Thursday, December 6, 2012


Canada's Debt VS Deficit

      Canada’s Finance Minister (Flaherty) recently said that our Federal yearly budget (deficit) will not be "balanced" until 2016-17. That just means we will not be increasing the debt after that date.  
      The Prime Minister contradicted him three days later and reaffirmed the government's plan ". . . . to  balance the budget prior to the next federal election (2015)." They disagree by only a year or two of increases to the debt.
     The following updating "clock" shows the TOTAL debt that Canada has accumulated to date. Our children can pay it off some day. Reducing the yearly DEFICIT by adding to the DEBT may make good sound bites but it doesn't change reality. The following updating "clock"  can be downloaded from Taxpayer.com.
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 GOOD THINGS HAPPENING IN CANADA

1) University of Waterloo student team earned the title of this year’s Facebook hackathons Champions over teams from U.S, Canada , Brazil, and Ukraine. It isn't really "hacking". It is more of an APP for finding  groups of your :friends.


2) Maybe it is not a big deal, but the Parti Quebecois (Quebec provincial party) has approved having the Canadian Maple leaf flag fly beside the Quebec Fleur de Lis in their National Assembly. For the party devoted to the separation of Quebec this is a major concession. The fact that a recent poll showed 57% of Quebecois had strong positive feelings for the Maple Leaf flag.

3) Somewhat related to the above, an online survey of 2,287 Canadians found that just 55 per cent are very or somewhat satisfied with the way democracy works in this country. That’s sharply down from the 75 per cent who expressed satisfaction in response to an identical question in 2004.


"Atypical" Canadian Happenings

1) National Chief Shawn Atleo of the Assembly of First Nations opened a three-day strategy session for First Nations leaders from across Canada with a call for unity in a "shared struggle" for change.
Some of the chiefs went to Parliament Hill, where MP's were to begin voting on the government's second omnibus budget implementation bill. A brief scuffle ensued after security guards stepped in to prevent some of the chiefs and First Nations members from trying to enter the House of Commons.

2) And speaking of scuffles, near the end of the session Wednesday, Peter Van Loan, the government's House Leader, crossed the floor of the Commons to confront his NPD counterpart, Nathan Cullen. Microphones were shut off but tape recorders showed "in-the-face" shaking of fingers complete with use of "f***" words. It was on the way to becoming more typical of a hockey game than the Canadian Parliament when the combatants were physically separated. Not typical of the staid old Canada I used to know.

Why We Need The USA

1) The XL Foods plant was at the centre of an E. coli outbreak in September that led to the largest meat recall in Canadian history. The contamination was discovered by US border inspectors who notified the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Sept 3rd.
    Until Sept 16th the Canadian government continued to say publicly that the meet was safe. On Sept 16th CFIA sent out its first alert warning with recalls continuing to increase past Nov.16th.  Check the timeline.

2) The RCMP opened an investigation into the spy activities of Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, a Halifax navy intelligence officer, several months after it received a letter from the FBI notifying them of the possible security breach. The RCMP investigation began only after Delisle voluntary turned himself in as a spy for Russia.