Highway robbery-407 style

Once again the boondoggle known as privitization in Ontario has reared its ugly head in the form of the oft mentioned Highway 407.
Yet again the operators of this once taxpayer owned highway is plagued with troubles. Not satisfied with repeatedly raising rates, it has recently been revealed that it is double billing its customers. When said customers rightly refuse to pay twice, their cases are sent off to collection agencies and they are getting several calls a day to pay up. The foreign owners of this highway now want the province to suspend the licenses of those people who refuse to pay twice. How'd you like that?
A Toronto M.P. Mike Colle, held a public meeting to hear complaints from customers of this notorious highway.
This whole mess is a rotten deal. We were sold out by the government of the day, which was a Conservative one.
Our taxes built that highway and it was supposed to be paid off and then used to relieve the traffic jams on Highway 401. Instead the Tories sold the highway and inked a bad deal to boot.
Whoever said that Conservatives are good at managing the economy, should take a close look at this particular deal. It is a dead giveaway, with all the advantages being held by the owners of the highway.
If people who use this highway have problems in the future, they should consider suing the Ontario Conservative Party as well as former and current members of the cabinet and government that voted for what amounts to highway robbery.
In the meantime the Conservative Party ought to consider a name change.
The Highwaymen would be a good one.

Accountability for investors

SEC accuses Black of fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Conrad Black and his top deputy David Radler, accusing them of using the newspaper company they ran as their "personal piggy bank" over a period of four years.
In a suit filed in federal court in Chicago, where Hollinger International is based, the SEC accused Black and Radler of siphoning money from the company to themselves and then misleading the board about those transactions.
Stephen Cutler, the SEC's head of enforcement, said the two men ``abused their control of a public company and treated it as their personal piggy bank."
Hollinger publishes the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post. Until recently it also owned The Daily Telegraph of London.
The suit adds to Black's legal troubles. The Canadian-born businessman is already being sued by Hollinger International for the recovery of money it says he improperly diverted to himself and his associates.
The company's lawsuit makes broader accusations against Black and claims that he and his associates and companies under his control caused more than $500 million (U.S.) in damages to Hollinger International.

Used subs

Canadas used submarines, bought in good faith from Britain are now undergoing a check of their eletrical systems as part of an investigation into what went so horribly wrong in the tragic death of a submariner on the ill fated Chicoutimi.
Investigators are focussing their efforts on the subs electrical wiring.

Correction

I was wrong about the cost of the submarines Canada bought from Britain.
It turns out that the actual cost was $750 million and the estimates for repairs is around $200 million.
Close to a billion-but-not the billions that I wrote about earlier.
Sorry about that.
Anyhow-How can one put a price tag on the life of a brave submariner?
As regards whether or nor the seller took out any systems they did not want us Canadians to have-Thats up for debate.
If they did not-Then that makes an even stronger case for the selling of faulty products.
Buyer beware-Can we really trust any British products?

Canadas used submarines

Just about everybody is attacking the Canadian government for the failures of the used subs they purchased from Britain.
Isn't this criticism misplaced? Since when is the customer to blame for a faulty product?
The real culprits in the death of the Canadian submariner is the Brutish governmentof lapdog Tony Blair.
They are the ones who sold faulty equipment, probably equipment that was deliberately disabled to remove technology they did not want us Canadians to have access to.
Wheres the accountability?
Caring Canadians have recourse. It is very simply an economic one. Boycott!
Boycott all Brutish products, until reparations have been paid to the family of the heroic submariner as well as to the Canadian taxpayer.
If we are going to have accountability, we have to target the real culprits.
Write a letter to your M.P. and demand that they go after the Blair regime for repayment of the billions they stole for these used subs.

The Bloc and the Conservatives

Well Gilles Ducceppe and Stephen Harper almost brought down the government last night.
What an un-holy Alliance! The Seperatists and the Re-formed alliance of Tories.
What was clearly on display last night, what should be most evident to all Tory/Reform supporters is that their party can now be viewed as the party who will advocate the break-up of Canada, so that we can be added onto the American Empire piecemeal and then blame it on the Bloc.
Their MPs were describing Jack Layton of the N.D.P. as kooky for exposing their plot to make Harper the next Prime Minister of Canada.
Looks as though Jack was bang on in his assessment.
I do hope there is an election soon, so that Canadians can now make their decision via the ballot box, about Canadas newest seperatist party.

Corporate accountability

News reports state that Italy has one of the strongest investors rights legislation. This has become apparent in the prosecution of the executives of the now bankrupt dairy giant Parmalat.
Earnings were mis-stated, excess funds that were supposedly offshore.......were not there and thousands of small investors lost their shirts.
The two now on trial are so-called indpendent auditors. It will be interesting to see what comes from the trials of these two.
It is not just the executives of this company, or for that matter the executives of other North-American companies that went belly-up who are to be held accountable, but also these so called independent auditors who seem to give credibility to the schemes of the people who hire them.
For example, the same yardstick of accountability could be applied to "independent home inspectors" who are hired by real estate agents or for that matter, the trustees of unions.
Accountability ought to be a buzzword, to ensure that the little guy, the shareholder, the investor, the dues payer get what he/she pays for.
Accountability........and accountability now!!

Highway 407

What gives with the highway 407 debacle? Wheres the accountability?? Why....ohh...why do people not hold the destructive regressives, the Tories, responsible for this mess. They gave away the store folks, they sold us out!!
Heres how it went.
They wanted to give their rich buddies a tax break, but, they had to have cash for programs that Ontarians took for granted. Cash that would disappear with a tax break. Viola! They sold off a public asset, the 407, to a Spanish consortium to finance the tax break. This Spanish consortium hold the people of Ontario to ransom, by constantly raising tolls on the highway. When the government of the day, the Liberals want to do right by the citizens who voted for the, said Spanish consortium whines to the Sapnish government, who then threaten to hold up a vital trade deal. A decision that harms Canadians in general, not just the Ontarians who voted for the Harris Tories.
We need .........we desperately need.........
"ACCOUNTABILITY....NOW"!!

A great vacation

I have just returned from a great vacation. Some much needed time off. 2 glorious weeks in the highlands of Cape Breton. Ya have to see the Cabot trail.
Fantastic scenery, haunting views, I see why the celts have congregated here. Quixotic names that I could hardly pronounce, memories of a long lost homeland for those who settled the area. Unpleasant memories of an accent that reminded me of the time spent in Brampton with a very unsavory person, that was the only downside.
But. It is back to reality. I have the rest of this week off, then it is back to the salt mines.
Back with a profound sense of the great country that I reside in...
Ohhhhhhhhh..............CANADA!!!

That was fun

Well......elections are over and though I had planned on publishing more opinions, election duties kept me busy.
I'm back after a well deserved rest.
Happy that the Conservatives did not win the elections, in spite of our culture of a "Poll-o-cracy", that predicted that they might just win.Thankfully, once again, the pollsters were wrong. We are still a civilized country with a minority Liberal government and a resurgent NDP party.
Canada is still a sovereign country and not a lapdog of the Americans as we surely would be if Harper and his wrecking crew had won.
Hopefully the party without a proper platform, (they never had a policy convention before the writ was dropped) will now reveal its true colors to Canadians.
Hopefully those people of colour who ran as Conservative candidates, will now realize just who they have given their support,(and legitimacy) to. Hopefully, but not very likely.
How does one convince these folk that the party that once said they were in favor of European only immigration to Canada will not really take their views into account?
How does one convince them that regardless of the lightness of their skin or the color of their eyes, they are still NON-WHITES?....How indeed?
Well, hope still springs eternal!! We have until the next election or however long the minority government lasts to highlight the divisiveness of the Conservative party.

The Election is hotting up!

Jack Layton has accused Paul Martin in the deaths of homeless people due to cuts Martin made as Finance minister.
Paul and members of the Liberals are demanding an apology, as is Stephen Harper. Matter of fact Harper looked distinctly uncomfortable when he said that Jack Layton went a little over the top in his comments.
Wonder why Harper looked so uncomfortable? What is he really planning if elected? Is he p'raps anticipating charges levelled at him for policies he "may" implement?
What about those charges? Is there any substance to them?
After all, governmental policies do sometimes result in the deaths/suffering of people.
Who is to be held accountable for them? Is the principle of accountability valid in such cases?
Interesting questions that only the citizens of a country are able to answer........

If Conservatives were truthful

If and it's a big IF, Conservatives told the truth this is what we would be hearing on the campaign trail;

We'd like to cut taxes by 25%. Of course this would benefit the rich greatly because they would save huge amounts of money....well because they make huge amounts of money. Fair is fair!! You will save money too, but you better hang on to your savings, you'll soon see why.
With government revenues down, you the ordinary worker will now have to pay user fees for services that your collective taxes used to pay for.
Yes! We know that user fees are another form of a tax, but we will use Government revenues to pay our pals in the advertising industry to convince you that they are in fact not taxes. You'll believe us too. We learned that from the Mike Harris Tories in Ontario after he was re-elected to a second term.
What it will also do is reduce the governments ability to govern and would allow business to violate all the rules/red tape that society has imposed on them, because, gee...we hadda layoff all those civil servants who would have enforced the rules.

We will then have to implements cuts in Medicare....again...gee......because government revenues are down. Gosh and gawddamn...we just gonna have to delist more and more services that used to be covered by Medicare to our buddies in the private sector. Yeah! We know it's privatizing Medicare, but hell, with a majority government you cannot stop us. 'Sides..we'd just do some more advertising...
Kyoto? What Kyoto? We don't agree with that treaty because our pals in business told us that we do not support that illogical treaty. There is no global warming. It's a figment of your imagination, George Bush said so!
That George has some fine ideas. We especially like his ideas about Iraq. We've said it before and we'll say it again. Our troops should have gone to Iraq because of Saddam Husseins arsenal of WMDs,........no sorry, because Saddam was an evil dictator and we needed to liberate the Iraqi people......actually because Iraq is the forefront of the war on terror. Yeah! We know again that the majority of Canadians opposed this war, but we'd just do some advertising to convince the voters that they really support it. Of course we're not going to suit up Jason Kenney in body armour nor will we provide Stockwell Day with a jet-ski and send them off to Iraq. Do you see any of the political elite, or the children of prominent Americans going to Iraq? Whassa matter with you?
That's the job of ordinary citizens and their sons/daughters. Plus it will provide them with good jobs, because we'd speed up the imposition of Free Trade treaties with the rest of the Americas. We have to do this because Canadian workers are too highly paid and our businesses cannot compete with other low wage countries.
As you'll recall, under the last Conservative government the N.A.F.T.A. agreement cost a lot of Canadians their well paying jobs and made us and our business associates a lot of money.
We'd roll back many of the liberties that Canadians have come to take for granted because of the war on terror and..
Oh! Yeah, we'd build some super-jails and hire extra police, 'cause you know, there are some trouble makers out there in society who want to protest just about everything. Our Mike Harris experience taught us that.
Of course we are only asking for two terms. After that you will not recignize Canada, just like Brian Mulroney famously told you three Liberal majorities ago.
We know that after two terms we are not likely to ever get elected again. But thats okay with us. After all it was okay for Mikey and Brian as well.

The Right is Wrong

It scared me when I read in a local paper, that the Reform/Alliance now known as the Conservatives after forcing a merger with the Tories, were trying to soften their image and round out the sharp edges in preparation for the election now under way.
Why soften images? What sharp edges? Who will get injured by these sharp edges? Screw all that, just tell the truth.
It all smacks of deception to me.
How can we believe Stephen Harper when he claims to be an alternative to the ruling Liberals, if he is softening his image and rounding out sharp edges, to sell himself to voters?
Fact is, the Right is the wrong choice for the vast majority of citizens. Matter of fact, in this increasingly globalized world, the message of rightwingers offers exactly the wrong solutions in a complex world.
There may have been a time when rightwing policies made sense, if pure unadulterated greed and callous indifference to the plight of the poor and disenfranchised and unmitigated violence in defense to those policies can ever make sense. That time is long past. Never forget that those who espouse this brand of political governance, once claimed that the abolition of slavery and of forced child labour was uneconomical.
We only need look south of the border, down Americas way, to see the incredible damage rightwing policies cause.
The damage cuts through every aspect of a citizens life, from environmental damage, to the loss of life, limbs, liberty not to mention the staples of an ordinary workers life like overtime pay and of course the sheer contempt that American citizens are treated to the world over.
The neo-cons are ruling America and our neo-cons,
the Re-formed Alliance of Conservatives are in lockstep with them. Verily I say that I am scared to death of these guys ever taking power here in Canada.

Next segment; What if Conservatives actually told the truth?
And speaking of accountability, betcha old dollywolly can't write like this and he is making big bucks off of my dues!!

The NDP

Never forget that the New Democratic Party was, at least its predecessor was, the party that introduced Canadas much loved and valued Medicare program. This means that Canadians do not have to mortgage the house to pay for medical treatment, or go heavily into debt, American style, for a simple medical procedure. Medicare remains the crowning achievement of the NDP so this means that the NDP alone, amongst Canadas political parties is most suited to protect Medicare, as opposed to the conservatives who are drooling at the prospect of privatizing it. Great profits are to be had out of the suffering of ordinary Canadians and the insurance companies are lining up at the public trough at the prospect of the Conservatives winning power. Stephen Harper has fired the first shot across the bows of the Royal Canadian Medicare Program, (RCMP..? Someones gonna bash me for this, I just know it)by offering a 25% cut in taxes. Next thing you'll know is ....Hey! We just do not have the money to pay for Medicare, so lets get the thin edge of the wedge in and privatize "some" services and before you know it you'll be paying for an increasingly privatized system.
Accountability means looking at political parties' past records. One of the main movers and shakers of the new united Conservatives was none other than Brian Mulroney. Remember what he did to Canada? Recall how popular he remains in the collective memories of the citizens?
Want another dose of Mulroneys medicine? Hah! Didn't think so.
Remember the mess the rightwingers have landed the globe in! Iraq is a key example of rightwing political solutions gone wrong. In todays increasingly complex world Right is Wrong!!
Go Left Canadians.........GO LEFT!!

Liberal accountability

An auditor generals report created a stir for newly elected Paul Martin as the Leader of the governing Liberal party.
In what I view as a true measure of accountability, P.M. the Prime Minister, struck a parliamentary committee and commissioned an inquiry to get to the bottom of things.
A lot of people scoff at the notion of Martin being unaware of the goings on in Cabinet, even when he was the Finance Minister.
I want to state that I believe him. It happens all the time, when the chief executive, takes secret decisions in cahoots with their staff and operatives, leaving key ministers in the dark.
It will not be business as usual with this Prime minister, if his initial actions of accountability are any indications.

Election Call

I believe that we are entering into an "Age of Accountability".
Democratic institutions the world over are failing their constituents, taxpayers and payers of dues and fees.

In the political world, a glaring example of this is the illegal invasion of Iraq, based on lies, in spite of opposition to war by significant portions of the publics of the invading nations.
At least a couple of news media have subsequently referred to anti-war protestors/public opinion as the "other" superpower in relation to the globes remaining military hyperpower, the US.
The subsequent inquiries in Britain and the US are due largely to public pressure.The publics cry for accountability if you will.

In the corporate world, the Board of Directors and shareholders of Hollinger Inc. are asking penetrating questions about executive salaries and bonuses. In this most conservative of media institutions/conglomerates, the cry of accountability rings out to the tune of lawsuits numbering in the tens, (if not hundreds) of millions of dollars.

In other areas, ........well.. I'll comment on those at a later date. (believe me I have a lot of experience in the lack of accountability in "other areas"-plus an opinion to go with it)
For now.........Remember these two phrases that speak to the lack of accounatbility;
Our taxes-Theirs to spend!
Our fees/dues-Their (and their families') lavish lifestyles!!

Right now I've got an election to practice accountability" on. Canada'a Prime Minister, Paul Martin, has dropped the writ, the candidates are off and running and the new Conservative party deserves my comments. Thank you for reading this, my initial post.