PRAGMATIC POLITICS AND THE EVOLUTION OF OBAMA

And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed

A number of times over the past few months I have talked about Barack Obama's political roots in Chicago. I have talked about the constituents he would have had to sew together in his early political days and how some of those original stepping stones have come to be a liability in the last few weeks.

I remember a song called the The Night Chicago Died; it references the east side in the days of Al Capone. It was these same tough east side neighborhoods that Obama cut his teeth on in making a bid for municipal politics, then congress, and on to the Senate. He courted the older black leaders entrenched in Chicago’s ward politics and the Democratic machine politics that they were part of.

His detractors said he was wishy-washy, trying to have it both ways all the time. His proponents say no, he was trying not to isolate people, that he was building a big tent. That big tent launched his career but some of the fancy political skills he developed on the political tight-rope in Chicago have haunted him as of late. In particular Rev. Wright.

The New York Times provides an informative look at the building blocks of Obama's early political career. I like the concept of building an inclusive big tent. It explains a lot about the man who may be the next President of the United States if he can get blue collar whites under the tarp.

NEW MONUMENT TO COMMEMORATE FOX

Good news from Historic Sites and Monument Board of Canada. They have seen fit to erect a new plaque to commemorate the start of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope here in St. John's.

In total three new plaques will be erected to commemorate his cross-country trek to raise money for cancer research. The other two will be placed at his birthplace, Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, and where the marathon ended in Thunder Bay, Ontario after Fox became too ill to go on.

A date has not been set for the unveiling but one could reasonably expect they will be in place for this fall.

In April of 2005, the family of Terry Fox erected a slate monument on the 25th anniversary of the run to mark the first mile in St. John's.

RCMP CONTINUE TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED CADMAN BRIBE

The Cadman issue has not gone away. The Toronto Star is reporting that the RCMP have interviewed Chuck Cadman's widow twice in the last two months after launching an investigation into an alleged offer by Conservative Party officials to the dying MP.

I expect a release from some Conservative backbencher shortly, claiming this probe is proof that the RCMP are working with the opposition and have it in for the government!

Cadman, a former Reform and Conservative MP, was an Independent MP when he voted with the minority Liberal government in a crucial budget vote on May 19, 2005. His widow says that two Conservative officials came to visit him prior to the vote and offered him a $1 million life insurance policy in return for bringing the Liberal government down. He died two months after the vote. Prime Minister Harper denies the allegation and says that they only offered to financially assist Cadman in rejoining the party. Dona Cadman said her husband was angry about the offer and rejected it

She is currently the Conservative candidate in her late husband's riding of Surrey North. She asked Stephen Harper about the offer, and the then-opposition leader told her he had no knowledge of an insurance policy.

A lawsuit has been filed by the Prime Minister, seeking $2.5 million in damages over articles posted about the Cadman bribery allegations on the Liberal website.

BC NEEDS TO GO IT ALONE

British Columbia Attorney-General Wally Oppal is not finding much support from his fellow lawmakers in Arizona and and Utah to prosecute FLDS members for practicing polygamy.

Utah Attorney-General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney-General Terry Goddard have both ruled out a Texas-like raid of polygamous communities in their states. Officials in British Columbia continue to study the issue.

Oppal is considering whether to press criminal charges against polygamist FLDS members or refer the issue of polygamy directly to the courts for a clarification on whether Charter protections for freedom of religion trump the law on polygamy. The options reflect the advice of two Vancouver lawyers, Richard Peck and Len Doust, who concluded that polygamy is the root of the problem that leads to all other harms.

Meanwhile child abuse and domestic violence goes unchecked in Bountiful. Wally, grow some balls and go after these guys.

VANDALS DESTROY GROTTO ON BELL ISLAND

The damage to the Sacred Heart Grotto in Lance Cove is incredibly disturbing. The incidents of broken headstones and graffiti sprayed on churches and other sacred places with foul language seems to be increasing. There appears to be a problem of epidemic proportions.

As a member of the Parish Council at St. Paul's on Newfoundland Drive, I know that the care keeper has a full time job trying to keep the spray painted slogans off the back outside walls and we have had to replace windows a few times.

Why is there such disrespect for sacred ground? Why do vandals feel the urge to destroy religious monuments? What possesses someone to feel it is okay to go around kicking down memorials and headstones?

What about the dignity of the generations of people who came before us? It is sickening and saddening. I hope those responsible are caught and that the courts deal with the issue harshly. Youths or whoever is responsible need to know that there are real consequences .

GETTING THE TOOTHPASTE BACK IN THE TUBE

I certainly hope the "flush with cash" provincial government is not going to try to rein in the Cameron Commission by not granting Justice Margaret Cameron the extension she has requested.

Over the past week a number of things have occurred which in my humble opinion threaten the independence of the Commission. Premier Williams expressed his opinion that the commission had become too prosecutorial in its approach. The Premier used the term "witch hunt" to describe the methods of the legal council. Some critics, including NDP leader Lorraine Michael, have expressed concern that the comments verge on political interference.

The province's Justice Minister stated publicly yesterday that the price tag of the proceedings is growing. Jerome Kennedy says $750,000 has been paid out to commission council and 80 people are still on the witness list. He told VOCM Back Talk that " if this inquiry is not completed expeditiously, yet thoroughly, then we won't have a medical system left." Are the terms expeditiously and throughly even compatible.

It almost sounds to me like this government is prepared to grant immunity to those that administered and allowed this tragedy to happen, rather than face the ugly truth that lack of accountability and long term budgetary demands by government played a role.

Cameron's request has to be considered by the cabinet. Cabinet should also consider that the inquiry has experienced delays because Eastern Health dragged the inquiry out by asking the courts to prevent the release of damaging external reviews of the pathology lab; and over a week was lost as government scrambled to find e-mails that were only uncovered after the inquiry started.

It is one thing to give the commission carte blanche to spend money, and another to use budget concerns to cut short the time needed by the commission to do its work. Can you imagine the outrage that would have created if Peckford had said to the Ocean Ranger Inquiry that they were on a witch hunt and the inquiry was costing to0 much, or if Clyde Wells had taken the same approach to the Mount Cashel Inquiry?

Questions need to be asked. Toes may need to be trampled upon. This Commission has been given a mandate and the political leaders should know better than anyone that public comments about the activities of an ongoing Royal Commission only serve to erode the credibility of the government.

AN AFTERNOON HIKING ALONG QUIDI VIDI

The boys and I spent the afternoon hiking around Quidi Vidi and the Battery. Lots of out of the way trails, a few cannons and a few icebergs made for an exhausting time. There are a few bergy bits around freshwater bay but nothing to get overly excited about yet. Although it is looking like a bumper year for bergs. If the weather is decent tomorrow we may take a spin out around Trinity and Conception Bay.

There's an interesting piece in the Telegraph by Professor Stuart Campbell, a London obstetrician who discusses his "technique for producing detailed 3D images of the developing fetus that show it smiling, yawning, rubbing its eyes and apparently 'walking' in the womb."

He continues:

"Though I perform these scans every day, I am still overcome by the excitement and the wonder of the foetus that is learning to be a baby. By 20 weeks it smiles, makes crying expressions and sucks its thumb. At 23 weeks, it begins to open its eyes and develops quite complex patterns of behaviour. It can survive outside the womb.

"I have been accused of sentimentality, but the fact is that, in these images, foetuses are baby-like. To me it is almost barbaric to abort foetuses between 20 and 24 weeks. In fact, the procedure is so unattractive and distressing that few doctors will perform the operation after 20 weeks."

Campbell, however, advocates reducing the amount of red tape involved in procuring an abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. (The current law in Great Britain requires two doctors to sign off in such cases, though in practice this is basically a formality, according to Campbell.) Here's his reasoning:

"Delay is bad. Anything that speeds up the process and enables an abortion to be carried out more expeditiously once a woman has made her decision, is to be welcomed.

. . .

"Some GPs are less keen on performing terminations than others. While they go through the laborious formalities of seeking independent signatures, a woman may be left waiting for two or three weeks before her termination. In that time, the foetus is acquiring the startling human characteristics seen in the scans carried out every day in hospitals around the country."

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it, this obstetrician's position with respect to unborn babies is, Hurry up and kill it before it starts doing anything too cute that might convict my conscience!

I can't understand how anyone could be intellectually satisfied with such a position. Aborting a 20-to-24-week-old fetus is "almost barbaric," but aborting a less-than-20-week-old fetus is apparently morally neutral, a process to be streamlined? There's a very strange philosophical scheme at work here, one that establishes a firm chronological cut-off point for determining the humanity of an unborn baby, based largely on the emotional response the baby evokes.

Such a scheme seems, to me, intellectually unsustainable. What if you're faced with a particularly precocious 19-and-a-half-week-old fetus? Would aborting that baby be barbaric, or no? What is it, exactly, that happens at that magical 20-week threshold that universally transmogrifies non-humans into humans?

Is there an ontological difference between a 20-week-old fetus and a 19-week-old fetus? Between a 19-week-old and an 18-week-old? Between an 18-week-old and a 17-week-old, and so on?

BAD NEWS FOR FORESTRY SECTOR

The forest industry on the island part of the province has had its challenges over the past few years. Fires have destroyed sawmills and the slump hitting the paper industry caused the closure of the Abitibi Mill in Stephenville and the closure of a paper machine at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper last summer.

VOCM is reporting that another twenty employees at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper are losing their jobs. The CEP local says that 1n 1989 the union had 1,500 members and now they're down to 600.

When you do the math and throw in the 700 jobs or so from Stephenville, you arrive at the conclusion that a few thousand good paying jobs are gone from rural Newfoundland in the forestry sector alone.

SMILE FOR THE DAY

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

- ROBERT FROST

TRAIN QUARANTINED: ONE DEAD - 10 SICK

Call in Mulder and Scully, there is an X-file unfolding in Northern Ontario. A Via Rail train has been quarantined after a woman in her 60's died following flu like symptoms. At least 10 others are ill with flu-like symptoms. One was airlifted to hospital.

A spokeswoman for Via Rail told The Canadian Press that the train departed Vancouver three days ago and hadn't reported any problems before Friday. The illnesses appeared to have been contained to two train cars.

Officials say the matter has become one of federal jurisdiction because the train travelled through a number of provinces.

THE VP SWEEPSTAKES

With the Democratic nomination all but in the bag, speculation has moved away from who will win to who Obama will select as his running mate. Jesse Jackson and Pastor Wright are rumored to not be on the short list. Apparently the campaign has designed a short list based on a number of factors; the top one is knowing how to spell potato.

Salon has compiled a list and a quiz to provide you with an opportunity to assist Obama in making this delicate and strategic choice.

Take the test and post your results!

My three picks as generated by the quiz.

1. Gen Wesley Clark
2. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (LA)
3. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas)

INGENUITY AND BIG BROTHER

There are over 13 million CCTV cameras in Britain monitoring and recording people, buses, trains, malls, streets and the like. We have seen some of the footage from these cameras as the trial of the suspects in the London Subway and Bus bombings unfold.

I have a sort of 1984 big brother paranoia of this kind of surveillance. Despite the fact that one has nothing to be concerned about if one does nothing wrong, the potential for abuse is always there.

A band in Britain has found a way to turn the tables a little and take advantage of the opportunity presented by the cameras. The Get Out Clause set up their equipment, drum kit and all, in eighty locations around Manchester – including on a bus – and proceeded to play to the cameras. Than they filed the proper applications under the freedom of information laws for copies of the video.

Only a quarter of the organizations contacted fulfilled their obligation to hand over the footage – perhaps predictably, bigger firms were reluctant, while smaller companies were more helpful – but that still provided enough for a video with 20 locations.

More details at the Telegraph web site.

RCMP CONTINUE TO DISMANTLE THEIR REPUTATION

Another RCMP Taser fiasco. This time the man survived. He was an 82 year old hospitalized man who became delirious. The RCMP officer in question might have exercised better judgment.

The elderly man in Kamloops, B.C., was zapped three times on the torso by a police Taser while lying on his hospital bed this past weekend. Frank Lasser has had heart surgery and needs to carry an apparatus to supply oxygen at all times. He was in the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Nurses called police after Lasser became delirious and pulled a knife out of his pocket.

Cpl. Scott Wilson told the media that "Whether the person is 80 or 20, we are dealing with a person who had a deadly weapon in their hand." No doubt the police apprehended a knife wielding man and prevented any injuries to innocent bystanders.

Considering the man had just had heart surgery and was delirious because of oxygen and breathing issues, one would think the RCMP might have been able to handle the situation better. Three armed young men wearing bullet proof vests against an old man in bed holding a knife, and they needed to Taser him? It really sounds like using the Taser was the easy and quick way out. The RCMP are lucky this error in judgment did not increase the body count.

I also wonder why a patient who just underwent heart surgery would have a knife in his possession.

STUPID!

TOO CUTE BY HALF

The decision by Marine Atlantic to offer armed forces personnel and veterans some sort of free passage next year in the wake of criticism spearheaded by MP Gerry Byrne is more of an insult than the original transgression.

Ottawa announced free passage on Crown-owned Via Rail this summer for armed forces personnel in recognition of their contribution. It seems whoever designed this scenario forgot that Canada does not end in Halifax and that a lot of Newfoundlanders are in the forces. They also seemed to forget that the crown-owned Marine Atlantic was the extension to Via Rail and the Trans-Canada Highway that links our great nation.

Hawk-eyed Liberal Gerry Byrne noticed this right away, rightfully cried foul, and started hounding the government. I am starting to feel bad for Loyola Hearn and Fabian Manning. I may never forgive them for not standing with us but it has to be tough to be on the wrong side of the issue again. I am sure they worked diligently to ensure the Marine Atlantic issue was addressed.

What did we end up with? A promise to offer something next year for armed forces personnel and veterans that would see them travel for free on the Gulf Ferry Service. Officials have not yet determined how long the plan will run, and whether it will include passenger tickets and vehicle passes.

If the feds could not roll out the details of the program, why say anything at all? Why next year and not this year so it ties into the the VIA Rail program which will start in June?

Can anyone explain the rationale for this latest bungled federal initiative so it does not feel like such a blatant slap in the face. Fabian, you gotta be steaming!

FURTHERING THE CONSERVATIVE AGENDA

Have the federal Liberals become Stephen Harper's most stalwart allies?

If life gives you lemons, tell yourself that life wanted to give you watermelons but that you were too clever and you tricked life into giving you lemons. This is how Liberals are responding as Stephen Harper's term as prime minister grows longer. "He sure looks like he wants an election," one Liberal strategist — there are many — told me. "So we're not gonna give it to him!"

Read the rest of Paul Wells' latest musing at Macleans.ca.

RACE IS FRONT AND CENTER

Hillary Clinton may have a legitimate beef with process and she may be upset about the role a unified African American vote played in derailing her campaign but she is destroying her party's chances of winning this fall in the process. I suppose if you were her, you would say that those that run the party are responsible for the mess.

The entire race for the Democratic nomination has become a bit of a farce as the party teeters on being enveloped by a race war. Clinton's public comments this week that "White Americans" are increasingly turning away from Barack Obama’s candidacy" and that "Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me," only heap fuel on the flames.

She may be right but all she can do now is destroy the party. What good is a nomination handed to her by white power brokers that has alienated the African American vote? Probably about as useful as an African American candidate for president that cannot appeal to blue collar white Americans.

What a mess. Onward democratic soldiers! Is it to late to scrap Obama and Clinton and make Al Gore the choice?

JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE: WILLIAMS PASSES JUDGMENT ON CAMERON INQUIRY

Mark Watton, a former assistant to Prime Minister Martin who is in his final year of law school, has some insightful commentary on Premier Williams' roundabout criticism of the tone and approach of the Cameron Inquiry into botched breast cancer testing.

The post is called Welcome to Dannystan.

BURMA NEEDS YOU

The disaster in Burma, also known as Myanmar, is being further complicated by the insular paranoia of its leadership. Slowly but surely aid organizations are trickling into the cyclone ravaged country. These organizations need financial assistance.

The latest reports of 60,000 dead or missing and 1 million homeless demonstrate dire conditions in which basic food, shelter and water are urgently needed. Assessments on the level of devastation are still underway as communications remain difficult and news trickles out of the country.

Feed the Children.

Catholic Relief Services.

Unicef or Direct Relief International

Here a few links to reputable organizations that are on the ground and that you can trust are using your assistance to help those in need.

Significant support is critical to ensure life-saving assistance reaches the most vulnerable people quickly.

THE GREAT DIVIDE IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

To introduce myself and my family, I am a latte-drinking, white, college-educated progressive Democrat who, despite my demographic, supports Hillary Clinton. Maybe it is because I am also a woman over 45.

One sister supports Obama, the other, Hillary — a microcosm of the family feud that has torn the Democratic party to pieces during the primary season.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING?

Every successful system needs bold operatives to tug its levers. But democratic accountability needs other equally determined individuals willing to leave the private safety of vile gossip to shout out publicly when power slips its checks and balances.

The case for democratic watchdogs like Ombudsmen, the Auditor General and Chief Electoral Officer who can operate without interference and intimidation from Prime Ministers is made by James Travers of the Toronto Star.

THE BACKBITING IS ON HOLD FOR NOW

Are the two runners-up – who are old friends as well as former rivals – doing all they can to revive the party's fortunes for Mr. Dion, or are they jockeying for position to pick up the pieces if he should falter?

Since starting this blog I have gotten out of the habit of reading the Saturday Telegram and Saturday Globe & Mail from cover to cover. I subscribe to the digital edition of the Telegram and read the web news for the Globe & Mail. Reading both over coffee used to be a staple of my early morning Saturday routine. I have decided I am missing something besides the smell of freshly printed paper and black ink streaks near my temples.

For example, I missed a great story by Brian Laghi in Saturday's G&M that looks at the uneasy truce in the federal Liberal camp. It is great to see that the Liberals have managed to get the toothpaste back in the tube and settle Mr. Ignatieff down. The goal is to stop Harper and a divided party cannot do that.

Of course no one was plotting the leader's demise. That was spin by enemies of the party who wanted to destabilize the popular leader who has captured the hearts, minds and loyalties of Iggy, Rae and Kennedy supporters.

The tight reins will be lifted when MP's head home for the summer break. The lack of momentum and a caucus that feels the current leader cannot move them forward could lead to disunity.

On the other hand, a display of good policy, unity, and a Harper government getting weighed down by its own incompetence could propel Dion to the PMO.

A day in politics is a long story, a summer is an epic.

YOU GIVE POLYGAMY A BAD NAME

“Polygamy is not the problem, This is about human error, not polygamy” - Marlyne Hammon, who The Work of Jesus Christ.

Those darn Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints crows are taking the FUN out of polygamy and giving the practice a bad name.

A story in today's New York Times looks at the concern by other groups that practice polygamy in the United States that they will be prosecuted for practicing their faith. Many of these groups are trying to trumpet the positives of polygamy and are emphatically stating that child brides have no place in their practices.

The winds of change braced by public distrust and political attitudes are buffeting those that practice polygamy. Lawmakers are threatening to tighten the rules and enforce the laws surrounding the practice.

A 44-page document from a court in Texas provides a glimpse of who is married to whom in the F.L.D.S. Some of the men had as many as 31 wives. Five families are shown as having 20 or more children; the biggest family includes six wives and 48 children who ranged in age from 2 to 18 last year. Such "mega-families" apparently are not typical. Nine of the plural families included two wives; another four men had three wives. One man, shown as having two wives, whose ages are not recorded, is listed as having no children.

NAUGHTY NEWFOUNDLANDERS!

Parts of a Newfoundland film set in 1968, which tells the story of a young Newfoundland scientist who finds love while exploring Ireland's geology -- but the woman he meets has a prior commitment to God and the church that stands in their way -- were seized by Border Services officials at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal.

The over zealous prudes in border security suspected the film might be pornography and insisted on sending the undeveloped film to Montreal for processing and RCMP investigation.

The film's director and producer are pointing the finger at Bill C-10 which is currently before the senate and is not even law yet. The bill would allow the government to withhold tax credits from film and television productions it deems offensive.

I think the name Love and Savagery and the the fact that the Irish film company that is partners on the project is called Subotica might have been the red flags. However, full credit to the company for trying to stir up controversy towards a piece of legislation that they do not like.

The film, set in Newfoundland and Ireland, is being produced by Barbara Doran and Lynne Wilson's Morag Loves Company. Previous credits include Random Passage and Young Triffie's Been Made Away With.

SURFING WITH THE SHARKS

I am not sure who is braver. Liberal leader Yvonne Jones, who faces the government and swims with the sharks every day, or this crazy surfer dude! I do know who is smarter! I think I prefer the sharks in the House of Assembly!

Kids, do not try this at home!

LEGO ART

For those of you that do not have kids or who missed out on Legos as a kid, my posts on these great little building blocks must drive you! Sorry but Lego blocks are a part of my life. I find them in my bed, in my shoes and there is never a day that I am not building or playing some fantasy scenario with one of the boys.

SO for those of you that dig Lego, here is another great collection of Lego Art creations!

CLINTON UNDER PRESSURE

Former presidential nominee George McGovern has switched his support to Obama. He has also publicly urged Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race.

At least four superdelegates jumped to the Obama camp yesterday. Hillary herself set the bar and Obama reached it on Tuesday night by trouncing her in one race and barely losing the big state of Indiana.

Losing momentum and defecting super delegates has Clinton's bloodline of financial contributions drying up. On Wednesday she said she had loaned her campaign an additional US$6.4 million. That's on top of the US$5 million she gave herself in February.

Obama's delegate total has reached 1,845 to 1,688 for Clinton. To win the nomination, a candidate needs to win 2,025 delegates. There are only 217 delegates at stake in the final six contests: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota.

Obama's people are saying he is clearly the winner and that they have slayed the dragon. They may have usurped the Clinton Dynasty but the real winner will be the Republicans.

IF YOU GIVE A BABY A TIMBIT

If a hungry little 11 month old shows up at your Tim Horton's Store, you might want to give her a timbit. If you give him a timbit, she is going to ask for a glass of milk. She'll want to look in the mirror to make sure she does not have a milk mustache and......

You know how the mall security rent-a-cops are the brunt of many a joke, or the fast food establishment manager who acts like a tyrant over the lives of his high school employees. The caricature of a loser whose little bit of authority goes right to their heads. I can think of a dozen movies that re-enforce this stereotype and I have on occasion met a few people that fall into this category.

Well the winner of the dumb ass overzealous manager of the year does not go to the zitty lazy dude at the local Breen's who publicly berated my high school age sister-in-law for missing a shift when in fact he forgot to reschedule! Nope, he has been displaced by the idiot manager who fired a single mother of four at a Tim Horton's in London Ontario for giving away a free Timbit to the child of a regular customer.

You have heard of stealing ice cream from a baby, well this manager fired a lady for the inexcusable offense of giving an 11th month old baby a timbit!

Nicole Lilliman, 27, walked into work yesterday morning and was called into the office to face the wrath of three managers who told her she had been caught on video giving free food to a child. She was fired on the spot for THEFT!

Giving food away free is against the rules. Zero tolerance, said Tim Hortons district manger Nicole Mitchell. Talk about using a sledgehammer to kill a fly!

The good news is that the chain's head office intervened when the story started getting air play and the firing threatened to become a public relations nightmare. Lilliman has been re-hired. I hope the three managers who fired her are looking for new jobs now.

SURPRISE SURPRISE, GAS PRICES ARE UP

It is not a huge jump, but gas is a little more costly today. The price for self-serve at the Ultramar on Logy Bay Road this morning was $1.339 per litre.

The Petroleum Pricing Office is predicting higher prices as "traditional peak demand summer driving season is only three weeks away."

For the love of god, give me a break!

O the good news, the PPO lowered the cost of furnace oil by 6.58 cents per litre. I guess that explains why Irving filled my tank over the week-end.

ABBOTT'S LEGACY

"I think what happened here is that that's where we started. But over time, the patient interest got overridden by other factors and considerations," - John Abbott.

I've had a little time to think about former Health Minister John Abbott's testimony to the Cameron Commission. I