My full-time job took me to the Linden Square Mall one day last week and I was astonished that while I was there I did not see a serious traffic accident. Apparently, people feel that with the construction on the far east end of Broadway Street, that it is okay to turn the parking lot into a very busy street with no speed limit. I watched as frustrated drivers, clearly with a fuse very short, fish tailed through the lot almost striking parked vehicles. I watched other calm people almost get met head on by someone else who wasn’t as calm. I watched a lady and her children walk with great trepidation to try and get back to their vehicle while drivers sped through the lot with no regard for anyone else. Folks, you can’t whine about the state of our roads and then also complain when they are getting fixed. I realize it’s an inconvenience, but parking lots are called parking lots for a reason. Otherwise they’d be called drive-thru lots. Do yourself and everyone else a favour and stay out of there unless you are shopping. Someone is going to get hurt. The merchants will appreciate the courtesy too.
It seems there’s always an excuse from the oil industry experts as to why gas prices at the pumps are sky high. Well, here’s why I think they are high: the consumer demands the product and the supplier is going to keep the prices as high as possible for as long as possible to maximize profits. Yes, I think all the companies are working together even though they are supposed to be competitors. How else do you explain matching prices to the tenth of a penny at every single gas station in the same market? The reality is that if Canadians were serious about wanting to get fuel prices reduced they would do one of two things: the first of which is reduce the amount of fuel you are using. Go for a walk or a bike ride instead of getting in your vehicle for that short trip. The other thing you can do is get on social media and pick a sacrificial lamb and boycott that one company and encourage everyone in your social media circle to do the same until you see gas prices reduced to 99.9. Frankly, I don’t think this would ever happen. We are way too passive a society to be that vindictive.
As the summer continues, I continue to read stories about animals and small children being left alone in sweltering hot vehicles. What’s it going to take to make this a criminal offense? Can we all agree there has been more than enough awareness about how dangerous this is?
The federal election campaign continues and yet neither the NDP nor the Liberals have taken the Stephen Harper Conservatives to task about a loophole that allows for suspended senators Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, and Pamela Wallin to collect paycheques. Apparently, once the writ is dropped, the suspensions are lifted and these three people start getting paid again. What an incredible miscarriage of justice and abuse of taxpayer money. The Conservatives have known for quite some time this was coming, so why didn’t they introduce a bill to do away with this ridiculous oversight? I can’t imagine there would have been any opposition to it. I’m even more surprised that it isn’t an issue with the two opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Nigel Wright says a Bible verse moved him to donate $90 000 of his own hard earned money to Duffy to repay for improper expenses. If you believe that, call me as soon as you can as I have a bridge to sell you.
It’s disheartening to talk about all that money going to waste and then to learn an Alberta woman has to fork over tens of thousands of dollars after her baby was born two months premature. The birth took place in Ontario, but she was in a location that couldn’t perform the procedure so she was flown to the nearest community that could. In a nutshell, if I’m understanding correctly, Ontario doesn’t want to pay for it because the woman isn’t from there. Alberta doesn’t want to pay for it because the healthcare needed wasn’t in Alberta. This is a bunch of nonsense. If this is how we are going to be, issue a Saskatchewan passport to us and close all the provincial borders and just decide there is no more Canada and it’s every province for itself. I get that medicare is, more or less, handled by the provincial governments; but it is a federal program. Quit paying deadbeat senators. Quit running election campaigns that run in excess of $1-million a day. Quit wasting our money and put it towards what tax money is intended for.
Not a nice column this week, but nice people still deserve mention: Deborah Harris, Jeannette Haubrich, Dr. Phillip Fourie, Parker Rice, and Giny Hillman.
