The political stars realign in Ontario

With both opposition parties in rebuilding phases (the ONDP electing a leader yesterday, and the OConParty still without one) Dalton McG has the most room to maneuver. The Cons will probably elect a leader that will puul the party into its natural position, much to the right of where John Tory wanted it to be and the ONDP will have the space on the left when DM moves the Libs to the centre right (where he is most comfortable)

With Andrea Horvath (I am proud to say that for the first time in years I have actually backed a winner - much to my partner's chagrin) the new NDP leader look for much social policy based in the class struggle. That's where the battles are going to be in this coming depression. Just how will the province deal with the EI victims as they drop off the rolls and have to collapse all their assets before being allowed one penny of Provincial welfare money. Working class folk will be suffering more than then shrinking middle class and their knowledge based jobs. One can only sustain a service industry for so long and DM will bearing the brunt of the problem.

So look for the change in attitude that AH will bring to the house and I look forward to real working class issues being the centre of attention instead of airy-fairy environmentalist based ones. "It's the economy stupid!"

25 years later - have we learned anything?

Today is the 25th anniversary of the UK Miners' Strike. This may not mean much to North Americans but it does to the UK and it should matter to NA. To get the background to the Strike from the most hated man of the time Arthur Scargill you should read this here In stark terms Scargill was convinced that Margaret Thatcher was determined to beat the Miners into submission, previous Conservative PMs had been beaten by the miners and she was not going to have any of it. Rather Like Bush, in creating conditions for the replacement of Sadam Hussein, Thatcher had a master plan. This plan put in the context of her ideology was designed to de-industrialise Britain. Thatcher, who believed in individualism to the nth degree, some may even call it the instutionalisation of selfishness, was determined to eliminate the class system of Britain by proving to the world that if she, the daughter of a middle class shopkeeper could become the most powerful person in Britain anybody could despite class restrictions.

For an analytical opinion about the Miners' Strike read this, it is the editorial in today's "Guardian" and it declares that no-one won the dispute.

Thatcher was successful and the Miners' lost. Britain became the hotbed of new technology and high finance. The Country's manufacturing base was decimated and "New Industry" emerged. Society became more reliant on "lifestyle" and debt. This led to the immolation of the UK as the economy based on the same shaky finances as NA and now is playing catchup, as is the rest of the world, in trying to preserve an economy and society.

A taxing problem

In a story printed today in the NT.com here the announcement of another Seniors complex is trumpeted. 118 units of expensive retirement dwellings has passed the first planning stage. Unfortunately Councillor Bill MacDonald reveals his ignorance of the problem of these units by declaring,:"this kind of facility could have an unexpected spinoff in alleviating a situation at Northumberland Hills Hospital (meaning that he thinks the problem of long term care beds will be relieved by these 118 units)"
Unfortunately what he says is pure fiction designed to allow the units to proceed without much delay. Ever since these facilities have been coming to Cobourg in the late 80s all we see is another burden on the local hospital. Retirement facilities are notorious for not providing health-care, why should they after all all they do is provide small overpriced rooms and three squares a day. Sitting outside of the Health-Care system all they do is aggregate the population of seniors and overload the local hospital. There isn't a day that goes past without me seeing, at about wake-up time at the Seniors residence just up the road from me, an ambulance , with its llights flashing, indicating an emergency, on its way to the NHH. Allowing more seniors to be brought into town to fill these facilities is not good unless we know just what the impact on the NHH is going to be. We have never had a Council commission one of these studies before granting permission to have one built - that is wrong.

Friday Fluff

In an interesting piece that spans remembrance and nostalgia, politicised folk music and the UK Miners' strike are tied together here . But the novel supposition in the article is that when Maggie Thatcher smashed the Miners' Union she unwittingly set the world off on the economic crisis.

Spring is here. Skating has officially finished on both the Assiniboine River Trail and the Rideau Canal. How long will we in Cobourg extend the skating season?

Monday evening at Cobourg Council, the agenda shows, for the second week, a closed meeting item. Titled "a matter that relates to consideration of a request under the Freedom of Information Act" Ummm interesting, who is asking impertinent questions that must be so sensitive that it requires Council's full attention, in private, for a full two weeks? I wonder if the public will ever know. And they say that the Federal Government is the secret one!!

This week in Colborne, Council discussed the budget. In an interesting juxtposition they decided to give the Campbellford Memorial Hospital $10,000 a year for its CT Scanner fundraising. As you should know the King of Campbellford has made it his mission to install a CT scanner in the CMH. He approached the County for funding and was rebuffed, although the economic arguement made a lot of sense the fear that the County would end up funding Health Care overrode that argument. But in giving the money to CMH the Colborne Council then cut its conditional funding of the transit van. This van would transport the people who cannot either drive themselves or don't have a car around the County, mainly to Cobourg. As expected this Council has listened to their voters; the middle class sick people will get to travel to Campbellford for their CT scans, a greater convenience than having to come to Cobourg, they will probably save 10 minutes in the drive and not have to wait so long at the hospital, and the poor and elderly get the shaft. I suppose it serves them right, they don't usually vote so why should the Council be on their side!

A bit of a surprise this morning. Reading in the MSM (G&M story here) John Tory was defeated in his attempt to get back into the Ontario Legislature. The Blue Rinse crowd and the Reformers will now have something to crow about tomorrow when the Puffster comes to lunch. "The start of a journey begins with the first step" - that will be the cliche on the minds of the ReformaCons as they start to plot the demise of Dalton.

The story about the guy who pepper-sprayed by American Border Guards, is still running in the G&M, I guess some editor has a burr under his saddle about the way things went down. The Story is here but basically when the BGs asked him to turn off his car's engine he asked them to say please. “I just said please,” Mr. Fortunato explained Thursday. “He said 'get out of the car or I spray you' and ... I thought he was just trying to scare me off or something and I was pepper sprayed from a foot or two away.” I bet he won't do that again!

Another brave soul has stuck his head above the trenches. Rick Salutin, of the G&M has written a piece about "Jewish Apartheid Week" here and suggests that the very issue should mean the question of Jewish behaviour towards non-jews should be the issue not just yelling at the organisors and labelling them "anti-semites" because they dare to discuss the issue.

The most moving piece I have heard in a long time

This sound clip culled from tonight's CBC As It Happens is a gem and also the most moving tribute I have heard for many a year. Mishelle Brown, wife of one of the three latest Canadians killed in Afghanistan, calls her husband a hero and her 'powerhouse' is heard here talking to the press, in St Catherines, this afternoon

click here Warning: This may not work for you I had to play with this code it is MP3.

A small opinion about the LCBO

The current debate about the LCBO is an exercise in hypocrisy. The LCBO has for years resisted the urge to move, they could have had a large store at the foot of Third St years ago but they pulled the plug on it, leaving the Town and the developer with redfaces and a lot of wasted time on their hands, saying the other stores in Eastern Ontario needed the money. The regional argument (building a large store for Cob & PH in Victoria Place) doesn't make sense when they, the LCBO, are putting franchise stores in every rinky-dink community in the County: Roseneath, Vernonville, Grafton etc. But perhaps the biggest piece of hypocrisy will be when the Council, with a couple of exceptions votes to approve the rezoning. All of them will be spooked by the lawyers report that will probably recommend that the Council not object to the rezoning based on OMB precedent. I hope that is not the case, even though the Official Plan is explicit in this case. The Mandate of the Council is to maintain the integrity of the OP by protecting the Downtown core.

Boy do I feel old! Reported in the G&M here the University of Manchester, England, is going to establish an MA programme in the study of the Beatles. Perhaps the Beatles did change pop culture and had a consequent effect on the youth of the Nation but as a person who lived through it I didn't think the time would come when I would be part of a generational, almost historical, study.

Anybody want any free money? The Bank of Canada has lowered the bank Rate to .5%, as they say in Foreign Countries when the kids on the street want to sell you something, "Almost free!". I'm tempted to max out my line of credit and sink it into stocks - after all the same experts doing this are also saying the there is a great 'buying opportunity'. But wait that doesn't get the economy moving, might make me some money, but won't stimulate anything, but neither will this B 0f C move unless the Banks pass it on to those wanting operating loans but then who wants those as demand has dropped and nobody wants to buy anything so just what is one supposed to do?

This just in - The Puffster is coming

If you are a fan of the Puffster - Senator Mike Duffy - hurry on down to the Columbus Centre in Cobourg on Saturday for a luncheon. Billed as a fundraiser for the local PC party and ex-Reform candidate and sitting MP Rick Norlock, this event is guaranteed to get out the 'blue-rinse' crowd. It will be interesting to see if the Puffster can stay on message about how his party will lead us to the promised land or if he goes down deep and dirty with partisan cracks about his opponents.

A little birdy tells me that he might be appearing on Cogeco, Gawd help us the reruns will go on for weeks!

PPS take a look here

The conflicting issues faced by investors and managers

I have written of my disappointment with money managers not acting in the real interests of their customers - the investors before. Here is a story that illustrates just how when managers act in the interests of their clients they sometimes make career limiting moves. Read about it here. But you should drill down and read the comments, it appears that this practice, docking the pay of "bad" money managers, is quite prevalent.

In an interesting aside, I have just returned from the "No Frills" store. As a beneficiary of perhaps the most successful $1 sale in its history I enquired about the turkeys. Last week NF had turkeys on for a $1 a lb. People were breaking the doors down to get them. On the day the sale opened the 1200 turkeys allocated for the start of the sale had gone by noon (four hours). To date it has been estimated that over 5000 of the suckers have been snapped up by all of us survivalists and our freezers. So if the Stocks go any lower and our pension payouts fail we can all eat turkey for the weeks after!

OK the guessing starts now

With the release of the news about the upcoming sale of the Kraft property, here, the guessing about the buyers identity and the proposed new uses has begun. The special Kraft committee has number of people on it, the Council has seven people on it and many more are involved in Real Estate so if this news doesn't get out before the official date it will be remarkable. So how about a pool on the eventual outcome: new industrial plant, new residential development or anything else?
The new residential development is an interesting one for if it proposes to build hundreds of houses, using the available sewage capacity, then it will blow the Official Plan out of the water by infilling and put a lot of development plans in Area C in jeopardy. What a waste of the last few planning years and really does question the expansion ideas of the "Progressive Councils".
PS if anybody hears any rumours about the identity of the mystery buyer post it here!

If you have time to kill - check this out!

Tourism Queensland, a Province/State in Northern Australia advertised, what they called the best job in the world. Officials with the tourism department of Australia's Queensland state on Tuesday revealed the 50 finalists from a pool of nearly 35,000 applicants for the job — a $150,000 Australian ($96,000 U.S.) contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months while writing a blog to promote the area. The 50 finalists on the shortlist are featured on a webpage here. The submitted videos are really something, but as you watch them just wonder why you didn't submit one for the best job in the world. Imagine living on the Barrier reef for half a year and writing a webpage about your daily activities. One word of warning, I did a travelogue recently and it's not as easy as you think to write a new piece every day. You will need imagination to go with your good looks and new tan!
BTW a Canadian is fourth in the running!