Molly

King Wheat died 20+ years ago. The flip side to that criticizm is that producers marketing on their own don't always get the best price either. Sometimes, they even get the very worst price. The board has demonstrably produced an overall premium year after year, even though most of that is through the very tight quality controls and management of such a large volume. It's neither bogeyman nor sacred salvation. When the board was first being hit so hard by the folks who wanted to run durum into MOntana/N. Dakota to cherry-pick spot prices created by US export subsidies, it was noted around the bar tables that if the board should disappear, the first thing most folks would have to do is to hire someone to do their marketing. The more production has shifted to non-board crops (thanx to transportation deregulation, not to board incompetence) the more brokers have appeared. The service is a necessary one.

Let's just not be forgetting that taxpayers refund 60% the money that is legitimately spent by candidates, but not what is spent by 'party central', so they were (trying to) spend $1.67 of ours to every $1.00 of their own. Misappropriation of our money is a smaller issue than cheating in an election, but it's not just a toss in. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/03/04/pol-in-out-payout.html "For some campaigns, the scheme could have been quite lucrative, landing them taxpayer funded reimbursements worth thousands of dollars more than Elections Canada says they actually spent — a surplus that could be retained by the riding association for the 2008 election."

It's the Conservative thing to declare equivalency between Glinda and Evillene. Both, after all, are witches. It's their go-to justification, fiollowed immediately on the list by 'Two wrongs must make a right.' and "That's not at all important. Other things are important." (aka "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.")

I don't much agree with the way it was said, but have thought much the same. "So, who asked you?" is a fair enough question.

I figure there's enough evidence in to call it contempt for long-established rules.

Well, Bill, you've never worked for the Liberals to know, (and I haven't worked for them enough to speak with authourity) and I've never worked for the NDP to come up with that equivalency (though I match most of the rest of your list)... but a good friend of mine who was a federal candidate for the NDP told me a story. He moved out to BC, and when an election came up, he immediately marched himself down to volunteer. Anything at all, from licking stamps to briefing the candidate, recruiting and training volunteers, manning the phones or writing the speaches, he was qualified and willing... he'd been eyebrow deep in political organizing from the time he was weaned, brilliant, articulate... Well.... they didn't need any help but could always use more money... So he tried to explain that he might have more to offer than could usually be easily hired, and was told no, thanks, but money would be nice.... So he went home. I didn't have the nerve to ask whether he voted for the guy. I figure it has more to do with locale than party; resources available for use than party. I haven't seen a lot to choose between the ways the various parties approach it. Always paid, and for generations? (especially high profile campaigns?) Father-in-law spent a fair amount of time footsoldiering for Ralph Goodale. Not one dime, never suggested and certainly never paid. My bro was a Liberal constituency president for a good long while, and would have been offended by either the offer or the request... Like I said, I can't refute it in any absolute way, because paying staff isn't at all unreasonable, but I don't buy the accusation that the absence of slaries is gamesmanship and fraud, or that Liberal workers aren't volunteers.

No offense taken, nor any intended... and you are right, it has been a while. Not close to 20 years, but more than 10. I'm not dismissing my doubt in your take, though. It speaks unfortunate volumes that you assume quid pro quo- favors if not money. There actually is some idealism in the world- folks who do stuff because they think it's the right thing. Some of them even consider the chance have a close-up view of history and the chance to take part in it to be more than enough reward.

It bugs the bejeezuz out of me to watch openly dishonest people routinely display contempt for our nation and its institutions and even greater contempt for the good sense and the honour of its citizens... and for their disgraceful conduct be rewarded with votes instead of tar and feathers.

I can't think of a campaign manager I've ever worked with who was paid! My Dad certainly refused payment for it, and so did my father-in-law. (Different parties.) Executive assistants were on payroll often enough, and secretaries sometimes, not always, depending on what we could drum up for volunteers. Sometimes a salaried analyst/advisor was sent by party hq to work some portion of the campaign, or someone else to train scrutineers if they didn't like the local talent. Fund raisers were often paid, but they were hardly limited to campaigns.... I honestly don't know whether Mr. Trudeau would need a paid campaign manager or not. Certainly I can imagine some extremely high quality volunteers thinking that developing a tight association with him might be time well invested. It would certainly be a plum opportunity.

I've worked on several campaigns in which the riding level paid staff was no one at all. Federal and provincial, some wins and some losses.

Okay then.... forgetting to pay income tax on.. ah...

The attitude that the victims are guilty seems to be fairly common among our protectors: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/18/officer-to-apologize-for-slut-remark/ A Toronto police officer will send a written apology to students and faculty of Osgoode Hall Law School, after commenting that women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like a “slut.” The incident occurred on Jan. 24, at a campus safety and security forum that featured two members from York University security and two police officers from 31 Division who were available to offer tips. York University’s newspaper Excalibur reported that the assistant dean of the Juris Doctor program heard the officer say: “I’ve been told I shouldn’t say this,” before offering the offending suggestion.

Well that's an interesting variation Hydraboss, but I still disagree. Election is a 'short attention span', wide pendulum-swing process. Patching on a sub-clause vowing to fix the silliest mistakes later doesn't do anything like enough to prevent making them in the first place.

Darwin award nominee.

There's something to be said for leaving the post vacant until the next general election when/if 'None of the above' wins.

It's a wild stretch, not just a leap but a flight of faith to suggest that election would be an improvement on that selection process. Short term considerations and knee-jerk reaction to events of the moment is the worst possible basis for selection.

Talk about making assumptions! I'm not your daughter. most people become wiser when they get older and see their past errors...you haven't hit that point as yet, or may never...

Yeah. My whiny-baby-ness was cured by moving to Ontario. Funny, but I haven't felt screwed over and robbed by my federal government to pay off someone else even once since I did that. Before then, though... whoo man! Between having my grain export interests regularly traded off to deflect legitimate criticism of eastern supply management, and the transportation surcharges to make sure the folks working the lakes and locks for good $ didn't go short (including the 'fixers' managing the Churchill line and port ensuring it's underutilization and disrepair), I sorta felt disrespected. Those things alone would have been resented, but probably wouldn't have added up to a full blown sense of alienation and victimization except for the many previous decades of that particular pattern of behaviour.

What makes you think that others do have the opportunity in any meaningful way? My French teacher was percieved as excellent- and I do think very well of the man both personally and as a teacher even now- but he had a heavy Welsh accent and an Elmer Fudd speech impediment. I can just imagine what my(our) earnest attempts to reproduce his pronunciations would sound like to others! So, would you say I had the oppportunity, or that I did not? He was there because he was the best instructor available. Can't you just imagine whole immersion schools devoted to Diefenbaker French? Good faith willingness, and even the honest attempt do not make up for the real world unavailability.

Unfortunately, yes. (Shocked the heck out of me.) Precious few know who their representatives are, or with which parties they are affiliated, either, and every now and again they will even throw municipal issues into the same pot for good measure, too.

Reform is being miscast as the villain here. Reform, above ALL, respected process. While some Reformers were social conservatives, Reform was not. The social conservatives that would run roughshod over human rights and the institutions of governance- ignore the primacy of parliament, flout the rule of law, hide the truth and hide from fact- that's pure Conservative. And yes, sometimes 'Western Canada' is used as code meaning ;Alberta', but only by folks who don't know any better, and don't want to know any better. Good on ya, Bill. You get it.

And from that I would also assume that you find nothing at all disturbing about the Oda incident. If he tells it like it is, then why is it so difficult for him (and other Conservatives) to actually lay claim to the political decisions they make? Are they ashamed of them? Do they realize that they ought to be? In any case, I didn't expect it to shake your devotion, just as your insistence that he 'tells it like it is' is a thing I find more laughable than convincing.

S'alright. After reading your follow-up, I was going to repost it anyway. Yes, I made assumptions. When you claimed regrets that you are not fluent in French, said (and say) that you can't think of any applications for algebra, and that you only studied literature, physics or chemistry because you needed them to get into a different school, I understood that to imply a relative lack of proficiency (and interest). If I was wrong... then that's probably a good thing. And man, I really don't care whether you use or understand algebra or not. Truly, I do not... though if you are that math hostile, it's probably a good idea for you to leave it to others.... but I do completely agree that the claim that learning French to the exclusion of other languages 'because it opens doors of opportunity' is the logic of an idiot.

Deleted. I didn't need to be sayin' stuff like that.