They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them

In memory of our fallen Canadians:

Sapper Sean David Greenfield – Afghanistan January 31, 2009

Always Caring — Always Canadian — Never Defeated

Support Our Troops — Wear Red on Fridays

Remember earlier last November the savage attack on school girls in Afghanistan as they made their way to school? Men on motorcycles sprayed acid on the girls as they walked to school, seriously hurting one of them. It is believed that the attack was launched by the Taliban in an effort to stop girls from attending school.

Since then eight men have been rounded up and at least one of them has confessed. The attack sparked outrage in Afghanistan and around the world for the viciousness. In the days following the attack attendance at schools, especially for girls fell off. The young girl who was so badly injured spoke out that she was determined to return to school, that the attack was not going to stop her.

The headmaster of the school moved quickly after the attack to convince the girls and their families to return to school, not to allow this terrorism to triumph. Today almost all 1300 students have returned to school.

The courage of those Afghan families and their daughters is a testament to the determination of the Afghan people to have a peaceful and productive society. When a people are willing to stand up for themselves, to act even while knowing there is a danger of further attacks…… that is more powerful than all the armaments in the world. Nothing trumps the power of the human spirit.

Kudos to everyone of them. God bless them all.

The principal at the Belleisle Elementary School in Springfield, New Brunswick pulled the daily singing of “O Canada” at the start of the 2007 school year. This has recently come to light as the result of a letter to a local paper. Many, if not most of the parents, were unaware of the decision by Erik Millett.

He claims that a couple of parents complained and in the spirit of accommodation and inclusiveness, he cancelled the singing for everyone. They do still sing the anthem at school assemblies. He hasn’t divulged why the alleged parents complained which has led to considerable speculation by people commenting on news stories of the controversy.

Millett also claims that some children were having physical reactions to the playing of the anthem as they thought they were “doing something wrong”. He’s planning on taking his decision to the Human Rights Commission. Rather an odd action for a principal to take over a couple of parents complaining. You’d think the alleged parents would be ones taking that action. If there were any parents. Read the rest of this entry »

The coalition between the Liberals and NDP with the support of the Bloc is dead, killed by Layton. Layton’s behaviour leading up to and since the budget was delivered to the House has done nothing except prove what Harper’s Conservatives claimed that he was after, a power grab. For the Liberals to quickly fall in line behind Layton’s desires would be political suicide.

The difference between Ignatieff’s Liberals and Layton’s NDP is that they have and can form a government. Layton can only get there on the backs of the Liberals and he knows it. Had he truly been wanting to do what was right for the Canadian people, he’d have kept his mouth shut prior to the budget and taken a wait and see approach.

Then when Ignatieff referred to the successes the combined efforts of the Opposition parties in getting a better budget than what the Conservatives would have otherwise delivered, Layton could have did his pompous little strut and taken some of the accolades. Read the rest of this entry »

Well the budget has been read, what hadn’t already been ‘leaked’ is now known. Ignatieff and his caucuse has had time to review it and made the call on if the government will stand, for now.

From what I saw of the tax cuts, they have hit some areas where tax relief should be like low income earners and seniors. The cuts for the middle income people was more about Conservative idealogy and vote buying than any true benefit. While middle income earners will save a bit (and I do mean a bit) on their income taxes each year, that collective ‘bit’ will mean we stay in deficit longer.

For the most part, Harper brought in the budget he had to bring in if he wanted to stay in office. The Liberals have said they will support the budget but with amendments. The primary part of those amendments is that the Conservatives will have to report to parliament with details of how much of the budget funds have been distributed by specific dates. Read the rest of this entry »

You know, I’ve watched this situation in the Gaza strip going on. I can be some what detached from it all as I don’t have any direct connection to either side of the conflict other than it being in the area of the Holy Land which is where the roots of my own faith are.

I don’t even begin to understand all that goes on there other than the emnity and hatred on both sides runs deep. I expect that just as there are those on both sides of the divide who believe the other side is absolutely the agressors there are those of goodwill who mere want to live their lives in peace.

The Palistinean group Hamas remains committed to the annihilation of Israel and ultimately the Jewish people. In many countries in the world, certainly in the west, Hamas is considered to be not a government but a terrorist group. For years they have used the Gaza strip to fire missles into Israel. They have also used Lebanon to do the same. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, parliament has reopened without a lot of pomp and circumstance. The lack of show was more due to the frigid cold than any austerity move. I’ve been in Ottawa and around the Hill this time of year, it is VERY cold there. The throne speech, written by the government and delivered by the Governor General, was relatively brief as throne speeches go.

The big news of the day wasn’t really the throne speech anyways. The bigger news is the budget that will be delivered tomorrow. Many of the details of the budget has been ‘leaked’, although when the leaking gets done by government officials and ministers, that is deliberate.

It appears there is going to be a $64billion deficit in the next two years. That is a complete 180 degree turn for the Conservatives from just two months ago when they claimed that we first of all were not going into a recession and secondly that we would not be incurring a deficit if a downturn should occur. Read the rest of this entry »

All eyes will be on Ottawa for the next few days leading up to Tuesday’s budget reading. It’s been a bit of an odd path to this budget. First we had an election that Harper called because he claimed that Parliament had become dysfunctional, which was true but largely because he and his people chose to make it so.

During that election, Harper either was blind to the fact that an economic tsunami was bearing down on the world or was deluded enough to actually believe that it would miraculously wash itself around Canada while engulfing our largest trading partner, the USA. He belittled the opposition when they spoke of the need to take immediate measures to offset the coming storm. He did note however that the stock market meltdown that was underway did provide some excellent buying opportunities. He didn’t seem to notice that those losing their shirt to create those opportunities, included Canadians.

More out of an inability of Dion to present himself as a viable alternative to Harper than anything else, Canadians, that is the 49% who decided to turn out to vote, once again gave more Conservative candidates their vote. Basically we gave what appeared to be the lessor of several evils the benefit of the doubt. Read the rest of this entry »