The future is going to be a politically correct nightmare

Carleton University Students’ Association recently voted to drop Cystic Fibrosis from the Shinerama Charity drive they have held each year for the past 20 or  so years.  Shinerama has been around for CF for around 50 years.  They appear to have based their decisions upon totally inaccurate information and now that they find that their actions are considered dispicable by the majority of people they are waffling.  The person who introduced the motion reported equates supporting CF with slavery and  womans sufferage.  It is unfortunate that this group is demonstrating this type of thinking.  These are the future leaders and their convuluted logic could lead to grave consequences for the future of this country.

Another example of this type of thinking is being demonstrated by a number of human rights commissions whereby they attack free speech and label it as hate speech.  Great Britain has limited certain teachings of fact because it might insult the muslim community. 

Our liberties and freedoms are at risk.

The future could very well be something like the orwellian times of “1984″.

God help us – oh sorry we can’t invoke god because we might insult aetheists.

Labor Has a Role in Getting Through the Financial Crisis

I have noticed the strange reactions of labor to the financial crisis.  There seems to be two approaches that we hear about.

The first approach is from those facing massive layoffs.  They want the governments to provide funding to the various industries or companies so that they can keep their jobs.  What goes missing is do we need or want want they are producing.  Case in point, the Auto Workers wanted GM to keep open a truck plant in Oshawa even though they can’t sell the product they produce.  Instead of pushing for a retooling and new vehicle they wanted Ottawa to give GM money to keep open the plant.  The companies have screwed up royally and unfortunately Labor will pay the price but should we as taxpayers (they are too) support the production of product that doesn’t meet todays markets?  It is terrible to lose a job, I faced that with a young wife and child and it was devastating but I had to move outside my trade and even outside my home province to be employed.  It took a year to find a new job and that was joining the Army.  It’s all well and good that autoworkers make great wages but when you are in a global market at some point you have to rationalize your costs in order to continue to be competitive.  You have to deliver innovative products that meet todays situations like high energy costs and increased safety requirements.  Labor has to accept that there is only so much that can be paid before they become too expensive to maintain.  Many times it comes down to a choice:  do you want to have higher wages at the cost of fellow workers jobs or do you take less and facilitate a larger workforce.  It’s a tough choice and it really sucks but it is reality in todays world.

The second approach is from Labor that is working for the different levels of government (mainly because they seem to be immune to labor cost analysis).  I can think of two situations in my province.  First the primary teachers who are making damn good money in the $80-90k with experience.  Just this summer they were offered 12% over 4 years and have yet to accept it.  Sorry but to think they are worth more in the current situation that is just plain greedy.  Our premier has increased significantly the number of teacher while enrollment has decreased so even with a shrinking class room taxpayers costs are going up faster than inflation.  The province has over the years downloaded costs on the city which uses money from the property tax base and it isn’t growing.  Add that to a city government that is into a lot of areas that I question as a cities responsibility such as my city is a huge landlord for something like 30 or 40,000 people and they can’t afford to repair these dwellings.  It is a disgrace and these people shouldn’t have to live in terrible conditions.  The money we have available should be going to subsidize rents rather than run a bureaucracy to maintain an agency that can’t afford to do what is necessary.  This brings us to the fact that we need to keep labor costs down or we have to get rid of people and services.  The property taxes are finite and not growing as fast as the labor contracts.  Most of our contracts are binding arbitration so we get screwed by the arbitrators.  Toronto was having problems retaining police so they added a retention bonus which was then award to the fire department which was then awarded to police and fire departments around the province even though they weren’t have the same problems.  Arbitration avoids strikes but increases labor costs.  Our city workers aren’t even going to consider lower wage demands – they want more but it will cost jobs and services.  When a salary freeze was to be discussed they harassed the councillor that was asking for debate and heaped scorn on the mayor as well.  They just don’t get it.

So as I said, Labor has a role to play in getting through these difficult times, will the step up to the plate to save their fellow workers or think only of themselves.  Sooner or later the taxpayer will run out of money and it will all collapse.  There are 3 levels of government, one level of taxpayer.   This same taxpayer is the consumer of products that we build and they can only afford so much.

It doesn’t matter who is responsible for the situation – everyone has to work on  resolving the problem if the jobs and organizations are to be saved.  Labor can’t just say it’s not their responsibility to save taxpayer money.  They have to work to save the country as well as the governments and companies.

Are we worthy of their sacrifice?

We are but one country in the community of nations.  We have shouldered the burden of war when others were in peril.  We have lost over 110,000 of men and women in their prime in two world wars, the Korean Conflict, United Nations Peace Keeping and currently Afghanistan.  There have been many more wounded and maimed as well as the victims of these wars, millions of innocent people killed because of this reason or that.

Mankind has shown that it is capable of horrendous atrocities and we must all be vigilant to ensure that they are kept in check.  We have a duty to our fellow citizens of the world to protect and show them that things can be good.  We in Canada a blessed with a great place to live, work and play.  We have opportunity.  We have security.  We have the prospect of living a life without fearing for our lives.  These things can’t be said for the majority of the world’s people.

We cannot change everyone – we are too small a nation to force our views on the world.  We can only lead by example and demonstrate that happiness and freedom is possible.  We have a responsibility to be the best world citizens that we can be.

We owe this to the world and we owe this to those who have sacrificed of themselves to allow us to be who we are.

This is our day to remember our past and honor those who gave the ultimate in protecting us.  In the Afghanistan conflict we have lost 97 service men and women plus a Canadian Diplomat.  We should also remember that for every one that we lost there were a number who were wounded.  They should be honored as should those that were lucky enough to come through their duty tours intact.  That last point may be a moot point.  There is a large percentage of those who have served who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress and they will likely relive their difficult experiences every day for the rest of their lives.

For those of us who had parents who served in the second world war, post traumatic stress was never diagnosed but it was real.  My father served with the 48th Highlanders during the war and he rarely shared his experiences except with another veteran like our neighbour who was a navy frogman.  It lead to a number of issues that continued throughout his lifetime and contributed to his early death at 52.

Personally, my service was during a peacetime army in times of significant financial restraint, we served but didn’t have the necessary tools to be much of a threat to our potential enemy.  The military wasn’t very popular during my time of service, still I am proud to have served for a total of 13 years.

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  At the going down of the sun and in the morning.  We will remember them.”