Reparations

First it was the Chinese, then the Ukranians, and now its the Italians:

Martin signed a $2.5-million deal to fund projects to commemorate the arbitrary interning of about 700 Italian-Canadians during the war.

who next, reparations to the strippers being brought in due to a domestic shortage. Once they start getting abused it will be our fault you know. It you look at the criteria for compensation they will qualify.

The money is part of a larger program to compensate ethnic groups who suffered from ill-treatment at the hands of the federal government.

In fact I think could qualify. My grandparents came from Eastern Europe therefore I am part of an ethnic group. My taxes go towards paying for idiotic programs such as this, therefore I have been ill-treated at the hands of the federal government. In fact anyone who has been alive for the last 12 years should qualify.

Martin said the internments "were motivated by fear and suspicion" and the government "is committed to learning from the past."

Do they think it was not possible that they would send spies to Canada and were thus a threat to our soverignty? It is no wonder the compassionate Canada of today still has Chinese subversives among us and the Liberal government not only turns a blind eye to Islamic terrorist organizations rasing money in Canada but accepts political contributions from them and vies for their votes.

New Blog

I have created a new blog. Visit Conservative Blog of Canada

Canadian politics: 2010

The post, An NDP-Liberal merger in January, in Conservative Life theorizes that the Fibbers and the Dippers will join forces. I tend to disagree, but have an alternate theory which I will discuss later. Before I go into that theory I have a quiz. Who said the following:

...such a deal [FTAA] isn't about making conditions better for capitalists. "It is about providing opportunities for our workers...

A democratic country with a stake in the global economy can grow... "It can invest its wealth in essential social programs such as health and education...

If you said Smilin' Jack Lenin Layton you would probably be right, but in this case it came from 'le grande transeur' Paul Martin (roughly translated the big ditherer).

So here is my theory. The Liberals will win a second minority government, losing all but Martin's seat in Quebec and losing seats in Toronto. 'Le petite sourire socialiste' (Layton: roughly translated the little smiling socialist) will lose his seat as well. With no solid left wing support the government will flounder. Martin will lose support of his party and some Chretienite, possibly the lil' guy himself, will replace Martin as leader. Martin then will challenge Layton for the leadership of the NDP. To raise money for his bid to remain leader Layton will sell his moustache on eBay. Martin will win the leadership. Preston Manning will win a majority government in the 2010 federal election.

Source: CTV.ca

A great new tax

I am likely the sole conservative that is in favor of this proposed Grocery Tax. I have long been in favor of adding GST to groceries on the basis that is a way to tax all Canadians evenly. Our income tax system is set up to penalize individuals who want better themselves financially to support those who do not. To be politically correct I should say to equalize the capitalist pigs with those on "fixed incomes". The reason I am in favor of the grocery tax is because this could be a frontrunner to dedicated taxes. Based on 2001 data, a 7% tax was levied on all food sales and restaurant sales in Canada would generate $5.3 billion yearly.

But if GST were applied to food products, it would generate about $3.3 billion a year for the farming industry, according to the report...

I am not sure how the Windsor Star did their calculations, but I used data from a StatsCan report and multiplied the numer of households by average weekly expenditures multiplied by 52 weeks then took 7% 0f the total. I assume they did not include restaurant meals. I would suggest to allow restaurants to but their supplies GST free and charge the GST on their meals. This money could be dedicated to agriculture research and development, and on farm quality assurance programs to ensure our already safe food supply remains that way. Any residual funds generated could be earmarked for wellness programs in the Health Department. I would not want the money used for curative purposes in healthcare.

This type of taxation could be in other resource industries such as forestry, oil and gas, and mining.

To work government would have to get away from a general revenue fund. We already have a dedicated tax in the form of fuel taxes that are to be dedicated to improvements in roadways. We all know how well this has worked with only a precentage of money going into infrastructure improvements.

Who's to blame?

Gomery Report Highlights

Chretien: Bad; Martin; Good

Gomery report blames Chretien

The ultimate conclusion of the Gomery Report is that the blame falls squarely on a select few individuals in the Chretien government and Paul Martin is exonerated of any blame. The bulk of the blame goes to Jacques Corriveau for orchestrating the kickback scheme.

On former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Chief of Staff Jean Pelletier Gomery wrote:

"They are to be blamed for omissions. Since Mr. Chretien chose to run the program from his own office, and to have his own … staff take charge of its directions, he is accountable for the defective manner in which the Sponsorship program and initiatives were implemented. Mr. Pelletier failed to take the most elementary precautions against mismanagement - and Mr. Chretien was responsible for him."

Where else but in Canadian politics can a leader with absolute dictatorial powers run a program directly through his office and have no idea money is being misappropriated by this leader's . If you believe this you will probably also believe that the head of the finance department that issued these payments to the public works ministry had no idea whatsoever where this money was being spent.

If Paul Martin in fact was in the dark about the whole sponsorship scandal one must ask the question, "Do you want a leader who can have someone rob him blind right under his nose running your country?"

What a novel concept

A school board in Greenwich Connecticut is considering merit pay for teachers. Under the proposal teacher's pay scale would be knowledge and skill based rather than seniority based.

...knowledge- and skills-based pay rewards teachers for attaining and being able to use knowledge and skills valued by the school, district or state, such as the ability to diagnose an individual student's needs and to provide instruction targeted at those needs, according the A CPRE [Consortium for Policy Research in Education] report.

Understandably unions are against such proposals.

But salary structures based on merit have been strongly opposed for decades by teachers unions, which claim they are unfair and divisive.

Of course having poor quality teachers that are only around because of their seniority while new teachers are not given a chance is not unfair. This is not to say that all teachers with seniority are of poorer quality, but seniority does not reflect effectiveness. Will it be divisive? To those teachers who put getting a pay cheque ahead of instilling knowledge to their students it will be, to others it should not.

But just how the teachers' knowledge and skills will be evaluated in Greenwich remains an open question. None of the members of the committee would discuss evaluation tools, saying they are to be researched together.

This is my only concern with the system. How will ideology sway the committee's decision making? For instance if the committee determining a teacher's knowledge is determinedly left wing a teacher that allows students to make their own decisions regarding political philosophy will likely be rated lower than on who promotes a left wing ideology.

There is a concern that such a system would be more expensive. But it does not have to be overly expensive. If all teachers started with a base pay lower than maximum current average pay, then additional pay would come from a pool of remaining funds. And if all the teachers raise their standards and more funds need to be added, having better educated children should be well worth the added costs.

Wanted: conservative party for Saskatchewan

The divide between the left wing socialist NDP and right wing conservative SaskParty is narrowing by shifting too far to the left. Based on a call to rebate energy costs I sent the following e-mail to the Sask Party:

In your party's Principles and Policies the number two point is Smaller, less intrusive, more efficient government. I want to emphasize the less intrusive aspect. My definition, and I thought would be the that of a conservative political party, is that you would not want to interfere in the open market place. Your call to rebate customers 75% of any SaskEnergy rate hikes flies in the face of being less intrusive. If the market dictates that there needs to be a 27% or even 41% rise in energy costs then customers should have to absorb this cost irrespective of income the province is generating in the oil and gas industry. If consumers want to reduce their costs they should do it through efficiencies or using alternate cheaper energy sources. You also have to remember that not everyone in Saskatchewan uses natural gas. The people that have reduced their costs by using cheaper heating methods will be 'left out in the cold' under your plan. The only point I may agree on is for giving some relief to school divisions and health regions as they are part of government; and possibly to community owned facilities as they are not run for profit and are beneficial to all of society.

This is likely an attempt to appeal to urban Saskatchewan voters who almost on a whole use natural gas originating from SaskEnergy. Point 3 of their Principles and Policies states:

Steady, gradual reduction in government spending and taxation while maintaining a firm commitment to balanced budgets.

This proposal is contrary to a reduction in spending. If the issue of a windfall in oil and gas royalty revenues is to be addressed it should be through lower taxation. And when I say lower taxation I mean a similar decrease in all tax brackets, not a reduction for the so-called fixed income group. If less corporate or personal taxes are needed due to the increase in oil and gas royalties then less is required by all citizens based on what they have already contributed. Whether this is done by tax relief or a tax free rebate does not matter, just get the money back to who gave it to the government in the first place.

Maybe I am getting to conservative for a conservative party.

The new kid in town

Move over Paul McCallum and other underachieving CFL place kickers, there's a new kid in town.

He can:

1. make the long kicks
2. he satisifes the Canadian content
3. he is already rich, so money may not be an issue.

"For him to miss the first three and to come back and hit the last one is unbelievable." Prefontaine [Toronto Argonaut place kicker] said. "I think he's going to get a trial (with a CFL team)."