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Instructing workers on the job

One of the worst things for an employee to go through while new to a job is having a lack of training. Employers today seem to have no idea how to properly instruct new employees to do the jobs they hired them to do. How many times has a new worker been told that he or she is doing it wrong well into the job? How many times has a new worker wondered what he or she is to do because the job has not been correctly explained? It has happened to me more times than I can remember, and having to now go through it again with a new job, I am long since fed up with it.

Poor job training decreases employee moral, makes a worker miserable on the job, and causes an employee to become anxious before the start of each work day. It does not benefit the employer either with low productivity, missed work days, costly job errors, and a high resignation rate by employees who just cannot take the job anymore. If a worker cannot do his or her job with confidence he or she feels worthless making demoralising mistakes on the job that could easly be prevented with correct instruction. Employers today need to learn how to instruct workers on the job.

Problems in Supervision: Instructing Workers on the Job

Problems in Supervision: Instructing the Blind Worker on the Job

© Trevor Dailey

The Ontario “buck-a-beer” deception

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford has announced a “buck-a-beer” will be coming to Ontario soon. I could not care any less than I already do about the price of beer, I drink so occasionally one could argue I do not drink at all, but I get annoyed when I hear Premier Ford say “a buck-a-beer” because it is dishonest. First, let us turn the clock back for a brief history lesson to explain how we arrived at this “buck-a-beer” in the first place.

In 1915, there were 49 beer manufactures in Ontario. Under the Conservative government of Premier William Howard Hearst, Ontario enacted prohibitions of alcohol by means of The Ontario Temperance Act in 1916 when there were 65 breweries in Ontario. By 1917, the number of Ontario breweries was 23. When the Conservative government of Premier Howard Ferguson ended Prohibition in Ontario in 1927, there were only 15 beer manufactures left in the province. In 11 years, the Conservative government had almost completely destroyed the beer manufacturing industry in Ontario with Prohibition.

Since 1927, the Ontario government has strictly controlled the production, distribution, sale, purchase, and consumption of all alcohol in the province of Ontario with the Liquor Licence Act. In place of prohibition, the Conservative government created the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) in 1927. The LCBO was incorporated into a Crown Corporation by the Ontario Progressive Conservative government of Premier Bill Davis in 1975. Premier Ferguson forced the remaining beer manufactures into a LCBO overseen cooperative in 1927, and over the years, as a result of sales, buyouts, and mergers, only three beer manufactures remain in the cooperative that are today all foreign owned. Labatt (49% ownership) is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev (Belgium), Molson-Coors (49% ownership) is owned by Coors (USA), and Sleeman (2% ownership) is owned by Sapporo (Japan). This government created privately owned beer oligopoly, Brewers Retail Inc., controls about 80% of the retail beer sales in Ontario through its chain of Beer Store brand retail stores. During Ontario's Progressive Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris, the LCBO made a nonpublic agreement with Brewers Retail Inc. in 2000 giving the Beer Store exclusive right to sell the most popular brands of beer to bars and restaurants and the exclusive right to retail 12 and 24 packs of beer. In the interest of temperance and moderation, that has been at the core of the LCBO since 1927, the LCBO sets the minimum price of alcohol for sale in Ontario. The current minimum price for non-draft retail beer sold in Ontario is approximately $3.00 per litre, and that works out to be around $1.25 a bottle or can. This is where we come to the “buck-a-beer” promise.

Source: MINIMUM PRICING OF LIQUOR AND OTHER PRICING MATTERS

Premier Ford wants to reduce the minimum price of any non-draft beer with an alcohol volume below 5.6 per cent in Ontario to $1.00. The last time beer was at that minimum price was 2007.

Lakeport Brewery in Hamilton sold its beer for “24 for 24” from 2002 to 2006, and heavily advertised this, helping to increase its market share. Teresa Cascioli, who became CEO of Lakeport in 1999, brought the company far away from its 1998 bankruptcy in just eight years. Lakeport was bought by Labatt in 2007 for $201 million, the brewery was permanently closed by Labatt in 2010, 143 employees lost their jobs, and production transferred to the Labatt plant in London. Just because beer manufactures may sell a beer for one dollar does not mean they are going to do it, especially if it undercuts their premium beer brands. That is exactly what Lakeport was doing to Labatt by selling its beer for $1.00 before Labatt bought Lakeport; the brewery that had become a source of continual annoyance and trouble for the big three beer manufactures of Brewers Retail Inc.

The former Lakeport brewery, located at a historical Hamilton brewery built in 1947, was stripped of all brewing equipment and brewing infrastructure and the plant gutted and sabotaged by Labatt. The brewing equipment was sold for scrap. Concrete was poured into some of the building's drains to prevent any large scale brewery operation there ever again. Labatt refused to sell the Lakeport concern or lease the building to any beer manufacture.

The minimum retail price for non-draft beer was raised from $1.00 to $1.06 by the LCBO in 2008.

In 2018, it is improbable any beer manufacture could make a profit regularly selling its beer for only $1.00 because of the low beer quality, federal and provincial taxes, and production costs. As Teresa Cascioli said during Lakeport's "24 for 24" years:

Obviously, the business fundamentals have to be there, whether it's toothpaste or beer, supply and demand have to go hand in hand, and there has to be profitability for the manufacturer.

There may be one or two brewers willing to sell their beer at the minimum price of $1.00, but Labatt is not going to sell Budweiser, that has been one of Ontario’s top selling premium beers for decades, for a price of only $1.00 anymore than it is going to sell it for the current minimum price of $1.25. Few brewers sell their beer at discount prices at the current beer price minimum of $1.25. The motivation for this reduction in the minimum price of beer appears to be the claim by Premier Ford that lowering the minimum price of beer will create competition among beer manufactures and stop “lining the pockets” of the beer oligopoly. This is complete nonsense. The beer oligopoly is just that, an oligopoly.

Source: MINIMUM PRICING OF LIQUOR AND OTHER PRICING MATTERS

If Doug Ford was honest, he would eliminate the minimum retail price for beer, lower the provincial taxes on beer, he would get rid of the LCBO, and he would break up the beer oligopoly. This will not happen because it was the Conservative government that enacted prohibition in 1916, created the LCBO and the beer oligopoly in 1927, incorporated the LCBO into a Crown corporation in 1975, granted Brewers Retail Inc. exclusive rights in 2000, and supports temperance at the same time it collects massive alcohol tax revenues reaching a record of $5.89 billion in 2016-17.

© Trevor Dailey

This article is edited and revised from time to time.

A sample of City of London, Ontario, By-laws from 1879

220. All bread sold or offered for sale within the City of whatever shape or form, shall be in loaves of two pounds and four pounds respectively, and all bread sold or offered for sale within the City of any less weight shall be seized and forfeited for the use of the poor, provided always that nothing in this section contained shall prevent bakers or others from selling or offering for sale biscuits, buns, rolls, crackers, muffins or any other fancy cakes commonly made in the trade and not intended to represent or pass as a loaf or loaves of bread, and no person shall sell or offer for sale within the City bread made contrary to the provisions of this By-law.

221. It shall be lawful for any member of the Police Force or Chief of Police, or for the License Inspector at any time from six o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock at night (Sundays excepted) to enter into any house, shop or place within the City where bread is sold or offered for sale and cause the bread found therein to be weighed, and if such bread shall be found to be less weight than provided by the next preceding section of this By-law, to seize and carry away the same order that it may be disposed of for the use of the poor in such manner as shall be directed by the Mayor, Police Magistrate or Chairman of the Hospital and Relief Committee.

260. The Market House now established and known as the Covent Garden Market situated between Dundas Street and King Street and Richmond Street and Talbot Street, and the Market Place adjoining thereto, shall continue to be the Market House and Market Place of the City.

261. Every day in the year except Sunday, Christmas Day and Good Friday, shall be a market day.

262. The Market House shall be opened every morning (Sunday, Christmas Day, and Good Friday excepted) by the Clerk of the Market at five o’clock between the first day of May and the first day of November, and at seven o’clock during the rest of the year; and be shut at two o’clock every afternoon all the year round, except Saturday when the market shall be kept open till ten o’clock in the evening.

269. Upon sale and delivery of potatoes within the City by the bag, the bag shall be taken and intended to mean ninety pounds weight.

355. Every manufacture of woollens, cottons, glass or paper shall, after having been established within the City a manufactory for all or any of the purposes aforesaid, and kept the same in operation for a period of six successive months, shall be exempt from taxation within the City in respect of the manufactory actually used by him for the purposes aforesaid, the personal property used or employed in such manufactory, and the income derived therefrom, for the period of five years, to be computed from the expiration of six months, provided always that whenever such manufactory shall cease to be used or run for the purpose aforesaid, or some or one of them; or if the manufacture of some or one of the classes of articles hereinbefore mentioned shall not be continuously going on at such manufactory, such exemption shall cease and determine.   

SOURCE: Charter and By-laws of the City of London - 1879

© Trevor Dailey

This article is revised from time to time.

London's failed socialist economy

On Saturday, about a dozen employers from Huron County were part of a Job Fair that took place in London. Media reports were these companies had a total of 150 positions to fill, and they came to London because they could not find enough workers. Hundreds of people, probably more than the 500 expected, attended that day looking for a job, including myself. So far, I have not been offered one. London falls dead last among all Canadian cities in employment rates and labor participation rates.

The irony of the location of the Job Fair did not escape my attention. It was held in East London. Once the industrial engine that helped drive the London economy for many decades it is now rusting out. Outside employers looking for workers held a Job Fair just a block away from the closed McCormick and Kellogg factories that have been empty for years. Just these two factories once employed hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people at a time, and both operated successfully for many decades. The last of many and various types of manufactures that once clustered in the area since the early 1900s. (Dominon Office & Store Fitting, Middlesex Mills, McCormick's, Kellogg’s, EMCO, Ruggles, Kelvinator, Supersilk, Hunts Mill, Club House Foods, Coca Cola).

Some people, including so-called economists, argue the economy has changed, and this is why manufacturing has declined in the province of Ontario. They use phrases like, “shifting economy”. Things have shifted, but not much in manufacturing. People still need the basics of food and clothing, and the luxuries of computer devices to be produced. Mass production enables more people to obtain more of the things they want, and in so doing, provides jobs for thousands of workers. It has been the political situation that has gone away from capitalism and into socialism that has mostly caused the profound decline in manufacturing jobs in the province of Ontario and the City of London.

Capitalism includes:

Private Property

Profit Motive

Freedom of Contract

Competition

Free Enterprise

No one is raising private money to restore and renovate the vacant factories so that they may be attractive to new manufacturers who will bring jobs. They are not finding ways to attract new business to East London. The City Of London is not lowering property taxes, eliminating over regulation, and offering these incentives for new owners to restore and renovate the vacant (many historic) buildings in London. The City is concerned with increasing taxes, increasing regulation, and spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars, probably one billion dollars, on a Communist social engineering Bus Rapid Transit scheme.

The financial records show that during the First World War London’s prosperity remained unbroken.

In 1922, with a population of 60,000 people, London ranked 6th in manufacturing output in all of Canada.

One London factory in 1922 produced more than all of London’s industry in 1871.

The City of London established the Town Planning Commission in 1922.

“Report On Town Planning Survey Of The City Of London” by Town Planning Consultant, Thomas Adams was completed April - May 1922. Main considerations for attracting business of 158 manufactures and 83 wholesale distributors surveyed were:

Labour facilities

More disposition of city to appreciate industry

Room for expansion

Railway facilities

Power supply

After her death in 1934, the City of London challenged Elsie Perrin Williams' Last Will And Testament in Provincial Court and succeeded in robbing her $1, 000,000 trust fund to spend on City projects.

The London Street Railway (L.S.R.) began on January 23, 1875, under an agreement with the City of London, and while the L.S.R. was privately owned, the L.S.R. fell under the complete oppressive control of the City.

In 1940, the City of London abolished street cars, and an all bus system was established. In 1941, the City of London removed street car tracks along Richmond Street, Dundas Street, and Oxford Street.

In the 1960s and the 1970s, city planning increased considerably.

At least three manufactures did not come to London in 1962 apparently because of City Hall red tape.

In 1974, City Council approved the plan for a bus mall on Dundas Street. Dundas Street from Adelaide Street to Elizabeth Street was closed to car traffic that was diverted to King Street and Queens Avenue. This road closure destroyed the economy of this area within a couple of years. The disastrous busway that the City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars constructing was removed in a few years, but the area's economy never fully recovered. Phase I of the London Urban Transportation Study published in 1974 had recommended that the Dundas Street busway plan be extended from downtown to Quebec Street.

Since its last failed attempts at this scheme in 1980 and 2008, the City in 2018 has succeeded in forcing thorough its Dundas Street "Flex Street" that is only a few blocks from the almost identical busway mall fiasco location of 1974.

The lack of adequate sewer facilities was given as an obstruction to industry coming to London in 1978.

In 1999, 45% of London's sewers were 30 to 50 years old, 18% were 50 to 80 years old, and 8% were over 80 years old.

Just Right 540 - January 25, 2017

Up the poll on the state of the city

Minimum wage law: no one gets it if there isn't any

As of January 1, 2018, the minimum wage in the Province of Ontario has risen from $11.60 per hour to $14.00 per hour. That is a 20.69 % increase overnight. It is set to rise 7.14 % to $15.00 per hour on January 1, 2019. That is a total increase of 27.83 %. It will still rise again every October based on inflation.

The Province of Ontario had no minimum wage law until the United Farmers of Ontario government (1919 -1923) legislated it for women. The Conservative government of Ontario legislated minimum wage law to include men, at a higher minimum wage than women, in 1925.

To those people who have said the previous minimum wage was not enough, I say stop your complaining and get to work; and hope you are not one of the 50,000 people predicted to lose their jobs because of minimum wage going up. What wage is better than no wage at all?

Minimum wage law is about using force. It is about the socialist ideal, redistribution of wealth from those who earned it to those who did not earn it, eliminating freedom of contract, eliminating competition in the marketplace, and increasing government theft. The government steals a portion of everyone's paycheques through taxes so a minimum wage earners's net pay is actually less than the legal minimum wage.

From the example image above:

An employee works 75 hours during a bi-weekly pay period at minimum wage of $11.60 per hour and earns $870.00. The employer must pay the employee 4% vacation pay that is calculated to be $34.80. The employee's gross pay is $904.80. The government takes $38.12 from the employee's pay for Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The employer is forced by government to pay $38.12 to the government for CCP on behalf of the employee. The government takes $15.02 from the employee's pay for Employment Insurance (EI). The employer is forced by government to pay $21.03 for EI on behalf of the employee. The government takes $83.76 from the employee's pay in tax. This leaves the employee with a $767.90 paycheque. Subtracting the $34.80 vacation pay from employee's net pay leaves a wage total of $733.10. Dividing the employee's net wage (less vacation pay) by the 75 hours worked in the bi-weekly pay period means the employee was actually paid $9.77 per hour. That is $1.83 below a $11.60 minimum wage.

An employee works 75 hours during a bi-weekly pay period at minimum wage of $14.00 per hour and earns $1050.00. The employer must pay the employee 4% vacation pay that is calculated to be $42.00. The employee's gross pay is $1092.00. The government takes $47.38 from the employee's pay for Canada Pension Plan (CPP). The employer is forced by government to pay $47.38 to the government for CCP on behalf of the employee. The government takes $18.13 from the employee's pay for Employment Insurance (EI). The employer is forced by government to pay $25.38 for EI on behalf of the employee. The government takes $122.22 from the employee's pay in tax. This leaves the employee with a $904.26 paycheque. Subtracting the $42.00 vacation pay from employee's net wage leaves a total of $862.26. Dividing the employee's net wage (less vacation pay) by the 75 hours worked in the bi-weekly pay period means the employee was actually paid $11.49 per hour. That is $2.51 below a $14.00 minimum wage.

The difference in take home pay of the employee earning a minimum wage of $11.60 per hour and earning a minimum wage of $14.00 per hour for a 75 hour bi-weekly pay period is a net increase of $1.72 per hour.

The government takes $196.05 from the employee's pay who works 75 hours in a bi-weekly pay period at $11.60 per hour. The government takes $260.51 from the employee's pay who works 75 hour in a bi-weekly pay period at $14.00 per hour.

The employer must pay an additional $5, 221.32 per year in wage, CPP,  EI,  and tax to employ the employee at a minimum wage of $14.00 per hour.

Complete government control over the economy, and keeping people poor. Socialism, Communism, and Fascism. All on the Left. All alive and well in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Update: Apparently, the new Ontario Progressive Conservative government has paused the minimum wage increase until 2020. In 2020, the minimum wage may be raised to $15.00 per hour, and then increase each year based on inflation. If true, then the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are following almost exactly the same minimum wage plan of the defeated Ontario Liberal government.

 Just Right 515 - July 27, 2017

ONTARIO'S POLITICIANS ON FASCISM’S DOORSTEP

Kevin Flynn, Ontario's Minister of Labour (Liberal) has made it explicitly clear that his government's planned minimum wage increase is not about minimum wages at all.  The legislation has been designed primarily for the purpose of exercising the Liberal Party’s Marxist philosophy, most popularly (and incorrectly) understood as:  "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need..."          

“We told our advisors ‘Don’t deal with minimum wage’ because we already have a good handle on that,” Flynn said to interviewer Andrew Lawton on July 10. 

“The underlying principle is that there are a number of people in our province that are doing very well these days.” (From each according to his ability…)        

“The underlying concern is that people in this province are making less than $15 per hour, which we know is below the poverty level.” (…to each according to his need).          

So the whole minimum wage debacle is not about minimum wages at all!  It’s about socialist wealth redistribution, plain and simple. Straight from the Labour Minister’s mouth.          

Worse, Flynn hinted at government plans to impose a different “business model” on small and medium businesses that pay minimum wages.  His apparent intentions are to destroy what little is left of free enterprise and impose complete state control and regulation of small business via fascism – in the service of socialistic wealth redistribution purposes.  This movement to the Left has already been well under way for some time in Ontario.

Tragically assumed by many to be offering an alternative to the Wynne Liberals, Patrick Brown, leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, fully supports both the Marxist principle and fascist plans to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour.  These intentions have been made very explicit and you can hear both Brown and Flynn attest to them in their own words on today’s show.          

In political terms, minimum wage laws are properly categorized as being fascist (state control of private property/contract/association, etc.).         

Think “fascism” is too strong a word?  Consider that, effective January 1 of this year (and fully supported by all members of the legislature), it is now illegal in the province of Ontario to freely associate for political purposes. Yes, political freedom of association has literally been made illegal in the province of Ontario.          

This is fascism, and the details of how rapidly fascist policy has taken root in Ontario are alarming.  From politics – to minimum wage laws – to fighting climate change, and more, Ontario offers demonstrable proof that fascism sits on the Left, along with its socialist/communist brethren.

No matter how many may disagree with our use of these labels of the Left to describe Ontario today, few would disagree with the corollary: The one thing Ontario is NOT, is Just Right.

- Just Right Media

RUSH TO STOP ONTARIO LABOUR BILL 148

As you know, the Ontario government has introduced Bill 148, the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act. Left unchanged, this bill will harm workers, especially young and unskilled workers, increase costs for businesses, and make Ontario less competitive. The Ontario government is rushing this bill through the legislature with unprecedented speed. Let your voice be heard. Contact your Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) and tell them to stop the rush—good jobs are at stake.

Among the changes included in Bill 148 are:

A minimum wage increase to $14 per hour on Jan. 1, 2018, and to $15 per hour on Jan. 1, 2019 (a 32% increase in 18 months).

A new proposal to implement “Equal Pay for Equal Work” for Temporary Help Agency employees to be paid the same as permanent workers with comparable work/conditions/experience/skills.

New conditions for part-time/casual/seasonal workers to be paid the same as full time workers.

Establish card-based union certification for the temporary help agency industry, the building services sector, home care, and the community services industry.

Increase overtime and public holiday pay.

Increase minimum vacation entitlement for workers from two to three weeks per year (for employment period >5 years).

Allow any employee to take two paid days off with no minimum service, earnings, or doctor’s note required. Thus, a temporary worker could work one hour and receive two days pay with no explanation and no note, and repeat this across multiple agencies each year.

Double the Ministry of Labour’s current complement of workplace inspectors by adding 150 new inspectors.

Bill 148 will lead to:

Fewer Jobs.

Fewer entry-level opportunities for young and unskilled workers looking to build their experience.

Fewer roles for seniors and retired workers who need to earn occasional money to supplement their retirement income.

Less Opportunity.

There will be fewer jobs in Ontario as Bill 148 will make it significantly more expensive to operate a business. Ontario will be less attractive as an investment opportunity.

More costs.

A huge spike in labour challenges from permanent workers who will expect wage parity with temporary workers (often clients pay more for temporary help because a skilled worker on contract can demand higher wages). Significantly higher costs of public holidays for all employers that engage students, part-time employees, casual workers, and temporary help.

Less Productivity.

More red tape, more inspections, and more potential abuse of the emergency-leave provisions and scheduling changes resulting in less work opportunity, frustrated employers, higher business costs, and reduced productivity in Ontario.

- Express Employment Professionals

Another fact should be borne in mind, namely, that the shop we bought was literally a sweat-shop, and that sweat-shops are always made up of inefficient workers who can not get a job in a high-grade shop. Wages in what are known as "inside shops," run by the factories themselves, always start where the sweat-shop wages leave off; thus the wages that were being paid in this shop at the time we took it over, must not be confused with the wages paid in the inside shops of the large clothing manufacturers of Cincinnati.

"We all looked at him, and after a minute's silence he went on: 'Whatever this Golden Rule thing is I don't know, but what Mr. Nash told us was that all he wanted us to do was to work just as we would want him to work if we were up in the office paying wages, and he was back here doing the work. Now I know, if I was the boss and would come in and talk to the workers as he did, and raise wages like he has, I'd want every one to work like hell!'

- The Golden Rule in Business, by Arthur Nash

Back home in Canada, George Weston Limited remained profitable, in spite of the Depression. That allowed the company to do something remarkable for the times — establish a minimum wage for its male employees. In 1934, married men were guaranteed a wage of $22 a week and single men $18 a week.

- Britain’s Biggest Baker

The first thing that happens, for example, when a law is passed that no one shall be paid less than $106 for a forty-hour week is that no one who is not worth $106 a week to an employer will be employed at all. You cannot make a man worth a given amount by making it illegal for anyone to offer him anything less. You merely deprive him of the right to earn the amount that his abilities and situation would permit him to earn, while you deprive the community even of the moderate services that he is capable of rendering. In brief, for a low wage you substitute unemployment. You do harm all around, with no comparable compensation.

- Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt

Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed. 

- Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

- Milton Friedman

Back in China, after returning to their families for the [Chinese New Year] holiday, most workers stay away for weeks (officially it's a 15 day holiday), and factories have no idea who will come back and who won't, as many people take the opportunity to renegotiate or change jobs. There are usually more jobs than skilled workers to fill them in China, which means workers can pick and choose and are in a strong position to make demands.

- Catherine Clavering

The purpose of businesses is to make a profit, not to provide a service or a product.

- Catherine Clavering

© Trevor Dailey

Freedom Party Of Ontario

Just Right Media: Minimum Wage

 

 

Just some facts: Trump's 'anti-immigration' and ‘anti-refugee’ policies

This is President Donald Trump’s March 2017 Executive Order.

This is a short video clip from President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State Of The Union Address regarding immigration.

These are the numbers of “removals” and “returns” from the United States between 1882 to 2014. Barack Obama was president from 2009 to 2017.

This is a summary of the law in Canada regarding refugees.

(c) Trevor Dailey

Government responsible for short-wave decline

Millions of people listen to short-wave radio. Governments like China, Iran, and Cuba have increased the level of their multi-language propaganda short-wave broadcasts. Religious groups are all over the short-wave band spending fortunes in short-wave broadcasting. WBCQ has been broadcasting international short-wave radio since 1998.  Just Right received an extraordinary increase in unique visits to its website after the show moved to short-wave radio after being almost 10 years on FM radio. The short-wave radio broadcasts of the BBC and VOA (and others) are still being jammed by certain countries. These things would not happen if millions of people did not listen to short-wave radio.

What has been a major factor in the decline of short-wave radio broadcasting is not the ending or reduction of state run short-wave radio broadcasters, but that very few countries allow private short-wave broadcasting, the USA being an important exception. Canada, on top of the authoritarian restrictions and regulation placed on Canadain broadacsters by the CRTC, does not permit a private short-wave radio broadcaster in Canada to deliberately broadcast short-wave radio across Canada. It must broadcast its short-wave signal outside of Canada. I presume this is to protect the CBC, “Canada’s national broadcaster,” from competition.  

Governments have been getting out of the short-wave radio business since the end of the Cold War; however, the problem exists that too many governments are not allowing the private broadcaster to move into the space left. This is what is holding back the progress and growth of short-wave radio today.

© Trevor Dailey

Capitalism is not really an 'ism' and neither is freedom

ISM

I HEREBY TURN OVER TO THE GOVERNMENT EVERYTHING I HAVE, INCLUDING MY FREEDOM, AND THE FREEDOM OF MY CHILDREN, AND THE FREEDOM OF MY CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, IN RETURN FOR WHICH SAID GOVERNMENT PROMISES TO TAKE CARE OF ME FOREVER.

SIGNED:

Make Mine Freedom -1948  (Public domain. Quote modified slightly)

Only one of these words is not like all the others.

Altruism

CAPITALISUM

Collectivism

Communism

Environmentalism

Fascism

Marxism

Socialism

Statism

© Trevor Dailey

In North Korea
dictator Kim Jong Il said he could control the weather.

In Ontario
Premier Kathleen Wynne says she can control the climate.

© Trevor Dailey

 

 

 

Spring 'Global Warming Climate Change' Snowstorm

Early spring here in London, Ontario, Canada looks like early winter instead.

The ruling (not governing) Liberal government is going to legislate (force) a broad “carbon tax” for almost everything in Ontario to stop “global warming”. The Progressive Conservative party, the (in name only) official opposition, supports a "carbon tax" to stop "global warming"

(c) Trevor Dailey

Carbon Copies: Ontario Liberal and Progressive Conservative Parties on Climate Fighting and Taxes

Just Right - March 31, 2016

Just Right - Guest - David Plumb 

 

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 04:49 Saturday 02 April 2016

Snow squalls are likely to develop tonight and then weaken later Sunday morning. Strong northwest winds are expected to develop tonight in the wake of an Alberta Clipper crossing Southern Ontario. Flurries and localized snow squalls should develop late this evening or overnight. Local amounts of 15 centimetres are possible tonight with additional amounts Sunday morning before they weaken. Blowing snow may also be significant as winds gust up to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 15:19 Saturday 02 April 2016

Snow squalls are likely to develop later this evening and then weaken late Sunday morning. Strong northwest winds are expected to develop this evening in the wake of an Alberta Clipper crossing Southern Ontario. Flurries and local snow squalls should develop late this evening and continue overnight. Local amounts of 15 centimetres are possible tonight with additional amounts of 5 cm Sunday morning before the snow squalls weaken. Blowing snow may also be significant as winds gust up to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 03:16 Sunday 03 April 2016

Flurries and local snow squalls have developed and are expected to weaken by midday. Local amounts of 5 to 10 centimetres are possible before the snow squalls weaken. Blowing snow may be significant as winds gust to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County


Issued at 04:53 Sunday 10 April 2016


Yet another April snowfall on tap. The latest battle between spring and a very stubborn winter is setting up for today and tonight across Southern Ontario. A large Alberta Clipper approaching the Great Lakes from the northwest will spread a large area of snow into the region, with the snow expected to arrive in Southwestern Ontario this morning or early afternoon. Snow will reach the Muskoka to Golden Horseshoe areas later this afternoon then spread into remaining regions this evening. Snowfall amounts will range from near 2 cm over areas near Lakes Erie and Ontario, to 4 to 8 centimetres further north. Up to 10 centimetres of snow is possible in a few locales tonight especially in areas around Georgian Bay and the Dundalk Highlands to the Haliburton Highlands. As a warm front associated with the clipper moves in, the snow will change over to rain by late afternoon in the Windsor area. The changeover to rain will then work its way northeastward with the warm front tonight across remaining regions of Southern Ontario. There may be a brief period of ice pellets or freezing rain during the transition from snow to rain. Most areas should receive a total of 5 to 15 mm of rain before the rain ends on Monday. Driving conditions are expected to deteriorate after the snow arrives. Untreated roads may become snow covered and slippery. Motorists should be prepared for winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

 

My Kind Of Liberty

A big issue I have with the federal Liberals and the Conservatives in Canada is both parties talk about liberty, but, in my opinion, neither side knows what liberty is. 

Here is how the former Prime Minister Of Canada, Stephen Harper, described liberty in a 2009 speech:

Freedom must be tempered by faith…

Faith…teaches us…that how much freedom is exercised matters as much as freedom itself…

Freedom must be used well…

To conservatives, it cannot be just about freedom. It must be about policies that help ensure freedom will lead to good choices…

Stephen Harper
Conservative
Prime Minister Of Canada
2003 - 2015

This is not liberty. Freedom tempered by a religious belief system is not freedom. Faith is a:

strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Oxford dictionary.

Being told one may have freedom only if it agrees with a certain faith is not liberty. The ability to freely choose to speak, think, act, and owe no account of one's words, thoughts, or acts to any one except to one's own conscience is liberty. 

Here is what the Prime Minister Of Canada, Justin Trudeau, said about liberty in a 2015 speech:

First, I want to argue that Canadian Liberty is all about inclusion.

Second, I’ll make the case that Canadian Liberty has got one of the world’s most vexatious problems right: the interplay between individual freedom and collective identity. 

So first, in Canada, when we are at our best, liberty means inclusion.

But for me, Canadian Liberty is not about the freedom of powerful people to exercise that freedom according to the dictates of their conscience. It is about Canadians’ rights not to have their freedom unduly restricted, especially by the state.

Inclusive Freedom. Expansive Freedom. That is the Canadian idea of Liberty. The idea that the liberty of all is enhanced when new freedoms are granted to individuals. Liberty is not majority rule. 

Justin Trudeau
Liberal
Prime Minister Of Canada
2015 - 

Inclusion is not liberty. Collectivism is not liberty. The individual does not have more liberty when belonging to a group than when standing alone. A group of ten people does not have 10 times more liberty than the one person not part of the group. More individual rights does not mean more liberty. More liberty means more individual rights.  

Here is what the former Prime Minister Of Canada, Wilfred Laurier, said about liberty in his speeches:

I am a friend to liberty, but with me liberty does not mean license. A free people is not one without laws or checks; a free people is one among whom all the attributes, all the rights of the members of the State are clearly defined and determined and among whom there is no encroachment of one power upon another. That is the true liberty.

We have no absolute rights amongst us. The rights of each man, in our state of society, ends precisely at the point where they encroach upon the rights of others.

It will be argued, perhaps, that the reasons which I advance are pure legal subtleties. Name them as you please, technical expressions, legal subtleties, it matters little; for my part, I say that these technical reasons, these legal subtleties, are the guarantees of British liberty. Thanks to these technical expressions, these legal subtleties, no person on British soil can be arbitrarily deprived of what belongs to him. There was a time when the procedure was much simpler than it is to-day, when the will alone of one man was sufficient to deprive another of his liberty, his property, his honour and all that makes life dear. But since the days of the Great Charter, never has it been possible on British soil to rob a man of his liberty, his property or his honour except under the safeguard of what has been termed in this debate technical expressions and legal subtleties….

There are only two ways of governing men by despotism or coercion, if you choose to call it by that name, or by freedom.

Sir Wilfred Laurier
Liberal
Prime Minister Of Canada
1896 - 1911

This is liberty. One's liberty only ends when one violates the rights of life, liberty, or property of another person. The government guarantees these individual rights, and the government is to protect those individual rights. That is how I see it.

© Trevor Dailey