NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) wants to give the parliament buildings back to parliament.

OTTAWA – NDP MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) announced today that he is introducing a motion calling for Members of Parliament to take control of the Parliamentary Precinct.
Last spring, when the government refused to lower the flag on the Peace Tower in respect for the death of a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, Mr. Martin raised a point of privilege in the House of Commons, saying that Parliament, not government, should decide what happens on Parliament Hill. “It should be Parliament not Government who decides whether or not the flag on the Peace Tower is lowered to half-mast,” said Martin.
At the time, Speaker Peter Milliken considered the motion but eventually ruled that the House of Commons and the Senate are merely “tenants” in the Parliament buildings, and the Government had direction and control over all physical aspects of the parliamentary precinct.
In other words, the government is Parliament’s landlord.

The Majority of Canadians elected Parliament and not the Government. Parliament should not only be in charge of Parliamentary procedure, but they should be given more control over running the country. The opposition MPs were elected too! Yet in minority governments, it seems like the opposition has less power then they should have.

It will interesting to see if this gets unanimous support.

Well it looks like Canada’s Environment Minister, may actually be forced to do something about the environment!

EDMONTON, AB – A coalition of environmental groups today served Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose with a petition giving her 60 days to step in to protect two endangered plants in Alberta or face a lawsuit. Alberta Wilderness Association, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sierra Club of Canada and Nature Canada, represented by Sierra Legal Defence Fund, are threatening the suit to test the federal government’s intention to protect Canada’s endangered wildlife.
“When Canadians were assured by the federal government that the Species at Risk Act would protect all of Canada’s endangered plants and animals, were they being told the truth?” asked Rachel Plotkin of Sierra Club. “This case will reveal the answer.”
The Species at Risk Act, while a national law, does not apply in the provinces unless the federal cabinet orders it to, which it will do only on the recommendation of the Federal Environment Minister if she considers provincial laws inadequate. But Minister Ambrose has failed to make such a recommendation for Alberta despite the fact that the province has no endangered species legislation and does not protect national endangered species.
To test the government’s commitment to protecting all of Canada’s endangered species, the groups are asking Rona Ambrose to recommend protection for the tiny cryptanthe and small-flowered sand verbena. These plants, though at immediate risk of extinction, have small populations and small footprints making them an easy choice for protection.

I say kudos to the Sierra Club of Canada and all other groups involved.

The federal cabinet must order this law to be applied in Alberta, and Rona Ambrose must recommend the cabinet to do this. How can she defend that Alberta’s laws as adequate? There are none! Ok, I’ll let her speak first; I’m jumping ahead of the gun with my own preconceived notions of what she will say. It will be interesting to see how she really responds. If she doesn’t respond positively, I would really love to hear her excuse.

Darren Entwistle’s (Telus CEO) made 14.096 Million last year.

A minimum wage earner in Alberta made $14,560 working full time last year.

This means that the Telus CEO made 968 times the amount of money as a minimum wage earner in Alberta did. Does he really deserve it? To break it down even further, it only took the CEO of Telus nine hours to make the same amount that the minimum wage earner makes in a year. Does he really do the same amount of work in those nine hours as the minimum wage earner does in an entire year? Not to mention he makes that money even while he is sleeping, unlike the minimum wage earner.

This is corporate corruption at its worse. If the telecommunications industry were under public ownership again, the person in charge would not be making nearly as much as this. This means that more people could get hired, which means more jobs. Also, we don’t even need to shut Telus down. The government could compete with Telus. With little or no profit margin, the government could easily offer services for a lot cheaper then Telus could ever dream of. Also think of what we could use the little profit that we could make for. I can think of tons of things, starting with fixing the roofs of many schools in Calgary.

With Telus’s poor service and lack of regard for its unions, I say it’s about time we bring public ownership back to the telecommunications industry.

I see so many different things that can be done differently at home and abroad to make the world a better place, yet so many politicians want to reverse the clock on our accomplishments and do not even try to attempt to improve anything. They regulate less, they cut programs and in the end they shift all the power from the people to the corporations. It is about time that this changes before it is too late.

I am not advocating complete government control over everything, as many of my opponents would say I am doing, but working people deserve control over the necessities of life. This includes housing, food, water, energy and many more necessary services/goods. Some of these industries are already run by the private sector, and they will probably continue to be done so. However, that does not mean the public should have no say in these industries. This where regulations come into play; without regulations, the sky is the limit for ways corporations can profit, and they will pick the easiest, not always the best, way to profit. However, with regulations, the corporations have to follow what is determined to be best for Canada and the world. They will be forced to find ways to profile while follow a set of guidelines. And trust me, they will still profit, that is their goal after all.

While the more conservative politicians are regulating less, they are also cutting funding to so many social programs. These cuts are not seen as savings for the average working family, they are seen as a loss. The average working family is the one who needs public health care, public education and government pensions. When these are cut, the only ones who save are the corporations. All these corporate tax cuts recently have been paid for by cuts to social programming. It is about time that this stops, we need these programs to ensure that everyone can live decently and that everyone’s future is secure.

All of this can change. We, the people, have the vote. Sometimes it seems like our vote is useless, but with enough momentum the people can change things around and in the process it will make your vote more meaningful. The date of the next federal election is unknown, but you can still take action now. Write to your elected representatives and tell them your feelings. And on Election Day, send a powerful message to them with your vote.

When I first moved to Alberta from British Columbia about three years ago, I was surprised by the school fees for high school. The total for the school year was around $400. In British Columbia my father was only paying $50/year and $25 of that was deposit that he would get back at the end of the year. Being low income at the time, that was a tough pill to swallow. (And yes, I am aware there is a waiver system. But that system is very complex, and we could not even fill out the application since we were new to Alberta and they required an Alberta Health number, which we could not get till living in Alberta for some amount of time.)

I was so concerned that I wrote to the Minister of Education with my feelings. Shortly after I received a reply stating how Alberta has the most funding per student in the entire country.

So where is this money? I compare the school fees to British Columbia. I compare the class sizes and see them much larger in Alberta. Numerous schools in Calgary have leaky roofs. Where is all this money that I am being told about?

I really think it’s time for an audit on the School Boards, and also on the cities and the province. I think Albertans will be really surprised to see what a massive audit will find.

Edited to add: Also before I moved out to Alberta, I had never heard of fundraising for school essentials. I see casinos every year at most of the schools in Calgary to fundraise for these essentials.