The 3 jobs of political party leaders.

Interesting item in the National Post Friday January 30, 2009 by L. Ian MacDonald
He cites Brian Mulroney as saying that a party leader has only 3 jobs: unite the party, fill the campaign coffers and win the election. That seems to be accepted by all our political leaders and explains the Canadian political scene succinctly. No mention of governing well.

[http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/01/30/l-ian-macdonald-ignatieff-s-got-game.aspx]

Returning Not = Not Taking

"In Defense of Harper's Budget" in the National Post of February 4, 2009 Ezra Levant uses some unfortunate phrasing. He refers to the reduction in the GST tax as "…back into consumers' pocket". It is unfortunate in that it subtly supports the view that governments are entitled to all my wealth and that when they are generous they give some of it back.
More precisely the government stopped taking as much as before out of consumer's pockets. Yes, this reduced GST tax did reduce overall taxation. Perhaps this can be called part of a "stimulus package". More correctly it is a reduction in the drag of the government on the economy.

This is not the first time I find this subtle phrasing. Here are 2 examples from the Vancouver Sun from some time ago.

Kane: "...spending more than a quarter of a billion dollars on the B.C. homeowner grant."

Cernetig: "...and hand out another $733 million in tax relief, much of it to homeowners."

Both use wording consistent with the general idea that the government is entitled to everything and sometimes give some of it back.

Telling it like it is would say "the government is reducing the tax burden on homeowners".

Nanny State Credit Card Interest Rate

Many holders of credit cards are complaining to the government about the exorbitant interest rate charged on credit cards.

Solution 1 is for the government to act as nanny "..stronger regulation to prevent banks from charging unfair credit card interest rates and transaction fees" [ Jack Layton, National Post http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1217475 ]

Solution 2 is for the government to act as a source of information "..pay off your credit card each month and avoid interest". Further information "if you only buy on your card what you can pay for next month then you have taken an advance step to avoid the problem".

I view Solution 2 as preferable.
Do we really need a nanny government?

Special thanks to Professor Louigi Karl McBalfour

God and happiness

An atheist group in the UK is sponsoring advertisements on the buses reading:
"There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

I like it.

My suggestion is that the opposing view runs some ads reading"
"There probably is a God. So be good."

Who can argue with that?

Of course the secular humanists may propose:
"It doesn't matter if there is a God or not, best to be good, stop worrying, and enjoy your life".

Of course, go for the best of both worlds.

Next will be from the field of positive psychology who may come up with:
"Just be good, stop worrying, enjoy life and it will add to your happiness."

Yes, I aspire to happiness. Perhaps you do as well.

Oposition Or Team 2

January 10 2008
In Canada we have this disfunctional heritage of calling the second most numberous party in our parliament "the opposition".

They take it literally

They seem to believe their job is to oppose everything.

In my view they should be the constructive critic and work toward extablishing themselves as the party with better ideas.

So, solution is Party 1 , Party 2 , Party 3 etc.

The current Party 3 , the NDP, is so fixed on the role of opposition that they have announced that they will work to defeat the budget which will be announced on Tuesday. They are prepared now to say they will vote against in tomorrow, without having read it.

So much for expecting our politicians to be constructive.

February 17, 2009
Addendum.
Today our leader of team Michael Ignatieff said "I'm in this business to win a majority Liberal government.."

What I wish he had said is " As leader of team 2 my job is to be a constructive participant in making parliament work for the benefit of the people of Canada. When an election is called my job will be to win a majority government. When I built a solid track record as number 2 then the electorate will promote me to number 1 without hesitation".

Comments & Ideas

I like to read newspapers.
Often I am frustrated at not being able to rant at someone or to throw out my good ideas.
This blog will be my vents