Boarding up Ontario
One of the most dangerous fallacies embraced by our intellectually passive society, is the notion that; if it saves one life it is worth it. We should immediately have become wary of this statement when it became part of the throw-away dialogue of politicians and bureaucrats. Instead we find ourselves wagging our heads on cue, like the dog in the rear car window, unconditionally agreeing to something we know nothing about. We know only that we are culturally averse to abandoning that mythical “one life”, especially if somebody throws in the word children, for good measure. Then we are truly at the mercy of whatever charlatan promises to save that one life for us.
Today the charlatans that run Ontario forced all convenience stores to hide their cigarettes. Will this save a life? Perhaps, who knows? You most certainly won’t know by biting the hook baited with self-serving statistics. Statistics which prove that we need an army of enforcers to monitor, observe and intervene wherever the ever-growing tree of don’ts is contravened. If this wimp of a government really believes what it says, let them outlaw cigarettes, period. But wait, that may alienate a lot of voters. This way is better. We get society to browbeat them into submission and force them to smoke in the cold and rain where no one can see them. After all, there is no danger that the pipeline of tax revenue will dry up, and the true purpose of this exercise will have been accomplished: that is to appear to be doing good.
The NDP government of Bob Rae was the last to exhibit a pathological desire to regulate the life out of us, on a scale similar to McGuinty’s. The other compelling similarity to that government, was the inability to govern productively in the face of serious economic challenges. The busy work of telling us what to do and hiring armies of regulators to enforce it, most often took the place of real measures to mitigate economic problems. And, it is doing so again. Today’s Statscan news about the shrinkage of the Canadian economy points a finger at Ontario, the country’s manufacturing heartland. In the face of this news, McGuinty’s busybodies are boarding up cigarette displays.
Insidious social intrusion on everything from dogs to God has been this government’s modus operandi. Its sole economic initiative is to donate taxpayer’s money to auto corporations which threaten to close, and then do so anyway after the money is received. A real winning strategy, heartily endorsed by Buzz Hargrove. Yes, we know about the dollar, the price of oil and the US economy. But those oars have already been washed away, the only remaining one in the tillerman’s hand says “tax cuts”. Will McGuinty abandon the resource which allows his government its true policy goal – the purchase of votes? Probably not. It will be up to the people of Ontario to discriminate between policies of value, and con jobs perpetrated with the Trojan horse of “saving one life”. A life, maybe saved, at real expense to thousands of others.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The NDP government of Bob Rae was the last to exhibit a pathological desire to regulate the life out of us, on a scale similar to McGuinty’s.
There was a government between those two that didn’t believe in health regulation. Ask the people in Walkerton how that all turned out.
May 31st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
No, Greg, the government between Red Boob’s and McSquinty’s believed in necessary and common-sense regulations, it’s just that they also believed that the people HIRED to do a job would also be responsible enough to do that job properly. Maybe YOU need a government-appointed Big Brother to watch over you, but most Canadians don’t.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
If you ask those people, they will tell you that the tragedy resulted because of the incompetence and entitlement mentality of some key personnel. The lab results were provided as required, but were not acted on.
May 31st, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Oh my…the blame Harris mentality rears it’s head.Good points here Rick. And the pattern of ban,board and boo hoo is getting very tired. Time for another Common Sense Revolution. Will it ever be the accepted norm again for citizens to take responsibility for their own behaviour instead of counting on the Nanny State to impose more laws?
May 31st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Great post. The interesting thing about the cigarette cover in the convenience stores is that from what I’ve heard, most kids get their smokes from natives because they’re so cheap. Will McGuinty take action on that? Not very likely.
May 31st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Here’s another case of what we be destroyed if Howard Hampton and his Hapless Herd ever came to power:
From the Guelph Mercury:
“Now the city’s largest employer, Linamar has approximately 7,100 workers at 22 different Guelph plants, and more than 12,000 employees at 37 manufacturing facilities around the world.
One in four Guelphites working in the manufacturing sector is employed by Linamar, and the company’s Guelph operations account for about $1.5 billion in annual sales.”
…
“Local labour activist Alan Pickersgill has publicly criticized the firm.
While acknowledging the company’s philanthropic footprint, Pickersgill has been harshly critical of Linamar’s resistance to trade unions. None of the firm’s Guelph employees are unionized.
“It’s a bit hypocritical of Linamar to run to the (provincial) government for research funding while denying their workers the ability to form a union,” Pickersgill said.
He said Linamar workers are “scared . . . to organize (a union) because the company can just shut down one plant and open up another one,” he said.”
The Union looks at Linamar like Wile E. Coyote’s wet dreams about the Road Runner. I guess the 7100 people in Guelph are just too stupid to realize life would be so much better under Union domination. Even the most Union friendly legislation possible, brought in by Bob Rae, couldn’t convince the workers at Linamar facilities to jeopardize their future with such a foolish action as inviting the CAW into their midst. Guelph is better off for it.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am
Last year I started the process for a patent to build a Accessible/ECO-friendly Fridge that will exceed any Employment Codes or Accessibility laws for housing , the design started with a Accessible Kitchen with full mobility for a wheelchair to turn around and for a 34″ access height to cabinet shelves with a mere 14″ reach.
Then I designed the Fridge from scratch and kept the concept of Accessible and affordable as the foundation to assure it can be built from existing parts and at existing Plants so any re-tooling would be minor , plus the modular and Isometric structure limits the weight and size for any 1 single piece so workers can include some wheelchair bound persons that only need minor arm strength to assembly parts or monitor quality controll .
But guess what, so far in the Liberal Ontario with ECO-laws and layers upon layers of lawyers to handle the endless paper-work to even attempt to get funding and approval to build it here and employ canadians , I have come to the conclusion that McFibber wants Inventors to give the business and jobs to China so the product can be Imported for more low-paying retail workers that make the Un-employment numbers look lower while the actual Living-wage employ slowly dies .
The patent costs for me to do the job in the USA is about 40% cheaper and the Drafting work isn’t out-sourced to India and China where people can steal the ideas and make knock-offs to sell in Countries I have no power over to enforce the Patent , the ECO-yahoos in Canada have created a system where I must spend a huge amount of money for a Enviromental-Assessment Study for the impact on the Earth if i build a Plant here to produce the fridge.
Then I have the land zoning for the Plant and all the labour laws , after all of this it looks like i would be facing about a 8 year window of time just to open the Plant doors to make just 1 actual retail version .
Belinda was at Magna and made close to $15′000′000.00 a year to help kill Chrysler and the CAW , she even crossed the floor to keep Martin in power in exchange for a cabinet seat , so while us tax-payers pumped millions into CAW jobs to build cars that people aren’t buying it was Belinda that aided the non-Union japanese Plants in Ontario that killed Chrysler and once Daddy got Buzz to kiss the ring to save jobs we saw her abandone taxpayers and run to daddy to head the new Chrysler she helped kill so daddy could save it.
As for the Innovations grants and claims of helping canadians create Global products , the strings attached to get R&D help are sometimes tied to Universities that want 50% ownership on the patent for royalties .
It’s not my job to bail out the Ontario Liberals by creating jobs from my idea and inventions while 95% of the work is already done by me , so the more I research the US market and Alberta ….I may just protest with my wallet and end up importing my fridge into Ontario from the USA or Alberta because they are Business-friendly .
June 1st, 2008 at 3:19 am
By banning the display of cigarettes for sale in Ontario, Dalton McGuinty is well on his way to turning the sale of tobacco into another government monopoly.
Convenience stores, gasoline stations and food stores in Ontario now have plain grey boarded up inner walls hiding the cigarettes and cigars that they sell. They look like beaten down businesses packing it up, something you’d expect to see in the former Soviet Union.
What other product do you know of that you cannot view before you buy it? Not trans-fat laden donuts, greasy burgers and fries, booze, condoms, birth control devices, bullets, shotguns (just wait, it won’t be long), fireworks for Victoria Day, soon-to-be-banned incandescent light bulbs, soon-to-be-banned-pesticides. Nothing.
Meanwhile, the same stores that are forbidden to display cigarettes are liberally strewn with Ontario government lottery tickets right on the sales counter - more brands of government-pimped gambling that you could name - a regressive tax on the stupid and the poor.
The Ontario government thinks cigarettes must be hidden for view from sale, but eagerly passes out needles and crack pipes to drug addicts to “save lives”. (Forget about rehabilitation programs that cost too much, McGuinty thinks that a clean government-issue needle for heroin is better use of taxpayer’s money, even though it is an admission of palliative care for those who could be saved by rehabilitation. But, wait! Have a complimentary condom and lip balm with every needle handed out!)
As Fuschi rightly questions, why does McGuinty carry on this way, like an adolescent that never grew up? The same question was posed by blogger “Lemon” earlier this week (”Why Miller, McGuinty and a Whole Lot of Other Polis Lie”), and I suggested it was because he is constrained by his lack of intelligence, drive and vision to do anything substantive.
In the mean time. look at the glamorous LCBO “super stores” where the Ontario government sells toxic liquor to its citizens through its government monopoly: shiny displays of booze from the world over, even booze peddlers standing at the door offering you a free shot of their particular poison in hopes of enticing you to buy it.
See the hypocrisy here?
Let me, guess, Dalton McGuinty doesn’t smoke, but he drinks like a fish?
Boarding up displays of a legal product - cigarettes - may the first step in McGuinty’s next socialist project in Ontario.
The next step in McGuinty’s Ontario may well be “Tobacco Control Board of Ontario” stores filled with glass cases of fine imported cigars in humidity controlled rooms, cigarettes and pipe tobaccos from the world over, promotional sales, all sold to you by your friendly Government of Ontario monopoly, even as they drive private business owners out of the market.
All for the “good” of Ontario citizens who don’t know how to take care of themselves - and much more tax revenue, of course!!
Oh, but what does John Tory, the fearless leader of the Ontario PC Party, the one who stupidly led his party to a shameful defeat in the Oct 2007 election, the one who lost his own seat in the Ontario legislature, the one who refused to step down despite a poor show of support at the recent PC convention, have to say about this?
Where was the legislative debate, the headlines, the talk shows, the exposure?
From what I can find at the ontariopc.com website, nothing!
McGuinty is a stupid jerk, and we have no better alternative!
Fire. Them. All.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
If McGuinty and friends distracted you for even a second, they succeeded.