Libertarian Socialists Unite!

Don't know if it's the muggy weather without the promise of a good drenching rain, or just old age and crankiness, but I seem to have blown an emotional gasket upon hearing that a city councillor in Toronto wants to ban soft drinks from vending machines in community centres and other municipal spaces.

This on top of several municipalities who suggest banning smoking out in the open air. Then we have the Province deciding that while the HST could result in a drop in liquor prices, they will move to up the price so the customer doesn't benefit. After all, consuming alcohol isn't good for us. Especially while smoking and using a soft drink for mix!

Then we have the Christian fundamentalists who want to prevent women from having abortion rights, and Quebec residents who don't want Islamic women to wear their hijabs. I won't even start on the obscene war against drugs that has prevented the de-ciminalization of simple marijuana for decades while making criminals out of thousands of people who just want to light up a joint without persecution.

When exactly did we become a nanny state where self righteous, uptight know it alls think they can tell the rest of us what to do? Has the Puritan poison of old times re-surfaced or is it the New Authoritarian movement exemplified by Stephen Harper and his Reformers?

Whatever it is, I don't like it. Deep down I adhere to John Adam's famous quote that we are all entitled to go to hell in our own way, and if that means with a drink in one hand and ciggie in the other, so be it. Who wants to live forever sitting quietly with hands folded in our laps, reading the Scriptures anyway? But if we let these people have their way, that's all that will be left. Once they ban soft drinks, they'll come for our chocolate next, then our beloved french fries and burgers. Cobourg's Rib Fest will be a thing of the past, replaced by an Estival showcasing fresh veggies and tofu salad.

All this has led me to an exploration of Libertarianism, and in particular, Libertarian Socialism. Like me, they believe in equality, and an equitable division of the world's wealth and resources. Unlike the conservative variety who want to do away with government all together, the Libertarian Socialists believe in direct democracy through municipalities, citizens' assemblies, trade unions and workers' councils.

This kind of small, localized community democracy sounds like a promising idea, and when the world economy and oil supply collapse in the coming years, it's likely what we'll end up with anyway.

By the way, did you know that addiction experts and our own health unit consider the consumption of caffeine to be an addiction too? Look out folks, they'll be coming for your Timmies next!

A free way out

On Monday evening the Council will be receiving a letter from the farmers' Market organisation asking for financial help in closing 2nd Street for market purposes. Why do they need help? because Council has determined that in order to close the street on a regular basis it would cost $7,500, mainly to offset the cost of union labour needed to arrange the barriers each week.

But has the union been consulted to waive the arrangement? How much would it cost to have the aleready 'oncall' person erect the barriers or even better how much to pass a bylaw authorising the street closing and then have the already bought and paid for Bylaw Officer string a chain across 2nd St using the existing bollards/ street lamps.

Just a cheap thought

It ain't over yet!

Victories come in little packets and yesterday we won one. The LHIN has decided to keep some of the recently announced beds to be cut, open; they will not be cut - not this year anyway (see this story). Now we have to fight even harder to get the full Diabetes Clinic services and the Outpatient Rehab back into operation.

So don't tell me that "nothing can be done!" as all the naysayers have been telling us every step of the way. Hopefully we can convince the 'Doubting Thomases' that the rest of the job can be done. But it will need effort. The next effort is to atend a meeting at the Motor Inn at 7pm on June 1st. Then the full AGM of the hospital association has to be attended to stop the bylaw revisions that will effectively, if adopted take the majority of the membership out of the Association.

So congratulations to all - the 5,000 people who signed the petition, Cobourg Council that passed a mighty fine motion decrying the cuts and all of those who have lobbied, attended rallies and lent support to the cause.

Cobourg Council Gets It Right

For many of us it's second nature to find fault, and if the subject of our concern is politics, that tendency can run amok. Combine that with a moribund town council like we have in Cobourg, and to the casual observer it looks like constant complaining. Call it negativity, call it whining, some of us are very hard to please.

With Council appearing to be in no hurry to add their voice to the chorus of citizens opposed to hospital cuts, many of us expected them to find a way to wiggle out of supporting their, and our investment in the brand new hospital.

Imagine the surprise, when the item finally came up at Council last week, that Councillors had not one word to say in debate of the detailed motion presented by deputy mayor Gil Brocanier, and simply and unanimously supported it. Just like that!

To Town Council I say well done. While it was always a no-brainer for so many of us, it was a pleasant shock to see that even our elected representatives knew it too. Thank you Council, both for your wise decision and for teaching this old grouch that even minor league politicians can do something right occasionally.

Only one nugget this week

A perusal of the Council agenda for monday evening only reveals one, possibly contentious, item. That is tucked away in the approval to award the contract for the rebuilding of D'Arcy St. Local guy Tom Behan got the job by being the cheapest but his price was $319,839.62 over estimate. Negotiations with the Company managed to get the over-run down to $200K and that's the amount that the Town has to find from someplace. They did and the folks on Westwood Drive that were expecting another sidewalk this year will be disappointed, that money has gone to D'Arcy St. The problem now is that the low hanging fruit of tranferable projects has been drawn down. Where will the money for the next inevitable over-run come from?

At least Lou showed up

To face his critics and to defend his tenuous position. As the protest, organised by the Northumberland Health Coalition, paraded in front of MPP Lou Rinaldi's office in Cobourg with signs calling upon him to stand up to the local hospital, started guess who appeared from his office? Lou Rinaldi that's who. In an unusual move the MPP who has a habit of not being in his office when demonstrators turn up, decided to emerge and adress his critics. After giving us all the usual guff about health care costs and how they have to be contained he then told the crowd that he's working on a solution but the Board is resistant to the idea of putting money into reinstating the cut services in the Diabetes Clinic and Outpatient Rehab. "I am committed to finding a solution." So there you have it folks, Lou says that more money may be available but the Board has set priorities. It seems that since Mr Biron hung Lou out to dry last week by saying that the problem is a political one - talk to your MPP, the MPP is saying that the money is there but the Board and Mr Biron is being uncooperative. And meanwhile nobody is getting Rehab services.

As Lou left the crowd the mike was given to Michael Herley, the CUPE Director for Health Care Unions. He proceeded to tell the crowd that other Liberal MPPs had squeezed money for their hospitals and condemned Lou for not doing the same. "He must be as active as other MPPs!" meanwhile the BurdReport has heard of a conversation between local "liberal with his ear to the ground" John Wright and Lou, a couple of F-bombs didn't manage to convince Lou that he's in electoral trouble. But as we know he is!

Well looky here

In a story in the G&M here, this morning it has been exposed that the Ontario Hospital Association has been preparing bylaws, on behalf of the member hospitals, all 155 of them. The rewording of the bylaws has upset the Doctors. So we thought the move to new bylaws was just a Northumberland thing, but it is not. It is now even more important that the membership of the Hospital Association get to know just what is in the proposed changes apart from moves to reduce membership and attempts to muzzle Doctors.

On another front, a series of emails between a local member and the CAO has revealed two important facts: one is that if a member wants to have a motion presented to the AGM on June 22nd the motion must be submitted to the Secretary of the Board by Friday May 17th, two working days time, and the second is that in response to a request for the membership list the Board will be making a decision whether to release the list at its Board meeting on May 27th.

The fact that the Board is making it a Board decision to release the membership list is a strange one. Surely under the Corporations Act all shareholders (members) are entitled to ask for, and receive, a list of shareholders (members). Perhaps any of the lawyers reading this post could advise the BurdReport on this.

Bad news and good news

First the good news - there will be a coalition government in the UK. The bad news - it will be chaired by the Cons and held up by the power-hungry dreamers.
Now the bad news: when the Lib-Dems went into the election campaign the one principle it upheld for all was the vision of a change in the electoral system. They fully supported proportional representation (PR). In order that two toffee nosed public schoolboys can cling to power this principle has been severely watered down to , as we hear correct me if I'm wrong, to the Alternative Voting system. But the good old school tie linkage has prevailed to the detriment of the worker. Now wait for the other shoe to drop - the service cuts to lower income families and the tax breaks to the rich.

The lessons to be learnt here is that firstly the idea of a coalition government (do you hear that Libs and NewDems) is politically acceptable. That must have Harper shaking in his boots just to think about the legitimacy of that. The other is that politics really does make strange bedfellows - the image at the top says it all.

Ottawa will be watching this

The UK had an election last night (stand up all those who didn't know that!) and the initial results are very interesting and have implications for us here in Canada.
First off they now have a Minority Parliament - a "Hung Parliament" as they say. The first since 1974. That one ended in failure so the Brits don't have much luck with the minority style of governing. That's what makes this time so innovative. Labour, who was the Government is the second place party and the Conservatives, who were expected to win didn't do as well as they thought they would and failed to achieve a majority. Now the fun begins. The third party the Lib-Dems failed miserably to achieve the breakthrough that was expected.
The first implication for us is that the signs point to a real coalition between the Labour Party and the disappointed Liberal Democrats. These folks had seized the imagination of the press in the campaign and were projected to perform miracles but were brought down to earth by the voters who didn't seem so impressed.
The dealmaker for the coalition will be just how far the Labour Party goes with power-sharing and a willingness to bring in Proportional Representation (PR). These two demands will be the key to Labour staying in power with Lib-Dem support. We will have to watch just how well a coalition Government will work because if it does you can bet on some form of similar arangement here between the real Libs (not the blue Martin types who should belong with Harper) and the NDP.
Harper will be watching carefully as some UK Conservative moves echo his moves as the UK Cons threaten to bypass the unwritten constitution and tell the Queen to install them as they received the most seats. Shades of "Who runs the Country"

They're off

In this story Peter Delanty killed all speculation amongst the chattering classes. Mayor Delanty has joined his Dad in the history books of Cobourg, he will not be on the ballot this Fall. It's about time for a change, and change will come as there will be four vacancies on Council, and besides a sitting Mayor would have a tough time getting his name on the as yet unnamed Recreation Complex.
The dominoes that will fall will be as follows: Gil Brocanier, who has engaged the services of local "rainmaker" - John Wright, will be campaigning from now until the election. A reasonable time will elapse before Stan Frost declares for Deputy Mayor and Councillor Mutton will try to cement her position as "the most popular" by becoming the highest vote getter. Names being bandied around for Councillor, other than the two declared candidates (Forest Rowden and John Henderson) will be Larry Sherwin, Wayne DeVeau, Melissa Marshal, perhaps Bridget Campion and about six more.
Let the contest begin!