Saturday, August 05, 2006

This and that ...

From the part of this gang that has barely figured out how to work Blogger we nod to Mr. Comments Closed, who spends lots of time talking about us and apparently is a great whiz with the Internet -- we poor schleps feel unworthy to exist in parallel cyberspace with him. Here, though, are just a few thoughts of the day to keep things going in this space until we are back up to full fighting form.

------------

Dan Lett seems to have become the official chronicler of the ins-and-outs of the Fort Rouge situation. Today he confirms James Allum's entry in the race, after last week's official confirmation that Donne Flanagan is out. All that's left is the official confirmation of Jennifer Howard's candidacy. We await that piece. James, currently NDP party president, does not seem to share Flanagan's exiting rationale, that the caucus needs more quality women and was stepping aside in the hope of improving Howard's chances. Though Allum of course has every right in the world to run and is clearly a quality candidate, it is interesting that Lett did not ask why Allum doesn't appear to feel the same as Flanagan.

UPDATE: We've heard Peter Reimer has told his supporters he is out. Is this right?

UPDATE, UPDATE: We're told that Pete is indeed out for sure, having informed his supporters.

-----------

Not surprisingly, we angered journo and opposition politico types with our post about the growing FIPPA industry and specifically a recent CP story featuring a denial of access to Hecla sale info. Just to address some of the discussion -- this blog has always been clear we are pretty close to the NDP buzz at the leg, never denied it. But there is no official sanction from anybody. This is a private project to have some non-right wing content in the generally knuckle-dragging Manitoba blogosphere, not done on anyone's company time. And last we checked, there were no laws forcing people to read the content here, so if the content offends (which we hope we generally do not do) then readers are free to stop being readers. Simple as that. Other than that, we intend on continuing to offer our views on the world.

----------

We agree with Lett that reading PUB orders is right under watching paint peel on the fun list. But the request to Hydo to charge a big differential rate on large hydro consumers is going to be a very tricky issue for Hydro and the government to navigate. While Hydro would love to penalize the Canexuses of the world (despite announcing huge new investment in the Brandon area) -- how they avoid whacking the Inco's, Tebbec's and Mb Rolling Mills at the same time is a huge question.

---------

We share the joy of others with the prospect of thinning down our wallets with the new credit-card size driver's licence being introduced by MPI. We don't share some of the negative nabobery (nabobism?) about there still being a second piece of paper accompanying the card. It seems wiser to go this route now than to spend lots more money later to revamp the whole thing once the US tells us what acceptable security features they require.

And while we're talking about money, it's a bit rich to see the Winnipeg Sun bash constantly about wasting money when they seem to hardly be able to add. In recent coverage about the Spirited Energy campaign, the Sun recounts what has been reported before, that the government spent about $1.6 million in both developing the brand and in the big campaign this summer. The private sector piched in about $500,000. That adds up to $2.1 million, right? Well, apparently not. In Kathleen Martens accounting, it adds up to $4 million. Back to the abacus, we say!