Yesterday, Ontarians saw their former Premier, Dalton McGuinty, return to the stage at Queen’s Park, where he testified into the gas plant closures that cost the province’s taxpayers somewhere between $600 million and $1 billion, but putatively saved a few Liberal seats.
Canada’s ranking fell from 10th to 20th in a worldwide measure of press freedom completed by Reporters Without Borders last week in light of Friday’s World Press Freedom Day.
On a recent episode of the original British Dragons’ Den, a woman pitching her hair-extension business was asked by a Dragon about the numbers in her balance sheet. To which she replied, “What is a balance sheet?” This whole pitch in the den created an impression not unlike the one I got from watching the pitch by Sun News Network to the CRTC recently. It was amazing to watch this sorry spectacle of Sun News’ supposed A-listers trying to convince the regulator that their station deserved “mandatory carriage” – and all that without having done their homework.
To warn of the dangers for the Republicans going along with amnesty for illegal immigrants, I will first share a short story:
Once upon a time there was a great state named California. This state gave the country Richard Nixon, whose reputation was damaged as he left office, but was strong enough to win a landslide national election. Then, they gave us Ronald Reagan- arguably the greatest conservative President in recent time. Reagan won two landslide national elections. California used to be a wonderful, warm, beach bordered red state with blue enclaves to balance things out. It was robust economically, and stable culturally. But a lot has changed since then.
Today, the state of California is solidly blue, and it is never, ever coming back.
Do we laugh or cry when North Korea, Iran and China berate our free and democratic country for an abominable human rights record? The Greek play of media hype over the decision taken by our Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird under the current Conservative government to unilaterally withdraw from certain UN activities does follow logic at last! With or without sensation, Canada has managed to withdraw from the Kyoto Accord, the anti-drought convention, and assemblies where anti-Israel speeches by certain Middle Eastern leaders take place on that global platform which we call the United Nations.
Traditionally, the minimum wage increases in Quebec occur on May 1st, and with an increase from 9.90$ to 10.15$ which came in effect last week, this year is no different. Coincidentally, May 1st was also the day on which powerful unions all across the world converge and reminded governments and taxpayers of their capacity to mobilize their members and to unite the numerous and various groups lobbying for stricter labour laws. The public still largely finds difficult to accept criticism of the minimum wage, the labour movement’s “sacred cow” and still widely believes unions to be responsible for the 40 hour work week. A historical perspective on both may bring interesting elements to a modern issue.
The reactions in some quarters of the media to Trudeau’s ascendency in the third party has entered the realm of outright advocacy. As pundits and even some reporters enlist as defenders of the Liberal chief, Tory Command is sure to invest heavily in direct communications to preserve their position.
Ever since I uncovered the disturbing bias present in individuals hired to investigate the “robocalls” during the 41st election, I’ve received hundreds of emails from people demanding I further dig into the “robocalls” investigation.