We Are Most Fortunate

 

Too often we get caught up in the negatives that surround us and I am as guilty (more guilty?) as anyone.

We tend to overlook how blessed we all are in our day to day lives:

• clean drinking water
• lots of healthy food
• good shelter
• good health care
• a world class education system
• an enviable economic system
• excellent policing
• fire protection
• good roads
• sewers that work
• regular garbage pick-up
• income support
• abundant freedoms
• stable governments

The list goes on and on.

It is Father’s Day 2012 and the sun is shining.  A good time to reflect on these positives.

And, in that respect, I am even more fortunate since I have a wonderful family to love.

Last week Anne and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary where family and friends came together to share in our celebration.  When all is said and done, this is what life is about and when combined with the above, we have truly attained Bliss.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’

A Requiem For Bob Rae

 

As I begin this Blog I have no idea – beyond a vague sense – of what it will contain.

So here goes…

First off, Bob Rae had baggage – he single handily damaged Ontario’s Economy during his tenure as Premier – albeit not to the extent done by the Office’s current holder and he jumped parties – NDP to the Liberals.

These two transgressions would not nor should not be forgotten.

But the guy has class and as such, stands head and shoulders above just about everyone else currently on the political scene.  That he decided to not seek the permanent Liberal Leadership, is a death blow for that Party.

Two main reasons for his decision have been bandied about – first that he believed he could not beat young Trudeau and second that he was losing heart in trying to revive a dormant party.  Personally I put little faith in the former explanation but I think that the second is more apt to contain the truth; he was getting increasingly tired of beating a dead horse.

Many pundits like to say the Liberals must “reinvent themselves” as if that was saying something profound.  But I, like you, have no idea what that truly means and I suspect that many of them do not as well.

But I do know the Liberals too have a great deal of baggage that they must distance themselves from if they ever hope to regain a modicum of Electoral Success:

•  Official Bilingualism has been an abject failure, it has pitted French against English, Quebec against the Rest;
• Multiculturalism too has been most divisive and we are now seeing the spoiled fruits of that vision, coming home to rest;
• The Charter of Rights has taken away democratic power from the people and handed it to the Courts; and finally,
• The out of control spending evidenced by successive Liberal Regimes – plus Mulroney’s, from the 1960s onward.

How does a Party “reinvent” itself when it sees the above as Pillars of Greatness? 

The fact is, it cannot but unless it does, it is doomed and I believe Rae, of all people, understood that.

That said, the Liberals still have an Ace up their sleeve and that is Tommie Mulcair.  I have predicted great bungling on his part and so far he has not let me down.  I continue to have a great faith that he will continue in this vein.

I said when Mulcair ran for the NDP Leadership that he would in all likelihood win but that would be the worse thing that could happen to his Party.

The same holds for the Liberals – albeit in reverse – Bob Rae not taking over their permanent leadership is the worse thing that could happen to them.

All eyes are now on young Justin – but he is no Pierre and if he does decide to run – which he shouldn’t – and wins – which now is likely (although Rae would have whooped him) – he will be just an airhead fighting along with Mulcair for the rights of Quebec.

That’s it.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’ 

 

A Small (Ka-ching) Severance…

 

Two Acres to be more specific.

My wife and I own 35.5 Acres in Rural Ottawa and a small section of our property, not much more than 2 acres in size, would make a wonderful building lot – at least on paper. It is located on the extreme north-west end of our holdings, bordered by a creek and invisible from the balance of our property.  An ideal spot for a home.

I checked the Zoning and yes, our property qualified for a severance of 2 acres as long as the remainder contained at least 25 acres.  So I did the math – 35.5 acres minus the 2 acres to be severed, leaves 33.5 acres remaining.  Slam Dunk.

So I went to review this with the City Planners just to be sure I had not missed anything. 

• Do you have at least 27 acres?  “Yes I do – I have 37.5”
• Is there a road?  “Why yes, how else would a buyer gain access to their new home”?
• Well you have to factor in a set-back from the road.
• Is there a creek?  “Why yes there is – why do you ask”?
• Another set-back.
• A barn – do you have a barn?  “An old log barn not in use – don’t tell me this requires another set-back”?
• It sure does.

What started out as a small severance of but 2 acres had now swelled to between 9 and 10 acres in size.  The good news was that I still retained at least 25 acres – just, that is – so a Severance was still doable.

How much, I asked?

‘The application fee to the city is only $2,000 – you are lucky – it would cost you more if you lived in the city proper.  I felt most fortunate.

That is until the Conservation Chaps came out to our property to review our plans given that a creek – one that nearly dries up in summer – was involved.

“You’ll need a bridge” they said.  “At what cost” I asked – up to $50,000.  “Wow” I said.

In spite of this, we went ahead with the application.

It was at this point that a few other costs were disclosed to us:

1. The lands – both severed and retained would have to be surveyed – $5to $6 thousand – Ka-ching;
2. Parkland would need to be dedicated to the City – “Park Land” I asked?  “The property is not big enough to dedicate parkland”.  No problem, I was told, just pay $4,000+ in lieu of actual parkland.  Ka-ching
3. Oh and by the way, you must prepare an Environment Impact Statement because of the “significant valleylands".  “What significant valleylands” I enquired – “our property is flat”.  “Our maps show that valleylands exist and accordingly you will need to have an EIS – prepared – bureaucrats love initials.  “How much will this cost, I asked?”  “You will have to make your own arrangements with an independent professional”.  Ka-ching
4. And the folks from Conservation returned – “we need a plan of your proposed bridge prepared before we will okay your severance application”.  My pleading with them that I had no idea what the bridge would look like fell on deaf ears.  From my perspective – the bridge design would and should be determined at a future date by whomever purchased the lot and would be building on it. I considered getting the plans for the Brooklyn Bridge and submitting those to them but thought better of it.  Ka-ching
5. Plus a well needs to be drilled in advance.  “Where exactly would I put such a well considering the fact that severance approval was not guaranteed, and even if it was, I had no idea where a family home would eventually be built.  “Good points” – however…. Ka-ching
6. It was at this point that I contacted our family lawyer since he would have to prepare the legal papers should the severance go through – another Ka-ching.  It was during this meeting that he advised me that upon selling the severed lot, we would be responsible for paying Capital Gains Tax to the Government and possibly – HST to the Province – Ka-ching, Ka-ching.
7. He also advised that if we or whomever were to build on the severed lot, there would be Building Permit Fees payable of around $20,000.  Ka-ching.  

I figure if we were able to sell this 9 – 10 acre lot – assuming of course that we were eventually successful in obtaining severance approval – we’d need to sell it for something approaching $1 million if only to breakeven.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher”

Tea Party … One….

 

Wall Street Occupiers … Zero.

In the run-up to this year’s Presidential Election.

As you will know, I have absolute confidence in the fact that Mitt Romney will beat Obama at the Polls this coming November.

No President to date, has piled on the debt as has the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Yesterday, the Republican Governor of Wisconsin – a traditionally democratic state, was returned to power after the Unions successfully brought about a recall election.

The Unions were upset by the fact that Governor Walker had stripped the State’s Public Servants of the right to join them.  It is a position that I too support and would like to see implemented here in the governments of Ontario and Canada.

Simply stated, no one represents the taxpayer in government labour negotiations.  Unions want the moon – the politicians want labour peace  – and the money both are dealing with, is not their own.  It is and has been a recipe for disaster.

But let’s get back to Wisconsin.  Governor Walker was surprisingly elected in 2010 when the Democrats suffered a massive electoral reversal right across the country.  Pundits credited the Tea Partyers for seeing this reversal come about.

At that time, Governor Walker and his fellow Republicans found a State running an annual deficit of some $3.6 Billion Dollars.  Less than two years later, Wisconsin’s annual budget is now running a significant surplus.

The Unions, the Democrats, the Occupiers were livid.  Power was being taken away from them.  A Recall effort was launched and a sufficient number of signatures were secured, resulting in yesterday’s election.

The Left pulled out all the stops to see their vote turnout.  But so did the Tea Partyers.

When the dust settled – Walker was re-elected by a significant margin – and this, as mentioned, in an historically democratic state.

The moral of the story – if in an Election Year, the Democrats cannot maintain power in one of their own states – their chances of taking needed swing states, will be all the more difficult.

Bottom line – the writing is on the wall for President Obama.

As I see it…

‘K.D. Galagher’

One School System Too Many…

 

And it is not the R.C. Separate System.

Many years ago, when I was engaged, I had the usual meeting with the Priest who was going to officiate at our wedding.  As an non-Catholic, he wanted to know if I had any objection to our future children being educated in the Catholic School System and I told him that I did object and provided him with the usual reasons why (e.g. one inclusive system etc etc).  What drivel.

At the end of our conversation – dare I say debate, the Priest confessed (pun?) that he agreed with me – to my great and pleasant surprise.

I wish though I could have that debate to do over since I now find myself in the opposing camp – simply stated, I think the Separate School System is the best thing the Province of Ontario has going in the field of education.

I continue.

My great belief in one consolidated school system lasted only until our family moved here to Ottawa in the 1980s.  The area we moved into had lots of social housing and thus the local public school had a very bad reputation. Since our children had come from a village, the whole move was a great culture shock for them;to put them into the public school environment, in our area, would have been nothing less than child abuse.  Our kids went to the Separate School.

Even so, I rationalized; Separate School was okay only in cases where the local public school had a bad reputation. 

But over time, I would be totally won over.

As the 80s drifted into the 90s and then the new millennia, society’s elite became more and more politically correct and this change was most evident in the public school system.  No more Christmas, no more Easter, no morning prayer.  Sikhs could wear their ceremonial daggers, Jews could wear their yarmulkes, Muslims could have their prayer areas but Christians could have nought.  Young girls could receive birth control advice and even advice on how to obtain an abortion without their parents’ knowledge.  The family –just a few years prior - called the ‘foundation of society’ was now totally redefined as was the definition of marriage and the public school system soaked up these developments like a massive sponge.

The only refuge, for our kids, became the Separate School System since it continued to stand for the values that many of us continue to hold dear but now, Premier McGuinty makes no secret of his intention to dissolve it.

To do so, he is using the guise of Bullying to try to embarrass the Catholic Church over its position on Homosexuality – i.e. that it is abnormal. Which of course it is.  But it is also true that the Catholic Church respects Heterosexuals and Homosexuals alike, we are all human beings equally entitled to respect and dignity.

But Dear Reader, the issue – like the pseudo issue of tuition increases for the Quebec Students – is not what’s at play here.  Simply stated, McGuinty wants to consolidate education into One Common School Board (two if you count the Francophone Board) and he will do whatever is necessary to achieve his misguided goal.

Let’s look first at the Bullying Issue.  Your own experience in life will tell you that there are many, many reasons why children get picked on: race, creed, deformity, mental disability, physique, personality …gay etc.  Indeed, polling supports you in your thinking since it too places bullying, due to sexual orientation, well down the list.  So why does the Premier focus on this one form of bullying to challenge the Catholic System, if his intentions were not otherwise sinister.  Nothing substantiates this more than his enforced committee name, as per Bill 13, the ‘Gay-Straight Alliances’.

Moreover, the Catholic Church is not opposed to having  Student Committees established to deal with the issue of Bullying, indeed many such committees already exist.  The Church suggests that the name for this committee be ‘Respecting Difference’ – a much more encompassing name than that proposed by the Liberal Government and a name I suggest that is much more in keeping with the problem of ending bullying itself.

So in my opinion, McGuinty really does not care about stamping out bullying, rather his intention is to stamp out the Separate School System and for that he has much public support – support that is as misguided, as mine once was.

So let’s forget about Bullying – since that is not the issue that is at issue here and let’s forget about the Catholic Separate System since it is only part of the issue – at issue here – rather let’s talk about Education itself – since this is what it all comes down to.

Many of us saw the article in the paper this week where government tried to run a Tim Hortons “to make some $300k a year” at one of its hospitals.  Rather than the expected profit – it lost nearly $300k.

Why are we not surprised?

And why would we entrust Government to run our Educational System – a System that in my humble opinion is the most important in society – exceeding even Health Care.

I entitled this Blog – One School System Too Many which is true in the sense that the current Public School System with all of its Political Correctness is broken and is in desperate need of fixing or deep sixing. But in truth, we need more School Systems to invoke competition and best practices into the mix.

From time to time the Voucher System has been talked about when it comes to educating our children – parents would receive a voucher and would assign it to whatever school / system they thought would provide the best education for their child.  New systems would flourish under this process and the current public school monopoly would be gone for ever.  Society would be the absolute beneficiary.

So why the big deal?  Government has run education from the beginning and we all more or less muddled through?

Dear Reader – Society has motored on from those days.  The Agricultural Era deferred to the Industrial Age and more recently that Age has been overtaken by the Knowledge Era.  Countries that best educate their citizens will win out.

With advances in travel, instant communications etc. the world is ever smaller and countries are no longer just competing with their neighbours.  They are competing with all others and the best educated will win out.

If you think Government is up to that challenge – go with McGuinty’s vision.  But if you have a realistic grasp of reality – go with mine.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

Be Happy … Don’t Worry

 

Dear Reader:

I had planned to do a Blog on this subject to set-out the many reasons why things are not as bad as they appear.  But then ..

The video killing / dismemberment occurred in all its gruesome detail.

Hard to be optimistic in the face of that.

Ergo – my Blog is postponed until further notice.

I do though want to do one concerning the Roman Catholic Separate School System since I am convinced its days are numbered should our (Ontario’s) distinguished Premier retain power.

Look for this next…

KDG

 

HAPPY MEALS ARE NOT WHAT THEY …

 

Used to be.

Not that they were ever anything to rave about.

Each week, I take my two grand kids to McDonald’s for dinner and have been doing so for some time.  Everytime, my grandson Patrick orders a Happy Meal because he is still of an age where he likes to get the toy of the week lodged inside the the Happy Meal Box.  Something like Cracker Jacks used to do for you older folks, like me.

Anyway, it works for McDonald’s because it certainly is not due to the quality of the food inside the box.  A meagre looking hamburger, along with a small folder of fries and a shot glass size paper cup for a soda.  Plus the toy of course.

But this week things had noticeably changed.  At least they did when we finally sat down at one of their most uncomfortable tables.

Patrick had ordered his Happy Meal as per usual and on opening the box, immediately complained that his fry order was greatly reduced in size.  His sister Kristen suggested that he must be mistaken but then she and I looked inside his box and saw at the bottom some 5 to 6 lonely fries.  That was it – his total fry order.  In place of the missing 20 or so fries was a tiny little container of yogurt which could be totally consumed by one small spoonful – two at the most.

McDonalds, you can see, has got up with political correctness – healthy is in.  So now in place of lousy food, you get even lousier but a little more healthy food.

Patrick looked dejected, as well he might, until I promised him that I would include dessert with the evening’s fine dining. 

So much for eating healthier. Maybe McDonald’s took this into consideration when it adopted its apparent healthier approach.  Sly devils.

But it will do them no good.

I forget what Kristen ordered but I ordered the chicken mcnuggetts which tasted like dry sawdust and just as tough to eat.  Where do they get this stuff?

Well at least Patrick got his toy; but let me add, he is so attached to them that he customarily leaves them behind in my car.

I have the feeling that our days of McDonald’s eating are over.

Hurrah.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’