As I read today’s newspaper, I found myself wondering what on earth is going on these days!!!  Here are just a few examples:

Teachers are refusing to carry out their usual volunteer duties to enable after school programs.  From what I read, this is not something the teachers want.  Is the tail (the union) wagging the dog (again)??  This one isn’t funny.  Among other things, it will have an effect on student’s eligibility for scholarships.  How can a union suggest what a teacher can and can’t do on his or her own time?  This one makes my blood boil!

NHL Team owners and NHL players don’t seem to understand what negotiating means.  If relationships discussed differences by not talking to one another, our divorce rates would be sky-high.  Seems to me the team owners are just a bunch of Bettman Bobbleheads and the players must be a tad too comfortable .  Could you afford to take a year off work?  I wish fans in all NHL cities would flock to the arenas and cancel their season tickets – show that fans really care about what is being done to them – not to mention to the many people who’s livelihood is affected.

City Council is buying thousands of dollars worth of trees to “beautify” a local neighbourhood  – or worse, spending money on a piece of art made up of woollen crutches – while our infrastructre is falling apart, swallowing cars, flooding basements, sending sewage into the Ottawa River.  Now….I have nothing against trees and nothing against art – but I do believe there should be some sense of priorities when it comes to spending my money.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  For the councillors (most of them), it is easy to handle the little issues, approve a thousand here and a few thousand there – what is difficult is to tackle the real issues – the big ones…….so guess what takes up the most time around council table?  You guessed it!

PSAC – a public sector union – actually spends part of the money collected in union dues on political activities.  Are they speaking on behalf of their members?  Do they know what the members’ political issues are?  Of course not!  Another case of the tail wagging the dog.  What surprised me even more was that they collect $76M in union dues and spend $43.7M on salaries and benefits to union staff.  Who are they really looking after?

And I’m only on page 6!!!