Red Ensign

Right-to-Work

ezbeatz — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:30:21 +0000

Saskatoon’s United cabs and Blueline taxis accused of breaking law

Reported by Zahir Muslun

First Posted: Oct 18, 2011 9:06am | Last Updated: Oct 18, 2011 11:37am

Saskatoon’s United Cabs and Blueline Taxi have been accused of breaking the law by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, citing the Provincial Trade Union Act which requires all employees to join the union as a condition of employment.

The problem is that some drivers don’t want to voluntarily be a part of the union.

One driver, who anonymously contacted News Talk Radio, said the CAW is out of line to force drivers to associate themselves with the union.

In an e-mail to News Talk Radio, he said drivers list themselves as “self-employed” when they file their income tax.

On November 15 the CAW will press the issue further by collecting the names of all the non-unionized drivers, putting their name in a hat and randomly drawing 10 names.

The union will notify the cab companies of those names and offer them a choice, obey the Trade Union Act or face termination.

Edited by News Talk Radio’s Sabeen Ahmad.

If I have a right to join a union I should have the right to not join a union. If I have a right to pay union dues then I should have a right to not pay union dues. If I have a right to picket during a strike I should have the right to work during the strike. It is time we were allowed to exercise our basic rights to not associate with a union as a condition of employment.

C-19: The bill to end the long-gun registry

ezbeatz — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:17:43 +0000

The government is going ahead to abolish the LGR with bill C-19. This is hardly unexpected but it is nonetheless welcome news. The bill doesn’t address other gun-related issues but it does stipulate that all the records for long-guns must be destroyed. Another bonus is that the CFC no longer needs to be consulted prior to a transfer of a non-restricted firearm.

That being said, there are many, many other issues that MUST be addressed with regards to firearms laws in Canada. Ideally, a full repeal of C-68 and C-17 would be welcome but in lieu of that I would like to see a more encompassing firearms bill in the next year to include but not limited to the following:

Doing away with ATT permits (permits required to transfer restricted firearms)
Replacing of the current three licence system (PAL, RPAL, POL) with a FAC (Firearms Acquisition Certificate) system
Eliminate the invasive questioning, references, and personal divulgence of information that’s currently part of the 8 page licensing application
Decriminalizing the legal possession of firearms (currently, if your license lapses you are considered a criminal and face up to four years in jail)
Repealing the requirement to have a license to buy ammunition
Repeal of the safe storage and transport laws or a significant reworking of them to allow gun-owner’s discretion and to prevent criminal charges against gun owners who use guns in self-defence
Reclassifying all semi-auto, pump, lever, or bolt action rifles or shotguns as non-restricted instead of the current structure which has similar rifles and shotguns classified arbitrarily as non-restricted, restricted, or prohibited
Reclassifying all pistols as restricted instead of the current classifications which prohibits shorter barrel and smaller caliber handguns
Allow restricted firearms to be shot on private property
Allow prohibited firearms to be brought to a range
Allow handgun hunting
Elimination of magazine capacity limits (currently 5 rounds for semi-auto rifles and 10 rounds for handguns)

I think these recommendations are rather reasonable and I would be remissed if the government didn’t address most if not all of the above issues I mentioned during their mandate.

Why I Favour the abolition of the $2/vote Subsidy

ezbeatz — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:08:45 +0000

Obviously, the Conservative party would be a financial beneficiary of the removal of this subsidy visa vis their left-wing political adversaries (Liberals, NDP, Bloc, and Greens). But I’ve come to realise that the biggest the benefit of removing this subsidy is that the Conservative will become much more dependent financially on their supporters.

It didn’t strike me until the budget was released. I was pleased the Tories got a majority but it seems that they don’t intend to “rock the boat” too much. No big tax cuts anytime soon – although Harper did promise income splitting and Flaherty is hinting at flattening the tax brackets once the budget is balanced. No privatization of major crown corporations that have become sunk money holes and outlived their usefulness as public entities (Canada Post, CBC, Via Rail, etc.). Reform era issues like the repeal of Bill C-68 and a Triple-E Senate seem to have fallen by the wayside in favour of lesser more ‘pragmatic’ objectives.

All in all, the majority Conservatives seem to be somewhat underwhelming. It’s sort of refreshing to see them make realistic campaign promises that they fully intend to accomplish but it would be nice if they went a little further. The Conservative base can’t be too pleased with what they’ve seen.

And that’s where the $2/vote subsidy comes into focus. The fact is, if the Conservative party doesn’t please its supporters, its supporters will vote will their wallets and Tory fundraising will take a serious hit. So now the CPC will be financially beholden to their supporters and will have to start acting like Conservatives or suffer the consequences.

Repeal of Gun-Control

ezbeatz — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:46:22 +0000

I’m a pragmatist so I don’t expect to see a lot get accomplished in this first conservative majority but there are some things I really would like to see gone. Here’s a list of the top 10 gun control laws I want to see repealed. The order is largely based on my perceived likeliness of passage. For example, #10 would normally be higher up on the list.

Repeal of the long-gun registry
Repeal of safe storage laws (seriously, how many gun owners acting in self-defense have been charged under this law?)
Repeal of magazine capacity limits
Repeal of Authorization to Transport permits
Repeal of the five-year license (perhaps a 10-year or lifetime license)
Repeal of most of the invasive application process (re: especially those pertaining to one’s personal life)
Repeal of the onerous firearms classifications (ie. no restriction or prohibition status based on a rifle’s or pistol’s respective barrel length)
Allowing handguns for hunting
Repeal of the subjective elements of the Authorization to Carry permits to allow provinces to issue ATC permits to law-abiding citizens
Reclassification of firearms to non-restricted status including prohibited firearms like the FN-FAL

Media Declares Debate a Draw

ezbeatz — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:21:11 +0000

If by draw they mean one only bests their main opponent by 19 points. I guess if Harper had bested Ignatieff by 20 points they might have declared it a slight win. Who knows, maybe a Conservative majority is also considered a draw too. Or perhaps when they said the debate was a draw, they meant between Ignatieff and Layton. It’s really too hard to for a rube like me to decipher the meaning of statements from our intellectual superiors.

A screenshot is worth a 1,000 words

ezbeatz — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:38:34 +0000

Liberal woes in la Belle Province

ezbeatz — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:19:00 +0000

I’ve looked at number of the national polls that have come out and one of the things that’s really surprised me is how low the Liberals are polling in Quebec. Remember, this is a province that gave Trudeau 74 of 75 seats in 1980. In 2006, the Liberals got 20.7%. Bear in mind that the result was a low mark that came on the heals of the sponsorship scandal. In 2008, the Liberals were up to 23.7% under Dion.

Now the latest polls have these results for the Liberals in QC:

Abacus: 19%
Angus-Reid: 21%
EKOS: 19%
EKOS: 16%
Nanos: 24%
Harris/Decima: 19%
Ipsos Reid: 17%
Leger: 20%

All these polls were taken in February of 2011. If we average the results, we get 19.4% for the Liberals in Quebec. If we take out the best and worst poll we get 19.2%. Either way, this is bad news for the Grits since if this were replicated on election day it would result in their worst showing in Quebec…ever!

I believe there are three factors at play in the low results for the Liberals.

First, the weakness of their Leader. Ignatieff is a liberal leader from Ontario. He doesn’t have a native advantage in Quebec. Add to that is very public dismissal of his Quebec lieutenant Dennis Coderre and he’s dug himself a pretty big hole.

The liberals second problem are the NDP. In the same polls the NDP scored the following results:

Abacus: 15%
Angus-Reid: 14%
EKOS: 11%
EKOS: 12%
Nanos: 17%
Harris/Decima: 11%
Ipsos Reid: 15%
Leger: 19%

The average results for the NDP in Quebec during the month of February were 14.3%. Taking out the top and bottom polls we get 14%. In 2008, the NDP got the high water mark of 12.2% with only one seat. It appears that they are bleeding a lot of support from the Liberals in this regard and continue to do so.

The third problem the Liberals appear to have is the Conservatives. Now the conservatives aren’t, by any means, polling well in Quebec. But they routinely poll equal or better than the Liberals at about 20%. Furthermore, with Alouettes owners Larry Smith running for the Conservatives in the Montreal area, some of the federalist and anglophone vote seems to be veering towards the Tories and away from the Grits.

The Bloc don’t seem to be rather stagnant in Quebec. How long that last is yet to be seen as the PQ is likely to form the next provincial government and if the Tories get a majority will cut off the public subsidy financing for parties which will most affect the Bloc.

However, the focus of this post is on the Liberals and by every inclination, it would appear that they stand to lose not gain seats in Quebec during the next election. If that is the case than the Liberals will truly become the party of Toronto as there won’t be much left anywhere else.

Canadian Provincial Debt Vol I

ezbeatz — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:51:54 +0000

Canadian Provincial Deficits for 2009/2010 & 2010/2011.

Alberta:
- 2009/2010: -$3.62B
- 2010/2011: -$4.75B
British Columbia:
- 2009/2010: -$2.87B
- 2010/2011: -$1.72B
Manitoba
- 2009/2010: -$555M
- 2010/2011: -$545M
New Brunswick
- 2009/2010: -$742M
- 2010/2011: -$749M
Newfoundland
- 2009/2010: -$295M
- 2010/2011: -$194M
Nova Scotia
- 2009/2010: -$488M
- 2010/2011: -$222M
Ontario
- 2009/2010: -$21.3B
- 2010/2011: -$19.7B
PEI
- 2009/2010: -$84M
- 2010/2011: -$55M
Quebec
- 2009/2010: -$4.3B
- 2010/2011: -$4.5B
Saskatchewan
- 2009/2010: +$425M
- 2010/2011: +$20M
Total:
- 2009/2010: -$33.8B
- 2010/2011: -$32.4B

Only Saskatchewan didn’t run deficits during fiscal years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. They only managed to do that because of their raining day fund. The combined provincial debt for all provinces for both fiscal years of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 was $66.2B. Of course $41B of that comes from Ontario alone. But Alberta, with 1/4 of Ontario’s population, is not much better run with $8.4B deficit over two years. Quebec’s $8.8B is only mitigated by the fact they get over $8B in equalization payments each year from the ROC. Quebec’s deficit would be about $25B or so and would more closely resemble Ontario’ deficit per capita if not for the fiscal illusion equalization creates.

All in all, these numbers are absolutely brutal. The federal deficit has gotten a lot of media attention, which is fair, but the provincial deficit situation is almost as bad. In the case of some provinces, it’s actually worse. But ne’er a peep from the media about it.

“Pirates of Somalia” should be a First Person Shooter

ezbeatz — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:52:34 +0000

Then you wouldn’t have this happening.

Four Americans, including a couple from Southern California, who were taken hostage by Somali pirates were fatally wounded by their captors while negotiations between the pirates and U.S. military forces were underway in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

This is how the Russian’s deal with pirates. Might be a tad bit more effective than diplomacy.

Of course, the Americans are no slouches either. If only their government would let them do to pirate ships what they do to old beat-up cars.

A Bloody Disgrace this Country has Become

ezbeatz — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 04:44:49 +0000

Ed Burlew, Thomson’s lawyer, says there is a good chance Thomson will be acquitted on the grounds of self-defence. But the fact that he is being put through a trial at all is repugnant. Prosecutors might even offer his would-be murderers a deal to testify co-operatively against their intended victim. Already, the charges of mere arson rather than attempted murder point to a possible prosecution strategy of denying that Thomson genuinely needed to defend himself.

What the hell is wrong with this country!?