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West Prince Graphic Columns and Opinions

Just leave it alone

 
 
Canadians across the country watched, waited and listened as Canada fought the USA for a gold medal on the last day of the Olympics. Cheers went up around the world when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal and Canadians showed pride like never before.
It was a proud moment. Canadians cheered, shouted and sang O Canada like they had on many occasions during the Olympics. It was unusual to see Canadians showing such patriotism, but it felt good.
Then just when almost everyone in the country was getting upbeat about their country and having some fun singing the words to the national anthem, someone decided it was not gender neutral enough.

What's an 'ordinary observer' to believe?

It’s not always what you say that is most interesting, sometimes what you don’t say is far more telling. And in the case of Charlottetown accounting firm Arsenault Best Cameron Ellis what is of interest is whether the firm red flagged any issues surrounding the controversial Provincial Nominee Program.
Arsenault Best Cameron Ellis enjoyed a dual role in the provincial nominee story. On one level it acted as the auditor for Island Investment Development Inc., the provincial body that managed the PNP program. On the other hand it acted as one of seven provincially appointed intermediaries that matched potential immigrants to Island businesses, and in the process likely generated millions of dollars in revenue for the firm.

O Canada - OH MY!

We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear. They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue. The government will not proceed any further to change the national anthem."
... Dimitri N Soudas, the prime minister’s office.
The above email was received by this scribe on the evening of Friday, March 4, at 6.25pm AST. Now this is pretty thrilling stuff for one such as me. I mean, good heavens above, an email direct from the famous PMO (prime minister’s office).
Me. Pretty small potatoes. But there I am, apparently on a list to receive first-hand such an important message.
But then I wonder, how did they get my email address? Does this mean they are watching me, and reading all the uncomplimentary stuff I scribble about Steven Harper and his lot? You can get pretty paranoid at this pundit game, doncha know.

Mike Mulligan comes back

A few months ago, my daughter came over on her way home from a used book sale with a grin on her face a mile wide.
She had been looking for books to read to her two year old, and showed off the treasures she had found. One gem in particular delighted her.
It was a great big book entitled "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel", by Virginia Lee Burton.
Now it was my turn to grin. "Oh, he’s gonna love that," I said.
My daughter beamed. "I know! I remember how much we loved having you read this to us as kids!"
"But do you remember why ...?" I asked, my grin wider. "I do."
See, I remember "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" well. Very well. Almost word for word.

Lively Chase By Prohbition Officer George H Barbour, 1927

In late June 1927, Chief Prohibition Officer for Prince Edward Island George Barbour and his team of liquor inspectors made a sensational seizure of illegal liquor near Souris. Details of the seizure show that the officers involved had a decidedly exciting and interesting time–after all the days of Bonnie & Clyde were just round the corner...The Patriot, 21 June 1927.
George H(ilton) Barbour was born 5 September 1878 at Alma, near Alberton, Prince Edward Island. From 1918 to 1927, he was chief prohibition inspector for the province and became well known for his diligence, infamous raids and seizures in the traffic of illegal liquor. News papers of the 1920s are filled with the high jinks and escapades Barbour conducted. This is the story of one such adventure.

Exercise, nutrition and results

 
 
It has been about 10 weeks since New Years and if your New Year’s resolution was to start exercising and improve your health and fitness, you should be really noticing a difference.  The results you are experiencing are in direct proportion to what you are doing for exercise and how good your nutritional habits are.
After 10 weeks you should be very comfortable in a gym environment and have a lot of the basic exercises mastered. Hopefully your training and nutrition programs match your fitness goals. Here are some different training scenarios and the results you might see from each.

Government's plan is rural apartheid

The Ghiz government’s Rural Action Plan could just as easily be called rural economic apartheid. In both style and substance it is pitting urban against rural.
The reality is the government has no substantive plan to create new economic development in rural PEI. It has no plan to repopulate. It has no plan to maintain necessary infrastructure like schools and hospitals.
Instead we get the Department of Transportation stealing jobs from one rural community and transplanting them to another. The net effect is no new economic development in rural PEI.
We have government using the Rural Action Plan as justification for plunking tax dollars into necessary community infrastructure. I’m sorry investing $104,000 so the Souris Group Home Association can construct a recreation room with wheelchair access is not rural development. How patronizing. How condescending can the Ghiz government become?

We should kick Guergis to the curb

Despite publicly apologizing for her rude, arrogant and mean spirited personal attacks on Air Canada and Charlottetown Airport employees, the question not answered is did federal Cabinet Minister Helena Guergis receive preferential treatment despite her outrageous behaviour.
Certainly seems the junior minister benefited from her so-called VIP status. Airport and Air Canada employees went out of their way to help, which is not uncommon. But in their attempt to placate Guergis did employees allow a security hazard on a plane?
If you or I came flying into the airport 15 minutes before departure there is little chance we would get aboard.
If we spewed insults at Air Canada employees we’d likely be shown the door.
If we rushed through security, a legal requirement, without stopping and threw a shoe at an employee we would be questioned.
If we kicked and banged on a security door we would be given the boot right back.

I've never felt so Canadian

Courage is grace under pressure... Ernest Hemingway

A place in the pecking order

Last week there was a news story about the Federal Cabinet Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, Helena Guergis. 
According to reports, she arrived at the airport for her flight 15 minutes before it was set to take off, became outraged and abusive when they insisted she follow the same security procedures at the other passengers, tried to kick open secure doors, threw footwear, swore, and generally had what can only be described as an epic hissy fit.
At an airport.
I’m going to say that again, for the benefit of those of us who are so petrified of security checks that we sweat bullets if our shampoo containers aren’t properly secured in terrorist-proof Ziplock bags: the woman was at an airport. 
See, one day, I want to have the kind of clout to do that.
I’m not saying I would.  I’m not much given to fits, hissy or otherwise. But wouldn’t it be nice to know you could?

Double dipping on the PNP cash cow

It’s time for Allan Campbell to either step out of his blissful bubble of ignorance and bring transparency to the Provincial Nominee controversy or be removed from cabinet.
The Innovation Minister, who in recent months has allowed his unchecked and unabashed cheerleading to get in the way of the facts, was at it again when he claimed that Charlottetown accounting firm Arsenault Best Cameron Ellis is not in conflict of interest over its dual role with the PNP file.
The firm is one of seven agents licensed by government to act as intermediary, meaning it matched would be immigrants with Island businesses. It was a profitable gig, likely generating millions for the firm since being named intermediary under the previous Tory government.

It should be all about spirit, not the medals

Citius ... Altius ... Fortius"

Olympic FEVER

Like many of you, I have spent the last month - or what feels like that -  fully immersed in Olympics.
I promised myself this time I wouldn’t get sucked into the black hole that is televised Olympics. I must have had my fingers crossed behind my back, because not a day goes by where I don’t watch an hour or two of the Games, or more if there are events I really care about.
See, that’s the thing:  Most of the sports in the Winter Olympics are only of passing interest to me. I’ve been tuning into sports I wouldn’t watch at any other time. I don’t know the competitors - even the Canadians. I’m not really clear on the rules. I don’t really have a stake in the outcome. But I watch.

Big Voyages In Little Boats

Some people say that the men of the present day are not hardy enough to do as their forefathers did–brave the oceans when the biggest ships were small and the shortest voyages long. But the people who belittle the present generation are evidently unaware of the many daring voyages that have been carried out successfully in tiny craft. There is no doubt that the spirit of our forefathers still lives!”...Summerside Journal, 2 November 1925.

“For a good example we mention the steamship ‘Holbein’ during a passage from New York to Manchester, England in the early 1900s, picked up a boat which was only some fifteen feet long. She contained a Captain Andrews who was attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean in her. He has travelled 700 miles, had suffered great privations, and his limbs were swollen by exposure.”

Palin's a dandy poster girl in wacky political world

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Mad Hatter were having tea at it, a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep and the other two were using it as a cushion, and talking over it."
"Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse," thought Alice. "Only, as it is asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind" ... The Mad Tea Party, by Lewis Carroll
The noted conservative commentator David Brooks penned a column in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago, entitled "Politics In The Age of Distrust", in which he lambasted Barack Obama for using what he termed a "big bang approach" during the first year of his term in office.
It was a plea for gradualism in  political reform. 

Don't expect much from cabinet shuffle

Robert Vessey was barely sworn in as PEI’s Minister of Tourism and Culture when he signaled he has no intention of making long needed changes to actually increase the level of service offered tourists to the Island.
As part of his new duties, Vessey was also handed responsibility for the PEI Liquor Commission, an under-achieving profit making centre, It generates approximately $20 million in annual profit, a figure that could be considerably higher with little effort. The problem is every Island government uses the commission as a patronage play land rather than maximizing its potential.
As an example, Commission Chairman Brooke MacMillan floated the idea of opening a liquor store in Cavendish.
It’s a good idea. The majority of tourists travel there. Opening a liquor store in Cavendish is a no-brainer.

We now see the best and worst these times

They (the Haitians) swore a pact with the Devil to get rid of the French, and ever since they’ve been cursed with one thing or another ..." Pat Robertson
Entitle that quote - Notes From The Lunatic Fringe. In this case from Mr Pat Robertson, publicly (and often) professed Christian, and leader of the Christian Right, the same Pat Robertson who called the events of 9/11 the vengeance of God brought about by gays, lesbians and those of the liberal political persuasion.
"A true story," he said on television as he tried to raise money, supposedly for Haitian relief.
Mr Robertson is a nut case, of course, and should be stored away somewhere where he would no longer have occasion to cause extreme embarassment to others of the human race. It is sad to see someone obviously afflicted with severe dementia still concocting fantasies in public.

Spanish Flu Raging, All the Country Aflamed With Influenza, Tignish, P E Island, 1918.

The Spanish Influenza struck Prince Edward Island in early October, 1918 with a deadly vengeance. Clarence F Morrissey of Tignish recorded in his diary on October 4th, the first known person to be afflicted with the illness in the area, Mr Fred Conroy, who fortunately, would survive. Many others would not be so lucky. Of more than 900 cases of influenza reported on the island, 400 people died within days. On October 14th, Mr Morrissey writes: “Spanish flu raging--some deaths in Charlottetown–country aflame with influenza–nine houses flagged.”

Smell you later

I went to a bar the other night to watch a friend play some jazz and blues. It was a nice, quiet place with a friendly atmosphere. The crowd was what I would call "mature" (read: "mostly my age or older"), and the music was terrific. All in all, it should have been a lovely evening.
But about halfway through the night, the atmosphere changed.
I don’t know the person’s name. From here on, we shall call her Patchouli Woman. She entered the bar about halfway through the night and nothing was the same again.
It occurs to me that many people reading this column will not know what Patchouli is. I, my own self, did not know what it was until I asked the musical question: "Dear God what is that hideous stench?"

Strait Crossing By Airship Idiotic, 1910

In 1910, the Great Debate raged: Should we have winter communication with New Brunswick by way of a tunnel under the Northumberland Strait? A car ferry? Or ice-boats? Then, the obvious solution was suggested: Why not communication by air? This is that solution... The Pioneer, Summerside, PE 16 July 1910.

The editor of The Pioneer attacks what he calls ‘a vast scheme:’ Are we to have winter communication with the mainland (as promised by the terms of Confederation, 1873 with Ottawa) or are we Islanders to be held hostage on our perfect little Isle forever? Is it to be a tunnel, bridge or ferry? “And now it’s to be an airship! The press of Charlottetown has again solved the riddle of winter communication, this time also–as always–finally.”