It’s too nice to be inside, but there’s stuff to write, what to do, what to do?
Now this is the life! Hello to Ron, who reads this at work!
One more reason not to vote for Dalton MCGuinty:
PREMIER DALTON MCGUINTY — an unabashed Ottawa Senators fan — wasted no time in trying to scoop up devastated Leafs fans.
“On behalf of the Ottawa Senators, I want to let you know that we are (a) warm, welcoming and gracious fan club,” McGuinty said yesterday. “We’ve got a big bandwagon and we welcome all former supporters of the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
Add sanctimonious to the list of McGuintian traits.
Update: The Maple Leafs have fired Pat Quinn.
This is a blow my own horn, re-hash some old business post and I apologize in advance. However, there was a question about what I had written in some guest columns to the Cambridge Times in the comment section on the post called YWCA is at it again.
My first column was in December and it was about my mother, I posted it here.
Second was a fun column regarding an election sign I saw while out and about one day, and it is here.
The sign in question by the way, was real and I posted it as a picture of the day here.
Finally, to get a Guest Column in the Cambridge Times:
from the Cambridge Times:
We need to find some willing writers who have something to say – a beef, opinion, good news, criticism.
Send you column (neatly typed, preferably), approximately 300 – 400 words, and a recent photograph to Guest Column, c/o Cambridge Times, 1460 Bishop St., Cambridge, Ont. N1R 7N6. You can also email us at jhurst@cambridgetimes.ca
And be prepared to wait. It was over a month before the first one went in (I think because he decided it was a Christmas column, something that I didn’t realize until after it was printed). The second one was about ten days, not nearly so long.
And the picture I send? That’s the picture that I included here.
From CTV:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled on Wednesday the Conservative government’s plan to move forward with justice reform this spring…
You are going to hear about minimum sentences and removing the option of conditional sentences for some crimes. But to me, the real news is this one:
Another move by the government will be to increase the age for sexual consent between an adult and teen from 14 to 16…
“It is long overdue and it is particularly important in the age of the Internet where young people are increasingly targeted by cyber-predators.”
I beg of you, one favour Stephen. Lets have a recorded vote on this clause, so all Canadians can see which politicians support leaving the age of consent at 14.
Tim Curry
When I started blogging, I decided I would pay homage to the occasional celebrity through brithday wishes. I quickly learnt to hold off until big birthdays, otherwise it would become an every day occurrence. I also decided to stay with musicians, although it’s not a punishable offence. So it is today I cite someone who is know as an actor, and even listed in the paper as an actor. A remarkable CV that includes everything from the Transvestite in Rocky Horror Picture Show to Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, Tim Curry has done alright as an actor, for a singer.
He’s had a few enjoyable hits through the years, but I include Tim Curry here for one reason: Sloe Gin. It may be the saddest song ever. If I had to categorize it, I would invent a new term: Suicide Blues.
So happy Birthday Tim Curry – I hope things have gotten better since 1978.
From the Cambridge Times, Monday April 19th:
Suzanne Burns, Cambridge
(Apr 18, 2006)Stephen Harper and his Conservative government may call their election promise a “Choice in Child Care Allowance”, but it is becoming increasingly clear that their $1,200 tax break offers parents less – not more – choice in child care.
The fatal flaw in the Conservative plan is that it ignores Canadians’ desire for quality early learning and care programs. Although the government says it will offer tax incentives to businesses so they can create child-care spaces, when the Mike Harris government in Ontario tried this in the 1990s, guess how many spaces the private sector created? None.
The Conservative plan confuses families’ legitimate desire for income support with the need for accessible, high-quality child care. We believe that Canada can deliver both. Families need both if they are to help their children get the best start in life and balance the overwhelming demands of work and family life.
We share the government’s sentiment that what we have isn’t good enough. As one of the largest non-profit providers of child care in the country, YWCA Canada seized the promise of federal funding for child care to move beyond the status quo. Representative panels were convened to plan a comprehensive early childhood system that would meet the unique needs of communities and respond to different family circumstances. Cambridge formed a task force of 28 community representatives to conduct the work in this community.
From coast-to-coast, in a rural, large, suburban and small urban community, a broad range of people including business, labour, aboriginal, ethno-cultural, community, women’s and parent groups, service providers and provincial and municipal officials, came together.
Over the course of a year, they produced remarkably similar ideas for child-care services. The plans were designed to respond to all young children, wherever they live, whether their parents are at home or in the labour force or whether mom and dad work on a farm or in an office.
The results of our study, released March 20 at a symposium in Toronto, demonstrate that a national child-care program is both feasible and desirable. The irony is that the report’s release comes on the heels of the Conservative government’s plan to eliminate the long-awaited national strategy.
Canadians want a child-care system that is open, accessible, of excellent quality, and fits into existing services in their communities – such as their local community centres and schools. National and international studies have repeatedly shown that our country lags behind other industrialized countries on this front. Our governments have been both remiss and stagnant when it comes to a vision for child care – but Cambridge and the Canadian public have not.
Since Feb. 24, more than 22,000 Canadians have signed an online open letter that urges politicians to work together to honour the child-care agreements created last year. At www.buildchildcare.ca, people from all walks of life are saying the same thing: $1,200 a year is not enough. Canada can, and must, do better.
Hayley Wickenheiser, a gold medal mother (and hockey star at the Turin Olympics), signed the child care open letter this week. Municipal mayors and police chiefs have signed the letter.
A recent survey of Canada’s 150 top corporate executives shows that only nine per cent thought that axing the federal/provincial child-care agreements should be a top priority.
Parents know the difference between quality care in an early learning centre and the patchwork of unsupported and unmonitored babysitters.
Prime Minister Harper may not have counted the desire for child-care spaces before he decided to scrap child-care agreements. But he will surely be counting votes in the House of Commons as his minority government prepares to rule. Our hope is that Canadian families and children will win the vote.
The same theme runs through her pre-election ramble in the K-W record last January. Then there is the usual line “Canadians want a child-care system that is open, accessible, of excellent quality, and fits into existing services in their communities – such as their local community centres and schools.” As Joanne at Joanne’s Journey has pointed out previously, nowhere on the study does it indicate what Canadians want.
Simply put the YWCA produced a study that found people want… the YWCA to provide their daycare, thus the government needs to find the YWCA more. The surprise isn’t in those results, it’s that the YWCA really expects us to buy this line.
Asthmatic Prime Minister Stephen Harper was caught musing this week about what else he would like to be doing:
I love my job as prime minister, but if you could be a hockey player, I mean, what could be better than that?
Well, I hear these guys might be looking for help.
One question though: Is this really ‘on message?’
Blue Blogging Soapbox makes a Blogging Tory Site of the Week every week. As a past recipient of this honour, I know the impact it has on our traffic: mine has steadily increased after the major jump it took that Sunday. As such, I have sworn to weekly link to Blue Boxes weekly choice in hopes of increasing exposure for the weekly chosen ones.
Once again this week, you will find the Site of the Week on my favourite’s at the left of this page. Wonder Woman from North American Patriot, the reigning vixen of Tory Blogging, is a compatriot of mine over at Let Freedom Reign.
She had a small hiatus recently, but is back and in good form. Amongst other things, she has great graphics, and I have learnt to google up images through trying to meet her standard of blogging graphics.
She is also a great writer, and dead sexy to boot! It is one of those Blogs of such quality that we are all trying to raise ourselves to.
A couple of stories out there that I thought went a long way towards explaining each other.
item 1: Canadians are … more likely to vote for a party lead by … a 
Muslim than an evangelical Christian.
Makes sense. After all which religion is producing leaders that are telling women to cover themselves head to toe, conducts stonings for adultery and homosexuality, has death penalty trials for converting towards another religion, deplores freedom and basic human dignity? Which religion is producing leaders that is keeping their People in the middle ages, albeit with Casio watches?
So, after weighing the evidence, why wouldn’t we want to be lead by such a person?
Maybe in part, because of
item 2: 
Almost one in five Canadians believes Jesus Christ’s death on the cross was faked and that he married and had a family.
Ah, the Da Vinci Code defense. If people are getting their historical information from works of fiction, then it is entirely reasonable that they’ll make decisions like “I would rather be led by a Muslim than an evangelical Christian.” It will get better though, the da Vinci Code is coming out in movie form next month, those Hollywood guys are sure to clear up the facts.
This from Sara of Choice for Childcare. It’s her new blog Fund the Child:
There is a movement of grass roots parenting sweeping Canada that seeks not to put down any style of care, but to ensure that all cares are equally valued in a democracy.
Going past the anger and hurt of the mommy-wars of the 1970s and past the second-wave feminism of the 1960s this movement seeks a new vision to value all roles, paid or unpaid, and to make sure people can choose the care style they feel is best for their child and their lives…
It’s good to see people becoming activist on Conservative values – you go Sara!
I searched for an Easter poem to illuminate your lives a little, but came up with nothing I liked. So instead, I offer these two quotes:
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
Bible: Matthew, 28. 6
All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt!
Lucy Van Pelt
Happy Easter to all my readers.
Two guys from Toronto die and go to Hell. Upon arriving Satan takes them for a tour, and at the end of the tour says: pretty nasty, eh? You’ll not like this”
“No, this will be fine” say the Toronto boys to Satan’s shock.
“But your in hell, eternal damnation. How can it be fine?”
“Well,” says one “we’re from Toronto. It’s always cold, snows a lot. Global warming never really happened you know” he shrugs. “At least it’s warm.”
I’ll show them thinks Satan as he leaves them smiling, and turns up the heat. The next day he comes back and says “Pretty hot,eh? Nasty stuff.”
The Toronto boys reply that no, it’s not too hot, quite nice really. Satan leaves and really cranks up the heat. The next day he visits his new arrivals, and finds them happier than ever. “This is great,” they say. “It just gets hotter every day. Just great.”
Satan thinks, I’ll fix them, and goes and turns the temperature way down. It begins to snow, the rivers of Hell, Styx, Phlegyus, Charon and Acheron all freeze over. Snow falls at mount Purgatory and hells inhabitants begin to think of skiing. Satan goes to visit his new Torontonians, and finds them having a party. They are dancing, singing, clapping their hands.
They are, in fact, having the greatest time of their lives. “What in Heaven is going on here?” he screams. “You like the heat so much, you complain this Toronto was so cold and you’d rather be here. Now it’s cold and you’re even happier. Why?”
“Don’t you understand?” says one. “Hell has frozen over – The Leafs have won the cup!”
Here’s what’s sad, if you google “Maple Leafs Stanley Cup” images you only get black and white pictures.
Wonder what they’re counting…
…Do you realize Leaf fans, if – IF – it happens next year, it will be 40 years between.
If only Messrs. Mahovolich and Kelly knew!
Recent Comments