One of the best things about Canada is that we honour a person’s culture and native language. We have two official languages and hundreds of unofficial languages. We have proven with our actions, laws, and financial support that we value and even celebrate traditions of every country and people group. This is to our credit and benefit. We also have created laws and rights which focus on preventing discrimination against sexual orientation, colour of skin, race, creed and culture – all in the name of protecting a person from injustice and abuse. We not only protect these rights, we actually bring them into the public square and celebrate them in a variety of ways. All levels of governments have funded gay pride parades, cultural events, and every imaginable form of celebration of Canadians’ ethnic origins.

Canadians have recognized that a significant part of a human being is connected to his/her past culture and background. Another equally important part of a person’s world-view, values, and objectives is formed in their perceptions of the origin of humanity and the planet. This perception is at the core of the person’s views about what it means to be human and to live a meaningful and “successful” life. In other words, these beliefs are every bit as important to a person as their sexual orientation, race, language, culture, or gender, yet they are being treated quite differently.

More than 90% of the world’s population believe in a superior being who has created humanity and the earth. Yet the few remaining people who have chosen to believe otherwise have pushed all of the people of faith into a corner and required them to be silent in public about one of the most important parts of who they are. People of faith are regularly mocked by arrogant atheists claiming the higher intellectual ground. Science has not, nor ever will be able to prove the origin of the species – it is impossible to do so – it still is only a theory. Therefore, belief in evolution is acquired by faith. We teach evolution as if were a fact when it has no more substance than a religion. The “some” have claimed, by the slight of intellectual hand, control over the “many” because no one is fighting for justice.

If we define freedom and equality for some of our rights in a certain way but exclude a person’s “origin orientation” (faith), it clearly constitutes an inequality. Our government doesn’t fund religious events; furthermore, because of a very vocal few who are hostile to faith, faith has been attacked with attempts to banish it completely from having any public expression. A person may bring their culture, race, sexual orientation, or gender etc., etc. freely into the public square but not their faith – and that is religious bigotry. Faith is the only protected right that is openly and publicly being treated with indignation by a small group of people who believe, in their misguided ignorance, that forbidding any expression of faith in our public intuitions is required by law.

I am always dismayed by those who ignorantly cite “separation of church and state” as justification for bigotry. First of all, that is part of the American Constitution and it does not exist in Canadian law. Furthermore, the founding fathers of the United States were not intending to restrict faith in any way, but rather to create equality for all faiths by prohibiting the institutionalizing of one denomination as the official religion of the nation. They were particularly sensitive to this issue since they were people of faith who had come to America to escape this inequality. It’s rather ironic that the profoundly ignorant justify religious bigotry using a law intended to prevent it.

I can expect that for writing this article in defence of all people of faith that I will be belittled, mocked, and marginalised. People of faith regularly endure attacks on the internet and in print that if directed at homosexuals, Jews, blacks, or East Indians, for example, it would create social outrage. Attack a person of faith, or faith in general, and there is silence. If we believe in equality it must be for everyone.

Is there religious freedom in Canada? An inquiry would reveal that there are vast inequalities for people of faith when compared with the other rights and freedoms protected by our Charter of Rights and that faith is ridiculed and marginalised in ways that others who also are protected by the Charter are not. That is the sad truth even though it is not what most Canadians believe or want for Canada.

Since Bell Media owns roughly half of the newspapers, local television and radio stations in this country, plus a number of specialty channels, some of which are news oriented, I was certain that most of the media would not be covering this story. But it is important news for those of us who have been “baited with a low price” and then “switched to a higher price”. Though $10,000,000 is a significant fine, in the “big picture”, it is not a deterrent. Over the course of 7 years, $10,000,000 is nothing more than a “cost of doing business” for a company that has made millions from this deceptive practice. If it takes 7 years to prosecute a company, what is the deterrent? Furthermore, it is only one issue among a myriad of complaints Canadians have had with Bell’s business practices that have yet to be scrutinized. Although the decision is welcome news, it does little for the millions of customers who were taken advantage of by Bell.

In the US, fleecing the consumer has reached new heights with a practice called “cramming”. Wireless phone companies such as Verizon and AT&T have been fined for unauthorized billing “discrepancies”. The practice of billing for services often never received is blatant “fraud”, yet little is being done to stop the practice. Verizon has issued statements denouncing the billing practice and the FCC has fined them $50,000,000 but cramming is still alive and well in the US and also in Canada.

In Canada, the scam is configured differently but the result is the same. Companies offer you a “special” deal but then bill you the regular price for the service. A simple mistake they say, but its frequency defies a reasonable person’s ability to believe in mistakes. Other forms of cramming are billing for items that were included in your contracted service and for services never ordered. One wireless provider has already been slammed for their high number of “billing mistakes”.

If you think the problems you are having with your provider are unique to you, then you may be encouraged and angered to learn that you are not alone. Your situation may be just another example of being “crammed”.

We live in a world of information overload where “perception becomes reality” and where those perceptions can be manipulated to create an illusion of being ethical. Some corporations believe they can have the rewards of being ethical and unethical at the same time, but invariably, people perceive the illusion is false.

Corporations seem faceless but they are run by people who ultimately are responsible for the actions of the company. We fail to do justice when we prosecute the company instead of the individual. These people commit crimes but never suffer any consequences – they, in fact, benefit from their crime through bonuses and promotions and their reputation is never soiled. No wonder the problem is spreading.

Crimes are not committed by “legal entities” but by people who have narcissistic perceptions of life. Distorted values lead them into the deception that “more is better”, that “survival is of the fittest”, and that “winning is the only thing”. People with these values destroy community, cooperation, and common purpose. They destroy what makes a company and country great. They believe that what they have, is more important than what they are, and that happiness comes from unbridled consumption. They are sociopaths in suits for whom materialism has become their master and they have lost a sense of community or goodwill toward others. Our country and our world are in a “values crisis”. Without intervention, we can only expect things to get worse. This problem and the news story may seem small and even insignificant, but they point to a need for government at all levels to address the growing need for the defence of consumers and prosecution of the individuals who defraud them.

Last fall, I contacted Bell Canada to turn off my phone for the 4 months I was planning on being away. They informed me there was a charge to NOT provide the service. The fee for cutting my phone off for 3 months was $40 or $50 for 6 months. I could disconnect completely but the fee for reconnecting was $110. Because of the way Bell structured its pricing, they forced me to pay $40 for no service plus $20 for service (the 4th month) I could not use, for a total of $60.00. My regular bill for that period would have been just $80. My point, as you may well see, is how can Bell realistically charge me $60 to not provide an $80 service? I paid it reluctantly because there was very little I could do about it and there was no other better choice. I was reminded of the 70s when a Bell representative threatened to cut off my service if I didn’t pay $5.00 a month for connecting an answering machine to “their” line. Then there was the time when I had completed my mobile phone contract only to be charged a $50 fee for transferring my account to Pay-As-You-Go. Bring up the topic of mobile phone carriers at any party and everyone has a story to tell.

I don’t want to give you the impression that I think all companies are bad, they are not. This week I had two amazing experiences with (big box) retailers who demonstrated excellent service and customer care which exceeded my expectations. But alas, not all companies operate fairly. There are plenty of companies that adopt policies that take advantage of the customer, especially if there is limited competition.

One of the great anchors we have as Canadians is our Charter of Rights. It protects us against injustice on a variety of human rights’ issues. We do, however, have limited rights and remedies when dealing with companies. Banks, mobile phone companies, cable, and satellite companies all have an internal complaint resolution system which you MUST go through before a government agency will even look at your complaint. It seems like these companies are being protected by the government and it is a violation of a person’s rights to be forced to resolve a complaint the way the company wants to resolve it. No one can slander or demean you for your age, orientation, cultural background, or religion; however, it seems to be quite Ok to cheat you as long as it can be done via “company policy”. Then if you have enough fortitude to fight back, you have to do it on their terms. No wonder nothing changes.

Canadians need a Consumer Bill of Rights which protects them from the subtle and overt economic bullying, intimidation, and coercion that seem to occur far too often. Read any company’s consumer (legal) agreement and discover how few rights you actually have. There are pages of conditions that protect the company and NOTHING which represents the rights of the consumer. The consumer is left with no rights or provisions for recourse because the company can do anything at any time. The agreements are so one-sided they are ridiculous and I haven`t even addressed the issues related to online transactions and the way some websites require you to pay before you get the conditions of sale. If the consumer ever needed representation and defending, it is now!  The federal government should act to establish basic rights that Canadians can expect from companies that do business in Canada.

We are a peaceful people not given to confrontation, but just because we don’t complain or often report unfair practices, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. If we need a Charter of Rights in everyday living – and we do, then without a doubt, a Consumer Charter of Rights is needed by Canadians to protect them from unfair practices in the marketplace.

Cap and Trade is not a new idea. It is based on a cap for emissions and the ability to trade any unused portion of that cap amount to someone who may be over the cap – hence the term Cap and Trade. The problems with the system are not in the overall concept but in its execution. The US version of the scheme is so flawed it begs the question, “You’ve got to be kidding?” There are so many loop holes and potential money making “backdoors”, any rational person would see the scheme for what it is – another huge scam! (For more information Google: cap and trade)

The questions we should ask in this situation are:  “How did such a flawed scheme get as far as it has, and who is promoting it?” As one famous investigator said, “Follow the money and you’ll find the answers.” We know who is promoting Cap and Trade – Al Gore. He showed up in Costa Rica early this year and used local flooding as proof of climate change and as a reason for implementing C&T. He revealed his true colours, however, when he said to the Costa Rican business community that they may discover that there is a lot of money to be made in climate change and that they should “put a price on carbon”.

Gore has already made millions from the proposed scheme through his Generation Investment Management company but he is not alone in his support for the C&T tax. Goldman Sachs has been a pillar of support for the plan. You may remember their role in the housing scandal and that their former CEO, Hank Paulson (then Secretary of the Treasury) was at the helm when the US financial system hit the mountain – many people think it was a deliberate act to get the bailout funds (see the film, “Inside Job”).

I believe the planet is in desperate need of  an ecological revolution and that we must change our way of living. I am not, however, about to empower or enrich a bunch of socio-psychopaths in a misguided attempt to do so. Nor am I going to be manipulated into supporting their self-enriching plans as a panacea for real change. We have seen through all of this that greed knows no bounds. This week it was revealed that a hedge fund has been purchasing land in Africa in an effort to make food production their next big “score”. The size of the land is larger than France. If that doesn’t scare you then you don’t understand that there actually are people in this world who are prepared to starve millions of people to make huge profits.

We have become immune to the greed and inhumanity all around us and in so doing have failed to discern the times. These are perilous times that require bold, determined and radical action. In the past, we have seen the resources of the planet squandered while others starved. Today however,  95% of the wealth is in the hands of 5% of the people. Centralized industrial mass food production has the potential for propagating epidemics and famines of mass proportion. Greed empowers a system that is unsustainable and prone to famine and epidemics. Self-indulgence ignores the lives of the weak and the poor. The discerning and wise person looks at the situation and prepares himself.

If you have been frightened by the “climate change story” you need to ask: “Where will that take ME?” If you have been scared by some of the stories that appear in the everyday news, you have to ask; “What does that mean for me?”.  All of these signs of the times, whether far away, or nearby, beg of us to answer the question “What am I going to do about it!”

If you watched the so called debate(s), you may ask yourself: was that a debate? A debate would imply that facts and arguments were used to persuade the listener that one policy is better than another.  That was surely not the case in the recent leaders’ debate. There was almost no policy discussion. Election after election we endure this childish bickering that only politicians and kids can descend to. This isn’t the first time someone has written about how infantile election campaigns have become.  But if they can’t even agree on how to fix the debate, how will they govern the country? Jack Layton said what millions of listeners were thinking that night. How can anything be accomplished in the adversarial climate which characterizes parliament today?

In the last 3 elections, “policy” was upstaged by fear mongering and character assassinations. The media has been no help. Most broadcasters have an “editorial slant” and by inflaming emotions, they circle the wagons around their readers and solidify their “brand”. They learned this from the Americans. It is good for profits but bad for the democratic process. The details of policy are rarely discussed, nor are the finer points of executing that policy – the devil is always in the details. The average Canadian has no idea what is really going on, especially when a part of the elective body’s job (they believe) is to spread disinformation.  Sadly, the political process has become degraded to the bickering of school kids and the brutality of WWF knockdowns.

These are perilous times and the economic crisis is far from over, in spite of what stock prices look like.  Goldman Sachs estimates that speculation is adding more than $27 to the price of a barrel of oil. Many people say that estimate is low. 100’s of billions of dollars are leaving Canada in order that a handful of people can “play” the market for insane profits. The World Bank says food inflation, which is also caused in part by speculation and the US Federal Reserve printing money (QE 1,2,), will cause starvation for millions of people. The world is crazy. Some economists are warning about hyperinflation and a possible collapse of the US dollar. How desperate must things get before politicians work together? What will it take to make MPs stop working for their parties and start working for us?

We need to change the system.  We know that adversarial environments are toxic to creativity, innovation, and change-making in general.  A company couldn’t survive in today’s competitive fast changing environment with such an ineffective form of government.  It’s not the people that are not working, it is the system.  A house divided against its self cannot stand.

Our system of government is hundreds of years old. 200 hundred years ago, everything moved so slowly even parliament could keep up. We can’t afford to be that inefficient today. We need a strong government who can act boldly and provide innovative leadership in the global community. That can’t happen when the people we elect are fighting with each other. It is neither effective nor fun to watch.

The general consensus outside the US is that the problem is caused by US monetary policy. Printing  $600B (QE 2) and the very loose lending policies of the Federal Reserve aimed at resuscitating the US economy have caused inflation and the destabilisation of world currencies. French President Sarkozy  and G20 head has pointed his finger at food speculators. Inside the US, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and Noble Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, have redirected the attention from US policy to drought and reduced supply. They also claim that countries have the option of appreciating their currency to offset the policies of the US; however, that would also kill their exports.

From the ground-level, the problem seems like a complicated stand-off between the interests of the US government and the rest of the world. The flaws in globalization and the world currency system are not going to be resolved by you and me. It is obvious from 10,000 feet, however, that the solution for us is to de-couple ourselves from the world in strategic areas such as food and regain our sovereignty.  It is not likely the Canadian government is going to do that. There have been many forward thinking outsiders (forerunners) warning about the need for food sovereignty for years with little response. So what can you do?

The lifestyle of Canadians has become increasingly dependent on others to supply their basic needs. Urban living has made us dependent on food which has been grown far away. Being linked to and dependent on the rest of the world to feed us makes us vulnerable to soaring prices and disruption in supply caused by war, drought, transportation problems, and political and social upheavals, to name only a few. Globalization has given us a world of reasons why we should take care of ourselves, particularly in the production of food.

If you grow your own food, you remove the impact of subsidies, transportation costs, carbon emissions, trade barriers, speculators, shortages, wars, earthquakes –  effectively all the obstacles!

There are many highly developed techniques for growing your own food such as “square foot gardening” and “intensive gardening” which make the process simple and give incredible yields. Growing food is therapeutic and giving some of it away, as most home gardeners do because they have too much, is joy to the giver and receiver. Growing your own food also reduces pressures on existing supplies, thus leaving food for others who are hungry. By helping yourself, you help others – it is a win-win solution. Now is a good time to start planning a garden.

If, however, you can’t grow your own food, the next best solution is to buy it from local producers. There are many cooperatives and farm-gate growers in our township and we need to support them and encourage more food suppliers in our area to sell locally. We have some of the best land in the province and it could feed us and much of the country.  Small farms produce many times more food per acre than industrialized farms, making them quite profitable.

It is convenient to buy garlic from China but when you compare the quality and the price, Canadian garlic is still the better deal. Some things are a little more expensive when they are grown here, but there are other values to consider. When you buy imported food, the money leaves the community, but when you buy local, all of the money stays right here. Hidden subsidies create inequities between foreign and local pricing. Food production and food sovereignty should be part of our federal government’s policies and commitment to protect Canadian food growers. Our region should also develop plans and incentives to stimulate the growing of food locally.

By growing our own food and taking care of ourselves, we become positioned to take care of others. We also regain control of our lives and strengthen our community.  Buying and supplying our food locally is a powerful solution anyone can use to overcome soaring food prices.

How to Beat World-Wide Food Inflation

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that world food prices had risen 3.4% in January (the seventh monthly increase in a row) to the highest level since records began in 1990. Continued increases are expected. Food prices have proven to be the underlying motivation for civil unrest in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan, and Yemen and more uprisings are expected in countries around the world. Indonesia and Thailand have been rationing staples for more than a year. Here in Canada, the increases have been slightly less but substantial enough for people to notice the difference when they go to the grocery store. What is the future of food, what is happening, and what can we do?

The general consensus outside the US is that the problem is caused by US monetary policy. Printing  $600B (QE 2) and the very loose lending policies of the Federal Reserve aimed at resuscitating the US economy have caused inflation and the destabilisation of world currencies. French President Sarkozy  and G20 head has pointed his finger at food speculators. Inside the US, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and Noble Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, have redirected the attention from US policy to drought and reduced supply. They also claim that countries have the option of appreciating their currency to offset the policies of the US; however, that would also kill their exports.

From the ground-level, the problem seems like a complicated stand-off between the interests of the US government and the rest of the world. The flaws in globalization and the world currency system are not going to be resolved by you and me. It is obvious from 10,000 feet, however, that the solution for us is to de-couple ourselves from the world in strategic areas such as food and regain our sovereignty.  It is not likely the Canadian government is going to do that. There have been many forward thinking outsiders (forerunners) warning about the need for food sovereignty for years with little response. So what can you do?

The lifestyle of Canadians has become increasingly dependent on others to supply their basic needs. Urban living has made us dependent on food which has been grown far away. Being linked to and dependent on the rest of the world to feed us makes us vulnerable to soaring prices and disruption in supply caused by war, drought, transportation problems, and political and social upheavals, to name only a few. Globalization has given us a world of reasons why we should take care of ourselves, particularly in the production of food.

If you grow your own food, you remove the impact of subsidies, transportation costs, carbon emissions, trade barriers, speculators, shortages, wars, earthquakes –  effectively all the obstacles!

There are many highly developed techniques for growing your own food such as “square foot gardening” and “intensive gardening” which make the process simple and give incredible yields. Growing food is therapeutic and giving some of it away, as most home gardeners do because they have too much, is joy to the giver and receiver. Growing your own food also reduces pressures on existing supplies, thus leaving food for others who are hungry. By helping yourself, you help others – it is a win-win solution. Now is a good time to start planning a garden.

If, however, you can’t grow your own food, the next best solution is to buy it from local producers. There are many cooperatives and farm-gate growers in our township and we need to support them and encourage more food suppliers in our area to sell locally. We have some of the best land in the province and it could feed us and much of the country.  Small farms produce many times more food per acre than industrialized farms, making them quite profitable.

It is convenient to buy garlic from China but when you compare the quality and the price, Canadian garlic is still the better deal. Some things are a little more expensive when they are grown here, but there are other values to consider. When you buy imported food, the money leaves the community, but when you buy local, all of the money stays right here. Hidden subsidies create inequities between foreign and local pricing. Food production and food sovereignty should be part of our federal government’s policies and commitment to protect Canadian food growers. Our region should also develop plans and incentives to stimulate the growing of food locally.

By growing our own food and taking care of ourselves, we become positioned to take care of others. We also regain control of our lives and strengthen our community.  Buying and supplying our food locally is a powerful solution anyone can use to overcome soaring food prices.

How to Beat World-Wide Food Inflation

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that world food prices had risen 3.4% in January (the seventh monthly increase in a row) to the highest level since records began in 1990. Continued increases are expected. Food prices have proven to be the underlying motivation for civil unrest in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan, and Yemen and more uprisings are expected in countries around the world. Indonesia and Thailand have been rationing staples for more than a year. Here in Canada, the increases have been slightly less but substantial enough for people to notice the difference when they go to the grocery store. What is the future of food, what is happening, and what can we do?

The general consensus outside the US is that the problem is caused by US monetary policy. Printing  $600B (QE 2) and the very loose lending policies of the Federal Reserve aimed at resuscitating the US economy have caused inflation and the destabilisation of world currencies. French President Sarkozy  and G20 head has pointed his finger at food speculators. Inside the US, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and Noble Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, have redirected the attention from US policy to drought and reduced supply. They also claim that countries have the option of appreciating their currency to offset the policies of the US; however, that would also kill their exports.

From the ground-level, the problem seems like a complicated stand-off between the interests of the US government and the rest of the world. The flaws in globalization and the world currency system are not going to be resolved by you and me. It is obvious from 10,000 feet, however, that the solution for us is to de-couple ourselves from the world in strategic areas such as food and regain our sovereignty.  It is not likely the Canadian government is going to do that. There have been many forward thinking outsiders (forerunners) warning about the need for food sovereignty for years with little response. So what can you do?

The lifestyle of Canadians has become increasingly dependent on others to supply their basic needs. Urban living has made us dependent on food which has been grown far away. Being linked to and dependent on the rest of the world to feed us makes us vulnerable to soaring prices and disruption in supply caused by war, drought, transportation problems, and political and social upheavals, to name only a few. Globalization has given us a world of reasons why we should take care of ourselves, particularly in the production of food.

If you grow your own food, you remove the impact of subsidies, transportation costs, carbon emissions, trade barriers, speculators, shortages, wars, earthquakes –  effectively all the obstacles!

There are many highly developed techniques for growing your own food such as “square foot gardening” and “intensive gardening” which make the process simple and give incredible yields. Growing food is therapeutic and giving some of it away, as most home gardeners do because they have too much, is joy to the giver and receiver. Growing your own food also reduces pressures on existing supplies, thus leaving food for others who are hungry. By helping yourself, you help others – it is a win-win solution. Now is a good time to start planning a garden.

If, however, you can’t grow your own food, the next best solution is to buy it from local producers. There are many cooperatives and farm-gate growers in our township and we need to support them and encourage more food suppliers in our area to sell locally. We have some of the best land in the province and it could feed us and much of the country.  Small farms produce many times more food per acre than industrialized farms, making them quite profitable.

It is convenient to buy garlic from China but when you compare the quality and the price, Canadian garlic is still the better deal. Some things are a little more expensive when they are grown here, but there are other values to consider. When you buy imported food, the money leaves the community, but when you buy local, all of the money stays right here. Hidden subsidies create inequities between foreign and local pricing. Food production and food sovereignty should be part of our federal government’s policies and commitment to protect Canadian food growers. Our region should also develop plans and incentives to stimulate the growing of food locally.

By growing our own food and taking care of ourselves, we become positioned to take care of others. We also regain control of our lives and strengthen our community.  Buying and supplying our food locally is a powerful solution anyone can use to overcome soaring food prices.

Since June, the US dollar has lost more than 9% which is good news if you are buying US cash to take a trip or make a purchase. But the reality is that what is happening to our currency and the economy is going to require us to change the way we think and do business with the Americans.

Much of the move in the US dollar has happened in the last month in response to an announced second round of stimulus, sometimes called QEII (Quantitative Easing 2). The first round didn’t work and the second round is unlikely to work either – so you might ask, “what are they doing?”

Bill Gross, President of PIMCO (World’s Largest Mutual Fund), gave us some insight into what is really happening when he commented recently on America’s economic woes.

“It is a globalized economy of our own doing for the past 20-30 years. We encouraged all of this, but it is coming back to haunt us. To the extent that Chinese labor, Vietnamese labor, Brazilian labor, Mexican labor, wherever it is coming from that labor is outcompeting us and holding down our economy. ……Other countries and citizens are willing to work for less and willing to work harder—and we forgot the magic formula somewhere along the way,” he said.

He went on to say, “One of the ways to get even, so to speak, or to get the balance, is to debase (devalue) your currency faster than anybody else can. It’s a shock because the dollar is the reserve currency. But to the extent that that is a necessary condition for rebalancing the global economy over time, then that is where we are headed.”

He also said later in this interview that he thought the US dollar could be devalued by as much as 20%.

Globalism is Dead
I have been speaking out against globalism for 30 years because it has killed our manufacturing (particularly in Ontario), and made a lot of multi-national corporations and their upper management unbelievably wealthy at the cost of millions of well paying jobs in Canada. In the US, it has wiped out the middle class almost completely. However, Mr. Gross, though accurate about globalism, demonstrated a total disregard for the value of our labour when he said, “we (America’s labour force) have forgotten the “magic formula”. He compares us with workers who are forced to work (through circumstances) for pennies an hour, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He has forgotten that we HAD built up enough wealth in the west so that we didn’t have to work day and night for a subsistence income before globalism. Now that wealth is in the hands of a few corporations. Instead of raising up those other countries to a more humane labour standard, they have devalued our labour to the lowest level possible and oppressed even the poorest of poor in order to make even greater, and greater profits. These are the people who are running the financial world who we so foolishly “invest our money with”. 95% of the world’s wealth is held by 5% of the people. There can be no recovery without the redistribution of wealth – it’s impossible. I wonder what he thinks his labour is worth???
Now that I have that out on the table, Gross did say a few other things that really matter to you and me. By devaluing the Greenback through the increase of the money supply (printing it), you do two things. You devalue the current debt of the US. (They have the equivalent debt of a person making $50k per year and owing $5M.); and more importantly, imports (from Canada) becoming more and more expensive in the US.The Canada/US exchange rate has gone from -20% to +2. Obama has assured the G20 that he would not start a currency war, but he really doesn’t have any other options. This effectively makes NAFTA pretty much worthless.

You and Me and 2011
That being said, what does that mean for you and me in 2011? The coming year will be an opportunity for Canadians to break free from US “dependency”. The US will begin to make more of their needs at home as it becomes more expensive to import products. Canada should look for ways to increase the labour component in our raw materials and there will be opportunities to develop and provide services to Canadians from the US as the value of their dollar decreases and ours increases.
The Waterloo Region will continue to invest heavily in technology as our major export. We are among the best managed and economically sound areas in Canada. We are well positioned to do better than most of the country because of our progressive, forward-thinking and creative people who will rise to the challenges of change. Innovation and creativity, on which this region was built, can turn the coming challenges into wealth building opportunities. 2011 will have its “bumps in the road” but in a world of change, I have great confidence in our creativity and innovative ability to lead and prosper.

Read the whole story here

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39957072

Get an education here….
See “Inside Job” the film

http://www.insidejob.com/

In contrast, in 2001 Gordon Campbell vowed he would not sell BC Rail and won a landslide victory only to break his promise to the people. Recently, two of his cabinet ministers’ aides were convicted of selling information and it is yet to be known why BC Rail paid the head of Campbell’s election campaign in 2001, a $300,000 “consulting fee” around the time of the sale.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney escaped jail because he broke no law but clearly broke the trust and expectations of the Canadian people as their Prime Minister. Before he left his post, he tried to sell Pearson Airport to a private firm,
with questionable value for Canadians.

Henry Paulson, the US Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs, testified to the Senate Finance Committee that he did not know where the $850 Billion bailout funds went even though it was his charge to distribute the money. Not much later, Time Magazine named him as runner-up for “Man of The Year”.

Argentina used to be the richest country in South America. In the 60′s, they had a space program and international car manufacturing but they were brought to abject poverty by political corruption. The wealth of the nation was plundered by multi-national corporations and leaders who served themselves rather than their people.

Closer to home, Ted Rogers bought the $800 Million dollar Skydome (a good portion of which was public money) for a mere $25M without open bidding, due process, or any outrage from the media or the public. For me, it will always be the Skydome!!

Some pundits insist that corruption in government is inevitable, but I emphatically disagree. If you had an employee that took $5 from the till every day, would you dismiss it as “inevitable”. Would you expect to get a “pass” on driving through a red light even if you didn’t hit anyone – No. Should a shoplifter be told by a judge that “since this is a small crime, and we only deal with serious crime, we are going to ignore this whole thing.”  All of these approaches are ridiculous and are actually very destructive to society. Crime is inevitable but always unacceptable. The law applies equally to everyone – politicians, bureaucrats, multi-national corporation CEOs, and to you and me.

Things have changed in Canada since the days of Needles and Hagey. Corruption is being fueled by our media that mocks integrity, scoffs at honesty, and makes money and power something to be obtained at all cost. We are being assaulted from within. Corruption is a very real threat to everything we know as Canadian. That threat must be met with leadership and determination, and possibly some hardships in order to overcome the challenges of corruption and turn us from the course we are on.

Corruption is lawlessness, and law is the foundation of freedom and society. Corruption is not a harmless or acceptable crime – society, you and I, and our children are the victims. It cannot be tolerated without consequence. If you care about our community and our country, corruption should be your call to action.

I challenge men and women of integrity serving locally, provincially and nationally to work to protect Canadians and Canada from unscrupulous leaders. We need new laws that protect the trust we have given our leaders. In every election the issue of corruption should be part of the discussion. When we are lied to in an election campaign, there must be remedies to protect the will of the people – or we can’t call this democracy. We need courageous, truly diversely-owned media which operates freely. We need more funding for white collar crime investigation, and we need to applaud and honour those who stand up against corruption and who fight for truth and justice.

Corruption in Canada has reached a tipping point. We ignore it to our own demise. It does matter who we elect. We need courageous leaders with aggressive strategies to protect and rebuild the public trust and to restore greatness and prosperity to Canada.

If anyone would have entered the elevator before the lights went out and were asked to pick the leader in the group, the janitor would have been the least likely candidate. However, in this crisis the janitor was optimally positioned to solve the problem. He had knowledge that the others didn’t have and he used it to problem solve. In any crisis, the person who understands the situation and who has a solution automatically becomes the leader. Effective leaders articulate and prioritize the problems within the context of all the issues and present strategies and practical road maps for arriving at the solution. They convey confidence that they can see where they are going and know how to get there. Their sincerity and passion make people trust and follow them. Leaders also see the talents and abilities in others and how best to use them to accomplish the goal. Leaders are visionaries, and visionaries are leaders.

In a few weeks, we will be electing a team of people who will serve and lead our community. We have much to be thankful for in Wilmot Township but we also have many challenges. Whom we choose for the positions of leadership will determine how the challenges we face are addressed. Key to our “success” as voters is choosing leaders who can identify the most important issues which will produce the most positive impact in our community. The leaders we select must also be able to articulate strategic plans for accomplishing their vision for the Township and have realistic plans for getting there. We so often get bogged down in other less productive dialogue when “interviewing” the candidates. Where will they take us, what they will accomplish, and how will they get us there…..these are the important questions!!

Who will be the best leaders for Wilmot? We will decide. But maybe you are not sure yet who to support. Consider attending one of the All Candidates’ meetings and ask questions about vision, direction, and strategic planning and gauge the confidence each candidate can convey in their leadership. We need visionary leaders for Wilmot Township – local government does matter to us.