Et les Anglos?

In an article in today's Le Devoir, Odile Tremblay asks what anglophones think about the proposed re-enactment of Battle the Plains of Abraham scheduled next year.

First let me say that anglos don't think much about it all. While the French press burns with debate, it is a non-story amongst anglophones.
That being said, I promises you that if the project goes ahead, you won't see busloads of West Islanders trudging off to Quebec City to savour the victory.

Not one to often agree with nationalists, I can say in no uncertain terms that the project is an unacceptable provocation, if for no other reason than it is perceived as a provocation by large number of Quebeckers.
Why on earth would we artificially create a public event that offends so many people? It is stupidity of the nth degree.
This ill-thought out project is the brainchild of the Battlefield Commission, an organization with too much time on their hands and not enough to do. The Commission should be disbanded and the Plains turned over to Parks Canada.
Those politicians who feel a need to defend this project should re-think their position.
Countering the emotional response of those opposed, with a logical rebuttal is an exercise in futility.

Calling off the event now may be a bit embarrassing, but is necessary. It may require a dose of intestinal fortitude by those making the decisions. I hope they find it. The consequences of letting this re-enactment take place is a confrontation that may or may not become violent.

I believe that if the Prime Minister stepped in and canceled the event, it would be perceived by the majority as wise and statesmanlike.

There are legitimate differences of opinion between anglophone and francophone Quebeckers. We're not going to advance this debate by celebrating an event that represents the very worst way of settling differences.

Canadiens Brainwash Students

The Montreal Canadiens are coming under fire for a project called Canadiens@school, a website created by the team as a teaching tool for young students. The website has come under sharp criticism today. RDI, the French news network had a piece about it this morning and La Presse's Michèle Ouimet writes about it in an article. It seems that some professionals in the education field view the site as nothing more than publicity and brainwashing for the team. All the exercises and lessons carry a heavy dose of information about Montreal Canadiens.
Pierre St-Germain, president of the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement, denounces the project as unacceptable. Publicity disguised as pedagogical material.

Donald Beauchamp of the Canadiens protested that the Canadiens are a hockey team and not a business that sells products in the traditional senses. He did however, grudgingly admit that Canadiens are a private enterprise.

How much did this crafty investment cost the magnamamous Canadiens? They haven't said. But we do know that The Quebec Education Department has contributed over $250,000 of taxpayer money to the project.

Oh yes, there is an English version of the website,

Loto Quebec Owes Answers Regarding Insider Fraud

Loto-Quebec has been strangely silent in view of the insider winner scandal that brewed in Ontario last year. Perhaps they consider the problem unique to Ontario, but more likely are afraid of opening a Pandora's box. Their silence in regard to the problem is scandalous.

It seems that Ontario's Ombudsman Andre Marin, blew the whistle on insider fraud and theft in 2007, at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming. Loto retailers were cashing winning tickets at an extraordinary rate and fraud was the culprit. It appears that at least 198 million dollars was shifted away from legitimate winners by a variety of means.

Here's how it's done, from a comment on the article in the Toronto Star entitled "Lotto's Dirty Secret"

How it can be done.
You hand your winning ticket to a retailer and he switches it for a loser and the machine says you are not a winner. Before the signature requirement to check your ticket it was easy to do. The 12.5 million dollar winner could not tell the O.L.G. where she purchased the ticket that generated the winning free ticket because she had not purchased it in the first place.The person who the retailer stole the ticket from went to the O.L.G. with all the correct information about the winning ticket but the lottery insiders paid out the 12.5 prize even when they knew the wrong person was claiming it. If you want the whole story read the Ombudsman's report. Since the O.L.G. audit only revealed the fraud and corruption in Ontario how many more insiders stole from the other 4 lottery corporations in Canada???????????????

Submitted by larryl at 8:57 PM Saturday, February 07 2009

Read the enlightening document prepared by the Ontario Ombusman entitled A Game of Trust

In light of the scandal, a big shakeup occurred at the OLG and strict measures are being implemented to combat fraud. Here's a link to see what the measures the OLG adopted.

Now if you think this problem is isolated to Ontario, think again. A CBC News investigation has uncovered that there are similar problems at the the Western Canada Lottery Corporation, where lottery clerks are actually claiming prizes at a disproportionately high rate. Read the article over at the CBC.ca website.

What about Loto Quebec? Cognizant of what is happening around the country, why haven't they undertaken a similar investigation. Do they believe that Quebec retailers are inherently more honest or are they afraid of what they will find?

Although they haven't investigated or admitted to the problem of insider fraud, Loto-Quebec has introduced new measures to reduce cheating. As of January 1, 2009, they have added a signature box to each ticket. For other safety measures refer to the related page on the Loto-Quebec site.

So tell us, Loto-Quebec, how much money have Quebeckers been defrauded of?

Wonderful Article about Canada in Newsweek

Here is a reprint of a wonderfully written article about Canada by Fareed Zakariain in Newsweek, from the magazine issue dated Feb 16, 2009.

I'm sure every Canadian will find it uplifting.

Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

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The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more humble. Now there is even more striking evidence of Canada's virtues. Guess which country, alone in the industrialized world, has not faced a single bank failure, calls for bailouts or government intervention in the financial or mortgage sectors. Yup, it's Canada. In 2008, the World Economic Forum ranked Canada's banking system the healthiest in the world. America's ranked 40th, Britain's 44th.

Canada has done more than survive this financial crisis. The country is positively thriving in it. Canadian banks are well capitalized and poised to take advantage of opportunities that American and European banks cannot seize. The Toronto Dominion Bank, for example, was the 15th-largest bank in North America one year ago. Now it is the fifth-largest. It hasn't grown in size; the others have all shrunk.

So what accounts for the genius of the Canadians? Common sense. Over the past 15 years, as the United States and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries, the Canadians refused to follow suit, seeing the old rules as useful shock absorbers. Canadian banks are typically leveraged at 18 to 1—compared with U.S. banks at 26 to 1 and European banks at a frightening 61 to 1. Partly this reflects Canada's more risk-averse business culture, but it is also a product of old-fashioned rules on banking.

Canada has also been shielded from the worst aspects of this crisis because its housing prices have not fluctuated as wildly as those in the United States. Home prices are down 25 percent in the United States, but only half as much in Canada. Why? Well, the Canadian tax code does not provide the massive incentive for overconsumption that the U.S. code does: interest on your mortgage isn't deductible up north. In addition, home loans in the United States are "non-recourse," which basically means that if you go belly up on a bad mortgage, it's mostly the bank's problem. In Canada, it's yours. Ah, but you've heard American politicians wax eloquent on the need for these expensive programs—interest deductibility alone costs the federal government $100 billion a year—because they allow the average Joe to fulfill the American Dream of owning a home. Sixty-eight percent of Americans own their own homes. And the rate of Canadian homeownership? It's 68.4 percent.

Canada has been remarkably responsible over the past decade or so. It has had 12 years of budget surpluses, and can now spend money to fuel a recovery from a strong position. The government has restructured the national pension system, placing it on a firm fiscal footing, unlike our own insolvent Social Security. Its health-care system is cheaper than America's by far (accounting for 9.7 percent of GDP, versus 15.2 percent here), and yet does better on all major indexes. Life expectancy in Canada is 81 years, versus 78 in the United States; "healthy life expectancy" is 72 years, versus 69. American car companies have moved so many jobs to Canada to take advantage of lower health-care costs that since 2004, Ontario and not Michigan has been North America's largest car-producing region.

I could go on. The U.S. currently has a brain-dead immigration system. We issue a small number of work visas and green cards, turning away from our shores thousands of talented students who want to stay and work here. Canada, by contrast, has no limit on the number of skilled migrants who can move to the country. They can apply on their own for a Canadian Skilled Worker Visa, which allows them to become perfectly legal "permanent residents" in Canada—no need for a sponsoring employer, or even a job. Visas are awarded based on education level, work experience, age and language abilities. If a prospective immigrant earns 67 points out of 100 total (holding a Ph.D. is worth 25 points, for instance), he or she can become a full-time, legal resident of Canada.

Companies are noticing. In 2007 Microsoft, frustrated by its inability to hire foreign graduate students in the United States, decided to open a research center in Vancouver. The company's announcement noted that it would staff the center with "highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." So the brightest Chinese and Indian software engineers are attracted to the United States, trained by American universities, then thrown out of the country and picked up by Canada—where most of them will work, innovate and pay taxes for the rest of their lives.

If President Obama is looking for smart government, there is much he, and all of us, could learn from our quiet—OK, sometimes boring—neighbor to the north. Meanwhile, in the councils of the financial world, Canada is pushing for new rules for financial institutions that would reflect its approach. This strikes me as, well, a worthwhile Canadian initiative.

© 2009

Golden Parchutes the Norm For Those Who Fail

As described in the previous post, Henri-Paul Roussseau got a $400,000 severance payout when he quit his job last summer as the CEO of the Caisse de Depot. Under his leadership the Caisse embarked on a foolish gamble to invest in the U.S. mortgage market. The Caisse is preparing to announce a 38 billion dollar loss.
Monseiur Rousseau is not the only idiot receiving a big payout for disastrous performance.

Over at UQAM the (Universitie de Quebec a Montreal) a building project at the Berri de Montigny location went badly over budget and would have bankrupted the university without a government bailout of 400 million dollars.
Th auditor general criticized those responsible and the province considered laying criminal charges against them. Instead two of the three implicated were given golden parachutes.

The ex-rector, Roch Denis, received $173 000 after leaving his job in 2007 and Mauro Malservisi, the ex vice-rector (responsible for financial affairs) took a retirement package in 2006 that included a $153 000 payout.

Over at McGill University, Ann Dowsett Johnston worked less than a year and a half as vice-principle and received an exit payment of $321 000. Coupled with her salary she pocketed $760 000, for 19 months of work. This from a school claims poverty.

At any rate, it seems that these golden parachutes exist for senior management in all government jobs and is unrelated to performance.