Another Member

Welcome Peter Whittle to the Paradox Party (aka Oblivion) where we find partisan politics repulsive and most often self-serving...

Apples to Peanuts - Equalization Share (Canada - Let's build it on the Backs of the Little Guys with no representation!)

My household and I are shocked and completely disappointed by Mr. Harper's betrayal and manipulation of his word regarding equalisation and the Atlantic Accord. Note also that I was born and raised in Ontario and at least I have been able to educate my friends and family regarding the unfairness to which NL is continuously subjected. I would hope that our representatives, as few as they are, could do the same in the House of Commons. I have lived around the world and in many provinces in Canada, including 4.5 yrs in Quebec. Strangely enough, Quebec is the province with which NL has the closest cultural comparison but they have 75 MP's to our seven, so we neither get listened to nor do we get our fair share from the federation.

Bullying! 58 years of bullying! The problem: the Big Guys (Ontario, Quebec & now too Alberta) stomping the Little Guys (Atlantic Provinces, Saskatchewan and the 3 Territories) is happening in our country. The Little Guy provinces all put together cannot receive fair representation from Canada. Even if we could convince Manitoba, BC, Alberta and for that matter all of the Maritime provinces to join NL, we still couldn't match Ontario's domination and control of the federation in a purely mathematical formula of MP's! The "population" based powers and their "national" newspapers, supported by their 10's of millions of voters, wonder why the tiny hamlets (aka little provinces) are in an uproar about the broken promises and unfair measuring of everything per capita. Of course it is unfair! The new formula even removes offsets designed for years to take this factor into consideration. We need practically, just as many miles of highways and maintenance. This is just one reason why it isn't fair...

Ontario with it's nearly $6k per capita times its population base of about 10 million people surely maintains a nicer more functional infrastructure than that of NL at approx $7k per capita times its population of 500 thousand. I mean come on, compare apples to apples, or even apples to oranges but not apples to peanuts. The resource and agricultural industries are consistently stripped for their value from tiny unrepresented provinces with 4-14 MP's and are keeping central (and the rest of) Canada in very good shape as they process and "add value" to our provinces' resources' at the expense of those of us who are considered underpopulated "complainers".

Alberta (as I understand it) has received 20 plus years of benefit their non-renewable resources, yet now that NL and NS are finally in a place to receive similar fair treatment, the rules are changed. Funny, the Prime Minister comes from Alberta. Are the sands nearly tapped? Is AB running at the end of its non-renewable resource? Is that why they seem willing to step gracefully away from the trough into an equalisation formula designed especially for them!? All this just as NL finally gets a chance to earn a fair income from a different resource to make up for years of direct federally supported over-fishing, forestry, and the ongoing unfair pillaging of NL's Lower Churchill power facility by Quebec. How vile.

Mr. Manning, nay, Mr. Harper, when does it stop? Moreover, when do you keep your word and when does Canada keep her word to Newfoundland & Labrador, and for that matter the other under-represented provinces of the federation? Remember also, the Marine Atlantic ferry is our Trans Canada Highway, it is written in law. The price for a trip across the channel should match the equivalent in kilometres/litre of regular unleaded gasoline, not the cost of a round trip airplane ticket to Toronto! Our resources, geography, commitment to freedom and fairness are the primary reasons why Newfoundland was seduced by Canada. Stop sharing our peanuts with everybody, if you're not willing to pay fairly for them...

Perhaps we need to re-strike the Fair Deal for Newfoundland website, so I have also cc'd Kevin McCann and many NL MHA's. Maybe this time around the NL Government will hire and pay him for his communication talents.

Finally, we "get it", so tell Flaherty to stop being so incredulous and condescending. Every time he talks he insults the Little Guys like the self-absorbed, self-indulgent writers and editors of the Globe & Mail. National news me arse...

My thoughts for now,

Fred Harris CBS, NL

Military Stretched Thin - Yer not sayin'...

I have been saying this for over 10 years. I provided an unsolicited 15-page document to Air Force Retention (a section invented to bandage the outpouring of qualified personnel who were sick of the governments cutbacks and absence of commitment to our military). The Liberal government and the upper echelon "Yes-men and women" of the Canadian Forces have been trying to use our military as stretch-wrap to cover all the edges of everything from our coastlines, to NATO commitments, to our northern sovereignty, to search and rescue and back again. It's a good thing we don't have to protect against invasion from below...

Maybe my belief that the Conservatives government would be equally ineffective at protecting and supporting our service people, coupled with an ongoing inability to provide serious commitment to rebuilding and re-equipping the Canadian military, were premature. The following news story finally seems to recognize just how thin our military has been left following years of hack and slash governing.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/13/oconnor060413.html

Will the Conservatives improve this? I hope so. Am I still pissed-off that Emerson and Harper (re: Fortier & Emerson) have not been held to task for the abuse of our voters trust? You bet I am. This merely elicits the often-misinterpreted belief that just because I'm pissed-off about the unethical and completely irresponsible manner, in which government handles one issue, doesn't mean the same government is incapable of correctly handling other issues. However, they should still be held to task and held accountable for each of the unreasonable acts they commit.

Each event is exclusive but correctly reacting to situations and issues that disgust and outrage the electorate should be handled individually. I'm not saying that everybody should resign but I believe Harpers abuse of power in those circumstances still needs to be punished. The spirit of our country's rules, combined with Harpers word to support the spirit of those rules, rather than act like Liberals, cries out for restorative measures and telling him that he is not permitted to do things contrary to his election promises. He promised to fix the loopholes and problems in our country's legislation, not use them to his own ends. Fix that...

...and thanks for finally recognizing the shortfalls in supporting our troops! Hey maybe next we could look at providing our troops with equivalent college or university accreditation for the standardized training that they receive around Canada. What a concept, respect for protecting your country.

My thoughts for now...

FredfromCBS

Watchdogs Around the Country

The following is some excerpts from one of my posts to Wallace MacLean's Labradore.

I am a diehard 'keep Canada together no matter what the cost' kinda guy.

I was and still am on a learning curve regarding both provincial and federal politics. I will form my opinions and arguments based on all the partisan crap espoused by reds, blues, oranges and greens. Good ideas for the whole of Canada and the provinces should NEVER be held hostage by any party attempting to push partisan agenda and issues of favouritism.

I pledge that I will:
1. try to play fair;
2. learn from history;
3. avoid name calling;
4. teach children about politics, ethics, fair play;
5. share information to empower people to make the best choices possible;
6. arrest hatred and do my best to stop hate crime;
7. protect the weak, disabled and elderly; and
8. Stop the abuse of our social systems and tax dollars by all.

Item 8 is designed to include government officials (white collar criminals) as well as welfare and other system abusers (blue collar criminals). The era of entitlement will need to get by watchdogs like me. It may sound Utopian but it will grow more rapidly than did these governments who abuse their positions of power.

Messieurs Harper and Emerson should be dismissed and enter bi-elections. Not just Emerson, Harper too! He compromised our trust the first day in office.

I will rant sporadically. It will be less about protecting politicians and more about protecting our country's collaborative effort with other countries to make the entire world accountable to a humane society towards people of the planet. I also support balancing the good treatment of the preservation of the creatures of the planet to their usefulness in our diets and the world economy.I hope I haven't given you too much information to digest...

My thoughts for now,

FredfromCBS

Canada's Best Legacy in the World

The Canadian Forces is not an overnight fix, for sure! Especially now that people are dying and the newest direction of Canada's military involvement is looking more like a watered down apology, to the Yanks & Brits, for our less enthusiastic approach to their world wide policing action. Wasn't the Vietnam lesson enough? And if Harper gets in we become merely another Company or Platoon in the American Brigade war effort. Nah, that's not the Canadian Forces I want. Once the Americans screwed us out of the Arrow and our rightful place in history, being peacekeepers was the best decision ever made by our government. Pearson had the scattered good idea...

It is not Canada's historical design or place to merely act as another strong arm to enforce American will. Canada's first and most important role in foreign military intervention should be as a peacekeeping force. The second and probably only other reason to visit or work in foreign arenas is to be visible goodwill ambassadors for our country. It is why we are generally less hated around the world than Americans. Because we don't enforce the will or policy of anybody and we try to maintain a protective force for civilians while participating in the rebuilding of countries in turmoil; we are generally placed in high regard by the civilians in the war-torn countries we "visit".

One of the many reasons I left the military when I did was because of the average age of people in the military was over 30, close to 35 yrs old. There was no room left for advancement and my butt-kissing for a promotion was never quite as good as some other "Yes" men & women that I’ve worked with. Non-commissioned member recruiting was way down and attrition was only eroding the qualified people who were stagnated from upward progression due to the bottleneck created by the government when they came up with the "Force Reduction Plans". The “Old Boy’s Club” is another daily hurdle in the Air Force & the Navy but I can only speculate that it is the same in the Army. Once they get into the OBC, it’s warm and career progression is nice but they hafta live with the memories of the ideas they have stolen and the backs they have walked over to get there.

No, Ed Hollett's point that, "[The Forces]: unrealistic plans to expand ... beyond what can even reasonably be recruited," is very real. What he didn't say was that the reason it is so desperate is because the Liberals decimated the Forces and it is only now starting to recover following a gapping wound delivered by his "fiscally responsible" morons in Red. It became a less viable option for kids getting out of school to join until recently but if we join Bush and his cronies with a newly elected Blue jacket, and Canadian kids start dying daily, well, let's just not get to that point. We will notice our brothers and sisters dying a lot faster on CTV way faster than Americans do on CNN.

The Canadian Forces is in an outpatient recovery program that needs to return to its roots as does the Canadian Governments policies on world intervention and missions. We are peacekeepers and our good nature, coupled with our dedication to that task is a much better use for our people than is the George Bush method of ramming democracy down someone’s throat.

No matter who gets in, they must realize this truth and shy away from the saber-rattlin' bar...

FredfromCBS

Green Party "Sealing" Fate In NL

I've been embroiled in discussions with some Green Party officials after hooking up with a candidate of theirs here on the Rock. (That's Newfoundland, Canada.)

The candidate hosts a blog too http://newfoundlandgreenparty.blogspot.com

I've also come to realize that with a family, a job, 2 university courses, grandchildren, homework, 2 books started, 1 firm business idea, 1 in the works and 3 other prospects, I prefer to post on existing blogs more often than I do on my own.

I'm sure I'll get riled soon enough to go on another role.

MP Recommends Rollback

This is a SNIP from John Gushue's Blog http://johngushue.typepad.com/ under "Roll back salaries, MP says":

Former solicitor-general Wayne Easter has strong advice for his former cabinet colleagues. Nancy Russell has more details from her blog tonight about the P.E.I. MP:
Malpeque MP Wayne Easter is calling on the Martin Cabinet to roll back "any financial gain made by managers over and above normal salaries as a result of the lockout" at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
...
"This lack of resolutions at the mediation talks," he writes to the ministers, " leads me to believe that at least one of the parties at the table is not really resolved to settling the issue."

This is a serious and positive step for the CBC employees which I support. If only our federal government MP's, of which Minister Easter is also a party, recommended a Roll Back for the wages associated with MP, Cabinet and Senate salaries, perhaps then we might meet the 0.7% to meet our country's goal for poverty, improve the Health Care systems, demontrate their knowledge that they are the only ones living with affordable quality of life, etc. You know I could go on and on about the programs and underfunding caused by overpaying themselves but the ravenous, glutonous Ottawa trough feeders know what I am talking about. Their ease of life is made possible by them consistently unethically voting for themselves a larger disparity in wages between themselves and the people to whom they are supposed to represent! It is a conflict of interest that they should have the right to set these wage levels. Why not "think outside that box" and Rollback YOUR wages my representatives. I mean come on, we pay for all your lunches and trips through expense accounts. Why do you need the base salary of 4 or more average Canadians?