GST cut would buy about one pizza a month for most buyers: economistIs that the Pizza Pizza $5 buck special?
"We certainly like the significant corporate tax cuts," Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum told CTV's Mike Duffy Live.
Well at least Harper didn't name his cat Kyoto. Tories Kill Kyoto
Federal governments -- be they Liberal or Conservative -- continue to fail to make decisions and implement policies that would protect Canada's natural environment, says the federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
The government will still have $10-billion in surplus cash to apply to the national debt.
Few companies keen to provide daycareSEE
The Tories thought tax credits would spur employers and community groups to open 125,000 spaces over five years. Cross-country consultations have poured cold water on the election promiseAn analysis of the possibility of getting Alberta employers to create child-care spots says: "Discussions with employers, businesses in Alberta, were mainly reflective of what we heard across Canada in terms of child care not being their line of business, shared concern that it would be too costly and complex for small business to consider."
As for the idea of tax credits, those performing the analysis said: "shareholders are skeptical that a tax credit will create an adequate incentive for employers to create new child care spaces and are concerned it unfairly favours large enterprises." Nor would tax credits work for non-profit organizations, they say.
Many stakeholders said long-term funding to sustain the spaces was needed as well as the start-up financing that the government had offered. And there was a general consensus that the money should flow to the provinces and territories for distribution rather than from Ottawa to child-care providers directly in the form of tax credits.
By the time the 2007-08 budget was released last March, Ms. Finley's successor, Monte Solberg, decided that, like the Liberals, he would give $250-million annually directly to the provinces - something Ms. Finley had vowed never to do. He also offered a 25-per-cent investment tax credit to businesses that create child-care spaces in their facilities, but, as the consultations predicted, there would appear to have been little uptake on that incentive.
Mr. Solberg, who repeatedly declined to be interviewed for this article, conceded to The Canadian Press last month that the creation of 125,000 spaces might not be doable and said "we have to be realistic" when asked whether the election promise could be kept.
He cited plans for about 10,000 spaces to be created across the country - far short of the number required to meet the election goal.
Listening to Tom Allen on CBC Radio 2 he was playing excerpts from Orson Welles Mercury Radio Theatre broadcast of the War of the Worlds.
It was brilliant subversive theatre posing as radio news, that created widespread panic in the U.S. The reality of the broadcast, interspersed as it was between musical numbers, as if it was a real news broadcast created the illusion of 'reality' for the listener.
The War of the Worlds (October 30, 1938)
Real Audio • MP3 • Checksums
We often overlook the importance of radio which dominated 20th century culture for over fifty years.
Such subversions could not occur today of course.....wait a minute... some folks still don't believe we landed on the moon, and of course then there are all those conspiracy theories around 9/11.
On Oct. 30, 1938, a radio reporter went on the air with a terrifying broadcast: A meteor had slammed into a farm in Mercer County. Thick, poisonous gas seeped through the air. Martians had descended on the nation, martial law was declared and scores of people were dead.
None of it was true. But hundreds of listeners tuning in to "War of the Worlds" had missed the introduction explaining that the program was fiction. They panicked, sending waves of hysteria and confusion across New Jersey and the country.
The program began as the Halloween episode of director Orson Welles' radio program, adapting H.G. Wells' novel "War of the Worlds" for the airwaves -- and plunking the alien invasion in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The broadcast unfolded in a series of news bulletins that whipped listeners into a frenzy.
Calls poured in to police, newspapers and radio stations from fearful citizens. In Newark, more than 20 families rushed from their homes on Heddon Terrace, covering their faces with wet rags as they fled the "gas attack." National Guard armories in Sussex and Essex counties took calls from confused soldiers who heard on the radio that they were mobilized against the invasion.
At one point in the night, the New Jersey State Police issued a teletype they hoped would halt some of the panic -- which later earned both criticism and praise as an infamous moment in radio history. "Note to all receivers," the police message said. "WABC broadcast as drama re this section being attacked by residents of Mars. Imaginary affair."
Orson Welles extends his hands in embarrassment after listeners mistook his 1938 national radio broadcast of ''War of the Worlds' as actual news that Martians had invaded New Jersey.
Click to play the original recording of "War of the Worlds."
In writing "The War of the Worlds" in 1898, Herbert George Wells was inspired by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli who reported seeing "canali" on Mars, which had been positioned close to the Earth in 1894. "Canali" meant channels but was mistranslated as canals, leading to much speculation about life on the red planet.
"The War of the Worlds" was written in response to several historical events, said teacher Paul Brian in his "The War of the Worlds" on-line study guide created for his students at Washington State University. "The most important was the unification and militarization of Germany, which led to a series of novels predicting war in Europe, beginning with George Chesney's 'The Battle of Dorking' (1871).
"Most of these were written in a semi-documentary fashion; and Wells borrowed their technique to tie his interplanetary war tale to specific places in England familiar to his readers. This attempt at hyper-realism helped to inspire Orson Welles when the latter created his famed 1938 radio broadcast based on the novel."
War Of The Worlds invasion: The complete War Of The Worlds website
The War of the Worlds
E-text of The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.
Blah, blah, blah. LOL. Stop it you are killing me.
"And note to all readers and Mssrs Flanagan and Finley who seem to lay claim to Tory Blogs. I am an independent observer of the political scene in Canada that has an allegiance to conservatism in its best form and to the Conservative Party as its manifestation. But I do not receive and would not welcome any direction of my content by any party official. I will criticize our party without losing faith in the importance of our party leading the Canadian political agenda."
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Leon Trotsky. Now you see him. Now you don't. After he ran afoul of the Communist Party, Trotsky was eliminated from photos where he mingled with other officials. In other manipulated photos, the Soviets painted in the gaps for added realism.
The benefits of strong competition in Canada's generic drug sector are not finding their way into consumers' pocketbooks, Canada's Competition Bureau said in a report released on Monday.The report found that one of the reasons generic drugs are more expensive in Canada than other countries is the existence of a rebate system that discourages pharmacies from passing along savings to customers.
In most of Canada's provinces, drug manufacturers compete with each other by offering pharmacies rebates of an average 40 percent off the invoice price as an incentive for the retailers to choose their products, the bureau said.
But the rebates are typically not reflected in the prices that consumers pay for drugs.
"They're giving (pharmacies) a break," Commissioner of Competition Sheridan Scott said in response to reporters' questions at a press conference. "That's a normal thing. The question is, why is the money staying at the pharmacy level."
The study found that the rebate system gives manufacturers little incentive to compete through lower prices.And these are the same guys who whine about unfair competition from the Big Pharma establishment. They are as much a part of Big Pharma as the established drug companies. Horse of a different colour.
Canada's ruling Conservatives have slipped slightly in public support but are still well ahead of the opposition Liberals, according to a new poll.The Ipsos-Reid survey put the Conservatives on 39 percent, down one point from a poll done by the same firm a week before. The Liberals were steady at 27 percent while support for the left-leaning New Democrats rose three points to 17 percent.
- A multinational chain that some day-care advocates warn will bring a big-box concept to Alberta child care has started shopping for day-care centres in the province.
In a 2006 report by the Australian Institute, a respected Australian think-tank, researchers said poor food quality and cost-cutting have compromised quality even as ABC has amassed a fortune from public child care subsidies given to parents.
The report was based on a survey of employees at daycares across Australia. The report singled out ABC, saying that despite an estimated $172 million in government subsidies, the daycare giant fell short in most areas of quality care when compared to community based, non-profit centres.
The report said the chain did not always serve nutritious food (one staffer interviewed called the food "atrocious"); did not always provide enough quality toys and equipment (toys often have to be purchased from an ABC-owned company); and hired only the minimum number of staff required by law. It notes daycare teachers "are required to do all the cleaning themselves as well as care for the children."
Jody Korchinski, spokeswoman for Alberta Children's Services, said foreign and chain ownership (of daycares) are not concerns of the government.
It isn't known exactly how many operators are selling their facilities, but day-care operators say they have heard nine centres in Edmonton and even more in Calgary are being sold to 123 Busy Beavers Learning Centres, which is affiliated with the Australian-based day-care giant ABC Learning Centres.
In Edmonton, officials with the Garneau/University Child Care Centre received a letter from Adroit Investments LLC of North Carolina informing them that "we might have an interest in purchasing your child-care centre."
The letter says that if they are interested in selling, they should contact Adroit, and if the centre meets its criteria "we will make you an offer that may be of interest to you ...
"We represent a financial group buying child-care centres in Alberta. We have been contacting and purchasing child-care centres in Alberta since January of this year.
"If we have spoken over the phone over the past six months, please take this time to really think about what you want out of your business."
Meanwhile, a Calgary jobs website has listed postings for child-care workers on behalf of 123 Busy Beavers. Calls to a toll-free number on the Busy Beavers website were not returned.
Mark Davis, a representative of Adroit in Charlotte, N.C., wouldn't say who his company represents.
But an e-mail from Adroit to a B.C. child-care centre refers to websites for 123 Busy Beavers and for ABC's parent company, 123-Global.
The message also contained an Australian fax number.
Child-care advocates are sounding the alarm since learning an investment firm called Adroit Investments LLC has contacted local child-care operators in a bid to buy them out.
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. traced the company back to 123-Global and A.B.C. Learning Centres, a private Australian child-care corporation that's gotten flak in several countries for monopolizing child-care and providing minimal services to cut costs.
Meanwhile, some child-care providers approached by Adroit wonder if they will be able to compete.
"We've known about them for years," said Susan Harney, operator of Country Grove Children's Centre in Langley. "They build up what they call critical mass and put other programs out of business."
Harney has already rejected Adroit's advances and wants others to do the same. "Our child-care system is not for sale," she said. "The focus needs to be on providing good service, not making a profit."
The Groves daycare empire has grown with remarkable speed in the past few years.
Recent purchasing raids into the U.S. and U.K. have made Groves's kiddie care empire the largest in the world with some 2,400 daycares in its stable and a ticker tape value of more than $2.5 billion.
Corporate records show three ABC-related companies – ABC Acquisitions, 123 Global and 123 Busy Beavers – share a director named Donald Jones.
ABC Acquisitions and 123 Global, two companies that scout out international growth opportunities for ABC, share the same Brisbane address where Groves's ABC Learning Centres was also headquartered until recently.
A report by Citigroup analysts last year reported a close corporate lineage between Groves's ABC Learning and Jones's ABC Acquisitions.
It says the acquisitions arm finds daycares appropriate for international expansion and then sells the properties to ABC.
"We believe the purpose of the `arm's length' arrangement is to enable the (daycare) licence to be categorized as an asset in (ABC's) balance sheet," the report concludes. "Once a decision is made to proceed on a centre, (ABC) are committed to acquiring the centre."
The report also says ABC's development team is looking to expand into Canada.
Corporate records also show other signs of Groves's interest in Canada.
In August, Groves and several other ABC executives incorporated a company called ABC Canadian Holdings in Brisbane, which lists ABC Learning Centres as the sole shareholder.
A Groves spokesperson said ABC Canadian Holdings "is a dormant company with no assets and no trading."
In practical life we find not only competition, monopoly and the antagonism between them, but also the synthesis of the two, which is not a formula, but a movement. Monopoly produces competition, competition produces monopoly. Monopolists are made from competition; competitors become monopolists. If the monopolists restrict their mutual competition by means of partial associations, competition increases among the workers; and the more the mass of the proletarians grows as against the monopolists of one nation, the more desperate competition becomes between the monopolists of different nations. The synthesis is of such a character that monopoly can only maintain itself by continually entering into the struggle of competition.
Karl Marx
The Poverty of Philosophy
Chapter Two: The Metaphysics of Political Economy
