A frustrated taxpayer wants the bill clarified By Peter R. Scott, Picton I respectfully write to you today both as a frustrated energy consumer and taxpaying Ontarian. Please allow me to share with you the reason for my frustration. The Ontario Energy Debt Retirement charge that appears on my monthly Hydro One invoice. First, I [...]

John Ibbitson, in his Saturday Globe column, makes it sound as if Liberal MP Larry Bagnell is on the fence about his upcoming gun registry vote. That's strange because Bagnell spoke to media on Wednesday about the fact that he would be voting to keep the registry. More of Bagnell's comments here.So maybe Ibbitson didn't know about this development. Meanwhile, Bagnell's being hung out there in the Globe like this. It's almost like Ibbitson just took the PM's spin from that Friday night speech in Whitehorse and ran with it.

Saludos, my darlings, and you know who you are. Top post this week is from 2006. Believe it or not. Government by Fernando. VOCM “news” has no source. AbitibiBowater reaches expropriation settlement. Mr. Premier, what are you trying to hide? Lower Churchill costing:  recap. Bashing your own guys over the head is soooo strategic. Could nothing be further from the truth? And the NAFTA/expropriation winner is…? The old trading federal cash for a deal with Quebec trick. Good to the last fish. - srbp -

by Haas, Allen [docket # 1-AC-231, testimony filed Aug. 24, 2010 to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin] I have three wind turbines on my property and get $4,000 for each one. It’s been 2 years now with the turbines and everyone in the community is irritable and short, they snap back. The best of [...]

Talk about a nail-biter!   A week after the 2010 Aussie elections, we finally have some preliminary results.   With 83.2% of the votes counted and a magic number of 76, the challenger Tony Abbott of the Liberal / National coalition has 73, the "incumbent" (if you ignore she shoved out Kevin Rudd in a coup) Julia Gillard of Labour has 72, the Greens 1 and 4 independents    One "National" from Western Australia has already pulled out of the caucus and will sit as an independent as well so it's actually a dead tie at 72 each.Both Gillard and Abbott are claiming they won but for different reasons.  Gillard claims she won and has the right to govern based on leading in the two party preference percentage (Australia uses a preferential instant run-off ballot for the lower house and she is presumably in the lead after votes for minor parties have been redistributed after being knocked out).   Abbott claims that on the popular vote on…

Okel v. Misheal, 2010 ONCA 562, deals with the not unknown practice of parties who include unproven documents in an appeal book. The Court says the practice is improper: " It is not open to an appellant to simply include documents in an appeal book and expect this court to rely upon the information.  To do so is unfair to the respondent and is of no assistance to this court."

While the latest story on potash involves the proposed takeover of one private company by another, Erin crunches the numbers as to what the Saskatchewan public has lost due to the privatization of the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in the first place:The greatest tragedy in BHP Billiton's $38.6-billion (U.S.) bid for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) is that the Government of Saskatchewan previously sold PCS for just $630 million. This privatization was the worst fiscal decision in the province's history and has been aggravated by subsequent royalty giveaways to private potash companies....(T)he mines that PCS owned in 1989 still account for 80 per cent of its potash production and capacity. Since 70 per cent of the company's current gross margin is from potash (rather than phosphate and nitrogen), these mines still provide at least 55 per cent of overall profits today.If PCS had simply held onto those historic assets, it would now be worth more than half of…

As I’ve probably mentioned once or twice before, I am a complete Luddite at heart. If I am asked if technology has increased the net happiness of humanity, I would probably give a firm No as an answer. I view computers and such like a gas station attendant eyes a fifty dollar bill, which is to [...]

Check out the poll to the right (how appropriate!). I wanna know what you think. Who is the biggest douchebag in the Conservative cabinet? I left out Harpy because that's a given. :)

Toronto has become the first city in the world to include harm reduction in its approach to drug use. At the very least this is a huge symbolic step forward for Canada (particularly since the regressive rulers in Ottawa are attempting failed Reagan-era dug policies) and for North America, since Toronto is the first government [...]

Friday, August 27, 2010 Stories sampled over the past week include: read more

I got together with two of my friends, Rick Di Lorenzo and Jennifer Smith, to raise money for the hospital. We decided to put together a haunted house.  We set our goal at $5,000. I am happy to report that we blew past our goal and raised $5,717 after expenses. It was a blast.  A lot of credit goes to everyone who volunteered and fellow Miltonians who donated so generously.    Fan on Facebook - Follow on twitter - Connect on Linkedin - Make a campaign donation$5,717 Presented to the Hospital Foundation was first posted on August 27, 2010 at 1:56 pm.

An article in today’s Globe and Mail discusses some new research funding for the University of Alberta.  In particular, the article notes: The U of A ranks second in total research funding, behind only U of T and up from fifth in 2006. This year, the U of A will spend $514-million on research, more than [...]

Huffington Post has this interesting picture and story on Obama. He is ending the war in Iraq and leaving behind a shattered country and escalating the war in Afghanistan. Does he really expect to win in Afghanistan? Surely both wars can be blamed on Bush era but this escalation in Afghanistan gives total ownership to Obama. It looks a quagmire to me with no satisfactory end in sight. Read the full story here.

Why Andrew Sullivan gives Friedersdorf his valuable space at The Daily Dish I'll never know. One of the more vapid of the right-wing ideologues, Friedersdorf's superficial analysis of his subjects makes Jonah Goldberg seem like William F. Buckley.Today, Conor rips into Kos for his book title, "American Taliban". Problem is, Friedersdorf never really tells us what it is about the title that so offends him, other than the colourful phrases of the the subtitle, "How War, Sex, Sin, and and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right. He does not reference the far more frequent use of the 'overheated language' from the Fox News right.If Conor is going to pan Kos' book title, please talk about the substance of the title, not just whine about the marketing angle. For example, explain why the American radical right is different than the Taliban (note that the title does not refer to the 'right' but the 'radical' aspect of it.Friedersdorf doesn't explain how the right have a monopoly…

Today’s even longer than usual post has been published in full in The Mark News. Quite a bit of work has been undertaken recently on why people often vote against their own interests.  This kind of research and analysis will of course often betray some political bias, some assumptions about what is “really” in the … Read more

These were taken last night at the hospital when Jeanne was about 12 hours old. Elin looks pleased and Jeanne looks a bit surprised by all the attention. Emmanuel was nearby, but busy telling everyone what a great experience it was.Lee wanted to take a picture with the milk container to get some idea of how big she is. There will be more pix later, but just to let you know....

Then you need to do more of it. At various times I've referred to Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty as both an incompetent hack and an ideologue. Here's an illustrative example. Ireland's program of cutbacks has had the opposite effect to the one desired: instead of helping to improve their economy the Irish find themselves mired deeper in debt and have now had their credit rating reduced. But Flaherty is so tied to the notion that austerity is the best course of action in all circumstances that he's actually prepared to meddle in the debate concerning the economy of a country on the other side of the Atlantic in a circumstance where, clearly, the course of action Flaherty is praising isn't working. But the economy isn't healthy so obviously someone must be punished, even if the people being punished aren't responsible for the problem. And even if the punishment will make things worse instead of better....

The joke in parliament that just keeps on making one want to crawl under their desk eh? Yesterdays little stunt with the ATV, and the comment, “I think I make the rules.” That tells us so much about the personality, or lack thereof that is Stephen Harper. The guy is so full of himself that he likes to look only at himself in portraiture, and has bumped former PM's totally out of the picture.  Photographs of Mr. Harper in various poses, at various sites, are hung throughout the private and cosy government lobby of the House of Commons. Ms. May and Ms. O'Malley were surprised and a bit speechless when they saw the exhibit recently as guest Commons Speakers during a youth Parliament. "When you walk in the door, all you see are pictures of Stephen Harper," said Ms. May "I'd say between every window, in every available space of the wall, at eye level, every available space has a photo of Stephen Harper." Ya, that one. Recall the narcissistic…

Looks like more and more good stuff are being produced and made available primarily as PDFs for printing - a predictable development, which i think probably makes a lot of sense.The latest example of this to cross my screen is from the folks from NC Piece Corps, who have put together a collection of writings by Robert F. Williams, one of the most important and controversial leaders of the Black freedom movement in the 50s and 60s.President of the NAACP in Monroe, North Carolina, Williams led the Black community in preventing Klan attacks and opposing the racism of governmental agencies, becoming an early advocate of armed self-defense, and taking a leading role in organizing a Black Armed Guard in his area. He was falsely accused of kidnapping charges by the FBI and was forced into exile. Williams lived in Cuba and China from 1961-1969. From Cuba he broadcast Radio Free Dixie, which aired the message of Black Liberation to the Southern US. He built strong relationships with…