Howard is an old friend.  Smartest man I ever met.  Intellectual/learned/academic beyond comprehension. More doctorate degrees than a hospital.  Published more papers than the pentagon.  Probably the only person I shut up around.  He seems to know chapter and verse about everything all with footnotes to back it up.  

That does not mean I always agree with him – just that I keep mute.  I usually agree with him but I keep mute about that, too.  What’s there to say to someone who already knows?

Anyway, as you also know, I don’t like Harper.  And I have good foundations for that.  But my foundation is paper mache.  Howard’s is solid granite.  Here (with his permission) is HIS blog on Harper and his ‘supposed’ $1.9B surplus.  Warning: it’s long

Last night I came home and listened to the late night news. The big news: the Harper government had posted a surplus, the first in Harper’s eight years running the government. I had become used to the government playing games with refugee figures – announcing in 2013 that the government would take in 1,300 Syrian refugees in the next 12 months and then taking 20 months to do so. Further, most were privately sponsored refugees. When Canada announced it would take 10,000 Syrian refugees over three years, this really meant that Canada would take in 1,300 government-assisted refugees per year and private sponsors would be allowed to bring in just over 2,000 per year. After the election campaign started, Harper announced that Canada would take an additional 10,000 Iraqi and Syrian refugees and take them in over four years. That meant a total intake of 2,500 additional refugees per year, or 1,250 additional Syrian refugees. Of these, the number of government-assisted Syrian refugees would be about 500. Clearly a pittance. The spin is how to make 500 sound like 10,000 and almost 2,000 sound like 20,000. The basic figures are accurate; the spin given to those figures is misleading.

Was the government doing the same with the budget? According to figures released by the finance department yesterday, after seven years of running deficits, the federal government had a $1.9 billion surplus in the 2014-2015 fiscal year. Canada had produced a surplus one year ahead of Jim Flaherty’s prediction. The original prediction for 2014-2015 had been a $2 billion deficit rather than a $1.9 billion surplus. Further, the April, June and July figures reinforced the picture of the trend towards surpluses.

There is an old saying: figures don’t lie; politicians do. I think this is a misrepresentation. Spin is not lying. But to understand spin you have to unpack the figures. There are a number of ways to produce a surplus. First, you can budget less than the previous year; in effect, cut a department’s budget. Second, you can download expenditures onto the provinces. Third, you can spend less than you even projected in your budget. The options are many.

Let me offer an example. In the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the projected expenditures for 2014-2015 on primary and secondary education for aboriginal youth was $1,445 billion. In 2015-2016, the projected expenditures were set at $1,431 billion. How could the expenditures possibly go down when the rate of increase of the aboriginal population was much higher than that of the rest of Canada?

When you read the hundreds of pages of documents just in that one department, one policy stands out. There is the noble intention begun in 2014 of bringing success rates of aboriginal children up to those of the rest of the population. How is this to be done? You get bands to vote to join regional school boards so that now the province bears the burden of the costs, not the federal government, and the expenditure on aboriginal children’s education is immediately boosted by about a quarter. This “push” in this direction is helped when you recognize not only that aboriginal children receive at least 20% less support than the equivalent cohort in the provincial school system, but that over the last eight years, the educational support deficit has grown so that the differential is moving towards 30%.

The message to band leaders: you want better education for your children, vote to become part of the provincial educational system, thereby relieving the federal government from the obligation to pay for the education of aboriginal children and teens.

Look at a number of departments where the Harper government was determined to cut. In northern economic development, the main estimates were $53,442,608 in 2013-14; in 2014-15, they were $30,945,766, an enormous cut. In 2012-2013, expenditures for the chief electoral office were 119,580,193. In the 2014-15 estimates, they had dropped to $97,110,432. It is any wonder that we have increased our democratic deficit. In the department that I know best, Citizenship and Immigration, budgeted expenditures dropped from $1,655,418,818 in 2013-2014 to $1,385,441,063 in 2014-15, a 17% cut. No wonder Canada lacks the visa officers on the ground to process Syrian refugee applications to come to Canada.

Monies for the Library and Archives of Canada were reduced from $118,923,232 2013-14 to $95,864,788 in 2014-15. In the arts and research field, the National Film Board, National Museum of Science and Technology and the Natural Sciences and Research Council suffered cuts. Statistics Canada, once upon a time the pride and joy of Canada for the rest of the world – we provided a paradigm for other nations to imitate – expenditures dropped from $519,891,309 in 2012-13 to $379,555,524 in 2014-15. The cuts were so drastic, not only effecting the long form census that was made voluntary, and, therefore, useless for research, but the whole basis for economic and social research in Canada was decimated.

This is a government that is not interested in the knowledge base on which prudent planning depends. The library in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship was packed up and sent to a warehouse in Quebec. The policy unit was eliminated. Harper reduces expenditures through micro-management, requiring the smallest expenditures be approved by his office – except when it comes to his Senate appointees. This government has saved money by running the civil service into the ground in many areas.

I am not saying that some areas should not have been cut or that all expenditures have been sacrosanct. However, the Tories cannot even bring in more refugees if they wanted to; they are unwilling to spend the money even though, in the long run, such expenditures are a tremendous investment in human resources, especially when the population intake consists of skilled tradesmen and professionals who can contribute to economic growth.

When you add to these policies the practice of not even spending the money allocated, it is not that hard to produce a surplus. In 2014-15, actual expenditures were $800 million lower than projected. Some of the costs have little to do with Canadian policy, however important prudent fiscal policies are. Carrying charges on debt are at record lows so that actual expenditures on debt were $100 million lower than projected. But there are other ways to produce a surplus. Focus on the revenue side.

In June, for example, the government brought in $1.1 billion more than it spent following the May/June surplus of $3.9 billion. And this was when we were officially in a recession. One way to increase revenues is to sell off assets. So the Canadian government sold its last block of 73 million shares in General Motors in April, increasing the government coffers by $2.7 billion. So if we sell off assets to increase revenues, and since surpluses are seasonal and the surplus in June dropped from $1.6 billion in the previous year to $1.1 billion, the optimism for this year has to be muted somewhat. 

Don’t get me wrong. I am a fiscal conservative. I believe, in normal circumstances, we should stay within our budget. But I also believe that some savings, such as cutting our repairs to infrastructure, is indeed penny wise and pound foolish. Cutting programs that provide valuable service is an imprudent way to balance the budget. Further, there are times, as David Dodge has said, when interest rates are low that it is imprudent not to borrow and invest in infrastructure – roads, sewers, public transit. Spending $125 billion in this area over ten years may be the height of prudence.

Pensions are a case in which taxes and investments get confused. Harper decried the Ontario pension plan for increasing taxes. But these were not tax increases. These were increases in forced savings that in turn could be invested in economic growth. Whereas the Conservatives began their term of office by cutting the sales tax by two points, the government has not reduced the taxes for the employment insurance fund. The employment insurance fund is now in surplus and normally premiums should be reduced. They have not been, providing an important source for ensuring that income exceeds expenditures. An employment insurance cut would benefit both individual workers and businesses, especially small businesses.  

So has the Harper government been a prudent manager of our economy? In some ways it has. Some cuts were warranted. But so were increased expenditures in other areas – aboriginal education for example. By cutting two points from the sales tax, government funds for needed areas, such as infrastructure or aboriginal education, were unavailable.  The cuts were imprudent.  So were many of the cuts in various department budgets.

There is another area where the Harper government has been prudent. Canada’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 40.4 per cent, including the debts of local, provincial and territorial governments, the lowest among G7 nations where the average is 86.8%. This is commendable. However, flying higher and taking a longer overview, Canada really escaped going into recession in the economic shock of 2008 because the Harper government inherited a government with financial surpluses, $13.6 billion in 2006 and $9.6 billion in 2007. It took on an enormous deficit in 2009 of $61.27 billion. Simply cutting expenditures and micro-managing the government is a way to save money, but also to cripple services that Canadians need – especially veterans.  Areas requiring investment also suffer.

I do not know why the Harper government has a reputation as a prudent manager of the economy. It has not been. It has operated the government as if tax revenues were like money dropped in a piggy bank and your job was to ensure that you not spend anymore than had been dropped through the slot. The real economic job of a government is to spend and invest money wisely and prudently and allow future generations to inherit a better and better Canada.

The Harper government has been more imprudent than prudent on this scale of measurement.

Almost every political news story that condemns Harper is simply too feather-light to be effective.  They score as points-against but they are not doing any real damage. Especially to the committed Con who doesn’t listen to or read the mainstream media anyway.  No knockout punches are being thrown.  No foundations being rocked. So what if one of his candidates pees in a cup?  Or that he is damned with faint praise for an announcement of a paltry sum.  Duffy walks past a camera into court is barely a reminder of Harper’s other incompetencies.  He blathers on about the economy but no one else seems to have a good rejoinder.  Big whoop!

Harper may NOT be winning but he is definitely NOT losing.

Like the blog of last week, this is one to note the blandness, the ineffectual sparring, the boring photo-op poses and the utter lack of real fight in the political ring.  At a time when our very identity as a nation, a society, a quasi-culture is being redefined by that dickhead, the baby-effort to defeat him is impotent and weak.  Where is the resistance?  The revolution? Where is the new champion?  Who is the new hero? Which dickhead are we to follow next?

Woe is me.

The economy is the issue that concerns most people.  I personally think that is the wrong priority (it’s the environment and our society’s values that are most important to me) but let us admit the facts: “It’s the economy, stupid!” So, fine.

To be fair, Trudeau promised major infrastructure funding and that is a pretty good idea, actually. Urbanites need that.  But the power in that statement is in the examples, the vision, the nuts and bolts of the plan.  There was none of that.  So, what does he mean? More pipes for poop? More bridges for trucks and cars?  Or does he have a vision of the future? Bullet trains, maybe?  Electric cars, perhaps?  What!?  Without the vision, that economic plan just lays there like the empty words it is.

Mulcair is going to give you day-care or some other social nicety/necessity but, really, what will he do to strongly revitalize Canada in a global marketplace?  What vision does Mulcair have?  How can any of these people lead us into the the 21st century when we are already 15 years late and they were present during the lethargy?

As I have said before: these people don’t understand the economy, they have no vision, they have no courage and none of them could lead a group of addicts to a coke party. That is very disheartening.  I find it difficult to even follow their pathetic campaign trails.  It’s like watching paint dry or worse, the Canucks play hockey.

One thing you should KNOW.  There ain’t gonna be a revolution.  Not this time.  Maybe never.  Every revolution in history required one thing that we don’t seem to have and may never have: the police have to change sides.  Right now, they seem to be mostly George Wallace-type right-wingers.  Bully boys.  Taser ’em types.  You could have 30 million poor people demonstrating on the lawn of the parliament everyday and the strong arm of the law, if still committed to the leaders of the day, will continue the status quo.  It is only when the police will NOT shoot on the protesters, NOT jail them, NOT beat them, NOT taser them that the revolution stands a chance.  And, for that to happen, good people have to convince the police and the army that the leaders are no longer good.

Therefore I implore you to think.  That’s right…YOU!  Think up good ideas and pass them on.  Share them.  Tell your MP. Tell your MLA.  Even tell a cop (we can hope, can’t we?). Tell anyone who will listen.  We need to get new ideas out there.

My rationale is simple: there is a dearth of good ideas out there and our leaders sure as hell don’t have any and do not lead anyway, they follow.  So, give ’em all something to work with.  If you don’t, they won’t and we’ll have more of the same ol, same ‘ol.

This is NOT a new idea.  LeadNow, SumOfUs, Change.org and other ‘petition’ movements do this kind of thing all the time by way of their social media campaigns.  And it seems to be working somewhat.

Maybe the revolution starts with us?

At first glance, Harper’s pledge to match donations to help Syrian refugees to a maximum of one hundred million dollars says that ‘we are doing something!’.  For a moment of time, it seems that he has ‘come around’ and Canada can be Canadian again.  It almost seems good.

It is not.  In fact, it is evil incarnate.  It is the epitome of ugly.  It is sick.  It is perverse.  And it is incredibly revealing of the cynicism and mental dysfunction of the man and the society he thinks we are.   This guy is sicker than sick.

Think about it – he won’t take any Syrians, actual people, (for security reasons) but he’ll pay to make the problem go away.  In fact, he won’t even pay fully (because it is our money he is using, after all) and he is only paying what ‘we‘ match.  In effect he is saying, “Well, you gave me $50M in tax dollars and, if you give me $50M more, I’ll spend $100M on your pet cause.”

But it says even more than that ugly cynicism – “We don’t want to help those people but we are happy to feed the ‘refugee machine’ (like Halliburton) and NGOs, especially Canadian NGO’s, because we can then tax the salaries of the workers and get some of the money back.  And all this while looking good and doing nothing.”   It also says, to Harper, everything is money.

Tragically, he is not alone.  In fact, most people think in terms of money-first and then what-can-my-money-do’.  Money, money, money.  When I was helping Vietnamese refugees back in the 70’s, I was very impressed with the Mennonites.  They have their own refugee and immigration system and they stepped up and did what needed to be done as human beings.  They followed the law, of course, but it was not an effort dependent on government and it was not an effort depending on money.  It was – as much as possible in a modern world – people helping people with hands on energy and caring.

Many religious groups at the time stepped up.  But none more so that than the Mennonite Central Committee.  They simply did the right thing.  Period.  Money had little or nothing to do with it.

Harper?  For him, money is the answer to everything.

Steve, the best things in life are free!

Love, friendship, family, loyalty, integrity, truth, joy, learning, health, nature….the list goes on and on.  He doesn’t get that.  And that is why he doesn’t ‘get’ the environment.  Harper doesn’t even really ‘get’ people.  Harper doesn’t ‘get’ that Canadians want to help real people in real ways and that money is not necessarily part of that.

In fact, Stephen Harper does not even really ‘GET’ the economy simply because the economy is nothing more than just a numerical metric of human behaviour.  It is a measure of our feelings and our emotions, our strengths, our fears, our values and our appreciations of life.  But money is only the measurement.  It is NOT the actual humanity.

Money is NOT who we are.  It is no more who we are as a country or a people than a tape measure is to a house being built.  A tape measure is just a tool.  It is not even a part of the eventual house.  Harper doesn’t ‘get that’.  He values only the measure.  He values the numbers. He values the money. And, because of that, he is missing the real picture – humanity.

THAT is why Harper has to go.  He doesn’t represent us.  And he never will.

Fiddich died last night.  He was only eight.  At 3:30 pm he was fine and playing afternoon fetch.  At 4:30, he was not. The vet (we phoned) thought mushroom poisoning.  We really do not know.Fid tended to eat anything at least once.  Some things awful he tried a few times.  Old prawn bait always found its way in and out of him.  We expected he’d throw up whatever this was and carry on.  He didn’t.  He fell asleep at 9:00-ish and Sal checked him again at 3:00 in the morning.  He died sometime between then and dawn.  In his sleep.

Fid was the best dog I ever knew.  He will be missed.

Many readers met Fid and would remember him.  Especially the Chinese kids from Hong Kong.  To them he was a ‘wild animal’ they came to know and love in a very short time. He was about 75 pounds (big for a Portuguese Water Dog) and ‘ginger’ in colour. Tons of energy.   He was pretty much loved by all except big men wearing hats…they tended to get a cooler reception and maybe a little nip in the pants just to establish the pecking order – no blood drawn but more than a few guys leaped high in the air around him.

The most remarkable thing about Fid, tho, was his overall good manners.  He was obedient and did what was expected of him.  Always.  Best dog ever.  Absolutely NO complaints from me. None.

Well, I do wish he had stayed with us a bit longer………………

Some doofus peed in a coffee cup while doing some plumbing for a client (some time ago) and gets caught on video.  He later became a Con candidate but then, after the reveal, was booted.  Some other Con candidate was caught making politically incorrect and mildly immoral prank calls for reasons likely egotistical and he was caught and jettisoned, too.

Oooh, those Cons are ‘tough on crime’, eh?

Mind you, they still pay Duffy, Wallin and the gang of petty thieves they call senators.  And the flock of sheep-MPs that do as Harper tells them to also dip deep into the trough all too regularly. The really bad behaviour is still going on.  But what about Ryan Leef?

C’mon…what is wrong with that guy and why is he still fondly embraced by Harper?

Wikipedia: He has overseen prisoners as an assistant superintendent at Whitehorse Correctional Centre which was his most recent employment prior to politics. Ryan Leef is also a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a Wildlife Officer and an investigator for (the) Yukon Department of Justice. Ryan Leef has also fought in the cage as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. Ryan Leef was noted in national media when he claimed that the polar bear population had increased dramatically. His position was refuted by polar bear researchers and according to one scientist was based on a report prepared by “professional climate change deniers.”  (GET THIS:) Ryan Leef was appointed to the Standing Committee for Fisheries and Oceans and the Standing Committee for Natural Resources.  

But this is the absolutely whacked part that I think is worse than peeing in a cup or saying stupid things that do not break anyone’s bones…this may be worse than stating polar bears are all good when he obviously knows squat about the subject but sits on DFO/Natural Resource committees.  This seems to be the real Ryan Leef and he seems kinda nutty to me:

Dressed in camouflage, carrying a motion detector and hiding in the bushes with his commando-buddy, Ryan Leef, Conservative party parliamentarian, laid in wait at almost midnight in the rain last week to pounce on and arrest the vandal that had defaced some of his campaign signs.  Carrie Boles was the delinquent and she weighs 110 pounds.  When she attempted to deface some more signs, Ryan jumped her, threw her to the ground, twisted her arm behind her back and, screaming “CITIZEN’S ARREST!”, handcuffed her.

The mixed martial arts guy and his buddy forceably took down the 110 pound woman and hand-cuffed her.

Now don’t get me wrong, I support standing up for yourself.  I especially support a sitting, trough-feeding MP actually DOING SOMETHING.  ANYTHING!   I really do.  In fact, I applaud him and his buddy for tracking and finding the perpetrators of vandalism.  God bless their law-and-order little hearts.  Really.  I wish Ryan all the best in finding and rooting out crime.   ‘Go to Ottawa and get the bad girls, Ryan’.

Bad girl, bad girl!  Whacha gonna do when they come for you, bad girl, bad girl?

But doesn’t the camo and the ninja-clad buddy and the hiding and the hand-cuffs seem a smidge extreme?  And, what about jumping on her and twisting her arm and hand-cuffing her while screaming CITIZEN’S ARREST.  Isn’t that a bit nutty?  Is it just me?

I mean…I might lie in wait for the perp myself.  I really would.  The de-facing of my signs would have to be pretty epidemic for that effort but, if it was that bad, I might resort to confrontation.  I would.  I doubt that I would ask my neighbour to go all-out Ninja for me (I have Sal for back-up, anyway), and I doubt very much that I would dress up in camo and hide in the bushes but I would certainly confront the evil-doer and take a picture with my camera so as to enforce my intentions.  But would I carry hand-cuffs?  Would I scream such madness?  Would I physically throw a lone, young, slight woman to the ground and twist her arm? I don’t think so.  I think that is just plain psycho.

And yet there we have another Harper Con ‘acting out’ his true self (Dirty Harry type vigilante) and one that is an incumbent in parliament. Seriously…?  Peeing in a cup…? Throwing women around and handcuffing them?  I dunno…..seems odd……depends on your perspective, I suppose.

What exactly do you think the Con perspective really is?

I am feeling a bit reluctant these days to continuing my writing campaign against Harper.  It is not that my feelings about him and his party have changed one iota –  the guy is a total dickhead – but simply because the others have now spoken and, sadly, none of the contenders are inspiring me at all.  Not a bit.  Once again, I feel as most Canadians usually feel at election time, helpless, disappointed and somehow defeated-in-advance of the outcome.

They are all dickheads!

To be fair, Mulcair sees himself as the one to beat and he doesn’t want to defeat himself so he is saying as little as possible.  (A tactic Christy Clark is following: hiding until called upon for a photo op).  Trudeau is stretching a bit but he is still coming across as a little boy in his father’s clothing.  And all of them are keeping their topics and their content to the mundane, picayune and stupid.  I.e. Harper pledging $7 million to fish research (the price of an old house in West Vancouver) after having eviscerated science and DFO over the last decade.  Trudeau going for legalization of Marijuana (while Vancouver opens storefronts every ten blocks) and Mulcair touting childcare once again.  Oh MY GOD! How is any of that leadership?  Where is the vision? Where is the inspiration?

Hell, where is the motivation to even vote?

It’s worse than a beauty contest without the bathing suit competition.  It’s like race-walking or synchronized swimming.  Not even as good as rhythmic gymnastics.  I’m sorry.  Dull. NO interest.  None.

If only Elizabeth May would start drinking heavily.

Is it too much to ask for some ‘real talk’, some real vision, some real leadership?  Do they all have to speak baby-talk to us?  Do none of these people have new ideas?  Are they all bereft of any semblance of courage?  Harper also lacks heart. Trudeau lacks brains and Mulcair looks like an ad for Cialis before taking the pill.  Only E. May says much of anything but, given her chances, she would look silly saying too much. She won’t be able to do any of it so what’s the point of making promises?  But even she could shout some bold philosophies, some creative solutions, some new ideas.

Again – to be fair – campaigning is a sham, a farce, and an insult to the voting public.  That which passes for politics never sees the light of election day or even gets revealed on the campaign trail.  Campaigning is waving the flag, showing the colours and looking good while trying to make sound-bites.  And most people know this.  We are really supposed to get our political opinions as the government performs over the years.

But, of course, how does the opposition get any exposure in that kind of forum?  Who listens to the opposition for four years?  We listen to the incumbent, agree or disagree and then, if we disagree, and as a last resort, look around at the opposition to see if we agree with them.  Truly, the opposition gets ‘left-overs’ and then has to make a more palatable dish at election time while the incumbents get to BUY fresh and present fancy.

Hard to dislodge the incumbents that way.  The government pretty much has to blow their own feet off.  The opposition can’t seem to do it.

The good news: Like always, the Conservatives have blown their feet off.  The bad news: the opposition can’t seem to get walking either.  No one is really running and isn’t that what campaigning is supposed to be all about?

I bought two non-running old Honda dirt-bikes.  One a 1976, the other is a 1979.  Both are 250cc XR’s.  Well, the 1979 is running but the clutch is lunched and the shocks are toast so I needed the older one for the parts to get it running properly.

Old Motorcycle – 1979

Older Motorcycle 1976

“Sweetie, do you really need a motorbike?  We don’t have a road.”

“It’s a dirt bike!”

“We don’t have dirt!”

She has a point.  To get the eventually-running ’79 to a road or trail or even a bunch o’ dirt will first require fixing it and then putting it in a boat and transferring it up or down the coastline.  Smidge awkward given that we live on remote island on an isolated, high (75 feet) granite slab on a 30 degree, irregular slope to the sea.  Still, we brought it over from the other island with it’s buddy-bike and we got ’em up to the shop so it can be done.  Mind you, we had 7 people engaged in the effort.  So, it is gonna be some kind of a challenge if it’s going to be a regular thing.

“When it is all done, I can get it to a road and you can climb on the back in the traditional biker-chick position and then we’ll drive around the island and see it all from the vantage of a logging road.”

“I am not getting on that thing!”

“Why not?  You have biker-chick genes.  Certainly the attitude.  Just think, really short shorts, torn jean-blouse, high kicky boots…maybe some ruby-red lipstick?”

“You’re nuts!  I am not doing that.  I do quilts now……and, anyway, I’d have to buy a nice new pair of kicky boots…….hmmmmm…..do all motorcycle helmets look so dorky?”

It may seem a little crazy.  Or a lot crazy, I suppose.  But, I have wanted to ‘drive’ the island and see it all and it is too big and heavily forested to wander.  By the time you walk a few miles down the road, you have to turn around to make sure you can get back before dark. A motorbike is the answer to a lot of unasked questions.

“We’re just gonna have two old piles of junk under the house.  I just know it!”

“I was planning on having only one.  The parts bike.  The other one would be functional.”

“Sweetie, you are barely functional and the last time you rode a motorbike, you drove it through a baseball backstop and nearly killed yourself!  We’ll just have junk.  You and the bikes all in a big heap of junk.”

“Well, at least you’ll have a new pair of kicky boots”.

Sal is always a little reluctant upon hearing of a new plan or adventure.  It’s normal.  In a year, she’ll be demanding her own 250 and we’ll form the first bike gang on the island. She’ll be the leader of the pack, of course.  I may be spending a bit of time in a heap.

Hopefully not under the house.

The figures are out and Canada is officially IN a recession.  Two quarters with negative growth.  That IS the definition of a recession.  But Harper kind of denies it.  He claims things are economically ‘good’ because of him and his policies.  But, still, negative is negative and I hate the guy so I want to shout loudly ‘recession!’.

But that may NOT be the real truth.  The real truth appears to be more like ‘stasis’ or ‘status quo’ or vanilla-bland…..hard to say.  Comatose.  Resting.  Side-lined.  Whatever.  The economy is flat.  That’s it: flat.  I mean; -.5% negative growth is hardly negative.  Not really.  Maybe if they check again in a couple of weeks we ‘ticked’ up +.5%. Hard to condemn even a dickhead like Harper for half of one percent.

But, then again…………the economy is measured using ‘metrics’ and numbers arbitrarily chosen years ago and GDP includes such nonsense as the ‘output’ of wages fighting forest fires when the cost of the loss of the trees is NOT included but the wages of the firefighters is.  GDP includes the wages of the prison guards but not the loss of human capital of the incarcerated.  Hardly what I would call an accurate measurement of productive gain.  The point?  GDP is a stupid number.

More dead whales?  Doesn’t count.  More illegal drug use?  Doesn’t count.  Sale of the Canadian Wheat Board?  THAT counts.  So….really……what are we really talking about, here?

More political gibberish, really.

To have a sense of the state of the economy, you really have to use your own metrics and ignore the official stats to some degree.  They count, of course, but they don’t count in the real world except as a partial indicator of what is really happening.  The real indicator is something you either make up from your own life or you make up from reading a lot.

Can you read enough to know the state of the economy?  I don’t think so.

But – gut feel – I think we are in a recession.  A real one.  I see rural communities struggling.  I see more and more Walmarts and more and more ‘cheap crap’ and I don’t see the next generation doing very well at all.  I think our education system is failing our youth.  I think our health care system is sadly lacking in good service, response-time or even the latest in technology.  I think the justice system sucks.  I see Canada as slipping behind in so many ways and I see political reliance on resources to the exclusion of more modern industries.  I am a critic of our economy.  I admit that freely and I feel negatively towards Canada’s future if the current political thinking continues (and it seems to have taken root in all three major parties).

And I haven’t even mentioned climate change and what that means on a macro-economic scale.

So, the point?  I want Harper sent packing but not because of so-called negative economic growth.  Send him packing because he has no vision, he has no heart, he is a control freak and is NOT a good PM.  Send him packing because he is a Luddite and a bigot, a toady and a sycophant to big business and is a baby-doc-style bully.  But, honestly, do not attribute to Harper much of anything based on the economy.

Beautiful rain!  Good, great, glorious, rain, rain, rain.  What a lovely day for getting all wet and muddy.  I am truly enjoying this.  It is good.  The forest needs it, the gardens need it and I really need it, too.  I am feeling my inner reptile.  My amphibian is showing.  If I wasn’t so old, stiff and round, I’d slither.

But that’s enough about rain.  Back to us…..

Sal and I will be drinking champagne tomorrow night.  Our kids and their spouses are here to visit and we will be toasting their gathering plus the fact that we have sold over 1000 books!  Yeah, I know……we are over-the-top gobsmacked about that, too.  Stunned,, actually.  Hard copy sales have virtually stopped but the Kindle version keeps on ticking.

What a treat! This is a book that keeps on giving us fun.

Sal is pretty funny, too.  She instructed me, “You are not allowed to check sales til the end of the month otherwise you’ll be obsessive about it!”

“That’s fine.  I never check anyway.  You do.”

“Well, we sold 208 this month.”

“It is only the 27th!”

“I couldn’t help myself.”

Yesterday was town day (in preparation for the kids arriving) but Sal went alone to shop for the groceries this time.  She picked up 200 pounds of steel for me as well. Plus 85 large bricks and a few bags of cement. It didn’t look like a lot but it was pretty heavy.

Being silver-haired and beautiful has it’s advantages and so she doesn’t have to do the heavy lifting, the ‘boys’ at the stores do that for her.  But I am the ‘boy’ at the end of the road and so I came in the big boat but brought her little boat over because it scoots up to the beach really close.  We loaded everything in to the little one and she went slowly off.  I rode quicker in the bigger boat and did a delivery to the neighbours while she crawled along the coast.  Then I headed back to the dock.

“Squaaaawk….hiss…….Your spinach and battery are here.  You better come and get ’em!”  “Squaaaaaawwwkk…….hisssssss……….sinking…….squawk…….”

It was Sal on the radio.  Seems the seas had kicked up enough to put some waves over the gunwales and the boat, riding already low in the water, was starting to take on water. She later reported that at one point the stern seemed level with the sea and she feared that the increasing weight of more and more water would soon take her down.  Sal got back on the walkie-talkie.  So did my neighbour.

“Tell my wife her beer is on the counter and getting warm!”  “Squaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwk………………….hisssssssss…………sinking.  Help! squaaaaaaakw!”

“She said that she’d be coming home soon.”

“Sal!  Is that you?  What are you saying?  Sal!  Press harder on the button.  I am only getting static!”

“Squaaaaaaawwwks…..I will be right there.  I have the spinach and the battery.  Just leaving now!” “Squaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwkkkkkk……………’GET OVER HERE!”

(No, dear reader, it is not you.  It is not me.  It  was four people sharing the same walkie-talkie channel.)  Just as my wife was having an emergency-at-sea, our neighbours were on the walkie-talkie chatting about spinach, beer and batteries.  The conversation over-the-air to the listener was unintelligible and, mixed with static, I didn’t have a clue what was going on.  But, assuming that Sally was already at the house-side shore and having difficulty at the beach, I quickly tied up my boat on the other-side dock and ran up the hill to the house and was about to proceed down when I saw that she wasn’t there!

“Sal, where are you?”  

“Squaaaaaaaaaaaawwwk…..where are you?”

I looked over in the direction from which she was coming.  She was still out at sea but I could barely see her.  I ran back to the dock and got in the bigger boat.  I zoomed around the corner and saw her low in the water but making headway.  She yelled that she was going to be OK.  She had bailed the boat furiously while she went and had managed to stay afloat.

One of our spinach-and-beer neighbours had also clued in by then and was heading out to the rescue as well.  It was good.

All is well that ends well.  And, it did.  Spinach and battery delivered.  Steel and cement at the beach.  Food in the house and Sal just a little wet and shaky.  I lay on the bed until my heartbeat slowed to normal.

Just another shopping day.

…while not having a clue.  This is our chosen way of doing things as you know except this time we are free-building – without even the how-to library books for guidance.  We are jus’ kinda wingin’ it.

I blame my father-in-law. He was going to throw out some large double pane windows at a time when I was in a materials-gathering mode. It’s a state not unlike shopping at Save-On while hungry.  Not always sensible.  I came home with a bunch o’ windows. Then, we were site-sitting at a mansion under renovation and they were gonna break up a bunch of double pane windows and that just seemed so wrong….so we came home with more windows. So, now we have a pile o’ windows – none of which are the same dimensions as the others – and Sal doesn’t like mess and well, that means I have to do something with them.

“I’m gonna build a greenhouse!”  

“Good.  I am not helping.”

“What do you mean you are not helping?  We are partners.  We like greens.  You hate mess.  I am old and stupid.  I need you.  Otherwise, we just have a pile o’ windows.”

“Fine.  I’ll help.  But quilting comes first, OK?”

“No.  Actually foundation comes first.  Then pony walls and then glass. Even I know that much.”  

Building a concrete foundation is just not ‘done’ much on the Westcoast.  Cement is heavy to buy, heavier to transport, and even heavier yet to mix and the ground is always uneven and, really, we are already ten years into the thirty year rule (meaning we are now building to the 20 year rule) and so I really didn’t want to build using any concrete.  So much work. So little energy.  But Sal hates mess and I had a few already-hard bags of Reddi-mix that, if I beat the crap out them, would likely serve us in their designed capacity if I added some extra Portland cement.  So, I beat the crap outta them with sledges and came up with some mixable material.  Not enough.  But some.

“I need more Reddi-mix.”

“Never gonna happen.”

“Only about six more bags.”

“Nope.”

I understand her being so adamant. She thinks if we get more bags, there will simply be a larger pile hardening under the deck.  I have to use up what I have before having that conversation again.  I hate to admit that she is right so I just submit quietly to her will.

Any other husband out there ever felt like that?

So, my greenhouse foundation concrete footing wall is only a few inches wide and a few inches deep.  Just enough, really, to get the pony-wall frames off the ground.  And, the pony walls are to be built from two-by-fours because greenhouses do not need heavy construction.

That’s the easy part.

The harder part is going to be welding a steel cage-like frame in which the windows will be placed.  I have to make a frame from 1″ angle iron in just the right way to accommodate about thirty large windows only four of which at any one gathering are even close to similar to each other.  I am trying to figure out a pattern that allows 3′ by 5′ windows to mix with 2′ by 4′ windows with the frequent inclusion of 30″ by 72″ windows for visual interest. Plus a bunch of small square ones of differing dimensions.  Got a couple of rhomboids too. Not the same size, of course.  This is literally a greenhouse puzzle.

I mention this because the lower funicular is just waiting on a motor controller and it will be done.  Chore number two is the greenhouse and, as you can tell, it is underway.  Kinda. Chore number three which is the guest bathroom will have to wait til next year.

Maybe.

I seem to be on a bit of a roll, after all.