His Heart Was In The Right Place …

 

But Baird (and Harper) was wrong to oppose observer status for the Palestinians at this week’s UN Vote.

For the past several years, Canada has prided itself on being Israel’s best friend – and rightfully so, since America, under Obama, dithers trying to appease the Islamists. But you have to know what fights are worth having and in that regard, Canada’s vote this week should have been in favour of Palestinian recognition, not against it.

‘Everyone in the know’ seems to agree that nothing much will change as a result of the vote; that is to say, true peace will not come about until the two sides hammer out a deal at the negotiation table.  So there was little or nothing to be lost, from casting a favourable vote.

The main thing that would have been gained, however, is a greater sense of self worth amongst the Palestinians themselves. 

That said, some fear, that voting for the motion,  would encourage the Palestinians to become even more militant and thereby would delay the day for a mutually acceptable peace.

Perhaps, but given the turbulent history of this area, dating back millennia, it is most doubtful that any UN motion could make things worse.  In fact, I would argue, the successful motion helps place the Palestinians on a more equal footing with their Israeli counterparts and through that, it could enhance the possibility of genuine peace.

What is not at all helpful though, is Netanyahu’s petulant response to the vote which was to announce more housing development for the West Bank. This is guaranteed to incite the Arab Community and could very well cause a new round of violence.  Western nations should condemn this, in no uncertain terms.

I began this blog by saying Canada needs to understand what fights are worth having when it comes to our support of Israel.  And, rest assured, there will be lots of “worthwhile” occasions on the horizon; Canada’s UN Vote this week, was not one of them.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’

 

The National Post Has It Right …

 

There was a Big Winner and a Big Loser in the News Yesterday – so says the National Post on its front page today.

The only problem with their story today is that it Mixed the Two Up.

As the Post sees it – the Winner is the Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney and the Loser is Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford.

I would argue the reverse – a decline for Carney and a rise for Ford.

Let’s look at Mayor Ford first:

Yesterday, an Ontario Court Judge ruled that Ford had breeched conflict of interest laws and therefore ordered his removal from office.

Ford had been actively involved with a $3k grant to support his football team for disadvantaged teens.  Imagine – he gets judicially censured for trying to help the disadvantaged while other politicians, who will remain nameless, get off scot free for wasting (funnelling?) billions.

But that aside, the Judge was correct in his ruling – Ford should have refrained from actively taking part in Council’s decision – regardless of how noble the cause.

Indeed, that said, it is refreshing to see a Judge impose the law as it exists rather than inventing it from the ether. It would be interesting though to speculate whether the Judge would have been so conservative in his ruling had the alleged offender been of the Liberal or NDP persuasion.

So Ford caused his own downfall and the Court refused to bail him out.

But by so doing, the Court has made Ford a Hero.  Here was a guy who, up until now, had virtually botched the job of being Mayor and – all of a sudden – he is the recipient of our sympathies and best wishes.

The Guy has come out of all of this a Winner.

Okay, now Carney:

If you believe the press clippings, Carney is the best thing since the invention of sliced bread.  He and he alone saved Canada’s Banking System during his time in office.

I beg to differ.

There are really three saviours here (and none are named Carney);  Paul Martin, David Dodge and Jean Chretien – as much as I would like to think otherwise.

When those three took over the helm of Canada’s finances in 1993 – they inherited a whopping $40+ billion dollar deficit and an out of control debt - from Mulroney and his fellow Conservatives.

Martin did the policy work, Dodge did the implementation and Chretien, to his credit, allowed it to happen.

Martin even stood firm against our Banks demands that they be allowed to merge with one another.  Thank heavens they did not or they most likely would have been up to their respective ears in the fallout experienced south of the border.  As luck would have it – only one of our Banks – the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce got in over its head by investing in these caustic instruments. Even I, at the time, thought that the merger request made sense.  I know better now. 

Thank you Paul Martin.

But the point in all of this is that Carney was not the key player in this – he was though most fortunate to inherit good books as a result of the three above-noteds.

Carney was appointed by one Stephen Harper -
Conservative.  The same PM and Team which saw our deficit climb to heights not even contemplated by their fellow Tory – Brian Mulroney.

In recent years, we have looked good in comparison to the rest for the simple fact that the other western nations did worse than we did during and post the American financial meltdown beginning in 2008.  And we were able to do so – because of the successive Liberal Governments from 1993 to 2005. 

So is Carney a dud?  Who knows since, from my perspective, he succeeded on the sterling efforts of those who came before him.

Will he succeed as Governor of the Bank of England?  Again – who knows, but if I was a betting man – and I am – I would not bet the farm on his doing so.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

 

As Columbo Would Say…

 

Just One More Thing.

Well Maybe Two …

The New Motto For The United States of America that has been bandied about since Tuesday’s Election:

• Ask Not What You Can Do For Your Country…Ask What Your Country Can Do For You.

Plus Flora MacDonald is famous for saying it is passing strange…

I find it passing strange that now that the Election is over – all of the media has suddenly focused on how bad the American Economy is – the fiscal cliff etc etc . Where were they a week ago?

Oh and one more thing..

In the lead up to the Election I naively thought that America was split more or less 50/50 between the Givers and the Takers – when in reality, like here in Canada and Europe – the Takers now obviously compose the majority. 

After 4 more years of Taking – the chances of the US returning to some form of sanity – is very remote indeed.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’

Let The Games Begin …Again.

 

OBama has won another 4 more years !!

And unlike his poor imitation here in Ontario, thankfully, Obama will not be able to run and hide from his win.

Given that, the ‘Why’ he won is not important; we can leave that to the Historians to determine.

Moreover, ‘What’ it means for the United States and the World generally, is not an issue either, because the Dye has been Cast.

The main thing here is that the American Voter got what he or she wanted, as did Canadians …if we’d had been able to vote, that is.  Indeed, in our case, a recent poll showed that only 9% of us would have voted Romney.

For the record, Count me among the 9.

That said, the next four (4) years will be most interesting.

In fact, Too Interesting.

And as is the case with McGuinty, I do not plan to talk about the re-elected President in my future Blogs, rather I will let the events to unfold, do the all the speaking.

‘K.D. Galagher’

 

A Mirror Reflection …

 

Of The First Debate.

By that I mean I scored Romney 2:1 over Obama in the first debate and now I score Obama 2:1 over Romney in last night’s final debate.

I thought that given all the ammunition he had, Romney would have wiped the floor with Obama – so to speak.  I was wrong.

Last night’s debate was supposed to have been about Foreign Policy, but it drifted into domestic affairs.  Had it stayed with its original purpose – here are some of the factors Romney had going for him:

• The Middle East is burning;
• Iran is on the cusp of being able to deploy Nuclear Weapons;
• Israel has been cut adrift;
• North Africa is quickly descending into Al Qaeda Hell;
• The Taliban is on the verge of retaking Afghanistan and is now only awaiting the 2014 pull out of American Troops;
• Iraq is falling apart;
• Pakistan is becoming more instable by the day and it has Nuclear Weapons;
• Nuclear China is threatening both Japan and Taiwan;
• North Korea is threatening the South with imminent attack and it too has a nuclear capacity;
• Europe is raging with mass protests and the EU is on the verge of collapse;
• Hugo Chavez of Venezuela – our favourite communist this side of the pond, just won another long term in office;
• Castro sadly is still kicking.

So where are Obama’s successes?  Oh yes – he killed Osama.

If Romney could not upstage Obama with all this going on – I despair and I say this bearing in mind that the other field in which Obama has failed in is with respect to his Country’s Economy and he is doing even worse there.

So where does that leave us?

Certainly the Election next month will be even closer than it should otherwise have been.

I still predict a Romney win but this is no longer assured.   I still honestly believe that America will be better off with Romney – much better off in fact, but not as well off as it should be.

In other words – Romney is flawed but not as flawed as the current guy.

Where are the FDRs and the Churchill’s when you need them and believe me – the US needs them as do we all.

As I see it…

‘K. D. Galagher’ 

 

 

 

Who Was Flim-Flamming Who ??

 

Note:  Before I go into the details, I want to let you know that I am going to cut back on the number of Blogs I have been churning out of late and focus more on the Book I have been working on – off and on – in regard to Investing.  I will certainly do a Blog in regard to the final Presidential Debate and then of course, one on the Day after the November 6th US Election.  G.

Now For The Flim-Flam:

I received a telephone call the other morning and it went something along the following lines:

Ring, Ring

Hello?  (me)

Caller – “Sir I am pleased to tell you that you have won $3.5 million dollars.

Me – “That is indeed great news – how so?”

Caller – “Your 6/49 win.”

Me – “That is even better news since I do not play 6/49.”

Caller – “Well you won anyway.”

Me – “Great, where do I pick up my $3.5 million?”

Caller – “Not to worry, we will deliver it to you”

Me – “That’s even better – when?”

Caller – “Later Today”

Me – “Why this is great service – what time later today can I expect you?”

Caller – “An hour or so after you send us $75, we need this money to cover the cost of the delivery.”

Me – “Well that is most reasonable, are you sure $75 is enough for all your trouble – I could pay more if you want.”

Caller – “No, $75 is fine”

Me – “Okay, I have that much on me right now so I look forward to seeing you in an hour or so".”

Caller – “You do not pay the delivery person directly, rather you need to get a Money Gramm and send it to the name and address I am going to give you in Sault Ste. Morie.

Me – “Sault Ste. Morie?”

Caller – “Yes Sault Ste. Morie.”

Me – “Just confirming.”

Caller then gives me a name and address in Sault Ste. Morie.

Caller – “How long will it take for you to send the money gramm?”

Me – “Could be a problem – I live in a rural area and do not know where the nearest money gramm centre is”.

Caller – “Go to your nearest Post Office”

Me – “Good idea – there in one close to where I live, so it should only take me 30 minutes - 45 at the most”.

Caller – “That’s great, I will call you back in about an hour to confirm it has been sent”.

Me – “And then I can expect to receive the 3.5?”

Caller – “Absolutely.

I then immediately call the Ottawa Police to let them know this transaction was going down – so to speak.

Ottawa Police – “We really do not get into this type of fraud – you need to call the Province’s Special Fraud Squad Office”  - (I am given their number).

I then place a call to Ontario’ Special Fraud Squad Office (OSFSO) – it is a minute past noon, and I get the following recording: “we have all gone to lunch, call back after one p.m.”  I guess they expect fraud to take time off for lunch as well.

I call back at a minute after 1 p.m. – (the 6/49 fellow had yet to call be back).  I get the following recording “all of our secret* agents are on the phone with others like you who are being scammed…your call is important to us …”   (Note * I confess the word ‘secret’ is my own).

Anyway, I wait, and I wait and wait, 45 minutes go by and no secret agent has been available to take my pressing call – all the while – every 20 seconds or so a recording triggers advising me of all of the fraud cases that the OSFSO does not deal with (e.g. employment fraud).

Finally, my call gets answered.

I explain to the nice chap what has transpired and when I finish, he tells me that there is nothing they can do – other than to document my complaint.  He does suggest I might want to let the Money Gramm folks know about their service being abused.

I tell the dear chap if he believes Money Gramm needs to hear from someone – it best be him and not me.  (I figured at this point I had done my duty).

Before I hang up though he explains briefly to me how the scam works – Victim buys the money gramm and sends it off to the name and address provided him, – the scammers then go into their nearest money gramm office and intercept the payment. 

The agent then tells me – by the bye – that the scammer is physically located in Jamaica.  The agent knows this because he recognizes the exchange of the telephone number I have provided to him.

I thank him and await the Scammers call.

As if on cue, the phone rings – Scammer “did you send the money gramm?”

Me – “well I got to the Post Office and they did not have money gramms – so I sent a money order.

Scammer – “where did you send it”

Me – “to the name and address you provided to me”

A Pause

And then this …

“You LyAAAAR” …”You –(blank) - LYYAAAAR”

Me – “Does this mean I should not expect the $3.5 million”

Scammer – “Yes”

Me – Oh, by the way, how is the weather there in Jamaica.

Scammer – “Not too bad”.

I hang up.

As I saw it …

‘K. D. Galagher’

 

 

ELVIS Has Left The Building …

 

Or at least, our esteemed leader Dalton McGuinty has and, like Elvis, he left by the Back Door.

You dear reader can well imagine that I am not surprised by this cowardly act, but I am most disappointed.

McGuinty, as I have categorized on numerous occasions, has single headedly brought this once Proud Province to its knees.  That he now sneaks off into the sunset with his healthy Premier’s Pension in tact, is a slap in the face to all those who put their trust in him.

When the time came for him to face up to his misguided and costly initiatives, he caved. 

Some Leader.

Moreover, with his Prorogation of the Legislature, he has effectively neutered the Opposition in its attempts to cast light on his many scandals, most notably the recent one involving the shutting down of the Two Power Plants days prior to the last Election.

The fact is, the Tories and NDP were getting too close on this important file; talk had begun about the need to call in the Cops.

The Voters of this Province, on three separate occasions, voted McGuinty in – so I am not overly concerned about their welfare.  They are reaping what they sowed.  And the fallout will continue for some time to come, regardless of who becomes the new Lib Leader or which Party wins the next election.

I am just saddened by the fact that the guy who created the mess will not be around to witness, first hand, the extent of the damage.

As I see it …

‘K.D. Galagher’