Lest We Forget
Why our kids don’t know Canadian History…
Do you know why? Partly our education system is to blame as it places emphasis more on computers and less on social studies.
Partly is thanks to our multi-channel universe where we have niche TV channels that cater to such fragmented segments of the market that there are no “broad-strokes” painted where people might just exposed to something different. What’s the viewership of the CBC like now that you can watch Retro-Teletoon, Teletoon, Cartoon Network, Teen Cartoon Network, Nick Kids, Bob Kids, Boo this and so on??? Not so great. It’s pretty sad when those old Hinterland “Who’s Who” commercials are run as for a gag like old Soap Commercials instead of for their education values.
One of the biggest issues is what I saw today in a Chapters Book Store in Ottawa. A big huge book store with racks of magazines (four double-sided 40 foot long racks, seven feet high), large sections dedicated to this segment or that. Books for those on a budget, lots of fiction, business, self-help books, books to help you pick self-help books, you name it. There kids section that looks more like a high-end toy store than a book store, a big music section (people still buy CD’s?) and then the history section. This is the section that I always gravitate to and here is what I saw:
Three, count them three, four foot wide shelves on one book case with Canadian History… That’s it. Just three. The two selves underneath were part of a more general history (US). 12 feet of Canadian History. Now I know for a fact there are more than 12 feet of Canadian History books written; this was just insulting. More so when I started comparing. Five 5-shelf book cases dedicated to US History or, 100 feet; Three 5-shelf book cases dedicated to World Wars One and Two (US and British, one book was Canadian) or, 60 Feet.
I thought, “This can’t be right?” So I looked around more. Chapters has things segmented so finitely that there was a “Political Science” section, eight more feet of Canadiana. Not bad, that brings use to 20 feet total but oh wait, there’s 80 more feet of US Political Science including four feet dedicated to Barack Obama.
I counted only three titles in the sections on our current or former Prime Ministers, Harper, Chretien and Trudeau, and I ran out of fingers and toes to count on for the US Presidents. Heck there were more on British Prime Ministers (4) than Canadian ones and this book store is in OTTAWA ONTARIO CANADA!!! The Nations Capital!!!
Not to beat a now dead horse called “Canadian History”, I looked at some of the “HOT” titles. Eight Feet of Books on, about or by Celeb Chef Jamie Oliver, 10 feet on Gordon Ramsay. 10 feet on Oprah, six on how to build a deck, 24 feet on Pokemon and 30 feet on how to get the rock hard abs I’ve always wanted (unlike the keg I have now).
So to quote Sybil Fawlty, “what does it all mean Basil?” What does this all mean? I am not saying that the country will lose it’s identity by people shopping at Chapters, however their lack of exposure and promotion of Canadian History means collectively we lose one more chance to hook someone into learning more about our country. Chapters stores and their parent Chapters-Indigo own Smith Books, Coles, Chapters and Indigo or in otherwords a virtual monopoly on the bookstore front. With the exception of the odd independent bookseller, there is no other player except for the Internet. What they (Chapters) puts on the shelves is what people see, period!
That’s one more reason why we have less and less younger people every November 11th at a cenotaph;
One more reason why the maple leaf is more a fashion statement than a source of pride in our country;
One more person who can rhyme off who the last 10 Presidents of the United States were but can’t say who our Prime Minister is.
Sad, eh.
$500,000,000 does not equal $15,000,000,000
Filed under: Government, History, Hockey, Media, Ontario, Politics
It was posted in several places including TSN and in the Toronto Star that Dalton McGuinty supports a third NHL team in Ontario. Great. Thanks McGuinty. As usual you spend lots of time dealing with stuff that DOESN’T MATTER and not deal with what is really important like the economy, jobs or oh… I don’t know. How the Finance Minister budgeted for a $500M deficit and now we’re heading for a $15B deficit.
Perhaps Mr. McGuinty should have paid attention in math class. $500,000,000 does not equal $15,000,000,000
Let GM Fail!
Why can we not let people fail? In the past it was ok to fail. You start up a business, it’s a success; then you screw up and you fail. You learn from your failure and start again.
What does saving GM at the tune of $1.4 Million per job do? What do we learn from this failure?
NOTHING! SFA! Zip, nadda, nothing!
It is going to cost the taxpayer, not the government, $1.4 million per job saved. $1.4 million to a failed company rewarding failure.
Here’s an idea, give each worker of GM $1 Million to never go into work again. Period! Here’s your cheque, get the “eFF” out.
What would a now unemployed GM worker do with $1 Million dollars? Invest in the economy, start a business, save for the future. The options are endless.
- Older workers would retire early and use the money as their nest egg to retire on.
- Middle Aged workers would likely invest for retirement and be able to live comfortably on the money with another, lower paying job as well.
- Younger workers would likely invest in starting their own business.
- Idiots and stupid people will just spend the whole amount as soon as they get it buying stupid things they cannot afford. Six months later they’ll be at the pawn shop selling the last of the stuff they bought to get a pack of smokes.
All four options are viable and needed:
- The idiots and stupid people will put an immediate cash infusion into the retail marketplace.
- The Younger People will create small business which stimulates the near-term market.
- The Middle Aged will have security in their future, will probably spend some money down the road and take lesser paying jobs in the market now, not having to cover all of the expenses they had in their family when they worked for GM.
- The Older Workers will spend short and long term as they will enjoy their retirement, travel, spend and for any end of life health care, the cash can be used there too which promotes stability in our service industry.
Stop me if this makes too much sense.
Lets take this one step further with a side-track. I’ve always been a train-geek, it goes partly with being the son of a railway employee and having lived around trains for 31 of my 33 years. My particular interest is in a railroad called The Rutland. The Rutland died in 1961 during a general strike on the line over wages and work rules. In 1962, the company petitioned and was granted permission by the US Government to abandon the line from Northern New York state across into Vermont and down the west side of Vermont. Parts of the line was sold, all of the equipment, real estate and even scrap material was sold. In total by 1965 the parent company had received $8,000,000 in income from the scraping of the line. If the railroad had received all of the concessions that they wanted from the strike and the railroad had survived, in 1965 they would have likely made about $350,000 in income after expenses. In this case the whole is not worth more than the sum of its parts, and neither is GM.
If you take GM as its parts and sell it off after paying off the workers to never come into the company again, you have incredible amounts of scrap, cars, plants, real estate and technology that in the end is worth more separately than as a whole. Look at the tentiave deal for Magna International to take over GM Opel Europe.
If you part out the good parts of GM to other companies, and then scrap the plants and buildings from what is left over and is not useful you should get enough money to clear the debt and possibly even pay for all of those $1 Million Dollar cheques.
Not a bad idea, too bad it would never fly. Common sense and government does not go hand-in-hand.
Wise Words from a Wise Man
“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred. you cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by takening away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”
Abraham Lincoln