Canada's National Treasure

The Out of Control Public Sector

Some revealing facts from New York City's 2012 budget:

1. Since 2001, NYC has 16,000 fewer employees.
   
2. In that same period, salaries & wages increased from $3.8 Billion to $10.8 Billion, a 184% increase.
   
3. In that same period, spending on pensions increased from $1.3 Billion to $8.3 Billion, a 538% increase.

Just one of thousands of examples of the public sector absolutely out of control!

Bad Driving in Vancouver - Example #53.247

The main culprit in all of this was actually a roofing van that was parked around the corner when I arrived. He apparently shot through a stop sign and the VW Golf hit him and spun around into the parked car. How fast the Golf was going is uncertain.

The Definition of Political Correctness

Vegas Brosseau's [Fake] Twitter Account

Someone with a good sense of humour created this Twitter account.  Absolutely hilarious! [Twitter account required to view]

More the NDP Quebec "Circus" can be seen here.

The Simpletons of the MSM Echo Chamber

SDA's Kate McMillan has published a superb editorial debunking the falsehoods pushed by the mainstream media about Twitter, Facebook, and blogs (yes, even this one!).  It's a must read for anyone interested in politics, be it Canadian or otherwise.

Canada's Provincial Populations vs. Members of Parliament

As you're all probably aware, the ratio of voters to MPs is much higher in BC, AB, and ON.  This is why these provinces are due a whole lot more seats before the next election.  Talking with a few left-leaning friends in Vancouver, they're not in favour of this seat alteration.  Isn't that a bit curious?  Why would a person of the Left not be in favour of "better equality"?  The citizens of these 3 provinces are "entitled" to more MPs.  Why would a person of the Left not be in favour of that?

Their reasoning is simple: Given today's current political climate, the Conservatives would likely benefit the most from this extra allotment of MPs.  I don't know about you, but I find such a viewpoint more than a little stunning!  These folks are so willing to throw their own communities and provinces under the proverbial bus.  And all for petty, short term political reasons.  Not up to the level of "traitorous" by any means but certainly well beyond pathetic and so incredibly disloyal to their neighbours.

Here are the most recently available numbers:

 

You can download the spreadsheet of these numbers that I compiled here.

Assorted Historical Statistics About Canadian Federal Elections

For those interested, I maintain a spreadsheet of assorted statistics about Canadian federal elections. I just updated it with the results of Monday's election.  You can download it here.

Canada's Media Party :-(

You can follow the highly biased rambling of one of the key members of the Media Party here.

Canada's Biggest Buffoon Goes on a Rampage

Heather Mallick has so much hate and so little time to spew it.  Prediction: Few of her predictions will come true.  But she'll never issue a mea culpa for when you delusionally believe you're fighting The Devil there's no need for apologies.

Federal Election: The Results from Richmond, BC

The results from the riding of Richmond, just south of Vancouver, are most interesting. This used to be a Liberal stronghold of Raymond Chan but no longer.  Alice Wong, of the Conservatives, obliterated the opposition.  It wasn't even close!

A friend called me up last night and asked whether I thought it peculiar that the other parties hadn't run Chinese-Canadian candidates.  I hadn't even noticed this before.  His question centered around the fact that recent census data has shown that Richmond is about 58% Chinese ethnicity.  Looking at the results today I noticed that Ms. Wong's vote share is also around 58%.  There's no direct correlation though that all the Chinese-Canadian residents voted for her and everyone else voted for the others.

Stornoway, after Happy Jack Moves In

In Canada, the leader of the Official Opposition stays in an Ottawa mansion called "Stornoway". When Jack Layton moves in, clearly a few "upgrades" will be needed:

Following the Political Career of Ruth Ellen Brosseau

I think the election of NDP candidate, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, in the Quebec riding of Berthier - Maskinongé is amongst the most fascinating of Canada's 2011 federal election.  Even though the citizenry there are 98% French, she is unable to communicate with them.  She also spent a week of the campaign down in Las Vegas.  Yet she won with a very respectable 40% of the vote.

You can read about Ms. Brosseau's victory here & here.

An Explanation of the Canadian Election to an American Friend

A friend from Texas asked me to explain to him what I thought was the significance of the 41st Canadian General Election yesterday.  Here's what I said:

On the surface it appears that some massive, historical changes have occurred. I think the most significant of all is the drop of the Bloc Quebecois separatist party from 47 seats to just 4. That's enormous. They still have a strong provincial party, who will likely win their next election, but at least on the federal level the threat of Quebec separation is now gone for at least 4 years; probably much more.

The next big change is the Conservative government finally winning an outright majority; third time lucky. They can now technically enact any legislation they wish, without fear of losing a vote. The question is, what bills will they bring to the forefront? So many of my left-leaning friends have declared that this is now the end of our country. Yet when I ask them to name a few policies on which the Canadian Conservatives are more "right-wing" than the U.S. Democrats (who they love) I never get any answers. That speaks volumes about the sincerity of their rhetoric.

The third great significant thing that occurred was the reduction of seats of the once powerful Liberal Party of Canada from 77 to 34. Them moving to 3rd place has never happened before. Rather than me gloating, I sincerely want the Liberals to take the time to do a serious re-think of who they are and what they stand for and then find a popular leader to represent those views.

Why am I cheering on a Liberal rebirth? Because one day the Conservatives will lose an election and if the Far-Left NDP ever comes to power it truly will be disastrous for Canada economically. Twice before they have come to power in my province of British Columbia and both times they bankrupted the economy. That's not my opinion, it's a fact. We simply can't afford to selfishly keep on borrowing from future generations to provide unsustainable "treats" for everyone today.

Over the next 12 months it will become much more clear what the Conservatives are prepared to do with their power. I hope lots but I don't want to get too optimistic as governments I support always tend to move much slower than I wish they would!

The Violent Tendencies of Canada's Left :-(

The problem [for some] with posting things on the Internet is that they never really disappear:

Mark Steyn Explains the Canadian Election Results to Americans

Liberal Party of Canada Buried at Sea After Dying in Firefight

Here's the comment I left:

As a small-c conservative living in the heart of Vancouver (aka Canada's Left Coast), this is a loooooong overdue event. I'm ecstatic that the separatist Bloc Quebecois has been decimated and I'm very happy that the Tories have finally won a majority.

Now I will sit back and observe whether much real change will come to Canada. Will our insane public spending increases be stopped? Will the despicable Free Speech tyrants be fired? Will CBC News (aka Pravda de Canuckistan) have all of their public funding ended?

Or will it be simply another replay of Brian Mulroney's CINO regime?!

A Proud New Future!

Election Night 2011: Notice a Similarity?

On most things Metro Vancouver and Metro Toronto have very little in common. But do you notice something very interesting between the two communities in these election maps?

Interesting Factoids about Government & the Economy

1902: In America, 7% of the economy was consumed by the government (2% federal + 5% municipal & state)

2011: Consumption of the economy by the government:

• America: 39%
• Norway: 40%
• Greece: 47%
• France: 53%

Source: Wisconsin Governor, Ron Johnson, in an interview with Dennis Miller

Downtown Vancouver and the North Shore

Food for Thought