Capital Chronicles

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with Mia Rabson

Four years later, $7,200 to go

I got an email last week from a friend of Ken Waddell.

It seems the Neepawa Banner-owner and frequent political candidate still has some outstanding debts from his 2006 bid for the provincial Tory leadership and his friends are launching an appeal to help him pay off the remaining $7,200 deficit. (He had a $10,325 deficit at the end of his campaign but a recent appeal to the party has helped whittle it down thanks to donations from MLAs, staffers etc).

View Full Post | 25/01/2010 4:47 PM | 1
Dog gone it

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Hildy the Chihuahua is the alpha dog on a Facebook group Canadian Chihuahuas Against Proroguing. (FACEBOOK)

This dog is apparently unhappy with Stephen Harper.

Hildy the Chihuahua is the alpha dog on a Facebook group Canadian Chihuahuas Against Proroguing. The site suggests opposition to proroguing Parliament is so big it has now gone “cross species.”

View Full Post | 21/01/2010 1:49 PM | 2
Democracy on notice

There are a lot of people weighing in today about what it means in the United States that the Democrats lost the Senate race in Massachusetts yesterday.

It was a big loss. Sen. Ted Kennedy had held that seat for the democrats for more than a decade longer than I’ve been alive.
The Republican Party should be self-satisfied today for stealing it away.

View Full Post | 20/01/2010 4:23 PM | 6
Water

I will acknowledge I do not live in Winnipeg and therefore was not subjected to whatever power outage-caused water supply problems apparently thousands of city residents had to endure as they got ready for work Monday.

I probably would have used a few colourful words if I’d been caught in the shower with shampoo in my hair and the water suddenly shut off.

But that said, to me, this whole incident is a reminder that most of us in Canada forget far too easily how privileged we are.

Ask the people in Garden Hill or Lac Brochet or Shamattawa how they survive, not just a few minutes one morning, but every single day, without running water in their homes.

Not to mention the millions of people worldwide for whom finding clean water to drink is a daily struggle, let alone water for a shower.

We take far too much for granted in this country and never stop to appreciate that sometimes. Even with the best of intentions, things break down. Water systems. Power grids. Streets.

When something like a water pressure issue can be fixed before some people ever had a chance to notice there was a problem, if you complain at all, you complain too much.

View Full Post | 19/01/2010 4:08 PM | 5
Stop the photo op already

The disaster in Haiti is just heartbreaking.

As I drove home last night, hoping to make in time to scarf down a banana and throw on my gym clothes before heading off to a basketball practice, the radio was playing stories about Haiti.

View Full Post | 14/01/2010 1:31 PM | 21
Pontificating on the prorogue

The politicians may not be back in Ottawa at the moment but the Parliamentary pundits are certainly having a field day with the proroguing.

The office talk around here ranges from the complete mockery of the Facebook page Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (one colleague suggested if anyone who joined the page was in Ottawa actually watching those “clowns” at work they would realize proroguing doesn’t do anything bad) to those who have a deep-rooted hope this might stimulate some genuine reforms of our system.

View Full Post | 6/01/2010 4:53 PM | 3
Holiday greetings

It's that time of year when mailboxes everywhere are a little more crowded than usual.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau 1.9 billion Christmas cards are sent out each year in the United States. That dwarfs the second most popular holiday card - Valentine's Day - which reports 192 million cards sent each year.

View Full Post | 14/12/2009 2:27 PM | 0
Taxing matters

The HST debate in Manitoba has subsided for the moment with Premier Greg Selinger (sorry – still not used to that one) and Finance Minister Rosann Wowchuk (nope, not used to that one yet either) ruling it out. Well at least for now.

But the harmonized sales tax is still bubbling fairly loudly on Parliament Hill and I’d wager a bet, it’s one of the more top-of-mind issues in B.C. and Ontario right now. At Queen’s Park in Toronto, two Conservative MPs refused to leave the chamber for two days in protest of the lack of consultation they say was associated with the new tax.

View Full Post | 7/12/2009 11:00 AM | 1
No logo

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Policy Frog (www.policyfrog.wordpress.com) had a decent point to make about the whole Shelly Glover/water bottle issue and why it became more than a one-day story.

Today, the Liberals are helping keep the issue alive by handing out logo-free water bottles on Parliament Hill.

View Full Post | 16/11/2009 3:35 PM | 6
A story to remember

Every year on Remembrance Day we pause to think and remember.

This year, I will think as I often do about the story of my mother's father, Daniel Yanke, stripping down with his buddies and dancing in a fountain in Belgium when they found out the war was over.

View Full Post | 10/11/2009 1:56 PM | 0
Paging Dr. Google

The Canadian Institute for Health Information today released a new report looking at the changes in Canada’s health care system over the last decade.

Among the talk of how much more we’re spending and where the money is going, there is an interesting little tidbit which caught my attention.

View Full Post | 29/10/2009 2:28 PM | 0
Look ma, no hands

Ontario went hands-free today.

No more talking on your cellphone while driving unless you’re using a wireless device like Bluetooth. No more texting or dialing, no more changing your Ipod setting or entering a new location into the GPS.

View Full Post | 26/10/2009 1:43 PM | 0
Transition time

It’s always a little odd to watch someone move on in life.

Whether it’s a friend who had a career in the arts suddenly jumping into an MBA program, a colleague who suddenly becomes your boss, whatever, it’s always a transition to wrap your head around the change.

View Full Post | 22/10/2009 3:19 PM | 1
Just whose money is it anyway?

Is the Conservative Party of Canada now funding our stimulus package?

I may not have 20-20 vision but I’m pretty sure I don’t see evidence anywhere on that cheque that the money for this funding for a community centre in the Maritimes is coming from taxpayers via the government of Canada, and not the Conservative Party of Canada and MP Gerald Keddy.

www.chesterns.ca/uploaded_images/DSCF9544-709785.JPG

View Full Post | 13/10/2009 4:59 PM | 7
Just whose money is it anyway?

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Is the Conservative Party of Canada now funding our stimulus package?

I may not have 20-20 vision but I'm pretty sure I don't see evidence anywhere on that cheque that the money for this funding for a community centre in the Maritimes is coming from taxpayers via the government of Canada, and not the Conservative Party of Canada and MP Gerald Keddy.

View Full Post | 13/10/2009 4:42 PM | 4
Thankful for being above ground

Have you ever noticed you don't tend to take advantage of the things your city has to offer in the way of culture and entertainment except when you either have kids or houseguests?

Thanksgiving weekend brought my parents out for a visit, and my first really big family Thanksgiving dinner hosted at my own home. I'm thankful the Turkey was cooked well and on time and that we were able to spend the holiday with family.

View Full Post | 13/10/2009 3:07 PM | 0
Survivor: the Liberal edition

So let me get this straight.

In 1987, while head of the Liberal party's youth wing in Quebec, Denis Coderre publicly calls for then leader John Turner to resign.

View Full Post | 5/10/2009 9:25 AM | 2
Stodgy old courts?

Stodgy old courts? Tweet that.

It is often said governments and courts and the law do not and cannot keep up with developments in technology.

View Full Post | 1/10/2009 12:27 PM | 0
Sloganeering

The Conservative Party of Canada has a new slogan.

Moving Forward.

View Full Post | 22/09/2009 5:23 PM | 2
Miscellaneous head turners

Two things grabbed my attention today.

The first is a line from Michael Ignatieff's speech in Toronto where he pointed out that the unemployment rate in Windsor is akin to one-in-six people not having a job. That's a stunning number. It is one in 10 people in Toronto.

View Full Post | 21/09/2009 4:15 PM | 6
Gauntlet down. Nominations on.

Michael Ignatieff threw down the gauntlet Monday.

Which means we’re heading to the polls, unless Stephen Harper is so dead set against going back to the polls that he’s willing to deal with the NDP a la Paul Martin in 2005.

View Full Post | 2/09/2009 4:23 PM | 0
Diplomacy and access

Many people in the last two days have thought about what they know of Gary Doer.

I had many a conversation Friday with colleagues in the National Press Gallery almost all of whom have come into contact at least at some point with the Manitoba premier-turned-ambassador-designate.

View Full Post | 29/08/2009 2:33 PM | 0
A taxing reality

Working on stories about the harmonized sales tax of late has led me to discover a number of interesting features of our tax system.

What we charge sales taxes on and what we don’t could fill a book, and trying to sort out the differences between provincial sales taxes and federal sales taxes can make one’s mind go all gooey.

View Full Post | 25/08/2009 3:02 PM | 1
Our national treasure

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.A woman points to a name on the memorial wall in Ottawa honouring those who fought in the Battle of Hong Kong during the Second World War. (DAVID KAWAI / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

I am almost always a little emotional at events honouring veterans. Saturday’s unveiling of the memorial wall for the battle of Hong Kong was no different.

I love meeting veterans, hearing their stories, feeling their courage and resolve, evident in their faces and their words -- even more than 60 years after their battles.

View Full Post | 20/08/2009 11:19 AM | 0
Duffy Objection

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A screen grab of a cached version of the Mars Hill Group website, which notes: 'The Conservative Party of Canada recently engaged us to deliver their message to supporters nation-wide. Using our unique messaging platform, VideoBridge, we'll help them communicate their message to thousands of Canadians through custom, personalized videos. The first round of these messages, starring CTV veteran and long-time party supporter, Mike Duffy should be hitting in-boxes early this fall.' (DAVID KAWAI / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE)

On Monday I wrote in my column about the Winnipeg-based Mars Hill Group landing a contract with the federal Conservatives to make personalized videos.

I found the information when I stumbled onto the Mars Hill Group’s website last week doing research for another totally unrelated story.
There in the middle of the page, to my surprise, was the following:

View Full Post | 18/08/2009 4:14 PM | 4