Well Why Didn’t He Say So ?

 

As in Well Why Didn’t He ?

The ‘He’ in this is of course Ottawa Senator’s owner – Eugene Melnyk.

Poor Mr. Melnyk, he feels cheated by Ottawa City Council’s decision to back the Rideau Carleton Raceway as it’s preferred site for OLG’s proposed Casino.

Indeed, Melnyk was so incensed by this that he threatened – no promised, that he would not to spend any more money in Ottawa.

My question again for Mr. Melnyk is why did it take you so long to come out and say you were even interested in tendering for a new casino. 

This debate has been going on for well over a year and if the media is correct, it was not until just very recently that you came out to express interest in submitting a bid.

This issue has bounced around more than a tennis ball at Wimbledon.

And the fact is, Council finally came to the correct conclusion – that is to say, the best site for a casino is on the grounds of Ottawa’s current casino site – Rideau Carleton.

I say this because choosing Rideau Carleton helps to alleviate the damage done to Ontario’s Horse Racing Industry by former Dalton McGuinty’s Government.  In short, expanding the existing casino at Rideau Carleton means that Horse Racing here in Ottawa will not wither (pun?) away.

Indeed, had McGuinty gotten his way, 10’s of thousands of jobs in that industry would have been lost as well as hundreds of horses ending up in glue factories.

We can thank our new Premier for giving horse racing a second chance.  Wynne, like me, is no fan of government gambling but she, unlike me, does not let her principles stand in her way of getting government out of the business. 

But I digress – maybe more on that another day.

But back to the issue at hand – Rideau Carleton is the best casino site available for a host of good reasons.  If Mr. Melnyk wanted his own site to have been considered he should have said something before positions hardened.

As for his threat / promise to stop spending money in Ottawa – he should look to his captain Daniel Alfredsson as an shining example of a loyal Ottawan.

Oh – bad example.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

EDWARD SNOWDEN …

 

Hero or Traitor ?

You either fit into one of two camps – there is no middle ground and very little ‘I don’t know’.

As for me, he is very much a Hero; and this from a law and order guy.

But what is surprising is that this issue crosses liberal and conservative lines.  Many of Obama’s biggest cheerleaders on the Left feel totally betrayed by Snowden’s revelation that Big Brother America is spying on their tweets, emails and phone calls while a good number on the Right are equally turned offed.

The question that remains outstanding though is when do security measures go too far in their encroachment of our freedoms?

When do we tell the airport security folks to stop checking the elderly’s pacemakers and the infants’ diapers all the while electronically strip searching the rest of us … all in a bid to uncover radical Muslims?

Why do we paralyze our border crossings with useless delays?

And why does the US believe it is necessary to spy on all of our electronic communications with the same objective in mind?

Their supporters parrot back “if you have nothing to hide, then you should have no objection to being monitored”.

It has a certain logic but it misses the point entirely.

In a free and open society citizens have the right to carry on their day to day activities without having to worry about someone looking over their shoulders.

If someone is…we no longer have a free and open society.  Full stop.

And until Snowden enlightened us with his recent disclosures we thought such espionage was restricted to police states such a China and Russia.

Yes dear reader – we owe him a great debt of thanks.

My question in all of this is what has gotten into the once great United States of America?

They are engaging in activities they once railed against.

A parallel example can be seen in the case of waterboarding.  To his credit Obama has discontinued this method of torture but it was prevalent during the time of George W Bush’s Presidency and many look back in fondness of its effectiveness. 

Again the Walter Mittys’ of this world seem to favour this type of torture and even torture in general because it “saves lives”.

Again a true statement but do we lower ourselves to the level of evil regardless of how noble the objective?

Either we in the West stand for Freedom and Liberty and Humaneness or we do not.  There is no middle ground. And as for those who say we need to jettison our freedoms for safety – let me assure them – once we jettison the former, we will never enjoy the latter, despite their best wishes.

But of even greater importance, we will no longer be Free and it appears to me that that is exactly where we are all headed and it is scary.

As I see it..

‘K.D. Galagher’

It Defies Belief…

 

As in Stephen Harper’s continued assertion that he knew nothing of his Chief of Staff’s gift of $90k to Senator Mike Duffy.

In my Blogs of May 21 and 22 of this year, I recap why I thought it highly unlikely that Stephen Harper was telling the truth about not knowing of Nigel Wright’s gift to Mike Duffy.

I ended though by saying that he should be given the benefit of the doubt unless new facts came out that would prove otherwise and in such a case, dear Mr. Harper would be “toast”.

Sadly, this is exactly what has transpired as recent reports seem to suggest that virtually everyone in Harper’s own office – including his lawyer – knew of the gift in advance.  It defies credibility now to suggest that Harper did not know.

In short, it is obvious to me now that he lied to the Canadian people and as such the only honourable thing for him to do is to resign.

Will he?

Not likely, but that does not mean he should not. The main thing leaders have is their credibility and when that is discarded, all respect for the office goes with it.

I hope both McGuinty & Wynne are listening.

And it is all so sad since it did not need to happen over a petty falsifying of the books by one little thief.

If you will recall, poor old tricky Dick Nixon fell on his sword in similar circumstances.  History tells us that he did not know of the bungled Watergate burglary but he too got caught in the cover-up. 

All tricky Dick needed to do was to report those at fault and he would have been in the clear.  His failure to do so made him the first President in US history to resign.  

In Harper’s case, he obviously should have told the Duffster to get lost and told Wright to keep his cheque book closed. 

Failing to do that, he should have come clean and said he knew what was transpiring and quickly apologize for his stupidity.

At the very least, he should have kept his mouth shut and let the cops do their investigation.

His failure to do any of the above and then do the worst thing possible – claim he was always in the dark with respect to the Wright – Duffy loan meant that he lied and for that he must too fall on his sword and make way for someone else to take over the reigns of power.

It was all so needless but regardless of how one loses his or her credibility - once lost, it is almost impossible to reclaim especially in cases of leadership.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’