Just Because ...

...he deserves all of the ridicule and contempt we can muster.

The Peripatetic Pamela

It would seem that the good Senator from somewhere, Pamela Wallin, is on the road so much that she has been denied health coverage in both Ontario and Saskatchewan, at least according to The Globe and Mail. This conflicts with a report in The Waterloo Record, which states that she has an Ontario health card, which is not necessarily such good news, given her senatorial claim of being a Sasatchewan resident.

What is a wily woman from Wadena (originally) to do? But then again, the question of health coverage may be the least of her problems.

But perhaps all of this pales in comparison to the problems her fellow provinceless Red Chamber mate, The Puffster, has caused for their common master, Mr. Harper, whose handling of the Senate imbroglio has left many decidedly unsatisfied.

On Corporate Welfare

David Lewis, the one-time head of the federal NDP and father of Stephen Lewis, used the phrase corporate welfare bums in his 1972 federal election campaign to describe the various subsidies handed out to the corporate world. It was a withering jab at the world of business, so proud to trumpet the merits of unfettered capitalism while not too proud to take every bit of free money that government has to offer it.

Today, that concept has never been more relevant. Probably the most egregious example of corporate welfare will become apparent in the coming months as the rest of Canada ponies up to pay for the environmental devastation wrought in Alberta that is, in my mind, the direct result of climate change, change which the corporate world continues to deny, evident in its ongoing concerted effort to oppose any measures that might ameliorate its most devastating effects. Corporate Canada will be asked for nothing by the Harper regime, which will continue to lower its tax rates as soon as the deficit is eliminated.

The futility of corporate welfare is, I think, very nicely addressed in the lead letter appearing in this morning's Star as Morgan Duchesney of Ottawa points out the folly of lowering corporate tax rates and getting nothing in return:

Re: The Great Recession still lingers, June 22

Stephen Poloz, the newly minted governor of the Bank of Canada, is working hard to distance himself from former governor Mark Carney’s “dead money” warnings to corporate Canada. Does that mean that Poloz also approves lowering tax rates for non-investing Canadian corporations that happily ship jobs to low-wage destinations like China?

As former CEO of Export Development Canada, Poloz is an expert proponent of corporate welfare. As corporate Canada continues to avoid research and development investment while stridently demanding lower taxes, the regime of public subsidy for private profit continues unabated under the Harper government’s well-advertised Economic Action Plan. Such behaviour exemplifies the eternal mythology of the so-called free market.

Private sector investment could reasonably be left to corporate Canada if our industrial titans were not so addicted to public subsidy. Ongoing multi-billion-dollar tax breaks and outright grants to the energy sector are good examples of this public-risk- for-private-profit model. In spite of the cost to working people, stiff corporate resistance to investment remains strong, although this hesitation is categorized as “thrift” by the generous Poloz. There is every indication that the Harper government plans to reward Canadian corporations with further tax cuts in spite of their continued reluctance to invest their profits in necessary research and development.

Of course, our political leadership has little desire to take a hard line on the business elite, who are, after all, their funding source and future employers. The tired excuse about not wanting to punish “job creators and innovators” is a bit threadbare in light of abysmal levels of corporate investment in Canada.
If Canadian corporations are operating overseas while shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, exactly who is benefiting and just how “Canadian” are these companies if they employ foreigners and only benefit arms-length stockholders?

The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight

Many years ago I read a novel by Jimmy Breslin called The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, which dealt with profound ineptitude within a certain New York mafia family. It would seem a worthwhile novel to revisit, now that there is a real-life gang operating in Ottawa that seems to have caught the incompetence bug. Once known as a tightly-focussed and disciplined cabal answering to a 'Mr. Big' at the top of the organization, the group has lately veered into a series of farcical errors that have substantially eroded its 'street-cred' and caused considerable restlessness amongst rank-and-file members.

You can read all about it via The Huffington Post and The National Post.



One wonders if a revival of the Ted Mack Amateur Hour can be far behind.

It's Never Enough, Is It?

Forget for the moment that McDonald's is one of the world's biggest corporations; forget for the moment that a steady diet of its food will likely shorten your life; forget for the moment that it is a minimum-wage employer whose workers make it possible for them to accrue their billions of dollars in annual profits.

Instead, just keep the following video and this story in mind the next time you stop by 'The Golden Arches'.



If you are sufficiently outraged by this egregious exploitation, please consider signing this petition.

Rather Apt, Don't You Think?

H/t The ChronicleHerald

Harper 'Stunned' By Magnitude of Alberta Flooding

I expect that climate-change denier Harper will be stunned with alarming regularity soon: