tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8994128920576903902024-03-07T15:13:42.260-05:00Blast Furnace Canada BlogImperfect, but still my, observations on the world of politics, religion, business and entertainment.
I just write it as I see it -- I'm not necessarily saying it's the way things ought to be.
Comments semi-moderated.
And absolutely no spam.
Seriously.BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-53460508846289592192015-12-31T10:27:00.003-05:002015-12-31T10:27:50.056-05:00Should there be a referendum on PR?The Conservatives are vowing to filibuster attempts by the governing Liberals to reform the way we elect our MPs - be it alternative vote or some kind of proportional representation, unless there is a referendum. Normally, changing the rules for representation only requires a vote of Parliament. But this just might require a constitutional amendment of the kind that requires the consent of at BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-66882394175471806522015-12-31T10:04:00.000-05:002015-12-31T10:04:04.913-05:00The GOP's worst nightmare, a brokered conventionBefore we went to a primary-style system of selecting party leaders, we were used to the idea of contested party leader conventions in Canada. Sometimes you just never knew who might win, and there might be the occasional surprise - take Joe Clark and Dalton McGuinty, just to name two. But there hasn't been a seriously contested GOP convention in nearly 70 years (the last time was 1948, when BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-88416585743244488872015-12-30T10:09:00.000-05:002015-12-30T10:10:10.690-05:00This El Niño could be the worst everRemember El Niño 1998? The mild winter where we got more rain than usual in most places, while Montreal got the ice storm? Well, if the weather predictors at NASA are right, this winter could cause even more problems thanks to the warm weather phenomenon. I can't say global warming is entirely to blame for it, but there's no doubt the cycle has been occurring more frequently over time.
One thingBlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-83048465604845960082015-12-30T09:15:00.002-05:002015-12-30T09:15:16.796-05:00Weather happens, but customer service ...Hamilton's airport isn't exactly a busy place. Although Westjet did run a lot of flights out of there for a while citing Toronto's massive landing fees, most flights eventually migrated to Pearson although there are still a few WJ planes every day from Munro. For the most part, the white elephant airport has been running on charter flights. The facility is known for very quick check-ins, easy BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-70779807438726260642015-12-22T09:28:00.002-05:002015-12-22T09:28:38.783-05:00Falwell U allows guns in dormsYes ... Liberty University, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, has announced that it is ending its ban on guns in dorms. Like this is supposed to make us feel any safer. They claim it's a stand against terrorists. Apparently students can already keep guns in their cars. The campus police is even offering free firearms training.
I would kind of expect this from one of the most conservative BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-78443926511934666782015-12-21T16:40:00.000-05:002015-12-21T16:40:28.335-05:00Libs to repeal spanking lawIt is decades overdue, but finally in response to a recommendation from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the Trudeau government will move to repeal §43 of the Criminal Code, which allows for "corrective force" (i.e. spanking).
No doubt this will get the socons riled up as yet another example of social engineering. But there is simply no proof corporal punishment works. If anything, it BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-77030349163943417112015-12-21T12:14:00.004-05:002015-12-21T12:14:50.044-05:00Yeah, like I'd turn over my tax refund to Queen's Park ...... yet since the Mike Harris days, people in Ontario have actually had the option of donating some or all of their tax refund to help pay down the province's debt. How much has been raised so far in the last 19 years? $2.8 million. That's it. What is Ontario's debt? At the end of FY 2014, it was $288.1 billion. We're close to matching New York State, which is $300 billion or so in the hole.
YetBlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-33235217000399535962015-12-19T09:37:00.001-05:002015-12-19T09:55:35.426-05:00First they want to ban Muslims. Now this ...... an opinion poll shows that 30% of Republicans and 19% of Democrats want to bomb Agrabah, Saudi Arabia. Just one problem - it's the fictional town in Disney's Aladdin. This canard was thrown in with such serious questions as if one is evangelical and how much of a raise there should be in the minimum wage. You'd think those being polled would pay attention. Then again, I've been polled severalBlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-21453726042163071942015-12-13T14:46:00.004-05:002015-12-13T14:54:42.305-05:00What is going on at CHCH?Seriously? Has Channel 11 finally gone off the rails? This is the station that gave Canada The Party Game, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Tiny Talent Time, The Great Debate, The Party Game, Smith and Smith (which spawned The Red Green Show) ...and became the Canadian home of what used to be known as the WWF. Several celebrities got their start on the station including polka maestro Walter BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-86354446065398444002015-12-13T13:53:00.001-05:002015-12-13T13:53:51.504-05:00Make the ORPP voluntary, or enhance the CPPKathleen Wynne seems hell bent to introduce an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan by the year 2017. The idea is if a company doesn't have a pension plan or deferred profit sharing plan of its own, it will be required to pay a payroll tax of 1.9%, to be matched by its employees from their paycheques. This would be on top of the nearly 6.7% we already pay for the CPP and EI.
I wouldn't necessarily BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-64884955148450074022015-10-20T14:59:00.002-04:002015-10-20T15:17:31.147-04:00Boy did I dial a wrong number!I'm still surprised by the results:
Liberal - 184
Conservatives - 99
NDP - 44
Bloc - 10
Green - 1
Much has to do with some districts where the Lib candidate who was running in third throughout the campaign, triumphed over the other two parties. That certainly was the case in my home district of Hamilton East - Stoney Creek where Bob Bratina who was written off as a yesterday's person pulled it BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-71031211376420627942015-10-19T09:48:00.000-04:002015-10-19T09:51:36.511-04:00My fearless prediction for Decision 2015And here it is ...remember the Magic Number is 170.
Liberals 143
Conservatives 132
NDP 55
Bloc 7
Green 1
My sense is that the Cons will do well at the expense of the NDP because large parts of Quebec are still socially conservative (especially rural areas), as well the "shy Tory" phenomenon - people who are polled simply lie about their intentions until they actually get to the polling station.BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-74879167226521993482015-10-17T11:56:00.001-04:002015-10-17T12:01:41.881-04:00PredictionNothing partisan, I assure you. But it's obvious that unless hell freezes over we're looking at a minority situation - no one will get the magic number of 170. This is what I think will happen Monday:
Liberals - 143
Conservatives - 135
NDP - 51
Bloc - 8
Green - 1
I simply think the Cons are much better at GOTV than any of their opponents. Plus the KISS format to the disadvantage of any party BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-2792658483403910852015-10-08T03:00:00.000-04:002015-10-08T03:00:07.273-04:00How to vote, how to vote ...This will be my last post on the election until it actually happens ... barring a freak of nature. I will be working as a Deputy Returning Officer (i.e. I will supervise a poll and count the ballots at night's end); and according to Elections Canada, when I inquired, their head office told me that blogging that leans towards or against one party or another could be construed as partisan activity.BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-88299851363615043302015-10-05T13:31:00.000-04:002015-10-05T13:35:42.711-04:00Look who we're dealing with in the TPPSo the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal has been initialled. I'm not prepared to discuss the merits of the agreement. But let's consider the countries that are in it, besides Canada: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan - as well as the US.
Australia, Chile, New Zealand and Japan have fairly comparable human rights records and are BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-16149757978996280322015-10-03T09:13:00.001-04:002015-10-03T09:14:28.650-04:00About those shared cost programs ...In last night's final debate, Tom Mulcair said if he's elected, then Quebec - and only that province - would get the option to opt out of new shared cost programs, including his $15 per diem child care program.
I realize Canada has never been totally equal on social programs. For example, every province has the right to opt out of OAS and the CPP. Quebec, so far, is the only province to get out BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-27631652011881179672015-10-02T16:46:00.002-04:002015-10-02T16:46:59.185-04:00What's "barbaric" exactly?Today, the PMS campaign announced if it gets re-elected on October 19th it will introduce legislation to make illegal "barbaric" practices. On the surface, this may sound, well, sound. There are very few people in Canada who think FGM is acceptable. Other forms of torture should be illegal, and in fact already are. But how far would this go? Do animal sacrifices for religious purposes count? WhatBlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-874599265948008202015-09-28T09:37:00.003-04:002015-09-28T09:37:57.641-04:00What does Harper want from our military?Brian Stewart has a good op-ed piece on what Harper has said what he has done for Canada's military, and what has really been done. Three words: Stretched. Too. Thin.
When you appropriate $10 billion more for defence spending than what you actually intend to spend, that's not "prudence". That's telling our fine men and women in uniform they don't count for much.BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-13103288397051255062015-09-22T18:48:00.002-04:002015-09-22T18:49:14.676-04:00Don't match donations during an election!Maybe it's me, but it seemed like awful timing when the Cons announced last week they were going to match donations to this year's Terry Fox Run, up to a ceiling of $35 million. Today, they retracted the pledge - for now. Awful timing, of course, because we're smack in the middle of an election, indeed in the final legs.
This wasn't like the Boxing Day Tsunami, or the earthquake in Pakistan, or BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-44671337399284813722015-09-19T18:42:00.002-04:002015-09-19T18:43:10.690-04:00Old stock???For so many years, we in Canada have been trying to get away from the whole "we versus they" mentality. That one group of Canadians are better than another - that we are all in it together. The other night, Stephen Harper made a comment about so-called "old stock" Canadians.
What does he mean by that? To me, it suggests that true Canadians can only be those who can claim on both sides of their BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-24417530204260508112015-09-13T14:52:00.000-04:002015-09-13T14:52:01.027-04:00Don't let the refugees downYeah, it's been a while. But I had to take to my keyboard today because of the refugee crisis that is swamping Europe - since many of them may be headed Canada's way. And I never thought, a month into the election, that it would become a debating point, but here we are.
I have an interest in this because my father and his brother, my uncle, came to Canada as refugees - in fact, fifty years ago BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-14912019270531151162015-05-20T18:33:00.001-04:002015-05-20T18:33:29.480-04:00No notwithstanding clause on assisted suicideIn the three months since the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision on assisted suicide in Carter v. Attorney General of Canada, there has been a lot of thumb twisting about what to do. The Court gave Parliament a year to come up with something new before the law is officially taken off the books. Given a fall election, it's hard to imagine our legislators will come up with a new law BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-83936809730535874372015-04-28T18:37:00.002-04:002015-04-28T18:37:48.097-04:00You don't have to take income splitting. At least one guy hasn't ...The income splitting option is not mandatory for those who qualify for it. Like any other tax credit, it's optional. Tax software will flag credits to make sure you get every loophole you're entitled to - problematic if you still do it manually. One guy in the 15%, a labour leader, was given the option by his software to opt out. And he did. Even though it cost him 1500 bucks. His reason: Health,BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-26563058599885244182015-04-26T16:09:00.000-04:002015-04-26T16:09:25.131-04:00A same sex marriage, 200 years agoIs same sex marriage a recent phenomenon? Actually, it isn't. Let me explain.
On Tuesday, the odd legal team of David Boies and Ted Olsen (who opposed each other in the infamous Bush vs Gore debacle) will try to build on their previous victories in striking down Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. Now, they're going for the jugular at the US Supreme Court and trying to legalize same BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-899412892057690390.post-84376150395040357652015-04-24T17:11:00.000-04:002015-04-24T17:11:26.060-04:00The Senate and transgendersTo my knowledge, I have never met a transgendered person in my life. That does not mean I don't have respect or compassion for those who live the sex opposite of the one they are by birth, or for those who decide to take it to its logical conclusion and have sex reassignment surgery.
Our society has generally become accepting of gays, lesbians and bisexuals, which is a mark in this country's BlastFurnacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02561725837264524099noreply@blogger.com0