I've read some strange things in my day. As my father once said, paper won't refuse ink. That ditty gets amplified in the blogosphere.

But this is crazy.

Essentially a conspiracy theorist who actually thinks that NSBI is part of an international conspiracy to further international terrorism.

Let me respond to a couple of his whacked out comments:

The first question that must be asked is why are Butterfield really coming to Halifax Nova Scotia? This nation's financial centres are located in Toronto and Montreal.

it's amazing how people that claim to be so smart can be so dumb. Why is it so hard to believe that Stephen Lund and his team actually spent years working with the financial sector and has convinced them to locate in Nova Scotia? Is this guy's opinion of Nova Scotia so low that he thinks that company's have no reason to locate there? (other than devious reasons)

Then he goes into his silliness, and then this:

Considering the present demographics extant, I would ask where Butterfield Bank intends to get these 400 "Nova Scotia workers" from?

Again, what a dissappointing attitude towards Nova Scotia. To be clear, the local educational institutions are working with NSBI and the firm to ramp up the 400 workers over time. Also, to assume that people won't move from other areas of Canada to Nova Scotia. That shows more ignorance than his crazy theories. When RIM announced in Halifax, they got requests from all over Canada - unprompted - from people wanting to move to Halifax.

“Marcus Leja from Calgary, Canada writes: If Nova Scotia Business Inc. is 'attracting' (i.e. bribing) Bermuda financial institutions to open offices in Halifax, then there is nothing impressive about this story at all. Considering the high education level of the Halifax area population, the fact the provincial government has to provide handouts to business for it to open there is absolutely alarming.”

What a bunch of unadulterated bull crap. Alberta doles out more 'bribes' in thier language to attract international investment (and to prop up agriculture) than in Nova Scotia's wildest dreams (through incentives to the oil sector). How can so many people be so uninformed? Does anybody have an answer?

The Eagleman thinks that this new payroll rebate plan, Nova Scotia Business Inc has been playing with, is nothing more that a scam.

For every dollar rebated to companies throught the payroll rebate plan $3-$4 are put into the local economy from personal, corporate, property, sales and other taxes.


If that's a 'scam', I say bring it on. And as for Calgarians with their little biases against Atl. Canada, either take ten minutes to educate yourself or shut up. Alberta (and the Feds) have put in place one of the most aggressive tax break regimes in the world to attract investment into the oil sands. The agriculture sector is subsidized in Alberta more than all industries in Nova Scotia combined.

Just kidding.

But seriously, I just had a cheese and spinach omelette with a guy someone once called New Brunswick's first Internet Cowboy - and he has the hat and boots to prove it.

The 'he' in this case is David Jonah who, besides being an excellent storyteller, is my 'host' or Webmaster or whatever you want to call him (Local in the Know).

And David had a bevy of statistics on the davidwcampbell.com blog and I will impose these on you for your edification.

In the average month, between 4,500 and 5,500 people stop by the blog. That used to spike more after a CBC commentary but I haven't been called for many of those recently but the numbers over the past three months are still quite strong 4.5k - 5.5k visits per month (people not Google).

On a daily basis during the week visits range from a low of 150 to a high of 400 or so.

Google stops by the most of the search engines with about 15,000 visits over the 2+ years.

This is interesting, the average visitor stays for over four minutes (2.5% stay for over an hour - I suspect this may be Al Hogan :-)). I'm told this is twice as long as the average visit to an average web page which means either a) I take too long to say what I am trying to say or b) you are slow readers.

There have been 6,809 views of the blog coming through the davidcampbell.xml RSS.

The Parrsboro/Headz story really hit a nerve - it was viewed by over 516 individuals.

An estimated 42.4% of you have added the blog to your favourites (I don't know how they calculate this but David tells me this is impressive).

76.7% of you come in directly either through a bookmark or typing in the url. Only 23% come in via a search engine like Google (I'm told this is a good stat as well).

Of the folks coming through search engines, a few of you are trying 'david campbell'. But that is not likely to get you to the blog. There's an actor from Australia that's far better looking that comes up first. You are better off with david campbell and moncton or some such combination.

Our old friend and blogging colleague The Sorry Centrist has linked to this blog a pile of times. Thanks for the free promotion Scott. PoliticsNB has seen fit to link to this blog a few times as well.

Finally, 25.3% of you are coming from an unknown operating system which would indicate most likely from government websites (I'm told). Let me just reiterate my respect for public servants - in this I'm sincere - even when I ocassionally chastise for some reason or another.

Essentially, I have the readership of a small magazine run. I am not sure what that means but I think it means that a few people are interested in the topic of economic development in New Brunswick and even though many don't agree with my approach, we can have a dialogue and isn't that the intent?

You have to wonder if NSBI had all these projects in the bag and just staggered their public announcements. There have been I think about eight announcements of projects involving payroll rebates in the past month representing well over 1,400 high paying jobs.

Here's the latest:

I just heard Shawn Graham on CTV talking with Jane Tabor at the Liberal convention. He has the shtick down pretty good - in the short term more Equalization (10 province/resources revenue in standard) to lead to a weening off within 20 years. Taber expressed some doubt that NB could ever achieve self-sufficiency but Graham never wavered.

What's curious to me is this. If Graham wants the $150 or $200 million more from the new Equalization formula to invest in growth that will reduce the province's dependence on Equalization (all $1.4 billion of it - soon to be $1.6 billion in Graham gets his new formula) why fight for a new Equalization formula at all? Why not try and negotiate a new $150 million multi-year economic development agreement with the Feds?

One would presume that if the goal is to reduce the $1.4 billion in Equalization over 20 years, the province better get crackin' and you don't do that by taking in ever more amounts of Equalization for the next 5-6 years.

If NB just gets a sweeter Equalization deal, the temptation will always be there to rely on it - not only not reducing it the very nature of the formula means that as NB falls deeper into population decline and economic hardship (such as mill closures), we get more and more Equalization.

Whereas a dedicated joint Fed/Prov economic development agreement over 5 years, has to direct the funds to economic development projects. In addition, I don't think that a change in government would matter. What government is going to cancel a program who's very goal is to lead to 'self-sufficiency'?

Quite frankly I fear that the more lucrative the Equalization program, the less impetus there will be for real change in New Brunswick.

As we learned with Bernard Lord, it's a lot easier to rake in the Federal cash and spend it on health care than to try and seriously tackle the economic problems in New Brunswick which will actually cut Federal Equalization cash.

If Graham is serious about self sufficiency, he is going to have to make serious changes to how things are done in New Brunswick. Serious policy changes that will lead to 3-4 times as much private sector investment in the province. Serious investments in building an environment conducive to attract investment and stimulate real entrepreneurship.

A good first step would be publicly committing to serious new funding for economic development. Not just a few bucks more but a doubling or tripling of funding and a clear strategy with real targets and significant accountability. We don't have time for seven years of more coasting.

The Amherst Daily News and the CBC are reporting that the mega project that would have brought 1,500 jobs to Parrsboro may be in jeopardy.

While no statement has come from Headz Gamez International (H.G.I.), unofficial word from a company source has confirmed that president and CEO Kerry Martens had sold his shares in the company. Several staff members have been laid off already, and work at the old post office building has come to a halt.When contacted by telephone early on Monday, Martens would say only that further word on the development would come later this week.


If it's true that would be too bad. The Georgia state government put $400 million into a KIA plant in a place more remote than Parrsboro. It is a trend now down south to locate the large manufacturing projects in rural communities. In Canada, it seems that most major manufacturing projects still go to the areas around the large urban centres: Montreal, Toronto, etc.

This would have broken that mold and breathed a little economic life into that region.

I hope it goes but if it doesn't, I'll still make the case on these pages that this type of project makes sense.

The TJ is running an article this morning making the case for a provincial ICT industry association.

I agree.

However, there are industry associations and then there are industry associations.

In the past there have been attempts at an industry association for the ICT sector in New Brunswick but after government funding expired, so did the association.

There is a tendancy for industry associations to become organizers of golf tournaments and annual back slapping events. Feel good organizations that end up not being able to get private sector firms to continue to pay dues because they don't see the value.

A good association tackles - hard - the key issues facing the industry. It gets concensus on the issues and works as a collective to address them.

I like the KIRA Awards program but the few times I have attended, I was amazed at all the back slapping going on. Here we were in the early 2000s, the Bernard Lord government was all but ignoring the sector (NB had the worst growth rate in IT jobs during Lord's tenure) and the best the speakers could do that night (one that I remember vividly) is wax long and poetic about how wonderful the IT industry was in New Brunswick and how supportive the government was.

Now, KIRA is not an industry association per se but if an ICT industry is to be successful, it will have to speak truth to power and not be worried that the government will vindictively cut some obscure funding program.

A good ICT industry association will challenge and chastise government. Will publish statistics showing the harsh realities. Will inform the public on the truth not gloss things over with silly flattering of the government of the day.

A tough, action-oriented, annual golf tournament shunning ICT industry association that works hard and diligently on issues of staffing, access to capital, export orientation, diversification, etc. will, I believe, eventually get wide buy-in.

I know I promised to stay off unrelated topics but after hearing a plethora of callers to Rex Murphy's Cross Country Check Up talk about their 'disgust' and one saying this was the 'end of Canada', I still feel compelled, somewhat, to throw, for what it's worth, my position on the thing into the public domain.

As I understand it based on some readings and talks with staunch Federalists in Quebec, there is a desire among a good portion of Quebeckers to ensure that the province's distinctive language, culture and heritage do not get steamrolled over in a Canadian context that is vastly English-language based. As of the last Census, 97% of Canadians (or a similar #) claim to speak English including something like 80% of Francophones in Quebec.

They look at Louisiana and want to ensure that Quebec over generations does not become that. They also look at Quebec in the 1950s and reflect that in many ways the province was moving in that direction.

So, since the 1960s dozens of things have been done in Quebec by the provincial and/or Federal levels of government that would be completely untolerated elsewhere. In addition, things have been done across Canada that would have never been tolerated in the USA, as one example. Consider the sign law, consider the QPP, consider the forcing of federal government employees in Alberta to speak French. Consider the billions of dollars in language translation costs each year across the country. A friend of mine in the Canadian Navy tells me that the Belgians don't even translate technical manuals from English into French - and we do at $1,000/page (at least that's the cost he grumbles about).

So, in practice, if not in theory, all Canadians have been trying to accommodate the Quebec 'nation' and its goal of retaining its unique French language and culture for decades through their governments, actions and tax dollars.

So, to now give a forum for the confusion (as Rex does) that is is somehow about giving Quebec a status and not Nova Scotia or Quebec and not the Acadians or Quebec and not the Aboriginals - I think makes no sense whatsoever.

This is about naming something that we have been practicing for decades. It's that simple.

Other provinces have their own issues. New Brunswick isn't interested (as far as I know) in defensing some form of unique culture and language. Maybe someday it will but as for now it's not.

However, New Brunswick risks dissolution as a province entirely in a generation (merged into some larger regional entity) if it doesn't get its economic act together. I would like to see an all party resolution in the House of Commons that New Brunswick has the right to exist as a province and that Canada as its country should work on this goal. Nova Scotia, PEI, and NL should have the same issue.

We are trying to protect the unique cultural and linguistic attributes of a 'nation' called Quebec but doing buttkiss to protect the population and economic viability of a whole region called Atl. Canada. Here's the thing. Without a population, you can't have a unique culture and language to protect.

Aboriginal Canadians have a legitimate concern as to their own viability in subsequent generations and I think this should be addressed.

The Acadians (which, by the way, have the longevity of the Quebequois and better food and musical talents) have their own desire to thrive within the structure of Canada and that should be addressed.

So, let's not cheapen this discussion to trite comments about "Quebec getting more than Alberta" or "Quebec getting more powers than Nova Scotia".

On most measurements that matter, Alberta is considerably more powerful that Quebec. It's people are richer. It's economy is far stronger. It's schools and healthcare is better funded.

Consider this. If Canada was setup based on the new Iraqi model of revenue distribution, New Brunswick would get essentially the same oil revenues as Alberta (adjusted for size). Oil, at least in that Constitution, is a national resource and profits are distributed as such.

Of course, if we set that system up in Canada, we would see our own variation of 'sectarian' violence, I would suggest.

In the end, and it's where I'll end, this 'nation' thing is from Harper, Iggy, Duceppe, Layton, etc. a purely political construct designed to help secure votes.

To some Quebeckers its about an affirmation that the rest of Canada supports Quebec's efforts retain its distinctiveness within and as an important part of Canada.

But it seems commentators such as Rex Murphy want to debase this issue with this crap about equality, rights, powers, etc.

We can disagree about the "Quebec's efforts retain its distinctiveness" and the costs born by the rest of us in that pursuit. Fine. That's actually a worthwhile debate. Can two or more distinct 'nation's exist in a single country? How about Yugoslavia? How about Iraq? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Maybe the US melting pot is the right model. Maybe the dozens of initiatives going on right now in the states to ban Spanish the public square and declare English as the 'official' language of the US is the right model.

Now that's an actual debate. One with scholars on both sides. One with heady discussions going on all over the world.

And it rarely comes down to petty chatter about 'he's getting more than me'. Woe is me.


Now, I'll go back to a topic I have more expertise in. Promise.

I know the Federal Tories look at the world through a national lense. I know that all of the 'have not' Atlantic provinces only amount to 7.5% of the total Canadian population - just an annoyance really - especially from a votes perspective. But the problems facing New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland are not going away. They will only get worse without a serious bump in economic growth. And I think that inevitably resentment will only grow.

It is clear that the Federal Tories are not focused on the 'national' view when they talk about cutting debt and lowering taxes. That is a perfect message for Alberta. Maybe for Ontario as well (although they would like a few more bucks for the provincial level of government). BC aussi.

But in New Brunswick, it rings cold. NBers already pay the second lowest amount of personal tax - because we earn the second lowest average earnings. Low income, low taxes paid. We want to pay more taxes - if it means that our collective income is going up.

What NB needs is a 10-20 year plan for economic renewal and cutting debt and taxes does almost diddly squat for that.


Finance Minister Jim Flaherty outlined a program to wipe out the government's net debt within 15 years and use the interest savings to finance tax cuts. He said he would cut total federal debt to 25 per cent of GDP by 2021.

He compared it to paying off the national mortgage, but Liberal MP John McCallum accused him of using "an arcane statistic" - the net debt - to confuse people.

The federal government's total debt is about $480 billion, but the net debt involves a calculation which piles up all government debt - federal and provincial - then subtracts government assets, including the Quebec and Canadian pension plans. It's far less than the total federal debt.

Net debt is something that "only a handful of economists in the OECD have every heard of," McCallum said.

Even Flaherty's promise on net debt may not be deliverable. The federal finance minister has no say in how provinces handle their purses.

In my opinion, some politicians like to try and spin information to suit their needs and others just plain live in fantasy land. Jeannot Volpé, with all due respect, is the latter.

He writes a long windy op-ed in the T&T today called Premier Graham must build on Lord's legacy in which he repeats all the tired clap trap that they used when in power and they used to get booted out of power.

Consider a few excerpts:

Volpé: Unfortunately, years of mismanagement prior to the Lord government has misled taxpayers as to the real cost of electricity in our province.

Orimulsion was a Liberal scandal, eh? At least Belledune actually produced power (that was considered to be McKenna's NB Power fiasco). Orimulsion will cost the province several billion dollars Mr. Volpé. Then there's the NB Power Lepreau refit (which I support by the way). Lord said many times that power rates would go up significantly if that plant was refurbished without federal support. No federal support, Lord went ahead anyway.

Volpé: For our province to be self-sufficient however, New Brunswick will have to continue to build on the foundation laid by Premier Lord. He laid the framework for what every province that seeks self-sufficiency needs, an environment that is favourable to business and job creation.

Wow. And again I say wow. New Brunswick dependance on Equalization (the opposite of self-sufficiency) increased more than any other province under Lord by a wide margin! And Lord created an environment favourable to business and job creation! How come dozens of large corporations have set up in Nova Scotia and almost none in New Brunswick (except the virtual call centre)? This is one of the greatest travesties to the truth ever penned in New Brunswick (how's that for hyperbole?).

Volpé: It takes more than a little dance with Frank McKenna on Bay Street to convince businesses to come and invest in New Brunswick.

At least he's dancing. Lord showed more disinterest towards economic development than any Premier in decades.

Volpé: Bernard Lord saw this potential and made record advancements to make New Brunswick a business hub.

By who's measurement? One of the lowest employment growth rates, underperforming GDP growth 5 of 7 years in office, net out-migration every year he was in office, etc.


There was an article last week that said Volpé was the leading contender to replace Bernard Lord as leader of the provincial Tories. In my opinion, this op-ed shows just how unqualified he is for that position. He is locked into some group-think-Al-Hogan-Bernard-Lord-Don't-Tell-Me-Any-Bad-News mindset.

After losing the election, Volpé should have become reflective. He should be coming forward with a message of what he would do different - not just a blind subservience to a system that patently failed over the past seven years.

The only thing that Volpé is correct about is this. New Brunswick's debt to GDP ratio did decline during the Tory rule. That is true. But at what cost? I, for one, would have supported additional expenditures if they had been targeted towards real investments in economic development.

The facts are plain and undisputable:

The population is formally in decline and has been since the late 1990s. No other Premier in history saw a population decline on his watch.

There has been net out-migration for 14 straight years (yes well before Lord).

Employment growth in New Brunswick from 1999 to 2006 was either second or third worst in Canada depending on what month to month you look at.

Our neighbours in PEI and Nova Scotia have absolutely kicked our butts on the economic development file over the seven years Lord was in office - this is a fact not an opinion.

Data is going to trickle in over the next months and years that will help us better assess the impact of the Lord government over the past seven years. As you know, it is increasingly likely that we will show another Census to Census population decline when the #s start being published early next.

Here's another interesting and rather troubling statistic.

In 2005, 23% of tax filers in New Brunswick reported investment income - the second lowest percentage among the ten provinces in Canada. Investment income per capita in Nova Scotia in 2005 was almost $900 while it was less than $500 in New Brunswick. Albertans reported $1,571/per person in investment income.

From 1999 to 2005, per capita investment income reported by tax payers in New Brunswick increased by 28% - the lowest increase among the ten provinces in Canada, by far. So we were second lowest in Canada for per capita investment income in 1999 and in 2005 we are also second last but by an even further margin.

Why does this matter? If New Brunswickers aren't saving at least to the level of other Maritime provinces that will ultimately put an even greater strain on the social infrastructure in the province - relative to other provinces.

Increase in Per Capita Investment Income
By Province 1999 to 2005

Alberta - 88%
Saskatchewan -73%
Quebec 62%
British Columbia 60%
Nova Scotia 59%
Canada 56%
Prince Edward Island 48%
Ontario 42%
Newfoundland 38%
Manitoba 35%
New Brunswick 28%

It seems to me that I took a little heat for my support of Iggy's 'nation' within a united Canada status for Quebec.

Now that Stephen Harper has brought forth the exact same concept, am I vindicated?

Every night is a different game
We gotta work for our fortune and fame
Success is a ladder take a step at a time
And the people will remember your name

Yes I found out all the tricks of the trade
And that there's only one way
That you're gonna get things done
I found out the only way to the top
Is looking out for number one
And that's me
I'm looking out for number one

Looking Out For Number One
Bachman-Turner Overdrive


I will stay away from subject matter on which I have an opinion but very little expertise (like the mind of Paul Wells and the merits of Ronald McDonald). So today, we transition every so smoothly away from one kind of vested interest to another.

I am talking about the story yesterday that Premier Graham is 'enlisting' the help of the New Brunswick Business Council.

As I said in winded detailed when this council was formed, politicians and economic developers need to be wary of groups like this. Not because they aren't not well intended. They are. Not because they are not smart and business savvy - most of them have done more in their careers than I ever will. It's because their vision of growing the economy may not be in alignment with global best practices in growing an economy such as New Brunswick.

Here's my logic on this - for what it's worth.

I believe that the #1 reason for New Brunswick's lackluster economic performance since Confederation (New Brunswick has not outpaced the national average for population growth from Census to Census since the founding of Canada and in recent years this gap has widened and has now become inverted curves - Canada's population going up and NB's going down) is a structural lack of investment. Of not being on the route of global business investment. Other than large infrastructure projects, New Brunswick suffers from a chronic lack of investment - from Canadian sources, from global sources - cripes from our own pockets (99.8% of the pension funds of New Brunswick government workers fund companies outside New Brunswick).

This investment can come in the form of greenfield projects - global or national companies setting up here (manufacturing, IT studios, distribution hubs, etc.) or investment into our local SMEs. As we all know, other than call centres we have had very little greenfield investment and almost no investment in our SMEs. New Brunswick has the lowest percentage of publicly traded companies of any province in Canada (you can count them on one hand) and almost no equity investment from abroad in our SMEs (lack of interest from the sources but equally the SMEs who have shown a reluctance to give up even a portion of ownership to secure outside investment capital).

So for me, most of the economic problems flow from the lack of investment or money required to get things done. Labour shortages come as a result. Lack of public funding to key infrastructure, R&D and education is a result. Chronic regional unemployment is a result. The perceived need for governments to build large worker social safety nets such as EI is a result. Chronically low wages can be a result.

Now, of course these things are all intertwined. Investment doesn't come to underperforming regions and regions underperform as a result of the lack of investment, etc. However, fundamentally, as Donald Savoie has so eloquently stated, economic development is about money and people.

So, come full circle to the NB Business Council.

They are among the only firms in New Brunswick that don't have a problem attracting investment capital and many of them have little interest in seeing external firms set up here and steal their labour and raise wage rates.

Now, please, I am not broad-brushing all members of this Council but I know of at least two that have made public comments to this effect: "Why should the government go out and attract companies when they should be supporting those that are here" and other such comments. And, as I have said, another example where an external firm came and and raided IT workers from a local firm because the local firm was only paying $35k for highly talented programmers - who wanted to stay in New Brunswick. The firm coming in was paying (it was in the 1990s) $45k and thought they were getting staff at a real bargain.

The truth of the matter is that some - not all - but some local businesses (and I am not talking about the NBBC here at all) have benefitted from New Brunswick's weak economy. They export their products abroad. They don't rely on local markets so the cheaper the wages the better. The higher the unemployment the better. The cheaper the land the better.

Look at Calgary. A growing economy will push up wages, land costs, availability of labour, etc. - all annoying to local business.

Some local business leaders can rise above this. They can see that a strong economic is good for all even if it causes them short term heartburn. Some, not all.

I am about (hopefully) to work with an economic development agency in one of the fastest growing regions of Canada. They are suffering labour shortages, increasing costs, etc. and yet the business community funds this organization to go out and attract more investment into the region. More companies to compete directly with them for staff.

Now, that's leadership.

And I hope the NBBC has the same approach but I would be wary.

Tie me at the crossroads when I die
Hang me in the wind 'til I get good and dry
And the kids that pass can scratch their heads
And say "who was that guy?"
Tie me at the crossroads when I die

Tie Me At The Crossroads
Bruce Cockburn
From Dart To The Heart (1994)

Len Weeks, 58, passed away this morning. Len worked for Business New Brunswick and its predecessors for something like 30 years. Although I didn't always agree with him, he was a foot soldier in the battle to get New Brunswick's economy moving forward.

FatKat thanked Len for helping them along the way in this blog.

According to this source, Len Weeks coined the term advanced training technologies (ATT) and recommended that the department support the distance education initiative.

He was also implicated in the start of the NB call centre initiative.

I seem to recall that he won some type of award from KIRA but I can't seem to find anything on the Web about this.

Anybody want to explain to me what is wrong with Al Hogan. He runs a story this morning entitled: "We're worth more than Saint John". I can't link to it because it's behind a password and in fact I won't even give Al Hogan the satisfaction of reprinting his stupid story in this blog. So if you saw it, please advise. If not, you are lucky.

The gist of the story is that the tax base in Greater Moncton has surpassed Greater Saint John but the whole story is designed to be highly offensive to Saint Johners. This is another in a long line of offensive stories designed to drive a wedge between the Hub and the Port and I think it's shameful.

The City of Moncton and others have been deliberately building bridges with Saint John and vice versa. The spirit is as good as it has been in decades and Al Hogan is doing everything in his power to wreck this.

After Saint John lands 3,000 high paying jobs in the next 12-14 months on the refurbishment of Lepreau, the building of the pipeline and refinery - I'll be interested to see what crap comes out of the T&T. It won't be humble pie because there isn't enough class over there for that.

Paul Wells has turned from a journalist supporting Stephane Dion and disliking Michael Ignatieff to a zealot determined to bring down the Igster at all costs. His blog for the past 3-4 weeks has featured two things: 1) self promotion of his new book and 2) cutting down Ignatieff from all sides.

He got this way with Paul Martin - obsessed with bringing down the man.

I wonder why.

The best journalists, in my humble opinion, are the ones who can ask tough questions, expose inconsistencies and paint an accurate portrait of the people and issues they are covering but a unidimensional no holds barred attack like Wells is inflicting on Ignatieff smacks of Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh.

A journalist that I have great respect for told me once that Wells detested Paul Martin because he wasn't taken to lunch (literally and metaphorically).

For me, when a politician is so reviled by someone like Wells, it makes me tend to like them more (except in the case of poor old Martin who was doomed with our without Wells).

Also that Trudeau son that is working to hard to bring down Iggy. I neve really liked the sons of famous politicians getting into politics themselves. It hasn't seemed to work out the best for the Yanks.

Trudeau should follow Ben Mulroney and get into entertainment. That's where the real glamour and money is.

Back to Wells. I don't think he has the ideological makeup to be Fox News' Canadian Bill O'Reilly. But he's trying. He really is.

I am well aware that New Brunswick leads all of Canada for obese children. I know the stats. But I am not sure that Draconian measures such as banning Ronald McDonald from NB schools is a good move. Firstly, if we make McDonalds public enemy #1, the kids will want it more (yes, remember back to when you were a teen). Secondly, McDonalds has made attempts to make their food more healthy and thirdly, in all things the issue is moderation. No kid will become obese if they eat healthy 29 days a month and have a burger on the 30th. For my kids, McDonalds is still a treat (once a month). It's when we eat burgers, fries and cokes every day that we get obese.

I hope that New Brunswick starts aggressively supporting efforts to overcome the terrible problem of obesity. But it's not about banning Ronald. It's about offering healthy food in the cafeterias (and they are starting to do this). It's about encouraging more physical activity (not sure about this). And it's about working with parents to encourage overall healthy lifestyles well beyond the borders of the school yard.


Ronald McDonald barred from N.B. schools

New Brunswick’s Education Department has given the boot to the corporate clown in the big red shoes.

Education officials say Ronald McDonald, the clown mascot for fast-food giant McDonald’s, sends contradictory and confusing messages during his appearances in elementary schools to promote fitness and healthy eating.

The department has sent a memo to all school districts advising them that the McDonald’s clown is inconsistent with the fitness goals and objectives of the province’s school system. Premier Shawn Graham, a former gym teacher, is promising to beef up physical education programs in schools in an effort to curb the growing problem of childhood obesity.

Although the schools will drop classroom appearances by Ronald McDonald, a spokesperson for the Fredericton district says schools will continue to participate in a McDonald’s-sponsored fitness program. The program rewards schools with credits towards the purchase of gym equipment.

–Canadian Press

Halifax gets 400 high end finance jobs in the fast growing hedge fund industry. New Brunswick gets 20 new jobs producing eggs in Sackville.

The provincial government will provide Les Oeufs Bec-O Inc., a subsidiary of Burnbrae Holdings Inc., with a $3.54-million term loan to assist in the establishment of a food processing operation. Premier Shawn Graham made the announcement today in Sackville. He was accompanied by Agriculture and Aquaculture Minister Ronald Ouellette; Bob Anderson, president of Burnbrae Holdings Inc.; and Sackville Mayor Jamie Smith.

The $3.54-million term loan will enable the company to establish its processing plant and create up to 20 new jobs. The plant will process surplus eggs in Atlantic Canada into liquid egg products which will be sold in food service, institutional, retail and industrial markets.

Hey, don't complain. It's a good start. I don't snub my nose at manufacturing jobs like this. I'd also like high tech jobs and high finance jobs but these jobs will be very helpful in the Sackville area.

I went to CanadaEast today and did a search on Halifax. I was looking for references in New Brunswick's three main English language papers to the three major new businesses setting up in that city in the past 10 days.

Nada. I will say that sometimes the content in CanadaEast is not exactly the same as in the printed papers but I have to say I am shocked.

How can New Brunswickers challenge their government to do more when it com