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marinasunset-feature-by Jon Farmer

My dad drove his camper van to town for a few days of work this week. On his first night, before he went off to my uncle's, I rode my bike down to meet him at the local marina for sunset. He was parked where he could work on his reports while watching the water. I rode around the last corner of the gravel path through Kelso Beach Park, swung one leg over the saddle, and cruised up beside. I leaned my bike on its kickstand and stepped into the Volkswagen. We were planning to walk and watch the sunset so after a quick hello I went back outside to lock my bike while dad finished a page.

As I was feeding the bike lock through my back tire, a Dodge Charger drove into the parking lot and pulled up beside us...

solar-panels-regLiberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau may have chosen Vancouver to present his environmental promises, but proponents say his plans will have a positive impact on Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.

"Stephen Harper refused to take meaningful action on climate change, slashed environmental protections, and allowed other countries to take the lead on creating new clean jobs," stated Liberal candidate Kimberley Love. "Our Liberal plan will ensure that the people in Bruce Grey Owen Sound can tap into the vast economic opportunities of our environment and create the sustainable prosperity families deserve. I'd love to see a green technology hub in Bruce Grey that could create the stimulus for an emerging green economy here."

Trudeau pledged...

warren-headshotby R. Michael Warren

From now until October all the federal parties will be telling us how they plan to help the shrinking middle class. Much of what they are proposing is simply competing forms of income redistribution. Most of it misses the underlying causes.

The Liberals promise to tax the rich in order to reduce taxes for the middle class. The NDP will help by hiking the minimum wage and not raising personal income tax rates. They'll raise corporate taxes instead. The Conservatives say income splitting and targeted tax credits are the best way to help the middle class.

These promises are merely playing at the edges of the income stagnation and job dislocation being experienced by some of Canada's middle class. Our political leaders don't talk much about the core causes because they're short on solutions.

For example,

TRC logo flag-featBy Jon Farmer
At its centre, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) report is a beautifully written and painful call to action. Its 94 recommendations offer tangible steps toward recognizing historical abuse and addressing ongoing injustices. The cost of this report was too high – thousands of children's lives and the suffering of countless families – but it offers solutions to the most important social and environmental challenges we face. If taken seriously, the TRC could help Canadians to right our relationships with one another and this land. That is a tall order: a shift in our collective culture.

muleskinner-regby David McLaren

Well the campaign has officially started. Jim Merriam has stopped praising mules and started talking up Tories.

In a recent article in the Owen Sound Sun Times he claimed the heartland of Ontario for his Party, including Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. The riding is apparently Larry Miller's (and therefore Mr Harper's) to control "as long as he wants it."

If, as Mr Merriam insists, Ontario's rural heartland gives Mr Harper an advantage, it may be the only one he has left. After all it is Mr Harper himself who:

  • left our economic eggs too long in one basket and now the whole economy stinks,
  • appointed foxes to guard the Senate only to find they had cooked the goose and were lapping up the gravy (EEE-eye-EEE-eye-Oh-oh),
  • preached to the PIGS about fiscal management and had our Security Council seat at the UN swiped by one of them – Portugal,
  • tried some serious horse trading with the Chinese on a Foreign Investment Protection deal and lost his shirt (and the horse).

Those are just some of the road apples Mr Harper's government has left behind. As they say in England, there's more shite than shovels on this farm.

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