At Home in Hespeler

On the day before Rob Ford became mayor of Toronto, winning with a campaign that promised no more culture of entitlement, the politicians at Queens Park were fighting over who’s gets the biggest taxpayer funded Christmas tree in their office. It appears that Speaker Steve Peters made off with a tree that had been designated for Tim Hudak.

The story of this absurd pissing match begins, but does not end, with speaker Peters invoking himself in the third person:

“The Speaker wanted to have the tallest Christmas tree in the building,” Speaker Steve Peters explained.

Hey Peters, you want the biggest tree, go to Loblaws and buy the biggest tree. MPPs make over 110,000 a year, the speaker gets a stipend on top of that (the biggest stipend in the building, At Home in Hespeler is betting).

Here’s the irony. In large letters, all by themselves, on the Speakers web page, it says, “The Speaker is a servant of the House.”

Just as our public servants think the term servant means “we get to lord over you,” so the speaker thinks the term means “the speaker gets to lord over the house.”

Lest you think I am unfairly advocating  pox on the Speakers oversized, taxpayer owned and operated house, think again:

Tim Hudak’s staff was in an uproar Tuesday after his large office Christmas tree was nabbed and replaced with a stunted version of Yuletide timber…

PC staff members… handed out “free Tim’s tree” stickers to passersby in an effort to get it back. (Wonder who paid for those stickers?)

Yes, the leader of the Conservative Party started this nonsense. The left like to accuse Tim Hudak of being all Mike Harrisy, but I don’t see Harris caring about his office Christmas tree:

“In fact, it looks a bit more like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” charged Hudak. “Size does matter when it comes to Christmas trees.”

What’s with the Peanuts-aphobia? Cartoon characters vote too Mr. wanna be Premier. And another size matters joke, dear God! What if the teacher hears?

Yes, what if?

”I guess around here the boys think that size matters,” she (Andrea Horwath) said. “Apparently my tree is on the way and I’m sure it will be lovely… It’s more about the celebration than it is about the size or shape of a tree.”

Actually, it’s not about  the celebration, it’s about taxpayers apparently putting Christmas trees in every bloody office from Yorkville to Osgoode Hall:

Members who were concerned about the size of their Christmas tree were to be allowed to pick out a new one from a selection in the northwestern parking lot of the building.

Free trees in the Northwest parking lot at Queen’s Park, got it. Know were I’m going tomorrow. And now that the war on cars is over, it should be a breeze to get downtown.

Funny, Premier Dad has been vewy, vewy quiet on this issue. Wonder what he’s up to:

…the tree outside Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office was… so big in fact that a hydraulic lift was brought in to help with the decorating.

A pox on all their houses. And I repeat…

Buy Your Own Damn Christmas Tree!

Christmas, Politicians acting badly Andrea Horwath, Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris, Premier Dad, Steve Peters, Tim Hudak

“I don’t know how it happened mother,” says Premier Dad to Elizabeth McGuinty, his Czar in charge of all policy decisions.

“I was trying so hard not to turn into Mike Harris, that I never noticed I had turned into Bob Rae.”

Dalton, Economic Fundamentalism Bob Rae, Dalton McGuinty, Dalton's Mom, Mike Harris, Premier Dad

Last week I discussed how divisive Mike Harris was getting an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University. This caused tolerant people everywhere to refuse  their honorary degrees, refuse to sit on the stage, refuse to give speeches on the same stage.

Now those tolerant teachers are threatening professional consequences against graduates of that school, in the name of Mike Harris’s divisiveness. Want to know why the teachers were such an easy target for the Harris PC’s. Because they made themselves one.

Shouldn’t the inclusive McGuinty Education Ministry be denouncing this letter? Or does Dalton’s mom not approve of Mike Harris getting an honorary degree either?

h/t SDA

Jacobian Piece of Impertinence Dalton McGuinty, Dalton's Mom, Mike Harris

I never got the whole Mike Harris was divisive shtick. Mike would say “I think teachers should have to re-prove their credentials every few years,” the leftists would shut down Windsor, riot at Queens Park and throw Molotov cocktails at police horses. While the clean up crews were still picking up the litter, the guy with the face mask, Zippo lighter and tequila bottle full of gasoline would be quoted in the Toronto Star as saying, it’s all because Mike Harris is so divisive.

Now that the great uniter, Dalton McGuinty has a hap-hap-happiest province since Bob Rae gave the fine folks at our local city halls and fire stations Rae Days, the ever divisive Mike Harris is at it again:

“I can think of some appropriate letters Mike Harris should have in front of his name, not after it,” Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee said in a statement released on Friday. “You don’t reward a person who was directly responsible for so much economic hardship and divisiveness in this province.”

Chief Madahbee will refuse to give a speech, receive his honorary degree or sit on the same stage at the same time as Mike Harris, because the Chief is an honourable, tolerant, reasonable man who unites people.

Some people say the great Genie, irony, is dead. It’s not, it’s just in it’s bottle and hiding, lest some great uniter throw it at the legislature.

Jacobian Piece of Impertinence Anishinabek Nation, Bob Rae, Dalton McGuinty, Mike Harris, Patrick Madahbee, Rae Days

If you were wondering where the impetus for changing the words to the National Anthem came from, wonder no more. It comes from – ahem – Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth, who has been pushing the Prime Minister for a gender neutral anthem. And like all good social activists, she doesn’t actually take no for an answer:

…it’s not politically expedient. But it will come up again because there are thousands and thousands of women out there who want it to come up again.

I would rather hear Singer Nancy Ruth(above) perform the anthem.

Oh, there’s thousands and thousands are there? In a country of 35 million people that’s a part of a whole percent, so yea, go ahead.

Who is this Senator Ruth anyway? (Doesn’t that sound like the name of a snack food – “Senator Ruth Brownies available now at Mac’s“?) The Senator for Ontario was elected to the position in 2005 –  haha, just kidding. The Senator twice stood for election as a Progressive Conservative to the Ontario Legislature, in 1990 and 2003 (note: the Conservative senator seems to have skipped the Mike Harris years). Thousands and thousands voted for somebody other than her and she lost both times. Undeterred by minor inconveniences like the will of the people, she got herself appointed Senator in 2005 by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin (recommended by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, we presume).

In her spare time she founded the Women’s League Educational and Action Fund, and a women’s Studies Chair at Mount Saint Vincent University. It’s tempting to suggest the only way she has a conservative bone in her body is in the Belinda Stronach sense of the phrase, but as Canada’s first openly lesbian Senator, even that seems unlikely.

Lets be clear about the national anthem. It is your anthem. It is my anthem. As I began to suggest last week, it is not the politicians anthem to change. It is not for Stephen Harper to tell us the words, and it sure as hell is not for Senator Nancy Ruth. Sing it as you want to sing it, using whatever turn of phrase means something to you. If enough people do so, it will change organically, naturally. Not shoved down our throats by someone who thinks the words public servant are both descriptors of the unwashed masses. And, of course, as is often the case in feminist causes, the people pushing for change talk about equality, but really mean something different. Senator Ruth claims to want the words “in all thy sons command” changed to “thou doust in us command.” However, at this weeks Conservative caucus she pestered her colleagues to sing “in all thy daughters command.” With an ear for phrasing and melody like that, she should try a music lesson before critiquing any piece of music. The material point though, she doesn’t really want gender neutral, she wants the lyrics feminized.

This, ladies and gentleman, is the Senator who has your Conservative Prime Minister’s ear. Frankly, if this was the kind of person I wanted my PM taking advise from, I’d vote for Jack Layton.

Uncategorized Mike Harris, Nancy Ruth, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper

I received a call this afternoon from Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Tim Hudak, ostensibly to thank me for endorsing him in my post last Saturday.  I have been hearing that Hudak is an easy to like kind of guy, and it couldn’t be more true.  I have never seen him in action, but based on one phone call I have no doubt he’s a guy who knows the politicians art of working a room.

The conversation moved quickly and smoothly, ranging from what kind of dog I had (she was being noisy), to my thoughts on the future of the auto industry, human rights commissions, the past and future of the Ontario PC party and my local PC MPP, Gerry Martiniuk, whom is a Tim Hudak supporter. The conversation involved me desperately trying to scribble the odd note, scribble being the operative word.  Here’s a brief recall of the conversation.

Hudak seems to consider the HRCs a big issue, and he had examples at hand of the abuse of the system, including an Ontario town (I can’t recall which one) that has had a eight HRC complaints against them by one citizen, one of his complaints being there isn’t a sidewalk in front of his house (next year he’ll complain he has to shovel the snow on his new sidewalk).

On blogs, Hudak pointed out that the press gallery is shrinking dramatically at Queen’s Park. The net result being there are not enough reporters covering the government and are thus less able to hold their feet to the fire. It’s the blogs that are picking up the slack, and as such, the blogs are becoming more important.

As for the race for leader, he and I both agreed it was a good race, that saw some ideas emerge from all candidates. It was a healthy process, and Hudak is confident he can win. On the vote itself, he said they had scrutineers in every riding on Sunday, they felt the vote was going well, and about 3o% of party members voted Sunday. The rest will have the opportunity to vote Thursday, the results, of course, will be announced Saturday.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get in some question I had prepared, such as inquiring about his four steps to solve the doctor shortage. His ideas are: expanding capacity at medical schools, flexible retirement for physicians, recognize foreign credentials and increase incentives for Canadians studying abroad to return to Canada to practice. However, I feel a big part of the problem is David Peterson/Bob Rae’s old ban on extra billing, and was curious if he’d given any though to rescinding that.

e-health Ontario is another area I would have liked to quiz him, as well as: Caledonia; his favourite Led Zeppelin song (that says a lot about the man); Mike Harris: help or hindrance?; flat tax; the $1,000 newborn baby fund; the HST; who runs PerezHudak.com, and will any known rap artists be smacking him around in the near future?; his solutions for the manufacturing crisis.

While I didn’t get to ask him all that, I did get to tell my son he had been talking to the man who could be the next Premier of Ontario, I had a good excuse for not getting the vacuuming done, and I had a pleasant conversation with a genuinely nice man. I believe he would be an excellent leader, and like Joanne before me, “my interest in Ontario politics has gone from mope to hope and excitement.” And yes, I too am starting to think the PC party might have a chance.

Tim Hudak baby fund, Blue Like You, Bob Rae, Caledonia, David Peterson, Gerry Martiniuk, HRC, HST, Human Rights Comissions, Human Rights Tribunals, Joanne's Journey, Led Zeppelin, manufacturing crisis, Mike Harris, Ontario Human Rights Commision, Ontario Politics, PC, PC leadership, PC leadership convention, PC leadership vote, perezhudak.com, Premier of Onatrio, Progressive Conservative, Queens Park, Queens PArk press corp, Tim Hudak