At a loss for words

I don't think I've ever been ashamed to be Canadian.  But that's quickly changing, and it's all due to a few opposition parties bitter that they lost an election.

I've made comments in my life that Bush stole the 2000 election.  The fate of a country decided by a handful of judges instead of a proper and full recount.  Though costly, a recount would have been the morally correct and proper.

 

But what the NDP, Bloq and Liberal parties of Canada want to do?  That's stealing an entire government, let alone an election.  The election happened and they lost, yet they're brokering backroom deals to steal parliament!  What the FUCK! 

The gist is this: the Conservative party tabled an outline for their financial plan, which included cutting the public funding to all parties.  That funding was the child of Jean Chretien, a former Liberal Prime Minister.  The public funding has been critized as being biased to the party in power, because it sees that party losing the largest amount of money.

The Conservative party stood to lose around 10 million dollars, far more than any of the parties.  That isn't a problem for them, however, because they receive most of their funding from grassroots fundraising.  The Liberals, bloated after almost 15 years in power, would run the distinct possibility of being bankrupt, along with the fledgling Green Party. 

So the Conservatives, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to remove that little tidbit.  Still, the opposition parties march forward with their idea of stealing the government.  They claim that anything less than a stimulus package for the economy will send Canada into a depression.  Really?  We'll go from having one of the stronger economies in this world wide mess to being what, a third world country?  I don't think so. 

Yeah, the auto industry might be crumbled and thousands of people will be out of work, but how in the fuck is that any different than when Alcan closed their doors in Canada, or any of the other logging or steel mills?  Where were the opposition parties then, crying about the plight of the working Canadian?  Oh yeah, they weren't scheming back then.

 

I'm livid.  The opposition wants to put the Liberals in power, with Stephan Dion as the Prime Minister.  This man lead the Liberals to the worst showing of support for the Liberal party since Confederation.  Even Martin (whom I supported and voted for) fared better after dealing with the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal.  A scandal which came from a funding program started by Jean Chretien.  And who was one of the first people to start brokering talks between the Liberals and the NDP last week?  You guessed it; Jean Chretien.

That man's meddling ruined the Liberal Party.  I was a Liberal supporter for most of my life, and I would have described myself as a 'Paul Martin'-liberal.  I was disappointed at the partisanship and ego displayed by Chretien because he didn't want to leave power.  And now Chretien is trying to help broker a deal to steal the government voted in by the people? 

I'm all for the idea of party coalitions to oust an abusive government.  Or even a government that is trying to repeal innate human-rights from sects of individuals.  But no one is clamouring in the streets.  No one but the profesional politicians themselves have been crying foul about the Conservative government.  Where is the support of the people for this action?  There is none.

I'm becoming convinced that this is why liberal parties want stricter gun control; it's not to keep the people safe, but to safeguard themselves.

The timing of this action is absurd.  We've just gone to the polls.  We gave the Conservative party a slightly larger minority government than they had going into this election.  We, the people, don't have confidence in the Liberals or the NDP.  Who are they to assume we want them?

I've never been this ashamed at my government, which is saying a lot considering how deplorable I found its treatment of our citizens being held and tortured in foreign countries.

 

Source:

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081130%2fconservative_budget_081201

Posted by NorthernPlato @ 5:07 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

Youtube rocks

I love that I can find music videos on youtube; it certainly helps break up the monotony of some of my 'easier' classes.

 

 

 

Neil Young ftw!

 

Appearantly, embedding was disabled, so I'll try to find a different video of the song.  Here's a link to the original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vef03k5i8VI&feature=related

Posted by NorthernPlato @ 2:30 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Double news in one blog!

First, a bit of a polical rant.  It's Election Day here in Canada, meaning I went out and fulfiled my democratic responsiblity.  Yes, I say responsibility and not right, because I  believe that being engaged (at least as minimally represented by voting) is a responsibility of citizens.  I can't stand hearing that people don't vote.  It's not your choice, fucktard, it's your damned responsibility.  Gah!

This election, I only had one issue that mattered to me above all, and it wasn't education, health care or the economy.  This issue wasn't on any opinion poll and it wasn't address by the majority of parties.  The issue most important to me this election was Arctic sovereignty.  After reading an article early this year about the Russians mapping the sea-floor and trying to make a case at the UN (or wherever it happens to matter) that because of a continental shelf extending from land they own, they should have 'ownership' over the artic, I was impressed (although reluctantly so) by my government's reaction.

It doesn't matter now.  It may not matter in my lifetime or for another 10-15 years.  But pledging now to increase military troop patrols and invest in coastal Inuit villages to bolster our use of land we've staked a claim to for decades (if not hundreds of years; I'll profess ignorance for how long we've officially claimed our border there), the Conservative party got my vote. 

As this election progressed and I tracked the events, I was extremely put-off by my usual party of choice, the Liberals.  I haven't been happy since Chretien screwed over Martin and messed up the party with which I most identified; I hate partisan politics and watching the jackals try to advance their agenda at the expense of my country pissed me off.)  If Harper gets a majority government, or a more substantial minority than what he had, and he doesn't mess it up by going socially right, then I may be a Conservative for a while.  Ah well.  My opinion (and vote) changes based on what I see and how I perceive the party to act.  It's never written in stone and my vote is up to the least damaging party.

 

The second bit of news: I'm doing well in school.  Since returning, I've been holding a 95% average.  I'm damned pleased with myself because I used to slack off in school and glide-by effortlessly with 70s.  Working, studying and paying attention have netted my marks of which I'm proud.  I even had a teacher state she owes me coffee because I got 100% on the test in her class.  Like a 'first trimester' exam.   Woot!

 

All told, I'm pretty damned giddy.  Well, it's time to go reheat left-overs from turkey-day dinner.  I hope everyone reading (and not, I'm not biased  ) has a good evening, and if you're Canadian, I hope you don't feel terribly dirty after voting.  I know I did.

Posted by NorthernPlato @ 5:59 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

First Steps...

... for me into a new career.  

Shortly after getting back home from the LAN, I received mail from a few different places.  One fromEI (social assistance for people recently laid off; for you non-Canadians, it's basically a refund on a 'tax' we pay off of each pay check similarly to pension payments) saying they'd finally sorted all the paperwork out and another from a new program in Ontario called 'Second Career'.  Basically, it allows "under" educated people such as myself to go back to school while on EI and receive assistance.  It does require a contribution from myself, of course, which I think is a good thing for such a program.

I'd never be able to go back to school on my own without some form of assistance, and having already paid off a student loan once I'm glad I don't have to do it again. 

Anyway, today was a 'mandatory' pre-start, 'quasi'-frosh day that at least 50% of the people registered in the course didn't attend.  I wouldn't of showed up, but I figured that'd be a crappy way to start off.  I'm very excited to be going back to school, especially for something that I was exposed to in my previous job (consulting/technical writing for companies that wanted to submit a report for research tax credits).  There was a lot of financial information from clients' that I'd have to handle, but helping them stratigize such expenditures was beyond my (and my employer's) realm of knowledge.

Hence, I'm now in an accounting course.  The program I'm taking is appearantly a fantastic program that'll qualify me for transfer credits for the programs from all three professional accounting associations in Canada.  All I need to finish after this course is, depending on which university I attend, either 1 or 2 years to get a degree and the rest of the courses required by the various accounting associations.

So, in 4-5 years, I'll have a degree, a diploma and a professional designation that's recognized across the counrty and in demand, all of which will compliment my work experience.

So far, with only a high school diploma (I started a landscaping technician program out of high school, but couldn't afford to continue living out of town.  A $5,000 loan for nothing.) I've been a quality assurance co-ordinator (I have my ISO9001:2000 Internal Auditor accredition that's RAB certified), I've been a production controller for the same company, and most recently I did consulting for a research tax credit program.  I didn't do any of the tax work, just the technical report submittion and helping clients to identify qualified expenditures and in a few cases help them to plan out future research or improve research tracking documentation.

That my all sound very boring, but I loved the strategizing.  As my former employer started to require stricter technical content, I started to lag behind and I was finding my job very stressful.  We'd discussed my going back to school, but with their client load and such they couldn't justify the loss in revenue and keeping someone just to do the financial information.  I don't think I've ever been relieved to be laid off, but I was then.

And now I'm about to start school for a program/course that I'm excited to be taking.  Woohoo!  Yay me!  I can't wait to be pulling in a 4.0 average and rocking numbers and ledgers.

Posted by NorthernPlato @ 2:20 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Where is the head?

If you've never read Least I Could Do before, you really should start.
http://www.leasticoulddo.com/

And to encourage you, here is the most recent video they've made using the main character of the comic.  The song is somewhat NSFW, so listen quietly.




Posted by NorthernPlato @ 1:27 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments