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.

Observations from the night shift

Last week, as part of my semi-retirement, (That means that i will take anything that pays) I was driving an eighteen wheeler down the four nothing one for three trips from Ajax to Ottawa. Loblaws has decided, as part of a restructuring, the Ottawa National Gocers warehouse is to be reduced and the City of Ottawa will be reprovisioned from Ajex. Consequently convoys leave every night for a twelve to fourteen hour shift. I have been working that shift. It may have showed in less posts and probably less thoughtfulness in those posts.
So what are the impressions:

• MacDonalds has two things going for it - a well designed top for the coffee cup that contains "Keep-me-awake" coffee and the biggest bargain of all $1.39 sandwiches. Sausage mcmuffins one day and bacon cheesburger the next.
• Queen's Park stupidity - fancy shutting down 75% of the service stations on the 401 at the same time. Total insanity reigns and if the good citizens of South Cobourg object to people peeing in the Bay St bushes wait until we hear accounts of desperate peolpe urinating on the shoulders of the 401. Signs indicating gaps of 150 kms between service stations are signs designed to agitate any full bladder.
• The lack of traffic on the road since the recession started.
  

Stop the whining about needing more Doctors

Report from the MSM
"What they are not taking into account is that it's an incredibly competitive environment. We are going up against communities that have deeper pockets and are wealthier and can put more money on the table," she pointed out. She being Tracy West, the Project Manager of the Physicians' Recruitment Committee.

That's the point - the allocation of Doctors to Ontario, after each one of them has absorbed great gobs of public money for their education, should not be a bidding war. The provincial government has it all wrong, and we are approaching the problem the Rotarian way. That is to go begging for money and then give it to people who don't need it but makes the organisors look good.
There is a disconnect here, we have a local Health Centre that can't get enough patients to fully employ the designed establishment and a local committee saying we need more doctors. So who to believe?

No words yet just links

The power of the Internet and new media - take a look at this wonderful pic. Life on the modern picket line!

One from the professor - Robert Wasburn that is: here

A free for all

I will be unavailable to post regularly for the next two weeks so how about it folks - submit your opinion and really make this an open line show. Mail in the submissions to
theburdreport and I'll post it under your name or a nom-de-plume. Any topics will be fair game.

It's now official we have four candidates in NQW.

The fourth candidate of the usual four was nominated by acclamation this afternoon, in the Citizens' Forum at Victoria Hall. Pat Clark, introduced to the collected New Democrats by Patty Park, spoke for about twenty minutes and was applauded numerous times for hitting the right spots for the members. In an off the cuff discourse Pat spoke about the need to protect what progressives have built in the past - the Social Safety net. "The Social Safety Net is too important to lose!" was one line. Another was "The State should be an instrument for public good." Speaking about the new world, "We need to learn to live with a little less and provide those who can't with enough!" Stirring stuff for Social Democrats. But his speech was not buried in the past as he spoke about the need for Green Jobs and "There's lots of room for local green investment strategies and making linkages with local groups"
One of his better lines, for me, was his opening statement where he spoke about the need for change. "We need real change, not like Obama's - that's change that props up a failing system - we need fundamental change!"
Finally if you think that Pat Clark is just another young political groupie, like the other parties have, this guy has earned his chops. Patty Park told of his involvement in a pilot programme - FIVE years ago where he was working with the Help Centre and local migrant workers in Northumberland County where as a part of the job he learned to speak to them in their own language, in just a few weeks. Leaving there he went to Frontier College to mentor migrants in the tomato fields. Yep he has done hard time not just fancy constituency work.

Sunday for Monday #1

Do you want these devices in the downtown area? Two issues come to mind: one is the size and location and the other is the size of the advertising.
These bins, the number has not been specified, but in Colborne bins are placed about 50 metres, sometimes less, and are prolific so how many bins do we want? The other issue is that the adverts on the sides will be bigger than the dreaded "sandwich" sign boards. So do we want commercialism to detract from the heritage slant to the area?
All is not lost, these ugly and advertisement driven receptacles will be on a 60 day trial. My opinion is simple - unless we can improve the capture rate of the existing facilities why should we go for it unless of course the royalities from the ads/bins are so great that we can't refuse the offer!

Tomorrow is Nom-Day

Tomorrow's the day for Pat Clark, I bet he will remember this one for a long time.
First public appearance, having to say something meaningful for the audience, Wanting to make a good impression and above all, not look like a young twit. Go for it Pat you can do it. Hope to see you all out - even non-members are welcome.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

This ancient warning came back to me as I read the report of a company in Port Hope planning to set up a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Port Hope. The sceptic in me tells me that I'm from Missouri and will believe it when I see it. Remember the web based graphics art facility that was going to set up shop over there - what happened to it? Anyway whilst clapping PH on the back for snagging the location a couple of nagging thoughts keep hanging around. One where was Cobourg in all of this? While only getting what one pays for, we only have half an Economic Development department. Wendy Gibson works her butt off doing ED stuff but the big announcements, and presumably activity, resides in the Mayor's office. A while ago the CAO told me that there were tons of enquiries, (my words - none of it has translated into action). A rumour persists that a big prospect for the empty GF building has flown the coop ad there is little activitiy on the site except a sign blaring that the place is for rent.
But back to Cobourg's effort to attract the wind turbine plant. When did Cobourg hear about this (if they did) what did Cobourg do about it and if the plant was interested why was it not pursued. The public deserves an answer, we pay a fair amount of money for ED and if all we do is produce reams of stats and a glitzy website it obviously is not working.
On the topic of wind turbines don't forget the "Info" meeting set up by a group of "Interested" citizens to discuss a project proposed for the Grafton area. Note the first person to utter NIMBY will get tossed out on their ear! Tonight, Centreton Town Hall 6.30pm
But the other nagging thought is the structure as announced: a guy from Port Hope has links with an Owen Sound company partnering with Linamar in Guelph. How many actual manufacturing jobs will happen when Linamar has a large and efficient machine shop in Batawa, not an hour away from here? So strike out the manufacturing side, now all we have is the assembly side, not many jobs there with a limited production schedule. So is it really going to be 75 jobs. The biggest question of all is the industry itself. Nice concept but hard to implement. There is a transmission problem, the grid is overloaded and without Hydro One building more lines not many more windmills can be taken on.