., and...

Bunch of crooks.

So when will the insanity end? Never, I'm afraid. Even if we do manage to get this cashless society we all dream of, some Ferengi-like nation or mega-corporation will dream up some new way of screwing people senseless.

After all, that's what today's bank shareholders want, right? What happened to the customers? Wasn't there a time when they were number one?

Ahhh... the good old days.

Global warming alarmists really grasping at straws now!

2007-09-13T13:23:00.000-05:00

Come on... we're supposed to take these people serious? A news story about the latest way for us to "slow down global warming" is breaking right now. What's this latest scam?

"Cutting down consumption of meat and dairy products could slow down the pace of climate change."

You have got to be kidding. A medical journal called The Lancet has printed a story claiming that the world's growing appetite for meat is increasing greenhouse gas emissions as rain forests get bulldozed so cattle can be raised.

These "scientists" are calling for people living in "wealthy countries" to cut their meat consumption in half over the next forty years. And doing that will save the planet?! Geez.

I've got a brilliant idea for the birds over at The Lancet - let's cut the earth's population by 80% and we can then solve the global warming problem. Or will we? Nobody knows because nobody can prove it either way. What would these "scientists" have been writing as the world plunged into its last ice age? Or when it came out of it?

Has anyone disproved the possibility that this so-called climate change is just another shift in temperature that has occurred more times than anyone knows over the past zillion years?!

Anyone?

Anyone?

Hmmm...

Strike if you must... state your case and let the public be!

2007-09-07T19:05:00.000-05:00

The summer's over - back to the routine... and back to the more regular posts. August was one heck of a month!

Support staff members at Carleton University are on strike. I suppose that it is their right to do so, but why is it that they can take more liberties with the law while striking than ordinary citizens can in their day-to-day lives?

It must be a complete coincidence that the strike began right when the school year started. They've had since late April to get affairs in order and contracts negotiated. Why they waited so long to take job action is beyond me as they're employed to make things run smoothly and effectively for the consumers of the university's product. Why wait four months to reduce access to course registration offices at the most critical time of year? Why wait four months delay them from gaining access to the campus and its classrooms? Why wait four months to end up disrupting or cancelling biology, chemistry and physics labs?

Oh yeah - few people would pay attention to the poor underpaid and overworked support workers.

Who gave CUPE and its members the right to disrupt traffic around campus - possibly causing delays to travellers who use Bronson Avenue to gain access to Ottawa's international airport?

Why unions and native bands appear to have carte blanche when it comes to: a) blockading streets and, b) delaying or denying public access to public roads while just about anybody else would get ticketed or arrested for doing the very same thing, I cannot understand. Why law enforcement officers don't step in and enforce the Highway Traffic Act or municipal bylaws, I also cannot understand. Is that not why they are there in the first place? Who doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up against these "public bullies"? Why don't they have it?

Is a settlement coming soon? Who knows. The petty political games that unions and management play while posturing throughout the process is a mystery to those who have not been behind closed doors for negotiations. Union wants 12.5% over three years, management's offering 9% over the same time frame. Nobody's telling the workers that the extra 1.17% per year works out to mere pennies after tax when the pay cheques get printed... and won't offset the lost wages that they'll never recover while they chase those extra pay cheque pennies...

Oh well, I guess they are having fun delaying vehicular and pedestrian traffic onto campus and snickering each and every time an OC Transpo bus drives by, refusing to cross the picket line. Aren't them union brothers honourable?

Ask a student and see what they think. How was chem lab today, John Q. Student? How much did you pay for access to that lab? Ahhhh.... I see.

So who will win here? The lawyers on the negotiating teams! WOOHOO!!! Go strikers go!

So long, Ottawa Lynx

2007-09-04T07:47:00.000-05:00

I attended the first Ottawa Lynx game back in the early 1990's and went to the funeral yesterday, September 3, 2007. This time I was with a couple neighbours, my buddy Luc and wife Melissa. Had this game been played a month ago, we'd have made up 40% of the total crowd.

OK, I'm exaggerating a little, but that is how I felt at those mid-summer games where one could pick any seat, row or section in which to seat oneself. I'd buy a ticket and roam around a bit, hoping to find someone or something interesting in that particular part of the stadium... the stadium with no name and the stadium with the world's smallest parking lot. Even the Best Buy up the road had more parking spaces in it.

There are a number of articles in the papers this morning mourning the loss of the team. Where did the fans go, they ask. While I am guilty - to a point - of having been an avid supporter in the early days and fading off as the years passed, I always made a point of attending a game or two here or there. Every warm summer night spent in the blue seats over in section LL I would remind myself how much I love the experience of having a hot dog at the ball park.

Sure, I owned a pair of partial season tickets in years one through three but then I headed off to university. I tried to make a point to attend games every now and then but clearly didn't do a good enough job. Sorry, boys - I let you down. We let you down.

To Howard Darwin, the man who brought baseball back to Ottawa, a big thank you. Even bigger thanks to Ray Pecor who tried to keep the dream alive. Will I keep track of the Iron Pigs? Probably not... it was tough to be a huge Lynx player fan with the 2007 affiliation with the Philadelphia Phillies - I had been conditioned to hate them over the years. And with no Lenny Dykstra or John Kruk around, this Montreal Expos fan just didn't have any personal attachment to the big league team or its AAA affiliate.

The only upside to the last Lynx game is that team management did a heck of a job. The same couldn't be said for those running the Expos - none of the regulars played in that last game at Olympic Stadium and most of the concession stands were closed or selling wieners with no buns. I still can't believe that the guy told me that I'd have to pay full price for hot dog components!!

The Lynx were a class act on day one... and remained so right through the end. All involved should be commended and deserved a better fate.

Back from a pseudo holiday

2007-08-27T08:33:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say that I was away last week helping run the Ottawa Sun Scramble City Championships and caddying at the Candian Mid-Amateur Golf Championships in London.

I have 3-4 entries that I'm working on at the moment and should be publishing them throughout the week. I might have been out of town last week, but I didn't lose my sense of amazement at what went on while I was away!

Stay tuned!!

Ben Mulroney: tell it like it is - there's nothing wrong with it!

2007-08-13T07:34:00.001-05:00

I can't believe a column in today's Ottawa Citizen. On page D6 Eric Kohanik blasts Canadian Idol host Ben Mulroney for "whining on camera" last week when he disagreed with that week's results. The judges were flabbergasted and expressed their shock at "Canada's vote" and followed up on Ben's comments before the program faded to black.

The column goes on to explain how viewer participation has yielded questionable results on a number of occasions on American Idol in the past and that producers and hosts of such programs should strive to remain impartial. In other words, Mulroney was out of line when he expressed his thoughts on live television without censoring himself.

Kohanik must have missed the moment where the Canadian Idol host was going to "do what he was supposed to do" and utter one platitude or another regarding the results before moving on to delivering the teaser about the coming week. Mulroney, who according to the column's author is a host who lacks "seasoned broadcasting professionalism", stopped short and took back words to the effect that he did not know what to say. He continued, said he did know what to say and then said it. Good on him.

To Eric Kohanik I say: it takes a "seasoned broadcasting professional" to have the intestinal fortitude to buck the politically correct "never speak your mind or say anything that anything but mainstream" trend and actually tell it like it is for once. It takes someone with balls to stand up and speak from the heart... something we've been conditioned in recent years to squelch.

Ben Mulroney may have his detractors, and I can't say I've seen much of the work he has done... and I have only been sucked into watching Canadian Idol (or any Idol for that matter) this summer, but as far as I can see, he's a solid host and does not deserve being slagged for speaking his mind. There are more people out there who should take his lead.

Have you ever heard of the Rideau Canal Scum Patrol?!

2007-08-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

OK, ladies and gentlemen... who out there has heard of the "Rideau Canal Scum Patrol" before? Anyone? A quick Google search yields nothing of consequence and putting the search terms in quotation marks gets you the following result: "Your search - "Rideau Canal Scum Patrol" - did not match any documents."

Why am I asking what seems to be such an inane question?

It's a bit of a long story, one that began on Friday, July 27th. Barbara Lajeunesse was walking her furry friend Molly along through the Arboretum in the Central Experimental Farm. As she does every day, she wandered over to the path looking out to the Rideau Canal. A strange smell overtook her and upon closer inspection, she found a dead animal floating ten feet off the shoreline. It appeared to be a small dog.

Not exactly impressed with the fact that someone's pet met with such a fate, Barbara wanted to have something done about it - largely having it removed from the water and having it dealt with appropriately. How it got there nobody will ever know, but it should certainly not stay there.

When she arrived at her office, she immediately reached for the phone and called the City of Ottawa. The kind operator pointed out to her that the Experimental Farm was National Capital Commission (NCC) property and that they would be the right people to call. Barbara reached a pleasant individual who said that the NCC "had people for that" and that the problem would soon be rectified. Satisfied knowing that she had completed a job well done, of she went to tackle the rest of the day.

To her horror, the dog was still in the water early on a weekend morning. While it was possible that "the people for that" were busy on Friday and didn't work weekends, she hoped it would be gone come Monday. Not wanting to see it again, Barbara and Molly went to another part of the Farm for their morning walk. Surely it would be gone by Tuesday.

Wrong.

It was still there.

In what seemed to be as close to a fit of rage as I had ever seem Barbara display, she flew up to her office to call the NCC one more time. The person who answered this time had no idea what she was talking about and was quite adamant that there was nothing that she could do. Her advice was to call Parks Canada. The NCC is responsible for the grounds of the Experimental Farm, but because the dog was in the water, in the Rideau Canal, the problem was not "in their jurisdiction".

Not to be discouraged by this setback, Barb called Parks Canada. One might remember that the Rideau Canal was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site on June 27th, a mere month before this story began. Well, the Parks Canada staff person who Barb spoke with had no idea where the Rideau Canal was!!!

Calls to the Ottawa Humane Society went nowhere (to be fair, we didn't expect much from them because clearly this wasn't their domain) and so Barbara was back at square one.

When the dog was still there on Wednesday morning - we're now looking at day six since this situation was first discovered - a call was made to the Ottawa Citizen who eventually dispatched a photographer. Barbara made a few more calls and this time managed to get someone from Parks Canada who was helpful. This person did know where the Rideau Canal was and was able to note where the dog was located.

Shortly before time came to head out to meet the photographer, a call came from a guy who identified himself as being with the "Rideau Canal Scum Patrol". Barbara thought he was joking, but he was quite serious. It turned out that these patrollers are employees of Parks Canada and their job is to remove algae and debris from the Canal. Their headquarters are at the Chartwell Locks and, evidently, they go up and down the Canal, cleaning it as well as they can.

The story was that they would shortly be on their way to pick up the dog and do whatever was necessary. Unfortunately, as of 12:10pm, nobody had shown up. Perhaps they were still paddling over from their home base when we had to leave.

Why nobody knows about the "Rideau Canal Scum Patrol" is a mystery. I am writing about it today so that someone searching for it on Google will actually get a useful hit. To go one step further, the telephone number to reach them is at 613-235-2644. If you see something that needs to be tended to, the "Scum Busters" will spring into action. I am assured that they do indeed refer to themselves by that name.

UPDATE: While this cannot be confirmed at this time, a message was waiting for Barbara at 12:30pm. It said that they had "taken care of her problem". The timing of the message was odd, for nobody was there at 12:10pm... it's possible that we just missed the Scum Busters, but we'll wait until our hero Barbara Lajeunesse walks by again tomorrow morning to see if the deed has been done. In the meantime, let there be online documentation about the Scum Patrol from here on in!!!!

Could the City of Ottawa soon consider banning laser printers?

2007-07-31T22:39:00.001-05:00

In the city where banning things is very much in vogue, apparently under the guise of "public health", one might soon see a Councillor or three proposing a ban on yet another "health hazard". The culprit?

The laser printer.

Yep, that piece of office equipment that spews out paper at record speeds nowadays has been identified as being a "significant health threat" by Australian researchers. It should be noted, however, that these so-called researchers haven't bothered to analyze the chemical composition of the tiny particles which are emitted when a printer does its dastardly deed... but they seem to be able to note with some certainty that the "problem" is worst when toner cartridges are used for the first time.

I know that tree huggers like Clive Doucet abhor the very thought of a laser printer in every Ottawa home simply because of the amount of paper that they can process these days. Could it be that this new "study" might be the linchpin that spirals a bunch of "well meaning" politicians to force a discussion on whether printers should be allowed in public places or whether they should be banned?

Despite the City's fiscal predicament, its Council's priority list has focused quite a bit on regulating the private lives of its citizens since 2000 or 2001, so it indeed might only be a matter of time before they force us back to the dark ages of daisy wheel printers. A professor is quoted in the article (link below) as saying that these printers are sources of indoor pollution and that there should be regulations.

What do you say, folks? Who wants to circulate the first petition for or against banning laser printers in Ottawa homes and offices? Don't laugh - the saddest thing in all of this is that none of us can be 100% convinced that Ottawa City Council wouldn't waste time discussing and debating this.

Who knows... maybe I know nothing about priorities at all...

Link to the CTV News article: http://tinyurl.com/29hfyq

Is bringing pre-cooked food to Parliament Hill taking frugality a bit too far?

2007-07-30T08:46:00.000-05:00

Is this pick on federal politicians day? One newspaper article goes on and on about chauffeured vehicles for senior elected officials and public servants, another seems to be lauding a move where the Parliamentary Restaurant as we all know it today will soon be but a mere memory.

How many people out there love institutional food? Anybody? What's the cafeteria food like in the local hospital? Has anyone ever been trampled on the way to the dining room in retirement homes? How exciting can a menu be anywhere that food is trucked in from some off-site "meal manufacturing site"? More importantly, exactly how nutritious is the food that comes out of these so-called kitchens?

That last question, more so than those preceding it, is what I can't help wondering after reading an Ottawa Citizen article this morning.

In what seems to be a surprise to many working in our Parliamentary Precinct, geniuses have decided to "substitute fine cuisine and meals prepared for MPs and senators on site with warmed-over pre-cooked meals trucked in from a 21,500-square-foot food plant in Ottawa's east-side industrial sector." That sure sounds yummy.

The story goes on to characterize the move as going from "fresh spring lamb and mint sauce" to "airline fare". Apparently the intent is to have a company build this plant from the ground up and then somehow sell it to the government. What the point of that exercise really is, I cannot fathom. If the government will own and operate the facility, it will have to pay in one way or another for the bricks and mortar, as well as for the staff and the food they will prepare. Don't forget the transportation from the "east-side industrial sector" to Parliament Hill. I wouldn't want to try that at rush hour!!! Where will the savings come from? The transportation will be more expensive than it currently is, I can't see how major savings can come from the staffing budget line --- will it come from food costs?

I'm all for cutting taxes and finding savings wherever possible. Having said that, I do have some difficulty coming to terms with condoning the characterization of a "fat cat" lifestyle that members of the media like to cast upon our Parliamentarians.

I also have a problem with this move because it cannot be a "move up" in food quality - if the kind of food we're led to believe is currently being prepared there on a daily basis and if the cost of that food is as high as we are led to believe by media zealots, any change has to be for the worse. Moreover, it would take a mountain of evidence from some nutritionist to make me believe that the nutrition value isn't going to take a hit. Let's be serious here.

With all the attempts on the part of doctors and politicians (such as Ontario Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson) to get Canadians to eat better, exercise more and lead a better and balanced lifestyle, I cannot fathom how anyone can believe that our Members of Parliament who work 12-18 hour workdays and many of whom live on fast food deserve this treatment.

Pierre Poilievre, a member of the governing party knew nothing about this when approached by a Citizen reporter. That in itself says quite a bit.

Come on, guys!! Sure, us plebes don't get the luxury of dining in the Parliamentary restaurant very often, if ever. If this isn't a cost cutting measure that could potentially help compromise the health and well being of elected officials and their staff, I'll eat my hat. This flies in the face of everything these very people are trying to have "regular Canadians" do. Cafeteria food was never much good and nobody likes it, so if it is generally accepted that it usually isn't the healthiest choice, why is bringing this fare in even being considered?

Who made the decision anyway?! There's still time to change

Petro Canada Q2 profits nearly double last year's take

2007-07-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

The crooks... I mean Petro Canada reported their 2nd quarter earnings today. In Q2 last year, profits totalled $472 million. This year, the profits earned in the same three month period soared to $845 million. It won't be long before the benchmark will be $3 billion in annual profits or the year will be deemed a dismal failure. Any bets if that'll happen in 2009? 2008? This year?

How did the head crook... I mean Petro Canada CEO Ron Brenneman explain the earnings surge? According to a CBC News report, he cited "a strong integrated portfolio, solid operations and a robust business environment." That must be business slang for "sucking more people into our stations and screwing them at the pump".

I don't get it - crude oil is nearing its all-time high price today and yet we're paying less than a dollar per litre. Don't get me wrong - I'm loving the "bargain price" of 93.9 cents per litre... but it wasn't so long ago that we were told that the reason we were paying $1.10 or $1.20 a litre was due to high crude prices and the expenses associated with getting the raw materials to refineries. If that's the case, why aren't we still paying record prices at the pump?

Again - I'm not complaining.

The thing is, it's hard to understand what makes the petroleum industry tick. It wasn't so long ago margins went way up because Imperial Oil had a little fire in southern Ontario. Other companies saw an opportunity and seized it. Good on them, shareholders would say, but the poor consumer at the end of the "food chain" took it across the chops for several weeks each time he or she filled up.

Somewhat lower prices at the pump are a recent phenomenon - it will be interesting to see how the next two Petro Canada earnings report go. If profits are down for some unknown reason, it will be pretty easy to see that they only made $600 million in profit because the pump prices weren't as "solid" or "robust" in July and (hopefully!) August.

There's nothing we can do about it, I know. Not everyone can afford to "offset the pump price shock" by buying thousands of petroleum company shares. Maybe there's something to the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Got a job for me, Petro Canada? Esso? Anyone?

Why try to ban handguns if banning murder hasn't worked yet?!

2007-07-24T07:34:00.000-05:00

Murder has been a criminal offence in Canada for years. If murder is bad and yet people keep insisting on killing for one reason or another, in spite of the well-known consequences that follow the act of murder, what exactly do politicians and bureaucrats think a law banning hand guns in Canada will achieve?!

From what I understand, acquiring and owning a handgun for a law abiding citizen is not exactly easy... if one chooses to do so legally. If the law of the land isn't a factor, it has been shown on countless television shows that getting one "on the street" requires little if any effort.

How many people who hold up banks, kill rival gang members or deal in the drug trade acquire their firearms legally - and then register them? How many of these people who obviously have a complete disregard any or all laws will obey a new one?

They say a new law banning handguns should be passed. That will make it impossible for me to own one. That's fine - I want an XBox 360 before buying my first 9mm. Does anyone know what this law will ever truly accomplish? Will it have an impact on potential murderers, drug dealers or bank robbers who clearly could care less about criminal laws? Anyone who thinks so must be smoking the drapes, as Lowell Green often said.

Just to further make the point about how short-sighted we seem to be on this issue, look at an excerpt of today's Toronto Star editorial. Check out one of its main premises: "If pistols were made harder for criminals to obtain – if they were less prevalent in society – the bullets that ripped through 11-year-old Ephraim Brown on early Sunday might never have been discharged." Are they serious? Pistols made harder for criminals to obtain? Please.

How about we identify and address the real root of the problem? Lock up criminals and stop releasing them. If they kill once, they'll never kill again. Repeat offenders will be a mere memory when it comes to major crimes including those involving use of prohibited weapons. Further regulating prohibited weapons won't alter their frequency of use on the streets!!

After a while the numbers will start to drop. Banning guns isn't going to stop murders! If putting laws in place worked, there wouldn't have been any murders in Canada for years! Besides - given the penalty for murder (in theory) is much more severe than any other crime as it is, and we can't stop people from killing, how can we stop criminals from breaking a "lesser" law? We can't.

Think about it, people.

City council no longer condones criminal activity - finally!

2007-07-13T07:32:00.000-05:00

So Rick Chiarelli managed to table a motion to end the controversial City of Ottawa crack pipe distribution program on July 11th. An overwhelming majority of City Council supported the motion, killing the program once and for all. Or did it?

It seems that a number of community groups are falling all over each other, vying to pick up where the City left off. Some of these groups will likely look to the City to fund the program, thereby defeating the vote's intent.

I was always taught in school that nobody was above the law. It didn't matter if you were a famous movie star, a hockey player, a politician or a so-called "community leader" - the law was equally applied to everyone.

It seems that this edict largely is true... most of the time. It seems that if you are really famous or have tons and tons of money in your bank account, the application of the law might vary a little in your case. For example, while nobody can be certain "beyond a reasonable doubt" whether OJ Simpson did it or not, it seems that it was "more likely than not" that he did - the burden of proof was eventually met in a civil case. Odds are decent that had it been you or I who had been charged with OJ's crimes, we would have been criminally convicted. He was acquitted because he had virtually unlimited resources available to hire a defence team.

That's the exception to the "nobody is above the law", right? Well... let's look at section 462.2 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Under this section, it is stated that it's a summary conviction offence to import, export, manufacture, promote or sell instruments or literature for illicit drug use. OK, so it's not a super serious (or indictable) offence to "promote or sell instruments for illicit drug use" but if I were to try and start up my own little business promoting and selling crack pipes, how long would I last on a street corner?

Not very long, I suspect.

The law might have decided to turn a blind eye on the City of Ottawa's actions, all in the spirit of "public health promotion". Statistics that show that there are more crack smokers in Ottawa as compared to when the program had yet to launch, and in addition, these crack smokers actually consumer more illegal drugs (including crystal meth, something I'm sure the left leaning councillors and bureaucrats hadn't intended when making crack "safer" to consume) as compared to the pre-launch months and years.

I'd just love to know how more people smoking more crack (and meth!!) can be a "healthy" or "positive" outcome of this so-called public health program. It's gone. Let it die a peaceful death, councillors.

If we have to raise taxes every year - that's another story for another day - let's raise them for the greater good of all the citizens of our grand city, not the crack heads and meth addicts.

And obey the law of the land, eh?! The criminal code applies to all of us!

City of Ottawa transit committee got it right

2007-07-05T07:50:00.000-05:00

OC Transpo recently lost a court case. It was ordered to start/reinstate the announcing of major or requested bus stops. Company officials went to City Hall, cap in hand, asking for $8 million for some sort of electronic solution to the "problem".

I'm not sure how this system would have worked, but it likely would have involved some sort of global positioning system that would be enhanced with OC Transpo staff programming - after all, I'm sure that no GPS system knows where the Tunney's Pasture Transitway stop really is. Would this really have only set the city back $8 million? Not likely.

When I first read this story I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Why? OC Transpo already spends millions on sentient beings that already are found on each and every bus one might find on Ottawa's roads... they're called bus drivers!!! As far as I know, all bus drivers have eyes (thus giving them the ability to recognize these major or requested stops) and a mouth (thereby giving them the tools required to make the announcements as ordered by the courts).

The good news is that the city's Transit Committee rejected the request yesterday, citing the fact that announcing stops is part of some existing agreement or contract - in other words, it's already part of each driver's job description.

Nobody has yet brought this up, but I can't help wondering if OC Transpo administration had its hands tied by the Amalgamated Transit Union. It likely wouldn't be beyond them to take a position that forcing bus drivers to make regular announcements is a stress or some "extra" that should require tremendous raises for the "bus operators". Fat chance.

Come on, guys - this was a no brainer! To the supervisors and managers over at OC Transpo I ask: make your employees do their jobs! If they don't want to, find someone else who will do it. If the Councillor who was quoted on the news this morning is correct, and this making announcements has been part of bus drivers' job descriptions for the better part of the last twenty years, circulate a memo.

It'll cost far less than $8 million (that can be better spent elsewhere, I'm sure) and with a little bit of effort, the conditions of the court order can be satisfied tomorrow morning - not some time next year or however long it would have taken to get this thing "fixed" had the funding come through.

It's not rocket science folks.

You're late? That's OK! You've plagiarised? Forget about it!

2007-06-26T08:20:00.000-05:00

The local public school board wants to mark students "based on what they have learned". Apparently teaching them lessons after catching them plagiarising, turning assignments in late or simply not doing them just isn't important anymore.

Is this yet another example of government (or in this case, the school board) further dumbing down the education system? It's bad enough that giving a child a failing grade is pretty much a thing of the past. It's bad enough that the element of competition has been removed from sporting events so that "nobody has to lose". But to actively choose not to punish students for the ultimate educational fraud - copying or plagiarising someone else's work - is a whole other thing.

What's this world coming to?

A local trustee was interviewed this morning on CFRA and she said that it was the aim of the system to use marks as a tool to evaluate and quantify the amount of material a student has learned in a given course. She said that marks are not supposed to be used to reward or punish students as if they are, they no longer gauge how a student has achieved in a class throughout a given semester.

Why not? Was the so-called "old system" flawed?

Sure, I turned the odd assignment in a day late and usually was docked 10% for doing so. Some teachers would say that students could turn assignments in late up to three days late (losing 30%) and then it was a big, fat resounding zero. I never took it that far, but it certainly makes you think.

If the only reason for a marking system to remain in use is to measure the amount of knowledge a student has learned and "other" methods will be used to punish that student for plagiarising or simply not handing in an assignment (why bother working on a difficult assignment if it could, in theory, end up lowering your average?!) then students will be in for a hell of a shock when they get into the real world.

As it is, students leaving the education system to get full-time jobs already have some sense of entitlement. When I tried to chastise a staff member last winter for not showing up one day because four centimetres of snow fell and the roads were considered "too dangerous" to come in from out of town, I was told that this staff member was disappointed that I would have the nerve to try and impress the importance of showing up for your paid job upon this person.

Say what?! If you chose to live out of town and work in town, you made your own bed. Now lay in it. It's not my problem.

What will happen when the student who graduates from the "nobody loses" mentality and they are turned down for a job? They've never learned how to deal with adversity. What will happen when this same person produces a report for a superior and the superior is unhappy with its quality?

Schools should revert to preparing children for the real world, not the next level of the education system. There is adversity everywhere in life. I had my share of successes and failures in school and I will face them again I'm sure. Why should everyone get a mulligan every time they do something wrong or fail in school?

There are no mulligans in the real world.

Honesty and integrity - apparently they will soon be taken out of the curriculum... can't hurt Johnny's feelings if he actively decides to not do an assignment... and you can't toss Janie out of class because she plagiarised that paper - see how that works out in the real world - it's called a lawsuit, folks!

I hope the OCDSB board of trustees grounds itself in reality tonight. Failing to do so will do way more harm to students than these birds could ever imagine. Schools are there to teach more than 2+2 - or so I thought.

Congratulations go to Toronto City Council this afternoon

2007-06-20T15:01:00.000-05:00

Congratulations on unanimously passing Councillor Nunziata's motion to keep military support stickers on fire trucks and ambulances and for taking it a bit farther by making the campaign last an indefinite period of time and by expanding it to include police cars.

You guys are the real leaders at Toronto City Hall. Did I just hear the last CFRB newscast right? Did "Mayor" Miller leave chambers when the vote was taken?

Hee hee hee... there's a real man who can stand by his convictions!!!

David Miller: another hypocrite of a politician

2007-06-20T07:32:00.000-05:00

I'm sick and tired of hypocrite politicians.

Politicians who tell staff they can't be caught dead without wearing a poppy in the days leading up to Remembrance Day, keeping someone close by at all times to make sure that no camera will catch them without one.

Politicians who "proudly" stand up in front of the crowds and the media to deliver their recycled (and apparently faked) speeches on cue every year on November 11th. In these speeches, these politicians always talk about how grateful we all must be. They say that it is thanks to the men and women who fought on our behalf all those years ago who made the country what it is today.

And, again, right on cue, we eat it all up, glowing proudly and nodding in agreement with every pithy statement these elected officials make - often pausing for the applause to die down.

David Miller, Mayor of Toronto, has apparently equated "Support our Troops" with "Support the Mission in Afghanistan". Consequently, he intents on having all such ribbons removed from ambulances and fire trucks. He has distorted what it means to be someone who wants to show support for the troops out there defending the free world. As is the case for most politician with his stripes, any position on an issue other than his is uncivilized.

We'll show you uncivilized, Mr. Miller, if you show up at a Remembrance Day ceremony in four months or so to deliver some speech you obviously do not believe in, and in spite of this you deliver it anyway because it's the politically expedient thing to do on that day. Why do you waste your time? Stay home!

I'm hoping that saner minds prevail in Toronto (for once!) and that you, Mr. Miller, come to your senses and release a statement this afternoon proclaiming that you were "misquoted", "taken out of context", or "misunderstood". That's what politicians do when they suddenly realize that what they said is not exactly appreciated by the masses.

You can't make this magically go away. You were quite clear, Mr. Miller - now fess up and fix this mess. You might think that because you just got re-elected that people will forget this little incident when you hit the streets in three years. They won't. They'll remind you in November 2007, 2008, 2009 and hopefully in 2010 - with a boot square you know where.

Some say you're either "with us" or "against us" - a little too black and white for even me, but you've definitely crossed a line you should not have. Now apologize and admit you were wrong. You might be the first politician to openly do so - and doing so might resurrect a career you so carelessly (and, I hope inadvertantly) tossed off a cliff this morning.

It's not too late...

Why wouldn't oil companies pass new Quebec tax onto consumers?!

2007-06-07T08:06:00.000-05:00

I read a Montreal Gazette article this morning reporting on Quebec Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard's announcement yesterday that effective October 1, the province of Quebec will impose a 0.8 cent per litre 'carbon tax' on gasoline sales. In making the announcement, the rather naive Minister expressed his hopes that oil companies will absorb the tax and not pass it on to consumers. Why? Because they're obsessed with making record profits.

They're making record profits because they're not falling for what may seem to some as honourable attempts at convincing big oil to do something that would make it look like it actually cares about its customer base. Of course it doesn't! If it did, we wouldn't be paying what we are today each time we fill up. Margins are up at record levels and demand isn't waning.

If Minister Bechard seriously thinks that Imperial Oil, Petro Canada, Shell and their co-conspirators will step up, he should seriously consider looking for another job - he has obviously lost touch with reality.

This tax is supposed to raise approximately $200 million a year. Even with profits in the billions, $200 million is a somewhat significant chunk of dough for these "enterprising" mega-corporations. They won't absorb that much "loss". Has anyone noticed any difference at the pumps since our dear Stephen Harper led federal government chopped a point off of the GST? Nope, don't think so.

So when Ultramar tells Minister Bechard that it hasn't made up its mind as to what it would do with this tax, it isn't telling him that it will opt to side with the angels... again, if he thinks that is even remotely possible, his detachment from reality should be a major concern for Premier Charest.

Snap back to reality, guys - big oil cares about one thing and one thing only... its bottom line. Sorry Quebec - I guess you're getting stuck with a tax by your minority government - maybe there's something you can do about that! Remember what happened to Joe Clark a few years ago?!?

If you sue the City of Ottawa, don't expect another contract!

2007-06-06T07:37:00.000-05:00

What is the consortium made up with Siemens Canada Ltd., PCL Constructors Canada Ltd. and Ottawa LRT Corp. thinking?

This intrepid group served the City of Ottawa with notice that it is being sued for breach of contract, I suppose, alleging that they have suffered "damages" of $175 million dollars as a result of the City cancelling the contract after the November 2006 municipal elections.

The consortium has not lost $175 million as a result of the City coming to its senses and cancelling the ill-conceived light rail plan that Bob Chiarelli and his Council had approved earlier in 2006. The City of Ottawa had planned on reimbursing the $25 million that had been spent on putting everything together, but apparently that's not good enough.

I'm no lawyer, but I have observed in the past that courts tend to "make one whole once again" - in other words, if the contractors had invested $25 million in the bid that ultimately had the contract awarded to them, they should have that amount returned to them. I cannot think of one court case I've read about or seen on television where damages actually put the complainant ahead once the court's decision was rendered.

Will this lawsuit end up with a decision being made against the City of Ottawa for $175 million? Not likely. Is this a tactic being used to up the ante in this growing feud between the City and Siemens/PCL/Ottawa LRT? Probably. In the end, the City will likely have to pay whatever it is that these companies are out of pocket, not a penny more. If that's the case, the consortium will end up with fewer dollars in their bank accounts... it's the lawyers who will end up ahead!!!

The thing is, surely these companies know that this "new" City Council will ultimately come up with a new public transportation strategy or plan. A new document was tabled today and it will serve as the starting point for new discussions. Do Siemens and PCL seriously think that they will be contenders if and when another contract comes along? Would they not have been better off to allow the City to pay its expenses and walk away, and then wait for another kick at the can? Is it not possible that a new plan might be even more profitable, meaning that they'd still be even further ahead down the road?

I guess not.

I was always told not to bite the hand that feeds you. Where I come from, contracts that can generate up to $175 million in profits don't come around every day. All I can say is that when this case is decided (or more likely, settled), Council had better not award the new contract to any of these companies when the time comes to actually build whatever it is we will dream up. That would simply be rewarding bad behaviour and "not playing nice in the sandbox". I know that if I am on City Council when the day comes to select a new contractor, they better not expect any support from me after what they've just pulled off.

Come on, guys... think about it!! Not smart.

* Follow up: I have spoken with a lawyer who tells me that anticipated profits can be pursued in courts under some provisions of our contract laws. Even so, this suit is likely nothing more than posturing by Siemens/PCL/Ottawa LRT, but I would still question anyone who would consider entering contract negotiations with this group when the need arises. Surely there's someone else out there who can step up to the plate. Again - I've always been told that biting the hand that feeds you is never a good thing!!

Oh, what a night!!! - Part two

2007-06-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

Once the puck was dropped the intensity level at Scotiabank Place was incredible. It didn't take long for the insane happy state of the 20,500 people in attendance to wane a bit, though. Five minutes into the game Anaheim scored. I couldn't help but wonder if it was going to be "another one of those nights".

The Senators came back with a goal late in the period to send everyone to the concession stands in the same giddy state of mind in which they entered the building only an hour or so earlier. The rollercoaster ride that I wrote about before the series started was magnified in Ottawa's first Stanley Cup Final home game - the score went back and forth with five goals in the second period!

I can remember playoff series where it took five or six games before five goals were scored! OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it has felt that way - and having lived through game two only a couple days earlier, I couldn't be blamed for being shocked at the offensive outburst in the second frame.

Thanks to Dean McAmmond the Sens headed to the locker room once again up a goal after period number two. I remember calling my father and a friend to tell them how incredible the game was thus far and how being at a Stanley Cup final game was unlike any sporting experience I had ever lived through.

Highs and lows were to be found in the third period as well, with Dean McAmmond getting smoked by Chris Pronger. To this day I still can't believe that Pronger is a repeat offender dirty player. He has been recognized on several occasions for being the best defenceman in the NHL. I remember fighting friends over Pronger in various pools over the years. Sure, he's good, but it seems that he is also a massive liability.

With McAmmond in the locker room only minutes in the third period and the Senators holding on to a one goal lead, the crowd's anticipation only grew. When Anton Volchenkov scored and gave the Senators the insurance goal they needed, we knew that the win was within our grasp.

The last ten minutes flew by, and before we knew it, the Ottawa Senators had won their first final round game. Ottawa was back in the series. People in my section were high fiving each other... random people were high fiving each other in the stairwells... the unthinkable had happened and we'd never been there before.

The temperature and humidity had moderated outside and the twenty minute walk back to Costco was an experience in itself. People running up and down Palladium Drive, cars passing by with people hanging out the windows while drivers honked horns and passengers high fived pedestrians as they drove by... even the traffic control cops were into it!

After having watched the Sens blow game seven against the New Jersey Devils a few years ago, being there for a Stanley Cup Final playoff game win is something I'll never forget. My mother is the person who made it possible - merci!!

Now... we lost the first two games. We've taken our first and now trail 2-1 in the series. Let's hope our one "fun and unbelievably enjoyable" game day experience is repeated... if it is, man - it'll be one heck of a memorable season!

GO SENS GO!!!

Oh, what a night!!! - Part one

2007-06-03T08:56:00.000-05:00

The one thing that was missing from the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals for Ottawa Senators fans was: fun. After watching the Sens go through the motions in the first two games of the series, the only "fun" the Sens fans had had to that point was watching them get to the finals, not be in the finals. They didn't even score a goal in game 2!

When the scene shifted to Ottawa, however, things were in for a huge change.

I have been to close to 175 NHL games. Up until the lockout year, I had been to every single home playoff game in "modern Senators history". I was there for the first ever playoff game. I was there when Ottawa clinched its first playoff series win at home. Leaving the Corel Centre that day was unlike any other sporting experience for me to that point.

Until last night.

I am fortunate to have a mother who seems to be even more into this playoff run than I am. She seems to be more addicted to everything Senators more than I am this year. Not bad for someone who still splits her allegiance between the Habs and our Senators. There we were, driving to Scotiabank Place last night, eagerly anticipating the biggest Senators home game in "modern history".

The parking lot I always park in was closed off about 6-7 cars before I could make it in. It turns out we waited about 20 minutes in line for nothing. Undeterred, I opted to head east on Palladium Drive to see what I might come across. The lineup to get into the eastern-most parking lots was long and I didn't want to wait. Further east I went. I figured that the Costco would be closed by then and, being a member, surely there wouldn't be a problem parking there. My Escape being secure, it was time to make the trek back west to the "Greatest Arena on Earth" - do we still call it that?!

The walk was reminiscent of a walk I took some ten years ago when I attended the Palladium "open house" - the arena was still five months away from opening night. The enthusiasm for the new building was too exciting for words. I remember standing at the bottom of what would become section 301, looking out at where ice would some day be. Last night, we sat in row P of section 304 and were shocked to see the arena was already pretty much at capacity - and the warmup wasn't quite done yet! Something special was happening - and we were there.

After a rather impressive light and A/V show, Lyndon Slewidge took to the ice to sing the national anthems. I don't know what it is, but it seems that every time he pulls the mike away to let 20,000+ people "carry the tune" and I'm standing there singing O Canada along with each and every one of them, it's almost emotionally overwhelming. The unity - the unquestioned patriotism (for once) of each and every fan in the stands and throughout the arena is almost tangible. I love it - it's an experience in itself.

And finally, the drop of the puck. Let the games begin!!!

More to come later today - off to the golf course!!

Gas prices in Ottawa - has anyone noticed the change?

2007-05-29T07:35:00.000-05:00

I think it was two weeks ago that I woke up and heard the CFRA business editor announcing that gas spiked overnight and was selling for $1.109 a litre. Don't get me wrong - I do not enjoy paying in excess of a dollar a litre, never mind $1.10 and up. I couldn't help but wonder why an overnight increase of four cents was headline news.

Not so long ago, buying gas in Ottawa was almost like a game. I can't remember the specific days of the week, but it wasn't uncommon for gas prices to go on a ferris-wheel like ride every seven days or so.

For example...

Take day one in the morning - gas was selling at most area retailers for about 77.9 cents per litre. By noon it might be 77.2 cents, and by dinner time it would be 76.5 cents. Come 11pm, it might be 74.9. On day two, the price would start out around 76.5, it would trickle down throughout the day to about 73.9. On day three, one could find gas selling for 74.9 and it would go down throughout the day. And so on, and so on. Usually around day five or six, given this week's starting point of 77.9 cents per litre, one could find gas selling for 69.9 cents. Rejoice! Fill up! Leave the gas station contented, knowing that on day seven or eight or so, the price would go back up to 79.9, only to go through the machinations over the coming week once again.

I always looked at the gas price trends with interest because of the somewhat fluid state of gasoline pricing. I would be fascinated because when I'd travel to eastern Canada, I couldn't help but notice that gas prices were somewhat fixed - there was no 'give and go' on a daily basis like it was back home.

We don't seem to have that give and go anymore. Sure, prices still move a bit from day to day or week to week, but not the way it used to. Maybe gas companies figured out that the so-called admin costs associated with constantly changing inventory prices cost them too much and affected the bottom line even in the slightest way. We all know that billions in quarterly profits isn't good enough anymore, so anything that cost the big evil empire more than -- nothing -- was simply unacceptable.

My point? Back then, for several years, it wasn't uncommon for prices to fluctuate up to 10 cents per litre, per day! Now a hike of four cents overnight is headline news. Not only that, but it's twice now in recent months that the petroleum companies like Esso, Petro Canada, Shell, Sunoco et al deem it necessary to announce that "gas prices will be going down 4 cents per litre tomorrow morning" for whatever reason.

Why?!

ExxonMobil posted net earnings in excess of $39 billion dollars last year. We're paying record prices at the pump and nobody's gone nuts in the middle east, no hurricanes have flattened refineries and - (this next bit is satirical sarcasm) no petroleum company has set a refinery on fire lately, giving valid excuses for the prices being as high as they currently are. Remember that southern-Ontario refinery fire that sent the price of gasoline over $1/litre? That's a long time ago now. Gas stations aren't closing due to lack of fuel anymore. We're still paying over a buck a litre and yet crude oil hasn't been at all-time highs in what - years, now?

What's going on?

I guess ExxonMobil is shooting for $50 billion this year and its competitors are only too happy to oblige by hiking their prices and padding their bottom lines.

We'll see. Crude's trading down about $1.50 a barrel today. Let's see what happens at the pumps next month.

Stanley Cup finals ticket purchasing challenges

2007-05-24T09:25:00.001-05:00

I set myself up at 9:23am to access the capitaltickets.ca website in order to be prepared to join the mad dash for Ottawa Senators Stanley Cup final tickets at 10:00am. Instead of accessing the intended site, I was relegated to some "please hold" web page. It promised to keep trying to get me to my destination while warning me that I am not guaranteed tickets.

As the minutes ticked by I waited for the magical screen transformation - 54 minutes later, no such luck.

Maybe the phone will work. The lines must be so overwhelmed I can't even get a busy signal - all I get is thrown back to a dial tone!!!

OK - I'm almost resigned to the fact that I won't be able to attend the game without paying $1,000 for a ticket from the pigs... I mean scalpers outside ScotiaBank Place. Well, maybe not quite - I've made a $450 bid on a pair of tickets for game 4 on eBay. Fat chance I'll get them for under $500, but I'll try.

Maybe another shot at the phone number? Nope. Dial tone boomerang. Come on web site... Even TicketMaster wasn't THAT bad in the past. I often wonder exactly how robust capitaltickets.ca really is.

Follow-up: I finally got onto capitaltickets.ca at 10:35am. Surprise - no tickets available... not one. No wonder the site became available.

Restorative justice good for offenders, not for victims

2007-05-23T08:13:00.001-05:00

A new face is heading our city police service today, and it seems that it is his wish to "hit the ground running" as soon as is humanely possible. New Police Chief Vernon White announced yesterday that he has two issues that he seems to want to work on right away: 1) re-examining the City of Ottawa crack pipe distribution program and, 2) doing something about enhancing (I think) the "restorative justice" program.

First of all, Chief, once you "educate yourself" on the crack pipe program, remain true to the one code you are sworn to uphold: the Criminal Code. This federal law makes it a criminal offense to possess or distribute drug paraphernalia. How the City of Ottawa and its saintly program has managed to duck under that radar for so long, I have no idea. Perhaps I should convert my computer sales business into a custom crack pipe discount warehouse while the going's good... the margins have to be better in that business!!!

I digress - I have been fully opposed to spending precious municipal dollars on what the Criminal Code defines as criminal activity while watching City Council annually cut services, raise user fees or property taxes. When I heard that Chief White would try to do something about this "program", I was overjoyed.

There was, however, a hitch in my appraisal of Chief White's arrival. Details are sketchy but it seems that he is a fan of the "restorative justice" program. As far as I'm concerned, this so-called program is great for people who are embarking on the first leg of their new journey in crook land and is horrible for victims of their crimes. Why?

About two years ago we started noticing that small quantities of money were disappearing at the agency where I work. For years we stored a petty cash wallet in a drawer, and for years we had no problems whatsoever. I had been to the bank to replenish the money supply one Friday afternoon and it wasn't until the following Thursday that I needed to grab some cash to pay for a small expense. I think there was $15 in the wallet and I could have sworn at that very moment that there should have been closer to $300.

Did I forget to go to the bank? No, the cheque cleared. Hmmm... what could I have purchased? I couldn't remember. I waited for the weekend to pass and for my director to return from two weeks of holidays on the following Monday. I sheepishly admitted that I must have made a few hundred dollars disappear - who else could I blame?! Because I had been employed by the same agency and boss for the better part of seven or eight years, I was allowed to remain employed (!) and asked to be more careful... or something along those lines.

A few months passed and all was forgotten until it happened to dear old boss. She had replenished the money supply one day, only to have it vanish on her watch some other day. It was nice to see that I hadn't lost or squandered the money after all. Some detective work later I discovered that my hidden margarine tub that once held pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters had nothing but pennies in it (banks hate taking loose change in deposits so I hang onto whatever's left and roll it once annually.) We started to suspect our cleaner so we "seeded" the wallet with $80 before leaving for the night and - lo and behold - only $10 remained the next morning.

To make a long story short, the work logs the cleaner himself maintained and the in/out alarm records made it very much an open and shut case. The detective who took the report told us that the case should be a slam dunk based on a number of reasons. Unfortunately, because the cleaner had no previous record, he apparently was a prime candidate for this "restorative justice" program. The result? No guilty plea, no guilty verdict. All that was required of him (more or less - I wasn't there so I cannot be sure) was that he write my organization a letter of apology and that restitution be made. We received a cheque from a local law firm that covered 40-50% of what was actually taken.

That's not the end of it.

Despite assurances from a detective that the thief had been caught and despite the fact that an admission had pretty much been made, acknowledging that something wrong had been done, the company contracted by the City of Ottawa refused to dismiss the employee. Their position was that because there was no conviction, there was no proof that something untoward had been done. Even worse, the City refused to immediately terminate the company's contract despite numerous complaints about quality of work done and a theft!!! That's a story for another day.

The bottom line is this - the new Chief of Police may think that the restorative justice program needs additional attention from the powers that be. I suggest to the Chief that he speak with some victims of crime who have essentially been slapped in the face after having the person who committed a crime against them let go with little more than a promise of "I won't do it again".

Now that I think of it, I'll try calling the Chief myself and see what he has to say.

More to come...

"Pigeons" seem to have flown the coop!

2007-05-04T07:42:00.000-05:00

That didn't take long. Despite Mayor Larry O'Brien's politically incorrect attempt at encouraging people to stop encouraging local panhandlers - Ottawa's sidewalks are a little less encumbered these days. It seems that the population of beggars has been relocating.

Have we sent them to Perth by bus?

According to various media reports today, panhandlers are complaining that they aren't making any money. Police officers who regularly hand out tickets of aggressive panhandling have had a hard time finding people to fine in recent weeks. For those who remain and are whining about their shrinking "income", I've got a solution to these people - find real work.

Not all panhandlers and beggars out there are homeless as they purport to be. Those who spend days in the blazing heat or frigid cold "patrolling" intersections or Queensway off-ramps where they can hold motorists at red lights hostage are clearly able to withstand the physical demands that come with standing on their feet and walking in circles for hours.

There's no work out there, you say? I work for an agency that provides services to seniors in order to help them maintain their independence by continuing to live in their own homes - with a little help. Not a season goes by where we could use addition snow shovellers or grass cutters. There are dozens of agencies just like mine, where a little physical labour goes a long way towards improving people's quality of life, not diminishing it. These jobs can pay upwards of $20 an hour for anyone willing to put in the time and effort. Take a walk through Bayshore Shopping Centre or any other area mall - one cannot walk 100 yards without seeing help wanted signs in the window.

Yes, I know - there are people who truly cannot work due to a disability or some other reason. I just cannot believe that these so-called "travelling and hungry" people (who never seem to move on, by the way) are one of them.

That is why Mayor O'Brien recommends that those who have been predisposed to "feeding the pigeons" should give money to local food banks, homeless shelters or other well-deserving charitable organizations. He's 100% right on this one, for it is those agencies who can help those who truly need it, not those who choose some alternate lifestyle, unwilling to conform to the "norms of society".

If for some reason I do decide to seek out public office some day and some opportunistic opponent falls upon this blog - this entry in particular - bring it on... try to make me look like I care not for the downtrodden. The bottom line is that this city is rife with social services ready and willing to help those who need it. THAT is where public dollars and dollars from citizens of this great city should be going. Not into the hands of many who have readily admitted that the loonie or twoonie given to them goes straight to feeding some drug habit.

Just ask anyone who comes out of a rehab centre and has seen their lives transform in front of their very eyes. Those on the street would glare at me with vicious looks if they knew I wrote this - but those who once did live on the street or "worked" on the street and turned their lives around would agree with me 100%.

Fix the core problem and all the little problems disappear. Don't feed the "pigeons".

Capitalism going too far?

2007-05-02T07:31:00.000-05:00

I'm for capitalism. I'm against communism. That's a given.

This morning, however, I'm starting to wonder how much longer those ideals will hold up. Sure, it's most likely that they will until I'm pushing up daisies, as a high school law teacher of mine used to say, but a news report this morning made me think twice about the concept of open markets.

Which oil company it was, I cannot remember - it was 6:50am when I heard the news report. This monolith reported net earnings for Q1 of 2007 as being in excess of $700 million, some 31% higher than the same quarter in 2006. Not so long ago I ranted about TD Canada Trust reporting record earnings throughout all of fiscal 2006, rather annoyed at the way in which the bank so gleefully announced how competitive it was becoming in the world market. My conclusion was that competitive for TD Canada Trust meant how great investors (read: shareholders, not customers) are seeing their holdings perform.

Why be annoyed at record profits? They come at a time where prices at the pump are at all time highs. The last time we paid in excess of $1.10 a litre at the pump was when Katrina hit the refineries in the Gulf Coast. There were no hurricanes of consequence in recent weeks and/or months and the world market and politics are relatively stable at the moment. Bank profits have skyrocketed while new bank account fee revisions see clients pay ever increasing user fees for ever decreasing levels of customer service. Finance Minister says lower rip-off ATM fees? Banks respond by saying that they will reduce service levels. As if $50 million dollars in a multi-billion dollar industry means anything to the bottom line.

Make customers happy? Humbug. Screw the customers - our shareholders demand record profits quarter after quarter. If the shareholders become unhappy, compensation packages for bank and oil company executives could shrink... jobs could be lost. Wouldn't want that to happen, CEO? No problem. Jack up the prices... people won't stop driving - they can't. People won't stop banking - they can't.

These two industries have us by the proverbial you knows. They don't care what the client thinks... because the client has no choice but to continue buying product or using the service. Is the year where we see banks and oil companies settling for no less than $10 billion in annual - or quarterly profits all that far away?

Today, I doubt it.

Why is that day perhaps not all that far away? Because if the banks and oil companies decide as a collective that that is what they want, they'll get it. Why? Because they can.

And that's why I sit here today, wondering if capitalism is going a bit too far. I hope not... but I can't help wondering.

The Microsoft Windows activation system crashed on Monday - headaches for all!

2007-04-04T15:17:00.000-05:00

Had there not been a calendar by my desk, I would have sworn I was the victim of an elaborate April Fool’s joke the other night. Alas, it wasn’t the first of April, t'was the second.

Around 10:30pm I finished installing a new copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional on a computer I had built and was planning to deliver to a customer the next day. I’ve done this at least a hundred times before with nary a problem. As usual, everything had gone without a hitch. Once Windows booted for the first time, I installed the video, sound and Ethernet card drivers and prepared to activate the operating system. Now able to go online, I installed an anti-virus program before doing anything else and then clicked on the reminder balloon on the task bar to initiate the activation process.

Once I selected internet activation I waited for the usual “thank you” message. Not this time. I was informed that my copy of Windows could not be activated and I had to call a Microsoft representative. I tried again, thinking that I may have made a typo – still no good. I called the provided toll-free number and began to tell the nice cyber lady that I wished to speak in English and that indeed, I wanted to activate a copy of Windows XP. Cyber lady then asked me to read off a string of 54 (!) numbers in order to allow her to decide whether or not my copy was legitimate.

Much to my chagrin, she came back after asking me to wait a moment, only to tell me that she could not help and that I would have to wait to speak with a human. I waited five minutes and a nice chap came on the phone to tell me that the activation system was down and I would have to try again in half an hour. Considering that it was late at night, this news was mildly irritating but I was almost done so I decided not to get aggravated and would call back after 11.

Approximately 40 minutes later I called again. Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out how to bypass this android-like being and had to read off those 54 numbers before being told that my submission was invalid. Cyber lady again denied my attempt to activate my copy of Windows. She told me I’d have to speak with a human a second time. The ring tone sounded different when it appeared that I would be connected with a representative. Sure enough, the voice that explained how important my call was to Microsoft had a distinct British accent! Six or seven minutes later, a kind old chap answered and confirmed that he was in the UK. As his US colleague told me, the activation system was down and I would have to try again in 30 minutes. Mildly irritated I asked if he was sure because that was the same answer I had been given earlier. He answered in the affirmative.

I waited until after midnight Eastern Time to try again. I did my thing with Cyber lady and she denied my request a third time. On hold I went. I wondered who I would speak to this time. A short time went by and someone picked up the phone. This time I reached someone in India! He told me the same story about the activation system and told me I’d have to try again in an hour. Definitely aggravated I asked him if he was certain and would guarantee that if I waited until almost 1:15am Eastern Time I could activate my copy of Windows. He thought about it and said no – that ninety minutes would be a safer bet. I angrily thanked him and hung up. I went to bed.

A little over twenty-four hours after my first attempt to activate the software I paid for three days earlier, I tried a fourth time. Cyber lady denied me once again. I waited on hold for almost ten minutes and just when it sounded like someone was coming to help me, they picked up the phone and hung up!!! I know it was an accident but given what had been happening to me, I almost went into a state of apoplexy!

I took a moment or two to gather my thoughts and tried again a sixth time. I angrily fed my 54 number string to Cyber lady who still sounded quite cheerful. She denied my sixth attempt (surprise!) and forwarded my call to a human. A number of minutes later a man, once again working in India, answered. After asking me to recite my 54 numbers to him he started to grill me because there had been several attempts to activate this particular copy in the last day. I feared for my life at that point because I could just sense that he was waiting to tell me that I would not be allowed to activate my copy because of potential fraudulent intentions. I tried to blast him as gently as possible, explaining that the reason I had tried so many times to activate my precious copy of Windows XP Professional was because of their system being down, not because of my ineptitude.

It was almost 11:45pm and 25 hours after I first tried to do something that literally takes seconds to do, my copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional was activated and ready to be used. I ran Windows Update to make sure those servers would accept requests for security updates and, finally, all was well.

I stomped into the bedroom and proclaimed that I would neither buy nor sell a Microsoft operating system again. My wife looked at me quizzically and asked if Microsoft was not, in essence, the only producer of mainstream operating systems. Indeed, they are. I’m calmer now. I understand that this was a one-time occurrence. I guess I am happy to see that it is not only end users who have trouble with Microsoft products. For a twenty-four hour period, Microsoft had a problem with Microsoft products. I smiled to myself and put myself to bed, satisfied to see a job well done, even if it was a day and a bit later!

Way to go Kia!!

2007-04-01T19:21:00.000-05:00

I just flipped the Toronto Maple Leafs game on a few minutes ago. They were going to commerial and I couldn't help but have my attention drawn to the first commercial: TSN aired an ad with a woman and a man making out in a red Kia. It took only microseconds for me to ask myself how it was possible that the ad once deemed so controversial it had to be pulled was airing again... until it stopped.

On the screen came the words "and now for an ending more suitable for all audiences" or something to that effect.

The next scene saw viewers taken to a non-descript field or pasture where a rather odd looking cow was standing, appearing to wag its tail in a manner similar to the way a dog might. I can't remember if there was any discernable expression on its face but the "body language" I seemed to catch was that the cow was laughing.

Laughing at everyone who can't take a cotton picking joke. Laughing at people who apparently cannot ever laugh or get through a day without taking absolutely everything seriously.

Kia had tongues wagging from coast to coast when the spot first aired. I'm sure that locker room discussions were had about the commercial in precincts in every city in Canada! Then one politically correct person stood up days or weeks after the ad had been airing to make their proclamation that the ad was sexist and demeaning towards women and female police officers. Even our deputy chief here in Ottawa jumped on the "I can't take a joke" bandwagon.

I'm not a chauvinist. I don't condone people demeaning women. I also don't take myself and everything around me seriously 100% of the time. I have worked with women almost exclusively since 1990. Anybody would know that if I had ever been inappropriate or made off-coloured jokes I'd have been thrown out on my ear long before seventeen years would go by.

Kudos to Kia - not only did that publicity campaign generate more interest and press than any other commercial I can think about at this time, it now has the corporate intestinal fortitude to change/renew it and get even more mileage out of it by trying to "stick it to the man". The man, of course, is a fictional and figurative representation (created by myself at this moment) of the Broadcast Standards Council and all those people who caused the stir to begin with.

I can't help but say it again - way to go Kia - this latest commercial is positively hilarious!

And come on, Canada, lighten up! I'm sure there'll be complaints and those contacted media outlets the first time around will do so again... but how many of those naysayers can deny that this latest shot from Kia is not only hilarious, but positively brilliant?!

Monday morning edit: The commercial came on later on Sunday night when I was watching television with my wife. She looked at me as if I had three eyes when the part with the "rather odd looking cow" came on. Why does the cow look odd to me? Because it's a goat. I don't drink - I don't know what I was thinking. Now this Kia commercial will be funny to me for yet another reason!

"Allgender" washrooms - what's next?

2007-03-23T07:52:00.000-05:00

Before I start, I need to emphasize the fact that I have the utmost respect for transgendered people. I have a good relationship with a local group and have enjoyed working with its members over the past ten-plus years.

Having said that, I have great difficulty processing my thoughts after reading a National Post article published this morning. It explains how student groups at University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg and Ryerson University are lobbying for what they call allgender washrooms. The Vice President of the student federation at University of Winnipeg states in the piece that "Gender-neutral washrooms are important because it deconstructs the idea of gender as a whole."

What exactly does "deconstructing the idea of gender" mean?

I am male. No matter how you look at me, that won't change. I realize that there are some sensitivities that need to be kept in mind when dealing with certain issues such as those concerning transgendered people, but when it comes down to it, you cannot "deconstruct" or change the fact that I am one gender or another.

Are these student groups taking political correctness a bit too far? I fear that I believe that they most certainly are. Why? Nowadays male school teachers are advised to avoid any risk of being alone with female students for fear of sexual-related offense accusations. North America is at such a point that people will file lawsuits for just about anything and even the most innocent of situations could be mis-construed, resulting in accusations that could forever ruin someone's career.

My point? These politically correct zealots might want to renovate washroom facilities to remove the so-called male/female "barrier"... but will they step up and defend me if and when I am accused of looking at a pretty girl in what she may view as an inappropriate manner when I walk in to the bathroom as she's coming out of her stall?

Like it or not, there are some lines that just simply cannot be crossed. With litigation coming close to replacing lacrosse or hockey as Canada's official sport, I'm not so sure we should be so quick to entertain the idea of "deconstructing the idea of gender" and help the cause along by allowing bathroom free for alls.

In the National Post article an anonymous student at one of the three universities muses about how many transgendered people actually attend his or her university. According to some quick research I just did, some studies estimate that "1 percent of the population may have had a transgender experience". Again - I know that some might quick to accuse me of being intolerant, but at what point must a society change fundamental values for groups that may not even amount to one percent of a given population?

For me, I am 100% against this change to washroom usage simply because I do not think that I am prepared to risk a lawsuit every time I have a need to pee when I'm in a public building. Like it or not, conditions are such that it's not impossible - especially when there are no other witnesses around. We're not ready, as society as a whole, for this brand of change. Sorry.

Crude oil falls yet another $1.15 - can ANYONE explain pump prices?

2007-03-16T14:01:00.000-05:00

Short and sweet today. I just checked to see where oil prices are going today - as of 2:24pm the price was down another $1.15 at $56.40 a barrel. World market prices have been steadily falling for a good amount of time now.

Imperial Oil announced this morning that the Nanticoke refinery is back to 100% production capacity. Rail workers are back on track. It's been a mild March and according to the Bush administration, the early onset of daylight savings time means we don't have to heat our homes as much... once again, saving energy.

So, Petro Canada, Esso, Sunoco, Shell et al, what's it going to take to get the prices back where they should be? Or will you all jump onto Imperial Oil's bandwagon and decide to enjoy the higher retail profit margins that will ensure that favourable quarterly results are posted in the weeks to come?

No price fixing, eh? Suuuure.

TD Canada Trust fees going up again - new staff position will help convince the public it's a good thing!

2007-03-13T11:13:00.000-05:00

Before I begin, I was driving home yesterday thinking about what I have recently written. Most recent posts are attacking a multi-billion dollar industry or another. Others seem to be addressing one political issue or another. I wondered if I was being too negative and whether I should look at "happier" things to write about.

Then this morning I got my monthly TD Canada Trust bank statement at work. Attached to the statement was a "Notice of Changes to Fees and Hold Funds Policy". If TDCT is doing something effective May 1, chances are extremely good that all other banks are following suit or have already implemented the same changes.

Before I get into the details, you must be reminded that the major Canadian banks earned in excess of $19 billion dollars in profits last year. Also, I learned last year that when these same banks announce changes to "remain competitive" they don't mean from the client's perspective, they mean for the shareholders. Their profits must be bigger than the others'.

Now... what wonderful changes are TD Canada Trust clients able to look forward to? A 16.6 to 25% increase in stop payment fees. PLUS system ABM foreign exchange fees going to skyrocket by 2 1/2 times!! Safety deposit box fees will increase by 20, 21.4, 22.4 or 33.3%, depending on the size of box. I guess $19 billion in profits this year won't do so these banks are doing their darndest to come up with "new and innovative ways" to earn even higher revenues. I guess they figured they can't raise day-to-day fees until next year for fear of really aggravating people after what they did in 2006. Oh, they're also making changes to ATM/ABM deposit holds as well, of course not to the customer's benefit.

Now, as if this all wasn't enough to really tick me off, I am once again invited to speak with someone. That didn't get me anywhere last year - nobody cared. Sure, the branch manager looked like she did, but even she invited me to go elsewhere and find a better deal. Of course, she knew that wouldn't be possible. Anyway, I'm told in this notice that if I have questions I can contact my Relationship Manager in my branch.

Huh!?

What the heck is a Relationship Manager? The clowns that run these banks really have to stop believing the crap that is fed to them by image consultants or whoever it is who gives them tips and tricks to make customers believe that change is "good" and that they will "like" paying higher fees, because after all, the Canadian banks need to stay competitive and services improve with the additional investments.

Right. And I'm Napoleon.

Oil companies came up with a new one over the weekend!

2007-03-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

I guess I've been oil company bashing a bit more than usual in recent weeks, but with what is going on out there, I just can't help it. I mean, a small fire in southern Ontario has seemingly caused prices to rise from the low to mid-80 cents per litre price only weeks ago to the dollar mark - in no time flat! Wasn't there a small fire out west last week as well? Unfortunately (OK, now I'm being overly cynical) firefighters on staff were able to put the fire out before any damage of consequence had a chance to occur.

The price of oil has fallen below the $60/barrel price today. It has traded in the low sixty dollar range for quite some time now. It was trading in that range when we were regularly paying less than eighty cents per litre late at night in Ottawa a month or so ago. If the world market prices are stable, how can an almost 25% increase in prices at the pump be explained?

Don't forget my quoting a Hamilton Spectator article last week where Imperial Oil had announced that despite lower sales due to the Nanticoke fire, quarterly profits would likely increase due to increased retail margins. Hmmm...

But this one takes the cake. I was listening to the morning business report at 6:25am today. I can't seem to find any written articles on the subject but if this story were to be aired a little under three weeks from now, I would swear it would be an April Fool's joke.

What's so funny? CFRA picked up a wire story where speculators warned that prices at the pump were unlikely to fall any time soon. They further warned consumers that they might even go up because of increased demand due to the additional hour of sunlight we're getting every day due to the changes in implementation of daylight savings time.

Um, OK.

First of all, days get longer at this time a year, at the rate of a minute or two a day. Regardless of what we do to our clocks - heck, we could have moved our clocks up three hours (meaning sun down would have gone from around 6pm on Saturday to 9pm on Sunday) - but we would not have one more minute of sunshine than we would have otherwise.

Secondly, I don't know about you, but I am not planning on doing anything different in the coming days or weeks as a result of the early onset of DST this year, nor will I when we roll the clocks back to standard time a bit later than usual in November. Will I drive hundreds or thousands of more kilometres because of the change? No.

Finally, it's three weeks!!! We "sprung forward" three weeks early. Three weeks. Twenty one days. Yes, it's nice that we won't have to turn our headlights on as early tonight as we did last week, but in the overall scheme of things, it's not that long a period of time. Even if you did buy the absurd idea that we have "an extra hour of daylight" as a result of the change, it's twenty one hours out of 8,760 we have in a year.

So tell me, Mr. Oil Company CEO, how will this change in Daylight Savings Time have any impact of consequence on world oil trading prices or at the retail pumps? I thought so. Not much, if any at all.

It's sad, however, that it is possible that prices will fluctuate per today's early morning report. Once I find a link to a story along those lines, I'll post it. Even more sad is the fact that if it does come true, we'll take it and won't utter one peep.

So why not raise the prices? At the end of the (so-called longer) day, nobody cares. Ain't apathy grand? Apparently it's worth a few hundred million dollars, and don't Shell, Imperial Oil, Petro Canada, et al know it...

Help convince PM Stephen Harper not to award the Victoria Cross to the Unknown Soldier

2007-03-06T14:57:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday that Queen Elizabeth II would give Prime Minister Stephen Harper a new Canadian-designed Victoria Cross medal in April. According to CBC news reports this afternoon, no decision has been made as to whether or not it will be awarded to the Unknown Soldier (as it seemed to originally be planned.)

Bob Butt, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Legion, has stated that given the circumstances that, the Victoria Cross medals were typically awarded, it would not be appropriate to the Unknown Soldier.

As such, I have started an online petition asking Primer Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General Michaelle Jean to opt not to award it to the Unknown Soldier. One option might be to have it displayed at the Canadian War Museum, another would be to have it travel cross-country with the goal of educating a new generation of children. As the numbers of WWI and WWII veterans continue to decline, it is conceivable that our young ones will grow up not knowing the significance of the Victoria Cross medal and of those who received it so many years ago.

Please take a moment to follow the link below and sign the petition. At an appropriate time I will bring it to my Member of Parliament, Mauril Belanger, hoping that he will present it to the House of Commons in the spring session - should there be one.

Thank you.

www.petitiononline.com/cvc/petition.html

Imperial Oil profits likely to increase due to refinery fire

2007-03-05T22:00:00.000-05:00

A report out of the Hamilton Spectator today states that it is very probable that Imperial Oil's profits are going to increase due to the Nanticoke fire. According to the article, a Desjardins Securities analyst estimates that Imperial Oil will see a 6% decrease in refining capacity in the first quarter of 2007. On the surface, that doesn't sound like much... but take a look at the price of gas at the pump today and see how "minute" an impact this 6% decrease is actually having.

Perversely, this same analyst speculates that "lost volumes could be more than offset by increased profit margins" -- as Eddie Murphy would say: "SAY WHAT?!"

As I mused to myself in my post last week, the ever-changing deadline to getting Nanticoke back up to 100% production is a hard target to find, let alone hit. They said that things might be back to normal two weeks from now last week. I see today that the aim is still two weeks from now. Who are we to believe, and why should we believe them? After all, operating at reduced production rates is pumping up the profits - why bother fixing anything at all?

Even more perversely, I suspect that each and every gasoline company in Canada will see their profits rise as a result of this Imperial Oil/Esso fire. Shell, Petro Canada and others certainly didn't try to capitalize on the temporary closure of Esso stations last week by wooing customers with the goal of keeping them once Esso gets back to normal. Noooo... they jacked up their prices too! Why not?!

Crude oil closed at $60.07 on NYMEX today. Crude oil was around $60/barrel in the first days of October. Anyone know what we were paying at the pumps that week? Around 83 cents per litre according to historical data on www.ottawagasprices.com. It's still over a buck a litre tonight in Ottawa, same in Toronto. It's more expensive here than in Montreal where gas is currently selling at about 98.4 cents per litre! When was the last time Montreal was cheaper than in Ottawa or Toronto? It's still 89 cents in Calgary and 91 cents in Winnipeg...

I know there's no point in investigating these turkeys - the federal Liberals sure make it look like they tried, to no avail. No price fixing there. No price gouging either, apparently. Consequently, I won't be leading the pack demanding that Stephen Harper and his "new Conservative government" try again. With his Alberta origins, I seriously doubt he'd do anything to draw the ire of the oil industry.

When hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, conspiracy theorists were blaming the onslaught of extreme weather on George Bush. I'm starting to wonder if they had a point but were pointing their fingers in the wrong place... could it be that it's the oil companies that are creating these odd weather patterns and rogue refinery fires that are popping up here and there?

I know, I know. The answer is NO, but what else are we supposed to think at this point? Imperial Oil is sure not doing itself a PR favour by appearing to be capitalizing on this incident. Let's wait and see what the quarterly earnings report comes out. Once again, we'll see they've got us by the and there will be absolutely nothing we'll be able to do about it.

Sometimes I wonder how much of a radical capitalist I really am!!!

Hamilton Spectator source article: http://tinyurl.com/39k3od

Gas over $1.00 at the pump this morning - oil companies rejoice!

2007-03-02T08:37:00.000-05:00

Canadian oil industry executives must be doing cartwheels today as Ottawa residents wake up to $1.01/litre pricing at the pump for regular gas. What's the cause for celebration? They have managed to capitalize (in Ontario) on a fire at a southern Ontario Imperial Oil refinery and create a province-wide fuel shortage. They must be trying to figure out how to leverage it and turn it into a nation-wide pricing crisis right at this very moment!

In spite of the fact that crude prices are relatively stable (around $62 a barrel, much lower than the $75+ high crude prices we saw when we last paid over a dollar a litre at the pump), prices are spiking at the retail level because of this fire.

If raw material costs are still low - the way world markets work the crude oil being turned into gasoline this week was likely produced weeks and/or months ago when crude prices were even lower - and world market conditions are relatively stable, is this "perfect storm" of a rail strike coupled with a fire at a refinery resulting in Petro Canada, Shell Oil and other companies padding their profits thanks to Imperial Oil?

Of course, oil company officials will claim that nothing untoward is going on, but when news of the fire hit the wire, we were told that refining capacity would be coming back on line by "mid next week". Then it was "some time the week after that". As of the middle of this week, we were told "some time mid-March". Huh? What will we be told next week?

I don't know if things are different in Ottawa as compared to the rest of the province, but I'd be surprised if the majority of gas stations were Esso-owned. There are three within a 5-6km radius of where I work but there are more Shell, Petro Canada and Sunoco stations in that same area. I can understand some of these stations temporarily running out of fuel when the "Esso across the street" is closed because I understand how many retailers operate - they base product orders on previous years' sales numbers. I cannot understand how their inventory stock all of a sudden would either appreciate in value by up to 20 percent virtually overnight or how their shipping costs would go up by astronomical numbers to justify the hike of pump prices.

Gas is currently selling for about 90.4 cents per litre in Winnipeg, 85.5 cents per litre in Calgary, 90.4 or 93.0 cents per litre in Fredericton. It's selling for $2.45 a gallon in Syracuse at this moment. Oh - could anyone explain why it's still selling for 95 cents per litre in Prescott right now? Why did their prices not go up overnight like they did in Ottawa?

The bottom line? Many parts of the country are chugging along just as they did two weeks ago. I am familiar with the concept of supply and demand but common sense dictates that if a competitor is failing to provide service as expected, another will and should try to step in and capitalize on that. Increased sales volumes would increase the profits of that intrepid competitor. But increasing prices at the same time should be viewed as nothing more than price gouging. There would be overtime costs associated with getting more Shell gas to Shell stations, but not to the point that product prices need to be raised by 10-20 percent. Again, remember, raw material prices have not increased.

So what's going on? Time will tell... or will it? We've never been able to figure out how these corporations work. In the meantime, life goes on - we still need to drive and we'll keep buying gas. I guess they have us where they want us, whether we like it or not.

The passing of a hero

2007-02-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

We lost a Canadian hero on Wednesday night. Lloyd Clemett passed away at the age of 107 years old.

Mr. Clemett was a veteran of the First World War. His attestation paper shows that he was born on January 10, 1898 in Peterborough, Ontario. His Veterans' Affairs record states that it was actually December 10, 1899. Either way, Mr. Clemett was declared fit to serve in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force in the 93rd Battalion on January 31, 1916. This is something he desired very much - as did many other underaged boys who felt it was their duty to enlist. He did what he had to do to get in, and we are all grateful.

My grandfather joined him about six weeks later. Frederick John Mason served in the 77th Battalion. I never met him. While he was lucky to come home from the war just like Lloyd Clemett did, he passed away in 1974 at the age of 82 years. I was only born the next year.

Over 600,000 young Canadians enlisted over ninety years ago and more than 60,000 Canadian soldiers died during the war. Over time those who came home, as Lloyd Clemett and Frederick Mason did, they succumbed one by one to the only enemy these brave men could not defeat: time. Approximately 500,000 men returned to Canada alive after the war ended.

Only two remain with us today.

Along with Percy Wilson and John Babcock, Canadians from coast to coast will mourn the passing of Lloyd Clemett this weekend. Thank you Lloyd for everything. Rest in peace.

Winter's not going anywhere any year soon

2007-02-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

So... how many people are sick and tired of temperatures in the minus-twenties? How many people are counting the days before spring comes around? Where are the people who criticized the National Capital Commission for promoting Winterlude in Toronto and Montreal back in January?

It seems like an eternity now, but it has only been about five or six weeks since the days where people all over the place were discussing life in Ottawa without skating on the Rideau Canal and what would be done in place of that mid-February festival that once counted on ice and snow. Back in January, virtually everyone was ready to declare Winterlude and winter in Ottawa dead. Nobody believed the once generally accepted fact that the city of Ottawa was the world's coldest capital city. I doubt that anyone is lining up to argue against that fact today.

In fact, irony of all ironies, the National Capital Commission announced yesterday that for "safety reasons" crews would commence destroying the ice and snow sculptures in Confederation Park today. A February thaw usually saw to it in recent years that sculptures last no longer than two or three days, sometimes even less.

For the global warming alarmists out there I have always had a good measuring stick or reference point to ensure that memories of "Waterludes" past remain as clear as possible: my birthday is February 10th. Winterlude always starts some time around my birthday. Virtually every year as long as I can remember has seen ice and snow turn to mush at least once during the festival - inevitably, the sculptures start melting before they're completed and the canal turns to slush once or twice and needs to be closed down to protect it from the elements.

NONE OF THAT HAPPENED THIS YEAR!

The Rideau Canal did not open on a record late date. In fact, some are saying that it has been in the best condition it ever has been. It has not had to close due to warm weather once so far. The sculptures lasted the whole duration of Winterlude and nature will not have a chance to knock them down this year.

What will it take for the leftist alarmists out there to recognize the fact that weather variations do not directly link to climactic changes of epic proportions? It was hilarious to hear that Saint David Suzuki stormed out of a Toronto radio station after refusing to answer some tough questions from a host who wasn't afraid to ask them. Even Saint David doesn't know what to say. I'd love to hear what he'd have to say about the fears the scientific community had only twenty-five years ago about the impending doom awaiting us - the phenomenon of global cooling.

The bottom line is we do not know what awaits us. The world has been in a constant state of change. I tend to believe the scientists who have told Canadian politicians who listened to them that even if all Kyoto provisions were implemented, no noticeable effects could be observed. I'm not giving up my car, I'm not going to turn my thermostat down to eight degrees Celsius in the winter and I certainly will not opt to live without lights.

Come on, folks, knee jerk reactions won't get us anywhere. The percentage of this planet that is inhabited by industrialized countries is so small, our footprint is almost negligible when compared to the surface covered by water and uninhabited land. Let's study the situation properly and not fly off the handle, issuing panic inducing reports that proclaim the sky is falling.

We all know what happened to Chicken Little.

Garth Turner to join the Liberal Party of Canada?!

2007-02-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

Say it isn't so, Garth.

How can any self-respecting small or big "C" conservative entertain the idea of joining the ranks of the Liberal Party of Canada? More importantly, how can someone who sits on the right side of the political spectrum entertain joining the ranks of a caucus led by a person who aspires to lead from the far left?

Surely Mr. Turner has very little in common ideologically with Stephane Dion - if he was unable to live with himself as a member of Stephen Harper's minority government, how can he believe that the could successfully integrate himself into the very party he has bitterly fought for decades? Based on what I've read on Garth Turner's blog in recent months it just doesn't make sense that he would make a move such as this.

I see that "scheduled system maintenance" has disabled Mr. Turner's site that has appeared to survive massive hit counts in the past. In its current "static form" any interactive tool the site possessed has been rendered inactive until service is restored. Any bets that the site is being changed to reflect a possible new reality that soon awaits Mr. Turner's constituents?

Could Mr. Turner ever have been labeled a "red tory"? I don't think so. If that turns out to be the case, how can he wake up one morning after years as a conservative and decide that joining a party with an unproven leader who seems to be a one trick pony (everything seems to tie back to the environment with Mr. Dion, according to numerous reports I read yesterday) who will sit squarely on the far left if given the opportunity to govern?

When I was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada I could not wait for the party to take a slight turn to the right after years of straying from the centre. Paul Martin was the person I and thousands of others were led to believe would make that turn. He failed as a leader and disappeared faster than he could recite his oath of office.

I have been inactive on the political front for six years now and cannot see myself being enticed to get back on board given where Mr. Dion will likely lead his party. If I could not fathom the idea, it should be unthinkable that someone like Garth Turner would.

Again, say it isn't so, Mr. Turner. Here's hoping the news reports are nothing more than false rumours. Time will tell.

I actually agree with Jack Layton on something?

2007-01-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

I have complained quite bitterly in this forum on more than one occasion about the ridiculous profits the major banks are earning here in Canada. I have been infuriated by quaint little letters from the bank informing me that "in order to remain competitive" fees are being "restructured" - mainly because any time fees are "restructured" fees are being hiked. And not by mere percentage points.

The relatively small charitable organization I work for has seen its monthly bank fees virtually double since the "improvements" to business accounts were introduced last year. Complaining to my branch manager or corporate headquarters was useless as they refused to put me through to a Vice President of Customer Service (if such a position indeed even existed - I was not allowed to know... or the person on the phone said that such information could not be disclosed to me.)

Imagine my surprise late last week when Jack Layton decided to attack the banking industry by flogging them for the "convenience charge" one is assessed when attempting to withdraw money from a bank machine owned by another bank? Critics point out that lazy people should pay for the convenience of using someone else's machines... but letter writers in local newspapers point out that due to "convergence" (or mergers for us lay people), several rural communities have seen big banks closing local branches. What other choice do they have?

The bottom line is that "competition" amongst bank monoliths in Canada means who has the biggest quarterly earnings. They "compete" to satisfy shareholders, not customers.

Anything that can be done to make these corporate giants exercise some responsibility in their day to day operations is good by me. It's too bad it's a third party in our House of Commons that wants to "stick it to the man" but if given a chance, I'll line up with Jack and the NDP to support this project.

Each and every one of us, regardless of political affiliations, and lord knows I ain't no leftist!!!

Pressure from one person cancels local movie showing - outrageous!!

2007-01-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

How much longer will the cotton picking politically correct movement wreak havoc on our society? According to local media today, a woman who claims to be a former university professor (though she seems to be better known for initiating or supporting radical leftist "causes" and nobody seems to know what institution of higher learning employed her) e-mailed Rainbow Cinemas to complain about a planned showing of a movie on "rising Islamic radicalism".

Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West will not be showed at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre's Rainbow Cinemas due squarely to the one e-mailed complaint from the alleged former university professor. The Conservative Film Society booked Rainbow for the showing in November and aims to "show provocative, conservative films" that otherwise don't get to see the light of day in traditional movie complexes.

Is the complainant really a "former university professor"? I doubt it. That she would be so flippantly and callously advocate censorship without even seeing the movie she demanded be pulled from the theatre seems to go against everything I have learned universities are about. I am told (and have observed) that universities are in part education centres that teach students how to think or institutions that stimulate deep discussions about everything under the sun. Check out some of the research grants awarded to see how broad a spectrum under which these university graduate students or tenured professors get all the time!

No real professor would so quickly and independently attempt to quash something without even knowing one single thing about it. Had she actually seen the movie, she would have at least had one leg to stand on. She hasn't and therefore should not have anything to say.

All that aside, the fact that one single complaint caused the theatre to cancel a booking that has been planned for over two months is a clear indication that political correctness is going way too far. What's next, professor, advocating that certain books be pulled off shelves and burned? We seem to be at the point that leftist propaganda is readily accepted as indisputable fact (see Al Gore's movie as an example) while anything from the "other perspective" is poppycock or is censored before it even sees the light of day.

I thought that being part of a democratic society meant that all points of view were valid and merited at least an opportunity to exist. It seems that this is becoming more and more of a fading memory. When will this stop?

Proud to be a member of the Royal Canadian Legion!

2007-01-24T09:52:00.000-05:00

After more than a decade of fighting for veterans' rights and their general well-being, I am proud to have been asked to join the Legion. Just before Christmas a member of the Bells Corners branch (#593) approached me to see if I might consider joining. The stated reason was so I could try out for various sports teams - I came out of retirement from bowling last September - but it could/would mean much more for me.

My work for veterans could be taken to the next level. I have always felt that the men and women who fought for Canada deserved much more than they had received in the decades that followed their return to the homeland. Over and above that, several members of my family fought in various conflicts. My grandfather fought in World War I.

I have always been told to sit quietly and observe a little before speaking up or jumping when joining a new organization. Mere days after the general meeting that saw me initiated into branch #593 did someone come over and ask what I might be interested in doing. I had already volunteered to be one of six branch representatives at a Heart Institute telethon (many members of my family have been in and out of that facility) but it seems that I won't have to wait a few months before becoming active.

They are very nice people and I'm sure they're happy to see a pair of younger hands floating about. I hope to help out here and there and give a little something back. Who knows where this road will lead?!

Where are all the global warming worrywarts now?

2007-01-17T20:07:00.000-05:00

So winter finally arrived last Thursday. Did you all really think it would never come? Was Ottawa on the verge of becoming the next Victoria?

Many people would seem to think so. Had I not been sick last week I would have been tempted to head out to a very soggy golf course to get eighteen holes in. I would have been able to brag to my future grandchildren that I, Michael Mason, played golf in Ottawa - the world's COLDEST capital city - in January! I guess I will have to live vicariously through some of my friends who did get manage to get out there.

But I have to ask... if Ottawa was on the verge of becoming another Victoria, what would there be to brag about? Would it not become commonplace to play golf in Ottawa in the middle of January? After all, with global warming having arrived, it's bound to become as common as an old Saturn with 208,000km on it that doesn't want to start on a -26 degree morning, right? OK, so I'm bitter because my wife's car didn't start today. Why? Oh yes - because it was minus twenty-six degrees outside this morning.

Look - over the millions of years this planet has whirled its way around the sun, climate change has been a phenomenon experienced by all living creatures. With some scientists and politicians trying to convince the masses that we're all going to burn up if we don't stop driving cars and using traditional light bulbs in our houses, hysteria was beginning to settle in.

Before January 11, 2007 came along, all people were talking about was global warming. When the cold and snow set in on the 12th, a day that North America tumbled into a week-long (and counting!) cold snap that starts in Texas and seems to trail all the way up through northern Quebec, the doomsday brigade all seemed to wither away into their hovels, presumably curled up in front of their fireplaces.

Odds are excellent that they won't be showing up on any open line radio programs or television special broadcasts any time soon. But as soon as the mercury hits one or two degrees above normal (which has happened on every single day of the year if you check out historical weather data - and records weren't all set in the last fifteen or fifty years either), they will be back out once again.

American "experts" claim polar bears are dying off. The agriculture minister in Nunavut disagrees. Alarmists claim that polar ice is disappearing at a speed never seen before in our history. Tangible data and historical information if read intelligently says otherwise.

Come on, people, I'd be shocked if we regularly saw +12 degree weather over a two week period between Christmas and mid-January again in the next half century. It might happen once or twice, but that won't mean that the sky is falling. It'll simply mean that weather patterns have temporarily shifted once again. Besides... do you think that people in Malibu are worried about buying snow shovels and street graders today because a half-inch of snow fell on the palm trees this morning?

I don't think so.

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

2006-12-20T09:58:00.000-05:00

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"

2006-12-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-14T08:31:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-12T08:27:00.000-05:00

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

2006-12-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

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...

Hey smokers - is the world your ashtray?

2006-11-29T20:05:00.000-05:00

There's something I have to know. The original title to this piece, one that I have been contemplating for months now, was to be "Pigs on Wheels". Why the change? I figure I'd have infuriated people before they read what I had to say on the subject, not during or afterwards. I want to make people think.

Aside from wanting to get this off my chest and into the limited part of the cyberworld that reads my blog, I want to see someone comment on writings for once. Surely this will make people want to lash out!! So many other blogs I read on a regular basis commonly receive a few or even a few dozen comments after each of their posts. I see that I have a good number of people who check in daily, and I will try to write more than once every seven to ten days to make sure more come back on a regular basis. OK... enough buttering you guys up. You're out there, if I infuriate you or write something particularly touching, please do me a favour and leave a comment or two behind.

Back to the issue at hand. I drive around 35,000 kilometres a year, most of them by myself. Being a naturally curious person and a wannabe journalist, I am always keenly aware of my surroundings. If you didn't renew your license plate sticker last February, chances are I notice that if you're ahead of me in bumper to bumper traffic on the Queensway. Are you from away and are driving a car with Montana license plates? I'll look at your car and wonder what brings you to Canada's nation's capital. All this typically will make me smile and will draw away from the fact I'm going nowhere fast due to some accident down the road. So what do I mean about the world being smoker's ashtray or what exactly are "pigs on wheels"?

In recent years, ashtrays in cars have been shrinking. In some cases, a "smoker's package" is an option when a new car is ordered from a dealership. I guess it is for this reason that one no longer sees disgusting piles of butts and ashes in parking lots. Remember getting out of your car and seeing unsightly "care packages" left behind by smokers whose ashtrays obviously got filled right up to the top in their cars? I can't remember the last time I encountered one of those. Thanks, "ladies" and "gentlemen".

While these people no longer leave wonderful piles in parking lots anymore, they have taken to leaving trails of destruction wherever their cars happen to go. Where can one most commonly come across evidence that many smokers have been around? Take a look at the ground next to you the next time you exit the 417 and are sitting at a light waiting to turn left. It doesn't matter if you want to head north on St. Laurent Blvd. or south on Maitland Ave., if you sit through an average 45 second light cycle and you look over and to the left, you'll find dozens if not hundreds of cigarette butts beside the curb or on the ground where grass once grew. Pigs.

Just this morning I was on Merivale Road in front of Merivale Mall. I was waiting for a light when the forty-something male in a black Honda Accord opened his window and flung his spent cigarette outside. Pig. Years ago I wrote about people like this guy in the West End Chronicle and I sarcastically tried to satirize the situation by claiming that I would love nothing more than to run people like this guy into highway guardrails when I see them doing the same thing. These days I'd love to get out of my truck, pick the butt up and put it neatly under the pig's windshield wiper. I won't do that, of course, because one never knows what someone who could care less about littering laws, his city's ecology or other people's perception of the cleanliness of Canada's capital might do.

People who have read The World as I See It over the years know that I have an undying respect for members of our military. I have two "support our troops" ribbons on the back of my vehicle. One day two weeks ago I was getting off the Queesnway at the Vanier Parkway exit, following a truck occupied by at least two of our finest. Imagine my shock when I saw the driver's window open and a cigarette being flung outside. All I could do is shake my head in amazement. Why soldier, why would you do something like that? Where's your civic pride?

So tell me, smokers, why do you think it is OK for you to use the world as your ashtray? Is it OK for me to come to your house and discard my kitchen waste on your front porch? Probably not. The ironic thing is that the kitchen waste will disappear and turn itself into soil enriching compost while your cigarette butt sits around for years until a street sweeper finally takes it away, leaving the street to receptively sit there, awaiting the next pig on wheels to come by.

Sorry - but if I have offended you, so be it. Chances are very good that if you smoke while in a car, you have thrown at least one cigarette out the window. Don't expect me to applaud you or view your actions as being anything other than socially irresponsible. Think twice before doing it again. If you don't want butts accumulating in your car, there are countless other options for you to consider. Don't be a pig on wheels.

A nation within a "united Canada"

2006-11-23T10:15:00.000-05:00

So this morning I wake up to Steve Madeley on CFRA ranting about the fact that major national news reports have virtually all misinterpreted what Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday. Did writers and editors from coast to coast suddenly turn stupid last night?

While I have read the transcript and can understand - to a point - what the Ottawa morning show host was driving at this morning, I am still shocked that Stephen Harper would still feel the need to placate and essentially pat the heads of separatists. The official record now shows that Mr. Harper was quite clear and tried to distinguish the difference between the province of Quebec being a "nation" and the Quebecois being a "nation".

Whatever.

OK, so that was a little juvenile of me, but most of this separatist propaganda that has been hoisted upon us for decades now has never been based on any sound facts. Those in favour of sovereignty for Quebec continually ignore the economic realities that tenth graders are taught in basic economics classes. Anyone who bothers to watch global stock markets for a few days prior to and after major events (catastrophic or otherwise) can clearly see how even faint perceptions of impending disaster or impropriety can impact the wallets of citizens from coast to coast.

Sure, the PMO can point to a carefully crafted speech that Mr. Harper delivered in the House of Commons yesterday. Sure, his PR people can try to spin the story as much as they want.

Whether they are making the distinction that the province should be a country in its own right or that the residents of the province are a "nation" under any definition, the bottom line is that the separatist Quebec governments insisted on referring to Quebec City as the "nation's capital". The gutless and allegedly federalist Liberal governments have done nothing to take those signs down and refer to their capital the same way every other province calls its own capital city.

A rose of any other name is still the same. Why Mr. Harper felt compelled to pat the heads of those who would see our country as we know it today destroyed, I'll never know. Sure, it's most likely a cheap stunt that is meant to head off his potential competition in a soon to be announced federal election at the pass, but I don't think that any responsible leader should start playing with national unity in order to garner a few extra votes at the polls.

Now Prime Minister Harper wants Quebec to be recognized as a nation... what's next?

2006-11-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

Almost a month ago I criticized Michael Ignatieff for supporting concept of recognizing the province of Quebec as a nation. I acknowledged Liberal apologists' efforts to rationalize the act by pointing to the definition of the word: "a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity[...]"

I did not, however, go further and point out that the second part of that first segment of its definition states: "[...]to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own." Given that provinces already possess their own government, we know that it's a second interpretation of that clause that separatists seek. It is the wish to be a sovereign nation outside of the country of Canada. That is precisely what a second clause to the definition of the word 'nation' defines: "the territory or country itself." Once again to those who should be found guilty of treason as a result of their on-going plotting to destroy my country, the province of Quebec is not a country.

To the so-called federalists - and I guess that not only does this group include Liberal wannabe leader Michael Ignatieff, as we saw earlier today when Prime Minister Harper stood up in the House of Commons to state that his party will “do what it must” to make sure the country remains united and free.

I thought that Stephen Harper was a man of honour. I thought that Stephen Harper was a man who was the proud Prime Minister of Canada. I thought that he brought more courage to the table than any other Prime Minister we've seen since Trudeau. I suppose on one hand it could be viewed as courageous to make the statement he made today, but it could also be considered one of the stupidest moves made by our country's leader in decades.

What is there in it for us to try to placate the feelings of those who want to break up our country? Is there any reason why we no longer view those who are "against us" as the enemy? I guess it's been eons since treason laws were enforced in Canada (treason being defined as "a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state") and it has been politically correct to tolerate a minority of Quebeckers who have misguided dreams of one day forming their own country.

While we have been repeatedly shown by the people of Quebec that they do not wish to separate from Canada, a small handful of politicians keep the rest of the country at gunpoint. The possible economic ruin that would come with a vote to separate being their weapon of choice (though being the cowards they are, they continue to live under the delusion that all will be well for all parties involved "the day after").

I don't get it. As a former Liberal, I was offended by Mr. Ignatieff's statement a few weeks ago. As a Canadian, I am offended by what my Prime Minister has said today. O Canada - we stand on guard for thee. Um, Prime Minister? Did you forget about that today?

Where do I go now? What can we do? Hey Garth Turner - any bright ideas?