Go Stamps Go!

The Calgary Stampeders are facing off with the Montreal Alouettes in the 2008 CFL Grey Cup Championship this Sunday.
GO STAMPS GO!

Letter to Council.

The proposed $3/day parking charge will disuade people from parking in transit parking lots, but will also promote parking in residential areas. Additionally, a number of riders will basically drop transit altogether. With the increase in a transit pass to $90 in the new year, the opportunity cost for driving and parking downtown has become less - especially if you can arrange a carpool. You are nickle and diming us to death!

Perhaps there should be free parking for carpoolers.

I am disappointed in this council turning down the proposal to return the budget to the administration. The nit-pick - we saved $40,000 here and $22,000 here WILL NOT CUT IT when we are dealing in a couple BILLION dollars!

The $1,000,000 workout facility that was approved for city hall has to be the final straw for this council. The excuse by the mayor that city workers need a place to work out may be true, but I don't see one at my place of employ. Where is my free pass?

There had been several reports that due to the small number of taxpayers in council chambers during the week has shown that people are just fine and dandy with the tax increases. This is ridiculous - it means people are working during the week!


UPDATE 21Nov2008:
Part of my letter was printed in the Calgary Sun

Calgary City Budget Review Open to Public

The Calgary budget review is coming up and is open to the public. I hope the active public outcry at the out-of-control spending by Silly Hall will result in a large taxpayer attendance. The open house will be held on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Plaza level of the Municipal Building 800 Macleod Trail S.E.

The current city council has been arrogantly pushing spending to unreasonable levels.
If rate inflation is only at a maximum of 4% why are the increases over three years amounting to 25%?

Is it time to ask for Cochrane to annex parts of NW Calgary?


Text below is from the link at www.calgary.ca:

The City released its 2009-2011 proposed business plans and budgets on Thursday, 2008 November 6. This marks the second cycle of multi-year planning and budgeting, which builds upon The City's commitment to municipal excellence, accountability, transparency and excellence in financial management.

The proposed business plans and budgets together provide a view of what citizens can expect from City services over the next three years. The proposed capital and operating budgets provide the financial resources required to implement the proposed business plans, which are, in turn, reflective of Council's declared priorities for 2009-2011.

The 2009-2011 proposed plans and budgets are also available for viewing at all branches of the Calgary Public Library and at the City Clerk's office in Historic City Hall, Municipal Building Complex.

City Council and Administration will host a public open house:
Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Plaza level of the Municipal Building
800 Macleod Trail S.E.

Senior City staff will be on hand to speak with citizens about The City's 2009-2011 proposed business plans and budgets.

City Council meets to discuss the 2009-2011 proposed business plans and budgets beginning Monday, Nov. 17 at 9:30 a.m. in Council Chambers. Public speakers will be heard after an opening presentation. Presenters may address Council for a maximum of five minutes and should bring 35 copies of presentation material. For questions regarding meeting procedures please contact the Legislative Assistant, City Clerk's Office at 403-268-5861.

For those unable to attend the meeting on Nov. 17, communications concerning this matter should be received by the City Clerk before Friday, Nov. 14.
Mail to: City Clerk (#8007),
City of Calgary,
P.O. Box 2100, Postal Station "M",
Calgary, AB T2P 2M5.
Fax: 403-268-2362.
Email: cityclerk@calgary.ca
Deliver to: City Clerk's,
Main Floor, Historic City Hall,
700 MacLeod Trail S.E.

If you have questions regarding meeting procedures please contact the Legislative Assistant, City Clerk's office at 403-268-5861.

City of Calgary Tax Gorging

The City of Calgary has tabled its next budget. It includes a proposed property tax increase of 23.3% over three years - 9.6% next year, 6.8% in 2010, and 6.9% in 2011. This is even more than what was predicted!

Congradulations to the Americans

Yesterday the United States voters elected a black man to be their president. I am encouraged that a new generation has finally found their political voice. After listening to multiple reports, reporters, evaluations, and group discussions on this election, I have come to the following conclusion.

If one more reporter uses the word historic to describe the election results, I will scream.
Additionally, the phrase "I would have never believed that in my lifetime...." seems ingrained in the lexicon of news writers.

I wonder if I should start selling "I Backed Obama" t-shirts......

The Country the World Forgot - Again

This article from Kevin Myers was written Friday, April 26, 2002, but seems still appropriate today.

I heard it for at least the second time on the Charles Adler radio show just today.

It was published in the UK newspaper The Sunday Telegraph
The original online article is here

By Kevin Myers
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 21/04/2002

UNTIL the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a US warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price which Canada pays for sharing the North American Continent with the US, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: it seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.
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Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10 per cent of Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular memory as somehow or other the work of the "British". The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third largest navy and the fourth largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign which the US had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and film-makers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer British. It is as if in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakeably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1 per cent of the world's population has provided 10 per cent of the world's peace-keeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peace-keepers on earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peace-keeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement which has entered the popular non-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the US knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun. It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost.

This weekend four shrouds, red with blood and maple leaf, head homewards; and four more grieving Canadian families know that cost all too tragically well.

USA 2008 Election Prediction

CNN has a neat flash interactive called the CNN Electoral Map Calculator where you can predict the results of the United States election by choosing electoral college votes for each state. Below is my prediction - not that I know anything about American politics....





UPDATE:
Okay the numbers and states are a little screwed up, but the overal result was never in doubt.

22% tax increase! Contact Calgary city hall (or burn it down!!)

Contact your alderman and the mayor to protest the 22% tax increase and the frivolous spending on exotic pedestrian bridges. Stress the fact that these measures has called into question your political support. For property taxpayers this will mean an extra $400 or more per year.

Inflation in Calgary for families should not be exasperated by a City Council gone mad with spending. Everyone - families, small businesses, and large corporations - is cutting back spending, why should the city be any different? I suspect I will not be the only resident and taxpayer to feel this way.

Bronco and Ward 1 alderman Dale Hodges have lost my vote if this huge increase goes ahead.

Contact the Mayor

Contact your Alderman (or whatever they call themselves this week!)


UPDATE:
1. My letter to the editor to the Calgary Sun was printed.

2. I received an email today (04November2008) from the Constituent Assistant to Alderman Hodges responding to the email that I sent. I am a little flabergasted that Mr. Hodges had more important things to do than vote on spending $25 million on pedestrian bridges. As the email explicitly states that:

This communication is intended ONLY for the use of the person or entity named above and may contain information that is confidential or legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient named above or a person responsible for delivering messages or communications to the intended recipient, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that any use, distribution, or copying of this communication or any of the information contained in it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone and then destroy or delete this communication, or return it to us by mail if requested by us. The City of Calgary thanks you for your attention and co-operation.

I will paraphrase the content.

• Thank you for the comments.
  
• THE ALDERMAN WAS NOT PRESENT IN CHAMBERS AT THE TIME OF THE VOTE ON THE PEDESTRIAN BRIDGES!
  

There better be a damn good reason why Hodges was absent from an important vote, where Ric McIver was looking for support for the quashing of the designer pedestrian bridges. Even a doctor's note should not suffice. Could he not vote in proxy?

Stéphane Dion to stay on as Liberal Leader until Liberal Leadership Convention

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will stay on as Liberal party leader until a leadership convention is held. He then will step down to become the 2nd Liberal leader in history not to become prime minister. Edward Blake, who held the party's top job from 1880-87, previously left the post without ever serving as prime minister.

Obvious potential leadership candidates are: Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Frank McKenna, John Manley, Brian Tobin, and for an outside chance coming up the rail brushing his hair - Justin Trudeau.

My picks for Liberal leader include: Céline Dion, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Edward Blake, John Turner, Sheila Copps, Elizabeth May, or Hedy Fry.

Calgary Premiere of Passchendaele

I attended the Calgary premiere of the Canadian-made war movie Passchendaele on the evening of Wednesday, October 15th.

The Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary was transformed into a grande movie theatre with attendees ranging from dignitaries, crew members, the general public, and a large military presence from the Canadian Forces.

The movie was shot in various locales around the Calgary area including Heritage Park and the T'suu Tina Reserve. Entirely produced with Canadian funds, Passchendaele features all-Canadian actors, and a Canadian film crew with mostly local workers.

Paul Gross co-produced, wrote, and starred in this love story with the backdrop of the Great War. He named his movie persona after his maternal grandfather, Michael Joseph Dunne (reg#447977), whose stories of his involvement in World War One - and Passchendaele in particular - inspired Gross to tell this story. Gross also dedicated the film to his relative as well.

Our Canadian actors put in good performances especially the female lead Caroline Dhavernas. The battle scenes compare well with any high budget Hollywood movie effects. Some reviewers have put the realistic nature of the war scenes on a par with Saving Private Ryan. But if you are expecting just action, you will be disappointed.

The film opens with Canadian Sargent Michael Dunne in close combat with the Germans. He returns to Canada recovering from his injuries and falls for his military nurse Sarah Mann. Circumstances force him to return to the Western front to protect Sarah's brother. They are both thrown into the hell known as Passchendaele.

Spoiler Alerts!
The appearance of his love Sarah in the medical hospital at Passchendaele before the battle and the subsequent love scene reeks with incredulity. The love scene itself seems lifted from the 2001 WWII movie Enemy at the Gates.

Although it had been foreshadowed earlier in the film, I found the symbolism in the final scenes to be a little over the top with an injured Dunne carrying Sarah's near-to-death brother to safety across the battlefield on a cross-like pole.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and the fact that it is bringing Canadian war history to the masses is a positive.

My great grandfather Robert A. Malcolm (reg#709485) also served in the Great War. I have to request documents from the DOD for his service record. Exposure to mustard gas did not kill him on the battlefield, but severely damaged his lungs making life very difficult as he never fully recovered. I hope that Passchendaele will help bring more stories to today's youth. I want my daughter to realise the sacrifices that were made on our behalf.

At the reception after the screening guests mingled with actors and crew. I saw Paul Gross picking his teeth and lamented that I was too far away to come to the rescue with my spare dental floss. Perhaps next time.....

Reviews of the film:
Bruce Kirkland, Calgary Sun

Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Canadian Press

Eye Weekly, Jason Anderson

Tribute Magazine Online Public Reviews

Chris Knight, National Post

2008 Canadian Election Results

Total number of seats in the New Canadian Parliament

143	76	50	37	2	0
				Ind

Two Votes Done

My wife and I voted this morning before work at about 7:45am MDT.

The election workers seemed surprised that everyone seemed to understand that
if you read the directions on the elector card, the populous will know what to do.

I walked into the poll station (no line at 7:45am!!), glanced at my card, then saw the polling
table number where I should go. I handed the card to the worker and pulled out my driver's license.

I received my ballot, then went behind the protective cardboard screen to mark it. I returned to the polling table, where the worker prepped the ballot for me to put in the ballot box. I dropped it in.

Done.
The entire procedure lasted about two minutes.
Get out and vote people.

Too Many Darn Polls

Half of voters are sick of hearing about new poll results, the results of a new poll suggest.

A national survey by Strategic Communications found almost half of respondents, 49 per cent, said there was “too much polling reported in the media.” Only 6.1 per cent said there was not enough.

See full report from Irwin Loy at: Too many darn polls.

Maybe we should have a poll about the results of this poll.

You want this man to be Canada's Prime Minister?

Is Liberal leader Stéphane Dion acting more and more like a character on "the Simpsons"? There have been two less-than-stellar examples of the Liberal "leader" gaffes in the last few days.

The first was the CTV interview where Stéphane Dion shows that he truly does not have a clear understanding of English. He could not formulate a good answer after three tries. He should have three strikes and he is out! Imagine this happening on a world stage? Canada would be the laughing stock of the globe. The Liberals are claiming a hearing impairment, but this does not pan out. He heard the question just fine three times, but just did not understand. Dion was so focussed on his thirty day "plan", he could not think of the hypothetical situation of being in the Prime Minister's shoes during this financial crisis.

The second occurred in Halifax at Stephane Dion's speech to the chamber of commerce. The teleprompter malfunctioned and Dion proved to be helpless.

"Thank you very much, um ... Thank you. Uh, and thank you also. Thank you, Valerie. I think exactly like ... I will speak with my heart, okay?"
"Thank you Valerie. Thank you so much because what you have as an agenda is at the core of a plan that Scotch, um, Scott has shown, a plan that want development and for the next generations as well, build on the economy and environment together."

Full article from Greg Weston of the Ottawa Sun appears here.

Stephen Harper is looking more and more like a Prime Minister. One can only hope that the country gives him the majority he deserves.

Major Political Parties Website Search Statistics

Performing an online search on the major parties websites resulted in some interesting results. Websites were searched using the built-in search option at each of the following sites: www.liberal.ca (Liberal Party of Canada), www.ndp.ca (New Democratic Party of Canada), and www.greenparty.ca (Green Party of Canada). The only site that did not have a search option was www.conservative.ca (Conservative Party of Canada), so I have no statistics to analyze. I have sent an email to the conservative webmasters to ask why no search option was available.

A simple text search was performed and a count of the hits on each of the websites was noted for several different election issues. The total hits for each issue is summed to obtain a total issue value. Using this total value and the numbers of each issue hit a percentage can be calculated. This is displayed in pie chart format. I chose from the following list as important election issues: environment, leadership, crime, economy, integrity, corruption, taxes, health care, sovereignty, accountability, child care, and seniors. I figure if a party considers an issue important, it should rank fairly high in the percentage of issues.

Click image to view the raw statistics in a new window or tab:



Here are the pie charts and some commentary:


Is the Liberal Party attempting to compensate for something that it is lacking?
A quick analysis of the Liberal numbers:

• 51% of platform issue pages has leadership mentioned. Is this due to a lack of Liberal leadership, or is it just criticism of other parties? Leadership envy???
  
• For a party that brought out the "Green Shift", it is surprising to see only 5% of platform issue pages with environment in the text.
  
• I see a sliver of platform issue pages at 1% dedicated to the topic of crime. For me, this is disconcerting, seeing how gun crime and other violent offences seem to be perpetrated by repeat offenders. Locally in Calgary, there have been many incidences involving violent crime related to gangs and drugs. This should be a major political issue.
  
• Child Care - a topic seemingly near and dear to Liberals - is a puny 7%.
  
• Health Care - a topic seemingly nearer and dearer to Liberals - is an even punier percentage: 2%. Does this indicate the Liberals do not care?
  
• The other major component of the platform issue pages mention the economy at 26%. This is somewhat surprising since Dion only announced during the French language debate that his plan would be to spend thirty days in meetings to formulate a plan for the economy. I surmise most of the links refer to the new "green economy"?
  

It seems Jack Layton is attempting to cover every man's (and woman's) issues based on the political correctness colours on the pie chart. By far this is the most balanced platform based on pure statistics. But this also indicates an unfocused platform.
A quick analysis of the NDP numbers:

• Environment and Leadership are basically tied at the top of the platform issue pages for the NDP at 17% each.
  
• Health Care is a healthy 13% of platform issues. Nothing really new here. I still do not understand the NDP's reluctance to endorse private clinics that get would be paid by medicare.
  
• Another sliver of platform issue pages dedicated to the topic of Crime at a slightly larger value than the Liberals of 4%. This is a little surprising as Jack's Toronto ridings have seen "The Year of the Gun" and bodies dropped on the 401.
  
• Child Care - 9%.
  
• The economy at 12%
  
• Taxes are only mentioned about 5% in the platform issues pages. I am amazed this percentage is so low since every second phrase out of Jack's mouth is either a derogatory "sweater" comment or "I will remove corporate tax cuts."
  

Not surprisingly, the Green Party staple of the environment dominated at 30% of platform issue pages, but was not as large as I would have thought. The Leadership numbers of 51% of the Liberals is more or less what I expected from the Green's environmental base.
A quick analysis of the Green numbers:

• As stated, Environment dominated at 30% of platform issue pages. I expected much higher numbers.
  
• Second is the Economy at 16%. Many of these pages relate to the "New Green Economy."
  
• Leadership - 14%. Many of these numbers are from the Green's own internal leadership race and "Canada taking a leadership role...."
  
• Health Care 9%
  
• Taxes 9% in the platform issues pages. Interesting, since one of May's major platform pieces is to raise the GST one point. This is a tax increase....
  

I wish that the Conservatives had a search option on the website for a more thorough comparison of the major national parties.

A few comments about the Left-leaning parties website statistics:

• Sovereignty barely made a blip on the radar: LIB <1%, NDP 4%, GRN 3%
  
• Taxes not main platforms: LIB 3%, NDP 5%, GRN 9%
  
• Crime must not be important: LIB 1%, NDP 4%, GRN 4%
  
• The Liberals are focused on Leadership or the lack thereof.
  

Get out and vote on Tuesday, October 14, 2008. See link at bottom of page.....

UPDATE: Darren Barefoot has done some more analysis than I have done using similar techniques. A counting and searching brute force method resulted in getting the top 100 to 250 words used on the sites. So this does not bias the results by having to choose the tags as I have done. He even displays the results in an artistic type of display called a "Tag Cloud." Check out his article at Darren Barefoot

His graphical image results for the major parties are displayed below:

Problems with conservative.ca

Are the Conservatives updating their website - www.conservative.ca - to include their new platform? Is the site being stalled be a DNS-type attack? Is the media trying to download the entire platform at the same time? Did the Conservatives buy second hand servers? Did Windows crash?

These are questions for which I do not have the answer. I only know that I cannot access the Conservative website as of 12:26MDT October 07, 2008 - and could not from about noon. I did not have any problems with www.liberal.ca , nor www.ndp.ca . I cannot bring myself to even test the green site.....

Update:
12:36 - Conservative site seems to be up and running......I still do not know the cause.

Economists yell fire in economic theatre!

Some of the recent comments made by Canada's economists are akin to yelling "Fire" in a movie theatre. These types of reports create panic and may result in a self fulfilling prophesy.

See link: CTV Link

W

I do not know how many times the gang-up-on-Harper crew in the Canadian election debate thought that George W. Bush was debating with them.
I wish Stephen Harper had said something like:
"I am not George W. Bush. Nor am I George H.W. Bush. I do not resemble Reggie Bush. I am not as funny as George Carlin."

Liberal official apologizes for removing political signs put up by Conservatives

The executive director of the Liberal Party of Prince Edward Island is apologizing after he was caught on camera removing political signs put in place by local Conservatives.
See full report here at: PEI Guardian Newspaper

New Speech for Stephen Harper?

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new Parliament, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men, women, and others are created equal. On that day, I had a dream - a dream that one day on the red hills of Prince Edward Island, the sons and daughters of former Conservatives and the sons and daughters of current Conservatives will be able to sit down together at a table of brother-daughterhood. Yesterday, September 30th, 2008 - a date which will live in infamy - the Conservative Party of Canada was suddenly and deliberately attacked by rival forces of the Liberal Party of Canada. To that I respond, my fellow Canadians: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

We choose to go to the polls in this year and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

For the unelected, we will never forget them, nor the last time we will see them, as they were preparing for their election but instead waved goodbye, and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." For when in the course of Canadian events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to vote with their conscience, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all Liberal, NDP, Bloc, and Green terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break saddled with a minority government, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.

- Owen Lippert (no not really...... more like Abraham, Martin, Franklin, John, Ronald, Thomas, Winston, Patrick, and Lou - or their speechwriters)