Fuschi's Canadian Forum

Go Ahead Sucker, Fight me in Court

RF — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:58:47 +0000

Ontario’s auto insurance regime is a perverse muddle which we grudgingly tolerate - until, it bites us. Then we seethe in a silent rage at the cruelty of our situations, not knowing who to blame, and often powerless to fix it.

I know from personal experience that countless numbers of us have been down this road, and yet, this Alice in Wonderland system seems to get worse with every intended “improvement”. The latest such improvement decreed by the “Financial Services Commission of Ontario”, is to allow us to decrease our coverage, in order to decrease the stress to our wallets. Since many of us have found out the hard way, that the coverage we were paying for had a habit of disappearing when we needed it, it is just as well we are given this perverse option.

Ontario’s auto insurance system is an unholy combination of government regulator, and a financial sector which pursues contradictory incentives. For insurance companies to prosper they must resist the expectations of the insured – expectations which are fostered by the industry’s promises of service.

Much of this mess was born when governments began mandating insurance for all drivers. Meant to save us from being victimized by the uninsured, this law made us victims of insurance companies. The Financial Services Commission of Ontario issues decrees on liability apportionment, what types of services can be covered by insurance, and to what extent, in the vain hope of moderating the abuse. It is no surprise that they never get it right. There is too much anecdotal evidence of the industry’s violations of drivers: you get into an accident, they cancel your insurance; or they disqualify your benefits on ludicrous grounds (go ahead sucker, fight me in court); if you temporarily cancel your insurance, you return to the bottom and pay the most (recently done to my aging parents), and on, and on.

Intrinsic to the notion that government can equitably manage all the variables, is the illusion that government can fairly decree what return the industry should expect. This was made necessary when coverage was mandated. If we are forced to cover ourselves, then government was forced to ensure a healthy industry. The government of Bob Rae guaranteed double digit returns while he was premier of Ontario. (No need for a gun to rob us, with a deal like that.) When McGuinty came along, he could not resist promising lower rates. This forced insurers to cut corners. Unfortunately, the most obvious corner to cut, is us, from our promised coverage.

After kissing the industry’s rear by allowing three years of consecutive fee hikes, the McGuinty gang must have heard the screams. Hence the current solution, to allow the insured to choose from a variety of options designed to lower the already pathetic services he was buying. The insurance companies won’t like this, and the politicians who are complicit in this cockup, continue to bump from one bonehead measure to another.

I don’t know what “the” solution is. At the least, none of the myriad arbitrary measures used by insurers to defend their bottom line, should be legal in a system where the customer is captive against his will! And certainly, profit guarantees are obscene and create the other problems. Lastly, we need a system in which politicians like Rae and McGuinty play no part.

Ontario’s Green Santa Claus

RF — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:18:05 +0000

There are some schizophrenic aspects to the McGuinty government’s renege on the price they are willing to pay for solar power. Energy minister Brad Duguid’s explanation on the sudden move of guaranteed price, from $.80 /kwh to around $.60, is that he is concerned about the future costs to Ontario’s ratepayers.

First, let’s ask the long overdue questions, why is the government guaranteeing eighty cents in the first place, when current hydro generation is costing ratepayers seven cents /kwh? The short answer is that the Dalton gang wants to go down in history as the guys who made Ontario the greenest place in north America. Therefore, the shift to solar and wind power and other pie-in-the-sky solutions is driven by government money not hard facts. Hence, the reason Duguid’s ministry is suddenly swamped with solar panel projects is because the entrepreneurs interested are smarter than the government. (What a surprise.) Not because they want to go green! Not because this shift makes any sense! Simply put, if some idiot wants to paper the countryside with other people’s money, they are willing to take a cut.

The schizophrenic part is in the government’s reaction. What part of this could not be foreseen? Where did the government hope to find the money to pay for this eco-lunacy? Why did they compound that with long-term contracts (nine billion dollars worth) with Samsung? At what point was the government going to become concerned with feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the runaway train they have put in motion?

The sacrificial lamb in this picture has the face of Ontario’s ratepayers. Why is Duguid suddenly concerned? Did he not know previously that eighty cents is more than seven? Or did he and McGuinty think that they could do this incrementally and raise the rates on consumers, as more solar/ wind power came on-line? (Would McGuinty try and sneak more taxes in, like that?) What has happened, instead, is that the demand for free money by solar entrepreneurs, has outstripped expectations. And, while McGuinty wants to reap the rewards of becoming Ontario’s green Santa Claus, the government of the have-not province he created, is broke, has screwed the taxpayer enough, and can’t find a way to pay for this grand illusion. What’s worse, they can’t hide the coming rate increases behind their eco-bafflegab, because the idiotic smart meters they foisted on everyone, will be telling the rate story every minute of every day.

The Great U.S. Kool-Aid Energy Plan

RF — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 09:53:22 +0000

There is daily proof that the global warming crowd has much in common with the Jim Jones commune. They both drank the kool-aid and they both faithfully and blindly followed the edicts of their father figure (the warmers have more than one).

The latest example which got my attention came from Henry Waxman, U.S. House Energy and Commerce committee chairman. He was recently heard fulminating over a proposed TransCanada Corp. pipeline project which would transport oil sands crude directly to Gulf coast refineries. He said, “This pipeline is a multi-billion dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel available…” and that, it did not support moves to combat climate change.

Now there are two schools of thought on the urgency of reducing U.S. oil consumption. One is the notion that increasing dependency on hostile supplier states is strategically dangerous. Amen to that, and a logically pursued reduction of that dependency makes all the sense in the world. It will help avoid the credible future scenario that sees the U.S. having to abandon an ally to the dogs of jihad, simply because to do otherwise would result in economic chaos.

The other school of thought is the climate change blather being emitted by Waxman. But, even if Waxman believed both scenarios to be true, the position he preaches increases the suspicion that he has been drinking somebody’s spiked kool-aid. If the dependency issue is valid, then the last thing this wacko should be doing is agitating against the secure resources of a steadfast ally like Canada. If you won’t use an ally’s crude reserves to diminish your guzzling of middle eastern oil, and your father figure is giving speeches against off-shore drilling, then the only way you might reduce dependency is by freezing (or sweating like Toronto) in the dark.

But if you really believe in the climate change lunacy, then I would suggest a clear-headed appraisal of you current consumption; the rate at which it is being replaced by non-carbon-based energy; and, the point in the distant future at which you will be safe to cast stones in your feeble glass house. Until then, the sort of political grandstanding done by assholes like Waxman, shows them to be dangerously unclear on the concept, and unqualified to chair a knitting committee.

Urinating Into the Wind, As Provincial Policy

RF — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:24:14 +0000

Whatever their societal warts, you have to give Ontario’s native people credit. They fought the HST and they won.

It is appropriate that Canada’s aboriginal peoples are the last to cling to the freedoms which we all came here seeking. Besides the HST, their insistence on land claims, and entrepreneurial spirit in the tobacco industry, are demonstrations of their resistance to the overbearing actions of government. They also involve illegal activity, which in Ontario victimizes a meek taxpayer, and a spineless government. The Caledonia farce is a perfect example of natives extorting maximum benefit from those weaknesses, and scoffing at many laws. As is the infiltration of the cigarette market to the level of an alleged fifty percent.

Both of these realities, which fester as we speak, are a result of the leadership vacuum displayed by the invertebrates in the McGuinty government. But that does not negate that natives deserve praise for filling that void and becoming the consequence in the fulfillment of the law of unintended consequences. If the McGuinty government insists on the legislative equivalent of urinating into the wind, natives will provide high-speed fans.

McGuinty’s administration has been urinating into the wind on so many issues that this space cannot do them minimum justice. The tobacco issue, however, is a prime example. I don’t know how many tax increases the poor, endangered smoker, has endured, but I know for sure the HST is going to hit him again. In the face of such contrary idiocy, natives have been happy to fill the demand for reasonably priced cigarettes. Let me anticipate the howls of the anti-smoking lobby. This is idiocy because we played this game of stomp the smoker back in the eighties, and it produced the identical outcome – a growing industry operating just below the legal level. Must we reenact Einstein’s definition of insanity every time, or did some of McGuinty’s crew believe themselves to be smarter? What on earth made them think that?

The victimization of a legal “sin” activity has resulted in enormous loss of revenue and a growing monster underground industry which McGuinty will address by hiding under his bed just as he has done with Caledonia. But, just to verify that he is unclear on the concept, he will continue to pour gasoline onto that fire with higher and higher taxes, until a single pack of cigarettes costs a ransom, and everyone is smoking native. And that is just a preview. I believe the generally comatose Ontarian will become an awakening giant and go native in the way many goods and services are exchanged, as a reaction to the HST.

Demonstrating Their Ignorance

RF — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:45:56 +0000

Imagine if the Ontario unions which demonstrated futilely in Toronto, on the weekend, had put their efforts into fighting the HST. Imagine if they had logically demonstrated in those countries which need “human rights, dignity…and a fair wage.”

I’m not surprised to hear that my union dues were spent to bus members to the G8/G20 demonstrations. Nor would I be surprised that few of the riders were clear on the issues they were defending. However, a union spokesman questioned by the local CBC radio station, was sufficiently clear on the issues that supposedly motivated the participants to go to Toronto – “…a living wage, dignity, human rights…”. But above all, the constant threat to relatively wealthy unions, posed by impossibly low-wage competitors.

This issue has been at the core of summit protests. Global leaders epitomize global competition and “multinational corporations”. Globalization means having to outbid a competition that is willing to settle for the proverbial bowl-of-rice-a-day. Nothing new here, unions are still fighting the free trade fight, and doing so with a finger in a dam.

In the aftermath of enormous turmoil in the bankruptcy of most of the domestic auto industry, one would expect unions to be clearer on the motivations of corporations. The need for lower costs is a more logical explanation for globalization, than just greed and meanness. In fact, the unions play a large part in that need. So when they vilify impoverished third world workers, who are hungry to accept our jobs for less, how does that square with unions’ stated goals of dignity, human rights, fair wages? Are those things the proprietary goals of only western workers?

Let me assure you that I am not anxious to watch my wages fall just to do the world a good turn. There are less futile ways. Low wage countries will be less threatening when we have learned to diminish their advantage difference, rather than shutting our trade walls. One way to ease that difference is by fighting higher taxation so that we can keep what we earn. By having given the HST the reaction it needed. But we have barely heard a peep from unions on that subject. That is so because they are unclear on the concept of wealth creation. There is no tax, unions don’t love, especially public sector unions who depend on them for the gravy train ride McGuinty has given them. It is hard to keep that finger in the dam, while reaching for more.

Where Chickens Vote for Colonel Sanders

RF — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:37:37 +0000

“Taxpayers voting for Liberals is like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders” – unknown author.

I received my provincial bribe cheque yesterday. As I stared at it, I was overcome with anger and helplessness, and insult. Insult because the government’s attempt to dupe us with a handout of our own money, is so goddamn shallow! What a pathetic illustration of the contempt they harbour for the taxpayer! Anger, because I know that this is borrowed money. McGuinty has already spent all the money he robbed from us with his farcical health tax and a thousand other hidden insertions into our pockets. Helpless, also, because I know now that there is no stopping them from robbing us again with the HST. And that will be the biggest robbery of all.

But there is something we can do to hurt this harmful administration, and by turning their own tactics against them. Take your bribe money and donate as much as you can spare, to the political opposition. This will, first, strengthen the opposition for the next election, but also, cost McGuinty’s government more money in the form of political income tax credits. Last time I looked, a $500 donation got you back $400.

Let me anticipate the argument that as taxpayers, we will ultimately hurt ourselves with this tactic. An awareness of what is to come, argues that the price is worth it to get rid of this disastrous administration. McGuinty is not finished leaving a legacy of destruction, yet, and can cause much more damage before the next election. If we can remove additional funds from his fumbling hands, (so he can’t afford more Samsung surprises) we save in the long run. Also we add to the ammunition required to defeat him.

Is there doubt that he will lose? This is Ontario, where taxpayers see nothing wrong with chickens voting for Colonel Sanders. It is also the place where our billions have been spent assuring the support of public employees. A letter from one of Ontario’s teachers’ unions, in today’s Post, calls them, “an enlightened Liberal government…” You do the math.

So Many Asses to Kick, So Little Time

RF — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:20:44 +0000

Like some presidential version of Buford Pusser, Obama is “walking tall” with an axe handle clenched in his fist, looking for some “ass to kick”. If you have been catching the news you know that this is not a gratuitous embellishment of what he said. This is almost a direct quote. Unlike Buford Pusser, however, Mr. Obama is not targeting nasties who desperately need a good ass-kicking, but indulging in theatrics. He has as much chance of winning this ass-kicking contest, as a one-legged man.

I don’t have the technical expertise to know whether the BP event could have been avoided, or diminished or in any way improved from its current outcome. Even if Obama has access to that expertise, I believe it has nothing to do with his current grandstanding. That is a result of, first, his need to create the illusion of presidential action and control. Secondly, an ideological belief in the green salvation and the concurrent conviction that it is at hand. From that he has concluded that bridges with petroleum can now be burned without consequences.

Hence, his decree that offshore drilling is dead, the continued vilification of Canada’s tarsands, (will that change when Florida has their own?), the continued agitation for carbon charges, the hunt for BP heads, and so on. The man in charge of the most economically and militarily powerful nation on earth, - a statement that will cease to be true when the nation loses its reliable energy sources - is playing games with that nation’s energy future and reliability. He is theatrically swinging his stick at those who are responsible for ensuring the continuing ascendance of America.

Can he really believe that unproven, costly, unreliable, ephemeral, dreamland, alternative power sources, - whose accompanying unintended consequences, have barely been considered - are going to replace the energy gorilla that holds up the American pillars of support? If he does, conviction alone will not absolve him of the guilt of having destroyed one of the great nations of recorded history. Better that he is grandstanding, than that he actually believes. The former can be fixed with a simple kick in the ass or an election.

Feeding Your Allies to the Wolf

RF — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:38:48 +0000

Any time Isreal reacts forcefully to whatever threat confronts them, (a reaction that most of us would otherwise consider normal) the world does its best imitation of Lewis Carrol’s works (Alice in Wonderland). White becomes black, up becomes down, common sense becomes exceedingly rare. A world- wide discourse is elevated to a shrill pitch, revealing a great deal more about the screamers than it does about Israel.

No one is surprised that Muslims throughout the middle east, would be wailing in the streets. That was precisely the intent of the blockade-running, Gaza flotilla. But, what about the rest of the world? The UN, for one, is demanding an inquest, primarily of Israeli actions, as they customarily do. That an organization which claims to be the conscience of the world, can be so transparently biased against one nation, reveals the UN for the self-serving farce it has become, and Ban Ki-moon for its current head dupe.

Also customary are the bleatings from the EU, lead by Germany’s Merkel and French president Sarkozy. In concert, they wasted no time condemning Israeli action, apparently, before they knew the full details. Europe is in a defensive state about the Muslim issue, both in the middle east, and at home, and have never hesitated to cast Israel to the dogs rather than inflame the tensions between two civilizations. Can any nation within this bunch of hypocrites rely on any other as a democratic ally?

What about the street scene throughout the western world and the US? Here Muslims are not alone in agitating. The student/left community is predictably there beside them, because it is so left to blame Jews for their problems. Wherever you go in our supposedly enlightened countries, student and left wing are two groups which could be mathematically described as completely congruent. Why are students overwhelmingly leftish? Because their ivory tower professors have long since surrendered their principles and embraced pretzel logic in order to exclude noise and conflict from their comfortable, cloistered world. It takes guts to defend Israel when such a large part of the world’s population is dedicated to its extermination. The students are merely the children of this intellectual collapse, unable to discriminate on their own, between BS and reality.

And how can that be otherwise, when the “leader of the western world” is so deeply mired in pools of BS, of his own creation, that he can barely move in any credible direction. He is one of the grown children of the intellectual collapse. The international relations legacy of the Obama administration (aside from the economic rubble it will bequeath to Americans) will be to relearn the lesson about kissing your enemy’s rear. And as well, the lesson that says that feeding you allies to the wolf, will not satisfy his hunger for you.

Return of the Economynator

RF — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:42:56 +0000

You can’t blame Bob Rae for pining for the past. His historical claim to fame, as Ontario’s Economynator, is being relentlessly supplanted by the McGuinty Wrecking Crew. By the time McGuinty is mercifully relieved of duty, Rae’s exploits will be a distant memory, buried under the economic wreckage left by the Liberals. His attempts to revive the federal “coalition” idea, are a last gasp at reviving his own political agendas.

Recall that Bob Rae has learned nothing from his short, errant hold on the reins of the province. His “agenda for people”, and his attempts to “buy our way out of the recession”, have survived in his mind in spite of the sudden, unexpected intrusion of a debt wall. Ontario was brought back from the brink, only because of the mechanisms of debt and risk, not because he saw any error in his ways. He is likely still proud of having given away the farm with double digit wage increases to all public servants, in his first budget.

There may be more to Rae’s efforts to revive the coalition, than what the eye can see. Iggy’s leadership appears headed for the rocks, and the Liberal’s single tool for retaining power – the ability to buy your vote – remains out of reach. Hence, it is not impossible that Liberals will re-evaluate their leadership decision, and default to Bob Rae. At that point Layton can be made to co-operate if he is made part of a plot to bring a socialist government by stealth, to the helm of the country. All that is needed then, is to usurp power through a new coalition. While Liberals only believe in whatever wins votes, Rae is not a liberal, he is a socialist, and would be an attractive ally to an otherwise directionless NDP.

While Conservative party warnings about the coalition are facile, reference to the dangers of bringing socialists to the helm at a time like this, (at any time) can only be ignored at our great peril. The return of the Economynator might appear to be a gift to the Conservatives, but the danger of a left coalition has always been a threat to the future of the Conservative party. It gains power only because the left is divided. Rae has the credentials to bridge the divide, and to bring in a new era of economic disasters.

Let Them Eat Cake and Charge Them HST

RF — Sun, 30 May 2010 10:40:40 +0000

Ontario finance minister Duncan, motivated me to drop my pleasant demeanor and pour some indelicate phrases into the ear of his riding office secretary. He did this by having a Marie Antoinette moment on local radio, when he assured listeners that by August we will have forgotten the HST. Perhaps we can also learn to eat cake by then. When I heard him, I was driven to relieve him of the anxiety of waiting until August to see whether we would all go back to sleep. I told the speechless secretary to please inform him before then, that I would work day and night to keep that — ——- from getting re-elected.

In a way, I can’t blame his insufferable arrogance. We are doing everything possible to reassure him and McGuinty that they have little to fear from the fallout. What is even more demoralizing is that the groundswell of opposition to the HST in British Columbia, is approaching the point of forcing a referendum. Won’t the invertebrate populus of Ontario look good if BC succeeds in blocking it, while we swallow the hook whole?

It is not that the people of Ontario are unconcerned. They were expressing that concern unabated on the local talk-show, the same day. But many were calling to get detail on how this would affect them personally, rather than with a fight in their belly. Essentially we have already surrendered, and are trying to cover up our privates from the approaching boot. We need to grow some backbone because this fight is not over until July 1. We need to bury Duncan’s phone lines (519 2515199 or 416 3250400) and the calls need to reflect our anger and disgust. Bury the e-mail lines dduncan.mpp@liberal.ola.org of all Liberal MPPs, and let them know in no uncertain terms that their job is forfeit if this is not stopped.

While you are doing that, keep in mind where the most harmful blows will land; gasoline prices and heating and cooling bills which were rising relentlessly already. And, remember; after July 1, this government will still be broke, and will need to increase that 13% tax, and they will because we just made it easier.