Medicinal marijuana users reject federal product

Almost a third of legal pot users who obtained marijuana through Health Canada have returned it. They claim the quality is far below that of black-market pot.

Let’s face it, the only reason we have medicinal pot is because of the campaigners for legal marijuana. This is not a good way to deliver the drug, inhaling any kind of smoke or particles is bad for the lungs and marijuana use does cause lung cancer, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. The main ingredient of marijuana, THC, is available in pill form under the drug name “Marinol”. Some have said it is not as potent, but rather than research a way to refine that drug, we are going to stick with the reefer.

Call me paranoid, but I think medicinal marijuana is being used as a stepping-stone towards fully legalised marijuana. This is why smoking it is insisted upon, because it promotes the image of smoking pot. There are huge human and financial costs associated with tobacco and alcohol (tobacco cost the Canadian economy $2.5bn in 1991, according to Health Canada), and given the huge resources allocated to limiting the damage that these addictions wreak I’m sure we’d rather we had nipped these problems in the bud, that humans had never discovered fermentation and distillation, nor that burning certain herbs gave you a buzz. Here we have a similar opportunity, but instead of heeding it many people are desperate to introduce yet another addictive and harmful substance into the medley already legally available.

Government pot rejected by legal users

Nearly a third of the patients who got marijuana through Health Canada’s medical access program have returned the product, says an activist who sees that as proof that federal pot isn’t worth smoking.

“High school students in a cupboard could grow a product that is better and safer than what we’re getting,” said Philippe Lucas, who obtained the figures through the federal access to information law.

Scandal: Lies, lies and More Lies

In another long day of lies in front of the House of Commons public accounts committee, Gilles-Andre Gosselin testified that he worked day and night to justify the lucrative consulting contracts with the federal government.

Ad man says he worked 10 hours a day, 365 days a year for Ottawa

OTTAWA - The head of one of the companies at the heart of the sponsorship scandal insisted yesterday he spent 10 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year working on federal government business.

Gilles-Andre Gosselin told MPs that is how he was able to personally bill the government for 3,673 hours of work in one year plus run his company and serve his other clients. He billed the Canadian government $625,325 in 1997 — just for his own services.

LCBO employees demand to maintain stranglehold on market

The LCBO, Ontario’s chain of state-owned liquor stores that monopolize alcohol sales in the province, is running TV adverts at the moment protesting proposed government privatization of liquor retail. At least, the employees of LCBO are: the small print at the end of the advert tells us that it “was brought to us by the employees of LCBO.”

It comes as no surprise that it would. It would be tragic for LCBO employees to lose their cushy, government-protected jobs with their overblown salaries and full benefits and to be thrust into the hurly-burly of the labour market, where the vast majority of Canadians have to compete, and the ‘evil’ principles of advancement according to merit, expectation of tangible results and punishment of poor performance.
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Sour Grapes Clark Prefers Martin over Harper

It’s a pity that a former Prime Minister of Canada has been relegated to the far back corner of the House of Commons to sit as a independent while his former party continues to move forward. It is also a pity that the former red Tory cannot seem to understand when to bow out with dignity. His past comments about Harper and the merger and now his statements that he would rather see Martin elected over Harper go a long ways to show his bitterness towards the new party.

Clark slams Harper, urges support for Martin

Former Progressive Conservative leader and onetime Prime Minister Joe Clark says he’d prefer to see Paul Martin, and not current Conservative leader Stephen Harper, win power in the next federal election.

“I have seen nothing in the Stephen Harper-led party that suggests on human-right issues, envrionment issues, bilingualism…anything like the governments that either Mr.Mulroney or I led,” Clark said.

Interestingly enough, in the video of the interview, Clark repeatedly claims that the new party is not the broad progressive party that he and Mulroney lead in the past. Which is fairly humorous seeing that it was under Clark’s watch that the Progressive Party was nearly rejected in a slim and short lived minority government in 1979 and it was Mulroney’s government, and its particular style of governing, that lead to the wholesale rejection of the Progressive Conservative party in almost every region in the country - particularly their strong holds in the West and Quebec.

Taxing your way to stability

In a very un-conservative manner, the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative government has decided that it will balance its budget on the backs of the corporations and the upper middle class.

Nova Scotia raises corporate taxes

The Nova Scotia government has chosen to largely tax its way to a balanced budget with a sweeping series of revenue measures that will add $271.4 million to the provincial treasury in the coming year.

In addition to partly rescinding its much-hyped 10 per cent personal income tax cut, the Conservative government used Thursday’s budget to hit the business sector with $17 million in additional taxes, increasing both the large corporation tax and the capital tax on financial institutions.

“This puts us at a competitive disadvantage,” said Valerie Payn, president of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. “If a business is looking at locating here, or an existing business is looking at expanding, this a clear reason not to.

Seems like no one has bothered to inform this government that by taxing the corporations that provide valuable jobs and opportunity to average Nova Scotians, they are effectively handicapping the very industry that will eventually assist in the recovery of the province’s fortunes. When provided with the option of locating to Nova Scotia or Alberta, where do you think a large business or corporation will want to do business? Quick fact: Alberta’s corporate tax for 2005 will be 11.5% (the lowest in Canada) and will Nova Scotia’s will be 16% - you do the math.

The articles goes on to say,

Anyone earning less than $29,590 a year will not be affected by the clawback.

Those taking home between $29,590 and $59,180 will lose a portion of the tax break, while anyone with income above that threshold will lose the benefit entirely.

The Conservatives have also introduced a new high tax category at the upper end of the scale for people earning over $93,000 a year - a move that affects 18,100 people.

In this case, the government seems to value wage earners that make considerable less than what is considered average in other parts of the country. What kind of fiscal environment is this creating for skilled/educated immigrants who are considering coming to Nova Scotia? Why would anyone willingly choose to place themselves in a province with such a high tax burden? Quick Fact: Alberta has an extemely easy to understand single-rate system or flat-tax provincial income tax of 10%. Nova Scotia has a complex/confusing tax structure that taxes at three levels of income: 9.77% (0 - $29,590), 14.95% ($29,590 - $59,180), 16.67% ($59,180 and above).

Polling is NOT an exact science

While not a huge problem now, the growing number of people who have ditched their landline and are now only using their cellphone as their primary telephone won’t be included in opinion polls. Polling companies also have a hard time polling those who live in group homes, such as the elderly and the sick.

Pollsters can’t connect with cell phone society

As marketing surveys and polls for the 2004 election ring phones across the nation, one of the hottest topics among pollsters is their inability to reach cellular phone customers who are dropping home phone lines in favor of going entirely wireless.

“If enough people have no chance of being included, survey results will be invalid,” said the National Council on Public Polls, an association of polling organizations based at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Polling experts say the problem is minimal for now, but they differ on how serious it might become. Already hard to reach because they spend little time at home or are living in group quarters such as college dorms, members of the 18-to-24 set, and to a lesser extent the group up to age 30, are rapidly isolating themselves from wired communications.

Dying Princess is somehow more important

Can someone please explain to me why showing photos of a dying Princess is any more deplorable than showing photos of dead soldiers coming back from the War on Terror and the War on Iraq? Or how about the moving images of dead Palestinians and Israelis or the long parade of other suffering individuals worldwide? They sure seem to be fair play in a game of sensationalism spread by the various media agencies - why not “two black-and-white pictures” of the Princess’s last few moments of life.

Outrage as CBS airs photos of dying Diana

London — British media and associates of Princess Diana expressed anger Thursday after CBS broadcast photos of the dying princess taken moments after a car accident.

The Guardian newspaper said the U.S. network had decided to “plumb new depths of prurience in the Princess Diana industry.???

The network insisted the pictures, which showed an unconscious Diana being treated by a doctor as she lay slumped in the back of a car in the Alma road tunnel, were neither graphic nor exploitative.

Martin accused of racial discrimination

In Burnaby-Douglas, the riding formerly held by NDP MP Svend Robinson who recently stood down, the Liberal riding association has joined in the latest round of mud-slinging directed at Paul Martin, accusing the Prime Minister of racial bias. Association President Ying Yang accused Martin of breaking his promise for grassroots democracy by ignoring two Asian candidates in favour of his own, virtually-nominated candidate. Almost 50% of the riding’s electorate are ethnic minorities and a third of all B.C. candidates are from minorities. Yang stated that Martin has denied ethnic minorities in the riding the right to pick their own candidate.

B.C. Liberals accuse Paul Martin of discrimination in appointing candidate

Prime Minister Paul Martin was accused Wednesday of practising race-based politics and of breaking his promise for more grassroots democracy by all but appointing a non-minority candidate in a riding where two Asians were also running.

Martin could face a potential voter backlash in a riding where almost 50 per cent of the electorate are members of a visible minority if he proceeds with plans to back his hand-picked candidate, said Ying Yang, president of the Burnaby-Douglas Liberal riding association.

New TV Ads for the Conservatives and Liberals

The Conservative Party of Canada has released three (two English, one French) campaign ads which featuring Stephen Harper in an office speaking directly to Canadians. The ads are well written and Harper comes off as sincere and prime ministerial. What is interesting about this ad is the way in which it ends - after stating that Canadians deserve better Stephen states, “and my name is Stephen Harper.” I assume this is the Conservatives Party’s way of introducing Stephen to Canadians.

The Liberals have also started their own ad campaign featuring Prime Minister Paul Martin speaking, in what appears to be, a local focus/discussion group. The jerky camera along with the particular camera angles gives the impression that this is an impromptu meeting by Martin and a handful of voters. This particular style of ad fits in well with Martin’s campaign strategy to focus on himself and to give the impression that he’s speaking to Canadians.

The difference in style between the two ads is interesting and is glimpse as to how this federal campaign will be waged.

New spending scandal implicates Martin

The release of internal government memos between Public Works official Chuck Guite and former assistant to the Public Works minister Warren Kinsella has cast Paul Martin’s knowledge of Liberal spending scandals in a new light.

The memos condemn Paul Martin as then-Minister of Finance for awarding seven communications contracts worth $525,900 to a pair of firms that included associates of Martin and were later major supporters of his leadership bid, without following the appropriate guidelines. Kinsella’s memo of July 24, 1995 is quoted as saying, “this is simply unacceptable… I require an immediate explanation as to how the [Finance] department… was permitted to breach the guidelines in this way, and what is being done to remedy the situation.”

Guite replied that the Finance department had not been the only one breaking the rules and promised immediate action. He will testify tomorrow before the Commons committee as former boss of the 1996 sponsorship programme.

1995 government memo prompts questions of what Martin knew about sponsorships

Prime Minister Paul Martin was pummelled Tuesday by accusations he knew about - and participated in - suspect contracting practices in the federal government as early as 1994.

The release of internal government memos dashed any hope Martin had finally escaped the sponsorship scandal, with opponents leaping on two 1995 memos to drag the prime minister deeper into the fiasco.

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