Monday, September 26, 2011

ALWARD - MORE PROGRESSIVE THAN CONSERVATIVE



When the political pundits get bored in the in the distant future and decide to do a historical search for “Canada’s Worst Provincial Premier EVER”. Shawn Graham would be NB’s nominee.

Comparing Alward to Graham is ridiculous in the sense that Graham performed so poorly that we would have been better served by a semi-retarded lump pulled from the Jobs Unlimited labour pool. In other words, Alward can only be measured by his actions. Lets have a look at some of them.

1.The New Brunswick Energy Commission: Remember this? Bill Thompson and Jeannot Volpe roaming the province with their “public engagement” entourage. What were their final recommendations?

a.Provide more bureaucratic over-site for the already bloated crown corporation,

b.Ban electric baseboard heaters and

c. Increase power rates for those who already have them installed.

Not bad content for a 10 yr energy plan. Somebody should dig this report out if or when Craig Leonard decides to do something with his portfolio other than open an office in Fredericton and make sure his sister has cushy job in the Premier’s office.

2.The Cell Phone Legislation: The list of unnecessary legislation is long but this one may be the proof that the PC Party of NB is really not in the business of doing anything that really makes a difference. The Nanny State grows yet again. What’s next? Tanning beds?


3.Cut Spending and Lower Taxes: What is the correct word for a government that says one thing but does the exact opposite. Gas tax up, booze tax up, gov’t spending up 63 million. Not to mention this gov’t is trying to soften the ground for an HST hike. This isn’t governing, this is pandering.


4. INVEST NB: WTF?? They created ANOTHER gov’t agency! This all we needed…more government. Whatever the current moniker of age old gov’t sponsored economic development, the results are always the same, cronyism and the vanishing of taxpayers money.


5. Alward DID NOTHING to help New Brunswickers get to the bottom of the ATCON scandal. $70 million gone forever and tory backbenchers silenced on the issue.

That being said, the most disappointing aspect of Alward, year 1, was the budget. They missed the best opportunity in decades to tackle the size of government.  I will end with a question. Do fiscal conservatives exist?

Saturday, September 3, 2011

It Was Not Just Us Who Got Screwed on Solar Panels

From National Review:

The best quote from the article could be written about scores of New Brunswick politicians, many masquerading as Conservatives.

"His economically illiterate base spends its time decrying “corporations,” but urban-gardening cooperatives don’t create a lot of jobs, and community-based nonprofits by definition don’t create any profit, and therefore no investment capital, and therefore no economic growth. You want to see some real, sustainable, long-term jobs created, your best bet is to look to a “corporation”—“corporation” simply being the word for a business that has grown large enough or profitable enough to require the legal organization of its affairs. But if you’re Barack Obama, not just any corporation will do: It has to be just the right sort of corporation."

Here in New Brunswick we spend our days complaining about the Irvings and McCains being too rich. The difference between them and our politicians is you can buy gas and French fries if you want. Or not. But short of leaving, which many of our friends have done, you cannot escape the ever greedy politician.

UPDATED: Very, Very, VERY Important People, and the Newspapermen Who Heed Their Wishes

The original post follows below.

Seems the Telegraph Journal has taken down the story linked below.

Not sure why, but here are some possibilities.

1. Mistakes in the story. Could be, but why not fix and a retraction?

2. The government carrot. The government offered them something worth more than the reputation of their flagship New Brunswick daily.

3. The government stick. Government threatened to punish them harshly, since they are in terribly over-regulated businesses, they understand the cost of even more draconian regulations.


Original Post

It seems the people of New Brunswick have been hosed to the tune of $810,000 in six months so they can fly around the province instead of drive like everyone else.


All these Cabinet Ministers are staffed with Executive Assistants. The EA can drive while the good minister rests.


Read about it here


These are the things that average New Brunswickers lose their minds over.


Sell the damn plane. And for those ministers that feel the need to use the plane, be prepared for the disgust of the people.

Friday, September 2, 2011

It Seems $1.5 Million is Small Change

Reminds me of the old joke; a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we are talking real money.

Why is $1,500,000 insignificant to the people of New Brunswick?

Regardless of what is being said, it is still actual dollars and cents for New Brunswickers. I would wager if the 1.5 mil was coming out of Minister Leonard's pockets this would warrant more attention.