Nor Do I Often Disagree With Canada & The USA..

But I think I do in regard to Palestine and its bid for Nation Status at the United Nations.





Today the President of Palestine tabled a motion at the United Nations claiming full Nation State Status among the Nations of the World.





The Motion will now go to the UN's Security Council and will be voted on in due course.





Canada and the United States are on record as opposing the Palestinian request and with the US Veto, it will assuredly be denied.





But should Canada and the United States be taking this position?





I think not.





Imagine, if you would, that Canada was in a similar position as Palestine and we were being blocked by the US veto or any other Veto Power Nation. How would we feel; probably no different than the Palestinians.





Now in fairness, I think that the Palestinian Leadership's true intention is to foster dissent - more dissent, against Israel and its Allies than currently exists - if that is possible.





If they were sincere in their application, it would have been made years ago.





But from their people's perspective, to go down the state-hood road and then be blocked by outside countries, would be a bitter pill to swallow.





That there is going to be violence and blood shed because of the Veto, goes without saying.





But let's be honest, that same fear of violence exists should State Hood be granted.





So either way; riots, calamity and even war are a likely fallout regardless of which road is taken.





So why not go with the State Hood Road?





At least it grants the Palestinians honour and if we in the West were seen to approve of their application, it would provide us with a measure of favour on their part.




If as the West believes, State Hood will make the negotiations with Israel more complex than they already are - so be it.


Nothing much was happening in that regard - nor is likely to happen.


Palestine wants the right of return and Israel wants recognition.


The two goals are simply incompatible.


So why not grant them their State Hood and go from there come what may.


As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

I Do Not Often Agree With Bob Rae,,,but

Hey, I can never recall agreeing with Bob Rae..


But, I found myself in agreement with him Tuesday when he critiqued the Tories' new Omnibus Tough on Crime Bill.


Rae found that in this day of crumbling economics, there are better ways to spend Canada's limited financial resources than on tough on crime measures and prison building.

And in that I agree.

If the Tories had added but one word to their Bill, I would be in support of it; and that word is 'Violent'

As in 'Tough on Violent Crime Bill'.

Assuming of course that the Bill limit its application to 'violent offenders'; which I not so sure it does.


And hence my sympathy with Rae and company.

Let me be totally honest with you as well. I have not read the Omnibus Bill - nor even intend to so if it turns out that it does apply mostly to violent criminals my mind could be changed.

But I do know that one of its provisions is to get tough on marijuana growers having as few as 6 plants which hardly seems "violent" to me. Indeed I am on record as saying pot should be decriminalized and police efforts directed to areas where they can really make a difference.

And all this said, Canada already has, I believe, all the measures it needs to fight crime of all types; it can be found in our extensive and comprehensive Criminal Code. And this applies to the Police, the Prosecution, and the Judges.

The problem as I see it is that there is not enough effort to properly enforce what already exists.

A couple of examples:

A few years ago my wife was in Montreal and parked her car on Ste. Catherines, probably the busiest street in the city. She parked in the well lit lot directly beside her Regional Office.


She had parked in day light but when she returned to her car, a few hours later, it was starting to get dark. Someone had broken the car's door lock and had opened the trunk and taken her suitcase which contained some valuable jewellery.


Anne called the police who told her to come to their office and make a report. The report they told her was for insurance purposes since they would not spend anytime on it given the high number of such incidents occurring each day.


Excuse me? If that type of thing was happening so often, one would think it would warrant some priority on the part of the gendarmes.


Another recent case here in Ottawa, saw a small corner store owner swarmed by 40 or so punks yet no charges have been laid despite the fact that the police have pictures of each of these individual swarmers. And despite the fact that this store owner has been the subject of numerous robberies of late. Why not stake the store out and put a stop to this reoccurring criminal activity?

And of course, why not charge the 40 known swarmers?

Did I mention, the swarmers were non-white?

So we have the tools to do the job if there was real interest on the part of the authorities to act upon it.

A few years back New York City was in a similar situation. Tough on crime Rudy Giuliani became Mayor and insisted that the City of Police act on all crimes no matter big or small. The city soon shaped up when the culprits realized the free ride was over.

But jail is not always the answer either. Indeed it should be limited for those who commit violent crimes.

Stats show here in Canada that only 12.5% of inmates are violent. Nearly 50% are in for "property crimes".

Included in property crimes are B&Es which by their nature I would class as violent since those offenders are breaching the privacy of an individual's home.

But the bottomline here is that too many offenders are prison bound. Other methods of penalty need to be found with the result being less prisons not more.

So we have the tools and we have more than sufficient numbers of prisons.

I cannot imagine how the Tories Omnibus Bill can make things better but I will carefully watch it as it makes its way through Parliament and will let you know if I have any change of heart.

I do know, that the costs attached to this Bill will be steep and now does not appear to be the time to incur such added expenditure especially if the results are suspect.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'











And then there is something as inoccuos as graffiti. It has run amuck in modern cities but here in Ottawa, the property owners are liable for court action if they do not remove the offending markings.

The General ....

Is Flying 2nd Class.

A Big Flap continues this week on whether Chief of Staff General Walter Natynczyk should pay out of his own pocket for private related travel or else fly commercial.

The General's initial response was for the public to buzz off - so to speak and that he had every right to fly free in military jets.

Indeed he tried to suggest that these planes needed to be in the air anyway for training purposes and his being aboard did not add to the overall cost.

The poor General needs a Spinmeister.

His excuse was a little far fetched.

Plus it obviously ran counter to Prime Minister Harper's position whereby he reimburses the cost of his flights on a commercial basis. For instance, if he flies to Vancouver for a football game, by Challenger Jet and a comparable flight with Air Canada would have cost $3k - Harper pays to the General Revenues the $3,000 cost.

They are both wrong though in their approach to this issue.

And in any event, it all hit the fan today when Harper met with the beleaguered General and demanded that he repay the cost of a recent flight he had taken to join his family on holiday in the Caribbean.

Even though the poor General had to miss the commercial flight with his family since he was meeting the bodies of four of our soldiers coming into Canada from Afghanistan.

The Right Answer to all of this is that neither the Chief of Staff nor the Prime Minister should be paying for their "private travel". For the Simple Reason that when it comes to these two gentlemen, Neither One Has Private Travel; they are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Similar in fact to what the President of the United States experiences.

There are a couple of others who I believe should qualify for this special status including the Minister of Finance, External Affairs, and Public Security.

The planes any of these officers take, should standby ready to whisk them back to wherever they are needed.

Anything less is simply bush league.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

The Premier Says It Is All About Jobs...

And in that, he is correct !!





Too bad they are not being created in his own Province of Ontario.





New Grit Ads are out showing Mr. Premier alone and waxing eloquent about all the jobs he and his Party have created.





30,000 he states, most recently...





Despite the fact that in that same period, Stats Canada statistics show only 20,000 have been created in all of Canada...





And Despite the fact that these same statistics show Ontario in 9th position just ahead of 10th place PEI in job creation.





To his credit, Dalton was never one to let the facts get in the way of what he views as the truth.





And speaking lately of Conspiracy - last week Premier McGuinty held a photo op at a new Solar Plant - and he went on to claim that it was plants like this that were creating numerous skilled jobs. To date he noted that Green Energy had produced 20,000 such skilled j0bs in Ontario and is well on the way to producing another 30,000.





The only thing is, the plant was shut down. No one was working there.





But again that did not slow spinmeister McGuinty one little bit.





The Media was there in full force and reported his every uttering but failed to mention that the plant was shut down for want of work. Now that's a Conspiracy.





Only one reporter - for the conservative National Post - blew the whistle on his outrageous stunt.





But that is not all.





These "well paid, skilled jobs" at the shut down plant consisted of employees (when working) making $13 per hour assembling parts manufactured in China. Rather like a meccano set.





But again our distinguished Premier ignored this reality in his bid to gain re-election.





And in that respect, he is consistent since he very capably ignores reality even when he's not campaigning.





Asked time and again for particulars of these supposed 20k green jobs, McGuinty and his cohorts are lost for words. Indeed a rare occurrence.





The fact is, there is but only a small handful of people working in Ontario's green energy sector.





One final point in all of this Green Energy nonsense and the related issue of Jobs.





The reason Ontario today has such a vast surplus of power is because, under McGuinty's 8 year administration, the manufacturing sector has been decimated.





And decimated to the extent that Ontario has had to pay other jurisdictions to take our surplus energy off our hands.





All the while we pay green energy suppliers 10x the going rate to produce power we do not need and have to pay others to take.





It would be hilarious if the costs were not so high for Ontarians.





As I see it...





'K.D. Galagher'

Or I Could Have Written My Last Blog ...

as follows.

McGuinty's my main man.

He's got my vote come October 6th.

The Guy Listens !!

Take for instance my out of control hydro bills.

They have been tamed and its all thanks to McGuinty.

I am sure of it.

Rather being charged high, medium and low rates for hydro - since early August we are now paying just the low rate of 6 cents per kwh for all of the 24 hours. You need to multiply that by 2.5 mind you to incorporate all the other charges - but heck it is a real deal given what we had been paying.

Now some will tell you it is because the Smart Meters are misfunctioning.

Cynics all.

I'd prefer to believe that our distinguished Premier has seen the light and has backed off his userous hydro charges.

Others tell me it is simply a ploy to get through the Election.

Can you imagine Mr. McGuinty doing that?

Of course not - the guy is a true as they come.

No sir - cheap hydro rates are here to stay.

You can count on it.

So I hope you join with me in voting Grit on the 6th our new cheap Hydro Rates depend upon it.

As I don't see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

More on McGuinty....

The Subterfuge continues.

I am not one to readily believe in Conspiracies but in the case of Hydro - I smell a Rat and he is the Premier of our Once Great Province.

We have had the Smart Meter for well over a year now and our hydro rates have increased 2.5 fold under this new McGuinty regime.

When Hydro advertises its three daily rates - .11 peak, .9 median , and .6 low, - you can multiply those numbers by 2.5 to take into account the 'other' hydro charges - eg debt reduction, line usage etc.

Th1s increase was inevitable of course since Dolton needed the extra hydro income to pay for his 82.5 cents per kwh paid to the Green Energy providers (e.g. solar).

But did you know that the "debt" in debt reduction we are currently being charged was repaid over two years ago?

And did you know, another tax is slated by dear olde Dalton to come into effect this January to pay for the Smart Meters - despite the fact that we are all ready paying for the cost of these meters in the current 'line charges'. Plus this new tax will attract more HST - so you have tax on tax.

Even the Grits have acknowledged that Hydro rates will dramatically increase in the short term.

"All bad news Galagher, but where does the 'Conspiracy' come in"?

Glad you reminded me.

This past Spring a freeze was introduced on the extension of Smart Meter installation until November.

Correct me if I am wrong - but isn't there a Provincial Election in October? What a coincidence Dolton's freeze expires right after the vote.

But that's not all.

Since earlier in the summer our Smart Meters have gone off service - they are not working. So all usage is being charged at the low rate of 6 cents per kw.

How convenient.

I would not be the least bit surprised if they miraculously started working again after October 6th assuming of course McGuinty and his totally bankrupt Party returns to office.

Call me a cynic.

But this is the basis for my Conspiracy Theory.

On October 6th you'll be the Judge as to whether or not it has merit.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

McGuinty and Company...

Lie Lie Lie

And sometimes remain Silent.

The Lies:

• He lied about not raising taxes;


• He lied about all the Green Jobs he had produced - "20 some thousand" he said - but in reality only a handful;


• He lied about all the power that would be produced through Solar and Wind while Hydro Rates doubled plus;


• He lied about Ontario's Economy being the best in Canada - when studies show we are tied with PEI for dead last;


• He lied about creating an employment fund for Immigrants and when confronted said he really meant Skilled Immigrants and then he corrected that again to say he really meant new Canadians. His nose gets longer and longer.

But dear reader sometimes he remains silent:

Like in the case of 21 year old Brandon McCarthy. Brandon suffers from muscular dystrophy a terrible fatal illness that taxes your muscles and results in other nefarious conditions. Brandon is slightly over 65 pounds.

In order to survive he needs a special high caloric diet and until recently the province paid him $250 per month to assist in buying special foods - foods liquid in nature since he can barely swallow.

Without warning his food supplement of $250 was cut off - no word from the Man McGuinty - not a word from his responsible Minister the infamous Madelleine Meilleur.

A stream of protest went up on Brandon's behalf but only...

Silence.

So even when McGuinty doesn't lie - he has the ability to cause destruction by just being quiet.

And then there is today's poll showing he and his Party ahead of the PCs.

Unbelievable.

So unbelievable in fact that I still do not see McGuinty's Grits winning on the 6th.

There is an olde expression in Politics that sadly I adhere to:

"Never underestimate the intelligence of the voter".

But there is another one that goes like this:

"You can fool some of the people all of the time; and some of the people some of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time".

I am hoping that after two previous mistakes the latter will prove correct and McGuinty and company will get their just desserts at last.

As I see it..

'K.D. Galagher'