Category Archives: News

Jean Lapierre

images.duckduckgo.comhttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/magdalen-islands-plane-crash-1.3510975

I remember meeting this man when he was a Liberal MP in the 1980s. Saw the news post earlier but only just now saw elsewhere that Lapierre was on the plane and died on his way to his father’s funeral. Deepest condolences to the Lapierre family who now have to deal with another loss in this sudden and tragic manner.

Learn this morning the day after it’s not just him but his wife, a sister, and 2 brothers going to that funeral. The tragedy is complete.

“She lost almost all the family … and the husband, in a few days.… It’s horrible, just horrible,” Gilles Duceppe

Base Wage

queen-s-park

 

 

The Ontario public service wage act

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/ontario-sunshine-list-1.3505138

The wages of all who work in the public service whether in the executive, bureaucracy, legislature, or judiciary should be based upon what is happening to those who pay those wages, namely the taxpayers. The concept of the base wage is simple for the proceeding year calculate the average income of those who are not retired. This is to exclude those who work for any level of government. Figure out the average monthly unemployment rate to two figures for that year. Reduce the average income by the unemployment rate and divide by 52. This gives you the base wage for that municipality, province, or the nation.

From StatsCan I got the following figures for the province of Ontario for 2015. Average annual wage of $50,781 and an average unemployment rate of 6.8%. The equation is (50,781 – 6.8%) / 52 = 910.15. The base wage is the first number to two significant figures that is equal to or greater than that amount which in this case is $920.

All salaries within the provincial government of Ontario would be paid an amount that is a percentage of the Ontario base wage of $920. It is calculated for the proceeding year and takes effect starting the first pay check on or after July first of every year. If unemployment goes up the public wages go down and if it goes down then those wages go up. If the average income of the taxpayers go up so does the base wage and if it goes down then on July the first so does the salaries of all public employees, top to bottom. I would set an amount that the wages can not go below.

For example set the general office worker at 65% the base wage. After 1 year it’s to go up to 70%, after 3 years to 75%, 5 years in the public service 80%, 10 years to 85%, and after 20 years it goes to the maximum of 90%. The process being the wages for any job classification starts at a certain percentage and increase for experience and seniority to a maximum after a set number of years. Those that are a specific position like premier or MLA or deputy minister for transport is a set percentage that doesn’t change.

Federal budget

bill-morneauI don’t mind the budget deficit but the amount is to high. Our debt is around 600 billion and inflation is 2% with real growth of 2%. What the Liberals have done is maintain our debt to GDP ratio at the same amount or increased it. Allowing for the debt to go up 2% gives you a deficit half of what the government is going to do. The debt goes up at the rate of inflation so in constant dollar terms it’s frozen. Since there is real growth beyond that the debt to the size of our economy actually shrinks by a small amount. The pie plate gets bigger by 2% but the pie itself remains the same and so is smaller in relation to the plate.

Reduction of the debt to GDP ratio by attrition. These days it seems the idea of something in the middle is too moderate and we end up with going to far one way or the other. Either the constipated fiscal conservatives or the “let it flow” liberal spenders.

Real Change Senate Appointments

g3403http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senate-appointments-liberal-1.3496977

Just like Harper with Viceregal appointments the new Political Monarch (PM) creates a process for Senate appointments that doesn’t remove the PM of the day out of that process. The more things change the more the remain the same. The process is created by the PM of the day, changed by the PM, or cancelled at the pleasure of the PM and it still has the PM making the appointments so they can simply ignore the very process they create.

By an Act of Parliament the Governor-General makes Senate appointments on the advice of the House advisory council. This body is the top two candidates in each riding in the last election giving you the following membership.

Party

House seats

Council seats

% on council

Liberal

184

301

45%

Cons

99

223

33%

NDP

44

128

19%

Bloc

10

21

3%

Green

1

2

0.3%

Ind

0

1

0.1%

When a Senate seat goes vacant the two members from the same riding of any riding in that province or territory can nominate someone for appointment. The House advisory council by secret ballot votes yes or no for each candidate. To be recommended for appointment takes an absolute 2/3 majority (451) voting yes for that nominee. In the event of more then one getting 451 votes the one with the most votes is appointed. If there is a tie then the Governor-General has personal discretion to choose which of the tied nominees to appoint.

A non-partisan vote since no party can have more than 50% of the seats. The PM of the day will not create a process that removes the PM (Political Monarch) from the appointment process BECAUSE it removes the PM from the appointment process.

Super Tuesday 3

supertuesdayIt’s will be Hilllaryyyy and the DONALD!!

The chances that Senator Sanders can win everything remaining by 60%+ of the vote is non existent. All the remaining GOP primaries are winner takes all so Mr. Trump must lose most of them to be denied a majority of the delegates and virtually all of them to not have the most delegates. Do WKRP turkeys fly?