929...Representation By Population

Lorne Gunter, Edmonton Journal writes a big piece this morning praising the powers that be in Ottawa for shuffling the deck and making votes in his province more valuable. The headline

Rep by pop finally coming to Commons

Alberta, B. C., Ontario shortchanged too long merely to placate Quebec

shows a regional bias but he does make some good points. For example, even though we kind of assume that Parliament is equally weighted, Prince Edward Island is the province that gets the most value for their votes. A riding in PEI has about 34,000 voters; one in urban Alberta 130,000. "It takes two Alberta votes to have as much influence as one from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, and five from Alberta to have as much impact as four from Quebec."

Mr. Gunter goes into great detail about the mechanizations that govern how seats are assigned federally, suffice to say if we were to have true representation by population they would have to move the House of Commons down the street to the 2,300 seat National Arts Centre's Opera House.

This is a step though.

WFDS

924...George W. Bush Costs You Money

The former POTUS is reaping the money, money that is shoved in the wallets of former United State's presidents after they leave office.

He is also costing you, a tax payer in a country that is not his country, money.

Like the one before him, Bill Clinton, President Junior is on the speaker's circuit looking to pick up a few shekels here and there.

Unlike President Clinton, President G. W. Bush attracts an unruly crowd who seem to think he is some sort of war criminal. Bill Curry in the Globe and Mail this morning reports that this is costing you beaucoup d'argent.

Security for President Bush is going to run in the half million dollar range this year. When he appeared in Toronto it cost over 100 k to protect him from harm; same town, same venue, same time for President Clinton and the cost was a tenth of that.

Libby Davies, NDP MP from British Columbia "...said private-sector firms are likely making money from these events and should be helping the government with the security costs."

Yes they should.

WFDS

811...Limbaugh Is Right About Cdn Health Care

Socialized medicine, the kind that we have in Canada, is uncaring.

Case in point from Duncan, British Columbia. The Calgary Herald ran a story about a dude's body being found in the parking lot of the Cowichan District Hospital in Duncan. Buddy had been waiting so long for a doctor that he up and died and was decomposing before they called his name for service. Or may be he just up and died before he went into the hospital. Either way, let's blame socialized medicine.

Thank you Rush Limbaugh.

WFDS

810...Kamikaze Mission Starts Today For May

Elizabeth May's failed run for parliament in the next election starts today when she announces that she is seeking the nomination for the British Columbia riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, suburban Victoria and environs.

The Globe and Mail reports what we already know: the riding is held by Gary Lunn, the Minister of Sport, heading into an Olympic year when the Olympics are in Vancouver, a city that most Victorians are very familiar with through friends, family and visits. Mr. Minister, the Honourable Gary Lunn is the man in charge of the games and if you don't think he is going to play the "I am Mr. Olympics" card hard, you are crazier than the leader of the Green Party.

She has been saying for eons that she wants an riding where she can be elected; this ain't it.

The Globe and Mail's Bill Curry writes that the riding was selected "...after extensive party polling and research..." This is a big steaming pile of bullsh't.

Ms. May, who earlier said that she would only only only ever run in Central Nova, way on t'other side of the country but equally remote from the vast majority of voters, is being challenged by Stuart Herzog for the nomination. I suppose her "...extensive...polling and research..." missed Mr. Herzog.

WFDS

768...Can You Say Non Sequitor?

Anonymous left a comment re Post 766, a post about chicken sh't being spread about in Surrey, B. C. to stop homeless folks from congregating in certain areas.

Anonymous writes:

Anonymous said...

No, certainly not as "progressive" as Liberals striking, dragging and killing cyclists with their cars...

How high are you sir? Or ma'am. Or she male, transgendered person, or, or, or...

WFDS

735...Elizabeth May Decides On A Riding

Influenced by the weather no doubt, Green Party leader Elizabeth May has decided to focus on Saanich-Gulf Islands, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, as the place to plant her flag in the next election.

Andrew Potter in today's Ottawa Citizen senses a disconnect in the Green Party and his evidence of that is the actions of Stuart Hertzog, a man who has been in the party for over a quarter century, who is challenging Miss May for the nomination. He says that the party is becoming more undemocratic as the days progress. Mr. Potter makes the point that the Green Party is more effective in its present configuration as a super lobby group of sorts as opposed to being just another budgetary party.

The Green Party leader has the choice of picking any riding in the country and yet chooses this one. One of the things that I find odd about her choice of Saanich-Gulf Islands is the fact that the Green Party finished third with only 10.5 per cent of the vote last time out. After getting creamed at the polls by Peter McKay in Central Nova last time out one would think that she would want to have the most favourable conditions extant this time.

Or perhaps she really doesn't want to win? Which I find difficult to believe considering, among other things, she lives in Ottawa so being an MP would be a short bus ride, the 7, one bus all the way, to the office.

Still, a curious choice on many levels. One would think that her people would try to find her a seat where she could win the nomination without a struggle and then have a good shot at winning. Yet another thing that makes Saanich-Gulf Islands odd is the fact that it is not a media center and the fact that it is about as far west as one can be will only add to the travel burden for the leader of a national party.

It just doesn't make sense.

WFDS

700...Eleventh Province

When it is plus 35 it is hard to focus on the need for a warm [note to those living in Victoria: your city is not warm in the middle of winter it is just less cold] place for Canadians to park their butts and their money during the middle of yet another freeeeeeezing winter.

This morning's Globe and Mail is trying to sharpen that focus with a piece on the ongoing want and need of the Turks and Caicos Islands to find a home inside our native land.

The idea of annexing the small chain of islands, population of which is about the size of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at 36,000, has been bandied about since the time of Sir Robert Borden, circa World War One.

Right now the Islands are going through a bit of a corruption scandal and are looking for a place to call home.

C A N A D A ?

WFDS

698...Quebec Cash Grab

It did not meet the smell test in either British Columbia or Ontario but it is a nice way to grab cash so of course Quebec has decided to make their pilot project on the use of photo radar/cash machine a go.

For residents of the National Capital it is a good news/bad news story: The Ottawa Citizen, which serves Gatineau, the third largest market in Quebec, is running a story from CanWest News Service that indicates that the province has 15 of the little buggers but that none of them are in Gatineau.

Six of the Kodak's are on the Island of Montreal and the greatest in terms of potential revenue is on the Decarie Expressway at the Ville Marie Expressway where out of about 5,001 warning letters taken because of snapshots taken during the trial period fully 2,744 were taken on the southbound part of the Decarie, just past Atwater where it merges with the Ville Marie.

The speed limit on the Decarie is 70 km/hr. If you are familiar with the Decarie, driving 70 km/hr is an invitation to die.

WFDS

609...Tasers In The News Part One

In the wake of the British Columbia inquiry into the tasering to death of near immigrant [remember, he hadn't even cleared customs yet] and Polish citizen, Robert Dziekanski, police forces across the land are instituting rules on the use of Tasers.

What the f'k was going through their heads previously, I mean you give the police a toy that sends a gazillion volts [or amps or something] through 'dirt bags', and let them use it at their own discretion, i.e., no rules and then, eek, someone gets killed and there is some sort of suprise.

Now there are rules and, according to Dawn Walton's story in Saturday's Globe and Mail, they are going to be enforced in Alberta or else. Or else, something.

Beauty.

WFDS