Monthly Archives: August 2009

What does it take to get rid of this scumbag???

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 This is the third posting I have done on the ongoing and expensive process to deport the criminal gangster Jackie Tran from Canada. Back in October I wrote on Tran here.  In April of this year I wrote a posting entitled “I wont believe it until I see it!”  regarding getting rid of Tran. Sadly, I was right. Our system is too cowardly to get rid of a convicted drug trafficker involved with a gang connected to 8 murders who has constantly broken his bail conditions.

 Tran is laughing at us and I don’t blame him. He has shown that one can come to Canada and completely disregard our laws with no consequences aside from millions being spent in legal hearings.

 Yes, yet again an idiot judge has ruled that we cannot deport Jackie Tran. While thousands of fine immigrants around the world are languishing on waiting lists trying to come to Canada in order to lead productive lives, we as a nation bend over backwards to try and retain a criminal thug.

 Canada is in an enviable position. We are a peaceful and developed country that attracts skilled immigrants from around the world who help contribute to making our country a better nation. Bringing in immigrants will only benefit us if we are a little selective on who we accept however. We have immigrant doctors driving taxis while waiting for our sick system to grant them citizenship while we have countless pieces of crap like Tran bunging up the system.

 If we can’t do a task so straightforward as deporting a filthbag like Tran, I deeply fear for the long-term state of the country.

 The judge who made this latest ruling should be removed from the bench post-haste. Sadly, there is little indication of political courage on the part of any level of government in Canada.

 Perhaps Harper will appoint Tran to the senate. At least it would get him out of Alberta.

Gee, go figure. Iris is surprised.

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 I am doing rather well in my predictions. I have to admit, one does not need to be a modern-day Nostradamus to have predicted that our gang of clowns governing the province would be in shock and running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to understand how they have spent us into a record and growing deficit. Ignoring advice from many quarters, the Progressive Conservative government has continued with unrestrained, untargeted and unsustainable spending after having castrated the main industry in the province with an ill-conceived and greed driven royalty gouge. The “rainy day” savings will quickly run dry and we can look forward to putting our grandchildren in debt soon.

 The cartoon in the Calgary Herald lays it out very well.

 The PC government has realized that they were rather dependent on the revenues from the industry that they so recently demonized and drove from the province. Revenues are now down on all fronts. From field and office workers who used to pay income taxes, to land-sale revenues, to corporate tax revenue, to municipal road use revenues and of course royalty revenues the government has seen a massive drop in them all since attacking the energy industry. Sure things were going to slow down in this recession anyway. It never needed to be this bad however.The energy industry came to a screeching halt in Alberta almost a year before the world economy dropped.  This is directly due to the actions of Stelmach.

 Special Ed made a short appearance the other day and muttered some incomprehensible excuses to try and soften the blow for the coming budget update. Ed has now sunken down and will likely remain well hidden until the Calgary by-election is finished. The PCs have at least realized that whenever their leader speaks, they drop another couple points in the polls.

 Despite all of these hard lessons for Albertans, the PC government still appears to have not learned a thing. Iris Evens looks dejected and clearly realizes that she has blown it. Still, there was no uttering of terms such as spending restraint or trying to encourage business to come back to Alberta. From all appearances the PC government looks like they intend to continue with massive spending and praying for a miracle.

 I will make another prediction. Iris Evans is praying that natural gas will suddenly jump in price. Sorry Iris, hoping for it to happen will not make it happen. In the next quarter we will see yet another jump in the deficit. The world is in a slowdown and there is a glut of natural gas (not to mention energy companies don’t want to come back to Alberta right now).

 In a dark-humour sort of way, I am tempted to start a pool for how long it will take and how many budget updates we will see before the sustainability fund is completely gone. It should not be too long.

 The belt-tightening Albertan’s did through the 90s was a good thing. We eliminated our debt and saw a sustained boom afterwards. Ed Stelmach has managed to eliminate all of those benefits in a few short years in power. I shudder to think what he may do with three more years in power.

Hapless Ed is sure to express surprise again.

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 Should Premier Eddie finally make an appearance to address the gross increase in our provincial deficit, I wonder which adjective he will use to describe this? I think in most Stelmach releases he has used all of these words so he must be familiar with them: unexpected, unanticipated, unpredicted, unforeseen, unheralded or perhaps he should simply go to unreal.

 The Herald is reporting on the frightening consequence of horrific fiscal management here.

 It is little wonder that Tom Olsen responds with blasts of obscenities when reporters dare ask direct questions of Stelmach. Being Stelmach’s handler must be one of the most challenging jobs on the planet. How much can you expose the man to the public when all he can do is express astonishment that yet another of his initiatives or predictions have blown up in his face? It must be disheartening in knowing that the best possible strategy to be taken in a by-election is to hide your leader as deeply as you can.

 Will Special Ed shed his cloak of invisibility and address the looming quarterly fiscal update? What marble-mouthed excuses will be used to try and justify the latest example of the Stelmach government’s gross fiscal mismanagement?

 Hmm let’s see, in one year Eddie has taken an $8 billion dollar surplus and turned it into what is looking like an $8 billion deficit. There are still three more quarters in this fiscal year for Ed to drive our grandchildren further into debt and a sadly don’t doubt he will. I wish I could express such surprise as Ed now and then.

 How much longer can we tolerate a premier that has not made a successful move since assuming power? What sort of confidence can we have in our provincial leadership when the leader can do nothing but express shock that his management has been a disaster?

 What is shocking about our situation? Ed massively increased spending and drove our primary industry from the province. A person with a Grade 3 education can figure out the math on that one and see that poverty is sure to follow. Perhaps the reason that Eddie has been in hiding lately is that he is taking some sort of remedial classes somewhere (I sure hope so).

 Well, I have said it before and I will say it again; SEND ED A MESSAGE!!

 Calgary Glenmore has the opportunity and expect that they will indeed send a message. The rest of the province should get to work to make that message final.

Back from Calgary’s “Choke the traffic flow event”.

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 Well, it’s a beautiful Sunday and I have been working hard and heavy on the by-election campaign all week. Poor Stewie (pictured below) has been feeling terribly neglected as of late and today felt like a perfect day to head on down and check out Druh Farrell’s anti-car event on Memorial Drive. The pictures taken are not of the best quality as they are vid-caps. I plan to get around to making another Youtube video but as you can understand dear reader, I am pretty tight for time for a bit.

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 Well I have to give it to them, I was actually quite impressed with the “festival” There was a variety of booths and activities and people generally seemed to be having a good time. It was a nice little gathering for people to get out and about on a weekend.

 Why did I put festival in quotes you ask? Well for new arrivals to my blog I will give a bit of background on this one. You see, Druh Farrell bypassed council discussion and arranged to close two lanes of Memorial Drive for every Sunday in August. Druh intended to expand those closures in the future to possibly encompass the entire summer. At that point, there were no plans for any sort of festival or events. The goal was simply closing lanes on a busy road next to the river. Those familiar with Calgary know that Memorial Drive is one of the few major east/west routes through the city and it is always busy.

 When the public rightly became inflamed with this pointless idiocy, Druh was forced to back down and reduce this to simply one day in summer with hopes of expansion to more days in the future. Despite this concession, the public was still rightly revolted by the pointlessness of this move. Next a “festival” was slapped together in the last few weeks to try and justify this. Anybody and everybody was invited to show up and try to promote green things or something.

 Either way, there was a decent turnout of exhibitors and people presenting activities such as facepainting.

 Now, lets get to the important part; the closing of two lanes on a major road.

 It is August and it is hot out there. I am back early as Stewie had consumed 2 litres of water in a couple hours and he simply could not take more of the heat.

 Clearly people felt the same way.

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 You see, all of the activity booths/tents were all set up in the shaded parkway and bike-paths that are right next to the road. While two lanes of important roadway were closed, virtually nobody utilized them. Why walk on blazing hot pavement next to thousands of drivers caught in a traffic-jam when there is a park right next to you? Didn’t we ask this question many months ago?

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 Druh herself had to make an appearance of course. A few from the media were about too. It will be interesting to see Druh’s spin in trying to justify ruining the day of thousands of drivers.

 

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 Yes, I am saying thousands of drivers and I mean it. The traffic jam was horrendous. This too of course was all predicted months ago and was ignored by Druh and a handful of her cronies.

 We all know that the traffic only gets worse as the day progresses. My shots were taken at noon and traffic was at a standstill as far as the eye can see in either direction. Drivers were clearly infuriated as they sat parked on a road in the summer heat while watching two empty but blocked lanes right next to them.

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 An irony in all this is that Druh Farrell is usually front and center in trying to get anti-idling laws passed and banning drive-throughs and such in a misguided effort to curb automotive emissions. Now what sort of carbon footprint did Druh cause by making thousands of vehicles idle for an extra hour with their air-conditioning running at full blast?

 I have read and listened to a few apologists who are trying to frame anybody who opposed this idiotic event as being “anti-festival neanderthals” and such. Many of these people seem to be revolted with our city and constantly try to claim that we have no culture and such.

 Listen folks, there are a few festivals every weekend all summer. Music, food and cultural events are happening constantly and nobody is opposing them. This idiotic road-closure is not in the class of such festivals and anybody with common sense may oppose this free from guilt.

 Across the river we could hear the music of some sort of live band event going on. We also saw acres and acres of empty (and taxpayer funded) green-space that could have hosted this event next to the river without closing any major roads.

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 People, this whole event was simply the actions of anti-vehicle extremists who wanted to thumb their noses at those Alberta heathens who dare utilize the combustion engine. There was no reason for this aside from making a point of delusional principle at the expense of taxpayers, drivers and the residents of this now congested neighborhood.

 You know what? I hope Druh does this again next summer. The next municipal election will be only a couple of months after the “event” and I really would like residents to have a fresh image of what their very well paid elected representative is doing with her time and our money.

Calgary Glenmore by-election is a referendum on Ed.

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 It is nice to have a by-election breaking up the summer political doldrums. Some constituents in Calgary Glenmore may be annoyed by the summer campaign but let’s face it, in light of past by-election turnouts many people are simply indifferent no matter what the date is. The critical factor for all parties in this race will be identifying and getting supportive voters to the polls.

 I have spent the past few days working on the campaign (and will be spending the next few weeks doing so). From what one can see, the PCs have been active on the West side of the constituency and there is little visible evidence elsewhere. I know from personal experience that the Wildrose Alliance has been working all over the constituency for the last couple months. The Liberals, NDP and Social Credit parties are all nowhere to be seen. It is still early and I am sure evidence of their campaigns will surface eventually.

 What has been humerous in a dark sort of way is how the PCs have been trying to downplay their own leader in this race. Diane Colley-Urquhart held her campaign kickoff to some 12-40 supporters (the estimates vary) last monday. Among those supporters were some other MLAs but the mighty Ed Stelmach was nowhere to be seen. One would think that the leader of the party could at least make a token appearance at such an event. Why, Dianne may even have been able to break that elusive 14-50 number at the kickoff with such a draw in attendance.

 By-elections are considered a snapshot of government support between general elections. As such, these events are considered critical by opposition and governing parties alike. The outcomes of these by-elections reflect on the entire party much more than they do the individual candidates involved. Despite this, Ed Stelmach and the PC party itself has remained invisible in this by-election. The PC party website does not even mention the by-election.

 One would think this is odd but the strategy makes sense. The bottom line is that Ed Stelmach is despised in Calgary and his presence on the campaign trail would actually be detrimental to the party outcome. Rather sad when compared to the past success of Ralph’s team in the past.

 The PC government has made it clear that Ed Stelmach runs the entire show. Backbench MLAs such as Guy Boutilier are thrown from caucus for daring to question King Eddie and ministers such as Lindsay Blackett are put in their place when they dare suggest legislation that is contrary to Ed’s grand plan (whatever the heck that plan may be).

 The provincial government is discussing adding four more MLAs to the mix in the next provincial election. Translation if these seats go PC: four more benchwarming, trained seals. In light of the way things are run, we really should simply eliminate all seats and simply have Ed direct deputy ministers in their actions.

 In light of the sort of governance the PC party offers us, it is clear that a vote for the PCs in this election is simply a vote for Ed. No representation in any form will be gained should the PC candidate win. The constituents will simply be gaining another trained seal. An opposition member of any stripe will be better able to speak up for constituents in the legislature than a PC member would.

 The PC party clearly knows this and is hiding their hapless leader as well as they can during this campaign.

 We however will not let the constituents of Calgary Glenmore forget what this by-election is all about.

SEND ED A MESSAGE!

When is Ed not surprised?

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 Gee, Ed Stelmach has been caught flatfooted about something. Are there any headlines about Special Ed where he is not confused? Has Ed accurately foreseen anything yet? It appears not. Unintended consequences and excuses are all this Progressive Conservative government seems to be able to generate.

 The latest confusion from Stelmach is regarding the massive job losses in Alberta. Yup, Unsteady Eddie is astounded that Alberta has exploding unemployment.

 Some apologists for the PC government (a dwindling number) claim that nobody could have seen our current circumstances coming. These excuse-generators say that people critical of Stelmach’s fiscal incompetence are simply practicing hindsight. Well PC loyalists, I must call bullshit on you.

 Most of what is happening today was predicted years ago by the Wildrose Alliance Party and groups such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

 Stelmach was told repeatedly that kicking the energy industry in the collective knackers would castrate Alberta’s competitive edge in a world market. Ed ignored that advice and Alberta’s employment numbers are staggering because of it. Certainly Alberta would be seeing a downturn today due to low commodity prices whether Ed meddled in the business or not. It is rather critical now that we continue development and employment in Alberta. Gathering scarce investment dollars is nearly impossible in Alberta today due to Ed’s almost monthly changes to the royalty structure. Here is a hint Ed: Business and investment are drawn to stability!!!! It may be a decade before Stelmach’s damage is undone. Trust takes a long time to regain and that trust is impossible to gain when we have an increasingly unapologetic and confused premier at our provincial helm.

 Ed does seem to be determined to borrow us into prosperity. Almost monthly we are seeing the profound incompetence of our provincial government as they are forced to escalate the projections of the massive deficit being accumulated. Even at the height of the boom the WAP and other groups were telling the PCs that the rate of spending increases were unsustainable. Ed’s deaf ears clearly missed that sage advice however and our grandchildren will be forced to pay for Ed’s excess. Within less than a year we have seen the projections change from a huge government surplus to a record government deficit. Were this a private business the entire management team would be fired. Alas it is rather tougher to get rid of the fools at the helm of our provincial government.

 Every day the future of Alberta looks more bleak while Ed looks more confused. The next chance to replace the Progressive Conservative government is still unfortunately years away. Lets hope they don’t totally bankrupt the province in the meantime.

 No hindsight here. This is an “I told you so.” situation. It would have been nice to be wrong in this circumstance.

 I shudder to think what will surprise Ed Stelmach next.

Some healthcare rambling.

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Consistently in Canada we see opinion polls that indicate that healthcare is at the top of people’s concerns. It is undeniable that the vast majority of Canadians consider the provision of healthcare as one of the most important roles that government has. Despite such concern on the part of Canadians, the closed-minded attitudes and profound ignorance demonstrated by Canadians when it comes to any discussion of healthcare is staggering. One would think that an issue of such apparent importance would compel people to educate themselves on the issue itself. Alas, one would be thinking wrongly in that case.

Canada’s health system has been turned into a sacred cow. The only discussion allowed regarding our system is one of how much extra spending to dedicate to it. Should anybody dare peep about changing the status-quo in any sort of way they will be greeted with shrill hysteria and the discussion will be shouted down.

I frequent quite a few discussion forums on the web. Some I participate in and some I simply lurk on. One site I particularly enjoy is the Calgary Puck Forum.  The puck forum is a Calgary Flames fan site predominantly. Due to the volume of posters (that being due to the vast numbers of Flames fans out there of course) and the seasonal nature of the sport, there is a very busy off topic forum.  Things discussed in that forum range from light distractions to some pretty deep political issues. What I really enjoy at the site is that this is not a political based site of one stripe or another. There is no mandated left or right leaning to the discussions. Reading sites like that gives a person a much better idea of the thinking of the general public than any outright political site would be able to provide. I stick to lurking and not posting there as they have a great site and do not need my opinionated arse messing with it.

 As with any site that has a degree of political discussion, Canadian healthcare pops up now and then. Like any other sites on that issue, the discussion became extended and heated quickly.  The only real sad part was how quickly that conversation degenerated into the usual myopic and unproductive path that dominates Canadian healthcare discussions.

 To begin with, the shrill defenders of the status-quo immediately trot out horror stories within the American health system. This is standard tactic and unfortunately is effective. The debate immediatelybecomes polarized and turned into some sort of all or nothing debate discussing the merits of fully private provision versus fully socialised provision.

 Lets get something straight here:

CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE NOT THE ONLY HEALTH JURISDICTIONS ON THE PLANET!!!!!!!

 Both systems are flawed and unsustainable. Think of it this way, are you more dead when you die on a waiting list or more dead when you die due to lack of coverage? Doesn’t really matter now does it?  

There are dozens and dozens of healthcare systems in the world. Many of those systems rate well above both the American system and our own when outcomes and cost are measured. In the last world ratings Canada had plummeted down below 30th place and was still falling.

 So what are the other 29 (and growing) countries doing that we are not? To hell with the American system. I don’t care what they do. I want to see successful systems. I am saying that again as when discussing this in person I have yet again reached a point where it is realized that I would like to change our system and somebody feels that it is time to try and sidetrack to the USA model again.

 To begin with. we have to look at why Canada’s system has been dropping in the rankings. Sadly, only Cuba and North Korea share Canada’s outlook of actually outlawing private healthcare. Think about that. Our system strangles any chance of innovation and reform and our almost religious-like protection of it assures that discussion of reform is stunted as well. If we can’t even discuss or try minor reforms within the system itself, it is inevitable that the system will stagnate.

 The demographics of Canada are changing. The baby boomers are getting on and thus need more and more treatment. Drug and diagnostic technology has grown by leaps and bounds but it is getting more expensive as well. The bottom line is that we need to spend an ever increasing amount of money simply to maintain our current standard of service. The real tragedy is that we have made massive increases on the amount spent on healthcare and the services have still declined.

 Socialized medicine means rationed medicine. Recent court rulings have literally found the waiting lists in Canada to be unconstitutional and the lists only grow longer. In scanning the newspapers around the country, one can find a person almost daily who has died while waiting for treatement in Canada. The stories of people living in agony while waiting years for knee or hip treatments are endless. Increased spending has done nothing to aid with this.

 In summary, our spending is exploding and our outcomes are deteriorating. While most would agree that such a trend is completely unsustainable, most still see challenging the status-quo as being akin to blasphemy. I wonder and fear how bad things will have to get before Canadians finally begin to treat what they see as one of their most cherished institutions with a little critical thought?

 France has consistently led the world rankings in healthcare systems. While the French have not mastered personal hygiene, they have clearly found something in healthcare that works. The French system offers universal coverage (yes everybody is covered), spends less per-capita on healthcare than Canada and has no waiting lists. How is this possible? Here comes the dirty word. The French have created a system that mixes private and public involvement. Here is where the average Canadian tries to digress into a hysterical comparison with American care again. Well shrill defender of the status-quo, blow it out your ass. I am seeking solutions not religion. Bringing up the American system when discussing Canadian healthcare is essentially an intellectual Godwin award.

 The public/private mixture in France provides many advantages. I am going to commit another form of Canadian blasphemy; I am going to compare healthcare provision with a business. The patient is the consumer. Now, what in every situation on the planet is the worst circumstance possible for a consumer? If you said “a monopoly” you are absolutely correct. The consumer is inevitably shafted when there is only one provider of a service or product. In Canada healthcare is a government monopoly and it shows in the terrible outcomes. Competition in some form or another is essential in the provision of any service. Why and how would any institution innovate if there was no competition? What incentive is there? Competition need not be a wide open free for all, it can be limited and regulated. Currently in Canada there is zero competition. Competition is illegal. In Alberta we are not even allowed to see the ratings of our hospitals for fear that it may shame the management of one or another of them.

 OK lack of a competitive model is stunting the management of our system and the efficiency. Now what else is causing the intolerable waiting lists? LACK OF SPECIALISTS. Unions have framed the debate well in this regard. When it comes to allocation of our increasingly scarce dollars the unions scream and demand that we have more beds. Not more diagnostic equipment, not more surgical theaters they only want to see more beds. Why so you ask? Well that is the normal self-serving nature of unions. You see more beds means more unionized nurses, LPNs, laundry services, dietary services etc. Machines and doctors don’t fill the union coffers even if indeed they do cure people.

 If we had the specialists that we need, we would not need all those beds for Canadians to languish in while waiting for specialized treatment would we? Now why can’t we retain specialists? This gets back to competition again. Set aside your ideals for a moment dear reader and have a look at reality. Specialized medical graduates have put in more than a decade of post-secondary education and are often entering the workforce six-figures in debt. These graduates are people too. They have aspirations for a family, a house, vacations etc. Now, like it or not, there is a competitive world market for these graduates. Canada’s socialized system makes it rather tough to gain or retain specialists as the compensation is capped and the specialists are overworked. While homeland and family ties are strong draws for people, it is hard for a new specialist who is deeply indebted to resist an offer of twice or more the compensation for their services in a foreign jurisdiction (not always those darned Americans by the way). The brain-drain is greatly harming our system.

 Again, a public/private hybrid need not be all or the other. Just for a ballpark example, lets say that we allow a group of specialists to open their own clinic and charge directly for services. We can still regulate this folks. Lets say that these doctors have to do 60% of their procedures within the public system at a set rate per procedure and they may charge whatever they like for the remainder of the 40% assuming they can find folks who want to pay it. This allows innovation and extra compensation to maintain these specialists.

 Now of course the envious will yelp  in indignation: “how dare people pay to get ahead of me in line!”. OK folks, this is one of the hard parts to understand. The “rich” will drive better cars, have larger houses, take nicer vacations, drink better wines, eat better foods and likely will be ****ing better looking women/men than you. Get over it. This is life. Instead of trying to drag these folks down, how about aspiring to get to where they are for a change?

 These mythical and evil rich actually make healthcare provision faster for people in the public system when hybrids are allowed. By paying extra to get faster treatment, that much public money is saved and a facility with specialists is funded. When done correctly, everybody gets faster and better treatment overall and for less public money as with in France.

  That hurdle of learning to get over the envy is tough with some folks however. I have debated many who even when it is absolutely proven that such systems benefit the whole overall, would rather stick to the current system. These people would rather see people die on waiting lists than conceive that somebody bought better or faster treatment. Yes, socialism is the equal distribution of misery indeed. Who are truly the cruel in this healthcare debate?

 A reality to be faced is that many people of means jump the line anyway. These people simply leave Canada in order to do so. If indeed this is going to be done, why the hell can’t we allow them to spend that money here? Lets keep our money and specialists in Canada. If done properly, we could supplement our health system with the revenue generated by foreigners coming here for treatment. Yes, we could actually profit from this (oops, profit is evil isn’t it).

 It is not simply “rich” people who are fleeing Canada for timely treatment. The people doing this are simply the desperate. Imagine this, you are diagnosed with a potentially fatal heart condition. You are scheduled for surgery in 18 months. Chances are however that you may suffer from a fatal heart episode within that period of waiting. You have a choice; roll the dice with your life and wait. or you can remortgage your home, fly overseas and get the procedure done within weeks. The home equity and RRSPs really don’t mean much when your life is on the line. This is happening all the time in Canada people.

 Is every concept that I pointed out in my extended rant completely correct? Perhaps not. Until we have a real discussion of healthcare options we will not be able to find out. Canada’s system is unsustainable and a crash is inevitable. The earlier we can set the sacred-cows aside and begin to look at what really may or may not work, the better we will be when the transition that must come occurs.

 The first step in improving Canada’s healthcare is for people to admit that the system is not perfect. We still are a long way from people generally accepting that unfortunately.

Get flowing for your cheap beans!!

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 Ahh yes, the details of the great Bow River Flow event have finally been released. All this waiting and buildup for the grand event announcement is over. There had to be at least a dozen interested onlookers at the press kickoff.

 If one is bored enough to have a look at the saccharine-sweet website full of pot induced cliches and excuses for this non-event that will back traffic up for miles, a person would almost get the impression that this event was planned at last minute. That would be because it was.

 City hall has been getting rather skilled at retroactively re-branding their idiotic projects as the sleepy public is finally waking up to the gong-show this group of clowns has created with our tax-dollars. The ugly and expensive hamster tube bridge that was jammed down the public’s throat is now the “peace bridge” paying homage to our veterans. Strangely we never heard mention that this bridge was to be such a monument when the notion was tabled. Let’s be clear, being in opposition to this red and white atrocity that will visually pollute our river is not being in opposition to veterans. Another columnist threw out such names as possibly the “puppy dog bridge”. That way anybody being opposed to this vile waste of scarce tax dollars could be labelled as being anti-puppy.

 Now, back to Druh Farrell’s vapid closure of one of the busiest streets in Calgary. You see, when this anti-car idea was first conceived, Druh wanted utterly no public input and quietly tried to slip this closure through the back door. Druh’s original plan was to close Memorial Drive on every Sunday in August not just the one now. Druh had no plans for a festival of any sort or any other kind of event. Farrell simply wanted to bung up city traffic as cars are indeed the root of all evil.

 With massive public disgust becoming apparent with Druh’s little anti-travel venture, she was forced to back down and reduce this traffic-atery closure to a single day. People still recoiled at the pointlessness of this venture considering that there are two perfectly good bike paths right next to the road Druh is closing. Now with brilliant hindsight Druh and a handful of other tie-dye wearing throwbacks have scrambled and tried to make an event out of this pointless road closure.

 Lets have a look at what Calgarians have in store during this fine event.

“free coffee if you bring your Go Cup to Gratitude Cafe”

Wow, I can get a free cup of organic coffee. Oh it doesn’t stop there.

“the special price of $10 for their delicious vegan brunch.”

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 Yummy. Organic, free range beans or whatever and for only $10. How Calgarian.

 We are not done there though. After having gained a calorie or two with your overpriced (and likely overcooked) beans, you can work it off doing Yoga. Yes, there is a Yoga workshop of course.

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 Oh boy these folks know how to have fun. You know with all those beans and all that stretching, I do hope that people keep in mind that there are no public washrooms in the area at all.

 Oh and what would a street event be without buskers? Considering that city hall has all but killed downtown with parking fees and ugly “art” there is no longer a good venue for our musical beggars. Well, the under-talented and unemployed may bring their bongos and beat them for pennies to their heart’s content on Druh’s special day on Memorial.

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 The website also says there will be street hockey. They are begging for teams to register however. The event organizers can’t play as they are too weak from their meatless diet. It remains to be seen how many will rush out for that game.

 Nausea makes me weak at times. That is what I experience when I read their website. Where do they get this stuff??

“Imagine a great flowing commonsthrough the heart of our city – an event that is inclusive of and accessible to all Calgarians “

 I am imagining it Druh. It is already there on those two bike paths next to the road you are closing.

 The site is loaded with comparisons with other cities of course. The people are bound and determined to make Calgary into something that isn’t, well, uh…. Calgary. New York and even a Columbian city are brought up as cities to be compared to. Why yes, I want to be part of a city controlled by drug lords (pick either). That certainly is something to aspire to.

While these clowns try to justify the unjustifiable, they trot out cities that do road closures for such events all over the world. What our wannabe hippies are trying to make Calgarians forget is that the aforementioned cities close back streets. Only Calgary has a council so stupid as to close one of only a few main east/west roads.

It will be a sad spectacle as we see traffic backed up for miles in the summer heat belching exhaust fumes upon 12 vegans squatting on the hot pavement doing yoga with offbeat bongos playing in the background.

Farrell makes over 6 figures of our tax-dollars for such brilliance.

There is much more background on this issue here. Just click on the Druh Farrell category on the right side of the page. Yes, our flower-child alderman has earned her very own category.