The travels of Justin

Vancouver’s CKNW News Talk 980 reports this bit of irony: The NDP’s take on gas tax reduction

The BC New Democrats want the provincial government to stand up to prime minister Stephen Harper…. by demanding he make good on his promise to roll back the GST on gasoline purchases.

NDP finance critic Jenny Kwan chose international earth day to highlight the need for relief from rising gas prices. [ed. - emphasis mine]

Using the surge in interest in surging Canadian fuel prices, I can’t fault Kwan for questioning Prime Minister Harper’s commitment to the issue of GST applied to fuel. Regardless, I couldn’t help thinking that even rudimentary economics would tell you that if you reduce taxes you can increase consumption. Does increasing consumption of fossil fuel seem like a funny thing for the NDP to be advocating on a special environmental day like… I dunno… maybe like Earth Day?

In addition to reliable, and freely available, streaming video of election coverage, CPAC has a fantasic Flash-application to display results of ridings across the country. It’s supposed to represent live results and be tied to data as it comes in, but for a moment something just didn’t seem right.

Ooops! Ten seconds later the little “leading party” flag slid back to the clear winner.

Well, whoever designed that Flash-application deserves a lot of kudos. It’s not just slick, it’s clear and usable and provides information in a very useful way; that is to say, it’s well done in all the ways that actually matter.

Happy E-day!

Some questionable spending on “relocation services” has been brought my attention at Conservative Life:

2.25 BILLION for “Relocation Services”: Going to Luxury Hotels, Spas, Golf Resorts

When most of us move, we load our stuff onto a U-Haul and spend the night at the Howard Johnson’s. Not so if you are employed by the government and a friend of the Liberal Party. Besides van line contracts for the Department of National Defense, our money is being spent for some pretty over the top accommodations/vacation spots. Just look at some of the contracts awarded by Public Works and billed as “relocation services”:

I’ve never seen a Howard Johnson’s, but I’ve done the U-Haul my fair share of times and couldn’t help but use photoshop to bring to life the image that I conjured in my mind.

Click for full-size version (1024 x 768) [206 KB]

This image is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Just like the original I used and the blank version you are welcome to use to create your own parody.

It’s just my parody, of course, while we all ponder what Hon. Scott Brison meant when he described his stated expenses as simply making sure that “Canadian public servants will get the relocation services they need with the best possible value for Canadian taxpayers.” To be fair, I’m curious why Mr. David Chatters questioned the Honerable Minister and apparently let the matter drop. I’m sure I don’t have the full picture, but perhaps things will become clear.

“Mr. Speaker, the goods and services tax is a stupid, inept and incompetent tax.” — Paul Martin, November 28th 1989

The ghost of Christmas past?

Hurray for an election in Canada! Most Canadians will head to the polls on January 23^rd, unless you, like me, happen to be living in another country. If you, or a friend, is studying abroad, you may want to point them to this page in the Elections Canada site where they can register to vote from almost anywhere outside Canada. The form is very simple to complete and can be faxed quickly and easily.

I found this after a visit to http://canada.info-syn.com:

Telus is blocking access to a pro-union website that it argues “contains confidential proprietary information and that photographs on the site raise privacy and security issues for certain of its employees.” Michael Geist reminds us that internet service providers—especially Telus—have argued vocally to let the courts, not companies, decide what should and should not be blocked.

Telus says the website, www.voices-for-change.com, contains confidential corporate information while photos of Telus managers with captions like “pieces of scum” and “weasels” are offensive and potentially dangerous.

While I haven’t examined either blocked site, voices-for-change.com or telusscabs.ca, it wouldn’t shock me if the company did have a legitimate argument. Regardless, if the company honestly believed the material posted was in violation of Canadian law, a court injunction would force the website to be blocked by ALL internet service providers.

“We’re not apologizing for taking action for protecting our employees,” Telus vice-president of business solutions Bruce Okabe told 24 hours yesterday. “It would be morally negligent for us to tolerate this kind of behaviour.” [Ed. emphasis added]

By NOT bringing this matter to court and choosing to block the site for Telus subscribers only, Telus seems to be demonstrating a belief that their moral negligence is limited to their own subscribers while subscribers using Shaw, etc., do not provide a threat to the employees in question.

Reported at:

• 24 Hours Vancouver
• Boing Boing
• The Edmonton Sun

Canada.com reports that Ontario is comtemplating privatizing the sale of liquor and getting out of their monopoly business.

The province would still collect more than $1.5 billion a year in alcohol tax and licensing revenue but would also get $200 million or more annually by selling licences to sell beer, wine and spirits, according to the Beverage Alcohol System Review.

Consumers would benefit from better selection and cheaper prices if alcohol was more easily available and retailers were made to compete, the review states.

Here in BC, the privatization of liquor stores is ongoing, but those stores are restricted to exclusively selling liquor. One critisim of the privatization I’ve heard many times is that prices rise for the same products since private stores are in the business to make money. The people I’ve talked appear unwilling to acknowledge that not only are private stores competing, but they have to build unique stores for one single product and comply with liquor control regulations. On the other hand, putting a few shelves of alcohol into a grocery store or corner store would be so marginal, prices wouldn’t move much. As the Ontario report points out, the province still retains it’s control over how sales are conducted such as maintaining minimum pricing, restricting late-night sales, and limiting the number of licenced stores. Unfortunately, citizens of BC are still fighting hard to keep the unnecessary government monopoly.

Sources say it’s unlikely the government will follow through on calls to sell the liquor control board or allow greater distribution of alcohol.

At least there is movement in the right direction.

Canada.com reports:

Cadman, 57, died Saturday morning after a two-year battle with skin cancer at his home in suburban Surrey with his wife at his side, his office said in a news release.

…

Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan remembered Cadman’s courtesy.

“He was the kind of person that if he knew that one of his colleagues was in town and if we were doing something that he was interested in, he would come by,” she said in Edmonton. “He wasn’t partisan in traditional political ways.”

Industry Minister David Emerson said Cadman came to Ottawa “not as a power broker but as a missionary. He said he really admired Cadman for enduring the rigours of cross-country travel despite his cancer battle.

“He put it all on the line for what he believed in,” said Emerson. “I like to say he had grit, which is the ultimate compliment I can pay somebody because that’s what Canada was built by — people with grit.”

I’m very sorry to hear this. My deepest sympathies go out to the Cadman family today.

In the morning, National Post readers will see this article about Warren Kinsella’s lack of fear of a Conservative government — even if only short-term — and about the kindness Harper demonstrated to a former adviser of the opposing party.

“So, instead, Tories should talk up ideas — the things Conservatives are for — and not just the things they are against.”

I’m consistently surprised by how Conservatives allow themselves to get herded into a defencive corner and spend their efforts fighting themselves out. In reality, many of their ideas of moderate, well thought out, and promising for Canadians; meanwhile, our current government is expending its energy trying to keep the Conservatives tied up — a successful endeavour thus far. Citizens are left choosing to support a party in turmoil, or a party that defends itself far more often than it leads the national agenda.

While I won’t endorse every idea from the Conservatives, the same is easily said of the Liberals — now more than ever. Even if a key issue, such as same-sex marriage, is the determining factor for many voters in supporting the Tories, by furthering the debate, in developing policies that reflect the good governance Canadians want and deserve, citizens only stand to benefit. Truly the best way to build support must be by demonstrating the good that can be done for all citizens; in the battle of ideas, the Conservatives are well equipped with “great ideas about how to make this country even greater.”

Since there doesn’t seem like much happening in domestic politics to write about these days (sarcasm intended), I think this is a pretty awesome development at Statscan. Now you can use Firefox live bookmarks, or — my favourite — Thunderbird’s RSS reader to keep up with Statscan’s publication, The Daily.

The Government of Canada Newsroom has also adopted RSS (look for the orange “XML” button in the left-column). The newsroom is an interesting source for “News releases, Warnings/Advisories, Media Advisories, Speeches, Reports”.

This is great — especially if you have a propensity to be well-read in obscure news and trends. At least it shows both the trend of mainstream adoption of a fantastic technology (that only sounds complicated), and that the IT people working for the Canadian federal government gather no moss.