Time To Write Another Blog

Please bear with me in my conversation about the weather. I know that I should not be writing that much about it but it still just seems so strange to me again this year. One day it is quite cold out, the next the temperature warms up and then again on the third day it is chilly again.

I can remember last year that it was so cold that I did not go outside once for a walk as was my custom in the other seasons. This year is pretty much the same except I did go out once for a short walk.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see when spring comes and what the temperature becomes. I do expect it to come relatively earlier than I thought it would because, unfortunately, we are seeing a whole bunch of bugs entering our house these days. While I am never very pleased about that, at least what it suggests to me is that springtime is coming a lot sooner than I would normally expect.

I believe that I have mentioned this before but perhaps I should do it again. This ought to be one of the big reasons why people of my age are selling their homes and moving into places like mine. I live in a condo in an attached townhouses area. In my particular part, three townhouses are attached. In other sections, there are four townhouses attached. We are quite fortunate that our units are of a good size and especially well laid out. More importantly, none of us any longer has to do any of our outside work. In the wintertime, when it snows, none of us has to worry. Once the snowfall has stopped, a short time later our maintenance firm comes in and cleans up not only our homes’ driveways but also our roadway with their snowplows. It makes life so much easier that it is enjoyable.

I am hoping that we truly have a relatively short winter this year and that springtime does come earlier than it did last year. It should be very interesting to see how the plants grow and what flowers come out quickly so that we will know that spring is here. I want to compare with last year because my recollection is that we seemed to go almost immediately from a very long winter into a relatively hot summer. I wonder what is going to happen this year and whether it is going to give us what has been projected. You may remember that there were supposed to be four years of very cold winter weather and this is the second year.

Let me now close the subject of the weather for this Blog and talk about some other matters that I think are very interesting.

THE REAL REASON FOR THE NDP ATTACK

Quite an interesting news release that the NDP issued about what is going on with GM in the automobile industry Canada.

I am sure that you may have seen the headline to the article written by the NDP on the subject:

“Windsor-essex NDP MPs Work to Protect Jobs and Call for "Made in Canada" Procurement Policy”

It was in an article posted on the NDP website on February 18, 2019.

Quite an attack by two of the three NDP representatives from our area, Cheryl Hardcastle and Tracey Ramsey. You should go and read it yourself. The attack by these two MPs was quite political against the Liberal Government and quite focused on this subject.

I found the comment by MP Brian Masse slightly different. Oh sure, he made a brief mention about this matter. However, his approach was much wider than his colleagues. He did not talk merely about the auto industry but about politics in general:

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing himself on the side of corporate greed, and not on the side of Canadians,” said Masse. “Canadians deserve a government that is willing to stand up and fight for their jobs and their interests.”

I have to admit that I am of the opinion that his attack was much wider than those of his colleagues. His was an NDP attack on the Liberal Government not just because of their position on GM but rather going against the Government in a much broader way. Sure his comment was rather general but I believe that it means that we will see a lot more attacks on different subjects involving the Liberals between now and election day. I expect him to lead as well in that strong opposition in the fight, supported by his colleagues, to at least maintain the elected positions of the NDP members in this area.

“OUR CURRENT INTENTION”

Gee, it may only be relevant now. It might be the timeframe before the next election not necessarily afterward. After all, why not get people on your side before they vote in the next election so that they support you:

“The federal government is working towards scrapping tolls for pedestrians and cyclists crossing the future Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure, Francois-Phillippe Champagne, made the comment in Windsor…

“This would be our intention, that there’d be no tolls but, we still need to finalize a few things — but this is our current intention,” said Champagne...

Minister Champagne wouldn’t fully commit to anything final — except that he would be the community’s voice at the table.” (CTV New, February 21, 2019) 

Did you see the emphasis on the word “current” in the quotation above? Moreover, the Minister made it clear that there was no final decision made yet.

I really wonder how many people are going to walk or bicycle all the extra distance to get to the new bridge in the first place and then to get to their location on the other side of the river. Seriously, how far is it to walk across the river and back? How much time would that take if one wanted to go for a nice stroll on the other side of the river? The location of the new Government bridge is not exactly so wonderful is it.

Of course, after the election, if the plans are changed, who can get very angry then? And even if one does, there is not that much that can be done then to the newly elected Government.

Oh well, perhaps the population will not be all that upset to spend $5.7 billion, or more, to build a Government bridge rather than being pleased that the Bridge Company will spend only another $500 million more themselves for their bridge which should be completed relatively soon.