Where Has All the Good Government Gone

I was reading the paper yesterday and counted at least 6 stories that had an impact on me because they were all about governments or people in the public trust that have violated the taxpayer in some way.

First of all there was the HST. This tax while not being a bad tax for adding to the provincial coffers is horrible for Ontario and B.C. residents.

Again its being implemented on top of all the other taxes which will ultimately reduce spending and encourage more underground economy. In Quebec for example which already has this tax, the grey market is growing and the there are two prices for almost every service. The cash price and the one with the tax. If you are Joe consumer doing a job on you house, which one are you going to pay?

The second issue was a so called Senator that had people from his office staff working on his property. He was charged, but while waiting a year and half ( another issue in my book, how long it takes to go to court in this country)was collecting his $130,000 a year salary for not going to work. Even if he gets the boot, he will still collect an $80,000 a year pension.

The next story is about the Auditor General for the city of Ottawa. Here is a dude that has a pension of $600,000 coming from the time he spent with the Federal Government. He takes a $150,000 year job at the city and asked councilors to top up the difference in the pension he will lose from not working for the feds.

Now this one really rattles me. Ottawa council votes to give him an additional $100k of taxpayers money to make up the difference. This guy will have a $1 million dollar pension plus when he retire. The only thing he has audited is how much money he will have when he retires. Another example how the little guy loses and how the system protects those that are in it.

These are just three examples. The point I am making is that the lowly business man, the one that can't collect unemployment when unemployed, the one that needs to match CPP payments for his or her employees, the one that pays the most taxes and does not have a pension, is the one that gets " scooped" by our laws.

We now have a group of employees working in government that make the rules for themselves. Its kind of like being on a volunteer board a few years back when the first order of business by the board was to give each board member an honorarium for attending board meetings. What was with that! Needless to say I gave my opinion and when it passed I left and donated my time and money to another charity.

We have public servants that make a living using the system and get all the perks and they control it.

We the taxpayer pay for it. What's to become of us. I am not sure how much longer I can afford to continue to support a bunch of fat cats living a life of entitlement. Can you?

Nortel, Too Bad It's Canadian

There was an interesting debate happening this morning on CFRA the Talk Radio station in Ottawa on whether or not that governments at all levels should have bailed out Nortel. A Canadian icon and Canada's symbol of technology to the world was left to the wolves of big business in the telecommunications industry. Like the auto industry they were seeking bail out money to keep the company from going into bankruptcy.

The debate focused on whether the various levels of government, city,provincial,federal should have helped Nortel with loans and funding to keep the company in Ottawa and keep it Canadian.

Its an interesting debate. First of all, Ottawa City Council does not have the intelligence to consider this a debate. They are all too worried about their own personal egos and really have little or no understanding about business or the business community in Ottawa. Nortel was a significant employer and the city should have been lobbying the province and the feds to keep a major employer alive in this city. Instead we waisted valuable time at the council table debating Shannon Tweed day. Great move City of Ottawa! This is the level of intelligence that comes from the City of Ottawa and its elected officials. Employment or Shannon Tweed Day? What would you choose?

Second, Premier McGinty is also focused on the other things in Ontario like creating more tax dollars and the HST. He managed to take a position on the auto industry because its important for votes but Ottawa. A major employer a high technology firm in Ottawa is not high on the priority list even though he is from the region. The feds, well, my friends after watching our government at work for the past 8 years I have decided that they have no plan ( even though I am a conservative) and would not show any leadership anyway unless " Stevie Boy" calls in the troops. " Stevie Boy" seems to have no interest in this at the moment. In fact no one really knows what " Stevie Boy" is interested in since he is floundering around like a fish out of water. This guy, our leader is more interested in travel ( after all it is summer, the government jet still has money left in the budget, better get it spent) than in keeping jobs in Canada. I guess a reformist can never really be called a true conservative. A true conservative has a focus for big business, employment and helping to build business inside a true democracy. "Stevie Boy" is a dictator with limited vision and well big business just does not go with the territory. What's 50,000 high tech jobs anyway and how many votes will I get from that and besides Ottawa is not even in that red part of the map in central Ontario.

So the debate continues, was Nortel a good candidate for a bailout or should it's years of mismanagement be seen as a reason for letting it go.

It should be mentioned here that at one time our Federal government had a agreement to support Nortel's research and development for reciprocal taxes. So our government has already invested millions already in the technology and Nortel and why let it go?

The debate continues and now we are without a current employer and we have lost another Canadian icon. Short sighted governments and business people with limited management skills mean this country has a long way to go before it will be a major player on the world stage. So, so long Nortel, its been good to know ya. Its only too bad that we did not do something about this company earlier.

When Business Starts to Operate Like Government

Having working in Ottawa, the National Captial of Canada for the past 20 years I am not surprised that the general population has lost a lot of faith in government organizations over the years. Now big business is operating more like those government types that have never generated a capitialisitic dollar in their life. There used to be a time when big business and governments did not mix. Now with all the bail outs happening we have government in bed with business and it will be only a matter of time until both governments and business lose their sense of direction.

I had a real delimma a few weeks ago. I was writing my MBA exams and studying a lots of past theories of business while the front pages talked heavily about government bailing out GM. I had to wonder why I was getting my MBA at all since GM must have had a few MBA types working for the company and still they needed to go to government for a hand out. What happened to leadership in business. Have they along with governments all gone mad. We now have corporate greed, government bailouts and organizations a both levels taking the general population for a ride. What is with that anyway.

Governments already give their most incompetant people 'golden handshakes" and are now giving billions to organizations that have operated like governments for years. Overpaid union staff, bloated pensions, lack of management expertise and now handouts from the public trough. When business starts to act like government and now asks for "budget" money, we are really in trouble. Business needs to get back the art of business. So much for having an MBA. Its time to develop a new model based on consumer confidence, good products and men and women with noble ideas.

As a Conservative - I am Mad as Hell

I know I should not express my thoughts about politics in my own personal blog but for some reason I am mad as hell and can't take it anymore. As I sit here within hurling distance of Parliament Hill, I just have to say something about how Stevie Harper is running our country. Its no wonder Canadians will not give Stevie a full mandate. Even with a half a mandate, he has managed to mess up enough stuff that Ottawa has basically ground to a halt.

Being in the communications business it's interesting to see how all of the governments' communications and marketing programs now need to go through the PMO's office. That means no movement at all. That also means that there are is little or no research being done by research firms since my brethren the conservatives don't want any bad news hitting the airwaves or creating the public perception on the job they are doing.

It also should be noted that most Senior Managers in government have now put most initiatives on hold or have realized that its senseless to even try doing anything since any initiative on their part will soon be sitting on someone's desk in the PMO for months on end waiting for the appropriate time to water it down and send it back to the department for more study. If Canadians only knew how their tax dollars were being spent by housing thousands of government employees and keeping them penned up with little or no guidance until King Stevie speaks, they would go crazy. There would be a revolt.

So,just for the record, the Prime Minister quite frankly does not deserve a full mandate and he was lucky in the past that he was fighting it out with a couple of light weights in Dion and Layton and a Block Party that is more concerned about the Montreal Canadians making the playoffs rather than getting any real Canadians across Canada upset. Did you know that your tax payer dollars fund French only Block web sites? Its OK, they are allowed. No inadequacies here. Unlike the Block, I don't get upset if someone can't speak my langugage, I just communicate anyway.

Its time for Stevie to take a long holiday and its time for the Conservatives, my party and for my conservative brethren to get a new leader. Our guy, Stevie has shown limited leadership or knowledge and has put this country in a holding pattern. This week he says the economic downturn is not that bad for Canada and we have better chance of getting out it than the U.S.

Who knows -- I sure as hell don't because there is no policy to give us confidence we have one that will make a difference. Stevie says our banks are more stable and they should be, with the bank fees they charge and the way they have blackmailed Canadians over the years through bank charges,even when they lose $5B they are still making $10B so sure, they are in good shape.

Canadians are losing their jobs, so what are we doing, providing more training, that's good but its some government run program that will churn out a few people and then be put on the shelf until the next bright idea comes along. No focus, part of no plan.

In the last budget we continued to put even more money into the Aboriginal file of over $8B and we still don't have clean or running water on some reserves and their was nothing given to the farmers to help them grow their businesses. Where's the plan Stevie?

Yes Stevie, you don't deserve a full mandate and I don't blame Canadians for not giving you one. As a conservative I have lost my faith in you too and have realized as you should, that being a small dictator is not about being a leader.

Leadership is about building unity, cooperation, having a strategy and a game plan for the nation and building on our strengths and moving our country forward. Stevie, you have some competition now, a liberal leader that is smart, educated, a politician and statesman.

You better beware Stevie, because the electorate is mad as hell and may not give you the mandate you want and soon they will allow you to live out your days writing your book called "The Steve" by the Steve and living within your large overblown government pension.

No leadership there either, perhaps you should give yourself a seat in the senate it may be cheaper than a pension of Canadians. So no majority for you Stevie, not even a minority, its time Stevie, time, to just fade away. Your hope of leadership is gone now anyway. With your record, from one conservative to another, you don't deserve it anyway.

Society Has Forgotten to Take Responsiblity

I was reading the Ottawa Citizen last week where there was a great deal of debate about doing away with fighting in hockey. This discussion came up in regards to a recent news story about an player who recently died in a fight. I felt sorry for the fellow who fell and hit his head on the ice but at the same wondered why the big debate about fighting in the game. The game of hockey has always had fights and has always had the icing rule. People who play the game know the rules and risks associated with the game. They play the game partly because of the rules and the risks and rewards that go with playing any sport.

My concern is that our "new" risk adverse society is taking everything and making such a big deal out of it, that life as we know it has become a bore. If society wants to make a big deal out of something, then it should be the Internet and child porn. These people are really sick. Fighting in hockey has at least some honour attached to it. Two guys settling a score on skates with their bare hands, no knives, no gang, no guns, just two guys that have personal score to settle.

Child porn, gangs, knives, no honour here and in our society today we have grown to accept and continue to tolerate these things freely. This is where we should take more responsibility for the actions of the participants. We have taught youth that knives are OK. Knives kill people. We have put a little money into child porn protection but since its on the internet we accept it. It is something that we should put a greater focus on because they take advantage of defenseless children and abuse them. No honour there.

We now have the government making our choices for us on what is good and bad. We focus in on the little things because we can add more rules and regulations and leave the big things because its too hard to get any results.

Once you take the risk out over everything that happens in life then all of a sudden you have a result that does not mean anything to anyone, just another rule.

With that being said, the same holds true for public servants that steal from the taxpayer and get only a rap on the knuckles. A theft of $100,000 and someone is charged with stealing over $5000. They usually get some token sentence, their pension back and get to go back to their jobs. Ad scam is a perfect example. None of these theives spent any significant time in jail.

So what does this have to do about fighting in hockey, child porn and gangs? Well in my mind its just another way that society has forgotten to take responsibility for what's really important and it sure as hell ain't fighting in hockey.

Kensel Tracy

Who Wins in a Bus Strike?

Well, the 51 day bus strike in Ottawa came and is now over leaving a significant amount of garbage on the road after the fact. In fact the bus strike is another reason in my mind that shows how unions hold the public for ransom and do it without caring for others only themselves and their members. To have a union head ( a disliked and genrally public relations nightmare every time he opened his mouth) come to the final press conference in a limo is also appalling. What kind of man pulls this kind of stunt. Glad he's not working for me. He would be " so fired".

Well we are glad its over and I was wondering who won. Well er no one. The drivers lost money, the city lost money, business lost money, suppliers to OC Transpo lost money, the economy lost money and I lost money ( since I had to cancel meetings because of traffic around City Hall which was tied up by strikers).

So what would you do differently to ensure that it does not happen again? Well, we gave them money, we are now in arbitration and could give them scheduling and maybe the shirt off my back as well. To be serious though something has to change.

First off I would change the negotiation team. I would have a couple of moderates in the same room and perhaps they will get along better. I would have a better understanding ( and should now based on the research for a 51 day bus strike) of the economic impact both in costs to the city and to business and what the threshold of the union is. It looks like 8 weeks and the members get antzy. They lost $8000 by this time.

I would change the legislation that allows Ottawa to function like every other municipality and be able to legislate them back to work. I would make transit and essential service ( especially now that you have seen what's happened to seniors and those low income earners that depend on public transit) and I would try to sit down with the union and players involved an ensure it never happens again.

What was interesting is that, I was reading the Citizen and there was one comment in there posted by some guy who had been on strike a few times in his life. He had it all summed up even before this thing began.

I am going to say what he said. " Nobody wins a strike ".