Month: January 2006

Categories
In the News

Sorry, Sam, But Your $250-a-plate Party IS a Fundraiser

Michael Geist writes in his blog about the fundraising dinner being thrown by Sam Bulte’s Big Content snugglebuddies:

Now, despite clearly

labelling the event as a fundraiser on her own website,

she’s arguing it isn’t a fundraiser at all.  Instead, in response to

the question “How can we count on you to carry on. . . impartially when

you are taking money from special interest groups?”, the Star reports

that Bulte responded:

“They are not hosting a fundraiser for me. It’s a celebration of my support for the arts community.”

We should all be so lucky to have celebrations where each guest forks over $250. If each of you cheapskates who attended my birthday party had done that, I’d be entering this blog entry in a zignone wool suit from Harry Rosen.

Since what Sam says has often proven to be at variance with what she does, I decided to be empirical and go take a look at her site. Here’s a screen capture of her site as of 10:45 a.m. this morning:

I see the word “FUNDRAISER” in capitals, clear as day. How ’bout you?

I downloaded the invitation, which I’ve put here for your reference [80K PDF], in case someone at her campaign gets smart (unlikely) and replaces it. Here’s what the top of the first page looks like:

I believe that phrases “cordially invite you to an artists’ and creators’ fundraiser for Sam Bulte” and “All funds raised will go to Sam’s re-election campaign” strongly suggest that this “celebration” is indeed a fundraiser. If you’re still not convinced, there’s the note at the bottom of the first page that reads:

Tax receipt will be issued for the eligible portion of the cost

You can hand out tax receipts for “celebrations”? I should’ve handed some out at my legendary hot tub party!

Finally, there’s this legal statement on the second page of the invitation:

Please note the new contribution limits as at January 1, 2004: Individuals may contribute up to a total of $5,000 in a calendar year to a registered party and its registered associations; candidates and nomination contestants. Corporations and trade unions may contribute up to a total of $1,000 in a calendar year to the registered electoral district associations; candidates; and nomination contestants. Crown corporations and corporations that receive 50% or more of their funding from the federal government will not be able to make any contributions.

It’s a fundraiser, all right. What kind of idiots does she take us for?

Categories
In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Even More Questions from the All-Candidates Meeting

That’s right, even more from my notes on last week’s all-candidates meeting. In case you missed them, here are my earlier entries on that meeting:

Question Seven: The Gun Crime Question

What are you going to do about gun crime?

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • This is a question that I hear repeatedly, and there are no simple fixes for this problem

    •    

  • Nobody needs a gun

    •    

  • Many of the guns are coming from south of the border [remember, American readers, to us, “south of the border” means “America”]

    •    

  • The border is unpatrolled in many places and there isn’t enough staff to cover all of it

    •    

  • Gun crimes need to be treated with mandatory jail time

    •    

  • Also need to work on communities — “poverty by postal code”

Sam Bulte   

  • Key gun crime laws died on the table because of the vote of non-confidence [which led to this election]

    •    

  • We need more police — both local and RCMP

    •    

  • We need to work with youth as well — there has to be some prevention — can’t just be “law and order”

    •    

  • We should ban guns

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

  • We can’t resort to an “iron-fisted approach”

    •    

  • Society has to live up to its responsibilities, and individuals have to live up to their responsibilities

    •    

  • We have to balance going on the offensive with respecting people’s rights

    •    

  • “Arc of poverty” — one-quarter of the people in the city live below the poverty line

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • This is possibly the most important issue

    •    

  • There’s a “big business” running the streets — the drug trade

    •    

  • The drug trade and guns are intertwined

    •    

  • Tougher laws and mandatory sentences for gun crimes

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • mumble mumble mumble Legalization of marijuana will end organized crime mumble mumble

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party   

  • We already have strong gun laws

    •    

  • The problem is with illegally-obtained guns

    •    

  • Let people who want to have gun collections keep them, but make it so the guns in those collections are non-functional

    •    

  • Gun sport enthusiasts can also keep their guns, but store them at the place where they are used [e.g. their shooting range]

    •    

  • We believe in restorative justice

Question 8: What will you do for seniors?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party   

  • Many of the programs in place for seniors were put there by the Liberals

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

  • Here in Canada, we have the resources to provide for all

    •    

  • Unfortunately, providing for everyone’s needs is not a principle we follow

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • We will give patient care gurantees

    •    

  • We want to expand the definiton of “caregiver” so that more people who take care of the elderly qualify for benefits

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • We would like to commit $1 billion a year over the next four years to programs that would give more seniors the ability to stay in their own homes rather than go to old folks’ homes

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • mumble mumble Revenues from marijuana mumble mumble mumble

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party   

  • Some reasons that older people need help: pollution and our lifestyle

    •    

  • Wait till the boomers hit the system

    •    

  • We want to provide universal access to senior care

Question 9: The Environment

[My notes on the question are bunged up, but it’s a question about the environment.]


Rob Rischinsky, Green Party   

  • We can have both economic prosperity and environmental health

    •    

  • Look at Sweden: since 1990, their GDP has gone up 54% while pollution has gone down 25%

    •    

  • Kyoto [the accord] is the first step

    •    

  • Note that there was no mention of the environment in the televised debates

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • The NDP has made sure that money was given to the TTC and the energy retrofit program

    •    

  • We stand for:       
             

    • Clean air
    • Clean water
    • Making polluters pay
    • National energy retrofit program

      •        

  • [The way we’ve implemented] Kyoto is a national shame

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • mumble mumble hemp mumble mumble forests mumble mumble fuel

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party   

  • The Kyoto Accord — led by the Liberal party

    •    

  • Funded Great Lakes cleanups, targeted Toronto

    •    

  • We have invested $5.1 billion in the environment

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

  • The type of economy we live in will always clash with the environment

    •    

  • As long as the profit motive exists, that clash will always exist

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • Kyoto is a disgrace

    •    

  • We’ve missed every deadline

    •    

  • Now we have to buy credits

    •    

  • We proposed tax credits for people who take public transit

    •    

  • We will invest in renewable fuels
Categories
In the News

Swingers!

Although the news is a couple of weeks old, I haven’t yet had a chance to comment on the ruling by the Canadian Supreme Court that clubs that allow group sex and partner swapping do not harm Canadian society and should not be considered criminal.

Colby Cosh said pretty much what I think, so I’ll let him do the talking:

Hey, guys, maybe you could explain what harm group-sex clubs actually do cause to non-members? Is there even one in your city, and if so could you find it?

…

Socons will find themselves, presumably to their

surprise, in the Bastarache/Lebel camp [these were the two dissenting judges]. They will see some meaning in

the phrase “the Canadian community as a whole” where absolutely none

exists. They will regard the court as having usurped and destroyed a

power of determining “indecency” that belongs to Parliament. In

principle I don’t like genuine “judicial activism”, but this decision also binds future courts; it has the effect of reducing the power of every branch of government, including the judiciary,

to assist in outlawing private behaviour and expressive materials.

Can’t social conservatives tell the difference between judicial

activism that expands the power of the state–like adding

newly-invented “protected grounds” to discrimination law–and judicial

activism that inhibits it?

Nah. What they care about is that the power of the

state be used for their own preferred ends. Hey, some of my best

friends are social conservatives. But when it comes to subjects like

this, most of them posses nothing resembling a philosophy–merely a

reflexive claim to authority.

In fact, it’s the same reflexive claim of authority that socons accuse progressives of touting.

I feel that in the end, we’ll put a uniquely Canadian spin on swinging, giving it a touch of good ol’ Canuck politesse:

Categories
Uncategorized

Apollo 12 Cuff Checklists

One thing that impressed me in the movie Apollo 13 was their use of checklists: in a mission where little differences are actually big differences, there’s nothing like a checklist to take care of the things that our brains are bad at (accurately tracking long lists of procedures and data) and free our brains to do what they do best (evaluating, analyzing and reacting to changing situations). I should probably get in the habit of making more checklists.

The Apollo 12 Lunar Journal site has two PDFs showing two different mission checklists that were mounted on the cuffs of the astronaut’s suits: one for the command module [700K PDF — some poorly-photocopied nudity], and one for the lunar module [900K PDF — some poorly-photocopied nudity]. Not only do the checklists feature the standard tech stuff, they’ve also got some cartoons and photos of Playboy playmates. That sort of stuff wouldn’t fly today, but this was engineering culture in the ’60’s.

Categories
Uncategorized

If David Janes Were Running for Prime Minister

While David Janes and I do not always see eye-to-eye on every issue, our poltics often align in that foggy part of the political landscape where “fiscally conservative” and “socially liberal” meet (according to the Map of Politopia, I live in the northwest suburbs of “Centerville”). Accuse me of wanting to have my cake and eat it too if you must; I will counter (and win) by reminding you that that is exactly the purpose of cake.

The latest series of entries in his blog, Ranting and Roaring, lists the planks of the “Janes Platform”, if he were running for Prime Minister. I generally agree with them:

Strangely enough, what David has to say about paying off the debt — “A Janes government will not pay down the debt, believing that keeping

money in the hands of the Canadian people and growing the economy to

the point where the debt is an irrelevancy is a more effective strategy” — is pretty close to what Lorne Gershuny of the Marxist-Leninist party said about the debt at last week’s all-candidates meeting!

Categories
In the News

More Liberal Copyright Shenanigans

[via Michael Geist] The Conservatives have an ad titled Even Liberals (it’s on their site) that features a clip of (Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister) Paul Martin at a town hall meeting televised on the CBC. In the clip — barely a couple of seconds long — Martin makes the embarassing admission that he approved an “attack ad” that even some members of the Liberal party didn’t like.

The Liberals claim that in using the clip, the Conservatives are infringing on the CBC’s copyright. I agree with Michael Geist — I think that the Conservatives can easily argue that use of the clip is fair use since it’s short, is being used in a critique and is news reporting (for more on what fair use is, see this entry). This is just another example of copyright being misused as a stick — this time to beat legitimate political speech into silence rather than beat cash out of customers.

Categories
In the News It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

More Questions from the All-Candidates Meeting

Sorry it took so long, but here’s more from the All-Candidates Meeting. If you missed the other installments:

Question 3: The “Psychotropic Drugs” Question

“There’s no right answer to this question,” said the guy who was next in line, “but I’m just as interested in the way you answer it.” The question was about psychotropic medication — there’s a loophole in the law where people can prescribe psychotropic drugs to children. What would you do to fix that loophole?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

  • The public health agency should be able to help

    •    

  • Will establish a mental health commission

    •    

  • Will also hold dialogues cross-country

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • I’m not in favour of commissions

    •    

  • I helped introduce Steven Fletcher, who’s likely to be Minsiter of Health — I’d bring the issue to him

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • That’s crazy!

    •    

  • The Ministry of Health should be able to close this loophole

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • (A lot of indignant mumbling) full disclosure commission

    •    

  • My notes from this point read: “mumble mumble mumble”

Rob Rischinsky, Green Party   

  • I’d establish a commission to reduce the use of psychotropic drugs

    •    

  • We have to recognize that there are alternative treatments

Question 4: Toronto the ATM

Toronto sends a lot of money to Ottawa — in fact, $13 billion more goes out of the city than into it. Would you support the return of one-quarter of that money? It could go to transit, education, social services and the environment

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party   

  • There’s a full GST rebate for municipalities

    •    

  • Money from the gas tax goes to cities

    •    

  • We’ve given Toronto a bonus for the TTC’s ridership, providing $350 million in partnership with the city and provincial governments

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • We need equalization

    •    

  • The Liberals implemented the gas tax because of pressure from the NDP

    •    

  • The NDP is the champion of cities

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • Legalizing marijuana will lead to tax revenues which will provide the city with money

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party   

  • We propose a “Green tax shift” — where personal incomes taxes are reduced to 0 while taxes on pollution and waste are increased

    •    

  • We would transfer tax authority to the local level

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

  • We’ll meet with Mayor Miller and the local Business Improvement Areas

    •    

  • We understand the issues and will introduce initiatives

Question 5: One from the Kids

At this point, they opened the floor to the local kids who were in attendance. The first one: How would you decrease child poverty in Canada?

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • Poverty has many causes:       
             

    • Lack of affordable housing

      •        

    • Low minimum wage

      •        

    • Lack of childcare

      •        

    •    

  • We also need program to assist new Canadians to give them assistance in settling in; credentials

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • mumble mumble social assistance mumble mumble revenues from legal marijuana mumble mumble

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party

  • There are ways to solve child poverty:       
             

    • Pay people a living wage

      •        

    • Provide benefits and child tax credits for people with children

      •        

    • Provide daycare

      •       

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party

  • We’ve done a lot — there’s the Liberal child tax benefit that put money directly in the hands of families

    •    

  • I agree with Peggy Nash — combating poverty requires a holistic approach

Lorne Gershuny, Marxist-Leninist Party   

  • It’s telling that a young person asked this question — young people are always most concerned about the future

    •    

  • Canada has vast resources, skills and technology

    •    

  • We can provide for everyone — it’s just that the allocation of wealth isn’t even

    •    

  • We have to stop paying the rich

    •   

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party

  • Poverty is reflective of the lack of posterity

    •    

  • Prosperity leads to generosity

    •    

  • We would fight poverty with       
             

    • Education

      •        

    • Small business opportunities

      •        

    • Apprenticeship programs

      •        

       

Question 6: Another from the Kids

How is the government going to invest in our future?

Sam Bulte, Liberal Party 

  • Education is the key to prosperity

    •    

  • Access Canada

    •    

  • 50/50 program provides up to $3000 of tuition

    •    

  • We need money for measures to help students graduate

Rob Rishchynski, Greeen Party   

  • We will work with the provinces to decrease tuition

    •    

  • Paying off debts can cripple someone just out of school — loan paybacks should be scaled to match the income from a first job

    •    

  • We believe that there should be apprenticeship programs and a mentorship network to help people just out of school build the skills they need

Lorne Gershuny   

  • The aim of government should be to eliminate tuition fees

    •    

  • Anyone with the motivation and ability should be able to get an education

Jurij Klufas, Conservative Party   

  • We need to encourage people to get into skilled trades

    •    

  • More programs for apprentices

    •    

  • More small business incentives

Peggy Nash, New Democratic Party   

  • We need to reverse cuts to post-secondary education

    •    

  • Need to provide stable long-term funding

    •    

  • Need to establish a program of life-long learning

    •    

  • Need to create a national apprenticeship program

Terry Parker, Marijuana Party   

  • Pass