Here is today’s Ottawa Citizen front page:

Can you find him? Can you?

I’ll enlarge the section I’m talking about:

‘Nuff said…

Randall Denley had a great column in the Ottawa Citizen yesterday: Magic money just a McGuinty trick about Dalton’s new found money to help those poor Nortel employees who lost their pensions just before there happens to be a by election in their riding.

He writes:

Ottawa West-Nepean Liberal candidate Bob Chiarelli wished that the provincial government had done something to help angry Nortel pensioners who live in his riding. Presto, no sooner had Chiarelli made his wish than Finance Minister Dwight Duncan made it a reality. And on a Sunday, too.

and:

In April of last year, the premier said he just couldn’t guarantee help for the Nortel pensioners. There was no by election then, of course.

Randall fails to mention though, the same thing happened a few years back with hospital funding in Toronto when Georgie Smitherman needed to be elected in his riding.

Earlier this week, to the question if this is just vote buying in the eyes of the voters, Dalton replied arrogantly: “the voters of Ontario will have a chance to let us know how they feel come election time” [paraphrased]. Well, the “voters of Ontario” will only be able to vote on this nearly two years from now (and we all know how long the memory of the average Ontario voter lasts), and the voters in the West-Nepean riding sure aren’t as objective as the rest of us, now are they?

Ol’ Tom got me all riled up here. Pensioners in this country, who worked hard all their lives, make $519 a month. And that’s TAXED. And we’re gonna give this crook $317,000 severance? In the seven months she worked for us, she made about $100,000 a month. $100,000 A MONTH. She defrauds the Ontario taxpayer to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and our “esteemed” health minister Caplan doesn’t even have the guts to fire her. They came to a “mutual decison” to “resign”. Give me a break.

People with MS can’t pay for their meds and are being  cut off. Kids with autism can’t go to their therapy. Going to emergency in this province takes 5-13 hours. Waiting for an MRI takes 8 months. We all pay up to $1000/year EXTRA taxes to make our health care better, and they turn around and give it to crooks and bastards, who would rather bill $2700/day AND charge for a cup of tea, than hand over that money to one MS patient so she can afford to get her shots for another month.

If you have any scruples, all of you, you surrender your “bonuses” and severances so these people can buy their meds.

What’s wrong with this country? We’re bailing out private companies, give 3.5 billion dollars to retired workers so they can live better than all the rest of us who don’t have pensions, and now we’re payign $2700/day to consultants who INTERVIEW THEMSELVES?!?

I’m so pissed off, it’s unbelievable.

At a speech at an Ottawa Rotary Club, Ontario’s Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson told the members that the Ontario Government now mistrusts the City of Ottawa after they used money designated for infrastructure for snow removal instead.

I suppose the irony is lost on Mr. Watson: he works for the least trustworthy government since Bob Rae had his day(s):

We will not raise your taxes

Right.

As I was standing at 7 am, with about 200 other people, in a dingy and poorly lit hallway, waiting for the doors to open to give us access to the glorious Ontario healthcare a la 2009, I was thinking to myself: I just forked out another $900 last year to make our healthcare system better and faster, shorten wait times and whatever else was promised to us, and here we are, herded like cattle in a small hallway waiting for “the system” to serve us better. We were out at about 10:30. Just to do some bloodwork. Three and a half hours! Some of us have to get back to work, you know. That’s three and a half hours of waiting, staring at walls and feeling sorry for little old ladies with canes and walkers who also have to stand around for three and a half hours, because there are about 20 seats for the 200 people arriving every day.

And I was left wondering: does Dalton McGuinty stand in a hallway like this when he has to do some bloodwork? Does he get up at 6 am and arrive at work at around 11? Doesn’t he get sick and need some bloodwork done once in a while?

One government giveth, the other taketh away.

Lovely isn’t it?

Anyone else find it curious that the first “tax rebate cheques” will be rolling out, uhm, say, three months before the next provincial election? And that’s Federal CONSERVATIVE money, by the way, that the Ontario Liberals will be happily handing out just before they need to be re-elected. And I’m sure we’ll see Dalton “That’s Not True” McGuinty’s trademark fake smile as he pretends to be Santa Clause, and how much do you want to bet he’ll say: “Oh, and btw, this cheque doesn’t come from us, it comes from Ottawa!”

After passing on Ontario’s First Final Offer in November, which was for 12% increase, and passing on Ontario’s Second Really Final Offer in early December, the teachers begrudgingly accepted the province’s Final, Final, Really Final, Officially Final, This Time We Really Mean It Offer yesterday, settling for a mere 10.4%(!) salary increase over four years. They also get improved benefits, and a total of 240 minutes of preparation time (that’s FOUR HOURS folks!) a week, which means, they will even spend less time in the classroom than they do now, but get paid more. With the new agreement, Ontario’s top teacher salary will be around $92,700. Not bad for a job that has the summer off, a week in spring, two weeks at Christmas, and retirement after only 20 years on the job.

Kudos to the Ontario government, for showing some backbone in negotiating with the union. Good job. Oh, and you caved, not  because you wanted to keep your record clean and you need it to boast the next election, but you caved so the Poor Children of Ontario can stay in school. I see. Right.

Union said the strike threat wasn’t about the money, oh no… It was about the Poor Children of Ontario, and how the “funding gap” between elementary and the other schools is still too big. Here’s a thought: cancel the 10.4% wage increase (700000 students, funding gap of $700 each, is a total of $500M, the 10.4% increase has a value of $700M), and apply it to the funding gap. Problem solved! It’s not about the money? Great!

Did I mention the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund is the largest single-profession pension plan in the country, with over $108 B in assets?