Last time I checked....

....Parliamentary committees did not call glorified clerks to testify about anything.  What Katie Telford was doing in front of the Ethics Committee talking about WE was completely wrong.  You might as well have the PM's driver or his nanny testify.

 Whatever happened to Ministerial Accountability?  Ministers are accountable, not clerks or public servants.  In this case, the Prime Minister is "Primus inter pares", first among equals, and he should never have had a clerk like Telford in front of the committee.  The most shocking thing that emerged from the media coverage today was that Telford does not get along with the lackeys in Morneau's office because she didn't like his choice for Governor of the Bank of Canada.

Whaaaaat!?

Telford wanted Carolyn Wilkes, but Morneau chose Bay Street crony Tiff Macklin.  What the F is a clerk in the PMO doing interfering with the Finance Minister's choice for Governor?!  And what the F is she doing fighting with Finance staff because she didn't get her way?!  Obviously, Telford wanted a woman because she's such a "feminist".  Gawd.  It's all so insane and contrary to the Constitution and Parliamentary procedure.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Trudeau continuously blamed the public service for choosing WE.  Again, where was ministerial accountability?  It's not public servants who make appointments, it's the government.  Why no one on the committee, or in the press, picked up on this crucial fact is beyond me?

My uncle was Deputy Minister of Defence when Doug Harkness was minister and that was the first time a politician stood up in the House and fingered a public servant for a political mess.  It was about the aircraft carrier 'Bonaventure' and the costs to overhaul it.  Harkness actually mentioned my uncle in the House of Commons and dumped the whole mess on him.  Outrageous.  That was when ministerial accountability went out the window.

My uncle, a dedicated public servant and deputy minister, was never the same after that.  He was doing the government's bidding, but was shuffled out and became DM of Taxation.  I remember sitting in the Minister's board room years later and seeing Uncle Elgin's picture on the wall of DMs.  I purposely sat under it.  He was a true professional and never said a word about the entire affair.  I still miss him.

Polticians must never blame public servants, but this is their new MO.

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Just want to say a few words about my Lake Windermere Open Water Swim.  This would have been my eighth, but I am not doing it this year.  Last year, you will recall, it was held three weeks earlier and the water was so cold I got hypothermia.  My legs felt like concrete and I almost could not finish.  I did and crawled out of the water, but I spooked myself.  Bruce Stroud, the original owner of the swim, sold it last year to some guy who now holds it three to four weeks too early, when the water is freezing.  I found that out the hard way.  But Bruce is such a sweet guy, he has organized an informal swim for this Sunday and called me to see if I would enter.  "The water's now really warm, Nancy," he told me.  "Please come and stay with us.  I'd love you to do the swim."  Sadly, I declined, but maybe next year!  Here I am with Bruce, getting a certificate for being the oldest swimmer in the 2K:

This year, in the pool, I did the calculation and I figure I've forgone more than 100 Ks in the pool.  My fat ass shows it! 

Let's get this straight....

A woman who owned a roofing company was awarded $100,000 and had her huge arrears in GST waived because she was, according to her, sexually harassed by sub-contractors.  That is outrageous.  This was in 'The Globe and Mail' the other day and I was astounded.  I had to read the article several times to try and figure out what GST arrears and sexual harassment had to do with each other?!

In the end, I failed.  Sadly, it was a female judge -- who should be removed from the bench -- who said that with her trauma, the owner should not have to pay her arrears.  Sadly again, the roofer was a person of colour, so racism and prejudice influence her attitudes, in my view.  They have to.

The GST and sexual harassment are two separate issues and should never have been combined.  I feel sorry for the CRA and the Tax Court who will now be faced with all sorts of nonsequiters and personal issues put forth as reasons they will now pocket GST, instead of remitting it, as the law demands.

When I ran a national program with CRA, I used to have to deal with Members of Parliament who would call complaining that we were intimidating their constituent merchants who owed GST.  "You'll be putting them out of business," an MP would bemoan.  "So, what you are saying is that these merchants kept money Canadians paid to them in good faith as GST.  That is basically theft," I would reply.  "Well, if you put it like that," I would hear.

What other way is there to put it?  They are stealing money that should have been remitted to the Receiver General.  It's the same with this roofer crook.   

A panel?

Why is there only to be an in-camera panel looking into the mass shooting in Nova Scotia?  Why not a public inquiry?  That's wrong.  Frankly, the reason must be to protect the incompetent Lucki from being scrutinized.  Trudeau keeps making these bad, token appointments and then having to hide their ineptness. 

That tragic Snow Bird crash in BC was also disasterously handled by the RCMP.  In fact, they were completely absent during the whole thing, which meant a local fire chief had to face the cameras and fumble his way through while one pilot lay dead in a front yard and another was badly injured and trapped on a roof.  Along with the invisible Lucki,  I am also talking about Theresa Tam and Catherine Tait, as well as Julie Payette.  These women set our gender back 50 years. 

After retiring, I used to have lunch with my former Customs and Excise deputy minister and we would often talk about the whole "affirmative action" mess.  During our get togethers, he revealed opinions he couldn't when DM.  We both agreed it didn't work.  "You never bought into all that did you," he said at one point, paying me a huge compliment.  "I promoted you to DG because of your competence, not your gender."  I used to have a weekly meeting with him and he never cancelled because I kept them short.  They amounted to one minute an item.  I'd walk in and say, "Hi L, five items, five minutes."  He'd give me a one or two word answer and I was out the door.
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My question of the day is, are there no competent Canadian female journalists the CBC could hire?  Listening this morning, there is one on TV with a very heavy Australian accent.  Why is that?  It's the CBC and we should have Canadian journalists on there.  The public Australian broadcaster would not, I am sure, hire a Canadian over an Aussie.  Oh wait, I forgot, Catherine Tait is in charge. 

I told you so.........again

What did I say about Julie Payette?  Yep, I was right. (see "I told you so", 22/09/2018).  Finally, her abusive treatment of staff is about to be investigated -- although what that will reveal will probably be so watered down as to be useless.  At the moment, the Privy Council Office is working on "terms of reference" for the review -- double speak for redacting the entire mess.

She needs to be removed, but won't be because Trudeau is a "feminist".  The Grim Groper, as I call him, will never remove a woman he has appointed -- and that includes the hapless and inept Brenda Lucki, the bungling and incapable Catherine Tait and the incompetent Theresa Tam, the latter of whom has blood on her hands for having sat on them too long while Canadians were dying.

Marie Antoinette, a.k.a. the current Governor General, is a disaster and a disgrace to both the office and her gender.  Anyone remember the likes of Vincent Massey, Gen. Georges Vanier or Jules Leger?  Now, there were two GGs with enormous dignity, deserving of the role as representative of Her Majesty in Canada.  With the appointment of Jeanne Sauve, it's all been downhill from there.  We had the ultimate snob, Adrienne Clarkson and then Michaelle Jean -- both vacuous "celebrity" appointments.  Harper tried to reverse that trend when he appointed the well-respected David Johnston, but Trudeau -- true to his "feminist" zeal -- got us back on the wrong track with Payette. 

I'd like to think the chickens will come home to roost.  But they won't.  The Globe and Mail skewered Payette today with a perfect cartoon:

Calgarian grammar

"I haven't swam in ages," said a woman in the locker room this morning.  "You haven't swum?!" I said in correction, disguising it as a question.  But I doubt she got it, probably thought I was illiterate for using such a weird, unheard of word.  "I haven't came here in a while," tragically commented one of the young lifeguards on the pool deck.  "You haven't come here for a while?" I again said.  Thomas didn't get it either.

This is the state of grammar in Calgary.  Also read in 'The Globe and Mail' a column in which the writer wrote, "....a new sapling sprung up....."  It's just painful to me, but I must learn to admit defeat.  When our kids were young, we used to play a very catchy and popular game in the car.  I'd say a verb, such as "spring" and they'd have to tell me the other past tenses of that word, i.e., "sprang, sprung," in this case.  I highly recommend this exercise!

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As per my blog about no face masks yesterday, I wrote a letter to 'The Herald' and it went in today:

I must be the most didactic person I know because I seem to love telling people what's what.     

Really?!

The front page of 'The Calgary Herald' featured a bizarre photo today.  Here were a bunch of natives from the Tsuu T'ina reserve frolicking around on skateboards without masks.  This, at a time when Calgary and Alberta are experiencing big jumps in cases.  WTF?!

Why do they wear masks around their necks??!!  It's insane.  There was another picture inside with the same bunch of kids sitting in a circle either wearing no masks, or masks pulled down around their necks.  Duh?!  And the newspaper puts this photo on its front page?!

Here we have another bunch of idiots waiting in a queue for entrance to an Ottawa restaurant.  Could they be any more closely packed?!  The COVID jump in cases is because young people are fed up and gathering en masse with no regard to the dangers they pose.

Dumb.  Watch the cases soar.

At last!

I was in a swim lane at the Y and doing my set!  Managed my 50 laps, but a tad slower.  Felt great!  Saw a few of my swim buddies -- much younger -- who actually had to quit before I.  Wow! 

Dear Diary:  Went to a plastic surgeon today and have to have a lump on my forehead removed.  It had been cancerous and removed a few years ago, but it's growing again.  Happily, she doesn't think it is cancer now, just a cyst.  Here's hoping!