One Way Forward

Canada. Canada has survived and thrived over the past 144 years thanks to good leadership, determination, and vision. A vision of a nation designed to provide the most essential human rights we all deserve, while providing the opportunity for people to define their own destiny. But that ability is being threatened. Threatened the powers that … Read more

Diane Beattie, I Want My $451,000 Back!

Dear LHSC Board of Directors and Diane Beattie,

I want my $451,000 back. That’s right, every single penny of severance that was recently afforded to Diane Beattie after the LHSC Board of Directors forced her to resign.

When a scandal like this one breaks out, there is no reason whatsoever that such gross misconduct should result in such a comfortable severance. $451,000 is almost two years worth of Ms. Beattie’s annual pay ($250,000 – not bad, huh?).

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Open Letter to the NDP

A few years ago I became a supporter of the NDP. I listened to Jack Layton and his vision for Canada and was inspired. Not to mention that I couldn’t stand Paul Martin and the Liberals seemed to be agreeing more and more with the Conservatives on issues that I did not.

Recently it has become apparent that indeed, I am a centrist. I don’t tolerate overly polarizing views or people very well (though I do hear them out on the issue and give them their opportunity to explain their rationale) and would much prefer to see people get to the bottom of an issue, brainstorm all of the possible solutions and then pick the best. Sadly that doesn’t happen very often in this “democracy” of ours where few-to-no MPs actually listen to their constituents after gaining power.

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2008 Federal Election

Well I must say that I’m pretty disappointed in the results of last night’s election. While the Election Prediction Project was predicting that the election would actually hurt the Conservatives, instead they came out stronger than they were going into it.  Now holding a commanding 143 seats, only 12 short of the majority Prime Minister Harper was looking for, I fear we’re in for a repeat of the past few years.

In fact, the only bright spot for me is that the NDP gained several seats. If you take a look at the CBC’s election map, the NDP painted large swaths of the country orange last night. While heartening, especially when you see seats that the NDP took from the Conservatives, it’s still a reality that the Conservatives are more powerful now than they have been in over a decade. The amalgamation of the majority of the right-wing vote has done them well, and I must say they’ve also done well courting centrists.

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