For a Friday

For this gray, drizzly day ...



It's just money:

If you thought the carbon tax being charged was bad enough, how do you feel about paying the GST/HST on top of that carbon tax?

Reports first emerged last week that the feds would charge the tax on the tax. A finance department official saying that the feds wouldn’t see a “significant rise” in GST revenue from charging the tax on the tax.

“Most consumers would have spent the related funds on other GST/HST taxable goods and services,” said Jack Aubry in an emailed statement.

So there we have it, the feds will charge the GST/HST on the carbon tax.

 
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Building a sixth Arctic patrol ship to add to the five originally commissioned from Irving Shipbuilding for the Royal Canadian Navy will cost taxpayers $800 million — double the price-tag of each of the other vessels. The Liberal government announced the construction of the sixth Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, or AOPS, last week after a push by Irving and its employees for additional work. The construction of the sixth vessel shows the government’s commitment “to maximizing stable employment” for Irving while providing equipment to the navy, Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada, said in a statement. Each Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship, or AOPS, costs $400 million. But the decision to build another such vessel comes with additional costs since the federal government is stretching out construction of that ship and a number of others to allow Irving employees to retain their jobs until a new fleet of larger warships, called Canadian Surface Combatants, is ready for construction.  

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Federal Liberal fundraisers are urging supporters to build up Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s campaign war chest for looming social media attacks by Ontario Proud, “founded and directed by alumni of Stephen Harper’s government” known for “lowering the bar for political discourse.”

Oh … scary! 

But to anyone familiar with Ontario politics, the Trudeau Liberals’ manufactured panic over what amounts to yet another political advocacy group, is laughable and reeks of hypocrisy.

After all, Ontario Proud, founded by Jeff Ballingall — breathlessly described by CP as “a digitally savvy former Harper-era Conservative staffer and erstwhile employee of the short-lived Sun News Network” — only arrived on the scene for the 2018 Ontario election, where limits were finally placed on how much money third-party advocacy groups could spend.

Prior to that, the union-financed Working Families Coalition and other unions spent millions of dollars in the 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2014 Ontario election, running vicious attack ads that “lowered the bar for political discourse” against PC leaders Ernie Eves in 2003, John Tory in 2007 and Tim Hudak in 2011 and 2014.

That directly benefited the Liberals — who won all four elections — because they were able to target their advertising budgets on running positive ads extolling first Dalton McGuinty and later, Kathleen Wynne.

The amount of money involved was staggering.

In the 2007, 2011 and 2014 Ontario elections, labour unions, according to the Globe and Mail, spent $15.4 million on third-party advertising, much of it attacking the PCs.

That was 94% of all third-party advertising during those elections.

Why - that sounds divisive, as divisive as calling people appalled at putting a convicted killer into a spa "ambulance-chasers" and whining like a little pansy to an ignorant American audience that everyone is ganging up on him. If only that audience knew what a douchebag the aforementioned pansy really is.



It's just a national industry:

A U.S. federal judge in Montana has issued a ruling that will delay the pipeline, which was supposed to be a key part of getting Canada’s oil to markets.

It's about time:

New Brunswick’s new Tory government has taken power, with a 17-member cabinet that includes four women and the party’s lone francophone MLA as deputy premier.

But ... but ... Singapore!:

North Korea and the United States are trying to set a new date for a meeting between their top officials, Seoul's foreign minister said Friday in response to skepticism about momentum in denuclearization talks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was supposed to meet Kim Yong-chol, a senior aide to the North's leader Kim Jong-un, in New York this week.

But it did not occur amid reports that Pyongyang demanded a delay in the talks.

Canada marks the anniversary of the withdrawal of UN forces from the Republic of South Korea, a nation still at war with its northern neighbour:

The armistice of the often overlooked Korean War, from 1950-53, celebrates its 65th anniversary this year.

In fact, the ceremony to mark “the third bloodiest conflict in Canada’s military history,” according to Veteran Affairs, was already held back in the summer at Brampton’s Wall of Remembrance on the armistice signing date of July 27.

There was also a poster unveiling by Canadian Korean War Veteran and artist Ted Zuber (who passed away on Oct. 30) in Ottawa in April of his painting Freeze.

Still, every Nov. 10, the Korean Veterans Association hold an evening event in Ottawa in conjunction with ceremonies in Busan, South Korea, where it is the next day, Nov. 11.

“The Korean War, over the years, has come to be a little overshadowed because there was about 26,000 Canadians — that’s a whole lot of men and women who went to serve in the Korean War,” said Veteran Affairs Education Officer Alan Banman, adding 516 of them died with some buried in South Korea.

 
And now, one hundred years after the armistice was signed, we still remember.

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Rare photos from the First World War.

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