SaintJohnShawn.com

Ever wonder how bad the financial situation is in New Brunswick?

The provincial debt is currently pegged at $8.3-billion – which is an increase of over $749-million since Shawn Graham has taken over and lead us down the road to self-sufficiency.

Meanwhile, like kids in the backseat of a car, we keep asking, “Are we there yet?”.

You can guess the response.

To make matters worse, the province’s auditor-general has projected the debt climbing another 33 per cent in the next four years!

That is why I was so glad to find this great article in today’s TJ on the debt issue (that seems to be getting ignored in the campaign):

David Bishop is spending his own money to convince government to stop spending everyone else’s.

The retired Quispamsis businessman is at the helm of a grassroots campaign that is aiming to make the provincial debt a central issue of the Sept. 27 election.

“I just really want to get a dialogue going,” said Bishop, who lives in Rothesay.

To spark a conversation about New Brunswick’s $8.2-billion debt, Bishop set up a 53-foot long tractor trailer near the Gondola Point intersection off Highway 1.

On the side of the trailer hangs a 22-foot by 8-foot banner, reading “We live within our means. Please tell Shawn Graham.”

The same message has been printed on bumper stickers and pamphlets that Bishop and other organizers have been passing around the province for the last few weeks.

Bishop said he isn’t affiliated with a political party and his message isn’t political in nature.

“It’s about starting a conversation.”

Read the full article here!

Update - Glen Savoie’s website is now live for the 2010 Provincial Election!

This weekend, I attended (and Tweeted) the Saint John Fundy Progressive Conservative Party Nomination Convention

These events allow members of the party to choose their candidate for an upcoming provincial election.

I was amazed at the number of people who participated in the event, which took place at the Loch Lomond Elementary School, considering it was an incredibly hot day outside!

There were three solid candidates; however, after all the votes were counted, Glen Savoie came out on top!

I took the following picture after the announcement:

I’m really looking forward to helping Glen on the upcoming campaign trail, and I can’t wait to vote for change on election day (Sept 27th)!

Update:  The TJ ran the following story the next day – Newcomer earns PC banner in Saint John-Fundy!

A lot has been said over the past week around the sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec.

Regardless of where you stand, one thing is clear – this is a very contentious issue that will not be settled by a million dollar (tax-payer funded) PR campaign by the government.

I believe strongly that this issue is so important (as it WILL affect each and every New Brunswicker) that it can only be decided by calling an election.

If the government believe so strongly in this plan, then they should be willing to fight an election on it.

After all, this government was elected to represent the people of this province.  If the people in the province want NB Power sold – they will vote according.

Shawn Graham – don’t sell out our province in a backroom deal.  It’s our NB Power just as much as yours.  We own the assets along with the debt.

Let us decide what to do!

What do you think?  Comment below, or post your thoughts on Twitter using the #nbpower4sale hashtag!

Don’t forget to join the “NO to Sale of NB Power” Facebook group!

Today, I came across a bizarre story about a provincial school assignment:

The assignment for the Grade 4 students at École Mont-Carmel in Ste-Marie-de-Kent was based on the notion that the planet was about to explode.

The students had three spaces in a rocket ship and they had to decide whom to save among an Acadian francophone, a Chinese person, a black African, an English person and an aboriginal person. The assignment also included images representing each of the different ethnic groups that they could choose to save.

While it sounds like a school assignment straight from the 50′s – this assignment is part of the provincial curriculum.  Apparently this assignment teaches children something.

Bernice Ryan, the school’s principal, said she has listened to Lomax’s concerns, but feels the exercise is a good one, as it is intended to show the students how to be respectful to all groups.

Ryan said the exercise was prepared by the Department of Education and is part of the curriculum. The principal said she doesn’t believe the exercise is out of date, but she has passed concerns on to the district office.

Yeah, because nothing makes people more respectful of others then choosing who lives and who dies based on their race.  Just look at the picture of the assignment that CBC obtained.

When I was in school we had a similar assignment; however, we had to choose who to save based on their skills and relationship to each other – there was never any mention of their race!

While I hate to see extreme political correctness – this is one example of something that is clearly racist.

Hopefully someone will clue in to this and remove it from the provincial curriculum.

UPDATE - Here is the latest update on the story:

There’s confusion over where the school assignment originated.

Ryan said the exercise was prepared by the Department of Education and is part of the curriculum. The principal said she doesn’t believe the exercise is out of date, but she has passed concerns on to the district office.

However, Gerald Richard, the District 11 superintendent, said the material was not made in the Department of Education. He said he believed it was locally produced.

“I have to admit it really doesn’t sound good. It got my attention. We contacted the school,” he said. “[The] exercise will no longer be used in that school or any other school.”

Another Update – The story made it to the front page of Fark.com – here are the comments.

If one Dieppe resident had his way, Dieppe would be the first city in the province to tell business owners what must be on their signs.

This resident is circulating a petition for the city to create a bylaw forcing business to have bilingual signs.

The reason?  He feels that there are too many English signs.  He thinks govenment should step in and change that.

“We now live in a province where French and English are united for bilingualism and anglophone residents understand that French being a minority language in the region needs the support of laws in order to be as present as the English language,” he said.

When I first heard this on the radio, I couldn’t believe it.  It instantly reminded me of Quebec’s Bill 101.

Governments should not be interfering with the languages that a business owner wants to put on a sign.  Period.  If they want to put up a Chinese sign, go for it.  If they choose to put up an English sign in a French community, so be it.  Personally, I am more concerned with what is sold at the business then what their sign says (or looks like).

One comment, posted on the CBC website, sums it up for me:

Nowhere in the language section of our charter of rights and freedoms mentions anywhere policing language of private individuals, only services offer by government. Stay out of my home, life, and business Mr. LeBlanc-Rioux.

Fortunately, there are people who understand this.

Andreea Bourgeois, director of provincial affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said business owners know their customers the best, so should be responsible for choosing their signing, not politicians.

“It’s in their best interest to adjust to their customers’ needs, including linguistic needs. If the issue is lack of customer service in a particular language, simply regulating the display language of a sign does little to improve customer service,” Bourgeois said. “Therefore, such a bylaw must come from the business community and meet businesses’ and customers’ needs.”

Last night, the Progressive Conservative candidate Jack Carr beat Liberal Debbie McCann in the byelection for New Maryland-Sunbury West.

The results were as follows:

• Jack Carr finished with 2494 votes (51.09%)
• Debbie McCann finished with 2236 votes (45.8%)
• and the NDP candidate Michael McCaffrey finished with 152 votes (3.11%)

Carr credited his win to voters who were dissatisfied with Premier Shawn Graham’s Liberal government over a series of controversial decisions, such as increasing taxes and changing the French immersion program.

“You know they had the power, they had the money, they could have the promises, but what I had was the heart, the determination, and the winning attitude,” Carr said. “And what this says is there is discontent for people for Shawn Graham for broken promises.”

“It’s a message to the little guy – never give up and don’t let other people set your limitations.”

Also, Jack is joining his twin brother Jody in the legislature.  Jody is the MLA for Octomocto.  Not sure if that is a first; but, it is an interesting note!

The only newspaper in New Brunswick that isn’t owned by the Irving family is closing down.

As you may remember, Ken Langdon launched the first independent weekly newspaper, the Carleton Free Press, last year to go head-to-head against the Irving owned Woodstock Bugle-Observer.

Because he had previously been the publisher for the Woodstock Bugle-Observer, he faced a lot of opposition from the Irving family.  He ended up in court and had his home searched; but, he was also named the CBC New Brunswick Newsmaker of the Year in 2007.  Sounds like quite the experience, eh?

Unfortunately, due to the monopoly that Irving has on the newspaper industry in New Brunswick, the independent newspaper could not compete.  The Woodstock Bugle-Observer had done everything possible to run them out of business.  They cut the cost of ads in half, then reduced the price of the newspaper from $1.25 to $0.25.

Simply put – the Woodstock Bugle-Observe is losing money in order to put the Carleton Free Press out of business.

Below is the press release issued by the Carleton Free Press (courtesy of this site):

Carleton Free Press suspends publication

Citing the downturn in the economy and inability to compete with a chain that has cut its advertising and subscription prices to the bone for the next year, the Carleton FreePress today announced it is suspending publication.

Today’s paper will be the last.

“We have tried everything,” said publisher Ken Langdon. “Our staff has been heroic, right down to the last person. We’ve got a good paper. We’ve earned a place in the fabric of Carleton County, but in the end we simply cannot compete with Irvings’ financial power.

“Brunswick News can afford to drop a few million dollars here to get the Bugle-Observer’s monopoly back and the Irving chain’s manager is willing to do what it takes here to discourage any others who might take heart from our success to compete in other New Brunswick markets,”

Langdon said three factors converged in the last few weeks to create insurmountable problems for the paper. One was the market crash and the fallout on the local economy. The other was the cost of adding a second paper on Fridays, which the FreePress felt it had to do to compete. The third was a Bugle-Observer announcement that it was cutting its ad prices in half for the next year and it’s per issue price from $1.25 to 25 cents. (This week it offered a year-long special buy at 29 per cent of its regular ad rate.)

“The last few weeks have been harrowing,” said Langdon. “We have wracked our brains to find a way to save the paper but we can’t alter the numbers.

“Big bucks have prevailed.”

FreePress editor Bob Rupert said the death of the “little paper that could” is a bitter pill to swallow.

“We feel badly for our readers, we feel badly for our advertisers and we feel badly for a community that really needs an honest paper with the courage to publish all of the news—even if it hurts,” said Rupert.

“Since Day One we have been warned that Brunswick News would stop at nothing to get back its stranglehold on this market and that’s exactly what has happened.

“So we are going down today, but we can hold our heads high. We tried to bring an independent voice to Carleton County and for a while we were winning. The closer we got to victory the more Brunswick News spent to stop us.

“What is really sad here is that our employees lose their jobs. We’ve raised a family here. The loss is personal.”

Eloise Durling
The Carleton FreePress
506-325-3733 ext 208