Another News Story

I just found so many interesting items on the Internet that I wanted to show them to you with my comments. I hope you enjoy what I am posting:

WHAT IS CANADA'S ECONOMIC FUTURE

That is a pretty big question isn't it! Who knows if our economy will improve dramatically with more business or fail miserably with the shutdown of businesses with the new US President!

I thought you might find this comment interesting:

"So far, the main target of Trump's tough trade talk has been Mexico. But there's concern Canada could also be threatened with tariffs or other restrictions.

"It could change things fairly drastically," auto industry expert Tony Faria says. But he believes Trump or his advisers will realize, if they haven't already, that disrupting the highly integrated auto industry supply chain would do damage on both sides of the border…

"It's nerve-racking," MacKenzie says. "Human nature has a habit, in a vacuum of not knowing, to jump to the worst-case scenarios."

In those worst-case scenarios, tariffs on the auto industry pop up and Windsor, once again, spirals downwards." (Havard Gould, CBC News, January 28, 2017) 

I certainly expect that the trip of our Prime Minister to Washington to meet the US President has to be viewed as "positive." It has to be doesn't it or else this Country could face significant damage from the new US President. Let's just wait and see what  happens…..and hope for the best!

WILL FRED FRANCIS BE THE NEW WINDSOR MAYOR

Of course he is going to run! Why else do you think that he ran for Council and was elected in the last election. It looks like he is following what his brother did. He would be our new Mayor after merely one term in office.

Gord Henderson certainly set out the wonderful position of Fred in a column he wrote in the Windsor Star on January 28, 2017 praising what he had to say recently. It was a way to protect him from the tax increase that Windsor Citizens will see this year that they will have to pay. And probably next year as well:

"Noble ideas. Truly. But who pays? Not generous Wynne and company. No. The burden falls on the local resident, all too often a pensioner already reeling from Liberal government moves that have sent electricity bills through the roof while jacking up home heating and gasoline prices in pursuit of international recognition as a haven of environmental correctness.

Coun. Fred Francis, who voted against the budget, along with Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac, because he believed the city could have come closer to zero, thinks downloading of additional expenses from the Wynne government kept Windsor from reaching that goal…

“Without those increases I’m 100 per cent certain we would have been a ninth straight year at zero,” insisted Francis."

So you may blame the Ontario Premier for the increase in taxes in this City and not Francis when he is running for a senior position on Council.

WHY DID THIS PERSON LEAVE OFFICE AT THIS TIME

Absolutely brilliant move on this person's part:

"Second Postmedia executive to depart after receiving retention bonus

The Canadian Press  01.27.2017

TORONTO - The chief financial officer for Postmedia Network Inc. will be leaving the struggling newspaper chain at the end of February, just months after he was identified as one of five senior executives eligible for retention bonuses totalling $2.275 million.

Postmedia didn't announce a reason for the departure of CFO Doug Lamb, scheduled for Feb. 28, but chief executive Paul Godfrey said he has "our tremendous thanks" for being Postmedia's CFO since the company was created in 2010.

Documents filed by the company with regulators in November said Lamb was eligible for a $450,000 retention bonus, to be paid in three equal installments on July 15 and Dec. 2, 2016 and July 14, 2017." (CanadianPress, January 27, 2017)

Guess who the first person was who did this. Give up? It was General Counsel Jeffrey Haar.

WILL THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE NOW BE BUILT

I am sure that you will remember that the Keystone Pipeline was not allowed by President Obama to go forward. He vetoed it. It was a project that the Republican politicians favoured.

However, one can make the argument that he never really decided whether this was a good project or not to move forward. His reason for the veto was limited it can be argued:

"The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously," Obama said in his veto message to the Senate. "But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people. And because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto." (Gregory Korte , USATODAY February 24, 2015)