Ontario vs Alberta Political Joke

[Wild Bill]

Except that corporations aren't leaving Ontario. Ontario's economy is growing at the national average.

He's an idiot, but it isn't his fault.

Smallc, I don't believe it!

As I have said before, I took a job for a few months back in the late spring with a charity call centre, calling businesses to ask them to sponsor various charities. I called on literally several thousand Ontario businesses.

The pickings were very slim! The number of businesses shutting down or moving out of Ontario was frightening. The computer had history of previous years donations for most of the businesses I called. Even as recent as last year the average amount sponsored or donated was much higher.

So I don't deny that you may have official stats saying things are rosy but that is contradictory to my direct experience.

Perhaps the time lag with compiling stats may be a factor. My experience was only a couple of months ago and the dip seemed to have come on relatively quickly.

Meanwhile, unemployment is still high and has shown no sign of dropping, except for those whose benefits have expired and they drop out of the reports. My phone call sampling covered southern Ontario down to Windsor, Niagara Region, east to Kingston and north to Ottawa.

The job ads in the local paper barely fill one newspaper page most days, all categories combined.

I guess I live in a different parallel universe, Smallc!

[bleeding heart]

What an idiotic joke. Last I read, Alberta spends more per capita than any other province except for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Well, the fact is that any joke that is by design politically self-aggrandizing isn't, at bottom, meant as a joke; so, no, they are rarely (if ever) actually humorous.

The target audience likes them because they sooth political biases. Which is arguably the opposite of what a good joke should do.

Edited September 25, 2012 by bleeding heart

[madmax]

Maybe, Topaz. Still, I can't help but think that McGuinty driving up the price of electricity so high didn't help to keep the corporations in Ontario.

.

Double Edged Sword.

When Harris left his Hydro Kiss on Eves.... the ball was set in motion.

Private Hydro company lobbiests circling in Nuclear, Wind, Solar and yes, subsidizing hydro rates was removed, but subsidizing hydro companies was increased.

I watched those hydro bills increase , particularly going from $150,000 per month to close ot 350,000 in a few short years. Hydro was 2nd most expensive cost next to steel, and remained so, but the cost increase was significant. Hydro is then purchased on the market like speculators, and lock in prices.

This was the Harris Eves way. It was idealogically driven, just as Sir Adam Beck vision was idealogically driven.

I will take Adam Becks 100 years of success over Harris/Evs/McGuinty decade of increases.

[Boges]

Double Edged Sword.

When Harris left his Hydro Kiss on Eves.... the ball was set in motion.

Private Hydro company lobbiests circling in Nuclear, Wind, Solar and yes, subsidizing hydro rates was removed, but subsidizing hydro companies was increased.

I watched those hydro bills increase , particularly going from $150,000 per month to close ot 350,000 in a few short years. Hydro was 2nd most expensive cost next to steel, and remained so, but the cost increase was significant. Hydro is then purchased on the market like speculators, and lock in prices.

This was the Harris Eves way. It was idealogically driven, just as Sir Adam Beck vision was idealogically driven.

I will take Adam Becks 100 years of success over Harris/Evs/McGuinty decade of increases.

You can't blame Harris for the failed Green Energy plan Dalton introduced. Paying people much much more than going rate of hydro to produce Green Energy. The Samsung deal. These cancelled power plants that'll end up costing the tax payer up to half a billion dollars once replacements are built.

[Wild Bill]

But... The Alberta tourism ...

Sorry Michael. You just weren't funny!

You make too much of a stretch. No one believes it. It's too obvious you were reaching to try to make a valid joke.

This type of joke has appeal because even though it's full of hyperbole there is a big enough grain of truth for people to recognize.

Tourism just doesn't cut it.

Most liberals don't understand this kind of humour, because they never see or believe in the failings of the "system" that generate it. It's why talk radio is virtually entirely rightwing. A Rush Limbaugh can make people laugh and cheer, even people who aren't overly rightwing. Al Franken tries a liberal talk radio show and can't attract anywhere near the same number of listeners, because he just can't make the same impact. He hasn't the same examples of liberal approaches that not only don't work but are ironically humorous. He only has ad hominem material about various rightwing prominent people being "mean".

Again Michael, sorry! You just aren't funny!

[madmax]

Sorry Michael. You just weren't funny!

Again Michael, sorry! You just aren't funny!

[Michael Hardner]

You make too much of a stretch. No one believes it. It's too obvious you were reaching to try to make a valid joke.

Valid joke ?

Most liberals don't understand this kind of humour, because they never see or believe in the failings of the "system" that generate it. It's why talk radio is virtually entirely rightwing. A Rush Limbaugh can make people laugh and cheer, even people who aren't overly rightwing. Al Franken tries a liberal talk radio show and can't attract anywhere near the same number of listeners, because he just can't make the same impact. He hasn't the same examples of liberal approaches that not only don't work but are ironically humorous. He only has ad hominem material about various rightwing prominent people being "mean".

How many conservatives are involved in ACTUAL comedy ?

How many liberals are good at creating angry political call in shows ?

There you go.

I'm a comedy writer too, btw...

Again Michael, sorry! You just aren't funny!

I maintain that the OJ (original joke) was obvious and my absurdist take on it was an improvement. To each his own, Wild Bill !

[Wild Bill]

Valid joke ?

I maintain that the OJ (original joke) was obvious and my absurdist take on it was an improvement. To each his own, Wild Bill !

Then why were you repeatedly trying to get people to accept your joke as funny? Why did you keep posting "Tourism! Don't you guys get it?"

You seemed to think that somehow your joke had flown over everyone, when it was just that no one found it funny.

If you are indeed a comedy writer Michael, I hope for your sake you work for the CBC.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Wild Bill

[Michael Hardner]

Then why were you repeatedly trying to get people to accept your joke as funny? Why did you keep posting "Tourism! Don't you guys get it?"

Analyzing jokes, like analyzing sex or football ... really ruins it.

But I'll indulge you, WB, because I like you: people had absurdly taken the joke back into serious territory so I thought it would be funny to bring back my ridiculous premise.

You seemed to think that somehow your joke had flown over everyone, when it was just that no one found it funny.

Actually, I thought people were ignoring me. In any case, the joke was just too obvious, hence my ridiculous court jester routine.

If you are indeed a comedy writer Michael, I hope for your sake you work for the CBC.

God, no. I wish I were that good.

[Boges]

God, no. I wish I were that good.

Now that's funny!

Implying people that work at the CBC actually have a sense of humour? BRILLIANT!!!

Edited September 25, 2012 by Boges

[Wild Bill]

Now that's funny!

Implying people that work at the CBC actually have a sense of humour? BRILLIANT!!!

Actually Boges, I do find some of the CBC's humour to be funny but its very spotty. The problem seems to be when some of their comedians drift into politics.

Air Farce was good at this because they skewered all politicians equally, lampooning every one not only in sight but that they could even think about! Rick Mercer is also good at this, making fun and teasing politicians of both the left and the right without being at all cruel.

Others like Mary Walsh are not so fair minded. Outside of politics she could make me laugh until my sides split. Then she would pervert her job into some leftwing pulpit to attack and demonize Mike Harris and later Steven Harper, in a cruel,personal and frankly puerile manner!

She would say something like "Steven Harper blows dead bears in the woods, when they are not looking!" as if she had just Eddie Murphy at his best during his Saturday Night Live days, when she actually sounded like some Grade 8 loudmouth in the school yard.

This is why I have often suspected that many on the left have a screw or two loose.

[TheNewTeddy]

here is a political joke (fan art) that I did

http://satwcomic.com/fanart/482/satw-canada-money-fight

[jacee]

Actually Boges, I do find some of the CBC's humour to be funny but its very spotty. The problem seems to be when some of their comedians drift into politics.

Air Farce was good at this because they skewered all politicians equally, lampooning every one not only in sight but that they could even think about! Rick Mercer is also good at this, making fun and teasing politicians of both the left and the right without being at all cruel.

Others like Mary Walsh are not so fair minded. Outside of politics she could make me laugh until my sides split. Then she would pervert her job into some leftwing pulpit to attack and demonize Mike Harris and later Steven Harper, in a cruel,personal and frankly puerile manner!

She would say something like "Steven Harper blows dead bears in the woods, when they are not looking!" as if she had just Eddie Murphy at his best during his Saturday Night Live days, when she actually sounded like some Grade 8 loudmouth in the school yard.

This is why I have often suspected that many on the left have a screw or two loose.

Ahhhhh ... !

Because of Mary Walsh.

:lol:

[bleeding heart]

Most liberals don't understand this kind of humour, because they never see or believe in the failings of the "system" that generate it. It's why talk radio is virtually entirely rightwing. A Rush Limbaugh can make people laugh and cheer, even people who aren't overly rightwing. Al Franken tries a liberal talk radio show and can't attract anywhere near the same number of listeners, because he just can't make the same impact. He hasn't the same examples of liberal approaches that not only don't work but are ironically humorous. He only has ad hominem material about various rightwing prominent people being "mean".

Again Michael, sorry! You just aren't funny!

WB: as I'm sure part of you must recognize, the majority of comedians (and entertainers generally) hail from the liberal and left parts of the spectrum.

There simply isn't much right-wing comedy.

Hell, even you had to use as your example...Rush Limbaugh, comedian extraordinaire!

[madmax]

WB: as I'm sure part of you must recognize, the majority of comedians (and entertainers generally) hail from the liberal and left parts of the spectrum.

There simply isn't much right-wing comedy.

Hell, even you had to use as your example...Rush Limbaugh, comedian extraordinaire!

I tend to find that Left Wing Comedians call themselves .... Comedians.... and Right Wing Comedians call themselves Fair and Balanced News Reporters.

[bleeding heart]

I tend to find that Left Wing Comedians call themselves .... Comedians.... and Right Wing Comedians call themselves Fair and Balanced News Reporters.

Nice.

[Topaz]

Alberta has had its bad times and the oil industry has help the Premiers of that province come into their own and now with the PM from Alberta it all helps. Ontario once made everything one needed in and out of a home, its was king of manufacturing but sometime through the late 70's manufacturing started to change and as I said before, companies now don't have to make in Canada to sell it so and many of those companies were foreign, espeically the US. All the truck manufactures have gone and its only a matter of time before the auto sector pulls out of Canada. Today, countries and companies only want our Natural Resources and when they gone what will Canada have and look like??? So how is Ontario going to come back?

[Wild Bill]

Alberta has had its bad times and the oil industry has help the Premiers of that province come into their own and now with the PM from Alberta it all helps. Ontario once made everything one needed in and out of a home, its was king of manufacturing but sometime through the late 70's manufacturing started to change and as I said before, companies now don't have to make in Canada to sell it so and many of those companies were foreign, espeically the US. All the truck manufactures have gone and its only a matter of time before the auto sector pulls out of Canada. Today, countries and companies only want our Natural Resources and when they gone what will Canada have and look like??? So how is Ontario going to come back?

Topaz, who says it will?

McGuinty had said a couple of years ago that we were all going to get rich making windmills. We don't seem to hear much talk about that anymore.