Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A whole flood of trouble

Buying out some of these flooded homes may make sense instead of repeatedly paying to fix them up, but let’s not make the same mistake Filmon did and try to sell them off without any disclosure.

Whatever happened to this review anyways?

Monday, April 6, 2009

Cabinet Shuffle

Now that the new MLAs have been sworn in, a Cabinet shuffle is in order.

Please note that these are complete guesses (in my defence, the Premier himself likely doesn’t know what he will do so how am I supposed to read his mind).

First, I don’t think the shuffle will occur during this present session. The Premier will wait until the summer to give Blaikie a bit of time to get adjusted to his new life before making any changes. It’s not unusual for the Premier to let a Cabinet posting stay vacant for a relatively long length of time. Andrew Swan became permanent Minister of Competitiveness, Training and Trade in February 2008, over 8 months after Scott Smith vacated the post due to his loss in the May 22, 2007 election.

Second, it won’t be a major change so don't expect Oswald or Selinger to get moved. Doer has stayed away from major shuffles and he isn't going to start now especially with the current economic situation. And if it aint broke, don't shuffle it.

Now for the guess work...

1. Current Culture Minister Eric Robinson will get his old gig back at Aboriginal and Northern Affairs. This is one is pretty straightforward. Mr. Whitehead is from all accounts quite capable but wouldn't be ready just yet for a Cabinet post.
2. Either Diane McGifford or Peter Bjornson will get moved to Culture, while Blaikie will get the position vacated.

Why? I don’t know, it’s just a hunch.

McGifford is due for a move and has had the Culture post before so it wouldn't be a big adjustement for her. She would just need to do some of her dirty work first.

But Advanced Education might be too junior a position for Blaikie which is why Education might also be a good fit.

Friday, April 3, 2009

How ironic

What?? Ticketmaster is bringing in technology to discourage scalping while at the same time lobbying to get rid of scalping legislation and may be involved in a scalping scheme of their own.

For some reason a certain Alanis Morissette song comes to mind.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

When nature calls

Story from the Canadian Press.

LONDON - The family photo must go on.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was an unexpected no-show this morning at the initial group picture of G20 leaders. So the whole routine - which actually included leaders from more than 20 countries - had to be restaged about an hour later.

Harper was slated to stand on the far right flank of the traditional summit picture, next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But as the leaders of the major industrialized and developing countries first convened, the Canadian prime minister failed to appear.

The British Broadcasting Corporation claimed Canada's prime minister was "in the loo," but a Harper spokesman insisted he was getting briefed by his officials on the draft G20 communique.

Regardless, officials made sure Harper was on hand for the reshoot.