Does Fiscal Conservatism Exist in Canada?

Many years ago, I rented a winter apartment in a South Florida beach town. One January evening a knock on the door revealed a sprightly eighty-something senior in that stereotypical track suit, who asked me if I would participate in a demonstration at city hall, protesting taxes.
I explained to this senior, perhaps a bit too condescendingly, that I was but a tenant and as such had no vested interest in the argument.
"Then you're an idiot! There's taxes built into your rent. It's people like you who don't participate in democracy that allow us all to get screwed!"

 ....Ouch!

I never forgot the confrontation, because in my heart of hearts, I knew she was right and it brought me to the sad realization that when it comes to political activism, Canadians are poor citizens, all too willing to be rolled over by politicians who buy our votes by spending our very own money.
When it comes to political issues, there's just about zero passion, we'd rather be watching hockey or sipping beer in the back yard. While it's true that every couple of years the anarchists come out to enliven the political scene, they too, eventually grow up to adopt the Canadian virtue of political apathy.
We smugly believe ourselves superior to those silly Americans who passionately believe and demonstrate their commitment to their democracy. Whether the issue is abortion, taxes or health care, the zeal at which they carry on the political debate shames all Canadians.

Even in Quebec, a good separatist rally can muster a few hundred people at best.

And so we get the government we deserve. It matters little if it is Conservative or Liberal,  they both operate exactly the same way by maintaining a policy of spending our money foolishly on lavish social and pork programs in an attempt to buy our loyalty. We're not the only country running on this dysfunctional treadmill, the whole western world is deeply in  debt because governments overspend in a crass attempt to stay in power.

Cruising along the Mediterranean and reading the news story that our illustrious Prime Minister spent over one billion dollars on the G20/8 summit didn't surprise me, it was to be expected. But the lame reaction of the public did set me back. It seems that not even a billion dollar waste of money is enough to jolt us out of a political lethargy. A CTV news poll indicated that 78% of Canadians are opposed to the billion dollar price tag attached to the G8/20 conference but apparently not enough to send Mr. Harper on a precipitous fall in the polls. In fact the latest poll, taken after the revelation about the over-spending, indicates that Mr. Harper has actually climbed a couple of points in popularity!

The CTV poll about the Summit spending is just one more confirmation that Canadians are politically lazy, the only thing of interest that I could pull from the survey is the irrefutable proof that 22% of Canadians are outright morons.

When Harper was first elected, I thought he might be different, a conservative who would break the cynical practice of buying our votes with our own money, or money borrowed on our behalf, but he proved me wrong and I take comfort in the fact that I didn't vote for him.

Sitting on my cruise ship, I took out my IPhone calculator and punched up some numbers that you might find interesting.
What would be if the Prime Minister held his Summit aboard a luxurious cruise liner similar to the one I was now aboard?
The ship is perfectly suited to the task and has all the facilities necessary including lodging for 2,500 guests, gourmet dining facilities, conference rooms and enough bars to satisfy everyone, even the press corps!

 There are a least a dozen or so "presidential' type suites aboard, so the eight leaders could still be accommodated quite nicely. There's a 600 seat theatre that could serve as a venue for all the speeches and the ship boasts an extraordinary array of facilities for whatever it is they do at these types of meetings.

 There's a massive and beautiful dining room fit for any state dinner as well as two private restaurants that could accommodate a smaller gathering. The plebes of the press corps could be fed in the buffet restaurant, as well as being housed in the cheap rooms down below. VIPS could be ferried on and off the ship via a helicopter which the ship is equipped to handle.

As for security, a couple of warships could create a 'cordon sanitaire' and the air force could declare the area around the ship a no fly zone, with coastal based jets on standby to shoo away any one silly enough to violate the airspace. It would cost a pittance compared to what was blown in Toronto. Aboard the ship, a dozen or so officers is all that it would take to maintain security.
The ship could sail along the beautiful British Columbia coastline providing attendees a breathless vista and invigorating backdrop to the conference. Why build a zillion dollar fake lake, when we could sail the entire Pacific Ocean?

How much would all this cost? Well a week long cruise on a first class boat costs about $4,000 per person, which rounds off to about $10 million dollars to rent out the whole ship, a pittance compared to what was spent in Toronto. That includes all the food and lodging. If the working press were charged for their accommodations, that bill could be knocked down by a million or so. Add in incidentals of say another $10 million for booze and another 80 million on transportation and security and you're left with a saving of about $900 million. Another plus is that demonstrators would be left high and dry ashore, twiddling their thumbs and the meeting could go off without any disruption or inconvenience.

Now for that $900 million saving, let's see what could we do with it.
Quebec's portion would be in the 200 million dollar range and placed in a long term investment might bring in about $18 million dollars a year, enough to fund about sixty new family doctors permanently.

Those sixty doctors, could carry out 7,500 consultations a year or almost half a million between them. They would help fill the gap of the more than 1,000 family doctors missing from the Quebec landscape.

Let's see the equations extrapolated to include the whole country;

A G8/20 conference held one time in Toronto

 and

o new family doctors across Canada, funded forever

versus  

A G8/20 conference held one time on a cruise ship

 and

300 new family doctors across Canada, funded forever

In light of the choice, I wonder what the 22% of Canadians (who thought it was okay to blow a billion on the G20/8) would say? Perhaps they too would agree, once they understood the real cost of wasting a billion dollars on a one-time boondoggle, that perhaps the money would better spent elsewhere.

Remember, under my cruise ship scenario, we could have hosted both the conference and hired the new doctors all for the same money.

A lot of my numbers are crude, but they are real enough.
The wasted money can be attributed straight to arrogance, incompetence and a complete disdain for the taxpayer. Those in charge should be sacked and the politicians held accountable, but it will never happen.

Harper, Ignatieff and Layton are all cut from the same cloth. While they would each spend the money differently, they would all spend it foolishly, it's in their nature.

In Canada, we don't have a true conservative politician who really believes in reducing spending and increasing efficiency. We don't have any because we don't elect any.

When a group of  Quebec intellectuals (lucides) published a letter begging for a more rational approach to government, they were roundly panned. Read the manifesto.

Like I said, we get what we vote for.

What's a real fiscal conservative? Watch this video of New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
Electable? Not a chance. I have no doubt that he would be laughed out of Canada.

We enjoy getting screwed by our politicians too much.

How To Become a Quebec Villain

For the most part Quebec Anglos remain gloriously ignored by the Quebec media and their rantings against the likes of Bill 101 or other language restrictions are paid little heed and are given little attention.
All that changes when these complaints about Quebec society are made in the United States where Quebeckers seem extremely sensitive to their image.

Mordechai Richler could have lived a life of ignominy in Quebec had he not written devastatingly critical articles about Quebec in publications like the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly. His book, Oh Canada! Oh Quebec! Requiem for a Divided Country, a scathing portrayal of Quebec society, set the province into a raging fury. He became Quebec's biggest scoundrel and most hated Anglo. He remains today the  most powerful example of betrayal and for many Quebeckers mention of his very name still elicits a nasty response.

I never heard of Jacob Tierney before the brouhaha over an interview in Montreal's La Presse newspaper, ostensibly to promote his movie The Trotsky. In the end the interview degenerated into a panning of the Quebec film industry and as such made a much bigger splash;

"Quebec society is extremely turned in on itself. Our art and our culture shows only white francophones. Anglophones and immigrants are ignored. They have no place in the québécois dream. It’s shameful.

Macleans.ca magazine writer Philippe Gohier  commented that Tierney would probably regret having given the interview altogether and I tend to agree. Read his article here.

I'm not going to discuss the merits of Tierney's argument because I'm not really qualified. Like most Anglos, I almost never watch Quebecois films..... Hmm

But the reaction to this little known filmmaker, an ex-Montrealer now living in Los Angeles is quite telling.
Had the comments been made in Toronto or Montreal , the story wouldn't have earned more than a couple of inches of ink, but because the comments were made in the USA, watch out!

I don't think that Jacob Tierney will become as notorious as Mordechai Richlier, but he didn't win many friends with his comments and garnered many enemies. I hope he won't be showered with the the hate mail and threats that Richler and his family received but he will get some, no doubt.

The reaction to the comments made by this relative nobody is nothing less than astounding.

"Did we ask to have Atom Egoyan to necessarily portray Quebecers in all his films?"...."I think these kinds of comments are outdated and unnecessary." commented the President and Chief Executive Officer of cultural enterprise development (SODEC), François Macerola. Link

The directer general of Téléfilm Canada, Carolle Brabant, countered the criticism by saying that the investment the agency makes in English Quebec films in disproportionately higher than the what demographics would dictate.

"As is still the case unfortunately, an Anglophone Montrealer, Quebecker, Canadian has spread unfounded prejudices about Quebeckers,  Jarrett Mann, président du festival SPAS

"His rhetoric of contempt for us is deeply offensive. I do not think that that is the way to rally us to his cause. " Stéphanie Chalu

Mr. Tierney seems to describe Quebec society as a backward-looking and intolerant society, thus opening a new chapter in the book of "Quebec bashing" Reynaldo Marquez

An over-reaction? I think so.

The phenomenon isn't restricted to Anglos.

The husband of Canada's governor-General Michaëlle Jean, Jean-Daniel Lafond also drove many Quebec nationalists into a tizzy over remarks that he made in a magazine article which included this line;

 "The battle for a free Quebec died in 1970"

His bashing of the sovereignty movement  in France's L'Expresse magazine generated over 400 comments on a Radio-Canada web article about the interview.

It seems that the weight of the argument is less important than the locale in which it is expressed.

Make depreciating remarks about Quebec society in Montreal or Toronto and you'll be roundly ignored. Do it in Los Angeles or New York and all Hell will break loose.....Interesting, eh.

Quebec Summer Festival-Too Many English Artists-Again.....

It's good to see some people standing up to those who are once again complaining that there are too many English artists performing at the Quebec Summer Festival.

I caught an interview on the French language news station RDI with the Festival's new director, Dominique Goulet, who was harangued by a television interviewer over the issue.

Despite the aggressiveness of the questions, she kept her cool and even displayed a measure of condescension. I sub-titled a small portion of the interview;

The controversy has been raging for a while, touched off when a group of nationalist performers sent a letter to the Minister of Culture complaining that there were too many English artists performing and that a government subsidy  should not be used to promote anything other than French artists..

The directer of the Festival shot back that the English artists are the biggest moneymakers for the Festival and that it is they who actually subsidize the French artists!

In an article published in Montreal's LE DEVOIR, provocatively entitled French Music has Little Future, Ms. Goulet dropped a couple of other bombshells. She told the interviewer that there were fewer and fewer artists available to sing in French and that those that were, weren't that popular.
Of the Festival's eleven headline artists only three are to sing in French.

"I remember having dinner with friends when I told them:" I'll give you $100 if you find a French artist who could fill the Plains (of Abraham)". The question remained unanswered and Mrs. Goulet kept money. "There aren't many. It isn't because we don't want them" -LE DEVOIR

Then she touched on what may be the biggest scare;

"We must realize that the French song does not seem the way of the future, at least for now. Is this the death of the French-language song? Not necessarily. But what we see, whether here or in France, is that young people, regardless of the type of music, sing in English."

YIKES!!!!
The folks over at the Saint Jean Baptiste Society and other French nationalist groups are likely going into shock over that statement.
On second thought, they are more likely happy to have been provided more 'proof' that French needs to be reinforced.

She underlined that the trend towards English in music is world-wide.
With modern technology, there's no reason for an artist to remain a 'local' and the common denominator is English, a trend language nationalists are powerless to  curtail.

Another aspect to the debate is purely commercial, with Quebec artists pushing their own economic interests in the guise of cultural independence.

"Quebec should encourage local artists instead of helping support the commercial pop business.." said Quebec songwriter Paul Piché

Once again music lovers in Quebec will vote with their wallets. If the English artists are unpopular they won't be invited back, but I think we all know where the truth lies, so do the complainers.

As in the old inspirational story of an English king who in order to demonstrate his power, ordered the ocean's tide to stop from coming in, French language nationalists will be just as unsuccessful in stemming the tide of English music.

"Waves, stop your rolling
Surf, stop your pounding 

Do not dare touch my feet!"

 -KING CANUTE

Question: How Bad is Urgences Santé?

Last Wednesday was the hottest day that I can remember, as the whole northeast of the continent broiled in a glorious heatwave. For the very first time in my life, my car thermometer read 40º, but I'll never complain, bring it on!
I decided to cut out of work early to enjoy the sun and went over to the beautiful new Adonis supermarket in the Place Vertu shopping centre (in Montreal) before going home, to pick up a few things. As I exited my car, a fire engine screeched to halt at the store's entrance and a group of firemen raced inside. I followed at a  more leisurely pace, not wishing to appear a thrill chaser. I presently came upon them, ministering to a woman who was laid out prone on the floor in the produce aisle between the lettuce and the potatoes.

I watched the scene for a few minutes and discussed the situation with other rubberneckers who came to the consensus that she had suffered an epileptic seizure.

Finally, bored at the lack of action, I left the scene to callously continue my shopping and after about ten minutes of placing food in my carriage, I noticed that the saga of the woman on the floor continued. After paying for my groceries and on my way out, it occurred to me that the real paramedics, Montreal's infamous URGENCES SANTÉ had never shown up and it was almost fifteen since the firemen had arrived! What the Heck!!

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw an ambulance finally approaching, but it seemed in no particular hurry.

Now the mall is smack dab in the middle of a large urban neighbourhood and traffic was light, so I don't know what their excuse was, but it had me wondering what would have been had it been a heart attack........

Ah!......the joys of Montreal.

Does anyone of you have any good or bad experiences to recount?

Pierre-Karl Peladeau Poised to Become Canada's Next Media Scion

Pierre-Karl Péladeau

With Conrad Black safely ensconced in a Federal prison in Florida, his media empire but a fading memory and coupled with the demise of the Asper family business, Canada's media moguls have all but disappeared. Like so many other business', control has morphed into the nameless and faceless blur of conglomerate anonymity.
 Most Canadians have never heard of Pierre-Karl Péladeau, but in Quebec, he is fast becoming a business superstar. P.K., as he is affectionately referred to (no, not Suban,) he is the son and heir of the media empire created by the late Pierre Péladeau who was Quebec's most powerful media tycoon of the last century. Péladeau senior was quite the character, building up his empire from scratch, living out the proverbial rags to riches story.
His first success was the creation of the Montreal daily newspaper , LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL, which he launched during a strike at the major competition -LA PRESSE. (ironically- Le Journal de Montreal is presently on strike itself, but more later.)

A colourfully ruthless and contradictory character, Péladeau became a legend in his own time. A fervent separatist, (for a while anyway) he happily accepted entry into the Order of Canada in 1987. Racked by alcoholism and manic depression, his personal and family relationships suffered badly. His cockiness led him to shoot off his mouth all too often and he had a propensity to make injudicious remarks (which he was usually forgiven for, by the media)

Pierre Péladeau

He was quoted in a magazine article saying that Jews ''take up too much space'' in Quebec, a remark for which he later apologized. He was a shameless womanizer and once remarked that he only spoke English when he could make money. READ MORE.

His rocky personal life, no doubt contributed to his daughter Anne-Marie's descent into hell, a life-long drug-addicted fog that left her estranged from the family. She has lived the past two decades in and out of rehab, only to return to the streets each time to a life of more drugs and petty crime to finance her addiction. Effectively cut off from the family, she sued her brothers for 21 million in inheritance and reached an undisclosed settlement.
She earned her fifteen minutes of fame when she was filmed (ironically by  a Péladeau owned TV station) by a news helicopter, getting beaten up  while resisting arrest by police, who had been chasing her car after she had fled the scene of an armed robbery. You can see a video of the incident,  HERE.

When Pierre Péladeau died, he left assets that generated revenues of almost seven billion dollars a year, but it wasn't a particularly rosy picture, as the printing business was going downhill with the emergence of the electronic world.

Pierre-Karl's first years at the helm of the business were not pretty. He was forced to declare bankruptcy in his premier asset, Quebecor World and it seemed for a while that the younger Péladeau may not have had the right stuff.
But like a true media baron he rebounded spectacularly and today runs a diversified empire that includes jewels like Sun Media (newspapers,) Videotron (Cable TV, Internet, Wireless)  and TVA (television stations, film production,).

Pierre has developed a ruthlessness that would certainly make daddy proud.

He locked out writers at his two flagship newspapers LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL and the  JOURNAL DE QUEBEC in a pay dispute that has now been going on for over a year. The usually savvy writers badly underestimated the determination of Péladeau to not only win but to destroy their union as well.
The newspapers haven't stopped publishing, in fact they are thriving, using a loophole in Quebec's anti-scab law which forbids replacement workers from entering the company premises to take over the work previously provided by strikers.
Laughably, the scabs send in their material to editors via the Internet, a practice that was upheld as legal on several occasions in Quebec court, the law clearly out of date, in an electronic age. The striking workers have launched an alternative news website called Rue Frontenac, but for them, the writing is on the wall and they may soon fade into the sunset, reminiscent of the "Gars de Lapalme."

With success and confidence Péladeau is becoming more politically assertive and has openly called into question several Quebec sacred cows, including unionism.
In an open letter that he published in his newspaper he  attacked the lofty and protected position of Quebec's labour movement.

"...we need to question the imbalance all the legislation of the past decades has created between employers and unions, an imbalance which has and continues more than ever to handicap Quebec businesses in the context of an increasingly globalized economy."  Read more translated English excerpts from Macleans  or the complete original French version HERE.

Péladeau has shocked Canada's staid and established media by proposing the creation of a FOX NEWS conservative-type of all-news channel, to be called SUN NEWS TV, to be launched January as an alternative source for news, to counter what he perceives as the liberal bent of the national media.

The project has come under a storm of criticism from defenders of the status quo, including Don
Newman, who attacked the concept as "The absolute last thing this country needs."

Should the project come off, it's no doubt that Péladeau will become a household name across Canada, similar to that of Rupert Murdoch and that he will use the platform to raise his profile à la Donald Trump.
Péladeau is carefully cultivating an image of an arrogant conservative business tycoon, complete with a trophy partner on his arm, Julie Snyder, a Quebec television personality.   As his image expands, so do the opportunities. Reputation and myth go a long way to creating credibility and for a Quebecker, conquering Bay street as well as the business world is of primordial importance.
With the field clear of contenders, Péladeau is making a run to becoming Canada's most powerful and important media mogul. He just might do it.