Wild Bill

You keep talking about "relics" having poor social skills and being politically correct. You have yet to say a damn thing about how this has anything to do with making money! Believe it or not, some of the most socially inept human beings are very good at making money. Why do you think we have so many accountants and lawyers? I am forced to conclude that either you have no clue about business or for reasons of your own you are keeping it all a big secret!

If I understand this correctly Michael, the control of the CRTC and the idea of government as a defender of local culture really means making sure the people CAN"T watch, read or listen to what they WANT! Instead, the government limits their choices to what it says the people SHOULD want! No wonder there have always been conflicts. No wonder there has always been tv piracy.

I grew up in Stoney Creek, which was a small town on its own until it was conquered by Hamilton during the Battle of Amalagamation. Now I live in Hamilton proper, which of course has more than 200k people. During my "wild oats" years I spent many happy hours in Niagara Region, playing in bars like the Queens Hotel in Dunnville, the Atlas, the Welland House, the Henley in St. Catherines, the Hunt Club in Grimsby and a raft of others. Any of these sound familiar, Peeves? We would start in Wallaceburg and tour from small town to small town, from Tillsonburg to St. Thomas, Seabringville to Oxford, to Clinton (The Home of Radar!), ending up in Hearst and Kapusskasing to then work all the way back in reverse. All those small towns were a delight! We met many wonderful people, some of whom would see our picture on the local club's marque and plan dinners and parties for us. Every town had its own piece of history and its own quaint customs, a la that tv show, Corner Gas. One that I never did figure out was in Kapusskasing. We stopped for supper in a Chinese food/western menu diner. When our food was served the waitress dropped a large platter of toast in the middle of all the Chinese food dishes. When we told her "We didn't order any toast!" she looked at us as if we were from Mars and said "Well, you ordered Chinese food, didn't you? That means you also get toast!" Maybe someone on MLW can explain that one to me! Anyhow, I still feel far more comfortable in a small town. When I separated from my ex a bit over a year ago I seriously considered moving to Dunnville. What stopped me was I thought that was a bit too far for my customers to follow. It's a shame that with all the political focus on the big cities like Toronto the small towns are so forgotten. They are the true soul and bedrock of Ontario. They might be overlooked into today's scheme of things but I think we are the poorer for it.

I find it very ironic that a movie based on the Ayn Rand novel "Atlas Shrugged" is being released during a time when we hear complaints that business is not "saving us all". One of the main themes of that novel was government taking business for granted. It would continually pass legislation to look socialistic to the masses, in order to ensure the votes. Meanwhile, they would cut backroom deals with crooked businessmen to guarantee them enough profit to survive. Such a system cannot sustain itself, of course. So deficits keep going up. Factories keep becoming more and more run down. Business is sitting on what money it has instead of investing for the simple reason it is not seeing positive areas in which to invest! Companies don't choose to stop investing just to be mean! They just don't see any low risk areas in which to put their money. As long as western business was strong governments could bleed it with few worries. Those times have changed. The money is no longer there. It's in China, Russia, India and many Third World countries. There is no way the politicians want to give up any of their take. That might cost them votes. Yet business simply can't afford to pay what they used to pay. So business slows down, or cuts back, leaves or simply goes under. I'm not sure how things will work out but I find when things have gone so far that people are complaining about business being unwilling to do business ironic to an extreme!

I am perfectly serious! You are talking about an area I have direct personal experience, for nearly 30 years. You make claims that differ from that experience. Before I could possibly believe you I would need a bit more than "you can't be serious". I ask again, what does your view have to do with profit? Not just as you might imagine but in the real world? Please understand, I am NOT stating I approve of the way things are! I am saying simply that it IS the way things are, at this point in time. I suspect that if a business changed to meet your approval it might very well die, or at least suffer a severe slump in net profit. It will take another generation or two, maybe more. While I am confident that as time goes by the mix of visible minority faces in the boardroom will improve I am not sure about the number of women. Up till now there simply hasn't been an equal number of women even trying to get into management! I am not completely sure why either, except for the fact that time out for child-bearing might be a factor. Whatever reasons, I do know that is the way it IS! More so in business than perhaps anywhere else, you have to deal with the world as it is or you can expect to fail.

You are describing a picture from a storybook. How many women are these relics facing across the boardroom table? Not that many companies are dealing globally. If they are dealing with China, Russia, India or most middle eastern countries it is doubtful if they confront any women at all! In fact, if they bring any female managers of their own it would likely cause problems. Countries that deal domestically might see more women in the boardroom. However, the mere fact that the article itself says there are far fewer than there should be suggests that "relics" will NOT lose any business! Have you ever been in a boardroom situation yourself? I have many times but I suspect you have not. Otherwise, you would not be so unrealistic in your premises. You seem to have difficulty relating to the way things are rather than the way you think they should be. I happen to agree with you about discrimination as to gender or anything else. However, to make the case that such attitudes DO cost business in Canada reveals an ignorance of how things truly work in business. Things are changing to be more fair but very slowly, particularly in Canada for reasons I have already posted.

I wasn't focusing on harassment. Seems to me that's a legal matter. If Ms. McKenna thinks she has a valid case she should sue their asses off! As for social skills being moneymaking skills, could you explain why that is so? I truly don't see the connection but if you feel you do it should not be hard to explain it in terms of money.

Lesser of two evil? Jacee, that was precisely my point! Teachers and others at the time supported not having "evil DDT" AT ALL! They did not say "lesser of two evils in some places where malaria is an issue". They said NO DDT AT ALL! Meanwhile, about half a million children have died EVRY YEAR since the DDT ban! That was 1972, so this is the 50th year. 50 times 500k = 25 million children DEAD that didn't have to die! Boneheads! Murderous boneheads!

Mostly I agree Michael. What disagreements I have are mostly with the logistics of how things do or don't work. The idea of more female representation in business and industry often ignores on giant and obvious fact - far fewer women are applying for management positions than men! Far fewer of these women are qualified! It's like complaining about not having half of your firemen positions filled with women, when only 5 % of your applicants were female anyway. Attempts to artificially FORCE a 50/50 mix can make things much worse. Do a nose count of male teachers at your closest elementary school. Then google up the number of male principals. I absolutely agree about limiting your talent pool. My point is just that in times of high unemployment, you have so many applicants for every job that the effect is swamped out anyway. As for public perceptions, who cares? When people are desperate for a job they tend to keep their personal opinions to themselves. And as for manufacturing and heavy industry, it would seem Michael that today here in Ontario they are so desperately trying to survive that I don't think they have the luxury of thinking about their hiring policies. Likely they haven't hired anyone new in months, if not years. Here in Hamilton I don't think there have been any new hires at the steel mills for decades!

Well Benz, perhaps I am the wrong person to answer this. You see, I don't believe that ANY politician or political party truly cares about giving the people the best possible and most fair government! Deep down in their hearts, their own positions come first. A Senate that is Triple E, that is - Elected, Equal and Effective, would give more protection to smaller provinces against the ones with the higher populations but it would also mean more problems for a ruling party to ram through whatever it wanted. If Canada had had a proper Senate, the Liberals could never have imposed their National Energy Policy. Much if not most of western alienation would never have been born! The Tories would not be enjoying such a firm hold on all those western seats. Likely all parties would have better representation across the nation. I'm surprised to hear a Quebecois like yourself be so trusting of the PeQuistes, after Parizeau's famous "lobsters in the pot" observation. When a political leader actually admits to such blatant manipulation how could any follower trust him?

You are mixing two completely different skill sets. Running a business and having social skills that are "inclusive" and "progressive" are two totally different things. The fact is that the only reward in business is profit. If you fail to appreciate the worth of an employee because she is a woman or a visible minority, that is perhaps a shame morally but it counts for diddley-squat as far as profit and loss. This is not always true. It just happens that right now we have high unemployment so companies always have a surplus of available new hires. If the person running the company is a "relic" and wants to hire only "white bread" its very easy to do. There are a very large number of white folks desperate for a job as well! If a manager is less discriminating and more fair in his hiring he will not necessarily make any more profit than if he hired only as regards to his biases. There may be an exception in a retail environment. If his store is in an ethnic neighbourhood then it makes sense to have people of that ethnicity on the front line. Why? Because many customers are biased! They feel more comfortable dealing with salespeople of their own particular persuasion! There is no "Fairness Council" that will reward a fair-minded manager with CASH! He might win a humanitarian award and still go bankrupt. Whoever wrote the article you cited obviously has no mainstream business background. The world is the way it is, not the way we dream it should be. I would be the first to agree things aren't fair but so what? What do my feelings have to do with the price of eggs? If and when our economy turns around and unemployment drops to the point where companies have difficulty in finding suitable new hires we will see a lot of biases thrown away. "Relic" managers will no longer have the luxury of being unfair. They will be happy to get anybody who is qualified, regardless of race or more importantly, culture. Canada likely has more "relic" managers because our economy has been more protected, particularly by government support with protectionist policies. A manager who has not moved with the times is not likely to be forced to change by any fear of losing his job. Canadian business does not lag behind only with social and cultural issues. We have not modernized our businesses nearly as much as other countries have done with new technologies. Why? Things like a 65 cent dollar usually made it unnecessary! Now they are scrambling to catch up. You are railing against an unfairly low percentage of visible minority and female officers while the entire crew is doing a poor job of bailing to keep the ship afloat! If someone waved a magic wand and made a more fair representation among the captains, the ship would likely still sink! This is why so many leftwing countries have such poor economies. They don't have enough tractors but instead of fixing that problem first they instead focus on programs to make sure they have a fair percentage of female tractor drivers.

Once again, we see the need for a true Upper House Senate based on regional representation, to offset the House of Commons which runs on rep by population.

Please Wyly, go easy on the alzheimer references! I turned 60 yesterday! I guess my brain hasn't totally gone. I still can't abide hiphop, Justin Bieber or Celine Dion!

Yep! And I'm sure if guys like you keep scolding them and tell them they are vicious, ignorant idiots they will all change their minds!

Chernobyl and Fusushima were totally different designs! Russian reactors like Chernobyl were crap! They were crap from the start but they were the only politically approved design. They are not a valid example of nuclear safety. It's like having a dog show and one entrant has rabies. Do you brand all the dogs as dangerous?

Yes, it did. However, so will a lot of chemicals and things. DDT was used for decades without any controls or rules of any kind. That's why it became a problem. However, if used properly and in a controlled manner, you save the birds AND children! That was my point. Teachers and others who had no real knowledge of the science involved just took the easy way out and got a total ban implemented. Whenever you mention a half a million african children dying each year because of nothing like DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carry malaria those that supported the ban seem to just close their ears and dodge the issue. Meanwhile, someone like me, who actually gives a damn for those poor children, is often branded a mean-spirited rightwinger by many of those same teacher activists, like yourself! It is issues like the DDT ban and the malaria deaths that have soured me on many leftwing causes over the years. When I dig into them a bit it often seems to be a case of big hearts but small brains.

No, but there is a grain of truth to the story. It was and is the mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion. Mississauga will give a cheque to cover first and last month rent to anyone on welfare who will then leave her city. Usually they come to Hamilton, because it's close and has perhaps the highest amount of social assistance resources. I know this for a fact. My ex-wife works for the City of Hamilton and has seen the cheques.

Depends on how you define failure, Michael. As I've said before, no one should expect Justin to put the Liberals back in power. It won't happen! However, he just might save their sorry butts! The Liberal Party is fading fast. It is entirely possible that it could disappear. Justin could offer enough excitement to reverse the slide over the cliff. He might even win back another 10 or 20 seats! At that point, his party would have some momentum and be far more attractive for better candidates that COULD be competitive! A rejuvenated Liberal Party would likely take seats away from the NDP much more than the Tories. There would be a break from the negative legacy of Chretien and Adscam. I'm not saying that the Liberals would automatically become again the Natural Governing Party but they would once again be a contender. Young Justin doesn't have to become PM to be a winner!

Be very, very careful! I have it on good authority that in Ireland if you don't leave a bowl of beer out on your porch for the Little People, they bomb your pub!

Let's teach that DDT is always bad and should be totally banned. Then we can watch 500,000 children die each year in Africa from malaria... Easy to pick the good ones in hindsight, Max. The problem is that these teachers are starting off in advance. They need foresight, not hindsight. Worse yet, they don't seem to think they NEED foresight! They think they already have the gospel.

Maybe I'm too cynical Topaz but I believe that the BC teachers would rather not teach about such issues at all if they were forced to present BOTH sides! In fact, I'm not sure if they believe there ARE too sides to such things! They seem to think that they are right about everything and anyone who disagrees must not just be wrong but also an evil lackey of corporations. Just as the sun rises in the east every morning! It's just the sort of people that they are...

OK, for purposes of argument, you are right and I am wrong. A meltdown happened in a country run by arrogant dillholes. That country no longer exists. The situation there was totally unique and not likely to ever be repeated again. It existed. I concede. Still, I submit that it was an anomaly and no longer germane to any argument. Can you point to any country existing today that has both a reactor as f'd up and stupid in design as Chernobyl, run by equally f'd up people? The test that destroyed Chernobyl was caused by a commissar type who over-ruled his engineers, NOT because of a disagreement between engineers as YOU stated! You really should google up the history of that disaster. It is a perfect example of what can happen under a statist socialist government. A lot of politicians everywhere are stupid enough to think they know more than engineers about engineering situations but can you give us any country in the world as an example that could repeat the Chenobyl error?

I can get along with anyone, as long as they are civilized. When someone is both rude and profane I lose respect for them.

Sorry, but Chernobyl doesn't really count! It was a reactor designed and ran by idiot politicians and party members who over-ruled their engineers and technicians. They were azzholes extraordinaire and were so stupid as to be suicidal! It is a worse example than comparing a 20 year old rusted out Lada with a brand new Volvo. At least the poor quality of a Lada wasn't radioactive! What else ya got?