SNC Lavalin Loves Trudeau!

...and why wouldn't they?

It appears that SNC-Lavalin and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's love affair continues.
Even after the probe by the Ethics Commissioner, as reported by the National Post.

Here's the NP's opening sentence:  SNC-Lavalin, the company that landed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in trouble with the ethics commissioner, has been awarded more than 100 government contracts since the controversy.

And the second sentence gets even more to the point:  According to a database from Open Government, SNC-Lavalin received 142 government contracts with a combined worth of about $25 million between January 2019 and June 2020. 

The entire story is here.

Prime Minister continues his love affair with all things Quebec.
Oh...and the Ethics Commissioner is from Quebec too...

 


Second wave indeed!
He's not the virus, but Trudeau is a Canadian contagion.

Tim Hortons ... Nice Touch!

How nice of Tim Hortons to leave some goodies in this box behind St. James School.

I've often seen one or two homeless individuals sitting adjacent to the structure.

Bet they appreciated the hot coffee and snack first thing in the mornings...

Nice touch, Tim Hortons!  Well done.

Two Letters from Alberta

...arrived in my email this morning.
Anonymous letters.

These letters are reportedly "circulating throughout Alberta", the email states.

"Prime Minister Trudeau; I’m looking back at a few of your frivolous spending follies and wondering do you ever do that?

Do you ever think that if I had not spent money so foolishly that maybe we wouldn’t be in such a financial mess now?  Or do you still not realize the magnitude of the mess you have created?

Possibly you are happy to be the man leading Canada to a debt over $1,000,000,000,000 (that’s a lot of zeros!). Maybe you think it was worth the cost to be the big man extending largess for a short while?  Or maybe you just didn’t know what the heck you were doing?

As a reminder of some of the poor spending choices you made not that long ago:

$2000 per family for 75,000 families for camping and canoe trips.

$50,000,000 (U.S.???) for an American charity.

$20,000,000 (U.S.???) to fight forest fires in the Amazon, (I seem to remember that you promised a larger donation than the rest of the G7 combined).

When I was in school in the 60’s I learned that farmers lit those fires, wanting to clear more farm land.  Rain forests don’t burn without help.  A little more due diligence would be appreciated.

Okay, I know those are just a few of the minor things.

I really haven’t paid enough attention.  There are lots of other things that cost our country a lot more money, kinda like what you wanted to do with WE.

One of the things I struggle with is the amount of interest Canadians will have to pay for those follies. 

What interest rate does the federal government pay?  Do we ever really pay off those loans?  What happens if interest rates go up?  I’m sure that we have better places to spend that money.

Another thing that causes me pain is that you apparently had no clue that there would ever be another time when the economy would struggle and we would come out of it a lot better without a huge debt load. Or maybe you just didn’t care?

Yet another thing; you know its Canada’s money right? from taxpayers.  It is not yours, but maybe if it was yours you would not spend it so foolishly.

So now you have said good bye to Mr. Morneau and are welcoming Ms. Freeland to the Finance Ministers post.  I hope that you both recognize that now is the time to start facing the consequences of your actions, act responsibly, reduce or better yet end all of the frivolous spending and make a strong plan to fix the economy. 

If you did not know, the economy is in very poor shape right now. 

Prime Minister Trudeau I have not been impressed!  Is there any chance you can change that?"   anonymous


...and the second:

"Prime Minister Trudeau; I just don’t see what all the fuss is about.

It’s not even a billion dollars, just walking around money really (and we’re such a rich country), and it is for a charity and those great kids after all.

It’s always nice to include your family, so it’s good you were thinking of them, and your friend Bill Morneau, and his family.  If it wasn’t for those other 2 silly ethical transgression things, (if you work hard I’m sure you can recollect that Aga Kahn vacation and those nice folks from SNC.

Oh yeah and that black faced thing, or was it those black faced things?) I’m sure no one would have noticed at all. And those nasty things that nasty woman said, well who could believe her anyway?

We can’t even count your Mr. Dressup photo Op in India, cause that was just silly and not unethical at all.

Oh yeah, and that thing Bill did, you know with his investments and that blind trust and his company and all that confusing stuff, right after he became finance minister. I mean who even remembers these things? But both you and Bill are such a nice guys, with lovely smiles, so that’s what really matters.

You are a piece of work Mr. Prime Minister."  anonymous

 Many British Columbians would--and do--agree with the sentiments expressed in those letters.

The Button Box

Our six-year old grandson is enjoying his summer...even with it being five months long!

So, with both of his parents working full-time--considered essential employees during COVID--we've all had to make some adjustments in our schedules.  Our daughter says she's grateful we live in the same town and can look after the lad.

So here we are:  Oma and Opa (to him), wondering how we can keep his brain actively learning.  He was in kindergarten when the pandemic arrived, and he has "graduated" to enter Grade 1 next month (hoping schools start...and stay operational!)

Having no homeschooling experience, I simply had no idea where and how to start at Grade 1 Math.
Yes, there are some interesting websites ... but I wanted a simple (for me) and easy to understand (for him) method.

One day in spring when I was cleaning a room in which some of my late Mother's (his Great Oma) belongings were stored, I opened a very special box that had, many many years ago, held the 8-ball pooltable set of balls that came with my late Father's purchase for our family room when I was a teenager.  The entire family loved playing pool...and I recalled that my Dad, who had been a high-school Math teacher in Europe before emigrating to Canada, had always said pool was all about Math...angles to be precise.  And once that "light went on", I realized that Math would and should form an integral part of a person's life.  That was when I was a teenager, still living at home.

Fast forward (ahem...fifty years!) and the very special box held a Math secret:  it was chock full of colourful buttons.  Hundreds of them, all sizes.   My late Mother was an excellent seamstress and kept every button before discarding old shirts, etc.

That box with its shiny, myriad coloured buttons gave me an idea.
It would help me explain many aspects of Math to our 6 year old grandson.

And it did.
It was fun.
On the dining room table, he and I over the last few months spent hours and hours piling and sorting buttons, first by colour, then by size, and so on...over the months, fewer and fewer ended up on the floor.  We added buttons, we subtracted buttons, we learned the basis of knowledge with those buttons.

I do have photos of our grandson's Math successes...
(in no particular order).

Bless my Mom (Great Oma), for her Button Box.
She passed away two years ago at 94, and two days ago would have been her 96th Birthday.

She--and her Button Box--live on in us all.
Thanks Mom!

And thanks, Dad--who passed away in 2005-- for buying that pool table for our Family Room when I was a teenager.

We'll work on "angles" next!

Harrington Lake "Cottage" Reno

Prime Minister Trudeau is apparently away on vacation.
But we doubt he's swinging a hammer or hauling countertops at his summer cottage...

The Prime Minister's "cottage" at Harrington Lake

There's been no word whether the planned renovations are complete, but it appears that the projected cost of $8.6 million has ballooned to more than $10 million, according to the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation whose article is here.

A recent email from CTF stated:

That’s why the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is pushing the federal government to sell Harrington Lake.

And here’s the good news: Conservative leadership contender Peter MacKay has joined the fight to sell Harrington Lake.

We interviewed MacKay on the Canadian Taxpayers Podcast and asked him about selling Harrington Lake. You can listen to the interview by clicking this LINK and here’s the direct quote:

“What does a prime minister need a cottage 20 minutes from his home for anyway?” said MacKay. “I see no hesitation in selling that property. I think there’s a lot of government properties, quite frankly, that we could sell, including the CBC building in downtown Toronto.”

Now we need to get other politicians moving in the right direction and they listen best when they’re campaigning, so we need your help. Please take a minute to email the other Conservative candidates and urge them to get on board and to sell Harrington Lake. Here are their email addresses:

• Erin O’Toole: info@erinotoole.ca
• Leslyn Lewis: vote@leslynlewis.ca
• Derrick Sloan: info@dereksloan.ca

If you want to send MacKay a note and tell him to stick with his plan to sell off Harrington Lake, here’s his email address: info@petermackay.ca

This is about more than wasting money on a big luxury cottage estate for the prime minister. This is about sending the message that taxpayers aren’t going to put up with the government wasting our money. So let’s send a strong message on this one.

Thank you for all that you do – it’s making a difference.

Sincerely,

- Aaron, Kris, Todd and the whole CTF Team.



Sell it?
Probably not a bad idea, considering it's 20 minutes from his official residence.

But then PM Trudeau would have to spend more occasions at various islands (owned by his wealthy international cronies)...because "my cottage retreat is gone".

If only HE were...

 

B.C. Schools going back on September 10, 2020

...instead of September 8th...it appears the teachers and administrators need two more days to figure out spacing and class sizes, etc. 
It seems that 5 months off wasn't enough.

Maybe we should tell them that Alberta schools are returning BEFORE the Labour Day weekend!

Anyway, here's the latest yadda yadda from the Teachers' Ministry...oops, the Education Ministry:





















Wonder how many employees they've hired to fill the "Government Communications and Public Engagement" department.

Sigh.

A friend commented on the two-day delay thusly:  "I noticed the hospitals and all their staff didn't ask all the sick people to wait a few more days until they could make their plans.  They just dove in.  And those people were actually sick.  The kids aren't."

Exactly!

Get back to work!

Parents who work in essential industries are struggling with stress.
Caregivers/grandparents/daycare have had 5 months of stress.
...so what's another two days???  Really!
 
There had better not be a Professional Development Day anytime soon either!!!!

And let's ensure the Education Minister is actually THAT...not the Teachers' Minister.

And what is being done about unsafe roads???