"Father" McGuinty's golden goose

This is probably the unkindest cut of all! 

Even after he squandered millions (billions?), and prorogued the legislature for another $300,000 in unearned salaries, he walks away with a golden handshake of $313,461.

But he's not the only well-paid 'rat' leaving the ship with his/her pocket full, i.e.:

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and Energy Minister Chris Bentley -- who have also announced they’re packing it in before the next election -- could walk away with cheques worth $248,777.

Liberal leadership contenders former Liberal economic and development minister Sandra Pupatello, who chose not to run in 2011, and former environment minister John Wilkinson, who voters dismissed that same year, also each qualified for a $248,777 severance.

Former Tory MPP Elizabeth Witmer left her Kitchener-Waterloo office shortly after she was re-elected in 2011, sparking a byelection, was offered a $194,580 severance pay out.

Greg Sorbara, whose sudden departure from office launched a Vaughan byelection, was eligible for a $174,825 severance.

And this doesn't include pensions for life!!

So read 'em and weep, folks.

Halloween ideas...

Have you ever asked yourself...?

Male bashing ... The new spectator sport

For twenty years now, one of the highlights of North American advertising, especially on television, is what many call its male-bashing. Invariably, when TV ads show men and women together, the ads belittle men as ignorant, incompetent, loutish, or juvenile while heralding women as wise, mature, long-suffering adults. (For examples, see this Top Ten list from AskMen.com and for background (see this 2005 NY Times article). Men are always the butt of the jokes while women represent the smart consumers who are bound to follow the advertiser’s advice and buy the product sold by the ad. Critics often remark that were these stereotypes reversed, there would be a feminist uproar and the advertisers would be lynched in the streets. 

Most broadcasting codes have laws against "sexist" portrayals, but few are enforced unless it is the portrayal of women in a demeaning fashion. In fact, I have never heard or read an example of an advertiser being charged or prosecuted for 'male bashing.'

It's about time they did.

The man is such a publicity-craving bore

McGuinty's legacy lives on

Dalton McGuinty may have gone underground, but he's still costing taxpayers $5 million dollars for nothing. That is on account of his closing the doors of the Ontario legislature on his way out. Nonetheless, MLAs (there is no such thing as "MPPs") collect their salaries while the legislature stands idle.

Meanwhile, from his 'bunker' at Queen's Park, McGuinty is still intent on freezing the salaries of civil servants while paying politicians to do nothing.

However, this is far from the last of "Father Goosee's" legacy we will suffer. There is still the $2 billion it will cost us ad infinitum for all-day kindergarten (read "extended day care"), and the mess he leaves behind from e-Health, Green Energy, ORNGE and the Oakville and Mississsauga power plant transfers.

Incredibly, there are still those who believe that he was a pretty good leader, but for me his name will go down in infamy for leaving me considerably poorer.

Dalton bids us all a fond adieu ....

Like his ignominious rule, Father Goosee took the arrogant way out by not meeting with the people. In addition he shut the legislature down so he can rule from behind the scenes without any public oversight.

I mean, that's what "prorogue" means. It means there is no debate, no oversight, but McGuinty and his cabinet can still pass laws and do business by 'executive order.'

So, I will give him this. He was consistently arrogant to the end.

Good riddance.

What's a million...?

The headline in the Toronto Star reads:

Ontario to spend $1 million on new resource centres aimed at parents, tots

So why don't we just turn the whole damned province over to the kids and be done with it?!? That appears to be the goal of McGuinty's master plan. Since "Father Goosee" came to office he has been doling out money (taxpayer's money) to the juvenile set like Father Christmas on steroids. First it was a gratuitous $500 cheque to pay for things like hockey equipment, then is was a straight-out grant ("pecker cheque") of $2,500 a year for whatever, then it was $2 billion for all-day kindergarten (read "extended child care"), and now another $1 million is being for "resource(?) centres."

Meanwhile, some seniors are eating dog food to get by, and others are cutting back on discretionary spending so they can pay the education portion of their property taxes.

Please join me in a silent prayer that Andrea Howarth, NDP, finally chooses what side of the fence she is on, or that Tim Hudak stops talking a good game and does something definitive for a change, and that one or the other pulls the plug on this out-of-control government.

Believe me, a $60 million election is cheap compared to the billions squandered on E-health, the hundred of millions wasted on ORNGE and closing the gas-powered energy plants, so let's throw the bum out!

It's another long weekend in Ontario ...

How can we tell?

Well, for one thing the cops are having a holiday blitz, collecting fines on unrealistic laws that some bubble-headed politicians thought would be a good idea at the time. [Note: Beware politicians when they start thinking.]

The other way of knowing when it's a holiday is when MADD ("Mothers Against Doing Dick") starts laying a guilt trip on us for drinking over .05 milligrams of alcohol. That's about two drinks with the boys. The idea is "zero tolerance" which is about as unrealistic as McGuinty's expectations of it.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Bentley get's 'tarred' for McGuinty's political games

Dalton McGuinty: "In the 220-year history of our legislature, no House has ever voted to find a fellow member in contempt, let alone impose a punishment for contempt."

"Well, hello?" says Christina Blizzard of the Toronto Sun.

"In 220 years, no government has so blatantly and wantonly piddled $230 million down the drain to scrap two power plants in order to save two Liberal seats. 

The contempt motion relates to documents relating to the cancellation of the Oakville gas plant. McGuinty's campaign team cancelled plants in Mississauga and Oakville purely for political advantage. The premier tried to turn the contempt motion on the opposition parties.

"These attacks, these threats, this heavy-handed, unprecedented process - using the full force of the legislature against one MPP - these are decidedly not in keeping with the standards and traditions we seek to uphold," he told reporters.

Oh, and just what "standards" and "traditions" would those be?

That Liberals have the divine right to squander tax dollars at will? They have the right to give untendered contracts to their partisan buddies - and get away with it?

That they have the right to throw away $1 billion on an eHealth boondoggle?

They waste hundreds of millions of public dollars on an outrageous plan to privatize the air ambulance system - and they're not supposed to be held accountable?

Finally, now we have a minority government, the other two parties have the clout to actually call the government to account for this disgraceful spending on gas plants - and according to McGuinty that's "heavy-handed."

I don't think so." [see the full comment at: http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2012/10/20121003-104130.html].

For myself, I am utterly astounded by the arrogance of the man. Even when he is standing up to his knees in the above mentioned mess, and more, he has the audacity to point the finger at others! I am even more astounded by voters who, like those in Vaughan, who continue to support him.

I will admit, however, that he is politically savvy. He knows, for example, that if you pander to the immigrant vote by giving job preferences to new comers, or "pecker cheques" to child-bearing parents, the result is going to be votes.

The problem is that those who do not qualify for such largess are required to pay for it, anyway--like single persons (particularly in the GLBT community) and seniors. On the other hand, these two groups are not likely to vote for McGuinty anyhow.