Category: Stuff I Think I know

This week was burger week in Halifax, an annual fundraising event that is widely reported and followed by citizens.
I only got out once, to the Celtic Corner where the proceeds of Burger Week went to support Margaret’s House.
Margaret’s House is named in memory of Margaret Savage, who was a great supporter of the F.O.O.D. program as was her husband John Savage.
Mayor Mike Savage and his brothers and sisters continue to support Margaret’s House.

Another person who had a burger this week was Premier Stephen McNeil. I am sure few of the other participants who posted #HalifaxBurgerWeek posts on Twitter were subjected to the following petty, mean and self-promoting comments. The Premier also posted an item promoting the Cancer Societies daffodil campaign and received the same sort of comments.

I have participated in the political life of Nova Scotia for a long time and I have written many posts that criticize the policy proposals of political parties. I do not, however, make a practice of attacking people personally. I did post a tweet to Gary Burrill noting his constant stream of negativism, but it was not on a post promoting a charity.

These types of things get much worse than those I have highlighted here. They include comments on character, appearance, sexual orientation and intelligence. They include harsh and abusive language, threats and become a constant stream of disheartening noise.

Why?

Are any of these good citizens prepared to put their time and energy into anything more than tweeting? Will they put their name forward to serve the province, city, neighborhood? Will they subject themselves and their families to the abuse they dish out?

This week the Herald ran an opinion piece from Bruce Lantz on this topic, an interesting read.

I ask again why? If you don’t want to get involved your facebook posts and twitter rants are a waste of time. I have the greatest respect for political opponents who work and advocate for their position, and maybe some of the twitter posters do as well.

So maybe we can agree that anyone who is promoting a good cause can just get a pass on that? Can we agree on that? Probably not, and we will reap what we sow.

#nspoli #HalifaxBurgerWeek

I was away sailing in two model sailboat regattas at the end of May this year when I received a voice message on my phone.The message contained a male voice and originated  from a phone number in Nova Scotia. The man was shouting and swearing and the message ended with a death threat.

My first reaction was puzzlement, I did not recall anything in my recent past that would generate a death threat. I googled the telephone number which generated a name and then I googled the name. I found his FaceBook page and picture, I did not know him. I thought it must be a misdialed number, but who knows?

I called Silvia at home to let her know what had happened and together we decided to call the police in Halifax. I called the non-emergency number and filed a report. The police took the information and treated it very seriously. They dispatched two officers to my home, talked to Silvia and then called me. I played the message for them over the phone and gave them the information I found online.

When I followed up with them a week later I learned it was a wrong number, I was not the subject of the threat. The man was angry with someone and made a stupid call. He was “spoken to” by the police but as I understand it no charges were laid. I have no quarrel with that result, people make mistakes.

I know that these kinds of calls and threats are a regular part of the landscape for the staff in the offices of our elected officials. I wonder if people become accustomed to it, or are they puzzled and concerned as I was.

I am left to wonder what kind of people think this is OK. Are they the same people that bully the cashier in a store, or go bananas when their special coffee order with 1-1/2 of this and 2/3 of that is not perfect?

Who are you people? What is wrong with you?

I woke up at 3:30 am today and inexplicably had this thought about zombies.

Why do zombies want to eat brains?

To create fans! Clearly, you have to be brainless to care about a TV show featuring zombies. It had to be said, hate me if you must but you know I am right.

Well apparently having an opinion runs against the grain for some people, especially teachers.

I am happy to have comments and engage in discussion, but please use spell check.

Feel free to send all your ad hominem attacks but I won’t approve them, they don’t contribute anything.

The Senate of Canada is in a period of transformation. By casting adrift the Liberal Senators and reforming the appointment process, the Prime Minister has set in motion the only meaningful reform to take place in my lifetime.

While the Conservatives and NDP can only think in terms of dismantling the Senate, the Prime Minister is making the Senate new and improved without reopening the constitution. Of course there is much, much more that should be done to truly unleash the creativity and power of the Senate. A truly workable and relevant Senate is still years away.

In contrast to the reform that is happening is the unseemly conduct of Senator Meredith of Ontario. He was revealed to have engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a teenage woman. He should resign, but he won’t. So he should be removed, but by what means?

If you want to contact the Senator directly and urge him to resign here is his contact information:

Telephone: 613-996-8572
Fax: 613-996-8570
Email: don.meredith@sen.parl.gc.ca
Personal Website: http://donmeredith.sencanada.ca/

Keep it clean and professional, just tell him his conduct is not acceptable and he needs to leave, NOW!

The big political news this week is the drop in support for the governing Nova Scotia Liberal Party. The poll issued by Corporate Research Associates this week puts support for the Liberals at 44%. That is virtually the same level of support the party enjoyed immediately following the 2013 election campaign. At the same point in their mandate the NDP were in the area of 30 to 33% approval.

In 2013 the Liberals were elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility, investments in education and health and a pledge to grow the economy. Soon after the Liberals were elected the government unions made it their mission to make life uncomfortable for the new government. Unions resisted any change the government tried unless it involved more money for them. The government laid out the fiscal reality we faced and has stuck to it’s fiscal plan and seems sure to bring down a balanced budget this year.

At the same time the Ivany Commission report was received by the government calling for bold changes. Now or Never spelled out the dilemma we face, change and quickly or we are destined to be a failed state within a prosperous western country – the Detroit of Canadian provinces. Of course Ivany is right but that does not sit well in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotian’s want change as long as it does not affect them,everything needs to change but only for someone else. It is the NIMBY syndrome writ large across our society. We want more expenditure on highways, hospitals, infrastructure, social services and the arts but nobody wants to pay more tax, tolls or user fees.

We could not place a more ridiculous burden on our government than our current situation dictates.

The current drop in Liberal support is generally attributed to the recent contract negotiations with teachers. The teachers did not raise “conditions” with the NDP government when they got a 7-1/2% raise. This became the issue only because they came to realize the government would not alter the fiscal envelope the contract would be bound by. The teachers are “outraged” and “disrespected” even though three different contracts were recommended by their union before the government had enough.

The teachers are a privileged profession, with vast union resources and generous pay and pensions. Their jobs are no more important than many in this province and not even in the top ten of tough jobs.

If you want to see a microcosm of what is wrong in Nova Scotia, the teachers job action and the failure of many Nova Scotian’s to see it in the fuller context of moving this province forward is all the illustration you need.