David: notes from the front lines. Feb 5th/09

First off, Luckers with the (impending) Obama visit. I'll be at home screaming 'BUST THE PATENT BUBBLE' during that... not standing on the parkway with the dog (waving) as my brother did a for Bush a few years ago.

My hours AND workweek have been cut, so I now have time to raise hell. (at least until one of my hobbies eats up this new free time) Here's your dose.

Going boldly where no man has gone before wasn't supposed to mean death by red tape, right?
Or are food stamps and UIC (err.. Manpower? EC? What are they called these days? ) cards edible these dark days?

Media in general. Dereg the net, patents, copyright. make the cable companies live up to their community broadcasting. get the CRTC to put TV Ontario as a standard channel.

Bust the patent bubble. Open up the Internet to banned political sites. Kill spam and increase fines for bug-bombs and malware, not news sites.

The resulting surge in employment (from de regulation of patents, trademarks and copyright) will be a good thing. Our generic drug industry is an obvious example.

My brother has a Canadian manifesto on one of his social sites that calls for massive taxation of resources like water... and free trade in them.

I look at softwood lumbar (potatoes, wheat, and the transportation mess caused by border guards) and don't think it likely, feasible or desirable, myself.

The North Americana Union looks like a dead issue from here... Listerosis from maple leaf foods shows the results of THAT kind of deregulation and industry self-regulation.

Drug industries in general US side are in for lots of trouble.. Are Canadians STILL being victimized by big AG additives? Why?

Other suggestions:
Get a leader with some balls.
I DIDN'T want the conservative budget to pass and I have a list of objections to it.
75 billion for banks when the opposite is recommended by economists?
loans, not grants to municipalities?
5 billion to 'dept of Quebec patronage' agencies like CIDA?

(On a more practical note, I'm willing to bet (sight unseen) that the recent liberal tech media foul-ups were done by an all-Montreal crew, but that's a result of living of working here in Ottawa most of my life.)

You might also look into leaks from data bases. My income tax (done by nat.rev.can.tax, not me)
just got audited (again. third time in five years) with another $250.00 being demanded back.

and THEY (nat.rev.can.tax) did the original return. Interesting, eh?

On a personal note, , my experience shows if you talk to our national govt about grants for industry, interesting customers from china show up... and six months later, China has a new product line getting imported here.

That might be co incidence, but I don't think so.

later...

pat donovan