Via email;

The CTF’s annual waste recognition event – the Teddy Waste Awards – are approaching and we need your help.
This is the biggest media event of the year that blows the whistle on government waste. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And nothing will change unless we put wastrels in the spotlight and demand better from those charged with managing our tax dollars.
The worst wrongdoers – the most specious spendthrifts at the local, provincial and federal level – are singled out for a Teddy – the golden sow, a handsome gilded symbol of government waste and extravagance of the highest order.
And that’s where we need your help. Have you heard of a local, provincial or national story of government waste that you think deserves to be nominated for a Teddy?
If you have a great nominee please email us at: research@taxpayer.com

BBC Business reporter Peter Day has published a new podcast that provides an historical perspective on recessions/depressions, with a particular focus on the one the world is currently going through. Hopefully you’ll find it inspiring and realize that there is light on the horizon … especially if the economy-killer, Obama, is fired next year.
Update: Or you can just laugh your way into oblivion! (Better than crying) – h/t LC Bennett

A long standing pet peeve of mine has been the unwillingness of Canadian booksellers to acknowledge the fact that the Canadian dollar is no longer worth 30 – 40% less than its U.S. counterpart. Even though the two currencies have been around par since March 2010, booksellers north of the border have been pulling a Deaf, Dumb, & Blind act similar to this.
I was therefore most pleasantly surprised, when I went to order Mark Steyn’s latest book, to discover this:
Canadian Price:

American Price:

Gunter: “We need a Crown corporation delivering our mail the same way we need government-owned telephone services or public buggy whip makers.”
P.S. Denis Lemelin, the president of Canadian Postal Workers Union, talks with Krista Erickson of Sun News TV.

Via WUWT;

Dr. Tim Ball is widely recognized as one of Canada’s first qualified climate scientists and has long been one of the most prominent skeptics taking a stand on corruption and unethical practices. Two exponents of the global warming scare Ball has targeted, professors Michael Mann and Andrew Weaver, are now suing him for libel.
Many suspect the David Suzuki Foundation is funding Vancouver libel specialist, Roger D. McConchie who is representing both Weaver and Mann against Ball. Suzuki is reported as wanting skeptics like Ball “put in prison.”

Well, so much for Ball’s “Big Oil” funding – these actions put those lies to rest. SLAPP suits aren’t effective on targets with fat bank accounts.
You can donate here. I already have.

Judy, Romanian Strippers, Sgro says that she wasn’t aware that expensing rent to her children landlords was against the rules.
But, we don’t need to look at MP’s lunch tabs, right, Iggy?

Traffic at the CTF website has gone through the roof – wonder why?

Convicted criminals like serial child killer Clifford Olson, who are over the age of 65 and reside in federal and provincial jails, are currently eligible to collect Old Age Security (OAS) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) payments from Canadian taxpayers.
These programs are intended to help seniors make ends meet, not to fill the bank accounts of incarcerated convicts.

Go help out them out here, if you’re so inclined. They hope to deliver the petition in a couple of weeks. My guess is they’ll need a truck.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation President Troy Lanigan explains the Conservative’s 2010-11 budget in Loonieland. New spending outstrips savings by a ratio of 14 to 1 and commits only to budget deficits for the next five years.

View other CTF videos here.