Archive for January, 2009

The Grant MacEwan College Board of Governors announced a while ago that the facility would maximize the tution increase for next year. Being a student at Grant MacEwan, this obviously resonates with me very strongly. Seeing as MacEwan is going to provide the Bachelor of Science degree and needs money for that, and the majority of the increase will go towards staff wages, I do not hold any ill will towards the college for the increase. Who I do blame for the massive increase, however, is the provincial government. The amount of funding that Alberta provides for post-secondary institutions is so miniscule that it is embarassing. There is no excuse for it.

Obviously, some will argue that with the economic recession starting to hit Alberta, we cannot afford to increase spending. Quite frankly, this is wrong. In a recession, we must have manageable deficits to minimize the effect of a recession, and pay it off when the economy picks up again. What should have happened was when we were in a boom, the government should have put the surplus into a savings account, so we could retroactively pay off the deficits that we would be forced to go into during the inevitable recession. Instead, our idiot former Premier Ralph Klein and his moronic successor Ed Stelmach decided to do nothing and let the province run on “autopilot*”. Only an eighth-grade dropout could come up with an idea so mind numbingly stupid. The second he came up with the idea of a government that does nothing, he should have forfeited his salary. He was never elected to do nothing. Where I work, if you do nothing, you get fired. In the next election, did we fire Klein? No, we re-elected him. This is a man who once insulted handicapped recipients of Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH), claiming that “…they didn’t look severely handicapped to me…”. No, Ralph, they didn’t. You know why? Because we don’t give M.D.’s to people who can’t even finish grade 9, never mind grade 12 or university.

When Ralph Klein finally retired, many thought that the era of doing nothing (other than slash-and-burn spending) was finally over. Oh how wrong we were. Instead, we got more inaction (if you don’t count giving himself and his cabinet a massive pay raise). To put that raise into perspective: the increase alone is almost as much as my mom makes in a year. It is over double what I make in a year. Stelmach justified this increase by saying that it would attract brighter people to politics. Ignoring the obvious jokes about him implying that his own cabinet (including himself) are not adequate for this province (they’re not), keep in mind what they get. $184,000/year for cabinet ministers and $213,450/year for the Premier. Think about that. Chances are very good that you did not make anywhere close to that. How can this man claim to represent you, and have any idea on the economic challenges that you face when he makes four times what you make? His bright idea for dealing with the recession is to have Ralph Klein era budget cuts. This begs the question: what is there left to cut? Rather than cut anything you can see, Stelmach, why not give yourself a pay cut? If the economy is so dire, give yourself a 50% pay cut. You’ll still make more than double what the rest of us make.

One has to wonder, how does this party keep getting elected? How is it possible that a party full of nothing but imbeciles and dunces can hold onto power for 38 years? Is this province really so collectively stupid that they are incapable of having any thought process other than “I’ve always voted conservative, so I’ll keep voting conservative”?  In 2011, when we go to the polls again, I urge everyone to remember this history of mental retardation when it comes to governing and strategically vote A.B.C. (Anything But Conservative). If we ever want to have a government that understands the people, we need to get involved and put this current on on the street. Until the next election, write both your current MLA and Ed Stelmach, and let them know about your displeasure with the current path of the government.

*It should be noted that, despite our common last name, I am not related to Dr. Lois Harder

Today, I write my most important blog post ever.

What the hell happened to Sodalicious? These were always my favorite snack when I was a kid. If anyone finds these in store, please let me know in the comments or email me at admin@travisharder.ca with the subject “Sodalicious!”. Seriously, people, not making these is the greatest atrocity man kind has ever committed. Ever. Gitmo isn’t even as bad as ending production on these wonderful candies.

P.S. How did “travesty” come to be a bad thing? damnit, I will not allow a derivitive of my name to be used in such a manner! I am taking it back. From here on out, the word “travesty” shall now mean great accomplishment! Think I can’t just change the meaning of a word? Oh YES I CAN!

According to a report by Ars Technica, four major Canadian ISPs, including Bell, Shaw and Rogers throttle P2P traffic via Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). According to a report done by University of Victoria grad student Christopher Parsons, most of the filings for submitted by the ISPs were submitted in confidence, thus hiding traffic numbers to the public.

This is just shameful. There is no reason for ISPs to throttle internet access and is simply counter-productive. Many Canadians wonder why we are always behind the rest of the world, technologically speaking, and this is out answer. The CRTC refuses to regulate our ISPs and enforce net neutrality, thus letting the companies do whatever they want. TV is dying, and new media is the future. Unfortuantly, new media access in Canada will be stunted due to the fact that P2P traffic, such as bit torrent will be restricted and bit torrent is a cheap way for people to distribute files, such as podcasts, Linux image files and WoW updates. Yes, it sucks that it’s going to cost the ISPs more money for upload, but so what? It’s a cost of business. If you never want to embrace changing technology, get out of the technology industry. It’s shameful that not only can these companies rule in a virtual monopoly, they can take advantage of that situation and screw over their customers, knowing that they will not be able to take their business elsewhere, unless they want to go back to dial up.

38: the percentage of the popular vote the Conservative Party of Canada recieved in the last election.

47: the percentage of seats won by the Conservative Party of Canada.

54: the percentage of the popular vote the members of the Progressive Coalition: the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party of Canada and the Bloc Quebecois recieved.

53: the percentage of seats won by members of the Progressive Coalition.

Do you see anything wrong here?

59: the percentage of eligible voters who voted.

49: the percentage of Canadians who know that the Prime Minister is not directly elected.

24: the percentage of Canadians who know that the Queen if our Head of State.

41: the percentage of Canadians who know that our political system is a “Constitutional Monarchy”

Now do you see a problem?

These numbers come from the official Elections Canada website and the Dominion Institute, which conducted an Ipsos Reid poll on our understanding of our own political system.

The results are downright embarassing. How is it possible that 3/4 Canadians don’t even know who our Head of State is? How is it possible that a majority of Canadians don’t even realize what the hell they’re doing when they go to the voting station? Three months ago, we went to the polls and yet we’ve somehow already forgotten that Stephen Harper’s name wasn’t on the ballot? (Unless you lived in Calgary-Southwest, but even then, the lack of Stephane Dion and Jack Layton should’ve tipped you off). I used to think that this was evidence that something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong, but I now realize that it means the exact opposite. Our ignorance is pure gold to politicians. Stephen Harper has learned that he can minipulate us with lies, and we’ll fall for it time and time again. We have become a nation of sheep, falling for whatever we’re told. We blindly trust whatever our polticians tell us, instead of researching things for ourselves.

If we are to ever get a government worth having, we need to start thinking for ourselves and doing our own research, since we can’t trust our politicans.