Explaining Basic Politics...

...so even McGoonty supporters can understand!

Truth And McGoonty The Ultimate Oxymoron

Opinion


Blizzard: The 'truthiness' of Dalton McGuinty

Hail Gore And Suzuki...

Study finds most 'green product' claims misleading

Nearly all "green" consumer products make one false, misleading or unproven environmental claim to attract eco-conscious shoppers, a new study has found.

REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT THE RIGHT THING TO DO

The $50 Saving Is A Myth...

...when you look at the impact of the HST brought in by his friends at Queens Park and who is going to pickup the $11M shortfall in revenue.

Smitherman promises tax break on apartments


2 per cent tax cut would cost the city about $11-million a year Sep 24, 2010

Harris backed early learning, expert says

Dalton McGuinty may be casting himself as the champion of all-day kindergarten, but apparently he wasn’t the first Ontario premier who was keen on early learning. 9 September 05:11 

...during the Harris era the government ran the education system unlike the current government where the teacher;s unions have been allowed to hijack the system as payment for not embarassing the liberals through walkouts, marches, etc.

Don't look at me...

...I didn't vote for him...Faced with a $19.3-billion deficit of his own making, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has now decided that everyone in the province has to pitch in to pay it back.Ontario voters have seen this movie before. In 1990, they elected the province’s first (and only) NDP government, under premier Bob Rae. Faced with a recession, Mr. Rae attempted to spend the province bac...

halls of macadamia |

 

...and let's not forget it took Harris to bring the province back from the brink of bankruptcy.

 

Becoming A Common Occurence Around The World...

In defense of Islam, vigilante justice in Indonesia

 

Sara Schonhardt - August 23, 2010 06:44 

 

Indonesian government sits idly by as Islamic Defender's Front, called thugs by most, runs amok

...under the banner of diversity, religious freedom, etc. 

How Many Fewer Children Are Going Hungry?...

World Cup 2010: African soccer struggles to shine

Tristan McConnell - July 2, 2010 06:58 

 

Q&A: Why African teams stumble at the highest level of soccer.

 

...How many fewer cases of Aids? How many fewer unwanted pregnancies?And the list goes on and on and on but after the G20 protests in Toronto reality sets in and makes you wonder about the billions and billions poured into Africa in foreign aid and makes the

$$$ expended for G20 security seem insignificant.

Goreism Coming To Your Neighborhood

The next big scam: carbon dioxide

Posted: January 12, 2010, 10:27 PM by NP Editor

Attempts to create markets for tradeable CO2 are shaping up to be the next Oil-for-Food-sized fraud

By Patricia Adams

D

eloitte Forensic calls it “the white collar crime of the future.” Kroll, a business risk subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, the global professional services firm, calls it “a fraudster’s dream come true.”

These two global financial services firms are referring to carbon trading markets, a business that is estimated to explode from $132-billion in 2009, mostly in the European Union, to $3-trillion by 2020 as jurisdictions around the world join in carbon trading, part of the “cap and trade” system that governments are embracing.

Under cap and trade, companies need permits for the right to emit CO2 as part of their operations. The permits, in effect, guarantee that excess carbon emissions will be “offset” by third parties that will, for example, sequester carbon by growing trees. These permits, which are being traded on carbon exchanges, akin to stock exchanges, have caught the attention of law enforcement officers, who have seen an upsurge in fraud.

Click here to read more...

Real Estate Sales Are To Some Extent Dependant On "Basement Apartments...."

...which in many cases do not abide by Building Code requirements.

Uniform rules for rooming houses

January 11, 2010

More than a decade after amalgamation, Torontonians are still subject to different rules depending on what part of the city they live in. That's because councillors are unwilling to tackle hot topics.

Last week, city staff brought forward a sensible proposal to introduce some order to the patchwork of rules governing where rooming houses may be located and what standards they must meet.

But councillors on the city's planning and growth committee did what they do far too often: voted to defer the issue to a later date, certainly not before October's municipal election.

This inaction means a continued patchwork of rooming house rules. They are legal in much of the old cities of Toronto and Etobicoke and York but illegal in Scarborough, North York and East York.

Torontonians deserve better. We don't elect politicians to make just the easy calls or decisions only when it suits them.

The proposal before them was to create a licensing regime and consult with the public on a new approach that would legalize rooming houses in mixed-use and higher-density residential neighbourhoods. It did not propose legalizing them in single-family neighbourhoods. Even if ultimately approved by full council, the plan would have left the status quo alone in much of the city.

But even that moderate proposal was evidence of downtown ideals being foisted on suburban residents, argued Scarborough Councillor Mike Del Grande, the leading critic of the staff proposal.

Del Grande may be content to put his head in the sand and pretend that cheap accommodations are only needed downtown. But his stance neither helps to protect tenants nor makes it possible to regulate rooming houses into being good neighbours.

It would be better, of course, if our city didn't need rooming houses anywhere. But rooming houses, with shared facilities such as a kitchen or bathroom, are the cheapest form of housing in the city. They provide the only alternative to the street or shelters for many low-income single people.

The poor do not spring up from the sidewalks in downtown Toronto. They live and work in many parts of our city – that is the very reason why illegal rooming houses keep appearing in the suburbs, where they are banned. Keeping them illegal – and therefore not subject to standards, licensing or inspections – leaves those tenants vulnerable to unsafe conditions. It doesn't help other residents either.

If there were legal rooming houses in Scarborough, North York and East York, in the proposed areas – generally along major roads served by transit – it would reduce the incentive to open them away in single-family neighbourhoods, where they can be disruptive.

The city has a responsibility to ensure that residents who can only afford a few hundred dollars a month for a room have access to a safe one. By deferring this issue, these councillors have shirked their responsibilities and delayed much-needed change.

What remains to be seen is whether the rest of council will let them get away with it. Full council could vote to reopen the matter and overrule the committee later this month. It should.

I Am Sad BUT...

...in retrospect we have done little to deserve someone like Tory making sacrifices for us.

Why John Tory bowed out of race that was his to win
Toronto consultant Bob Richardson, reeling from the news late Wednesday that John Tory wouldn't be running for mayor after all, looked at his friend and did the only thing he could under the circumstances.

Tory's surprising move

Fri Jan 08 2010

With the unexpected withdrawal yesterday of John Tory, the Toronto mayoralty race has been diminished. Tory – an intelligent and experienced man – would have provided voters with a compelling choice.

...but the news brightens up "depends" day.

Coal I The Stockings Of Those Who Voted For Change...

..Christina forgot Dulltoon giving us possibly the next mayor of toronto.

Grits put out the trash

Government tries to bury bad news over holidays

By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD, TORONTO SUN

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper was being soundly berated by critics as weighty as The Economist for "proroguing" -- or ending the parliamentary session -- just what was Premier Dalton McGuinty up to?

Funny you should ask.

While everyone was telling Harper he was a naughty boy, McGuinty was being far more sneaky -- and getting away with it.

While we were preoccupied with visions of sugar plums over the holidays, McGuinty's Liberals were tiptoeing some controversial items out the door, no doubt hoping we'd all be so besotted with booze and food we wouldn't notice.

In an act of pure cowardice on Dec. 22, with the Legislature on a break, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne announced the fall report card would be axed.

Parents will get only a "progress report" on their children. No grades. That's a cop-out, because if your child needs help, parents need to know sooner rather than later.

So the government has, once again, caved in to the powerful teacher unions. But it's Christmas, so we'll forget about it.

Then there were two payouts as a result of legal actions.

On Christmas Eve, we learned Santa had stuffed the stocking of the former head of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp, (OLG), Kelly McDougald, to the tune of almost $750,000.

McDougald announced in September she was suing the province for $8.8 million for wrongful dismissal after being canned in August amid allegations taxpayers funded swanky dinners and lavish trips at the OLG.

Sure, the settlement was small potatoes compared to the lawsuit, but it's still a hefty chunk of change for us mere mortals who toil in the private sector.

Just before New Years, the government slid by its settlement with a Caledonia family that has been terrorized by protesters in the ongoing aboriginal stand-off in that town.

For weeks, we'd heard horrific details in a court case in Hamilton. This innocent family was victimized -- forced to show special native "passports" to get into their own home -- and OPP officers apparently permitted the abuse.

ABOUT TO TESTIFY

The surprise settlement came just as OPP officers were due to testify at the trial.

Now we can only speculate what their testimony would have been.

Remember the McGuinty Liberals constantly harping about political interference in the Ipperwash stand-off? Now we will never know if cops believed there was political interference in Caledonia because they've been silenced. No testimony.

Just shut-up -- and pay up. You thought there was one law for all? Forget it.

Meanwhile, the government managed to send out press releases trumpeting their Jan. 1 tax break. But no release on Caledonia.

Look, McGuinty isn't the first politician to dump unpopular news when he hopes no one is looking. He won't be the last. Journalists call it putting out the trash.

And you always put it out when no one's looking: Late Friday afternoon. Christmas Eve. New Year.

Meanwhile, we're all over Harper. Why? Because he used a legitimate procedural instrument that governments use all the time. I expect the Liberals will prorogue this session at Queen's Park soon -- and no one will blink. Nor should they.

What's galling is when governments try to bury important issues. It's like looking for the dime in the Christmas pudding. You have to watch carefully, or it will choke you.

McGuinty needs to quit these Christmas capers -- cold turkey.

As Usual Lawyers/Bloggers Are The Winners

A new approach

National Post Published: Monday, January 04, 2010

By last count -- a federal government estimate from 2003 -- Ottawa has spent over $8-billion just on researching aboriginal land claims and arguing them in court, largely because it funds the lawyers and consultants for both sides: its own and those of the First Nations bringing the claims. Yet to date, only a few of the outstanding claims have been resolved. Most remain mired far from settlement.

New thinking is required if aboriginal Canadians are to move on and taxpayers are to be spared more billions of dollars in fruitless spending.

Near the end of last year, two aboriginal communities in northwestern British Columbia created just such a fresh start. The Gitxsan, an ancient West Coast tribe, offered to give up its Indian status -- which would mean losing its reserve and its people's exemption from income tax and the GST, among other perks --in return for a share of resource revenue from its ancestral lands and something approaching municipal government control.

Nearby, the Nisga'a, who already have some of the control the Gitxsan are seeking, have passed a local law permitting members to buy and own their property on Nisga'a land--a first for any aboriginal community in the country.

Since local accountability and control follows property rights and personal taxation, these two moves promise to have profound effects on the future of native self-government.

Now the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is proposing a way to speed the transition to self-government while also preserving our Constitution: delegation of powers from the higher orders of government to aboriginal councils. This makes sense. It is the same way municipalities derive their powers from their provincial governments and works well in that context.

As the CCF's executive director John Carpay explained on these pages last week, this approach also makes more sense than pursuing the politically correct fantasy of "inherent self-government" because it recognizes that the sovereignty of all Canadian governments --including aboriginal ones -- stems from the Constitution, and that all Canadians are equal under the supreme law of the land.

Even under this approach there will be some differences between aboriginal and non-aboriginal governments: The former will likely always be race-based to a degree. But the CCF proposal does not abuse the Constitution to perpetuate an inequitable illusion.

Let's not make their mistakes when measuring success

I was recently part of a delegation from Canada that looked at United States education systems for Native American students. One of our goals was to see if lessons learned from the US could be useful in a Canadian setting. As in Canada, Native American students in the US are considered disadvantaged and many attend ineffective or failing schools.There are many lessons to be learned from a look ...

Intemperate North |

Another 10s List But Endearing?

• The 10 most endearing politicians of 2009

Finally! Tiger Gets A Break

So...What's New?

Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen

By Yasha Levine —

The anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.

60 COMMENTS

Seek And Thee Shall Find.....

Fraser Institute: What the green movement learned from the Catholic church

Posted: December 22, 2009, 2:00 PM by NP Editor

Full Comment

Canada's Fraser Institute has produced a series of videos questioning the honesty of claims made by the climate change industry.

The videos include Climate is Constantly Changing, which breaks the lid off the little-known fact that the earth has gone through extended temperature shifts forever, even before cars were invented, meaning "It's not your fault" ... no matter what Al Gore wants you to believe.

A second video, Manufacturing an Environmental Crisis, outlines the environmental movement's history of inventing and exaggerating scare campaigns.

The most recent, Confess Your Environmental Sins, looks at the success the green movement has had in using intensive messages of guilt (similar to some religions we could think of) as a tool to enforce its commandments on true believers. Watch it here:

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen??????

Copenhagen sure was a gas

By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, TORONTO SUN

Now that the enviro nuts have finished handing out their "Fossil of the Day" and "Colossal Fossil" awards, unfairly smearing Canada at the just-completed Copenhagen climate summit, let's return the favour with some well-deserved honours of our own.

Copenhagen winds down with non-binding agreement

The world’s most-anticipated climate change conference wound down almost a full day late — only narrowly avoiding utter failure with a limited but politically...

U.S. initiative, Canadian passivity

Better news is coming out of Copenhagen as world leaders prepare for the climate change summit's last day. No thanks, unfortunately, to Canada Dec 19, 2009

Terence Corcoran: A 2,000-page epic of science and skepticism — Part 1

To get the post-Copenhagen science review underway, the world has a fine document at hand: The Climategate Papers.

Revealed -- Terence Corcoran named in Climategate emails!
Terence Corcoran: My climategate email cameo

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Climate Change Al A Suzuki

Peter Foster: Muddled models

Kevin Libin: Carbon report’s bloody portent

Jack Mintz: Economic growth today — the mastodon in the room

John Ivison: Government emits foul gases over greenhouse report

Venus Flytrap Climate Scam

by Charles Adler

Climate change report 'irresponsible,' Prentice says A landmark report on the economic impact of meeting climate-change targets has run into a storm of opposition, with Western provinces calling it divisive and the federal government saying it would spell economic disaster. MORE...

There Is A Pea Under Each Nut

Harper, Iggy and Layton