Segacs’s World I Know

Ducks take it at home in 5.

I’m disappointed for the Sens – this marks the third straight year that a Canadian team has made it to the finals and lost. And it means that *still* the Cup hasn’t come back home above the border since 1993, when my Habs took it. Sad, ain’t it?

Anyway I have to grudgingly admit that the Ducks earned it. They were the stronger team in this series and the win was well deserved.

Well, it’s all over until next season – no more hockey for the summer. Which of course means that the front page of the sports section every single day between now and September will be devoted to… hockey of course.

Since the most fun way to procrastinate is to start an argument…

1. He was elected democratically… twice… the people had a choice, which is more than we can say about people in most of the world.
2. Every time he says “nucular”, you just gotta figure he has no intention of actually *using* weapons he can’t pronounce (or at least we hope so).
3. He believes in tax cuts for the wealthy… which is good, especially if you’re wealthy, or if you’re trying to become wealthy. It also helps to create a positive influx of rich people into the country, who are fleeing less-friendly tax environments (like Quebec). Mind you, it’s still not as good as Monaco, but then, what is?
4. Think of all those stem cells he saved from evil research! They’d say thank you, if they could.
5. His unwavering support for Israel. Even if it’s because he believes that Jesus will return and convert all the Jews to Christinanity. But hey, nobody said it had to be rational.
6. He got rid of Saddam Hussein. Sure, Iraq is a total mess right now. But it’s no joke that Saddam’s regime was a tyrannical nightmare.
7. Thanks to the freefall of the US dollar, cross-border shopping is as cheap as it’s been in a quarter-century for us Canadians!
8. Gays and lesbians won’t be burdened with the trials and tribulations of marriage anytime soon.
9. He makes politics accessible to anyone and everyone, by not using words with more than two syllables… like “accessible”.
10. He’s a source of inspiration to all of us vertically-challenged people on what is possible to achieve despite height limitations.
11. He’s not Michael Moore.
12. He understands that the U.N. has become an irrelevant joke, incapable of accomplishing anything of value, and saves a lot of time and frustration by simply ignoring it.
13. He never had sex with Monica Lewinsky.
14. You’re either with Bush or you’re with the terrorists.

    And, last but not least…

15. Hours upon hours of hilarious entertainment by the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

And here’s why, in a nutshell:

A whopping 70 per cent of Quebecers are opposed to the $950 million in tax cuts announced in last week’s provincial budget.

“One to look at it is that we’re the only people in North America not to want a tax cut,” he said in a follow-up interview.

[ . . . ]

A significant part of the explanation for opposition to the tax cut is the fact that 42 per cent of Quebecers of taxpaying age already don’t pay any income tax and stand to benefit from increased public-service spending at zero cost to themselves.

The standard answer in Quebec to any economic woes goes something like “tax the rich, the anglos and the corporations more”. And when that doesn’t work? The standard fall-back, right out of a South Park movie: Blame Canada.

But with more people living off the system than paying into it, Quebec’s economy is on the brink of collapse unless something is done. And when Canada can no longer be blamed, what then?

The Habs signed top defenseman Andrei Markov to a 4-year contract today, cementing his long-term future with the club.

Markov was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, but he’d made it plain that he wants to stay in Montreal. This deal should make Markov, the club, and the fans very happy.

However, it does raise big questions about Sheldon Souray’s future with the Habs. With the Markov deal reported to be worth about $5 million a season, it’s highly unlikely that there will be room in the Habs’ payroll for Souray, despite his being a key player on the team and having expressed a desire to stay. Souray becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1st, and it’s now more likely than ever that he’ll chase a big offer elsewhere.

Overall, I’d have to say the Habs made the right move, even if it means losing Souray. While Souray tallied up the points on the powerplay, he isn’t as strong an all-around player or a defenseman as Markov. But there’s no doubt that finding a way to keep both players would be the ideal situation. I just doubt that it’s in the cards.

(Link via Cathy, thanks to whom I also discovered the joys of OhSoGood’s Lemon Lime Cheesecake.)

This might be one of the shortest minority governments on record, if Charest’s budget gets defeated on June 1st, as expected given the PQ and the ADQs opposition to it. We could have new elections as early as July.

The irony is that, for the most part, I actually think the budget presented by the Liberals was good. I don’t often say that about budgets. But Charest’s team had the right priorities here: Lowering taxes to reduce our overly outrageous tax burden, increasing funding for healthcare and education, ending the crippling handcuffs on universities by lifting the tuition freeze gradually while supplementing with additional loans and bursaries, and additional investment in city infrastructure, while cutting spending in a whole host of other areas.

Sure, the budget’s not without its problems. But the ADQ and the PQ have both put themselves in the position now of toppling a government to force an election because they oppose tax cuts. Where else in the world could political parties believe that this would earn them votes in a subsequent election?

Unfortunately, in Quebec’s political climate, this has a fair shot of working. Which is, in a nutshell, exactly what’s wrong with our society. People want more spending and they will pay more taxes for it, and when they complain about the taxes, the politicians can just point to Ottawa and blame the “evil Federal government” for creating the “fiscal imbalance” (you know, the one that Jean Charest took credit for solving right before the last election).

If the ADQ and the PQ both make good on their threats to bring down this government by voting against the budget, then Charest’s political career will be over. Marois’s election coronation as PQ leader will be fast-tracked, and Dumont will humbly refuse to try to form an opposition government, even though he might be asked to do so, because it would be bad form. And one of the two will probably get elected.

Shame. Just when I was starting to think that this Liberal/ADQ minority government was actually working surprisingly well.

After four days of commuting hassles, headaches and havoc, the STM Maintenance Union has voted to end the strike and go back to work voluntarily, rather than face a possible government directive to do so that would likely come coupled with imposed settlement terms.

But it ain’t over till it’s over. The union and the STM haven’t agreed to anything yet, and the union hasn’t ruled out a second strike, either, if they don’t get their way.

The four-day strike has already cost the city countless amounts of money: Cancelled events, employees arriving late or leaving early, closed shops and businesses, traffic congestion, pollution, not to mention inconveniencing the people who rely on public transit the most: students, seniors, immigrants, low-income earners, and a whole host of others who aren’t lucky enough to have the maintenance workers’ cushy pay, perks, job security and pension. While rush-hour commuters only had to pack themselves into buses and metros like sardines, anyone needing to go anywhere outside of the hours deemed “essential” was SOL. About the only people happy with the strike were the taxi drivers.

For our troubles, monthly transit pass holders *might* get a measly $3.50 refund for our May passes… possibly by September. Whoop-dee-doo. That won’t even cover one day of extra gas spent driving instead of busing (at $1.20 a litre, I might add), never mind extra parking, taxis and lost work hours. If they expect me to do a little happy dance at this, they’ll be waiting a while. And I’m one of the lucky people who *had* options during the strike. Thousands upon thousands of others didn’t.

On principle I’d blame the union for holding the public hostage in order to try to extort more money out of the city. But of course, self-interest is a universal principle, and it’s hard to expect unions not to take advantage of these possibilities when they’re given the legal right and the clout to do so. After all, from their point of view, why shouldn’t they?

Nor can I really blame the city. I’m not a fan of Tremblay at all (needless to say), but I think he’s right to refuse to cave in here. This is the first of a whole series of city contracts that need to be negotiated, and if every union gets everything it asks for, Montreal will go broke and taxes will skyrocket.

No, on the whole, this public transit strike – the 15th in the past 40 years – just illustrates too clearly that the system is broken. If public transit is to be encouraged, it has to be reliable. Public transit, for most users, implies the ability to earn a livelihood, and as such, is just as essential a service as healthcare, education, police and firefighting.

It seems to me that there are two choices:

(1) Truly designate all public transit – not just transit for the 9-to-5ers – essential, and not allow transit workers to strike.

(2) Partially privatize public transit and open it up to competition, allowing more than one company to provide services.

Both options are fraught with problems. But I’m sick and tired of being told that I should stop being an evil anti-environmentalist and turn in my Civic for a bus pass, only to be left high and dry. I’m pretty sure most Montrealers feel the same way.

And if they strike again, I say fire ’em all à la Reagan and just hire replacements. I’m pretty sure my friend’s cat could lick some of the graffiti off the sides of busses. And she works for catnip.

You know you’re Canadian when you will cheer on any Canadian hockey team still in the playoffs (except the Leafs, of course).

Since my Habs aren’t there, I’m now on the Sens’ bandwagon, so it was definitely a lot of fun being in Ottawa yesterday to see the town celebrate after the Sens beat the Sabres for a spot in the Cup Finals. Lots of honking horns, drinking, flag-waving, cheering, chanting, partying, and a random guy stripping near Byward Market (don’t ask).

I’m still sad it’s not Montreal. But since it can’t, Go Sens Go!

The all-powerful “Jewish lobby” we keep hearing about (but that has thus far failed to get me a centrally-located indoor parking spot or a good discount on shoes, among other things) has struck again… at least, according to these folks:

Black youth activists in Toronto are blaming the “Jewish lobby” for the decision yesterday morning by border guards to deny entry into Canada to Malik Zulu Shabazz, a controversial black American lawyer and activist, who had been scheduled to address an afternoon protest rally at the Ontario legislature.

[ . . . ]

Mr. Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panthers, is a notorious figure in black activism in America. Based in Washington, he is a criminal defence lawyer, and helped to organize the Million Man March with Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

He is also reported to have claimed Jews stayed home en masse from the World Trade Center on 9/11, and to have said, on the topic of police aggression, that “The only solution any time there is a funeral in the black community is a funeral in the police community.”

Ms. Anizor defended her choice of speaker yesterday.

“What’s to blame is the power of the Jewish lobby to influence politicians, to influence media, to influence whatever it took. Because it took one letter, one press release from B’nai Brith [a Jewish human rights group], and the firestorm began,” she said. “You guys [media] are all here because of what B’nai Brith told you… They’ve injected themselves, trying to dictate who the black community can and cannot hear.”

I’m a strong proponent of freedom of speech, and uncomfortable with technicalities being used to shut it down in any form – whether or not I agree with it. But it is my sincere hope and belief that the vast majority of the black community in Toronto has better taste and judgment than Ms. Anizor gives them credit for.