Charles E. Frees-Melvin

My personal spot on the web.

News

I love the news and sometimes I write it or about it. This category is all about news.

I still think that most of you don’t have a brain in your head sometimes. But, we will see. Come the next election I hope that there will be enough good candidate running in every ward so that we don’t end up like Miramichi.

Doesn’t anyone remember why in 1980 the ward 198 years of a ward system was brought to an end? Because the council was too focused on the day-2-day of the city rather than setting policy and advancing the city forward. We were doing that, this is going to be another nail in the coffin of Saint John. This is going to strip away the progress foreseen in the last 4 years.

The next council is more likely than not going to pit one against the other for; who gets a rink, I want my sidewalks plowed. And attention is diverted away from the future and placed on the present.

I was just reading my e-mail and I received one about the effort against the plans to convert UNB Saint John into a polytechnic university or do a merger with NBCC Saint John. The e-mail linked another site http://livingininterestingtimes.wordpress.com/ and I thought I would just post about it here. On one hand I think that losing a full university such as UNB Saint John could be a bad thing, but the polytechnic university concept might be interesting, there doesn’t seem to be a University in the area like the caliber that some polytechnics like Ryerson have.

The Dominion Institute National Citizenship Exam Survey Of 2007

-Six In Ten (60%) Canadians Fail Mock Citizenship Exam Similar To One Immigrants Take To Become Canadian Citizens

-33% More Canadians Fail Test Now Than 10 Years Ago

Okay this survey I find really hard to believe. Do to the one of the statements.

“Fewer than two in ten (16%) could name the four provinces that joined together in Confederation in 1867. ”

This question is worded wrong and really annoys me everytime I hear it. It should read.

“Fewer than two in ten (16%) could name the four provinces that were created by Confederation in 1867. ”

Because of the plain and simple fact that there were four provinces (NB, NS, PEI, and Canada) at the meetings in Charlottetown, Quebec City and London conferences buy one PEI declined to join until 1874. Therefore only three provinces joined together in Confederation in 1867 (NB, NS, and Canada) and in the Constitution Act of 1867 the first sentence is “Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom:” clearly defines the fact that there were only three provinces to join confederation at that time.

It is Sections 5, 6, and 7 that divide up the three provinces into four provinces upon joining confederation.

5. Canada shall be divided into Four Provinces, named Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

6. The Parts of the Province of Canada (as it exists at the passing of this Act) which formerly constituted respectively the Provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada shall be deemed to be severed, and shall form two separate Provinces. The Part which formerly constituted the Province of Upper Canada shall constitute the Province of Ontario; and the Part which formerly constituted the Province of Lower Canada shall constitute the Province of Quebec.

7. The Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall have the same Limits as at the passing of this Act.

People just need to be getting their details strait before making these bogus claims. I wonder how many of the 84% that got that question wrong knew the truth that there was only three.

And for the people that say that Canada East and Canada West were 2 different colonies then I must refer you to the 1840 Act of Union.

From Wikipedia:

“The Act of Union (3 & 4 Vict. c. 35) passed in July 1840 and proclaimed February 10, 1841, abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them. This act effecting the political union of The Canadas was similar in nature and in goals to the other Acts of Union enacted by the British Parliament.”

I usually don’t talk too much about the shows that I do at Rogers Television but I want to plug this one that was advertised in the Telegraph-Journal today. I am ver excited about this and the new season that starts next weekend (24th).

Alcohol use helps boost income: study – Yahoo! News

Well, I guess I don’t drink enough. So to recap….

No Drinking = Poor Sober and Depressed.

Some Drinking = Rich and Happy.

Lots-o-Drinking = Poor and Homeless.