Rempelia Medallion

The Rarest Day In the Year is Today

Today is the only one of 365 on which there is not a single North American professional sporting event - not hockey, not football, not bball and not baseball.
Why?

One More Diff Between Canada & The US??

Their courts respect their legislators:

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's highest court ruled Thursday that gay marriage is not allowed under state law, rejecting arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violated their constitutional rights. The Court of Appeals, in a 4-2 decision, said New York's marriage law is constitutional and clearly limits marriage to between a man and a woman.
Any change in the law would have to come from the state legislature, Judge Robert Smith said. "We do not predict what people will think generations from now, but we believe the present generation should have a chance to decide the issue through its elected representatives," Smith wrote.
Gov. George Pataki's health department and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office had argued that New York law prohibited issuing licences to same-sex couples. The state had prevailed in lower appeals courts.
From The Star

Nancy Silverman is the Bomb?

I am a self-confessed Idol nut, for me the brand offers entertainment with the pathos of Euripides and the joy of Bach. I've been busy the last few weeks, yes, trying to overthrow a government, and haven't see much of the 2006 version. And with this group of idol attempters I'm kinda glad that I've had better things to do.
Not one performer in the single mens night and single womens night that I've caught offers a single participant that has even the p in performer. A really weak group of smiling pleasant untalented kids posing and strutting. And the judges are reading scripts that they have used in every previous season. Sorry to point out that Nancy, who seems to be a nice girl, isn't "The Bomb" as she was termed by the evil judge.
The whole show is the Bomb. She's kind of a bomblet.
And I'd really like to like it. Lemons Rating??
For Ben Mulroney keeping a smile through it all.

The Most Introspective Article on Canadianism Ever

Toronto Star - Andrew Cohen
A virtual country
On the 153rd anniversary of Confederation, Canada goes through the motions yet again. On Parliament Hill, the bells toll mournfully and the Maple Leaf hangs listlessly. Soldiers fire a 21-gun salute and Snowbirds fly overhead. Under sweltering skies, the prime minister still insists that Canada is "a young country," as he and his untutored predecessors have done since it really was a young country.Thousands gather on the grass. They hear breathless politicians declare that Canada is the best country in the world, a boast once thought terribly un-Canadian, but lately as predictable as the national time signal. In the shadow of the Peace Tower, they watch entertainers of every ethnicity, reflecting this extraordinarily diverse society. The show is as inclusive as Canada itself. Everyone must be represented — there was a minor scandal last year when Karen dancers from Burma were overlooked in the festivities — because peoples from around the globe are reserving rooms in Hotel Canada. All want a role in this spectacle, as if to confirm their arrival.Troupe after troupe of new Canadians in traditional national costume march across the stage. Recalling national birthdays long past, there are some high-stepping Ukrainians, fiddlers from Quebec and throat singers from Nunavut. But these are passé today. Now, the headliners are drummers from Senegal and acrobats from Brunei. After a half-generation of open immigration, Canada is home to millions who have fled the drought and desertification that have turned parts of Africa and Asia into a netherworld and made the environment humanity's ruin. The land that God gave to Cain and Voltaire called "a few acres of snow" now looks like Shangri-La in a beleaguered world. No wonder Canada's birthday party goes on for three days, as if it were a Hindu wedding.
Click Here for the entire, thoughtful and frightening (to many) future...

911truth.org No more needs to be said about the 911 Conspiracy Freaks....

911 Truth Link
Mr. Sheen, star of the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men, provoked a media storm in March by calling in interviews for an independent investigation.
“It seems to me like 19 amateurs with box-cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75% of their targets, that feels like a conspiracy theory. It raises a lot of questions,” Mr. Sheen said in an interview in March. “A couple of years ago, it was severely unpopular to talk about any of this. It feels like from the people I talk to, and the research I’ve done and around my circles, it feels like the worm is turning.”
Mr. Sheen “brings the movement some legitimacy. He gives it a face,” said a Los Angeles student attending the conference, who gave his name as Rico.

Right - a serious drug user, a comedy star, a procurer of prostitutes, and an alleged wife beater gives these moonbats legitimacy. I need to say it - Sheen is the half part of two and a half.
They don't need legitimacy, they need brains...

No News on June 17, 2006

Every morning I get up early and check the electronic versions of the papers.
Tonday, on The Star, I did my routine, Headlines, World, Province, GTA.
Not a single headline was newsworthy enough to even click the link.
Maybe this is a good thing.

"Who you gonna believe? Me or your lyin' eyes..."

I just can't resist posting Richard Prior's famous line.
h/t Celestial Junk

Coyne on Zerbisias . . .

"Or if I say that Antonia Zerbisias is a blithering idiot, am I engaging in deliberate overstatement for comic effect? Or am I making a clinical diagnosis?"

Whole piece behind firewall in National Post

10 Year Old Canadian Born Terrorist in Training

Driving to Montreal yesterday I tuned into CBC for a while - they were doing a call in on the home grown terrorists. A woman caller revealed herself as a teacher formerly working in a school in Regent Park. She told the story of a 10 year old boy she was working with. They were having a wonderful chat, he was smiling and laughing and explained how he knew how to speak all the languages in the world.
She asked him what Shalom meant.
She said his eyes went dead and he said "thats what Jews say and when we see Jews we're supposed to kill them."
The CBC host quickly soon after cut her off and started making apologies for 10 year olds in general, and how children of all backgrounds sometimes have misguided ideas.
Sure.....
Regent Park, along with being the easiest place in Toronto to get a cab, is also becoming largely Muslim. Of course, a fair share of these likely have such views and teach them to their children.

Slow Down For a While

Like many of my brothers (and sisters) in arms (and legs), I started this blog to try and communicate my frustration with an incredibly corrupt and incompetent federal government.
A dozen years ago I was an avid Liberal - called, campaigned, raised money. I was a Trudeauite for God's sake.
But once I got inside the Chretien government and saw how he operated Canada like he would a cash business corner store, I crossed the river. He, his pseudo adopted son Jean Carle, Allan Rock, Volpe, McLellan, and yes Martin, and the rest of this bunch are so crooked that they'll be screwed into the ground when they die, not buried.
I don't think that anything I wrote had the slightest effect on the outcome of the election, except relieve me of the cost and pain of following around Paul Martin with a baggy, picking up and recycling his trash vocally on a stump in High Park.
We have a government I'm proud of now, one with convictions and beliefs and one that doesn't quiver at a negative headline, or try to fix everybody's wounds all at once. Or at least promise to.
I still have things to say but not as much, so I'm gonna focus on maybe one article a week on Federal issues.
We got a Mayor to topple in Toronto, so I'm gonna focus on http://torontobluelemons.blogspot.com
See you there.

American Idol Finale

I admit. I dig it.
But the program tonight was the best variety entertainment program I have seen since Sullivan.
And frankly the phony award winners were more deserving than those at the Oscars, Emmys, etc.
Am I nuts?

Imagine if GW Bush Did This...

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton warned Canada last night not to go down an American-style, privatized health-care road.

Could You Imagine Al Gore or John Kerry Doing This??

One more sign of why George is a hero.

The Death of the Blog

According to Ted McKeough in a special to The Star:

NEW YORK—There have been plenty of commentators arguing that blogs will lead to the demise of "old" media organizations that publish newspapers, magazines and books. ABC News columnist Michael S. Malone predicted the end of newspapers last year when he saw "the first links embedded in blogs. There was simply nothing in the physical world that could ever hope to match the ability to leap through cyberspace from story to story, file to file, with almost infinite extension." Or as former editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com Merrill Brown put it: "The future of the news industry is seriously threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news."Yet despite the proliferation and popularity of blogs, the obliteration of mainstream media as we know it is just not happening. Rather than resembling a steamroller, blogs are looking like the cheese on the bread that is mainstream media; or if you prefer, the icing on the cake.

As it now stands, the reason that so many blog links go to MSM is because, currently, the MSM is the dominant gatherers of news and content. No blogger can afford, individually, to, for example, imbed a journalist with the troops in the front lines of Iraq (or as most MSM outlets do, in the green zone). An except to this has been Steve Marshall of Guerrilla News who produced a Sundance award winning doc while doing this on his own tab.
This will change when there are more bloggers at the places where news occurs. News will be something that is reported in real time, by the participants and direct observers. And the main media for this will be blogs, in real time. And with the use of aggregators and spiders, a second after someone posts something interesting, the world will have it.
Then the MSM will become republishers. And they will die.

Seal Hunt - Newfoundlanders Protest Right Back at Them

Got news that the do-gooding urban doh-heads looking to interfere with the Seal Harvest are blocked in their hotels by family members and supporters and unable to get to the helicopters to bother the working men on the ice.
Hurrah for Newfies!!!!

The Hypocrisy of Seal Hunt Opponents

Got a chance to listen in on the CBC Noon call in show on the Seal Hunt over lunch. Of course, there were a number of callers who like seals they've never met a lot better than people they've never met. What struck me was how the whiners were those typical urban pissers and moaners who know what's good for Newfoundlanders, and for seals, almost certainly never having seen either close up.
There were three observations I made from listening to the pap spewed by one of these metrosexual, do-gooding, humanity hating creeps. They made me chuckle. Bitterly.
1/ That they feel its perfectly natural and necessary for them to dictate to people living in Northern Newfoundland how to live, while they vehemently protest, in huge numbers and with loud voices, when they fear that these hated small towners might try and restrict their liberties to do or say anything they want: kill their unborn babies, marry their same sex squash partner, or abrogate their parental responsibilities by having the government raise their children;
2/ That they don't mind having uninformed Americans stick their noses into Canadian affairs when they support their own uninformed opinions;
3/ These saps are likely also strong anti-poverty advocates. But to them the amount of money that sealers make is trivial (stated amount was $1200, real average is $5000) and does not warrant participating in the hunt. They are so distanced from real economic conditions in Canada that they are convinced that sealers can get other employment, or that $5k isn't very much. To a Northern Newfoundlander $5k feeds and clothes a family for a year. (They also shoot down the value of $1200 a year in child care not recognizing that this is a fortune for an average family in most rural areas.)
I despise these creeps. They are responsible for me becoming the cynic that I sometimes am.

Why Would the YWCA Produce a Childcare Report Anyway?

The YWCA, in their mission and vision, do not pretend to carry any responsibility whatsoever to offer benefit to children, unless they are girl children, to wit:
Mission
YWCA Toronto is an association of diverse and caring women dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls through dynamic leadership, advocacy, and a range of unique and essential services that promote personal growth and economic independence.
Vision
Through a holistic and partnership approach, the YWCA will expand its programs and services to meet the more complex array of emergency and long term community needs, significantly increase its financial resource base and be widely valued for its commitment to equity, access, safety and a just society and as a leader in advocacy and service to women and girls.

Not a mention of kids, except girl kids.

That being said why would they (a) be interested in childcare at all, and, (b) apply for $ from the Libs to fund a plan to create a national childcare program?
It's simple, silly. To provide benefits to their constituency, i.e. women. To make women's lives better, to allow them to be more politically active to gain more power for . . . women. (Not that there's anything wrong with women - half the people I love or like are women.)
The YWCA doesn't give a flying fig whether children benefit or not, so long as a program creates something like 400,000 new $50,000 jobs for... women. Their advocacy to get the employment fits within their mission, actually doing the best thing for children doesn't.

Their program is a 'supply' program, not a 'demand' program. They insist that a place be available for every child under 6 in Canada - from Tuk to Toronto and Vic to Joe Batts Arm. Whether the place is needed or not. Plus a national head office, and 'hubs' to manage the regional activities. They demand that a national education program be built for the care givers.

And they boast about the Quebec program, that provides spots for 1/5 of les enfants, and the Liberal program, that simply called for a transfer of cash which could only provide 4% of the money needed for the program the YWCA believe is necessary. And for them, the work that mothers do to raise their children in a loving way is of no value. Women who stay home to raise children are beneath contempt for the YWCA; they refer to subsidies for daycare as stigmatizing and state that when a woman's primary role is as a mother, then her child is more likely to suffer poverty and social exclusions. And they say that paying Moms to stay home is too expensive.

As far as costs go, to pay the bills for this program, every household in Canada would need to pony up $3,000 a year, whether there is a need or not! Yes, not the $1Billion a year that the Libs proposed, but $30 Billion a year? Or $15,000 a kid (assuming every kid under 6 takes a place). There might be a lotta educated$50k an annum child care technicians playing hearts if the YWCA gets their way.

Question.
Why not just take the $15k per kid and pay $15k to the Moms.
But I guess that wouldn't create jobs for all them other wimmin.

The Monty Python Perspective on Rights

Imagine a bunch of civilians sitting on a hill during the time of Jesus, making plans to rebel against the hated Romans...
REG: Agreed. Francis?
FRANCIS: Yeah. I think Judith's point of view is very valid, Reg, provided the Movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man--
STAN (Eric Idle): Or woman.
FRANCIS: Or woman... to rid himself--
STAN: Or herself.
FRANCIS: Or herself.
REG: (John Cleese) Agreed.
FRANCIS: Thank you, brother.
STAN: Or sister.
FRANCIS: Or sister. Where was I?
REG: Furthermore, it is the birthright of every man--
STAN: Or woman.
REG: Why don't you shut up about women, Stan. You're putting us off.
STAN: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me 'Loretta'.
REG: What?!
LORETTA: It's my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It's every man's right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But... you can't have babies.
LORETTA: Don't you oppress me.
REG: I'm not oppressing you, Stan. You haven't got a womb! Where's the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: [crying]
JUDITH: Here! I-- I've got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans', but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What's the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can't have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.

The Most Dangerous Man in the World's in Texas

Art Baker reveals a prof in Texas that truly scares the bejeezus piss out of me.

Charles Taylor to Make Bid for Liberal Leadership

Late Monday night from a jail cell, former Liberian dictator and war lord Charles Taylor announced he was seeking the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, although he has never even been to Canada. "I have the necessary experience, and, as well I would need to make very minor changes to my monogrammed towels and personalized license plates (Lib One)."
Observers believe this is just a stunt to possibly provide Taylor a means of evading a jail sentence; no Liberal politician has ever had to serve time for a criminal offense, while others are not so sure. Said Liberal Party member, Earl Mudflat of Lower Shobagan, NS, "It's time for Canada to be ruled by a visible minority , and Mr. Taylor has this as well as being tough on crime."
There was no comment from party leadership hopeful, Michael Ignatieff, who in the past has supported torture as a necessary tool.

The Death of Journalism

Take notice, MSM (lol)
I'm gonna write a piece on how journalism has stopped being a vital force of information for society. Instead, it has become a place of hysteria, celebrity and partisanship.
Points of Views instead of News.
Talking heads instead of investigators and fact checkers.
All Mainstream News is propaganda for its station owners, its advertisers and its preferred politicans.
News outlets profile their audiences and mirror their opinions in their reportage. It's become mass media masturbation.

Look out BIG MEDIA. I'm coming atcha. (But in a very self-effacing, humble and Canadian way.)

Anyone wanna start the thread and contribute some ideas that I can credit when I get going on the thing?

(note to all - the pomposity above is meant for humor...)

A Picture for the Ages

Credit - National Post

Cdn Blue Lemons December 17 2005 Seat Forecast

Originally Posted Dec 17 2005
Actual:
CPC - 124
Lib - 103
PQ - 51
NDP - 28
Ind - 1
Not a bad guess

I think the Libs sense some things that aren't showing up in the polls and some that are. The Chretienites are hurting not helping - a lot maybe even silently hoping for a CPC victory. Quebec is lost - maybe a dozen seats fewer there. Rural Ontario is fading - maybe a dozen lost there. These events alone result in a CPC minority government. If the trend continues and the Tories pick up an extra dozen seats outside of Quebec and Ontario, all of a sudden the CPC has 40% of the seats in the House and reverses the current standings.
My read given this scenario:
CPC - 122
Lib - 103
PQ - 63
NDP - 20
And if this scenario happens, which party would pull the string on an election in the next two years. They'd get slaughtered.
I can smell fear.

A Note for Those Who Prefer the State Raising Children

The former Liberal Government and New Democratic Party have promised starter and happier children if only the State is allowed to raise them as surrogate parents from cradle to drinking age.
With a sweeping assumption, I think it would be valuable to look for tried examples of this philosophy and conduct an evaluation, prior to drawing such a conclusion and defending it so vigorously.
Of course, we have an excellent, broadly-based, case study upon which we can draw educated conclusions.
Public education.
All levels of public school have been accessible without direct payment or taxes to all school age children now in all parts of Canada for almost fifty years. When I attended public school, our teachers were clearly proxies for parents; they treated us as their personal charges, disciplined us as a loving parent would, stayed late to offer after-school programs and rewarded us with stars on our scribblers.
What do we see now in our state run system? Well, first of all teachers have become mercenaries - unwilling to spend a minute more at school that they are contracted and paid to provide. Thus we have seen the end of after school chemistry clubs, photo-clubs, school newspapers and the like, and all the benefits these activities brought to kids.
Meanwhile, our courts have seen fit to remove the right of locos parentis, teachers are now not permitted to discipline children, not even take their knives away from them if they dare. Rather than open children's minds to different ideas, almost stereotypically children are coached on the values of liberal humanist beliefs, or worse, urged toward anti-Christian and anti-capitalist views.
When the teachers don't get their way, they go on strike and act like pre-juveniles, stamping their feet until they do.
And there are no failures in our state run education system; teachers don't want to be stuck with the same dullards for more than one year, so kids are automatically promoted.
The end results is that our educational achievement is bordering on the pathetic. Our children are not given the opportunities to develop new interests, they do not know the joy of success or the disappointment of failure. They are taught to resent the economic and social systems in which they live.
The proof of the failure of the public school system is evidenced by the choices being made by Canadian parents; depending on the province, as much as 9.1% of school age children now attend private schools in the country. This despite the comparative financial burden of a minimum of $15000 cost per student against zero. We have a two tier education system, where the rich kids get smarter.
We can expect the same sort of outcomes for under-sixers in an expanded state run day care program, as we now get from a state-run educational system. And the outcomes ain't very pretty at all.

Iggy's Liberal Campaign Chair Sees the Light

Says Toronto Star
And has swung his support to Cappy.
In this tight race, this could send Iggy and his intellect back to Harvard.

If Iggy wants to teach at UofT for a while and actually live here, we might see him again, which will frankly be welcome. He's a bright guy.

Steve Harper New Host of Vinyl Cafe

Just listened to Harper's "Martin's Ads" speech from St. Catharines in audio only.
If he ever tires of politics, Stephen can jump into Stuart MacLean's seat on CBC's The Vinyl Cafe immediately thereafter. He has a twin voice to Stuart: pleasingly laconic, comfortably referring to his 'friends" as Stuart does.
Personally, I hope Mr. Harper is our PM for the next dozen years or so, but if not, he could make our Sunday afternoons cozier on CBC as he regales us of tales of dogs stealing Christmas turkeys and the like.

Is Bureaucracy Partisan Liberal?

Right answer is probably, some.
But a recent example occurred when I scrutineered an advance poll last weekend. My name tag didn't say Conservative Party of Canada, or even CPC Party.
It said PC Party.
Now, this could be an accident. Or it could be an attempt by someone to dismiss or disparage the credibility of the CPC.
As I get older I get more jaded and cynical.
In Ontario of course we have some dimbulbs running as Prog Cdn Party - - they will be listed as the PC Party on the ballots.
Elections Canada is not, or chooses not, to make very basic corrections that could in a small way effect the election.

Anyone Else Offended by the Phrase "Progressive Voters"?

What unadulterated Bull Crap.
We are "neo-conservatives" (their politically correct sobriquet for fascist nazis) and "progressive" voters will vote Liberal. I guess that means the 40% of people who will vote for the CPC are "regressive" voters.
Those liberal turkeys love labels so long as they're not used on them, i.e. Hypocrites, Liars, Thieves, Fraud Artists, etc.

Susan Murray Defends Martin On Pensions

This morning on Newman, Susan Murray was here usual loud and obnoxious interrupting self defending Paul Martin for speaking to union workers in London about protecting their pensions.
Was this was the same Paul Martin whose Canadian Steamships stripped something like $150 million from the company's employee pension plans?
I think so.

Did Volpe Lose His License?

By ALAN FINDLAY, TORONTO SUN
Citizenship and Immigration Minister Joe Volpe rented limos to ferry him on long trips from Toronto last year, with one ride to Buffalo and back costing more than $1,000, Sun Media has learned.
Leaked documents detail a 12 1/2-hour trip to the nearby U.S. city last March that included an $850 fare, $127.50 tip and $68.43 in GST for a total cost of $1,045.93.
Another 10 1/2-hour trip to an undisclosed location from Pearson airport cost $522.

Doesn't Joe have a car??

Which is Which?

One of these fellows is the Video Professor, promising to re-educate the masses on using computers. The other leads the New Democratic Party of Canada, promising to re-educate Canadians to give all their money to the masses.

Hoping for a Carolyn Bennett Retirement

Back a dozen years ago at a meeting of the Hepatitis C Society (started to look for justice for people infected by the Blood System) Carolyn Bennett, as A FOUNDER of the SOCIETY spoke at the Annual General Meeting and as a new MP.
She suggested that the Society should stop opposing the government and cooperate, that it will be more valuable to work inside the system than as outsiders. The impression was that she would be able to generate better results inside Parliament than activists could by marching on the front lawn.
Of course, her statements were platitudinous, perhaps based on her naivite, perhaps with other motives.
Only a few weeks later a vote came to the house to comepensate victims and she, as all other Lib MPs did, voted against the victims.
It is time for Dr. Bennett to take early retirement with all the other hypocritical members of the Liberal government, who say one thing, do another, but always protect their personal interests, their power and positions.
I hope to see Peter Kent in Ottawa come Tuesday.

My Email to Think Twice Canada

If I were a part of your organization (which I am not) I would be ashamed.
Canada is still a democracy and your considerations, individually or collectively, are no more or less important or informed than anyone elses.
Being an actor does not provide you special insight into right or wrong. It likely does qualify you to be a politician. Being a trade unionist hardly suggests non-partisanship. As far as your inclusiveness, of 25 members identifiable by gender, all but 2 arefemale, which is fine, but makes your organization less gender equal than the Canadian Conservative Party.
Believe it or not, Canadians in vast numbers disagree with you despite the best intended results of you and of the NDP and Liberal Parties and the millions of dollars of public money they have spent in opposing the CPC.
Stop thinking that you're smarter than the masses, appreciate that people are allowed to disagree with you and be prepared to accept the possibility that Canadian Conservatives are every bit as well intended, every bit as honest, just as hard working and just as honest and forthright as you are.

Martin Admits He's in Trouble

I wish I had this on tape - a second ago Paulo Martini stated in a press conference and I quote, "I hope you appreciate that now I'm really in trouble."
Good to know you know, Paul.
Oh and just after he said that "I hope Canadians don't take us back 10 years when the government didn't know what its projections were, what its numbers were."
Ah, Paul, weren't you Finance Minister then??

Bloggers - Write Your Scandal Story Now Before its too Late

Hit the Link and write your scandal story in time for it to remind voters.

Liberals Insulted Hep C Blood Victims

On September 20, 1996 my brother, Tony, my best friend and the greatest guy anyone ever met died with Hepatitis C.
For the year before both of us joined the battle to confront the government and Red Cross about their failure to protect the blood supply and Canadians. I carried on this struggle for a few years after his death as one of the activists chasing Alan Rock and gang of thugs trying to hold them accountable.
We were less than a half dozen folks with no money, some very sick, all with lives to live who took on the entire Liberal Empire.
What did we know from those good bureaucrats was definite and disgusting.
The government knew (a Liberal one by the way) that the blood system was compromised as early as the 1960's. They new there was a new deficiency, they didn't know what it was. During the 70's this was labelled non-A, non-B Hepatitis. The Blood Committee of the Bureau of Biologics of Health Canada decided that the risks of infection were acceptable, but the cost of warning people of the infection of the blood system was not. They refused announcing this, and refused the obvious opportunity for people to provide autologous donations (of their own blood) and targeted donations for family members. Thousands of Canadians were infected during this period.
Later on, still under a Liberal government, it was decided that it would be cheaper to pay out any compensation claims, than to pay $32 million a year for treating the blood.
We know what happened, probably 20,000 or more people were infected by Hep C in the blood supply, with many more subsequently infected downstream.
When the Liberal government was attacked for this shame, their response was disgusting (and predictable). At first they denied any responsibility. Then they circled their wagons and stonewalled. Then they had a bunch of meetings and decided to not do anything. I remember Rock stating that this file was closed, and my response that they considered our people to be 8 x 11 and manila.
During this time and after my brother's death I visited death bed after death bed. Met with hundreds of people whose lives were ruined, without any Liberal compassion.
Thanks to the work of our volunteers, and the actions of people like Andre Picard and Michael Harris, they finally came clean and admitted responsibility for people infected between 1986 and 1990. Curiously a period when the PCs were in office.
I remember our volunteer lobbyist offering advice, "remember their jobs and power are way more important to them than your sick people are to you. They will do anything to keep you down. They will try and hire your volunteers, they will try to offer you directed money to make you pursue other strategies, they will invite you to sit on committees to study solutions (and delay proceedings) and then never have the committee meet." The Liberals did all of these and more.
Finally, they were nailed and had to come up with something to get the public off their back.
Their final response. $1.1 Billion in compensation, to be negotiated with by class action lawyers.
Where were these lawyers when we needed them? Personally starting class action suits in our victims interests, without the involvement of the victims groups. What was the end result?
One of Alan Rock's best friends was appointed by Alan Rock to represent the victims. He had not put one dime into our campaign or spent one minute advising us. Subsequently he received $60 million from the compensation fund. All Victims collectively have not received much more (the lawyers and fund administration costs now total an equal amount to all compensation pay outs).
An unwieldy compensation application process was designed making it tough (especially for sick people) to apply and qualify.
Alan Rock's buddy the class action lawyer flies around in a Lear jet. My brother is in his grave.
Another example of how Liberals do things.

Media Frenzy Proves Tory Prospects

Credit Paul Wells from Macleans
Media types don't line up to fopllow around losers. Losers can't afford the buffets and booze. Paul reveals that a third bus has been added to the CPC contingent.

"Greetings from the record-breaking third emergency media bus the Harper campaign has laid on, in response to higher-than-average interest in what the Calgary MP is up to this week.
That's right. The first bus is for electronic media. The second is for print. And the third is for stragglers and slow learners, including me, the guy from CJAD, and Rick Mercer. Fortunately Bogdan the techie has this thing wi-fi'd up, so I can blog inanely."

Globe Endorses Tories ----- Which Torlib Paper Will Move First?

Originally Posted on Jan 10

After last night's Howard Dean like performance by Paul Martin, and given the dramatic shift in poll responder support in the past week, bandwagon hopping might be one athletic event we can expect in the next 2 weeks.
I've been musing since Boxing Day that if the media moves to the Tories, we could see a landslide.
Certainly, with some exceptions, Stephen Harper and his party are being more fairly received by the MSM than last time. And in looking at the Star and the Globe today, a willingness to accept a Conservative government, preferrably in a minority, seems not to be an undesirable outcome.
I think that one of the 2 big Toronto dailies in the next week will be positing if not publishing an editorial with the headline "Time for Liberals to Take a Rest and Rebuild".
Any thoughts from Blogdom?

Newman, Derek Lee and John Baird Debate on Property Rights

Huge example during the show tonight.
A year ago the Provincial Liberals legislated a green belt around Toronto to limit urban sprawl. Prior to this those land owners were looking forward to a very comfortable retirement based on the anticipated value of the sale of their land for residential home building.
Back then I was consulting with a client who was looking at his land increasing in value from $10k an acre to over $500k, and he was keen on selling his land (that have been owned for generations.
The right of eminant domain, which exists without property rights, was invoked by the province and the individuals affected lost millions of dollars (except that owned by Liberal friends but that's another story).
Canadian's don't appreciate that we own nothing. Not the rights to the shirts off our backs, if the government decide to take them.

The Tory Surge Why??

Simple, I think.
About 6 or 7 years ago many of us looked to the combined polling of the PCs and Reforms and concluded that if only . . .
we could combine the vote . . .
Well,
now, perhaps we see it. The conservative factions have come together. And we are perhaps seeing this.
In Canada.
I'm not allowed to make this up.

What if these are the best ideas the Libs Got . . .

Reposted from December 28th
Hard to belive, but these HAVE been the best ideas the Libs have

I know its juvenile what we're seeing...

Liberal insiders calling attractive socialist candidates pooches and pols that wear cowboy hats gay (even if its an in thing what with the new hit movie Bend Over Mountain), and NDP leaders a-holes (not for the first time). And the let them eat cake, er, I mean let them eat popcorn comment was done over 200 years ago (but there were hereditary rulers back then - the Libs wish).

But what if these ideas are the best ones the liberal got?
What if their best minds got together and this is what they've come up with?
We haven't seen much else from a policy perspective so far. Day care (that I think Mulroney talked about first 20 years ago)? That's it.

Chatted with a long time Lib advisor in Ottawa on Monday. Even he's thinking about voting Tory. And he's a Red Liberal.

If the trend continues, we're looking at a landslide.

Martin finally gets a crowd

At the Delta in Agincourt tonite PM (Post Mortem) finally got a crowd.
Drew them from the entire GTA. 5 million people managed to provide a Liberal crowd that filled a room.
Compared to the Canadian Club earlier in the day that was 40% full, even with a whole gang of folks trying to fill seats.

PM "A Right Wing American Conservative Policy"

What . . .
Property rights are bad??
They would be a disaster according to PM.
A Charter of Rights and Freedom that does not prevent the Queen of England (Canada) from her legal right to take my car if desired, to take my house and land for the establishment of a safe injection site and pay me whatever they decide is market value is good according to Paul Martin.
Let's start with PMs farm. Lets have the Queen decide to take this over for a drug rehabilitation centre.
Under eminent domain, the Queen can.

As much as the long campaign is getting me thru the winter . . .

Campaign is too long
When the CBC is doing Political Speed Dating and letting each party produce and air their own stories . . .
Too much time too little said even less done.
Let's just select a poll and let that decide an outcome.

A Missing Debate Booboo and Charest to Support Harper

Anyone else notice last night that Gilles D kept pushing Paul M to agree that Quebec was a nation. The PM (post mortem) seemed to agree that Quebec was a nation but in his best liberal way, wiggled his way out of ever using the phrase "Quebec Nation".

Meanwhile, word is out that the Quebec Liberals will be supporting the Tory Candidates that are appear to be in the lead over the PQ.

Michael Ignatieff Runs like a . . .

Anyone catch Michael Ignatieff on Global tonite, dashing insecurely out of his campaign office looking uncomfortable in his toque, into a waiting BMW?? No doubt to dazzle his adoring public constituency with his deep intellectual opinions on ethnic nationalism.
I knew Pierre Trudeau and Iggy is no Pierre Trudeau.
I hope he didn't unvest his Harvard pension.
I like Iggy, but I think Cappy's gonna whip his butt.

John McCallum Squeezed by Newman

... and left a quivering jello of a minister.
Only a couple of minutes into the interview on Newman this morning, Emperor John McCallum started shedding his clothes.
With Monte Solberg chuckling in the background, Newman was trying to figure out what the heck the former RBC Economics head was talking about. Monte made it clear that the CPC would have a new approach and brought out the Natl Poverty Coalition and Conference Board as supporters of their program financial efficacy. McCallum slagged the CPC for cancelling the Liberals pre-election promises (as if they had had a mandate to deliver on them to begin with).
Newman caught the Lib on one piece of LibLogic - "what's the difference between the Liberals giving Ontario $5 Billion and the PCs transferring money to the province?"
Newman suggested that really, wasn't it just a matter of choices - to allow people to make their decision on which plan they preferred?
Monte was wonderfully dismissive and too be honest, McCallum kinda looked shakey. He also advised that the whole Tory platform will be out by the end of the week.

Forecast of Tuesday's Post Debates Comments

Susan Delacourt: "Paul Martin seemed to be half asleep until values were mentioned, then he was almost evangelical (in a good way) in denigrating Harper as 'an enemy of every single moral and ethical value that makes this country great. And I, for one, will not stand by while this man ruins this great country."

James Travers: "Paul Martin performed like an old shoe, not much to look at, but easy to slip into and out of. I suspect that a whole lot of people who tuned in are going to be dropping into Payless before January 23rd."

Tom Clark: "Paul Martin was in fighting trim and came out swinging when the topic turned to Quebec. He blasted at Stephen Harper that 'if you haven't lived in Quebec, then you can't understand Quebec, and you certainly can't help Quebecers who are trying to keep this country together'."

Greg Weston: "The Liberal's unhappy prospects for election took an even more desperate turn toward the end of the debate. The soon to be former Prime Minister piled one empty platitude on top of another until even his own eyes started to glaze over. Meanwhile, Stephen Harper stayed entirely within his bandwidth; not too hot, not too cold, just right."

Andrew Coyne: "When will it end... Repeating unfulfilled Liberal promises from elections past and bringing to the debate old enemies long gone from the battlefield. I kept waiting for Martin to bring up Arthur Meighen, for heaven sakes. If Martin is to have any hope in this campaign, then he has to start living in the now. Otherwise, I just wish someone would put him out of his misery. Maybe he could finish the campaign on a slow CSL boat to Vanatu or something."

John Ibbitson: "This campaign remains to be decided. No one was overly impressive, nor destructively bad, and nothing was done or said that would swing a meaningful number of votes in meaningful ridings. It will be hard to say, though, what Paul Martin can do between now and E-Day to turn things around."

Sheila Copps: "This guy has no shame; seconds after he was denying any connection to the Chretien government, he was taking credit for everything from the Clarity Act to staying out of Iraq. This even though in caucus meetings he had spoken vigourously against both."

A Certain Grit Blogger: "Paul Martin got em exactly where we want em. His calm, statesmanlike stance blew Harper out of the water and promises to make his tenure in Stornaway even briefer. Its great to be a huge underdog going into the last two weeks of the campaign."

Message to Be Delivered at Doorsteps

Many of the people I've talked to in the last week are in search of positive change, yet hang on to messages tied to political parties not called the CPC, not led by Stephen Harper, or not related to the policies of the CPC today.
I've heard Mulroney stories frequently, and devil you know stories, and memories of bozo eruptions and the like from the last campaign. An election scheduled early by the Libs so that the CPC would not be fully ready for a campaign.
One of the meesages I deliver is that our party offers the promise of dozens of new people to the House of Commons, not associated with the brothel that the Liberals have created and the negative atmosphere that has permeated the House.
In Toronto we have a slate of young, new entrants to the political scene, who, if elected will bring new vitality to debate in the House and to the policies of the CPC.

Urban ridings - especially Toronto - need solid and vigorous CPC representatives, whether in Government or in opposition. And we can offer them this. Not only for immediate change, but for growth of the party into one that represents, through their elected members, all perspectives on all issues that affect Canadians.

New Look

A New Look...

Did the Martin Boys Ever Pay for Their Dad's Company

I'm just asking the question.
Pablo Martini is a quarter billionaire thanks to the coniving of Maurice Strong and generosity of Paul Daimarais (Jean Chretien's daughters Father in Law).
Is Pablo totally liquid now?
Like did the boys pay cash or cheque??
Were capital gains taxes appropriately paid?
Woudl Revenue Canada dare to track this back?
Or was this just a phantom transaction?

Just asking.

Shoot Me Before I Read CBC Again

Story after story, spin after spin that is pro Liberal.
The CBC, which has a Board of Directors that entirely and exclusively donated money to the Liberal Party, that have News Directors across the country which did not have a single Conservative voter in the last election.
Mom Corp is trying her best to keep her sugar daddys in office.

I'm Concerned

All signs in the real world point to strong grassroots Tory support.
But I see the propaganda stanrting to spin out:
Tom Clark's pro Martin spin;
CBC's absolute lies about the Tory tax plan;
Canoe's reporting Martin's incorrect math.

I think the media are beginning to unmake Stephen Harper thinking that they have made him.

I do think that he will cause an earthquake in Quebec on Tuesday.
But Toronto media are starting to aim their pencils at him.

Claude Dauphine - Honourary President of Option Canada

M. Dauphine's spokesperson said that le bon monsieur had nothing to do with management of the organization, that he was only "honourary president".

Question I have is whether he received any "honourary stipends or honouraria" for being honourary president?

I bet there was a little or a lot of kaching in the budget for him

Update on Toronto Centre

Got a chance to canvas a downtown condo today for Lewis Reford. This would be expected to be red - mainly upper middle class young folks, upwardly mobile types
Response was surprisingly positive - only had two doors hit my nose. More tories than liberals, lot of undecided almost all going to the candi debates on Wednesday.
If we can win a poll like this we can win the riding.
But still a lot to do.

Neil Macdonald - Hater of Israel and anything to do that ain't liberal

Neil Macdonald came up with a story that the Tories are going to increase personal tax rates in their first budget.
Macdonald is largely a discredited journalist for the scandalous stories that slagged Israel in the last couple of years.
He has no credibility and frankly, should have been fired (like Terry Milewski was a couple of years ago by challenged Chretien).
This story assumes 2 things, 1/ that the Tories are gonna win and 2/ that they have already completed a budget for April after they're elected.
Please pick up on this story and run with it.

Raptors, Tories and Leafs All on Win Streak

Ya gotta love it

Brilliant Work from Joel

See Link - Martin Anger Good. Harper Anger Bad.
I think Tom Clark of CTV is looking (and hoping for) a federal pension.

Who is Daniel Cook and How Can I Hire Him

My God, he's as cute as a Muppet.
Where did he come from, and is he a member of the Guild??

Back to the Future

Fascinating.
Tonite on Newman Susan Delacourt described the campaign as existing in a bizarro world.
How Martin and Libs were acting like the CPC in 2004, while Harper & the Tories were looking like the Libs.
A week or so ago, I suggested that Paul Martin was trying to fight the 2004 Campaign over again, but the CPC wasn't cooperating. Looks like deja vu, but roles are reversed.

Scott Bryson as a Taxi Driver

Scottie is qualified as a hack.
But not much else.
His comment, I tried to smoke dope but Stephen Harper wouldn't fit in the pipe.
What an idiot Scott is.
Too smart assed by half.
He is a liar, at best.
Good riddance Scotty.
Get a real job.
Hope you enjoy an opp bench next to Belinda and Paul.

AM 640 and CFRB

When Paul Martin, Daltin McG and David Miller got together a week or so ago to announce their next futile attempt to stop Jamaican posse members from murdering innocents in Toronto, ultimately their empty statements were ignored.
Today, after Stephen Harper spoke in Toronto, AM640 with Charles Adler and CFRB for the duration of the John Moore show focussed entirely on crime and guns in Toronto.
This is a huge sign (along with recent Star reports) that the Conservatives are the leading and accepted choice for Canada.
Canada is about to move back into a reality that offers the opportunity to achieve our potential, to achieve our destinty.
I am glad and proud to be a Canadian, again.

Paul Martin Tsunami Promises Prove Bogus

Paul MArtin, the most compassionate of all the compassionate a year ago, has not followed through with his promise to donate $450 million to the suffering victims of last years devastating tsunami.

Promise Made. Promise Broken.

From Canada Free Press:

Tip-offs passed to canadafreepress.com by Sri Lankan journalists during the past year were right on target: The promised money from Canada for victims of the December 26 tsunami never came.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, who made a January 3, 2005 photo-op of tsunami-ravaged Sri Lanka, guaranteed $425-million for tsunami relief that has yet to arrive.

Forty million dollars of the $425-million pledged by Martin was donated by average Canadians.

Why The Arctic?

Why are we all so dog gone fired up about Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic?
I've been to Yellowknife, which kinda reminded me of Minto, New Bruswick without trees. Was nothing real special. And I know there's herds of walruses up there, but I've never heard of a real good use for wallruses (or is that wallrae). Do we still slaughter them to make girdles? Fewer and fewer caribou all the time up there from what I hear. And Han Island, my God its not even big enough to build a golf course on. I hear there’s lots of ice up there too, but again supposedly less and less all the time. I know those icebergs look kinda pretty but I wouldn't wanta own or bump into one. And I'm willing to settle for a picture of the big white things rather than enumerate them to see if there are any chilly souls who want to vote in the election.
And I understand that there are people who live in the arctic that we claim to be Canadian. As far as I know, they don't care about Canada one way or the other except that there has been all kinds of trouble and problems brought their way by their connection with us.
I know that the way it is now we gotta provide RCMP, CBC and all the other government services all over the place up there, when I get blessed few here in Toronto. Have ta keep sendin up troops who haveta keep puttin up flags when they blow over. Must cost a lot to do this.
I suppose it’s about the oil and diamonds, maybe the water. But I don’t see any more Canadians wearing diamonds since they discovered them up there, and God help us if we end up having to keep our cars running on oil drilled from under a hundred feet of ice.
And I know that they’re talking about the Northwest Passage again (comes up every hundred and thirty years or so) but I don’t see us needing it any time soon. We got Canada Post, Via Rail and Air Canada.
So, let’s give it up. Maybe sell it if someone wants to pay us a fair price. We ain’t doin nothin useful with it. I’m not one of them who thinks its “cool” to be a northern people. I think it’s hard to be “cool” when your teeth are chatterin’ and knees are knockin’. Maybe we can swing a trade for Hawaii.
Now that would be cool.

Globe Columnist Says 'Whole Lot' of Seats for Harper

Larry Martin on Duffy's show tonite said that not only will Harper's release of his Quebec Strategy possibly result in the Liberals losing a few more seats, but if the trend continues that Harper might win a whole lot of seats in Quebec.

He also expressed the opinion that there is big momentum for the Tories in Ontario that the polls haven't picked up on yet.

Welcome to Parlsylvania

Am I the only one who has noticed an eerie resemblance of the actors in the creep show that has become the Liberal Party of Canada to cast members in a vampire movie? Maybe a Lon Chaney picture or even worse, Rocky Horror Picture Show, or worse still, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I apologize for making such a cheap and obvious comparison, what with the entire cast of this reality flick drinking our blood and picking their teeth with our bones. But, the resemblance goes well beyond metaphoric standards. These folks really look and act like a cast from a 50’s B movie, with the Peace Tower serving as a suitable gothic stage.

Wild-eyed Tony Valeri, the Liberal House Leader, appears straight from the vampire digest; slightly graying slicked-back hair and a toofie grin that appears ready to expose fangs at any moment. Sort of George Hamilton in “Love at First Bite”, but without all the plastic surgery.

And no one in any fangs film has ever been better cast than Anne McLellan as a shrieking banshee. Has anyone ever seen her in front of a mirror?

I can’t help but picture Scott Bryson as Eddie Munster: cute, friendly, and pint-sized, but behind that cunning smile are little canines just emerging from the gums. Very scary.

Paul Martin would be a great Frank N Furter, but frankly, the thought of the PM in fishnets is far too terrifying to imagine. Given his seeming harmlessness and frequent bumbling, I think he’s a better Count Floyd from SCTV.

And of course, we need to include Belinda. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will well remember the episode when she went over to the dark side. Shortly after this, the show was cancelled.

Up against this monsters’ gallery is Stephen Harper as Van Helsing, committed to their destruction; a cross in hand to keep them at bay, staring them down with ice-blue eyes, equipped with a quiver full of pine stakes and a bandolier of silver bullets.

All of the vampire movies I ever went to had a happy ending. I wonder if this one will. But of course what’s happy for the vampires ain’t happy for the townspeople.

Ranting Against Toronto Streetcars

This is no more or less than a rant, came upon a few days ago while following a streetcar, stopping at every corner on Queen St. in the middle of a dozen or two
of my fellow car people; seeing a ten minute spin turn into a 40 minute voyage. Getting behind not one or two, but six (count'em) streetcars in a row.
Not for the first time.
Streetcars are terrible forms of transportation. They even hold up other streetcars. They are inflexible, noisy, require huge maintenance costs, and, in this city, often go from nowhere (i.e. Maple Leaf Gardens soon to be a Loblaws) to nowhere (i.e. High Park, which is well served now by subway).
And, these Victorian-era dinosaurs trade diesel-fume smog for coal-fueled-turbine smog. No environmental benefit there, Dave (Miller or Suzuki).
Plus, they make cars spew whatever they spew for longer periods of time (although modern ones are quite environmentally friendly). But our city is in the middle of making an even greater commitment to these anachronisms.
But today my focus is not only on streetcars, not even on the whole darn family of public transportation vehicles, but rather, the system in which they exist.
Admirably there are about 500,000 people using our public system every day - assuming return trips. But this is out of 2.5 million Torontonians and includes a pile of folks from outside the city who use the system and the numbers represent a relatively insignificant number of users compared to the amount of personal transportation conducted.
I (and the other 3 or 4 million non-transit-users in the GTA ) would complain a lot less about public transportation in Toronto if it were anything resembling an efficient form of getting from somewhere to somewhere else.
Fifty years ago the Toronto subway was established to funnel nearby suburbanites from Rosedale to Union Station. Now, we have a system that tries to do the same thing for far away suburbanites, despite the fact that only a small share of the GTA labour pool works downtown; of the 2.5 million people who work in the GTA, only about 600,000 work in the old city of Toronto. Almost as many people from Scarborough work in Mississauga as there are that work downtown. And for that matter, lotsa downtown livers work out in the burbs. And a similar number of Mister and Mississaugans work in Markham or North York. Check out the 401 any day.
Short of creating a home exchange between families to get them to live closer to where they work, what about a solution for other 84% of us? We don't hate public transit, we just hate that it doesn't allow us to get anywhere we need to go. If it were any good we'd use it. Might even come to like it.
All we need to catch a ride to this transit utopia is commitment. Our transit idea people already have the solutions developed, they just lack the commitment of their political overlords to put their ideas in place. So what if it costs 10 or 15 billion dollars; we are either committed to a public transit solution or not.
We should reopen the challenge to public leaders to find the answer today: figure out the costs, get federal money (we are the only major city in North America that doesn't receive federal funding for our public transit), confirm funding from air rights and development charges, study privatization options, figure out the extra taxes generated, the savings from the Front Street Extension and other road developments, the economic development benefits, and just do it.
But our political leaders hate taking a real stand on anything, they just like to pretend they do or focus all their political energy on pissant projects that don't get anybody, anywhere (metaphorically speaking). Let's push them along, now.
The sooner we start, the sooner we'll get it done. Maybe by the time our baby boomers have to get out of their cars anyway.

An Open Letter to Mayor David Miller

Mayor David Miller
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M5H 2N2

Dear Mayor Miller:
I attach an invoice in the amount of $126 for the engagement of a private firm to remove my garbage when City Works failed to do so during the past two collection periods. I look forward to receipt of this amount as soon as is possible, but certainly within 60 days, after which it will be referred to a collection agency.

Note that I am not charging you for time spent in sorting and wrapping my garbage, nor storage for the 4 weeks that much of it sat in the back yard. I am pleased to inform that the private firm I hired did an excellent job: they offered to sort my recycling in the future, picked up all the scraps, even brushed off the sidewalk.

Please also accept this as my formal notice to "opt out" of municipal services, just as City Works and other agencies have opted out of providing them. Obviously, I will no longer be using city garbage services in this new arrangement.

As far as Police Services, I have taken advantage of this service many times over the past, indeed, every time I have overstayed my paid parking period by a few minutes. However, I prefer to no longer call upon this well delivered municipal service. As well, in past occasions that I have had property stolen or damaged nothing was ever done to serve or protect. And in looking at the 21 shootings in the last two weeks in the city, it seems to me that Police Services has chosen to opt out of providing public safety services, so I have a need no longer for these. I have good locks and excellent insurance.

I do not use hostels, or any other social programs, however, do contribute generously to a number of charities that seem to achieve good success at helping people with needs. I do not use Transit, as it is slow and dirty and doesn't go to any place to which I need to travel. I appreciate that I will continue to use City-owned roads, however, it seems to me that the city has opted out of maintaining them, even though I contribute large sums by way of gas tax which I understood was to be used for this purpose.

With the utility's opting out of the reliable provision of electrical power, I am currently exploring my options relative to a generator, however, will continue to pay hydro bills as they are received. I will keep in touch on my progress on this matter.

I promise that I will no longer use city-regulated services - no more hot dogs from vendors and no more taxi rides. If required under this opting out arrangement I will install a septic or chemical system of some sort in lieu of using city sewers. I will continue to pay water bills, but will use bottled water at every opportunity.

During my frequent travels, I will aggressively promote Toronto as a destination for Tourism, and smile at every person I see in my neighbourhood in cargo shorts that appears lost. I will not apply for City Grants (not that I would qualify anyway).

When I was parenting a child, school board employees opted to go on strike and we opted to use the private school system from then on. It worked fine and I have no need for public educational services.

I am very careful with open flames and am well insured against fire damage, so will not call upon Fire Services in the rare event it might be needed. I will gladly pay full market price for any other emergency services that might be necessary.

Unhappily, by opting out of the Ferry Service, I will no longer be able to visit Toronto Islands, as a bridge I had counted on was not constructed. So I guess I'll have to settle for recreating on Harbourfront (oops, I forgot the governments have opted out of making these user friendly).

I appreciate your acceptance of my decision to opt out of using municipal services and look forward to discussions with your financial authorities to determine what credits might accrue to my account.

Thanks for your help. I remain,

Sincerely yours,