As Winnipeg suffers from yet another death caused by car thieves, the government continues to dither and deflect on the issue.

Justice Minister Dave Chomiak is demanding that the Federal government toughen the YCJA. It's a good call, it's definitely a necessary step to put a stop to this epidemic.

Chomiak is barking up the wrong tree. Rather than calling on the Conservative government to introduce the bill, he should be demanding his Federal NDP counterparts to vote for the bill. It's his Dipper buddies who are always watering down the Torie's crime bills when they're not voting against them.

Likewise, Chomiak should be concerned with whats going on in our own backyard foremost. The Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy (WATSS) is obviously not sufficient as a deterrent or a prevention strategy.

Prof. Rick Linden, member of the Manitoba Auto Theft Task Force, sums it up best: "Just hours after being released, they'll be back doing it again. We thought that with youth knowing police are following them more intensely it would be a deterrent, but many of these kids aren't deterred at all. It's just part of youth culture in some areas."

The police can only act as a deterrent if the courts will hand down real consequences for the criminal. In the case of youth car thieves in Winnipeg, The Law is a catch and release program where the kids have no reason to fear being caught.

Gary Doer and the NDP need to take some new action on this still-growing problem. Chomiak's comment that, "We've now had several (stolen car deaths) and several is too many", does not instill a lot of confidence. Isn't ONE DEATH too many?

Labels: Canadian Justice, Conservative Party, Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, politics, Winnipeg Crime, Winnipeg Police

The next time you hear Gary Doer or Sam Katz talking about how downtown Winnipeg is being saved by the MTS Center or the Manitoba Hydro building, remember this:

United Army Surplus Sales, a store that has helped Winnipeggers brave nature for nearly six decades, has lost its battle for financial survival.

Bonnie Hooley, of LC Taylor & Co., confirmed this morning that more than two-thirds of the creditors voted not to accept a repayment deal.

Court documents state the company has about $443,000 of assets but owes 132 creditors $680,000.

The store could close as early as today.

It's sad to see that the business of government-spending downtown is booming, those businesses that actually pay taxes are still being forced out of downtown Winnipeg.

Sam Katz needs to get rid of the business tax, and hurry. If not, Portage Ave. will be nothing but vacant buildings from Main St. to Maryland.

Labels: Business, Gary Doer, Sam Katz, Taxes

The democratic process has once again elected and NDP government in Manitoba. And not only did the NDP win, they won resoundingly. Three straight majorities, and increasing in seats each time is a hell of a feat for Gary Doer (results).

The Dippers won most of the potential swing ridings, leaving the PC's in the dust. Bob Stefaniuk in La Verendrye lost to Ron Lemieux by almost 900 votes.

Unfortunately fellow blogger Steve Andjelic also lost in the riding of Seine River. I hope it's not his last attempt at Theresa Oswald's seat.

So Manitoba loves it's socialist governments, what else is new? We'll see four more years of little accomplishment, and probably a couple more crocus-esque scandals. By the way, what ever happened with that? Hugh McFadyen told us he'd be tough on crime, but he wouldn't even call Gary Doer out on his own crimes!

Basically the PC's downfall came from the complete lack of substance in their campaign. Daily promises are great, if they're backed up with some kind of detailed plan. A headline screaming "Tories promise to bring back the Jets" only works if there's a Who, When, or What behind the story. Otherwise it's just more empty rhetoric, and Gary Doer's proven to be great at that.

The Tory campaign was also lacking any real focus. What were the big issues that were being hammered home with voters? Other than the "revolving door" commercials, the PC's and McFadyen were all over the map.

Doer and the Dippers coasted their way to victory. They didn't even have to work for it. When the opposition can't articulate what they're going to do differently than the sitting government, the incumbants are going to win every time. Doer knew that he wasn't dealing with a real threat, so all he did was blather on and on about selling Hydro.

At least the weather this evening matched my mood. The weather is also another reason why I always try to take advantage of the early voting option. On the bright side a pretty girl came to visit me at work today. Oh, and I got a letter from MPI saying they want to give me free immobilizer. I think I'm going to take them up on their offer just for laughs. My car's not worth as much as the immobilizer.

Labels: Bob Stefaniuk, democracy, Gary Doer, Hugh McFadyen, Manitoba, NDP, politics

I've been spending a lot of time the last week driving around the riding of La Verendrye. It's going to be one of the "close" ridings on Tuesday evening.

My impressions from the last week is that PC challenger Bob Stefaniuk will win this riding quite handily. Stefaniuk signs outnumber signs for the NDP incumbant Ron Lemieux 2 to 1. If it's any indicator of how the candidates have fund-raised, it's a significant hurdle for Lemieux to clear.

On Saturday night I was out in La Broquerie for a friends wedding social. Most of the folks I spoke with expressed disappointment with the last four years of Gary Doer's reign. One local small-business person claimed that Lemieux has all but stopped showing his face in the riding.

Lemieux also has his to explain his record as Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation. The abysmal job Lemieux has done on this file is highlighted by the emergency closure of the Portage la Prarie overpass which had become too unsafe to be used. Furthermore, the NDP proudly announced $4 billion for infrastructure which should have been done four years ago. Why didn't Lemieux push for this extra spending when he became the Minister in charge of this file?

History is working against Lemieux as well. La Verendrye went to the PC's for 26 years from 1973-1999 when Lemieux was elected. Before that, it had gone to the Liberals from 1932-1973. Will voters decide that this experiment has gone on long enough?

Change is in the air, all over rural Manitoba, and Ron Lemieux is going to be just one of several NDP casualties on Tuesday.

---

D.J. McGuire over at The Shotgun points out some significant flaws in the most recent Probe poll. The first thing that jumps out is that the Liberals have 16% support provincially. If the Liberals could pull down 16% on Tuesday, Jon Gerrard would be extremely pleased, but it just ain't gonna happen.

Probe is way out of line with this poll. Tuesday night will probably come down to the wire. With the long weekend on the horizon, people will have one last chance to get away and see what's happened to Manitoba's roads, lakes and parks under the reign of Gary Doer and the NDP. Hopefully they remember that on election day.

Labels: Bob Stefaniuk, Fun With Polls, Gary Doer, Jon Gerrard, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP

With a provincial election right around the corner, most political junkies look forward to debates. In a shameless move, Gary Doer is refusing to debate his opponents.

It makes sense with a record as pitiful as Gary Doer's. While Doer's promises about healthcare go unfulfilled, he's quite content to sit out the campaign and attempt to coast to victory. It would be uncomfortable for Doer to have to face questions about why his government did nothing when they knew that Crocus was being run as a pyramid scheme. Or having to explain to a provincial television audience why healthcare funding isn't reaching the front lines. How much credibility would Gary Doer have with environmentalists when they realize that despite promising that Manitoba will meet it's Kyoto targets, our Greenhouse Gas emissions are growing faster than any other province in Canada?

Gary Doer knows that Hugh McFadyen and Jon Gerrard would have a field day attacking his record, and Doer knows it. So rather than proudly taking responsibility for his career, he tries to hide what he's accomplished.

Labels: Gary Doer, Hugh McFadyen, Jon Gerrard, Manitoba, politics

Manitoba's NDP Premier Gary Doer is a big supporter of the Kyoto protocol. In fact, Doer is such a Kyoto supporter, that he's campaigning on making Manitoba the first province in Canada to adopt Kyoto targets in legislation, to be met by 2012.

The problem is that Manitoba's emissions are growing, not shrinking. From 1990 to 2003 Manitoba's Greenhouse Gas emissions rose by 11.5%.

Probably most importantly, Gary Doer and the NDP don't have a plan to reduce emissions in Manitoba. The only plan the NDP has in place too meet Kyoto targets is to generate more hydro-electricity for export to Ontario, which does nothing to reduce emissions at home, but will hopefully provide enough carbon credits to meet our Kyoto targets.

The problem with reducing emissions in Manitoba is that most of our emissions come from transportation and farming, ie. the bulk of our economy. So to meet Kyoto targets, Doer had to come up with a way to reduce emissions without reducing emissions... and believe it or not, the carbon credit trading scheme in the Kyoto accord allows for just that!

The problems with carbon credit trading are detailed by the Financial Times here and here. Basically the problem in Britain is that government incentives to reduce emissions have artificially raised demand for carbon credits beyond what technology can be supplied. This artificially high demand for carbon credits raises the price of a carbon credit through the roof. And too often, because of financial incentives provided by the government, it doesn't matter to the purchaser that the 1kt reduction in GHG he just bought didn't actually reduce GHG gases by 1kt, because he's got his carbon credits and thats all he needs to appear to be the greenest guy on the block.

When Gary Doer talks about the opportunities created by being green, he's really talking about getting rich selling worthless carbon credits. It makes one very wary about Gary's sincerity on environmental issues.

Labels: Britain, Environment, Gary Doer, NDP, Y2Kyoto

Gary Doer must think that Manitobans are complete idiots. Today, he announced that he plans to open a new Mental Health Emergency Room at the Health Sciences Center, along with promises of more doctors.

The only problem is, Manitoba is already short of doctors, and it's not because of a lack of funding either.

Ask yourself this, if Gary Doer is serious about opening a new ER, why is it that the ER at Miseracordia was converted into a walk-in clinic? Why is the Emergency Room at Grace on the brink of closing down? Why will the ER in Roblin be closed this weekend?

Also a good question, is where the hell are we going to find all of these new doctors Gary Doer keeps promising us? We're already short dozens of doctors, yet Gary Doer keeps promising us more, even though he can't fill the current spaces... what the hell is going to change? Gary Doer's been making the same empty promises for eight years now, and he has been unable to come up with a single new idea.

Healthcare funding has almost doubled since the NDP took office, and all they have to show for it is fewer ER's, and a massively bloated Winnipeg Health Authority. Gary Doer has failed on the healthcare front, and he should keep his idiotic promises to himself, because Manitobans aren't as dumb as he thinks we are.

Read what Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard has to say on the subject. See, he's an actual doctor who's worked in the profession, whereas Gary Doer is just another college dropout with union thugs to keep him propped up.

Labels: Gary Doer, Jon Gerrard, Liberal Party, Manitoba, NDP

The Manitoba PC Party wonders if Gary Doer and the NDP got their slogan "Forward, Not Back" from The Simpsons.

Labels: Funny, Gary Doer, NDP, politics, YouTube

The only reason why Green Party candidates across Canada have yet to break through is because of the whacko-fringe aspect of the party. All too often the fringe aspect of the party takes over.

Such is the case in Manitoba. Green Party of Manitoba leader Andrew Basham takes the party to the fringe with his economic policies. Hell, the party theme is "Rethinking Progress: Well-being NOT growth". In this article Basham delivers a few killer-quotes like, "I don't look at it as running against Gary Doer, I look at it as running against the paradigm of growth economics." And why would an aspiring politician want to knock economic growth? "Economic growth actually costs a lot of jobs, it doesn't create them as we like to think," Basham said.

If the economic platform isn't confusing enough, try the parties "six pillars" on for size:

• Ecological literacy
• Rebuilding democracy
• Creating ecological communities
• Protecting the commons
• Bringing the economy home
• Establishing a sustainable energy future

But we wish Andrew Basham the best of luck in the next election, if for no reason other than he's taking on none other than Gary Doer in Concordia. With Basham and Ken Wadwell challenging Gary Doer, they may just steal enough votes to take down Doer. But God save us all if the Green party were ever to get into power.

Labels: Gary Doer, Green Party, Manitoba, politics

Every once in a blue moon the Winnipeg Free Press prints something worth reading. An editorial in todays paper takes Gary Doer and the NDP to task for their antiquated business sense.

When the Winnipeg Free Press wants an honest debate on the future of Manitoba Hydro, it should be pretty clear that the public would be willing to entertain the idea. When Gary Doer uses the privatization of MTS to portray the PC's as scary, he's being dishonest and eventually voters will figure it out.

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, Winnipeg Free Press

There were two great posts in the Manitoba blogosphere today from Daily Rants and another from An Unapologetic Winnipeger. Put together, they show how out of touch with the average Manitoban the NDP really is.

Daily Rants brings up an unfortunate quote from Tom Nevakshonoff, NDP MLA for the Interlake. After 9/11 Nevakshonoff is quoted as saying, "I was so happy when those planes hit the towers, they deserved it. Too bad they didn't kill more Americans".

It's no secret that many in the NDP don't like Americans, for whatever reasons. But to wish death to Americans is unacceptable for a sitting MLA. Did it occur to Nevakshonoff that 24 Canadians died in the attacks of 9/11? Does he wish that more dual Canadian-American citizens had died that day too? For chrissake, even Saddam Hussein offered his condolences, and he was a genocidal tyrant!

It also leads one to question Mr. Nevakshonoff's basic business sense; ie. it's not a good idea to wish the destruction of your largest trade partner. In 2006 total Manitoba exports were about $11.5 billion 75% of that, or $8.7 billion. But an economic genius is not what one should expect from an Eastern European Studies graduate. If there's any truth to this rumor, Tom Nevakshonoff should be finished.

On a similar theme of backwards NDP logic, Unapologetic Winnipeger points out a page on Who Is Hugh?, a site to smear Hugh McFadyen put up by the Manitoba NDP.

The NDP tries to smear Hugh for having the support of successful Manitobans. Hugh's list of donors include members of the Richardson family, the Asper family, and Randall Moffat. These people have done more for Manitoba's economy than all the hand-outs Gary Doer and the NDP could ever dream of.

That Gary Doer and the NDP hang with the likes of Tom Nevakshonoff, while criticizing Hugh McFadyen for having the support of Manitoba's best and brightest, says a lot about the NDP vision for Manitoba. That vision is not very bright.

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP

Yesterdays final round of the Masters was another gem. As is the norm at Augusta National, the tournament was decided on the back nine on Sunday.

Zach Johnson held off charges from Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Justin Rose on the back nine on Sunday. Johnson, a relatively unknown player with only one PGA Tour victory previously, was as cool as a cucumber until he three-putted the 17th hole for bogey, and hit a horrible approach to the 18th green, but saved par with a brilliant chip from the right-side of the green. Retief couldn't buy a putt when he needed one. Justin Rose was a roller-coaster, making a total of three double-bogies during Sunday's round, including the killer on the seventeenth hole. Tiger's chances were blown when he hit his second shot on the par-five fifteenth into the water, and after failing to convert a birdie chance on the par-three sixteenth.

But Tiger's not the only golfer who got screwed yesterday. The folks in Selkirk will be without their golf course for several weeks. While the rest of Selkirk is still under flash-flood warning, and much damage has been done already; Gary Doer showed up on Friday to promise funding for repairs, meanwhile doing nothing to actually stop more flooding.

The sad thing is that this flooding is caused by ice jams. Apparently the provincial government can spend billions of dollars protecting Winnipeg from spring flooding, but is completely stumped when it comes to ice. While Selkirk floods, Doer does nothing. Blow it up Gary!

Labels: Environment, Gary Doer, Manitoba, sports

I don't touch off here often enough about the provincial politics in Manitoba. Aside from the newspapers, a few good blogs (most of which are listed to your left), politics in this province doesn't have much of a web presence. Even with an election right around the corner the wise guys, and the government mouthpiece have been pretty quite lately. I guess the combatants have to "feel each other out" before any good fight.

But it appears the first blow has been delivered by the PC Party. Via Jim Cotton we have a real-life internet attack ad in Manitoba. The PC's go after Gary Doer and the NDP over the Crocus Scandal on YouTube. And it's long over due...
Just as an aside, I should point out that as it stands, I have no intention of voting for the PC Party in Manitoba. Since the change of leadership, there has been a complete lack of, well... leadership. The PC Party seems to be trying to position itself as NDP-Lite, meanwhile the absolutely power-less Liberal party has been putting the boots to Doer. And if a libertarian-loon like myself can actually imagine voting for a "Liberal" party, you know the guys on the right are in trouble.

The only thing that really matters is that Gary Doer and the NDP suck.

Update:The PC's and Liberals are definitely coordinating their efforts. Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard released his own YouTube video about Crocus yesterday.

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, politics, YouTube

If anybody in Manitoba is looking at buying a bed, they should buy it from Best Sleep Center. Why am I plugging a matress company? Because of this commercial, possibly the greatest radio ad EVER. I caught this from Jim Cotton.

February, thirty-five below, the slowest retail month of the year, the shortest month of the year, and hard enough to pay the rent this month for small business and our tired government wants to give us all a day off. According to them the planet is about to boil, and they gather in a room and come up with, I know - a holiday! That will get us re-elected!

Its so damn obvious, but Dave Keam is the only one with the guts to say it.

What I find most surprising is that Gary Doer and the NDP only proposed a one-day holiday. It's February, it's Reading Week for us University types, so why not give all of Manitobans a reading week, huh Gary? Doer has absolutely zero concern for the business that drives our economy, and will sell them down the river in a heart-beat if it'll buy him one or two more Union votes.

Update: Either Gary Doer's going to have the wind pulled from his sails, or Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan (who just introduced their own February holiday) will be having extremely lazy winters.

Peggy Nash, MP for Parkdale-High Park, was expected to table on Thursday a private member's bill that asks the federal government to make Flag Day, Feb. 15, a legal federal holiday.

It should be noted (since the CBC article doesn't even mention it) that Peggy Nash is a member of the NDP. As the wise and profound Jim Lahey - Trailer Park Supervisor once said, "The shit apple doesn't fall far from the shit tree".

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, politics

Gary Doer accussed Hugh McFadyen and the Tories of planning to sell Manitoba Hydro. McFadyen couldn't have been quicker to dodge Doer's denunciation, saying "Manitoba Hydro is completely and totally different (from MTS). It would make no sense at all to sell it."

The topic deserves some debate.

Another approach to ease the transition from the old model would be to recycle the community capital tied up in these organizations into an endowment fund. Manitoba Hydro and the province's hydro-generating potential might provide up to $10 billion in seed money for our own Heritage Fund, an amount that could generate over a billion dollars annually. How many Manitobans would object to selling Manitoba Hydro if it meant a yearly dividend cheque in the mail?

An added benefit would be the overnight creation of a major corporate taxpayer. Crown jewels look nice in a display cabinet, but they tend to gather a lot of dust. TransAlta, the Calgary-based power company that is roughly the same size, pays corporate taxes that are higher than Manitoba Hydro's entire profit, even after distributing healthy dividends to its shareholders.

The privatization of MTS was a success, and Manitobans realize that. Privatization is not a word that induces fear in the citizenry the way it used to.

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP

After Gary Doer's pathetic attempt to skew the numbers by posing a loaded question on the Canadian Wheat Board plebiscite, the Feds now know not to make the same mistake (sub).

The Free Press has learned that Chuck Strahl's Agriculture Department has been preparing a ballot for the key vote that gives farmers three options -- instead of simply asking farmers whether they prefer selling barley on the open market. [...]

But Conrad Bellehumeur, Strahl's director of communications, did not deny there may be more than two questions, saying an "either-or" situation does not reflect the Tory vision for the world's largest barely and wheat marketer.

"I cannot confirm how many (voting) boxes there may be. There could be two, there could be more," Bellehumeur said.

"It (the ballot's wording) will reflect the government's vision to provide freedom of choice to producers."

If we're to use the Manitoba plebiscite as an indicator, this could spell trouble for proponents of the monopoly.

The Feds' question is more honest, and much more in line with the Torie's vision, than the live-or-die options given by the Doer government.

The Doer question forced farmers to choose between the status quo, and "I wish to remove the single desk marketing system from the CWB and sell all wheat through an open market system."

"That would not be the ballot we would use," he (Bellehumeur) said. "It is not an all-or-nothing option."

Strahl has said he will not be bound by the results of the barley plebiscite.

Mike Bast, chairman of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, which has been among the biggest backers of the Tory plans for the CWB, said a three-option ballot is exactly what his group recommended to Strahl.

"That is the most accurate way to gauge farmers," Bast said.

"I feel that is where the Manitoba plebiscite missed the mark, because it did not give farmers out there that middle ground."

And that "middle ground" just so happens to be exactly what the government's plans are.

Labels: Conservative Party, CWB, Fun With Polls, Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP

Gary Doer continues to waste tax dollars to promote his tired, big-government ideology (h/t Small Dead Animals).

Manitoba's recent Canadian Wheat Board plebiscite, which was paid for by Manitoba taxpayers, was supposed to give Ottawa a feeling of how Prairie farmers feel about the CWB monopoly. Instead, the question asked was totally loaded, and gives absolutely no indication of how farmers in Manitoba actually feel about the monopoly.

Voters were asked to tick one of two boxes -- either "I wish to maintain the ability to market all wheat, with the continuing exception of feed wheat sold domestically, through the CWB single desk system," or "I wish to remove the single desk marketing system from the CWB and sell all wheat through an open market system." [emphasis mine]

The problem is, they didn't offer an option for voluntary participation in the CWB, which is what I suspect most farmers would support.

Of course, because the question posed was so poor, both sides are claiming victory.

Ken Ritter, the chair of the Canadian Wheat Board, said he was pleased but not surprised by the result. "It's a clear result and a clear win for the CWB," Mr. Ritter said. [...]

In Ottawa yesterday, Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl said he was encouraged by Manitoba's plebiscite, even though a majority voted against the government's position.

"Close to 40 per cent of people said they wanted freedom of choice on barley, and that's with, as far as I'm concerned, a cooked-up, slanted question and a huge propaganda campaign that went with it," Mr. Strahl said.

Since the government's position is one of a voluntary CWB, I'd say it wasn't even addressed.

Of course, this doesn't address the wider question that should really be asked: should a majority be able to remove the freedoms of a minority?

Labels: CWB, Gary Doer, Manitoba

Tom Brodbeck sounds off today, on the NDP buying all the surgery time at the privately run Maples Clinic.

Just when Manitobans were beginning to gain some choice in health care, along comes government's health-care monopoly to gobble up the competition.

The Maples Surgical Centre, a private clinic that had been providing MRIs and pediatric dental surgery to the public for a fee, inked a deal with the Doer government yesterday that will end private access to those services.

While at first glance, you might think Tommy Boy is right, it seems pretty simple. The key is in the government monopoly gobbled up the competition.

Will it solve wait-time issues immediately? Absolutely not. But it will, in the long run, reduce the costs of health-care on the system - thus allowing a reduction of wait times by improving efficiency rather than just paying more.

If anything, this move by the NDP will encourage private health-care providers to come to Manitoba, knowing that as long as there is a market here for their services, their services will be utilized. Or, as PITT put it, "While I like what they have done with the Maples, they can't stop here. Hopefully the Maples clinic won't just be another arm of the WRHA."

It's not every day that I like something the NDP does and Brodbeck hates. Maybe I woke up in Bizarro World. Down is up, white is black.... argh!

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, politics

For months now, the NDP has been screwing around with Big Pig in Manitoba. While Sam Katz has been taking the majority of the heat over the situation, it seems some of it's finally coming back to Doer.

A fuming Coun. Russ Wyatt called for Doer's resignation because of the "fiasco" that's created environmental fears for his Transcona constituents during the past year1.

"This was flung onto the citizens of east Winnipeg, and there's no leadership coming from the premier's office -- even though it's his file. The premier should resign," Wyatt charged.

"His total mismanagement of the hog industry in relation to the environment tells me he's incompetent."

Calling for Doers resignation is a little heavy-handed, but Doer does need to step up to the plate on this issue.

Labels: Gary Doer, Manitoba, NDP, Russ Wyatt