Sunday #6

Had to post this one even though I'm off to drink beer.

A fantastic use of twitter by local 14193 USWA - shades of the immediacy of the Iranian protests driven by twitter. Finally a useful use for this programme!

Sunday #5

I'm off to eat turkey and drink beer! but for your entertainment here is a delightful link to holiday cheer Thanks to a friend for the post.

Sunday #4

Back to an old hobby-horse The labour force stats came out on Friday and the headline was "Unemployment goes down" This creates the impression that more people are working and we are supposed to feel good. But looking at the figures in a way that most pundits don't the BurdReport can show that not only has unemployment not gone down but we are living in the area of the province with the second most unemployed per capita - only NorthWest Ontario is worse. Cobourg is situated in the Muskoka-Kawartha Region for the statistics. Clicking on the image one can examine the stats at your leisure. For instance there are only three columns to study: "unemployment", "labour force" and "employment rate". Compared to this time last year all the 2009 figures are worse than 2008 showing a smaller workforce and participation rate. The regional employment rate also shows the biggest gap between 08 and 09 for the province. Comparing the January figures (not shown) with the September figures, and remember September is supposed to be a peak month for all employment, the unemployment number is the same 9.9%.
What do these numbers prove? To me it shows that if you reduce the workforce and calculate the number of active unemployed as a percentage you can show that unemployment has gone down. But digging deeper you show that this region is in an abysmal state for the unemployed and local pols are doing diddley squat to relieve it. Infrastructure money has failed to produce one visible new job, just jobs for laid off construction workers working on scheduled municipal capital projects - jobs that would have happened anyway, and pitifully few to date, and the EI exhaustees have been abandoned. Sad!

Sunday #3

The first of many extra costs. We all knew that there would be extra costs for the Community Centre project and here is one of the first. A request from the Fundraising Committee (FRC) for $298,000. Click on the image for a full size printout.
An observation, when the committees were setup and staffed with volunteers most of us thought these good volunteering folk were donating a whack of their time for the common good. This committee stacked with local fundraisers has obviously found the job to be too much for volunteers and like all good professionals have found a way to delegate the job, but it comes with a pricetag. Now we can only hope that FRC becomes a mighty fine watchdog now they have offloaded the heavy lifting?

Sunday # 2

What's going in here? On Tuesday evening, at Cobourg Council, a letter is on the agenda from the local Lions Club. There has been a dispute between Council and the Lions Club over the repair of the building the Club leases from the Town. The Club feels that because the building is owned by the Town that they, the Town should be responsible for the upkeep of the building, as opposed to routine maintenance paid for by the Club. The Town feels that because the building may be Town owned, because of the way it was funded, years ago with a Wintario grant, that the Club should pay for all.
But back to the letter. The letter plainly states that unless the Town changes its stance and pays for the roof, the Lions Club cannot afford to do so, tells the Town that it has only two options: the inability to commit to future community projects, or to remove the Club's assets and vacate the building.

So what's the Town's response to the prospect of financial ruin for one of the community pillars? To receive this letter for information purposes. In other words to file, in file 13 - the round filing cabinet, to ignore the problem, in public. I say in public because of the absence of statements of intent from the Council. All we as members of the public, but having a vested interest, can do is hope that there is something going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately this file may be in the hands of "Sluggo" - Councillor "we don't want to set a precedent here" MacDonald. So the public faced with the prospect of watching the Lions Club move out of a building because they can't afford to repair and perhaps the ending of some of its service club activities will have to depend on moves being made behind the scenes, or do we?

Sunday # 1

Lou Rinaldi, that vertically challenged man who represents us with platitudes and apparent indifference to anything that cannot be put in a press release, is defending the provincial move to the HST. After reading much about it I now know what infuriates me about this cash grab. Never mind the fact that it will bite into my disposable income by taxing products which are currently not taxed, but the consumer will pay. This is not a progressive or fair tax. Businesses will be able to claim "input credits" and get rebates. Why should this be. It will mean a huge shift in taxpaying from business to consumer. Totally unfair.
"Business will thrive" says Lou, but at whose expense? If there's anything we know about consumer economics is that there is only so much money to go around and all these moves in taxation shifts do is to move the burden. If the HST and the elimination of Provincial sales tax is doing nothing other than allowing business to claim "input credits" which would not accrue any credit to business, just how will businees thrive as Lou claims. And more importantly why is the Chamber of Commerce all over this one? There is more to this than meets ny eye! The consumer is going to get hosed and they feel powerless to stop it. It will be interesting to see just how successful the NDP is going to be in the next BC by-election, with the HST as a central issue.

Another guest piece

From Deb O'Connor:

WOMEN HAVE BEEN SOLD A BILL OF GOODS

For years now we have been told that women have reached equality in all areas of their lives. We are free to go to school, then pursue worthwhile careers in the big wide world. All the doors are open.

Feminism has achieved its goals and isn't needed anymore, they say. Kind of like unions. But wait, if we take a closer look we see some of the same old barriers, same old thinking, still at play.
You see, in the course of becoming liberated, we failed to shuck those old fashioned responsibilities that have burdened us for so long. Free to work, sure, but when the liberated woman comes home she will likely find partner and children waiting for their dinner. Hope she went shopping on her way home! Then there's the housework, laundry, care-giving for kids and elderly parents and all the other domestic chores to do. Statistics tell us it's still primarily women doing them too.

It's all a crock. Now we are free to get heart attacks and ulcers, drink too much and work too hard, just like men have all these years. The only real liberator has been birth control, the one tool for womens' emancipation that matters. Make that the only tool that matters.

Just wondering?

This story relates the tale of a guilty plea by the Toronto Fire mucky-muck who was clocked at 150kph on his way to a funeral in Kingston. He was allowed to plead down to a lesser charge of speeding from Stunt Driving. Just wonder who else can do this? Definitely not your average soccer mom or Civic roadster!

A guest piece

Submitted by William Hayes:

The Oct 1^st issue of the Globe & Mail contained an opinion piece by historian Michael Bliss claiming “Conservatives have seized the central ground of the political spectrum.” Here’s a link:

Nonsense! No political party pursuing policies such as those noted below occupies the centre of Canadian political understanding:

· blocks progress in reaching international agreement on how to deal with climate change;

· refuses to ratify the Cluster Munitions Treaty;

· inhibits the export of inexpensive HIV/AIDS drugs to suffering 3^rd world peoples;

· and, most recently, characterizes women as a “left-wing fringe group”.

We Canadians have a better understanding of the world and our place in it than these shameful Conservative policies.

Just a quick one!

Sent in by our man about Town, the cultural correspondent - WK. A small clip of Saturday's parade, a Cobourg cultural moment.