Before I head off into my usual tirades, rants and cynical commentaries, I want to say right up front that from what I've seen so far, Spectra Place is the latest jewel in our community.
Brian Burke called it awesome (about 23 times, I believe) last Friday, but it is an impressive salute to our community effort. I can hardly wait to see the rest of it, the inner sanctums and all that.
I will say the bathrooms were particularly impressive. I'm so glad I focused my fund-raising talents on those facilities.
It seems as if the details were covered off when they went about designing this place, so I salute you all the people who sponsored it, the people who designed it, the people who are building it still and finally to those people who will be charged with the duty of managing and administering it.
Now a wee note to the Bruins it's your rink, your ice time to show the rest of the SJHL that you own it and you're not going to be the generous hosts you used to be in the old barn the next time visiting teams come calling.
Now, having said that, let's get on to the dirty side of the column, i.e. budgets and elections.
If you are a political junkie then last week you were in Nirvana. Never has so little been said by so many fibbers to so many believers in the history of Canada.
We had a federal government being brought to its knees simply because our prime minister has a rather unique interpretation of democracy. Apparently he doesn't believe in it, which is a rather sticky position to take in this place we call home. But, nevertheless, here we are, in the middle of an election. Contempt or coalition, take your choice of working words that you'll hear ad nauseam from the candidates, some of whom will be seriously seeking a chair in the Common House while others will be mere pretenders. It's up to you as an educated elector to sort that out.
You see, that Harper boy, had no choice. He cheated in the House of Commons, so they called him on it and the other players said they wouldn't support him in an effort to keep government going for another year unless he met their demands, which would also require cheating. For the NDP, they wanted more socialized everything. The Liberals wanted to return to their divine right ruling thing and the Bloc Quebecois wanted $2.2 billion in straight blackmail payments in turn for their support.
The Harper boy, not knowing what to do, did the expected. He folded the tent and called another $400 million election. So what's that now five elections in 10 years?
Where are we in Italy?
I hope our federal politicians now reach out to find the other Canada, you know, the one that the rest of us are familiar with these days. The one they haven't been able to locate.
We have a provincial budget that we're supposed to be excited about. There are some neat things in it, but no word yet on CT scanners, highways or housing in this neck of the woods, so I'll hold my applause for now. The funny little devil may be in the details yet.
Then there is the unofficial launching of the next provincial election that isn't due until early November, but was set off by last week's budget since it was declared a pre-election budget by everyone involved, and three people who weren't.
