Narcissist Trudeau and Trump are Peas in a Pod

Liberal supporters of Prime Minister Trudeau look at the the presidency of Donald Trump and thank their lucky stars that Canada is run by Justin Trudeau, all the while failing to understand that although they are at different ends of the political spectrum, they are indeed peas in a pod.

Everyday since Trump's campaign started and carrying on into his presidency, he has reminded everyone who will listen that he is God's gift to the United States and that everything will be fantastic under his management.  But Trump's failure after failure and disaster after disaster hasn't dampened their enthusiasm and support for him as he continues to weave a fantasy of competence and achievement, belied by reality.

Sound familiar?

The truth is that Trudeau peddles the same nonsense, the fiction that under his leadership and the Liberal party, the country is forging ahead successfully, despite setback after setback.
Like Trump, Trudeau lives in a fantasy world where facts are not facts and reality not reality.
Trudeau is the same narcissistic liar that Trump is, telling us the opposite that is true and ramming nonsense down our throats by the shear force of his personality.

Liberals accuse Trump of being a populist, a dirty euphemism for playing to the emotions of frustrated voters. I don't particularly see that as a bad thing, but alt-Liberals and the left-wing media view it as politics of the worst order.
But Trudeau is no different, pandering to the emotions of alt-Liberals by fostering a false cult of coolness and promising to do politics differently, while doing politics as cynically as everyone else.
The cult of Donald Trump matches that of Trudeau, where supporters are willing to suspend reality for the elusive promise of anticipated change.
Alt-Liberals are dumbfounded as to how Trump people can continue to support him in light of a so-far failed agenda, the dishonesty, lies and the misdirection. For them, the support that Trump enjoys is maddening and inexplicable, failing to understand or comprehend that they are the same idiots, also supporting an idiot Prime Minister who has accomplished absolutely nothing except raise the deficit by a staggering ten billion dollars

Like Trump, Trudeau has cavalierly backed away from campaign promises with nary an apology.
With a shrug of the shoulder Justin, reversed his promise of electoral reform and proportional representation. The abysmal performance of his newly minted democratic institutions minister, Maryam Monsef, chosen for her ethnicity rather than talent, blew up up in Justin's face when it was discovered that she lied about where she was born. Monsef bungled the file badly, insulting Parliament in the process and was thrown under the bus rather brutally by Justin, scapegoated for a broken campaign promise. But when challenged as to the reversal, Justin calmly replied that he came to realize that proportional representation would lead to dangerous fringe parties gaining Parliamentary seats, baloney that only his starry-eyed minions could buy.

Then there is the incredible effrontery in supporting another failed ethnic cabinet minister, Harjit Sajjan, who proved to be a liar as well, claiming to be the author of a big military operation in Afghanistan. The military uses the term 'stolen valour' for wannabes lying about fictitious military achievements. It is serious and unacceptable and that Harjit Sajjan is allowed to remain in position as Defence Minister underlines how Trudeau believes, like Trump, that he can do no wrong and any decision he makes is divine.

Trudeau seems to operate under the assumption, perhaps correct, that like Trump, his supporters are so dogmatic that he can do no wrong and can say and do anything as he pleases without repercussions.

Last week in Parliament, Trudeau stonewalled the opposition over the question of how many times he met with the ethics commissioner in regards to a possible violation of rules over his Christmas vacation on a billionaire's private Caribbean island. Instead of answering the question with a number...once, twice or perhaps never, Trudeau reminded the questioner that he was always happy to cooperate with the ethics commissioner anytime. When asked by another unsatisfied member of the opposition the same question, he again refused to give a real answer, again spouting Trudeauesque platitudes of the highest order. In fact he dodged the question 18 times and repeated his non-answer verbatim, smugly intimating that he is untouchable .
It is no wonder that Trudeau has proposed that the Prime Minister be given a pass and not be required to attend the House of Commons question period but once a week. Hmm...
After tweeting that he perhaps recorded conversations with the fired FBI boss, Trump was peppered with questions about whether recordings of White House meetings exist. His Press secretary dodged the question and when Trump was asked point blank by a friendly reporter from FOX news whether he taped James Comey, he demurely replied that he just did not want to talk about it. What chutzpah!
 In response to this embarrassment what did Trump propose? That the daily White House press briefing be abolished. Sound familiar?

As I said, Trump and Trudeau are cut from the same cloth.

Every time Trudeau is interviewed he reminds us of that his Canadian alt-Liberal values are the values of all Canadians, despite having won less than 40% of the vote in the last election. While Trudeau has the right to speak for all Canadians as Prime Minister, he cannot pretend that everyone supports his wacky Liberal agenda. His smug paternal platitudes and explanations can best be described as 'people-splaining.' 
Like Trump, Trudeau shucks and jives, never facing the issue at hand, always reminding us how open effective, fair and fantastic his government is and how lucky we are to have him.

For those who continue to blindly support Trudeau, I want to remind you of his utter non-accomplishments or less generously, his failures.
Here from the Toronto Sun, here are 10 key promises Trudeau has broken since becoming PM on Nov. 4, 2015.

1: Revenue neutral middle-class tax cut

Trudeau said his middle class tax cut would pay for itself. It hasn’t. The tax cut is costing all Canadians $1.2 billion annually from the federal treasury, a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

2: Small business tax cut

Trudeau promised to lower the rate from 11% to 9%. He hasn’t.

3: Modest deficits

Trudeau said annual deficits over his first term in office would total $24.1 billion. Last week’s federal budget pegs them at $93.3 billion, an immodest increase of 287%.

4: Balanced budget

Trudeau said the budget would be balanced, with a $1 billion surplus, in 2019-20. Last week’s budget predicts the deficit in 2019-20 will be $20.4 billion, $18.7 billion deficit in 2020-21 and $15.8 billion in 2021-22. It gives no indication of when the budget will be balanced, if ever.

5: Reduce debt-to-GDP ratio

Trudeau promised this ratio, a key indicator of the government’s economic health, would be reduced from 30% to 27% by the end of his first term in office. Last week’s budget replaces this with a vague statement the ratio will be lower in 2020-21 than 2016-17, without specifics.

6: Revenue neutral carbon pricing

Trudeau said his carbon pricing plan would be revenue neutral for the federal government. This was misleading because his government is not lowering other federal taxes to offset new federal revenues gained from carbon pricing, which is the definition of revenue neutrality. Instead, Trudeau has set a mandatory national carbon price for provincial governments to implement, with no requirement that their carbon pricing schemes must be revenue neutral for them.

7: Reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions

Before the 2015 election, Trudeau and the Liberals said then prime minister Stephen Harper’s proposed emission cuts were inadequate. Post-election, Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said they were the “floor” on which the Liberals would build. Today, Harper’s floor is Trudeau’s ceiling since he hasn’t changed Harper’s targets.

8: Electoral reform

Trudeau said the 2015 election would be the last using “first past the post” balloting and would be replaced with some form of proportional representation. He has abandoned this promise.

9: Open and transparent government

The opposition parties complain Trudeau is proposing to reduce weekly parliamentary sittings from five days to four (eliminating Fridays), appear only one day a week to answer their questions, limit their power to delay legislation and give the government more time to answer their written inquiries.

10: Restore home mail delivery

Trudeau’s government is studying the issue, but his promise appears to have been downsized to not cutting home mail delivery any further, rather than restoring previous cuts.

And so while Trudeau supporters continue to buy into his fantasy, others are sounding the alarm.

Justin Trudeau’s support for more pipelines and oil sands drilling is at loggerheads with his image as Canada’s progressive heartthrob prime minister, according to a top environmentalist.
In an op-ed published Monday in The Guardian, 350.org founder Bill McKibben called Trudeau a “stunning hypocrite” on global warming. Link

Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he’s not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change The Guardian

 For alt-Liberal Trudeau supporters, his drunken spending doesn't matter, his failed initiatives and broken campaign promises a trifle, all because he represents all what they had hoped for, a new type of politician, a populist akin to Donald Trump, where fantastic and impossible promises are a seductive alternative to cold-hard reality.

To those smug Trudeau supporting Canadians who look down on Trump supporters as gullible brain-dead losers, understand that you are one and the same...

Montreal Flood Victims Fail to Heed Mother Nature

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't buy my home in an area at risk of flooding, it just isn't worth it. We are hearing people say that this or that river hasn't flooded in fifteen years, so the risk is minimal, but for me once in fifteen years is once too often and if a location is at risk of flooding in adverse conditions, one must pretty much assume it is going to flood at one point in your life.
Each year urban flooding in Canada causes up to $2 billion in damage, yet less than 15% of homeowners carry flood insurance. While every prudent homeowner carries fire insurance, floods are actually a much bigger risk.

I sympathize with the plight of people losing their homes or suffering tens of thousands of dollars in damage, but I cannot understand their logic in buying a home at risk and being so naively unprepared.

Last year the town of Fort McMurray suffered a catastrophic forest fire that cost the city 2,500 dwellings and cost upwards of $2.5 billion in damage. While officials shrugged off the disaster, blaming Mother Nature I couldn't help but wondering how a city allowed itself to become so vulnerable.
Allowing forested areas to abut an urban center is just asking for trouble and a simple fire break ( a zone around the town where trees would be removed to stop any progression of fire) seems to be a solution that nobody thought about.
I cannot fathom the recklessness.

It seems that cutting a fire break (as shown in the above video) in Fort McMurray after the fire is a case of closing the barn door after the cows have escaped.

It all comes down to preparedness and I'm sorry to say that officials in Fort McMurray were negligent as are the various city officials and homeowners in Montreal who allowed themselves to be overpowered by a very predictable natural occurrence.

I am sorry to kick people when they are down, but the lack of preparedness is simply appalling.
Watching soldiers and citizens filling sandbags in a decidedly losing battle is depressing and sad and it had me wondering if this sandbagging is the only remedy.

Alas a quick tour on Amazon.com has shown me that homeowners could have bought many different emergency flood barriers that could very well save their homes from disaster.

THAT'S RIGHT!!!!

There exists many different types of  flood barriers that can surround your house with little effort and require only the foresight to prepare and the willingness to spend money as a precaution.
A typical home can be surrounded with 4 inch protection for about $300 or about $900 per each foot high.
It sounds expensive if you need several feet of protection, but considering the cost of the damage, it's a bargain.
These barriers are self-inflating and can be erected in less than an hour.

Clearly areas that are flooded with five feet of water are beyond hope, but most flooded homes are subject to less than a foot of water and so homeowners could have saved their property with a little preparation.
I bet none of the flooded homeowners were even aware that they could have saved their homes with a simple solution.
And so flooded homeowners can blame the city, they can blame Mother Nature, but few are willing to blame themselves for being so naive about the flood risk and being so woefully unprepared to face the consequences.

Let me say this, if you buy a home in an at-risk flood zone, buy flood insurance, a couple of pumps and a flood barrier that can surround your home.
If you aren't prepared to do so, you are rolling the dice.
And as sure as night follows day, irresponsible flooded homeowners will demand that taxpayers bail them out for damages caused by their own stupidity.

As I said before, I feel bad for these people but when this ordeal is over, an honest  reassessment is in order.

Best of the Week

Marc Bergevin's Worst Nightmare

Best Rant of the Week from enraged pizza manager in Africa, furious that somebody desecrated his new revolving door.  PRICELESS!





Most impressive accomplishment. Two-handed bowler scores perfect game in a minute and a half.  No Photoshop!

Ironic product FAIL

Absolutely Best Quote of the Week.

Walmart Idiot of the Week 

Interesting Fact of the Week.

FAIL of the Week

A Conservative Voice For a $15 Hour Minimum Wage

In the early sixties the Big Four automakers fought tooth and nail against building safety into their cars, claiming that the added expense would make cars un-affordable for the average family. Today it seems absurd that these companies resisted seat belts and airbags and all their forceful arguments turned out to be nonsense as the public embraced these innovations with open arms and an open wallet. It turns out that safety was something consumers were happy to pay for and so it is  that companies make more money selling consumers a better, yet somewhat more expensive product.
It took years of lobbying by the likes of consumer advocates led by Ralph Nader to overcome the ferocious corporate resistance and it took nothing short of government regulation to force the automakers into making their cars safer. 
So let me put aside the arguments of those free-market advocates who will tell us that government should never interfere in business. The reality is that only government regulation can get companies to make monumental changes, like lower emission standards or the elimination of leaded gas. 
Still companies fight these advances on the basis of profit and the only thing that keeps companies from cheating is the threat of sanctions, a case in point is the outrageous cheating by the greedy and dishonest Volkswagon automaker which manipulated data to fool regulators over its car emissions. And this happened not in the sixties or seventies, but quite recently.
So I'm not confident companies will do the right thing without government oversight.

And so we are being treated to an onslaught of corporate propaganda that warns us that a $15 an hour salary will cripple the economy and ultimately cost jobs. Those warnings should be taken with a grain of salt.
I don't know about you, but paying attention to Wallmart's threat that jobs will be lost is as earnest as the Hells Angels arguing against the legalization of marijuana.
Both these organizations don't exactly have the public's best interest at heart and it should be noted Wallmart's low salaries cost the US taxpayer over $6 billion dollars in food stamps as employees battle to stay afloat and feed their families. How is it that a company  that makes $15 billion in profit, expects the public to augment their employee's salaries because they pay so little?
Outrageous.

I wonder what the public's reaction would be if a Chinese company offered to set up a manufacturing facility in Canada as long as they could use Chinese environmental and safety standards.
The company would demand a waiver whereby they could dump effluent into the local river and pollute the air using coal as a fuel. As for employees, they would not be provided with safety equipment and would be forced to handle dangerous and toxic materials without protection.
Even with the promise of jobs, would you be in favour of granting the company a permit under these circumstances?
 I'm sure your answer would be an emphatic NO, that the jobs are not worth it.

So how is that we accept the argument of local companies that paying a lower than living wage is the only way to insure that their company will operate.
I do not buy it.

There is a belief that an increase in minimum wage will cost jobs, but companies are already racing to eliminate any job that can be eliminated through automation.
Mechanization and robotization are a fact of modern life and it is a trend that is here to stay. It will continue to be responsible for the elimination of jobs, regardless of a minimum wage increases. The banks introduced ATMs years ago in order to eliminate tens of thousands of bank teller jobs. Already self-service checkouts exist in food stores and food ordering kiosks are becoming common in fast food outlets. The robots that are taking over manufacturing are more responsible for job loss than any competition from overseas. That trend will not be accelerated with a $15 minimum wage, we are already hellbent on getting rid of employees.

The majority of McJobs are in the fast food industry and retail. The impact of an increase in minimum wage at these restaurants is debatable but researchers at Purdue found that raising pay for fast food restaurant workers to $15 an hour would result in an estimated 4.3% increase in prices at those restaurants. That means the price of a $3.99 Big Mac in the USA would jump to $4.16.
Big deal.....`

So stop being frightened by gloom and doom predictions, becuase companies will adjust and society will be better for higher wages.
Some jobs will be lost and  some will be gained as minimum wage employees gain more disposable income.  Perhaps corporate profits will go down slightly, but I won't complain about that.

The predictions of mass layoffs is rubbish, just ask the CEO of COSTCO, a company that that thrives on employee retention and satisfaction, where employees will go the extra mile to make the company successful.

Every time you hear somebody argue against a $15 minimum wage ask them point blank how much they make. Hmmm....
If you care about the environment, if you care about discrimination and if you care for the welfare of your fellow citizens,  you should stand up for a decent minimum wage.
The sacrifices we must make to pay everyone a living wage is minuscule and we should have an active discussion as to what those small sacrifices would be rather than listen to the gloom and doom predictions of the corporate class. I'd gladly pay a tiny bit more for a Big Mac or a Starbucks latte. If the tiny increase is too much of a burden for you, give up one out of twenty-five purchases, that's all it takes to  help your fellow citizen make a decent wage.

As for me, I won't use the self service aisle at the supermarket, nor return my cart to the receptacle in the parking, nor will I buss my table at the fast food restaurant, despite being entreated by companies and society that it is the socially acceptable thing to do.
I'm not interested in doing somebody else's job if it means sacrificing their livelihood.

Why is Quebec So Dishonest?

If anything the aftermath of the Charbonneau Commission which focused on Quebec's culture of corruption is teaching us, it's that it's going to take a long time to reverse the climate of dishonesty that seems to pervade all aspects of Quebec society.
I'm not sure as a society we can.

This week saw a culmination of some very sad revelations and events, casting doubt on whether we are making any progress at all.

Now before we go on, let me stress that this dishonesty trait is not a 'French' thing, it's a 'Quebec' thing and spreads across all cultures and communities in Quebec.
Let me remind you that the two largest English school boards are both under  criminal investigation by UPAQ, the corruption police. The Jewish General Hospital also had its own corruption scandal, and let us not forget the infamous Arthur Porter payola scandal over the new English super-hospital.
Two weeks ago former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum was convicted of fraud and has received a jail sentence.
So please, no holier than thou sentiments.

This week the trial began for three ex high-ranking Sureté du Quebec officers including one ex chief, who all are accused of dipping into the police force's secret slush fund used for undercover operations and for paying informants off the books.
The fund has little oversight other than the honesty of the high-ranking officers who are the caretakers and in this case, it seems that trust was sadly misplaced.

Also this week the election race for the 'Battonier' or head of the Barreau du Quebec (Quebec Bar Assoc.) took an ugly turn with accusations that board members illegally over-paid themselves for appearances to the tune of $500,000.
The person making the accusation is lawyer Lu Chan Khuong, the ex-battonier who is trying to win back her old job, a job from which she was forced to resign when it was revealed that she was arrested for shoplifting and allegedly received a preferential and secret non-judicial sentence. She kept the affair secret and only resigned after a newspaper published the facts.
I couldn't make up a story like that if I tried.

The government recently appointed an ex-deputy minister of Transport Quebec to look into the traffic disaster on Autoroute 13 where hundreds of motorists were stranded overnight in a blizzard due to organizational incompetence at that same Ministry of Transport and the utter failure of the police to handle the situation.
It turns out that the high-ranking police officer in Sureté du Quebec who was supposed to be in charge was goldbricking. Instead of manning his desk and overseeing operations, the officer was at a notary's office closing a real estate transaction for his moonlighting job.
Again I'm not making this up.
By the way, that man chosen to look into the matter Florent Gagné, doesn't exactly come with clean hands, having been accused of turning a blind eye to snow-removal collusion by the Charbonneau Commission when he ran Transport Quebec. His testimony at the Charbonneau Commission had the familiar ring of the unflappable Sgt. Schultz character of Hogan's Heroes fame. "I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing!"
When offering his ludicrous defence at that commission, the judge asked him pointedly "Did people know that you didn't want to know?"

Dishonesty at the Montreal Police force is rocking the organization with revelations that the Internal affairs department fabricated evidence to punish whistle blowers who were trying to denounce corruption on the force. The Montreal police were under fire for spying on journalists in order to discover whistle-blowers as well. Many high-ranking officers are implicated and so the two largest police forces in Quebec operate under a corruption cloud.  And to add insult to injury, it is the Sureté du Quebec which is investigating corruption at the Montreal Police. It should have been the RCMP who operate in Quebec with relatively clean hands, but the political fallout of the RCMP investigating the Montreal police would be too much of a humiliation.

Montreal mayor Denis Coderre is under fire for failing to disclose a $25,000 donation made to him in order to defray legal costs in a  defamation case. When first questioned about the undeclared gift, he outright lied, denying he had received it, and then when presented with proof, declared that he was under medication when he made the statement. Of course he remains un-scarred by the incident because in essence, it is 'small potatoes' in the Quebec context. 

Now last year, the Minster of Transport Robert Poëti hired an investigator, Annie Trudel, to uncover the shenanigans going on in his ministry. She quit in disgust as her work was being systematically sabotaged by high-ranking Transport Quebec employees, which included somebody falsifying information on a USB key that was to be submitted to the government detailing the collusion and corruption. UPAQ is now undertaking at least ten separate investigations of the department. The deputy minister, Dominique Savoie in charge took the fall and was relieved of her duties, but incredibly Poëti lost his cabinet job in revenge for Savoie's downfall, as she was a pet of Premier Couillard.
What happened to the disgraced Savoie? She now works in the premier’s executive council.
Again, I swear I'm not making this up. Link

The former Quebec lieutenant governor Lise Thibault has been sent to jail for cheating on her expenses to the tune of $700,000. She fought the charges for years and years, going so far as to claim immunity from prosecution because she represented the infallible Queen.
Now being the lieutenant governor is one of the cushiest jobs I can imagine and the honour of being chosen immeasurable. The lieutenant governor's job is to kiss babies and greet citizens, representing everything good in our society and it turns out that Thibault was just a nasty little thief.
Maybe we should let ex-mayor of Laval Gilles Vaillancourt, have a turn at the job when he gets out of jail. At least we'd have a big crook doing the job and someone who knows a thing or two about stealing public money big time.

And the political finance scandals that over these last few years have rocked each and every major political party lend credence that the political order is corrupt and dishonest.

I could go on and on, but what intrigues me is the WHY.
Why is Quebec so rampantly dishonest?

I thought about it a lot and tossed around the idea that perhaps turbulent political atmosphere due to the wrenching sovereignty debate might have something to do with it or perhaps the social upheaval  of the 60's and 70's but alas, none of that is true because Quebec has been corrupt for a very long time.

In 1909 another corruption commission held a hearing for five months and concluded that 25% of government revenues were stolen. Over the last 100 years, Quebec has convened five commissions looking into corruption and organized crime and so it is a tradition.

The editorial cartoon seen here appeared in 1909 depicts Judge Cannon who presided over that commission looking into dishonesty in Montreal. The caption on the bottom says that the judge never smelled a cheese that stank so much. The stinking wafting out over the cheese  includes the words "BRIBERY - INCOMPETENCE- PATRONAGE - FAVOURTISM.

The news even made the New York Times;

In over a hundred years things have not gotten any better.

So what makes Quebec so dishonest?
I can only come up with one final culprit.....PRIDE and RESPECT or the lack thereof.

The lack of pride and respect that Quebecers show towards their collective society is manifested in dishonesty.
Look around.
Police, fire, ambulance drivers disrespecting their own uniforms as a punishment for imposed contracts and the public who couldn't care less about the camouflage pants.
What self-respecting organization would humiliate themselves by dis-respecting their own uniform?
These same police who are not only corrupt, but terrorize minorities, all with the benign consent of the public who don't really care about human rights, only their own selfish situations.

Montreal has the sad history of the riot capital of North America. from the Maurice Richard riot to the Stanley Cup playoff riots to the Maple Spring riots  and the annual anarchist riots. All these destructive riots are based on trivialities and in Montreal a good riot is just another event where idiots enjoy destroying other peoples property.

All of this coupled with a lazy and ineffective justice system, that is loathe to enforce the law and uninterested in jailing criminals, especially white collar criminals.
I once went on scene in the aftermath of a burglary at one of the stores which I owned and met the police who recovered the jacket of the burglar who fled in haste. Unbelievably, the jacket actually contained his wallet and ID. I asked one of the policemen sarcastically if they thought they could catch him and was stunned by the reply that the wallet and jacket couldn't really be used as evidence, as no direct link could be made. In fact, in a followup phone call, the police informed me that no further action was undertaken in the case due to budget constraints.
Such is justice in Quebec, where this same lazy attitude, indifference and incompetence is repeated tens of thousands of times each year, encouraging people to be dishonest and keeping criminals out of jail and the street where they can ply their trade with virtual impunity.
I'll have more to say about Quebec's pitiful criminal justice in a further post.

All the while, Quebec remains the province where its citizens donate the least to charity and do the fewest volunteer hours. Clearly we care less about the society we live in than those in the rest of Canada.
In a poll, only 13% of Quebecers said they would report corruption if they witnessed it first hand.

As for family, Quebecers are the kings of packing off parents to government-run senior citizen homes, placing parents more than double the national average. And with all the bitching and moaning about university fees, parents also contribute the least towards their children's education, about half of what British Columbians do.

It isn't a rosy picture and I can't really say it's getting better.

To me, it comes down to pride and respect for one's own society and it is here where Quebecers fail miserably, their collective behaviour bordering on the self-loathing.

There are those of you who will pooh-pooh the idea that it is this lack of respect and pride that makes Quebec so dishonest..... Fair enough.
But like a defence lawyer trying to cast doubt on the prosecutions case, an alternate theory for this collective dishonesty must be offered and for that, all I can say is....GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!