“Canada’s EI system is not only inequitable, it discourages labour mobility and encourages dependency, even while thousands of jobs are unfilled in areas of high unemployment.”  ...Winnipeg Free Press

Thusly, an editorial writer for the Winnipeg Free Press, cites several current Harper conservative myths in a cheerleading editorial backing the efforts of Mr Harper and his minions to punish repeat users of the Employment Insurance program.

 I wish the Alberton and Area Development Corporation (AADC) the best of luck reviving what used to be a thriving local landmark, Camp Kildare. The Province has passed the treasured summer haunt of countless Islanders, established in 1973 in South Kildare, to the AADC for the tidy sum of one dollar.

But that’s only a small measure of what is needed to breathe new life to a camp that used to be home for the Island’s Scouts and several other non-profit groups and the children they serve.

Being in the gym business and around three different gyms every week, the most common question I am asked is ”How can I lose weight?” This is a real problem for many of people and with so much information out there it can get very confusing.

As with anything in life there is a right and a wrong way to do it with much “grey area” in between. To get sustainable results we are told we must exercise and eat right, and usually not much more than that. Well we are going to go further than that over the next few weeks and you will learn a lot about how to get leaner, more energetic, stronger…just healthier!

By government standards it is a measly amount, just $1.2 million, barely enough to quibble over. But the fight over the Liberals’ long promised expansion to Montague Intermediate is now much more than its monetary value. 

It is symbolic of a dysfunctional Department of Education and its failure to prepare Island children for the future.

It is symbolic of party politics where government MLAs set aside any semblance of integrity to blindly follow the party line.

For some reason that escaped the vast majority of Islanders, the Ghiz government went to war against the frailest, sickest, and most vulnerable in our society - those who need dialysis. 

Fortunately, it appears the government has taken a deep breath and decided to give the issue a closer look, before dispatching dialysis patients from Western Hospital to Summerside’s Prince County Hospital and from Souris to Charlottetown, for life-saving treatments. 

 The latest news from the Province’s Department of Health stated 209 supporters may have been victims of an unpleasant gastrointestinal illness stemming from a church supper, served over a week ago. This might make people rethink participation in similar future events across the province. 

The Chief Public Health Office began investigating the potential outbreak after notification that several people became ill after consuming a roast beef dinner prepared by volunteers as part of a fundraiser for Princetown United Church.

The statement also indicated that the roast beef was the most likely source of the food-borne illness. Those who picked up their meal early in the afternoon were less likely to have become ill.

“The man of honour thinks of his character, the inferior man of his position.” ... Confucius

I fought my way through seven kilometres of hell on the highway, that incredibly treacherous slice of Trans-Canada Highway Sunday morning, still quivering from the same passage the other way just the day before on our way to the mainland.  

What do you do if you are a government determined to slash thousands of public sector jobs and yet want to contain the inevitable political fallout?

I’ve got to say something sure seems fishy about the hit Statistics Canada’s employees are about to take, considering media accounts state about half of the good folks working at that agency have been warned their jobs are at risk.

Aren’t these exactly the same people who could help shed light on the impact of public sector job losses on the broader economy and on the services Canadians take for granted? Would their surveys perhaps uncover some troubling truths about key government initiatives?

For a political columnist, it was a week of riches. There was cabinet minister Valerie Docherty losing her cool with a Tory MLA and Doug Currie announcing health care ‘reform’ and immediately backtracking on a plan to charge all seniors for a ride in an ambulance. There was growing public upset at implementation of the HST and the spectacle of hundreds of Islanders booing Premier Robert Ghiz for his $16 million transportation priority, a Plan B that government has failed to prove is a real priority. At least the premier had the courage to meet protesters face to face and not scurry like a scared cat as former Liberal Premier Catherine Callbeck did through tunnels that run beneath the provincial legislature.