Postcard From Ontario

Greetings from Ontario Richard, sorry to hear your going to be busy the next few days. This work you have to do in the next while would this have anything to do with a birthday, and a bottle Scotch?

You'll be glad to know Richard that, just because we elected Stephen Harper in January, doesn't mean we are acting in any way that can be described as sane or normal here in Ontario. For instance, there is a public sector fight over pensions that's going to result in a mid-contract strike - that's a wildcat to you and me Richard, and they are illegal. But hey, Sid Ryan couldn't get elected to Parliament, so now he's mad as hell and we all have to take it...and take it... and take it. Personally, here's what I would like to see happen.

You break the law, you see an iron striped world. Simple, even for Sid. Of course that won't happen. Here in the land of of the left winged Conservatives, John Tory, the ironically named leader of the Provincial PC's wants Dalton to talk with the angry unionists. Well, as you would say Richard, I call Bullshit. When Mike Harris ran the Province it was open season on illegal strikes. Now it's Dalton's turn. If John Tory wins an election, these guys will be protesting his evil right wing (i.e. not as far left as Sid Ryan would like) policies. You don't talk with people like this John, you shut them up, you lock them up, you fire their asses, all 100,000 of them if that's what it takes.

And yes, you read that right. There is 100,000 employees on the public unionized payroll in this province. 1 unionized worker for every 125 people. That does not include teachers, police or firemen, as they are not part of this dispute.

Actually, not quite true: The Police and Fireman are part of the dispute, but they are apparently the problem. You see, what this is about Richard is the province wants to grant emergency service workers the right to negotiate a pension provision that would allow them to retire earlier. They would have to pay the extra to fund the early retirement, or the municipality they work for could agree to fund it, but it's a legal right to negotiate. Nothing more. Yet they want to shut down the province, take snow plows off the highway, send our kids home from school (can't have them crossing Mr. Smith, the janitors lonely picket line, can we?). So instead of waiting until contract time and then negotiating a bit of the pie for themselves, they have kicked up the hysteria, declared it unfair to women, minorities and other 'disadvantaged' groups, and promised to walk. Here's hoping it's a perp walk.

But that's not all Richard. While you guys in the west are waiting for the elimination of the gun registry, we look like we're getting a toy-gun registry. OK not quite a registry, but would a registry be any dumber. But what's really shocking is how many politicians are in favour of this - time to make municipal politics a part-time job again I think. These people have way to much time on their hands. And it's time to pay these guys $10,000/year plus coffee at meetings. Apparently paying higher is not attracting the better qualified candidates, just the lunatics.

So you know Richard, they aren't banning replicas here, or it's not a ban on taking them into banks or liquor stores or something that, while still useless, you could at least see the logic. No, this is a ban on 8 year olds with toy guns, super squirters &tc. My 8 year old wouldn't be allowed to play with a dollar store gun in his backyard. His, not theirs, his (well mine, but more his than theirs, if you follow me).

And this is in the name of crime prevention, if you can believe it. Well if stupidity was a crime, crime prevention in Ontario would be an election.

I have no doubt that soon we will be seeing news stories like this er.. this no, try this:

That's about it Richard, having a Liberal time, wish I was there.

Brian