Nickel and dime debate

I watched the leaders' debate last night - an hour of my life I can't get back.

I wish I had a nickel for every time Lingenfelter said "nickel on a dollar" and wondered whether he would have the same attitude when discussing a fluctuating PST. As for the rich PCS shareholders, the pension plans own considerable PCS stock - does he mean them? Or me with my 100 shares in my retirement portfolio? (Yes, I know me means Doyle and company.)

In today's SP Opinion (Oct. 26/11) column comments are made about BHP optimism for doing business in this province. Would they be so optimistic if a government legislated a change to an existing agreement? And if the agreement is that bad, why did the government that Lingenfelter played a prominent role in negotiate it in the first place?

I think Lingenfelter was just trying to shore up the support he already has and Wall was just keeping his head down and steady his course. But the decorum was much better.

I expect in the dying days of this campaign the gloves may come off and real personalities will emerge. The kinder, gentler Lingenfelter will have nothing to lose at that point and his street-fighter instincts will kick in.

I am looking forward to November 8.

No parking zone

I offer my apologies to Larissa Shasko, former leader of the Green Party, if her departure from the party in September was caused because of the Green's platform development.

I liked having the Green Party around because it was a place to park your vote if the status quo wasn't to your liking. After reading the Green Party platform in today's SP (October 25/11) this party should be designated as a "no parking" zone.

Item 1: Converting the Highways Ministry into a new Crown, giving no more work to private contractors and turning work over to "local people" - who would the local people be?

Item 2: Putting physicians on salary so they would work fewer hours and hiring other countries' doctors? If you think getting to see your family physician now is difficult, put them on a 9-to-5 day and see how long you wait. In fact just trying to get a family doctor right now is difficult. And we have already enlarged the medical programs. "Are doctors here to service the patients - or just make a fast buck and get rich off the patients?" Mr. Lau and his party obviously don't know that family doctors work long, hard hours and are not getting rich doing so. And the specialists would leave this province in droves if they were salaried - and for few that might stay the waiting time for an appointment would be unfathomable. And other countries would be taking our doctors.

Item 3: Capping class size to 20 students in K-12 and phasing out post-secondary tuition. I might agree with the capping class size for primary grades, but by time students get to high school part of what the system does is prepare them for post-secondary. Can you imagine the shock to students when they would leave a Grade 12 coddled class of 20 in June and enter a post-secondary theatre of 300 students in September? As for post-secondary tuition, taxpayers already pick up 80 to 90% of post-secondary costs.

The only good sense exhibited here was not providing estimated costs to these proposals - possibly because he can't count that high.

I truly wish the Greens had kept their focus on energy development and the environment.

They're not listening

My mother is 84-years-old and lives in a seniors' complex. She is a swing voter and not a dyed-in-the-wool political party supporter.

Recently she received a call from Judy Junor's office asking if Judy could count on her support in the upcoming provincial election. My mother responded with "I haven't decided yet. I'm waiting to hear what all the candidates have to say before I make up my mind."

Okay said the caller, but could Judy count on her to door-knock her building soliciting support from her neighbours for Judy?

What didn't the caller hear?

Pull out your checkbooks

Well, we know we are getting, at the very least, a 3% mill rate increase based on the City Police budget - and that doesn't include the cost of the approved super-duper police plaza (SP Oct. 21/11.)

Based on the news report it is hard to argue against the police budget - although I would like to know the crime stats for East Division. If the city is expanding, police service must also grow to service the expansion. And I would not want police officers sent out on the job without the necessary equipment to do the job.

Add on to this increase the monies needed to finance the capital projects (although some of this cost will be held back until after the 2012 election), infrastructure repairs and maintenance, library services, etc. and we are in for a substantial tax increase - this year and for years to come.

Good to know before we go on a Christmas spending spree.

The 15% Solution

Congratulations to Councillor-elect Ann Iwanchuk. We will look forward to her voice on council - with the exception of when Council deals with unionized employee contracts. In my mind there is a conflict of interest. This lady seems like a down-to-earth personality and an honourable person who will do the right thing when the time comes.

The only real disappointment to yesterday's by-election was voter turnout - about 15%. The heartening aspect was the move toward gender equity on Council.

An honourable mention must be given to Mike San Miguel. I was pleasantly surprised at his second place finish. I hope he continues his quest for a seat on council in the next general election.

I was taken aback by Rik Steernberg's fourth place finish. As a ward resident and former councillor I thought he would finish better. Well, this is next year country.

The best news is, should we lose another councillor for any reason, no more by-elections.

Rebels Without a Cause

Although I don't always agree with the issue, I do admire protesters that get off their butts to rally the troops for their cause.

From the first photos of Occupy Saskatoon it appeared this marching troop was protesting everything. It lacked focus, unlike the Occupy Wall Street group.

In today's SP (Oct. 19/11) the Occupiers released their statement of purpose as creating "open, participatory and horizontally organized process . . . to build the capacity of an autonomous collective force to conduct itself within the public sphere." Huh?

It seems to me these disgruntled folks want to protest something, they just don't know what it should be. Sad to say there are so many causes they could have picked.

It appears they are just jumping on the American Bandwagon and protesting for the joy of protestation itself.

Greed and desperation

Councillor Penner's comment "It's a business day. It's not too different from any other day." (SP Oct. 18/11) in reference to Sunday probably won't sit too well with the Christian community. And I expect the churches along Spadina and in the Broadway area won't be happy when parishioners are leaving services early to plug meters, or worse yet, not attending because of the parking fees they have to pay on Sunday. I guess this is managing the turnaround of those Christians wishing to worship in their church of choice.

And Council didn't even have the decency to enact the meter charge to coincide with Sunday shopping hours. This isn't about managing services - its a money grab.

I assume because of the reference to January 1 that free parking on statutory holidays is off the table as well. And those New Year's Eve revellers who might wisely leave their vehicles overnight because of over-consumption may now consider driving away when they should be cabbing it.

As for the restaurants offering Sunday brunches, forget it. After January 1 I will be heading to the malls and outlying areas where I won't get dinged with a $14 ticket because I visited over a second cup of coffee.

As for those who must go downtown, hit the parking lots. If you are 15 minutes late getting back to your vehicle you only get dinged with a half hour parking charge vis-a-vis a expensive ticket.

And now that Council has feathered the coffers with an additional $395,000 it can contemplate another multi-million dollar capital project.

October of 2012 can't come fast enough.