Sorry for the hiatus. Things got complicated. In the meantime there have been more than enough things to make me cringe.

Lets take the assertion from the man on trial in Kingston, Ontario, that he was a great, loving and supportive father. Right up to the point he pushed the car, containing his three daughters and first wife into the Rideau Canal. In wiretap evidence he is heard proclaiming that if his daughters came back to life a thousand times he would kill them each and every time. I guess this guy is going to miss the casting call for the remake of “Father Knows Best”. Can anyone tell me why we are wasting money on this trial?

Governor Rick Perry is a nut? A desperate nut. Enough said.

The three Maritime Provinces all have regulated gas prices. All have similar procedures for determining pump prices. Yet none of the three are ever on the same page. Even with the slight discrepancies in provincial gas taxes between the three, they never come up with the same or similar prices. Last week, PEI and NB kept their prices stable. Nova Scotia bumped theirs by a couple of cents. At this point the price in NS was almost 10 cents per litre higher than the prices in NB and PEI. Hmmmmm. The only way people are ever going to have confidence in this system is if the regulators publish their calculations every week. Show us how you came up with the price. Then we can maybe trust that you are giving the people the best deal. If not, ditch the system and go back to market rules.

Europe continues to teeter and the powers that be can’t get over their own powerbase to work on a common solution. Britain has decided not to allow a change to the EU charter. Some look at this as an isolationist move. Maybe. But the other more precient view may be that Britain is the smart one – not wanting to jump aboard a sinking ship. Time will tell.

Finally, Canada has pulled out of the flawed Kyoto Protocol. An agreement that only covered the 30% of the world’s Co2 emmissions was a non-starter. No matter what the adherents of the protocol did, the green house gas problem would continue to get worse. The idiots that say that we as the developed countries have caused the pollution and therefore have to make the cuts is ridiculous. Ooooh, we all have to feel guilty for being successful. Give me a break. Canadians are meant to feel extra guilty because we are in the top ten producers of Co2 per capita. We only produce less than 2% of the world’s Co2, so why does the per capita stuff matter. We live in a cold climate, a vast country and a dispersed population. If we were Britain, with twice the population in a space the size of Labrador, with a temperate climate, maybe we could jump on a train instead of drive. Tell someone in Wawa to turn back the furnace on that -25 night. Don’t plug in the block heater in your truck so it will start in the morning, walk the 15 miles to work when it is still -25. Give me a break.

If you are a resident of Southwest Nova Scotia, you must be spitting nails. Three years ago the Provincial Government decided to ditch the Yarmouth the Bar Harbour, ME, ferry. The six million subsidy that provincial government was kicking in was not worth it. This decimated the economies of Yarmouth and surrounding areas with hundreds if not thousands of lost jobs. Since then the govies have given nine million to Irving to keep the Shelburne Shipyard going – job gains, maybe 150. They have just done a deal with Abitibi-Bowater to keep the pulp mill in Liverpool going. This was a $25 million dollar deal. Direct and indirect jobs maintained – around 1200. Ringo and his band still haven’t talked about how much money they are prepared to throw at the mill in Port Hawksbury to reopen it. It won’t be cheap. Yet, they could not maintain a ferry service. Sure it was the wrong ship, but don’t kill it. Keep it going until you put in place a more suitable ship. This is an important link. The shortest and possibly cheapest route to the US market. Seems like something that a Nova Scotia government would want to keep in place no matter what the cost. The economic benefits would spread across the province. But, noooooo. They want to give Daewoo $20 million to build windmill parts. How’s that goin’ for you anyway?

Just when you want to tune out, you can look at the bright side. People pray for miracles. Big ones. You know something? That’s not how it works. You don’t get the big miracle. You get a bunch of little ones. It is not earth shattering changes, it is the person who comes out of nowhere to offer help. It is the uncommon occurance. Recognize the little stuff and be amazed and thankful.

Until then, I remain,

A Sour Kraut.