My friends at the Sun, and others, have a story up this morning about Ontario public servants getting bonuses. Here’s what the stories don’t say:

• Um, they’re not bonuses. In 1996, Mike Harris changed the way management in the public service was paid, and took a portion of their salary and tied it to performance.  And in the election Tim Hudak pledged to expand it.
• The managers have a portion of their salary that is related to their performance. It’s not automatic. They have to earn it. One would think that’d be something conservatives would approve of, but I guess not.
• In 2009, McGuinty slashed the pool of possible recipients by 30 per cent, and froze salaries. So he’s gone beyond an actual freeze and cut the amount paid out by a third.  That sort of thing didn’t happen in the Harris/Eves/Hudak years, as I recall.  All they did was close hospitals, close hospital beds, and fire nurses.
• Nobody can rewrite the employment contract terms of 8000 people retroactively. If you know how to do so, without kick-starting multi-million-dollar lawsuits, fill me in.
• Again, so no one misses the point, including Tea Party North: Hudak said he’d expand bonuses for health care managers – despite the fact that he’s now supporting Flaherty’s plan to allow for privatization of health care, and closure of hospitals, etc.

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…and they will.  Headline on Akin’s story this morning:

“Tory MP wants to ignite Parliamentary debate on abortion”

UPDATE: Stinson at Post is among the first to go after it, here.

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Mine, anyway.  Take a bunch of art student musicians from different countries, toss in some Pavement and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and hey presto! A tune catchier than a drawer full of fish hooks.

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That’s what Leader-for-life Bob Rae called me, recently. I had thought (nay, hoped) he was referring to me, personally, but it may be that the Supreme Leader was also referring to all bloggers.

That can be the only logical explanation for this, which is stupider than dinosaurs, and just about as modern.

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In response to today’s Sun column on Jason Kenney, I just got a super-nice email from one Blaine L. Mcdonald, wherein the Deloittes man – who, ironically enough, works at one of the mega-firm’s Arlington offices – rails on and on about “immigrants” and “failed immigration policy.” And that sort of thing. Using firm email.

Anyone able to help me find out more about this charming man?

UPDATE: Mr. Mcdonald has surfaced.  He’s sent me an ass-covering email in which he says he’s abroad on Deloitte’s business, and used a firm laptop by “mistake.”  Methinks, instead, that some managers at Deloitte’s got a Google alert about Mcdonald’s “mistake” and told him to fix it, pronto.

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Quote:

The complaint filed by Joe Nowak, president of the Kitchener-Conestoga federal Liberal association, was obtained by The Record and includes the phone number Siopiolosz traced.

When called, the number goes to a voice mail for the “Conservative Party.” The message asks callers to leave their name, number and a detailed message and says the party will get back to them within three business days.

Fred DeLorey, director of communications and deputy director of political operations for the Conservative Party of Canada, confirmed in an email “that the number was ours.”

Kitchener-Conestoga Conservative MP Harold Albrecht, reached on Monday, was so surprised by the situation that he called the number himself. He said he found the ownership of the number troubling and the message unprofessional.

Good on Albrecht.  His party, meanwhile, are led by the biggest bunch of scumbags to hold power in Ottawa since, well, ever.

They’re going to keep doing this sort of shit, too, until someone is found culpable.  That’s where my focus would be – jailing a few of these Segretti wannabes.  Comb the Code to find any and all sections that would apply.  And then keep going at them, relentlessly.

General Provisions

Obstruction, etc., of electoral process

480. (1) Every person is guilty of an offence who, with the intention of delaying or obstructing the electoral process, contravenes this Act, otherwise than by committing an offence under subsection (2) or section 481 or 482 or contravening a provision referred to in any of sections 483 to 499.

Intimidation, etc.

482. Every person is guilty of an offence who

• (a) by intimidation or duress, compels a person to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate at an election; or
• (b) by any pretence or contrivance, including by representing that the ballot or the manner of voting at an election is not secret, induces a person to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate at an election.

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…a good column from an unexpected source. Perhaps I judged this guy wrongly?

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There are many things, and many people, which Jason Kenney doesn’t like.

Therefore, we know that’s something he likes: Kenney likes to blow taxpayer dough on himself.

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In my place, I have pretty much every single Nerf gun ever made. The boys’ mother, wiser than me, won’t let them in her place. I do, however.  They’re everywhere.  Nerf darts and cartridges, too.

Nerf guns are not “ultra realistic,” or whatever the author says in this fun story. They’re Nerf guns. They’re orange and they’re toys. AK-47s they are not.

My youngest boy enjoys sneaking up on me, Ninja-like, and shooting me in the back over impressive distances and at impossible angles – and then watching me jump three metres in the air. It’s fun. Well, for him, it is.

What do you Dads (and Moms) out there think? Should there be a long barrel Nerf registry? Should there be constitutional protection to raise a Nerf militia?

Me, I don’t mind Nerf guns.

Getting shot in the back by a Nerf ninja, not so much.

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