Politics

  • Why not to “Save Local”

    Today I seem ads on CTVGlobeMedia stations that are urging the government to require cable/satellite distributors to pay for distributing the signal. I think this is just plain wrong. Here in Saint John there are 4 broadcast stations CBAT (CBC Fredericton but licensed and has its main transmitter in Saint John), CKLT (Has no programming differences from CJCH (CTV Atlantic) in Halifax, NS), CIHF-TV-2 (a semi satellite of CIHF-TV known as Global Maritimes from Halifax.), and CBAFT-1 which is a re-transmitter of CBAFT the Radio-Canada Moncton feed.
    When it comes to local programming CTV is the absolute worst, as I have noted before at most has 2 stories from the Saint John area and 4-5 total from the entire Province of New Brunswick on a good day. Global TV despite their severe cut backs have managed to keep their news stories basically equal per province.
    The basics is that all 4 of these broadcasters offer their signals for free over-the-air (a.k.a. poverty-vision). The cable company simply re-transmits the feed via an antenna to cables to the subscribers. Why should we pay to have something that we get for free anyway? In fact this even benefits the TV stations by making it more convenient to watch the stations resulting in more viewers rather than switching over to better content from away. Thus removing ad dollars.

    In less dense markets like the Maritimes TV must come up with a different model in order to survive. Depending on a single news program is clearly not the way to go, but neither is alienating the viewers by making some pay, while others do not. Do we consider a TV tax like the United Kingdom? I don’t thinks so either but fees must not be duel standard. The CRTC recently made a decision that requires distributors to no longer require a bundle of channels. In this schema you can choose to not purchase stations, adding fees will just doom local programming to certain failures.

  • A drop in the bucket… err… table

    A drop in the bucket… err… table

    Who is left to tell the tail abount the drop. This may be just a little drop of coffee on the table, but who will tell the world.

    It was interesting to learn the only part of CBC during these layoffs are the CBC.ca department.

    The web seems to now finally be changing the directon of media. The idea that you don’t need huge television systems, broadcast transmitters, and printing presses to the people. To those ends there is now not a need for the content to suffe either.

    The question however is how will interactive benefit the telling of the news? Can the local not be lost to a global voice? Can the web emerge as a primary source for news rather than current methods as regurgitation of the news reported by old media sour we and techniques?

  • If I Could Change the Government of Canada

    The first thing I want to start out with is a call I received earlier this week from fundraisers for the Conservative Party. Now I have always supported the party, and in ways still do. This brings me back to March 2005 in Montreal when the party had its last national meeting. Those long sessions debating the policies and constitution of the newly created party.

    The ideals of trying to give balance to the bottom-up Alliance to the top-down Progressive Conservatives. Now to see the current leader Stephen Harper disgraces the party by not knowing when to give up. Too many times in history have leaders like Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Joseph Stalin and too many others repeat the same level of seeing themselves as the alternative to the status quo, then gain a position of power and do whatever they can to remain in office.

    Harper has blatantly in his struggle to maintain power thrown away the policies and constitution of the Conservative Party. One must remember that although the Conservative Party has more MPs the House of Commons does not have a majority and needs to work together.

    There needs to be reforms in the way government works, to those ends I propose a new style of government one that still is democratic even slightly more democratic than the current one. Under the current Canadian system of government, there are really six divisions or levels of the federal government. In my system of government, the Monarch will remain the Head of State, however, the monarch will be chosen in principle by the majority of members of the Parliament and all Provincial Legislatures. For example, after the passing of Elizabeth II, Canada may select to follow Great Britain and choose HRH Prince Charles, or skip to HRH Prince William.

    The Governor-General will be the only official representative of the Queen, eliminating the Lieutenant Governors in each of the provinces and the Governor-General assuming the responsibilities to the Federal Government and Provincial Legislatures. It is 2008 after all it is not infeasible for the Governor-General to assume all the ceremonial duties, or even request a greater presence from the Monarch in ceremonial functions in Canada. The Governor General is to be chosen by the majority support of the Prime Minister and Provincial Premiers.

    The Privy Council in Right of Canada will remain but will be formed by the 39 members, three from each province and territories and will be composed by the percentages of popular votes to the House of Commons. If a party receives 1/39th (2.6%) of the national popular votes, the unelected member from that party with the highest percentage of votes for their riding will be appointed to the Privy Council. The party with the most members will appoint one of their members to be “Prime Minister of Canada.”

    The senate would be abolished as I deem it useless.

    House of Commons will remain the same but the Party with the most members will appoint one of their members to be “Government Leader of the House of Commons.”

    I was going to talk about other topics too, but this post is long enough on its own.

  • Setting the economy up for Failure

    Amongst the news of the bailouts to the economy in the United States, the Bank of Canada snuck in an additional bailout of the economy. That is resulting in the devaluation of the Canadian Dollar along with the US dollar.

    In the federal Leaders’ English debates this past week Green Party leader Elizabeth May said that the Canadian Dollar should be worth $0.80 US to stimulate our economy and as that makes sense from a manufacturing jobs standpoint of does not in the big picture.

    We can choose to not elect May. However, we have no say as to the Bank of Canada officials. There is a reason why the EU is banning the four largest EU states from this plan. It only allows more money to be borrowed and spent, money that can not be afforded to be paid back.

    It is true there is an overvaluation of real estate prices in Canada but when you borrow $750,000 for a house that drops when the bubble bursts to $225,000 and you have over $600,000 left to pay it makes more sense to default and buy a different house. This is what will happen in the next 5-10 years and there will be no amount of bail-out money that can save you then.

    This free money is what I causing the prices of everything to go up if you add more money to the economy this will happen. There is not the option at this point either to add a sales tax to control the inflation like former PM Brian Mulroney did in the 1980s since all that is keeping the economy afloat is the unnaturally high rate of spending that has to increase at a faster rate than the rate of inflation bit can’t ever stop, or we will be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

    In closing, we refer back to the old saying that money does not grow on trees.

  • Democracy 250 1758-2008… But why only Nova Scotia?

    Many people in the Maritimes are being flooded with the Democracy 250 events in Nova Scotia. It is great to see that province get together to recognize the importance of colonial democracy. The legendary ideals of the planner of Halifax Mosses Harris, and Governor Edward Cornwallis, is a legacy that all of the Maritimes can be very proud of. I haven’t been able to track the exact date of when St. John Island (current-day Prince Edward Island) split from the Nova Scotia colony, but I believe it was 1759 according to Wikipedia. Also, the colony of New Brunswick was not split off until 1783.

    So, therefore, I see these as a uniting celebration that we can all be very proud of. However, the fact that this celebration is not being openly acknowledged by the leaders of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are truly disheartening. But then again this is New Brunswick, and what else can we expect.

    But none the less I wish that I could make the 18th Century Period Costume Ball but that does not look very likely at the moment. Long Live Democracy. Also, prove you care and vote on October 14th democracy only works when people care.

    This was written prior to the controversy on the history of Edward Cornwallis.

  • Election season again, count me out!

    So once again we are in the pending situation for an election in October, the question to ask is why?

    The governing conservatives haven’t even had a chance for their national meeting in November to develop a new policy document to drive the platform from. So they will be forced by the party to develop a new platform off of an old and aged policy.

    Or perhaps, Stephen Haper is afraid of facing the music of a new policy, and National Council and also interferes with the election this fall of the hunt for a new leader for the NB PC party.

  • I knew this would happen.

    I decided to sit and watch the new council, and once again I am truly appalled how the new council is directing itself back into the dark ages. If any group of people could burst Saint John’s economic bubble it would be this group.

    Item 10.2 was the request to start the progress by approving a letter of understanding from the City about the proposed Irving Oil offices on Long Wharf. This is a project that has a time line that in reality by the time the Port Act procedures (3-4 months with public consultation), assessment and land negotiations (2-3 months), design and planning (3-4 months), and the city’s rezoning procedures (1-2 months). This delay to delay for a period of almost two months, with persistent criticism from groups like the ILA is just a repeat of the KC Irving Statue fiasco of early 90’s. In the end it will probably not happen.

    Then if that was not appalling enough the disregard by the Mayor himself for the rules of procedure just to grandstand is going to make this session of council one of the least productive in this city’s entire 223 year history. The fact that the last meeting of council took a whole week to complete is truly inexcusable. No where else in the province are there sessions as long and less productive as I have seen by the first few meetings of this council.

  • Third Election Update

    So, at this point I can’t be persuaded on a candidate because I already voted. I do believe in open transparency in politics, and since lynch mobs are so 1800’s I’m going to revile my votes.

    Mayor of Saint John: Michael Richardson
    At-Large: Danny Jardine and Chris Titus
    Ward 4: Kevin Goggan and Ralph Landers

  • Okay, a second look at the election.

    So now that I have looked into the election a little harder, I am changing some of the options.

    Mayor:
    Mike Richardson- I’m not quite sure what it is but Mike seems to have a well thought out plan, no dirt and the just has a personality that one would pay attention to as mayor.

    Councillor At Large:

    Danny Jardine- I remember Danny from the last election he was one of those people that are deeply rooted in the social aspects of the community, like Donny Snook, that understands the poverty aspect of the city but is that enough, I’m adding this name to my shortlist because the list of candidates that I get to choose from is so pathetic, I think ward 4 might just have the worst turnout than any other part of this city.

    Mark LeBlanc- A maybe

    Rick Mantle- I think this one could make the council a little interesting.

    Chris Titus- This one is a definite vote, many of my favourite memories of council involve this fellow, especially back in the Shirley days. I like that Chris is involved in the community not afraid to express new ideas, and knows the when a horse is being flogged too long.

    Councillor Ward 4:

    I don’t seem to think that any of these people would be beneficial at the moment on the council chamber, this is one of the reasons that I was so opposed to the entire ward system is that the east is the area where no one that matters seems to ever run.

    District Education Council District 1

    Sub District 9: No one is running

    District Education Council District 8

    Zone A: Acclaimed

  • It’s election time again!

    As the signs start rising again leads to another dilemma again of who to vote for. Here are my options with names I’m not even considering crossed off:

    Mayor:

    Ivan Court

    John P. Ferguson

    Michelle Hooton

    Norm McFarlane

    Mike Richardson

    Councillor At Large:

    Stephen Chase

    Susan E. Huestis-Toner

    Danny Jardine

    Mark LeBlanc

    Rick Mantle

    Anne-Marie Mullin

    Chris Titus

    Albert Vincen

    Councillor Ward 4:

    Bruce Court

    Teresa Debly

    Kevin Goggan

    Carole Keddy

    Ralph Landers

    Joe Mott

    James Whelly

    District Education Council District 1

    Sub District 9: No one is running

    District Education Council District 8

    Zone A: Acclaimed

  • The end could be near!!!

    The end could be near!!!

    I just saw these swirling lights in the sky to the north as I was heading home from work.

    The first night of the Eastpoint lights.

  • Saint Johners I thought you were smart!

    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.

  • And my vote has been cast…

    I have just had my say, in the advance polls this afternoon. Hopefully at least 40% +1 will agree with me and turn down the ward system, as proposed by council. The idea of having 2 per-ward and have no power to regect someone if they are the only two runing is so undemocartic. In my opinion this will hurt the city and only benifits the easyness of entry for for people to run for council.

  • The Save UNBSJ Effort

    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.

  • I’m against wards for Saint John

    After hearing that Common Council is going to let us vote for or against wards I thought I would point out my views. The problem with wards is that you force people to elect people based on where they live as opposed to whether or not the person is any good for the job. In addition there is no course in the system to correct this error. Although it does allow for people to run and get elected that do not have broad support, but it also hinders the election of people that might be good people. And in some cases if there is no good people running in a riding the people in that riding would have to “make do” with one of those.

    We see it all the time in Provincial and Federal governments some ridings end up with weak people all the time that end up being backbenchers and you never hear from them till next time there is an election.

    Using Miramichi as an example here are the results from May 2004.

    MIRAMICHI (source gnb.ca)

    CANDIDATE
    CANDIDAT(E)

    		SEX
    SEXE     		VOTES RECEIVED
    VOTES OBTENUS     		ELECTED
    ÉLU(E)S

    INCUMBENT
    SORTANT
    Mayor / Maire
    Gerry Cormier M 2558    
    John McKay M 2850 E  
    Arch C Pafford M 852    
    Frank B. Trevors M 2646    
    Councillor At Large/Conseiller(ère) Général
    Rupert Bernard M 4202 E  
    Ken Clark M 2310    
    Paul W. Dawson M 4264 E inc./sort.
    Bernard (Bunny) Dempsey M 2030    
    Raymond J Desveaux M 1288    
    Pat R. Diotte M 2206    
    Peter L. Manderson M 3113 E  
    John (Jake) McLaughlin M 3796 E  
    Robert (Trapper) Newman M 906    
    René Smith M 2498    
    Terry F Whalen, Sr. M 2050    
    Councillor Ward 1/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 1
    Reg Falconer M 759 E inc./sort.
    Jamie James M 206    
    Councillor Ward 2/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 2
    Mike Connors M 80    
    Ned E.J. Manderson M 550 E inc./sort.
    Esther (Es) Nye F 79    
    Bill Treadwell M 502    
    Councillor Ward 3/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 3
    Harry Hoekman M accl. E  
    Councillor Ward 4/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 4
    Wendy M Chadwick F 377 E inc./sort.
    Allison J Furlotte M 276    
    Carmel Elizabeth Hambrook F 300    
    Councillor Ward 5/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 5
    Lisa Harris F 879 E  
    Shawn Power M 540    
    Councillor Ward 6/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 6
    Scotty H. Bernard M accl. E inc./sort.
    Councillor Ward 7/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 7
    Peter J Malley M 474    
    Martin J. McIntyre M 614 E inc./sort.
    Councillor Ward 8/Conseiller(ère) Quartier 8
    Brian J. King M accl. E inc./sort.

    Disclaimer- This is not meant as defamation to any of the people listed here and as general assumptions based on numbers. I do not know anyone on this list. Nor, do I have plans of endorsing any of them,, this is meant as a example of a mixed “at large”/”ward” system as proposed by Saint John council.Okay, looking at the “at large” group this is very typical there are 4 strong people elected, 5 moderately liked, and 2 “also rans.” Wards 3, 6, and 8 didn’t even have a council candidate, which probably had lower voter turn out. Also with Ward 3 it was a new candidate which means only 25 people (who signed a piece of paper) really had a say in whether or not that person would be a good councillor.

    Assuming that all wards are pretty equal in population Ward 4 there really wasn’t that many that voted and no one really got more votes than the other, this is an example as a “weak” ward. Where as Wards 2 and 5 had very strong candidates and the second place candidate was more popular than the people elected in number 4.

    This system is not good enough. Here is the system I think would work if wards were to work. For Saint John to have 6 Wards and 4 “at large” and all candidates will run for their ward. On the ballot you will have the candidates residing in your ward on the top for you to choose 1. And and option “I choose to not have any of the above candidates”. And is that option is the majority then that seat is added to the at large pool. This would protect from unwanted people being acclaimed/elected. Then the rest of the candidates from other wards would be listed for you to choose up to 4 people. If the person is the top in their ward, then they would become elected. Then all the votes will be combined city wide for the top 4 (or more to total 10 councillors if a ward was not elected) people that were elected “at large” that did not win their own ward. And the person city wide that receives the most votes becomes Deputy Mayor.

  • And the fat lady has sung.

    Wow, what a nail-bitter of an election. After 7 long years of prosperity it is now time for Lord to ride off in the beautiful sunset. New Brunswick is in such good shape now that Graham should have an easy term ahead.

    Some of the results were shocking but in the end a Camille Theriault said in 1999. The people of New Brunswick are always right and they have decided it was time to change. But is it really, is our system really right or is it time that it becomes fixed.

    When CTV News Atlantic signed off the popular vote (votes of everyone combined) came in the it did not match the real seat count results. 29 Lib / 26 PC / 0 NDP / 0 Ind. Which in percent that works out to 52.7% Lib / 47.3% PC / 0% NDP / 0% Ind. But the popular vote was. 47.7% PC / 47.0% Lib / 5.1% NDP / 0.2% Ind. That in seats would be 26 PC / 26 Lib / 3 NDP. So the question to ask is this. Is this fair that close to 10% of votes in NB do not matter.

  • Election Day Monday

    Election Day Monday

    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

    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.

  • WLBZ2.com – Florida Public Access Show Gets Ugly

    WLBZ2.com – Florida Public Access Show Gets Ugly

    Wow this is too funny. I have never seen 2 politicians do some thing like this before. This is definitely a new low for the profession of politics. Neither of these guys deserve to be elected if they behave like this.

  • The Election is Finally Over

    After months of hard work the election is finally over. It did not quite turn out like it should have, but it is time to move on.

    I have received many e-mails about why the guest book was gone. The answer was because of the vulgar spam that was occurring. If there was a guest book application that would have the option to enter a confirmation code when placing an entry I would restore it.

    Now I am out job hunting again as I left A&W to devote time to the election. Not sure yet what I want to do.

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