bornagainbiking's Political Rant Thread

[bornagainbiking]

Day of protest AKA illegal strike is not going to endear the general public to their plight.
There are many ways to look at this but it boils down to a high degree of ENTITLEMENT........
Wage freezes are commonplace in our current fiscal environment. Especially if you work directly for the public and there is a HUGE hole in the provincial budget.
The hidden or point that is never fully unveiled is the banking of sick days. It works out over a full career to many days or thousands of dollars. This whole concept is almost non existent. Most workplaces have gotten rid of this perk.
The teachers feel this extension of their holidays or an added bonus upon early retirement. This perk has gone the way of the dodo bird or like a topic in class HISTORY.
This is a lucrative bonus but not in a cash strapped economy (MATH).
Sick days are for when you are sick. We are talking maybe 20 days a year. Not bad for Sept to June. 9-10 months if you incorporate or factor in March break, Christmas and PA days and stat holidays. Over 2 sick days a month.
Teachers deal with kids and a higher level of germs but no more than a clerk at the Mall that deals with the general public. Or nurses and I don't think they can bank sick time or lost that benefit years ago.
Don't forget if a person was to take advantage of this 2 days a month that is the added cost of supply teachers and disruption in continuity of course content delivery.
Sorry but a sad fact of life ALL and every expense has to be examined to define and refine waste or inequitable treatment. (Social studies).
To disrupt the daily stressed routine of working parents is not a good move. It is NOT about democratic right it is ALL about money or an attempt to trim or take back a sense of entitlement.

[vid]

Teachers should lie down and take it so that I don't have to. It's only fair.

[bornagainbiking]

So today as of 4 a.m. The Day of Protest was declared an illegal strike.
I believe if you feel that strongly about your plight, you could maybe try doing it on your time like a Saturday, Sunday, maybe Family Day and not involve the general public or cost people money for daycare or thee time off work and lose a vacation day.
I don't recall any support when the postal workers were out or say US steel.
I wish them the best of luck.
Hopefully some compromised solution. But forget about the banked sick days, take the possible cash-out.

[vid]

If they do it on their own time, the point isn't made as strongly. The idea is to show the employer what things would be like if those worker's weren't available to them.

Regardless, Lakehead Schools cancelled classes for today earlier in the week.

[Dr Nevergold]

I hope Gerard Kennedy is the next OLP leader. The way McGuinty has handled the teachers unions after such a decade of progress is so sad to see. I've never seen a politician take a decade of hard work of rebuilding just to destroy it within months.

[bornagainbiking]

So after a day of protest or Quasi illegal job action then a day that was a day of protest that cancelled at 0430 hrs. So only about 10-15% of the kids showed as arrangements were made for day care or people burned a vacation day or sick day which would affect the bottom line of some businesses.
Today they needed another professional development day.

[vid]

God forbid we give our teachers time to organize shit. It isn't like they're doing anything important!

[Innsertnamehere]

Pd days are scheduled well before school ever starts, and are needed to ensure they are caught up on current teaching techniques. Teachers spend the day in workshops learning new teaching techniques and in meetings discussing what direction that particular school should take in the future. These workshops cannot be scheduled 4 hours before the work day starts, and especially can't happen when there is 15% of the student base at school.

[vid]

They're usually around the same time every year as well, like holidays. A lot of places here (like libraries and community centres) plan programming on PA days.

[bornagainbiking]

Well the new Premier is in place and the NDP are presenting areas of immediate attention.
I feel the drop in auto insurance rates is important. Gas prices and the wild fluctuation on a daily basis.
Gas was under 90 cents last week in Alberta and we are at around $1.30 here today. That's 40 cents a liter or $1.76 a imp gal.
Youth employment was also mentioned improvments to senior's care.
I know that promises are made and regularly broken but have to concentrate on the issues this time and who has a plan to do something.
The time to ask the hard questions is now and prod the candidates over local problems.
I just wonder when a Captain jumps ship and what happens to the remaining crew. Think Ernie Eves after Mike Harris, Kim Campbell after Brian Mulroney, the PC in the next election got one seat in NB.
So what do you predict and what are is your points of concern.

[vid]

We should definitely have more government involvement in the price of gas produced by private companies, and probably socialize the insurance industry. Also, make-work projects for youth to build up the Motherland.

The federal PCs collapsed because a lot of their members left to form the Reform Party and the BQ. We're getting to a point where Harris was with the "treating unions like shit and as a result they're shutting down society" thing, though, so maybe the PCs will be re-elected. Depends on how much of a dumbass Tim Hudak is this time around.

[Dado]

Is this thread a joke?

[vid]

"She only chose to be gay so that she could win votes from Toronto" is a not uncommon sentiment among seniors in the north.

[Jacob]

How does one choose to be a homosexual?

[vid]

No one does, but right wing bigots don't understand that.

I was being sarcastic of course.

[bornagainbiking]

So MetroLinx and others are looking at new taxes and tolls(fees) to address gridlock in the GTA.
One only thing I see is talk talk talk!!!!
We are no closer to any real progress.
I suggest, take a couple hundred of the consultants, lawyers and cling-ons down to Mark's Work Wearhouse, buy them some work cloths and a pair of construction boots, slap a helmet on them, march them out to site and plant them on the business end of a shovel.
No wonder it takes 10 years to see any movement, lawyers and consultants get paid by the hour and not the project. So what if it goes over budget, just indent for more money.
People need some relief in the foreseeable future or at least this generation.
The solution for any problem is never just throw more money at it.
Funny they want to raise taxes on gas, where are the existing taxes going.

[Jacob]

I hear you, it seems like most projects in Ontario take forever. It seems like the workers take as many breaks as they can and work as slowly as possible to maximize the amount of money they are making. They need to create penalties when projects run behind schedule to prevent these sorts of things.
The only exception to this would have to be the Herb-Gray Parkway in Windsor, which is moving relatively quick.

[eternallyme]

Any such taxes would be highly unpopular outside of the GTA though...they should be done on a regional scale (i.e. Golden Horseshoe) but not in the other regions, certainly not in northern Ontario.

[vid]

People in Northern Ontario are complaining that "a toll will be levied on the new Nipigon River Bridge", when the bill says only 400-series highways will be tolled (if any are tolled at all), and Highway 11/17 barely sees as much traffic as a side street. A toll on the road wouldn't net more than $200,000 a year; which is probably what it would cost simply to administer a toll on the bridge.

The PCs have latched onto this, saying it's a "Toronto solution that doesn't work in the north".

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by vid

People in Northern Ontario are complaining that "a toll will be levied on the new Nipigon River Bridge", when the bill says only 400-series highways will be tolled (if any are tolled at all), and Highway 11/17 barely sees as much traffic as a side street. A toll on the road wouldn't net more than $200,000 a year; which is probably what it would cost simply to administer a toll on the bridge.

The PCs have latched onto this, saying it's a "Toronto solution that doesn't work in the north".

They are all correct in that case. A toll on that bridge would be completely unacceptable, and I can understand the fear factor. Why should they be paying higher taxes (even if not tolls) for things that are no benefit to them - even the larger Northern cities would get a tiny amount compared to the GTA and region.

Make no mistake, there is a case for higher taxes and tolls to fund Golden Horseshoe transportation infrastructure (although there are also drawbacks - it might send business to outside locations, for example trucking firms that do business out west might find it more useful to be based in Sudbury than Toronto), but it should not come on the backs of those outside the region.

I think that tolls should only be used to fund roads and bridges though - other taxes, such as a sales tax or a business tax - should be used for transit purposes. Neither tax should be province-wide though, it should only be in the Golden Horseshoe area.