McGuinty …. I lied.

 

The “I” here is me – Galagher.

In an earlier Blog, I promised not to write any more about our Premier – but I just can’t help myself though.  I feel a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge when he realized he had not missed Christmas Day.

What fun watching and writing about dear Dalton.

He, the champion of the Teachers and Ontario’s Civil Service …and now their whipping boy.  Indeed, he owes his job to the Teacher’s Union which spent $millions of dollars in the recent Election ensuring the defeat of Hudak and his fellow Tories.

And now, to see him force contracts on the Former and Wage Freezes on the Latter.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  Word is even starting to spread that some Grits have had enough of their Top Dog and hope soon to dump him, but I truly hope that this does not turn out to be the case; I, as you know, want McGuinty to face the music for what he has done to this once proud Province.

His Green Energy Plan alone has reduced us to Have-Not Status.  If I was Premier, I’d tell the Feds to keep their Transfer Handouts – ‘we’ll get by on our own, as we did for the first 140 years of Confederation’ …but I digress.

But permit me to digress a little bit further: speaking of Teaching, the Esteemed Toronto Board of Education has mandated that its students be taught about twisted sex suggesting that the kids give all forms of sex a try before settling on one or more type(s).  This education includes how to safely shove things up one’s anus.  All without the knowledge nor approval of the parents.  I would like to see something sharp shoved up the collective anus of the Toronto Board.

Okay, enough digressing; let me now get to the reason for today’s Blog. As you know, days prior to the last Election, McGuinty saw fit to cancel ongoing construction of two Power Plants in the Toronto Region.  He cancelled them, not because they were not needed – they most certainly were, but because they were not popular in the two ridings they were being placed in and he desperately wanted to keep those two ridings in the Grit Win Column.

After the Election, McGuinty allowed that the cost to the Taxpayer for shutting down construction totalled a measly $40 million dollars. The Opposition Parties have been fighting ever since for documentary proof of the Premier’s low estimate having to go so far as to charge the Minister of Energy, Chris Bentley with contempt of the Legislature in order to force the release of this information.

This information has finally been disclosed and it shows that the true cost of the cancellations was a whopping $1.5 Billion Dollars – some $750 million for each salvaged Riding.

Why that is more than enough money to have kept the Teachers and Bureaucrats onside for a few more years.  Maybe even until the next election, if one was not worried about the growing Provincial Debt / Deficit and things called Credit Agencies.

But the story gets even better – get your blood pressure pills out.

McGuinty is going to build these two plants elsewhere – one in this area – at Napanee – right beside a current plant that has been shut down for lack of need.  That Plant has been kept operable – all one need do is turn on the switch and there is power galore.  But to save face, McGuinty is building a redundant plant right beside it.  Does the man have no conscience?  Is there not a Taxpayer Dollar that he would refrain from spending!   

So dear Reader – another Day another $Billion Dollar Boondoggle.

Part 2 to follow.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’

No Place For The Mob…

 

Government Has Come To Town; they are now in the business of establishing Gambling Casinos – Big Time. 

The Mob been pushed aside.

This development is a relatively recent one since not that long ago gambling was a highly illegal activity. And, this recent trend does not limit itself to Ontario but it is here that I would like to direct my focus.

Our Provincial Government is in the process of shuddering Para Mutual Horse Racing and replacing it with Big Casinos – slots, tables and all. 

There is big money in it, as the Mob can attest.

I personally find government’s action repulsive since it plays on one of man’s many addictions; it leaves many gamblers broken, families destitute and too often, leads to suicide.  All for the almighty dollar.

Simply stated, Government has no business raising money on the backs of human frailty.  Full Stop.

And this dear reader applies to the excessive taxes on things like alcohol and cigarettes.

Government is for all the people and all the people should contribute equally from the same income sources - to the best of their financial ability.  That is to say, from income tax, value added tax, capital gains and the like.  Just because one likes oranges and another apples – is no excuse for the government to tax oranges higher than apples.  It is simply discriminatory and in the case of gambling, it is also amoral.

As for alcohol and cigarettes, the Government plays Big Brother by saying it is taxing these items so high in order to decrease demand.  Well quite frankly, Government has no business doing this – it is up to the individual (or should be up to the individual) to make up his or her own mind on what they will / will not consume.

But what is true in all these activities is the fact that Government has invaded these fields to raise money – too often to spend on frivolities – for example; green energy that creates neither sufficient energy or nor jobs. (You might well ask here – ‘why does government never find ways to reduce its spending, rather than ways to always increase it?’  - Good question.)

But it is with respect to Gambling that I have an especial distaste for government involvement.

“So Galagher, you would ban all Casinos?”

‘Well actually no, the horse is out of the barn – so to speak.’

I was listening to a call-in show the other day and the Casino issue was being discussed.  Most of the callers – 80%+ were older women who just love to gamble – for the social, for the good food, for the entertainment, and yes, for the gambling.  To ban casino gambling now would be most unfair to such a distinguished group of citizens and to others who can gamble without becoming addicted. So no, I would not ban them – but I would get Government out of the business. 

I would treat Casinos as I would a Pizzeria – both would pay realty taxes to the City and Corporate Taxes to the Provinces and Feds etc. – but Government would no longer get a piece (%) of the action.

I would also regulate Casinos to ensure that the odds of winning tilted more in the gambler’s favour – e.g.  49% for the gambler //  51% in favour of the Casino.

I would hold Casinos responsible for reimbursing Addicted Gamblers for their losses.

Permit me to provide you with an example:

A woman friend of ours had a gambling problem – she and her husband have 2 children and he makes less than $25k per year.  She is a stay at home mother.  At one point she used their joint credit card to rack up over $13,000 in gambling debts. It took her poor husband over five years to pay off the debt and to do that, the kids often had to go without.

I would hold the Casino responsible for her debt – i.e. and have this lady send her chargex bill directly to the Casino at issue and demand that it pay the full amount plus outstanding interest.  I would then demand that the Casino ban this addict for life from their premises.

You would not have to do that too many times before you got the attention of the gambling establishment.  The Casino would soon add this cost to their overall cost of doing business.  Addicts would be banned, and regular folks who could gamble and control their impulses, would be welcome.

Government – other than for regulations – would be entirely out of the picture.

As I see it….

‘K. D. Galagher’ 

 

Embassies, the new Group Homes

 

Lots in the Press of late concerning Canada’s and the UK’s agreement to share Embassy Buildings in some countries as a cost saving initiative.

I like the idea of saving costs but I do not like the appearance of what is happening here; sort of in the vane of Justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done.

So too, Canada’s diplomatic independence must not only happen, it must be seen to happen. Unless of course that no longer becomes our objective.

Ergo, I am not too keen about our Government’s recent decision.

It also provides Quebec’s Separatists with a stick to hit Federalist over the head with; i.e. Canada is still tied to England’s apron strings.  Not true, but quite convenient for the PQ to use against us. 

Not that I care a twiddle about the PQ – I am just stating the fact that this will be used by them in their ongoing attempt to undermine Confederation.

That said, I am not opposed to co-located embassies, indeed and as you know, I would like to see a Coalition of Democratic States established (CDS) and would readily approve of CDS co-locating in Embassies across the world.  It would show unification of spirit and would send a strong message to those who may wish to harm us.  And by the bye it would also save money.

The trouble with sharing a building with another nation (England) or a handful of other nations – e.g. the Commonwealth, for the sole purpose of saving money is that it lends itself to the suggestion that our dependence has been compromised without the benefit of obtaining a truly strategic alliance.

So through the CDS approach, we would be declaring, in fact, to all and sundry that our independence has been compromised and that we, as Canadians, are fully supportive of that given its benefits to all fair minded peoples.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’  

 

It Gave Me Nightmares…

 

Not The World’s Situation, yet Heaven knows it should.

Rather I am talking about Mathematics; the subject I hated most in High School.

I have overcome these nightmares, but for a long while after graduating High School they stayed with me like a bad case of acne.

I did well in all my subjects – some even exceptionally well, but then there was Math.  I couldn’t do it to save my soul.

Arithmetic in grade school was a breeze.  In fact, the teachers would often look to me to ensure their addition, subtraction was correct.  But when I entered Grade 9 – everything changed.

I had no idea why X+ Y = Z , in fact, I had no idea what X, Y and Z even were.

I remember preparing for a final exam and focusing on the X+Y=Z equation and feeling that at last I had wrestled it to the ground but received a zero for that portion of the test since the teacher had changed the XY and Z to AB and C.  I was stymied.

I even had to take Math in grade 13 – they had such a grade back in my day – and in order to pass my year, I had to pass Math.  My parents seeing the dilemma I was in, arranged for me to get tutoring in preparation for the final. 

I still get chills from recalling the last math class; the teacher, a rather humorous-less soul by the name of O’Neil, asked several of us to go to the board whereupon he would read out a question and we were then expected to write down the answer on the Board.  The question was given and everyone but me busied themselves with projecting their answers; I stood dumbfounded.

O’Neil soon noticed and asked me one simple question – “What have we been studying all year”?

“Give me a hint”, I shot back.

With a look of incredulity, he boomed out “Tangents” as if that would miraculously open the door to some great fountain of knowledge.

It didn’t.

I think if my math classmates were polled that day they would have unanimously voted me the most likeliest to fail at even trying out for unemployment.

But I wrote the final and ….passed.  It was a cross Province Test, in the era of the New Math and apparently there were others out across Ontario who were mathematically challenged like me.

Needless-to-say, I never studied Math again but appreciate those for whom it comes easy.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’