From Blue to Green

Traditionally, I have voted Conservative. Whether it's federal, provincial or municipal, I generally vote for fiscally conservative politicians. In this sense, I have not changed. I believe that Canada operates most efficiently with consumers being able to spend their money freely. When government interferes, generally, I believe Canada is worse-off. The government represents an inefficiency that inherantly inhibits our effectiveness of social programs. Granted, there are programs that need to be managed (ie. healthcare), but the programs should be minimal.

Why the hell am I changing my vote to the Green Party of Ontario?

First, I do not like the conservative policy on creating a new system of education. This system will incorporate religion further into our education. For the last 30 or 40 years, there has been a shift to remove religion from education in society. I see the conservative policy as a huge step backwards. For the risk that I am sounding like a bigot, I want to make it clear that I am not against any specific religion, or religion in general. I believe people have a right to practice their religion. I just do not believe that there is necessarily a point in segregating our public school system even further in order to accomomodate different religious beliefs. In fact, I do not like our current system where there is essentially a Catholic board and a public board.

This segregation is intended to promote religious equality. I believe the most "equal" system is a system that does not promote religion in schools. I mean this on a macro level. I don't think it's a good use of taxpayer's money to build two separate schools for two neighbours who are only separated by the beliefs of their parents. There is no reason why they cannot share the same roof, and practice their religion within the same building. If these two neighbours were far enough away from the school, two buses would be needed. There are duplications of costs in the current system with the two major school boards, and there will be a ridiculous amount of incremental costs with the addition of other major religions. This is terribly inefficient and pointless.

Therefore, I cannot vote for the conservatives. To be honest, I have not researched their entire platform, but my fundamental opposition to their education plan is enough to consider the other parties.

Similarly, I cannot vote for the NDP. There have been times when the NDP has appealed to me because of their liberal social policies. However, it is usually their fiscal platform that turns me off. In this case, it is their minimum-wage policy that is turning me off. They want to increase the minimum wage to $10 per hour. This is a short-term solution with long-term detriments to society. I do not want to get into the economics of this policy, but wish to simply express my displeasure to the policy. For any individual that believes increasing the minimum wage will benefit society, I would recommend picking up an economics textbook.

For the Liberals, I believe they've been doing a decent job. There are quite a few things that I have disagreed with in their previous mandate, and there are some things in their platform that I do not support, but, in general, there is nothing that I am fundamentally opposed to. I want to make this clear because I do not want to make an argument for the Green party with the impression that they are the lesser of all of the evils. There are policies that I generally believe in.

First of all, despite common misconceptions, the Green party is generally a fiscally conservative party. In this sense, they have always appealed to me. Depending on the leader, their focus is sometimes too liberal than conservative for my liking, but they are usually not too far off. After reading their economic policy for this election, I like their direction. They have promoted tax relief for workers, and they have decided to shift the tax burden in other areas. They have provided for specific tax shifting, so that people can realize economic prosperity, but remain responsible to our planet. As described on their website, "pay for what you burn, not what you earn" describes a tax system that I am in favour of. Again, being somewhat of an amateur economist, I prefer consumption taxes over income taxes and I won't go into the details, but will simply say that this is good for Canada both economically and environmentally.

Therefore, I think this time I will vote Green.

Nick Kypreos

I've never liked his commentary and last night was no exception. The hot topic tonight is the suspension of Maple Leafs' forward Mark Bell. Bell was suspended 15 games for his "off-ice" conduct which included impaired driving.



Kypreos felt that this suspension was unwarranted. He argued that there are only two reasons that you would suspend a guy. First, to make a guy pay a price and, second, to make a guy change his behaviour. He argued that Bell has already served a price, and a big one to boot. Bell will have to serve 6 months in jail once the NHL season is over. He also had to attend the NHL's substance abuse program.

As for his second point, he argued to say that there is no point in trying to change the behaviour of Mark Bell. Mark Bell has become a clean, sober and respectable individual. Kypreos is obviously upset with Gary Bettman, the NHL's commissioner, for more than just this issue. Kypreos mentions that Bettman is simply getting on the get-tough bandwagon. Roger Goodell of the NFL has had to suspend Michael Vick for dog-fighting charges and Adam "Pac-man" Jones for "making it rain".

Bettman is trying to set an example for the rest of the league. That is also another reasont to suspend a guy. There should be no tolerance in the NHL for the behaviour of Mark Bell or anyone that even thinks that this may be a good idea. Drinking and driving is not cool. Mark Bell should be thankful that he is allowed to play in the NHL.

The most frustrating part of Kypreos' comments had to stem from the reference to the Dany Heatley scenario. Since Dany Heatley killed a man with his driving and he got no suspension, Mark Bell should not have received a suspension. This is absolutely false. First, Dany Heatley was not drunk behind the wheel. Although his actions were idiotic and perhaps warranted a mild suspension, similar to Mark Bell's, I believe that Bell's actions were deliberate and warrants punishment.

I get very frustrated with Nick Kypreos as he is often on the side of the Leafs and the players association. His arguments are often thoughtless and selfish. This is another scenario that ensures that I quickly change the channel and watch hockey guys with no history of severe concussions.

Northeast Division Preview

Like most hockey fans, I feel the contant urge to share my opinions about the game. Without wasting any time, I present to you, the reader, my predictions for the Northeast Division in hockey.

1st - Ottawa
2nd - Buffalo
3rd - Toronto
4th - Montreal
5th - Boston

Ottawa - Stanley Cup finalists this past season, you may think I am being slightly biased and taking the easy way out. The Sens added more depth at D, but at the same time lost some key forwards. Mike Comrie and Peter Schaefer were key players for the Senatores, Comrie for his powerplay, and Schaefer for his penalty killing abilities. The Sens will need their young players to step it up this year. Last year, the Sens were counting on Alexei Kaigarodov, but that experiment failed, so its even more critical that the Sens draft picks to be successful. If the rumors are true about Peter Forsberg, look for this team to make another long cup run.

Buffalo - Despite losing its two co-captains, Briere and Drury, I still believe this team has the depth to be successful. If Afinogenov and Connolly can remain healthy, the Sabres are going to still be really tough to beat. With Ryan Miller between the pipes a good puck-moving defencemen, I expect the Sabres to hang in tough with the Senators for the division title.

Toronto - As much as I enjoy seeing the Leafs lose, I don't see them as a poorer team than Montreal or Boston. The Leafs grabbed 40-goal scorer Jason Blake. Although he's not a saviour, he is a 40-goal scorer. He should take at least some of the pressure off of Mats Sundin. The Leafs had some critical injuries last year that might have given them enough of a boost to make the playoffs if they happend to be healthy. I do not expect to see great things from the Leafs this year, and a playoff berth will be a struggle.

Montreal - This is a funny team to analyze. At a first glance, they've gotten rid of Sheldon Souray, their top Powerplay guy. Last year, it was the Powerplay that got the Canadiens a shot at making the playoffs. It was their 5 on 5 play that kept them out. Souray was a huge liability on defence, and his departure should be a welcomed fact because he was a minus -28. However, Montreal does not seem to have the same depth at forward or defence as the Leafs, so I cannot put them ahead of them. Montreal is a young team and I would expect them to make a push later on in the season, but still failing to make the playoffs.

Boston - Boston, once my favourite, might be this year's laughing stock of a team. They went out to get Manny Fernandez to help solidify its goaltending, but its the lack of team defence that will sink this team to the bottom. Zdeno Chara is going to wear out. His physical attributes are astonishing, but are only effective when he serves as a complementary role. There is no way that he can shoulder the whole load. Pronger, of similar stature, was effective for Anaheim because he was a supporting cast member. You may have argued that Pronger carried the Oilers to the cup finals, which is true, but I don't think he could have done that if he had carried them to anything more that the 8th place seed they were going into the playoffs. Pronger and Chara are only effective for a couple of months by themselves. They are great because they can do that, but the human body has its limits.

CFL back to Ottawa???

On labour day, the CFL holds "traditional" football games where every year the same two teams will play against each other. I started to watch some of the Ti-Cats and Argos game when I thought that it was about time for the CFL to try to make another comeback to Ottawa.

First of all, Ottawa should have a football team. Mismanaged for years, the franchise was consistently doomed to a last place finish. They hadn't had an over .500 season in the last 15 years when they did exist. That is a recipe for a disaster. It would be nice if a team could bring in some extra revenues with the help of hosting a couple of extra playoff games. They rarely made the playoffs and they became the laughing stock of the league.

I was a season-ticket holder for one season. In that season, two seats cost about $400 for the season. In the next year, the Renegades were slated to host the Grey Cup. They asked for $300 per season-ticket renewal and $200 for the ticket to the grey cup game. It would have cost me $1,000 just to have the same tickets I had the year before. Absolutely ridiculous, I opted not to renew my season tickets. I had even decided to quit going to the games because they offended me by requesting that I renew my tickets before the current season had even ended. I was a poor student. I should have an opportunity to renew my seats at my discretion. They threatened to give my seats away, but I was left with no choice as it was virtually impossible for me to warrant those kind of expenses when I had tuition to save up for.

Needless to say, after a failed attempt to bring in more fans with a Mardi-Gras promotion, the Renegades were forced to quit the CFL. Their wonderful public relations and their poor performance on the field certainly killed any hopes of sustainable survival. In fact, it's fairly difficult to justify the return of the CFL in Ottawa based on the history of football in Ottawa.

What is different? There has to be something that has changed since the folding of the franchise to warrant its revival, no? Sadly, I believe that the change has occurred with the failure of the Ottawa Lynx. Thats two semi-professional leagues that have failed in Ottawa. Ottawa must be a bad sports town.

The fans in Ottawa are good fans. They simply have standards. The fans in Ottawa have supported the Sens, and more impressively, they have supported the Olympiques and the 67's like no other city has. The 67's are one of the most successful franchises in all of amateur sport. The Sens are being supported by more and more fans in Ottawa. The Sens are still a young team and hockey fans tend to be loyal. There are new generations of fans that are growing up to love the game, and more importantly the Senators.

Is it a winter thing? Ottawa seems to only be able to support winter sports. Is it possible that Ottawa workers just go to the cottage and play golf all of the time, so they do not have the time to go to sporting events in the summer? I think this is a myth. I think the parking situation for the Lynx was a major pitfall of the Lynx (there are also very few buses that go to Lynx stadium). I also believe that the Renegades were mismanaged.

Now that the Lynx are gone, there could be one major player on Ottawa sports Radio in the summertime. It could be a new CFL franchise. Frank Clair stadium is a wonderfully located facility and it makes for a wonderful night out on the town. Ottawa has filled that stadium for the Renegades before, and they can do it again. They just need the right people to run the show. The CFL was right when it decided not to allow beer-maker Frank D'Angelo run the team. He seems too much of an attention grabber, much like the Gliebermanns. Just because you can sell beer cheaply doesn't necessarily qualify you to run a CFL franchise.

The CFL is doing the right thing by waiting things out to determine who the next franchise owner should be. The ideal candidate would be someone like Eugene Melnyk, the current owner of the Senators. He has created some goodwill for himself and could do cross-marketing for the Sens and Renegades. He will not canabalize his sales as the two products wouldn't be competing against one another. The only problem is that Eugene likely has too much money. A CFL franchise wouldn't be worth his time. The Sens came at a discount and a building. The Renegades come with a hope of making money, not a guarantee.

Hopefully, in the next couple of years, there will be someone that will be able to run the franchise properly. This is all, of course, contingent of the lease that the city signs, pricing points, and the franchise fee that the CFL is demanding. My point here is to not consider the finances directly this time, but to consider the qualitative and marketing opportunities that now exist. The conditions have changed and the potential of a CFL franchise moving back to Ottawa is now greater, not worse as the Ottawa Lynx have moved.