christopherjmcdowell

It’s Canada Day tomorrow, the 142 anniversary of Confederation. It’s also the 4th Canada Day in a row I will have been out of the country for (I moved to the United States in late 2005).

I always feel kind of a letdown when July 1st rolls around, since I don’t have any Canadians to celebrate with. Instead of moping with my usual quart of Labatt Bleu (yes I have found it again this year), I think I’ll share some general thoughts on my home country.

The 2 Regions of Canada
I can say that there are 2 distinct regions of Canada. Toronto, and Not Toronto. Honestly, that’s what most Canadians will tell you. People from Toronto don’t like the rest of Canada, and the rest of Canada doesn’t like people from Toronto. A fun example of this irrational hatred is in Ontario as a whole. Toronto is the capital of the province, and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) is where most of the province’s population lives. So, it stands to reason that the Toronto area generates the most tax income for the Ontario government. But time and time again it’s obvious that Toronto doesn’t get back what they put in. Money flows out to smaller cities and rural areas. People in these areas pay higher property taxes of course, but not to the level to offset the huge difference in the cost of providing basic services such as roads and health care, where population density drops so much. So you have rural Ontarians sitting there in their Toronto-supported lifestyles complaining about how much they hate Toronto. I say, go to Moncton! (Sorry to offend anyone from Moncton, I knew someone who lived there and thought it was hell.)

My Royal Highness
Canada is a member of the British Commonwealth, in that we retained the British King or Queen as our highest head of state in exchange for the right of Parliamentary self-governance. It basically saved us from going through the hassle of a Revolutionary War, like the United States went through. But, it means we’re stuck with a Royal Family. So, I suppose I better raise my glass and toast my Royal Highness, and I will continue to do so until Queen Elizabeth II passes, Charles takes his place as king, and all of Canada collectively says “OK, this isn’t much fun any more,” and our Revolutionary War begins. I can totally see Red Green riding through the streets on a car built from gutter tubing and duct tape, shouting “The British are coming, eh?”

Non-Royal Politics
The right to self-governance had the unfortunate side-effect of politics. It’s about the same as anywhere, he said, she said, that sort of crap. My favorite is the classic ‘turn the other defensive’ argument. It’s ok to do something unethical or immoral because ‘my opponent did the same.’ Ugh, I hate that sort of thing. Canada’s Federal Conservative party has had a minority government for the past 5 years or so, which always surprised me considering how liberal Canadians tend to be. But then again, the Canadian Conservative party would, compared to American politics, be more like Democrats than Republicans so who knows. It does make me miss our good ol’ Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. He brought prosperous economic times, and laid the whoop-ass down on that French protester on Flag Day. Man I miss him! Looked like a troll but he was so damn loveable.

Je parle Francais
As France played a huge part in the colonization of Canada, they had a great part in the new country’s foundation and governance. Quebec does seem like another world though. Many people will accuse the Canadian government as being more favorable to the French than the English areas of the country, but I really think the English-speakers are totally using the French - we learn French, and then make 40% more money at our jobs because we’re bilingual. We’re just using the language for personal gain. It could be a pretty surreal Jerry Springer episode.

2 National Sports
I don’t follow sports that much, but I know enough to know that Canada has 2 national sports - hockey and curling. Curling, however will get you beat up so you don’t want to admit to liking it, you watch taped matches at 2 am when no one’s awake, while eating McCain Deep & Delicious cake (I do really miss that cake). Funny that Baseball will never be considered a serious sport in Canada, since we actually have a team that has accomplished something in recent memory. The Toronto Blue Jays won 2 world series, back-to-back, in the early 90’s. Woah, that’s recent memory? I am getting old. That’s like 15 years ago.

Well, those are my thoughts for now. I may add onto this later!

Well, I woke up to read that the city workers in my home city of Toronto are on strike this morning. Some 30,000 unionized employees are on the picket lines, covering city-run services such as garbage collection/recycling, city daycare, park maintenance, public pools and the island ferry service.

The major breakdown for the contract negotiations was the insistence that the unions give up some concessions that they had fought for before, because the recession has brought hard times economically for the city. One of the most well-publicized items that was under negotiation was the city’s sick day banking system. City workers are entitled to 18 sick days per year, which, if not used, can be banked and partially cashed in on retirement. People were only too quick to chime in that it was an unreasonable benefit (mainly because they themselves don’t get it). Funny how those who would consider unions to be entitlement-minded would use an argument that because they don’t get something, no one else should.

But that aside, it got me thinking about the role in society of today’s mega-unions. Now I use the prefix mega- because there are really two forms of unions, regular, smaller unions who kind of fade into the background, and the mega-unions who, because of their size or the industries they represent, are in the scrutiny of the media and therefore the public.

Unions were born in the 1930’s out of a basic need - for the working man to get a fair shake. It was an attempt at bridging the gap between the working man and the company, to provide the workers with both a reasonable pay rate, and easier access to management to voice their concerns about the company and the safety of the workers. This was met with great resistance as it was seen as communism trying to break into our bastion of democratic capitalism. Many incidents of violence broke out on the picket lines between strikers and police, the military, militias, vigilantes, scabs, or just the pitchfork-wielding public. Today, the violence has certainly worn down, but the general anger towards unions persists.

I would like to ask, what roles do unions play these days? Because of the work of the unions in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, the working man does have a fair shake. Pay has been reasonable, the working man has access to management, and benefits abound. So why do we need unions? One would argue that the moment unions disappear, those in positions of power would seek to take away what unions fought for - fire ‘em all and rehire at half the wage - that sort of thing. So for most union members, the union needs to exist for their own security. But what does a union, who has earned their members everything that they can hope to earn, do to justify their continued existence? They can’t collect union dues and just sit around twiddling their thumbs. The answer is simple, they ask for more.

During good times for companies, unions make the argument that the workers deserve more as they have driven the company to greater success. This often works, and new benefits which would not fly in the non-union sector are added. But the reason for this might be more to prevent a strike then whether they are actually deserved benefits.

And here is the disconnect, between the working man and the management. The unions have argued that because the workers have allowed the company greater success and greater profits, they are deserving of greater benefits. But, when times are tough, as they now are, the unions make themselves out to be victims as their companies need to scale back to survive. Basic logic is that if you take something extra when times are good, you have to give it back when times aren’t. That’s called give and take, and is proving to be totally necessary for us to get through this recession.

In the end, unions certainly exist for a reason, but the fact that they exist and must justify their existence to their members means that unions will always be fighting and striking for more, even if that risks driving public opinion away, and in some cases, bringing their companies down. Simply put, it can be a bitter pill, but we all have to swallow it for our own good.

You know what I hate? Oh, this is a big one. Being self employed, I work on my computer. Most of the time, I have music playing while I work. Then I’ll go to a website where some sound clip or video will load and play without me knowing. Of course, it’s often louder than my music, and so I jump out of my chair because I wasn’t expecting it.

Note to ANYONE who has a website or builds them. DO NOT have music or videos that play without approval from a visitor. It’s bad form and it royally PISSES ME OFF!!! Consider any potential business from me GONE!

You know what I hate? The news. Every minute of world events is covered by at least a dozen full-time news networks. That’s at least twelve minutes of news reporting for every minute of actual events. This is insane! And you know what? People are no more informed or knowledgeable about things today than they were back when the news simply consisted of a paper in the morning and an hour’s TV in the evening.