The main problem with Indian reservations isn’t, as some argue, that they were established on worthless tracts of grassland. Consider the case of Buffalo County, S.D., which Census data reveal to be America’s poorest county. Some 2,000 people live there. More than 30% of the homes are headed by women without husbands. The median household income is less than $13,000. The unemployment rate is sky high.
Just to the east of Buffalo County lies Jerauld County, which is similar in size and population. Yet only 6% of its homes are headed by women without husbands, the median household income is more than $30,000, and the unemployment rate hovers around 3%. The fundamental difference between these two counties is that the Crow Creek Indian Reservation occupies much of Buffalo County. The place is a pocket of poverty in a land of plenty.

Read the whole thing.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Stephen Harper would destroy the Wheat Board
The Canadian Wheat Board
That’s right.
The one that pays farmers $2 a bushel for their wheat
Then deducts the freight rate
And throws them in jail
And confiscates their grain trucks
If they try to sell it themselves
Except if they’re in Ontario
That’s right
Only Western farmers must sell to the Wheat Board
Stephen Harper would put an end to all that
And make the Wheat Board voluntary for Western farmers
And stop putting them in jail
For selling their own grain
We are not making us up.
Choose your Canada.

“The reason why Canada cannot sell gas and oil to the US is that, once we started, we could never stop. It would be the end of Canadian sovereignty”
“The reason why Canada cannot sell hydroelectric power to the US is that, once we started, we could never stop. It would be the end of Canadian sovereignty”
“The reason why Canada cannot sell lumber to the US is that, once we started, we could never stop. It would be the end of Canadian sovereignty”

*sigh*
I do despair.

Now that he’s finished polishing it in Alberta, Damian Brooks thinks the time has come for Jack Layton to take his act on the road – to Quebec.

Now that the Supreme Court of Canada has replaced the “community standard of tolerance with a harm-based test”, let’s hope the approved-list-of-shrubbery-and-house-colour “planned community” question is soon put to the courts.
I for one, can’t wait to see the restoration of our constitutional right to store a vehicle on blocks in the front driveway.

Ottawa Sun;

Federal prison guards are raising the red flag on a Corrections Canada program that quietly pays convicted murderers to supervise prisoners on community outings or transfers.
The Lifeline program hires “lifers” who have been paroled for at least five years, but remain under community supervision for life, to carry out “in-reach” socialization programs and escort inmates on shopping trips or transfers to half- way houses.
Through contracts with community agencies such as the John Howard Society or St. Leonard’s Society, the Correctional Service of Canada pays $55,000 a year for each of the 24 workers across the country.
According to the CSC, each lifer draws a salary of at least $41,000 a year [emphasis mine -ed], with the rest covering administration costs.
“It’s like giving the key to the prison to the convicts,” said Sylvain Martel, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.
[…]
One prison guard source from Ontario’s minimum-security Pittsburgh Institution said the in-reach worker there accompanies inmates to the mall or lunch at Red Lobster, and escorts convicts to halfway houses across the province. Because they’re “peers” instead of authority figures, the door is open to potential criminal activity or escape.
“It’s atrocious,” the guard said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
CSC spokeswoman Michele Pilon-Santilli insisted the program is valuable for teaching responsible citizenship and said only “minor incidents” have been reported.

Like the Ferndale Resort Prison, the $700,000 CCS “pilot program” to provide prison tattoos (pick your gang affiliation from the samples on the wall!), spa days for women inmates and the unbelievable policy that prohibits prison guards from carrying weapons of any type when escorting dangerous inmates in public – why isn’t this an election issue?

The Progressive Bloggers website is running an IQ Test.
So far, with over 100 responding, they’ve recorded a 51.4% failure rate.

If you’re a John Gormley Live listener stopping by to check out the “Raise A Flag” controversy, (the website is now down) you can read the post that started it all here along with followup posts here and here.
Heh.

And to the victor go the spoils.
Reaction to another pre-election “Hail Mary” cash toss by the Liberals to settle residential school claims at Dust My Broom (including a link to the Auditor General’s report);

Read the whole thing as it is very enlightening. She is nice about it, but if you read deeper you’ll notice the complete incompetance of our huge government’s ability to accomplish simple agendas.
The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is probably the worst of it all. Terrible management layered with multiple hellish bureaucracy and complex idioms that nobody can understand. Think how they will handle an extra $8 billion running through their fingers next year. It will be a damn waste.
The only way to go to improve anything is to eliminate this huge governance hidden under the farce of caring.

Bonus: Darcey catches CTV airbrushing their online report.

Mark Collins shared this not so uncommon gem in the comments section at Angry’s. The bottom paragraph comes close to Monty Python material;

‘Classification: AS-03 (Anticipatory staffing)
Position Title: Assistant Branch Manager, Correspondence & Parliamentary Affairs
Department or Agency: Department of Health
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Organization: Corporate Services Branch, Office of the Assistant Deputy Minister
Salary: $ 50,457 – $ 54,365 per year
Tenure
Term length: 1 year(s)
When may I apply?
On or before November 25, 2005
Who can apply?
**Persons employed in the Public Service occupying a position in the National Capital Region who are members of visible minority groups. As an equal opportunity employer, Health Canada is committed to achieving a skilled, diversified workforce that reflects the diversity of the Canadian population. In support of developing a diverse workforce, this opportunity is open to those persons belonging to a visible minority group. The Employment Equity Act defines members of visible minority groups as follows: “persons other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour”. Applicants must clearly self-identify as belonging to a visible minority group in their application…’

“Self-identify”? Clearly, that is a policy open to abuse!
In the automotive repair and refinishing industry, we have an easy solution for that!

Yikes.

(click on the image)
In other words, this isn’t news.

Calgary Herald;

Swelling numbers of drug addicted teenagers in Alberta prompted the opening Thursday of two dozen new treatment beds.
Opposition Liberals blamed the booming Alberta economy for the problem.

As we are so often reminded, there is no statistical correlation between poverty and drug abuse.

A reader urged that I give this item from Norm’s Spectator wider exposure. My pleasure, as always! (Be sure to click on the link to read his brief comment.)

Proposed by the Laval Federal Liberal Association, it reads:
Whereas the Chaoulli decision has demonstrated that, in practice, the current health care system enables the wealthy to obtain health care without the normal waiting times;
Whereas waiting times in the public health care system lead to physical and psychological illnesses; Whereas in certain cases waiting times can lead to death;
Whereas the illnesses caused by these waiting times are a violation of the fundamental principles of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
Whereas prohibiting private health insurance has not proven to be an infallible means of protecting the public health care system or as a provision ensuring respect for, and implementation of, our values enshrined in the Charter;
Be it resolved that the Liberal Party of Canada shall request Parliament to consider other methods of safeguarding and protecting the public health care system other than by prohibiting private health insurance;
Be it further resolved that we shall support all efforts to reduce waiting times by means that go beyond simply prohibiting private health insurance plans;
Be it further resolved that we recommend considering practices that make room for private initiatives whose terms and conditions will be supervised by the government.

Now, perhaps one of those early morning sleepyheads who surf through here from bellglobal.ca and the CBC to catch up on next week’s news will take this development further.
Who’d have guessed this glimmer of reality-based policy would break through the clouds on Planet Liberal to shine over Quebec?

Montreal Gazette;

Agriculture Department inspectors swooped down on four Wal-Mart stores in the Quebec City area yesterday and seized 72 plastic tubs of yellow Becel margarine with an estimated street value of $179.28.
The margarine is butter yellow, which makes it illegal for sale in Quebec.
The measure is intended to protect the province’s 3,000 dairy producers.
Andre Menard, spokesperson for acting agriculture minister Laurent Lessard, said 44 of the contraband margarine containers were seized at the Levis Wal-Mart, across the river from the capital.
Another 28 were discovered at a Wal-Mart in the borough of Beauport, he said.
“In Quebec City (proper), we think they withdrew them before we came,” Menard added.
On Thursday, Maxime Arseneau, agriculture critic for the Parti Quebecois, tabled a margarine tub in the National Assembly and charged that Unilever Canada Inc., which makes Becel, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Canada were conspiring to bring yellow margarine into the province.
“This is serious,” Arseneau chided reporters who found the situation humorous.

Related: Hitler’s stance on margarine.

How did this story escape the notice of Canadian media?

Hundreds of French youths fought with police and set cars ablaze on Saturday in a second night of rioting which media said was triggered when two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing police. The teenagers were killed and a third seriously injured on Thursday night when they were electrocuted in an electricity sub station as they ran away from police investigating a break-in, media reported. (Reuters)
Youths rioted for the second night in a Paris suburb torching 30 cars and fighting with police. Parisians worried that the situation was escalating:

And a third. Clichy-sous-Bois is a Paris suburb with a population of around 28,000 and the home of the first “Beurger King Muslim”. 50 percent of the population is under 25 and a quarter are unemployed. Most are immigrants from Northern Africa.
As we know, this has all happened because Jacques Chirac hates black people.
h/t Instapundit
See here, too – (thanks to Sigmund, carl and alfred in the comments).

Via China E-Lobby, who seem to have a better handle on the important developments in this province than the entire editorial staff of the Star Phoenix and Leader Post combined.

Woe Canada! Saskatchewan Premier looking for Communist oil investors: Lorne Calver, Premier of Saskatchewan, has gone to Beijing and opened up his province’s oil and uranium fields to Communist Chinese “investment.” He even gushed that the cadres “floated some ideas for the actual purchase of [oil field] properties that they would develop themselves” (Globe and Mail, Cdn.). One can only imagine what Friendly Blog Small Dead Animals (headquartered in Saskatchewan) thinks of this.

Nobody needs to be told what I think of this.
The unfortunate fact is that I would guess that fully a third of the politically bankrupt residents of this province will react with self-rightous smugness in the belief that the primary benefit of Calvert’s cozy relationship with the world’s largest one-party dictatorship is that it keeps the Americans out.
Of course, the way that the Saskatchewan NDP and the Communist Chinese do “business” makes them birds of a feather. John Derbyshire in NRO in April of 2001;

No large commercial concern in China is simply a commercial concern. To thrive, or even just to survive, an entrepreneur must establish and maintain strong political connections. “Doing business with China” means doing business, though at one remove, with Chinese politicians � the sleeping partners in the ownership of every Chinese company.
It follows that any American doing business on a large scale in China must, if he is going to prosper, at a minimum take pains not to offend the Chinese government. If necessary, he must be willing to make himself a tool of that government. This is a state of affairs quite different from doing business with other countries. If Boeing enters into a plane-making joint venture with British Aerospace, the chairman of Boeing feels no need to button his lip on such matters as Northern Ireland or the proper way to manage foot- and-mouth outbreaks. The chairman of a U.S. company doing business in China who says out loud that he thinks Taiwan ought to be independent can measure the remainder of his chairmanship in nanoseconds.

Just like Saskatchewan (pdf), except 1.3 thousand times bigger!
The same Tommy Douglas who threw the oil industry out of the province in the 1940’s must be spinning in his grave – out of frustration in not being alive today to welcome the Communist Chinese with open arms.