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

Did anyone believe him? Anyone…? Beuller…?  Dalton McGuinty told you a) Smart Meters will save you money on electricity & b) They would be revenue neutral. Always revenue neutral with these guys, always that means there is the same amount of revenue as before, but they’ll have more of it.

Here’s what I said about Smart Meters, as it related to a rate increase a Toronto Hydro because of successful conservation efforts:

…once everybody is doing their dishes in the middle of the night demand will increase at that time, causing the rate to increase in the middle of the night.

Of course, I was off a bit: Premier Dad didn’t wait until everybody was doing their dishes in the middle of the night. Smart Meters raised everybody’s electricity bill automatically, regardless of when you use electricity.

I’ve been paying HST all over town. I can’t wait for the election to vote against this guy.