A Guest Post - one from Dan

Dan Christie

Two weeks ago I was on Vancouver Island -mostly to attend the Vancouver Island Music Festival halfway up-island near Courtnay/Comox. Comox of course is home to  a large Canadian Forces Base. I also spent ten days in Victoria where just across the harbour is another military base, Esquimalt, the west coast headquarters of Canada's navy.

While there is a stretch of road called The Veteran's Memorial Highway just north of Victoria, there doesn't seem to be anything as openly promoted as Ontario's Highway Of Heroes. As a matter of fact almost nothing about the military seems as openly promoted in B.C. as it is in Ontario. Sure, because it happens to be the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Navy, Wharf Street in Victoria is festooned with tasteful banners on lamp posts honouring the occassion.

But what I didn't see (and believe me by Day 3 I was actively looking) was a single "We Support The Troops" bumper sticker. Not a one.

Why is this? Does it have something to do with the euphamism 'The Left Coast'-the laid back attitude brought on by mountains, sea breezes and hehheh...good shit?

Or are we here in Ontario just more of a redneck persuasion -given to more overt displays of patriotism -especially really maudlin patriotism- than other parts  of the country? And if so, how much of a role do small town newspapers play in pushing that patriotism?

Psychologically, I already live in a small two-bedroom in James Bay. All that remains is to sell everything -including two snowblowers- and move.

Is this the end of the Rinaldi regime?

Lou Rinaldi has been coasting and it shows. A pathetic defence of Provincial decisions and a lacklustre performance in the recent Hospital cuts debate has not helped his image a a dynamic MPP, but what did?

With Lou's performance in the background the shocking announcement from Brighton's Mayor, Christine Herrington, that she has pulled her nomination papers from the 2010 election speculation will abound about her motives.

So are the two circumstances related? There has always been a rumour that CH wants to be more than a small town Mayor and she even participated in the Federal Liberal nomination contest.

Our money is on Lou announcing that he will not run again early next year, CH grabbing the brass ring and going for the election in 2011

While on Lib politics - on a trip downtown yesterday morning  bumped into candidate Kim Rudd. Complete with a guy following her around with a camcorder on a tripod she was gladhanding at the Farmers' Market. Wonder where Rick Norlock is these days, sitting pretty on his newly acquired pension he probably doesn't care much? As long as he carries his blackberry ready to receive the latest talking points from the propaganda centre, it doesn't matter where he is the message will still get out.

Charity Cannot Fix Canada's Affordable Housing crisis

Our esteemed host on the Burd Report today asked why Habitat for Humanity has become such a popular organization, crammed with A-list volunteers and boosters, along with government at all levels.

The answer becomes apparent when we think about how charitable groups operate and how they are different from government mandated social programs that are applied with standard eligibility criteria across the board.

All charities, particularly Habitat, continually promote their dedication to helping "deserving families". The ugly term "deserving children" is even heard, as if any child could be undeserving of basic needs. But the charity gets to decide what deserving means and exactly who meets that criteria. Contrast that with social programs which start from the premise that everyone who meets the well known financial criteria qualifies for the program.

The key difference is our social programs are based on our beliefs in equality and justice. If a need has been established and it is the government's mandate to meet that need, impartial standards are set to ensure fairness in the program's application. That doesn't solve the problem of sometimes lengthy waiting lists, but does guarantee everybody is treated the same.

But the charity has too much power that often goes unchallenged. Those rejected as "undeserving" are often not told why, and certainly don't have the appeal rights a rejected applicant to a government program enjoys. The charity calls all the shots.

That's a major reason charities are loved by right wing groups like the Fraser Institute. They point out in one of their books by Chris Sarlo that the beauty of charity is that one can withdraw support if one decides they don't like what the charity is doing. Like maybe helping someone the donor deems to be undeserving. United Way worries about that and encourages their agencies to keep donor happiness at the top of the pinnacle, even having a role in what kind of services the agencies can provide.

Our friends at the Fraser Insititute actually advocate that government get out of providing social programs altogether, and let charities take over completely. That way they can weed out the undeserving and ensure all help provided is based on undefined standards set by the privileged donor set.

This battle between the principles of charity and justice has been raging since government in civilised countries began making provisions for the disadvantaged, reducing the role of the church parrish in doling out bread and shelter. We need to make sure that justice wins, and that people understand the difference.

John Daly just can't get a break

Golfer John Daly, a flamboyant personality (he was wearing purple paisley pants yesterday), has had more downs than up finally might have achieved redemption from his personal demons yesterday with a low score at the British Open, but he was eclipsed by a much youger Irishman who tied the lowest score ever in a major golf event - nine under.

Here is a wonderful piece of writing about Daly and his performance from the Daily Express in the UK. One quote - "Calm and Daly have not been regular bedfellows during a volcanic career which has included four divorces, five PGA Tour bans and on-course fines totalling £65,000, but St Andrews has a beatific effect on the reformed rabble rouser."

John Daly is a classic example of "art imitating life". Who would have thought that when Kevin Costner made the movie "Tin Cup" that it could be based on a real person!

This story has many backstories

Iggy came to Town! This report from NNews tells of his visit, we will discuss the undercurrents.

• Iggy is on his summer tour and despite buses breaking down all he has to do is assemble the stamina needed to endure such a tour and be able to fend off boredom and to demonstrate enthusiasm for politics. He had better be a people person or stay away from open mics. Iggy needs more than a bus trip to sell himself, he needs to opt out of the coalition government he is part of. How many times have the Libs propped up the CRAP party in the last two years. How can he convince the voters that he is an alternative when he is an active part of Harper's coalition?
• It's about time that 'affordable housing' became a mainstay of public spending. Political scientists will tell you that good public policy includes public spending on public housing. We now know that "Council Estates" are a bad idea but mixed housing is good. There are ways to deliver good public housing and drive the economy as well. Iggy should be explaining how. In a comment this week the BR was asked to detail its ideas about the recovery and where public money should be spent. Housing, energy retrofits and grants to help homeowners to do the job should be a mainstay of the recovery. energy grants have been cancelled by Harper - why?
• Now for a bit of class warfare. Habitat for Humanity has quickly become an A-lister, one of the NGOs that government will readily support. Why? Is it because one of the first supporters was ex President Jimmy Carter - that definitely helped. In Northumberland HforH has grown rapidly and the BurdReport would suggest that one reason would be the kind of support it has garnered for the Board. HforH has worked hard to get the A list of Board members, ex-professionals and fully fledged Rotary members - good for them. But we would ask why do the elites add their weight to this NGO when others constantly look for members. Do I see a lineup for the Board on an equally successful and worthy NGO - Beyond the Blue Box? No, helping lower income people, or even working to support them is not fashionable.
• Kim Rudd has poked her head above the trenches! That's a story in itself. But where did she do it? At an Iggy event - braunnosing the Boss. Keeping a low profile and waiting for the Harpercrits to make a mistake and implode in an election is no way to build a profile. Flipping burgers at partisan BBQs won't gather any column inches so candidates have to get out, all candidates! We have three nominated opposition candidates in this riding and not a word from any of them so far in this, a two year election period.

"We have gained back all the jobs we have lost in the recession!"

That's the mantra being chanted by the government spinmeisters and Chamber of Commerce boosters. But is it true? when one looks at the latest Statscan tables it is not true in this region of the Country. Muskokas-Kawartha is still in pretty bad shape. The figures are shown below.

JUNE              2008          2010

workforce      186,600     179,800

labourforce    199,400     193,800

unemployed   12,800         14,000

Just wanted everybody to know the figures so that the next time you hear the mantra you can tell the chanter to go check the figures.

Could this happen here?

This post on a blog gives the inside scoop on an incident in Calgary where a SunMedia photo guy was involved in a punchup with the local constabulary when he was told to stop taking pics at a crime scene. The question is "could this happen on the Lakeshore?". According to local commenters the pic takers in this area have a pretty cozy relationship with the local guys in blue. Pete Fisher (NorthumberlandToday), an award winning lensman, has often been suspected of being in on busts as they ocurr, but what is wrong with that even if it does aggravate the competition? It's the pic that counts. Being a small area where we all know who the players are, it is hard to imagine such an altercation taking place between photogs/journos here. But it could where aggressive Police come into contact with aggressive pictakers. we should be so lucky that it doesn't after all I'd hate to see Ted (Amsden), or Peggy (McCarthy) or Pete facedown on the ground pinned by a cop just for doing their jobs. However with aggressive policing becoming the norm, witness the activity in Toronto lately (Israeli police training is suspected for the uniform response) how long will it be before that training will be implemented here? Not for a long time we hope.

A thought that will not go away

In the aftermath of the G20 debacle all sides are struggling to either setup a public enquiry or pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Polls show that the public view of what went on is mixed but few people wish to be overly critical of the State or its role in the operation of the Police. Toronto Council passed a motion thanking the Police and its Chief and they hope that all is now well.

But, is it? We have the Provincial Government and the Police telling us that the special conditions of the Publlic something act that allowed the searches and detainment of anybody within 5metres of the fence didn't exist. We had the fact that anybody who was deemed by the Police to be worthy of stopping was. Random search and forced self-identification was the norm and anybody in the area was forced to comply.

So how was this made possible? The Police now tell us that they have the power to search  anybody and anything "if they suspect a possible breach of the peace". So the searches are not random (that would be a Charter contravention) but lawfully executed whenever  the Police suspect something. The sooner these guys are hauled off to the the Supreme Court for a ruling the better.

Here is a video from"TRNN' The Real News Network an independent news organisation with international credibility that explains the background and issues of this problem - rights and freedoms

 Another  TRNN video with a 'rightwinger' from the "National Post" defending the actions of the situation, interesting comments and questions from the interviewer. here

Playing withthe taxpayers' money

It happens all the time, those without a lot of money become spendthrifts once they have their hands on the public till. Cobourg has the Frink and the Community Centre, both imposssible projects on their own but throw in public money and we watched the green stuff fly.

Port Hope is a very good example of "our eyes are bigger than our stomachs" syndrome. This small municipality already charges its homeowners a large sum of money to live there, some say the highest taxes are in PH, but with MPAC calculations comparitive tax rates are had to figure out. But high taxes don't seem to faze the good burghers and we have the image of a cashflow problem with the taxpayers paying for an 8million overdraft carrying charges. An (un)expected 9million over-run on the sewage treatment plant, a controversial buy of agricultural land for a business park and now the prospect of untold millions in future liability if the harbour is purchased for the 'bargain price' of $300K. Oh I forgot - if you add in the full implementation of the Police Services Board report on bringing the Service up to Provincial standards another 6million.

Yet not one word of this financial puzzle from either the incumbents or the candidates for this Fall's election. Can we presume that the citizens of PH either don't know or don't care? This we do know is that at least one member of Council is in favour of the harbour purchase even going so far as to suggest that PH buy its own dredger instead of using Cobourg's (They hate to pay for anything that comes from Cobourg!).

So with only the 'usual suspects' decrying the financial goings-on the BurdReport wonders what it will take to have a debate about this.

A very good question

As Blogspot continues to screw up the Blogosphere, despite being owned by Google and its multi-billions (you would have thought they might support some of their endeavours but I guess counting money is too important a task to split away from), a comment popped up that required more attention than it would get being buried in the comments log.

The gist of it was, "Ben can you tell us when the coordinator system came in and what was used prior to it?"  Good question.

The coordinator system came into being in 1985, when the Angus Read era came to Town. Major Angus Read, a retired Army Officer had settled in Cobourg after commanding the now closed Ordnance Depot on D'Arcy St. Fitting right into the social milieau of the cocktail set and the Rotary Club he, or others, decided that the then Mayor (who has recently died) Mac Lees was past it and needed to be replaced. In a move that I have never got to the bottom of Mac announced his retirement as Mayor after a couple of decades of public service and the Major won the election on a promise of bringing the Town into the 20th Century.

One of the first things he did, as he had a majority of new members, was to implant his style of top-down management. Making the clerk subordinate was easy, Bryan Baxter was the consummate civil servant and they produced a plan to eliminate the system of 'standing committees'. Cobourg Council used to meet every two weeks and in the other two weeks three standing committees used to meet. I can't remember the names of them but I do know that the incumbent councillors of the day used to proclaim, in their campaign literature, that they were the "Chairs" of this committee or that committee. Anyway all councillors had to be kept occupied as there more then than now. 

Back to Angus's 'efficiency drive' he had determined that items of business, usually planning and development pieces were taking too long in committees and slowing down the business of Council. A matrix was produced and it laid out who could talk to whom, who reported to whom and a councillor was given a 'portfolio' of responsibilities. Hence the coordinator system. All coordinators reported to Council about their activities to the committee of the whole, which was created to replace one of the regular Council meetings. An informal protocol was created, and it still exists today, where knowledge of each portfolio was hoarded by the coordinator and if questions were asked by another councillor it seemed to be resented by the portfolio holder and interpreted as interference. This attitude still persists today. Consequently when one approached one councillor for an answer to a general problem one would be directed to the guardian of the information. This also leads to a system of cronyism as most councillors want to achieve something, usually a staff item of little importance, votes must be cultivated so all councillors 'go along to get along'.

So the result is an atmosphere of a club of narrowly informed coordinators as a opposed to a group of well informed concillors. That's my version of the past folks please correct me if I am faulty in my institutional memory. all I know is that the present system is systemically disfunctional as far as democratic engagement goes but probably very efficient in policy delivery. But that's why we have pols and bureaucrats and never the twain should meet but as we see it has for many years as members of Council appear to be bureaucrats not politicians.