The Mu

I watched the debate last night with interest. Howard Hampton was suffering from a cold, but most observers say that calmed him down enough to actually make him more effective. I noticed how much more subdued he was, and I liked it right up until his closing remarks when it seemed like he was going to cry. As it turns out, because of his cold, the poor guy could barely breathe. Nevertheless, he was extremely effective in getting his points across.

Big question: where was Frank de Jong? As leader of the Green Party of Ontario, he is just as relevant as Howard Hampton given that the Green Party these days is running only about 2 percentage points behind the NDP in the polls.

Dalton McGuinty was stuck in the middle and, as the incumbent, forced to defend his record. This barrage was well defended with statistics. We all know about statistics and how they can be selectively chosen to illustrate almost any point, but it still was an admirable set of responses to some pretty withering attacks. McGuinty clearly articulated his policies and tried to be reasonably up front about his broken promises. I personally think a promise is sacred, but in a democracy it seems to be necessary to promise people things even if there is no real chance of being able to follow through. If you don’t promise, you will have NO chance to follow through because you won’t be elected. One example of McGuinty’s slightly lacking defense was when asked about his broken promise to eliminate the $1500 clawback for children. He said that his government did “something better” in their Child Tax Benefit of $1100. I am sure for a tax accountant it could be demonstrated how one is better than the other (probably because of the difference between post-tax and pre-tax dollars). But to me, it just came across as a $400 discrepancy speaking against his action.

I have the bias you can see from my previous post, but I believe John Tory won the debate, if only by a very small margin. The key areas were on the “privatization” and “segregation” of both education and health care. I think that getting the kids currently enrolled in private faith-based schools to adhere to the public school curriculum is a laudable goal. It is being done in other provinces. I have a huge amount of skepticism about it, but again I turn to Tory’s integrity and have to believe that he is rationally and ethically motivated, as well as being capable enough to potentially surprise us with results. On the health care side, having private clinics which you pay for through your OHIP card is not materially different from the current model of having your doctor bill OHIP for your visit. The doctors are essentially independent businesspeople anyway.

What it comes down to is: which leader most effectively spoke to the things you care most about? In that, I am undecided. More than anything, I hate paying taxes and having my government waste the money they collect. I didn’t get a strong sense from ANY of the leaders that they will treat my money with miserly care.

I rarely voice my opinion about a particular candidate, but in the upcoming provincial election, I must say I will be putting my support behind John Tory (and with much less gusto, his party).

Having said that, here is what we will see if he wins:

• just as much government waste (in different areas)
• fewer broken promises (but not zero like we should expect)
• faith-based schools funded out of the public purse but with way less control over curriculum than Tory promises (governments can’t even ensure our drinking water is safe, how will they regulate how much intolerance is being spewed by religious fanatics posing as teachers? — it happens already in the public system and that’s without a curriculum that makes room for faith and beliefs being taught as fact)

So, am I an idiot for voting for a man who will expose us to such peril?  Look at the alternatives and also look at John Tory the man.  Those who know him personally will all tell you he is a good person, honestly intent on doing the right thing.  In politics that counts for EVERYTHING.

A recent news story surfaced and then disappeared: Over the past two years, the Ontario government has handed out over $32 million dollars to various groups for capital projects.  Apparently, there was almost no audit trail of who asked for what, why they were asking, and then what they were actually given.  In a classic example, the auditor uncovered a request for $150,000 from the Ontario Cricket Association; the government gave them $1 million.

Governments at all levels continue to explain with growing exasperation to the stupid public that you can’t expect the same level of service without paying more every year.  After all, costs are rising.  What proves that they can’t manage a damn thing is that they are making this case to plead a tax rate increase — not just a total revenue increase. It is laughable to see governments perpetually wringing their hands about the lack of funds, yet to so frequently hear about financial mismanagement and lack of fiscal responsibility like this.

The overall tax burden is at well over fifty percent and climbing.  Perhaps we could give all our money to the government; we might be okay for a while, but based on their record, they would still run out eventually.

The Ontario Ombudsman’s report is in: at least $100 million was fraudulently won by lottery insiders (including ticket retailers) between 1999 and 2006.

The ombudsman, Andre Marin, said that the OLG had “turned a blind eye to allegations of crime for many years.”

In New Brunswick and British Columbia there are similar problems with the lotteries.

Good grief.

This is the time of year when people start doing their taxes.  Like the time leading up to Christmas, we hear about those strange go-getters who are already finished and we shake our heads in wonder.

For those, like me, who make a show of doing their taxes without really doing them yet, I like to call that the Income Tax Act.

Meanwhile, the Canada Revenue Agency has a nifty website that helps you figure out everything you need to know for filing and planning for taxes.  Everything, that is, except a sort of crucial piece of legislation that is actually called “The Income Tax Act”.  How are savvy accountants supposed to find loopholes in the legal language without easy access to the words themselves?  Amusingly, if you do a search for Income Tax Act on the CRA site, the only link to the Act takes you to the Justice Department.  There, a devious little message says that “The Income Tax Act is currently not included on this website.”

It is a cunning use of smoke and mirrors.  In my dreams, I pound on the table and shout: “What have they got to hide, people?  Surely we cannot sit idly by while political cronies line their wallets and the military-industrial complex robs us blind!”  In reality, I just start rifling through my office to gather up all the paperwork I’ll need to file my taxes by the deadline.

This week, CBC’s The Fifth Estate will be following up on their report from late 2006 about lottery insiders who were winning a disproportionate amount of money from the lotteries for which they sell tickets.  Apparently the gist of the report is that the problem is even more widespread than first suggested.

The scam seems to be that when you go into a retailer to check your winning numbers, the retailer sees it is a winner, swaps it for a non-winner, then tells you “Better luck next time.”  The flim-flam artist later claims the jackpot as his own.

The ticket sellers already get a cut whenever anyone wins with a ticket purchased at their outlet.  The arrogance of the fraudsters to steal the whole thing is blood-boiling.

Perhaps what annoys me most is the way the Ontario government has reacted: calling for an Ombudsman’s report when almost anyone can tell you that people even peripherally involved in contests should be exempt from participating.  Even ticket sellers for a raffle at a church aren’t allowed to win the knitted tea-cozy.

Meanwhile the same government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars changing the name of the organization responsible for all this mess from OLGC (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission) to simply OLG.  The cost of changing the logo alone was staggering at a time when they gave away a $12.5 million jackpot to a ticket seller despite internal investigators’ misgivings.

Radio reports say that a local politician is responding to the problem of counterfeit or misused handicapped parking permits by proposing that “everyone pays”.  I really hope this is a media oversimplification (as it often is), but the report brought to mind a few examples of this type of response.

A child is shot to death with a real gun after he squirted someone with a SuperSoaker squirtgun.  Politicians respond with a ban on SuperSoakers. Clearly a lethal threat has been removed from society.

The Canadian Standards Association upgrades their safety guidelines for playgrounds.  The Toronto school board responds by ripping out all existing play structures in the city.  Due to the expense, only some are rebuilt.  What happens when the CSA upgrades again?

Guns become a problem.  At a cost of millions, the answer is to register every single firearm in Canada.  Law-abiding citizens do their best to comply but the government system is so inefficient, people have to fill out the form multiple times, never quite sure if the government really has the correct information.  Meanwhile, the criminals who started the problem continue to operate, seeing no compelling reason to choose this law as the one they’ll abide by.

Garth Turner is the latest politician in Canada to get elected under one party banner and end up representing a different party in Parliament. I hate to be the one to tell them all, but none of them got elected because of who they are.  Most people who vote do so along party lines.  Even if we don’t vote for the party we like best, we often hold our noses in the voting booth and vote for the party we hate least.  But very rarely do people see a name and say: “That’s a champion for the people, someone who will get things done.  I don’t care what party he belongs to, he will always do right by me.”  If only it were so.