Tim Hortons Returning to Canada

A NEW LEARNING
In spite of the fact that Timmy’s has been owned since 1995 by U.S. hamburger chain Wendy’s International Inc., Tim Hortons is securely linked to the Canadian identity. After all, its founder was the legendary Tim Horton, Hall of Fame defenseman for Toronto Maple Leafs, who died tragically in a vehicle accident in 1974. Horton’s coffee shops are familiar landmarks in our communities for as long as most of us can remember.

Well, Tim Hortons is coming back to Canada. It is not nostalgically motivated but entirely business. Currently incorporated in the Unites States, the company filed notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that it proposes to reorganize itself as a ‘Canadian public company’ in order to take advantage of the decreasing Canadian corporate tax rates. The new company would maintain the name Tim Horton’s Inc. The Canadian federal government is whittling down the federal corporate income tax rate to 15 per cent by 2012 from 22.12 per cent in 2007 and the current rate of 19 percent. Good for you Harper. The U.S. rate is presently 33 percent. You blew it Obama. The company has also considered that 90 percent of its revenue comes from Canadian operations. The company has 2,930 restaurants in Canada making it Canada's largest restaurant chain, 527 restaurants in the U.S. and a presence in Ireland and Britain, primarily through self-serve outlets in grocery stores. Hortons plans to open 150 to 180 new stores in 2009. The company reported a profit of $66.4-million or 37 cents a share in the first quarter of 2009, up 7.5 per cent from $61.8-million or 33 cents a year earlier.

I know people who dislike Hortons coffee and many more who are dedicated drinkers. I did not say addicted but dedicated because urban legends take care of the addiction references. One dated urban legend claimed that Tim Horton’s coffee contains the secret additive of nicotine and another that Tim Hortons coffee contains higher than normal levels of caffeine. An alternative conspiracy theory about Tim Hortons coffee rumors that Tim Hortons coffee has MSG in it. All of these implications have been disproved by independent testing as well as those done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Their website asserts that there is no truth these urban legends.

Shareholders must approve the reorganization. D-Day is September 2nd.

In comparison to Starbuck’s customarily bold enjoyable flavours, Hortons is an unexciting but pleasant beverage. People who prefer Hortons generally do not like a strong coffee taste but love the lower per cup cost.

Taking Issue with the Slanderers - Part one

A NEW LEARNING
I received a friend’s expressions of deep concern about President Barak Obama’s executive orders which some American political bloggers are associating with an Islamic lover’s agenda. I immediately began doing research to gather evidence to support my belief that Obama’s administration is one of integrity.

The communication that initiated the worry came from the keyboard of Kim Priestap. She wrote the following title, ‘Obama Signs Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to Hamas to Resettle In US.’ To support her contention she cited this link in the government’s own federal registry of legislative orders, www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488. She can be read at www.wizbangblog.com

I don’t know Kim Priestap at all but as I investigated her claims I came across countless other end times blogs and sites that have jumped on the same issue that caused her indignation. What disturbed me was the discovery that she appears to have plagiarized. Her piece contains verbatim the prose of a comment by an online name called crmann who wrote precisely what Priestap wrote as if it was her own.

* His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
* His first one on one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.
* He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
* He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
* He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.
* Today we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?

At times some of us will want to take issue with some of the Obama administration positions that touch upon moral principles and biblical directives. For instance yesterday Obama reversed the Bush administration ban on stem cell research. Some will find that morally repugnant. However, he is keeping a campaign promise in so ordering and we should be pleased that one of the early hallmarks of the Obama administration is transparency and disclosure. Read his commitment below.

“In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open Government… All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government… The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

So for that reason the Obama administration informs the people of such areas as his or his administration’s approach to abortion rights, and gay marriages and other important moral issues. Americans who object to something should voice their objection and the confidence he is extending presently is that he and his authorized committees will listen. But he is governing a pluralistic society and conservative values will not always, in fact may seldom win the day.

RU Disappointed?

A NEW LEARNING
I am RU and yes I am - disappointed. I am bugged. To understand this, you must know that I liked Harper’s values. I liked the man himself. Candidly, given the alternatives before Christmas between NDP and Liberal, and the possibility that Larry, Curly and Moe would form a coalition, is there any question why I would side with Harper? But now I am irritated. My feelings are exacerbated by my comparison of Harper with the American President which I expressed yesterday.

It’s the fact that Obama and Harper are doing this economic recovery thing so differently from one another. No, it’s more than that. Their governing styles are so different and I appreciate Obama’s approach much more. Here is what is lacking in Harper’s practice in my view. I am not discounting Harper’s work ethic. He is an active politician but at this time in the life of this nation shouldn’t he be speaking to its people about the economy and what we can expect him and his administration to do to fix it. Well he isn’t speaking to us. In fact he isn’t even speaking to the news media. His last press conference on Parliament Hill was held on November 8. Oh, he did talk pithily to news journalists at the conclusion of his January meetings with the premiers. But he is not exactly exuding hope and confidence and the ‘Yes we can’ realism we hear to the south. In the House of Commons as the formal budget debate occurs Harper has not participated except in predictable question period responses. When he ventures outside the House and home, he is doing photo ops, vaguely related to the budget’s provisions for infrastructure spending. He has attended the Quebec Carnival opening and Toronto Chinese New year dinner and New Brunswick hockey tournament. He is shaking hands but not calming shaken spirits of the jobless.

Now if you think I have assessed him unfairly consider this. Obama fired up Air Force One and keeps it on the launch pad for an unprecedented series of public relations campaign in various cities in which he carries on heart to heart and personal conversations with Americans. He does ‘sit down’ interviews with all the TV networks. His recent press conferences were nationally broadcast. He knows how to use the media and be available to the media. His rhetoric is hard-hitting and direct and you can’t miss that he is in this American crisis together with everyone and specially those most affected. His White House website is informative and encouraging. Now his stimulus package has been passed and he is not stepping back an inch from the public forum and therefore no wonder he has a 76% approval rating. You get the feeling with him that this is not merely freshman fervor but a deep commitment he will carry until he has expired his two terms.

Of course the differences between the two national leaders relates to personality and style. One appears approachable and the other appears distant. What I have come to believe is that with Obama it is about power to affect the sweeping changes in the way government works for its people. With Harper now, it may unconsciously be about power to affect his survival in the event of another vote of confidence. What we don’t know is hurting us. Okay I am dismounting this hobby horse and will stay off for a while.

Canadian Federal Administration Dismays Me

A NEW LEARNING
I have too much unfocused time and use a great deal of it to reflect on details of life that I ignored before I retired. I have harangued about this before but it irks me still. Obama’s White House government website is impressively classy, regal, and so very user friendly and informative and Obama is front and centre. Our Canadian Parliament site is tightly packed, minimalist and visually challenging and Harper is just a name, no visuals. I wrote a polite note to the Parliament website managers with some suggestions and detected in the following days that someone in the Parliament building had looked at my blog and art sites trying to know who I was. I received no acknowledgment of my note even though suggestions are welcomed. Maybe that was one of the jobs cut in this downturn.

I know that our Prime Minister is subject to parliamentary confidence while the US President is independent of the legislature. Stephen Harper is viewed as one of the many elected officers. Obama is viewed as the Chief as in "Hail to the Chief." Harper fits within Canada’s constitutional monarchical form of government while Obama operates within the American federal constitutional republic. In some ways that seems more pluralistic and democratic. I wish that we could accord to our prime ministerial leader a greater dignity and distinction than we do.

Stephen Harper gets a good deal of negative press. He has brought some of it upon himself. He and his inner circle goofed before Christmas. It is also directed at him because that is how we treat politicians in Canada – badly. He has shown some executive weaknesses as well as many strengths. By the skin of his prorogued teeth Harper is still on the same side of the House. We are moving forward with the Conservative plan for economic recovery but Harper’s hold on power is tenuous.He will stay there as long as the opposition parties (Liberals are key) allow him. I voted for him. I am trusting that his plan will work. But I am concerned.

Harper is almost invisible to the average Canadian. When did you last see Harper before the camera, talking to the press, taking time to talk to a city of people about the economic recovery strategy and listening to their stories. News networks profile every other piece of news, even the token animal story before I see Harper. How can I help but to contrast Canadian leadership with American leadership. I watch Obama almost daily with some clip of him in some American city or at this week’s second weekly Presidential Press Conference. I watch him because I can. He is news. He makes news. He speaks and it becomes news. Harper is unavailable. He is almost silent. He is closeted somewhere. Oh, I forgot. He was in our House of Commons where daily he must compete to talk more commandingly than the opposition amid catcalls and hissing. And you can watch this circus in action if you choose to do so. It’s no wonder Canadians turn to Jeopardy and American Idol.

See Obama's Feb 14 and 2nd press conference at the White House site (4:45 min)

Harper has not addressed the Press since November 8. Oh yes, and back to websites. The Conservative Party site which is colourful and is easily navigable merely leads you to outdated documents. Press the large photo on the first page of the site and you get a November 2008 statement about the economic action plan. I can’t tell you how this dismays me. This is our governing federal party. I can keep things more current than this. The True North Strong and Free is the Party’s 2008 plan presented before the last election. OK! Enuf already, I agree.

INAUGURATION DAY

A NEW LEARNING
It’s here - the 20th of January 2009 - Barak Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. This is a remarkable, important, longed-for day, perhaps even a blessed day in the life of the USA.

Obama will be sworn in at midday. Barak Obama will place his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used during his 1861 inauguration. Lincoln arrived in Washington by train and this past Saturday Obama and Biden and their grateful entourage recreated the final Philadelphia to Washington leg of that earlier journey. During his presidency Lincoln emancipated African and American born slaves and ended slavery in America. Obama will swear the oath of office a short distance from the spot from which Martin Luther King spoke his eloquent ‘I have a dream’ speech forty years ago. The inauguration of America’s first black President happens one day after the commemoration of Martin Luther King Day.

The momentous nature of this event and its timing relative to other historic events is neither incidental, nor can it be overlooked by anyone, not even those who despise the notion of a non Caucasian in high office in the USA, or those who simply loathe Americans. Disgusting as it is to consider, white supremacist and terrorist websites bear detestable commentaries. Security is unprecedented and sophisticated for this inauguration. A Prius it is not. The Secret Service has dubbed the new presidential limousine “The Beast.” It’s a Cadillac, customized with five-inch (13 cm.) thick armour, bomb-proof glass, interior impenetrable by chemical attack and puncture proof tires. One of Eleven people in Washington today is ‘Security.’ The security force is estimated at 40,000 people, including 7,500 active duty soldiers, 10,000 National Guard troops and 25,000 law-enforcement officers. Subways have installed explosive and chemical bomb sniffing devices.

Please! Please! I don’t want to live through it again, I can’t do it! John F. Kennedy ushered in an era of hope and promise in 1960 which ended in blood in 1963, followed by Martin Luther King’s assassination and then that of John’s brother Bobby. I was twenty-one years of age in 1963. It was the year when King’s stirring speech in Washington broke the heart of America to bring about this day when Obama with hand on the Bible, becomes the leader of the land of the free and the home of the brave. God bless America.

“Jesus loves the little children; all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

1. If you weren’t old enough to hear King’s courageous oratory, or if you would benefit from a reminder spend 17 minutes listening to this.
2. King's last speech, "I have seen the promised land." is a few minutes in length.

Oh yes, It's Bush's last day at the White House.

Freedom 85

A NEW LEARNING
Yea, yea, yea, the world economy sucks and North America’s is becoming suckier as bureaucrats realize the size of the hole we are in. Change champion Barak Obama is now sounding like gloomy gus and he hasn’t even been sworn in. But he did get elected on the theme of change. Harper and Flaherty are trying to prepare us for the new budget with dark warnings of things to come. The national economic crisis comes at the worst time for me. I am retired. I have no idea quite yet how this crisis will affect me but I was certainly under the delusion that things would remain constant when I retired.

I am supposed to be golfing. When I was 55 years old it was apparent to me that Freedom 55 was out of my reach. Then I turned 60 and Freedom 70 seemed a vapory dream. Today I am 66 and retired. So was the retirement a mistake? My reality calculator projects Freedom 85 for me because then my needs will be considerably reduced if existent at all. I probably will have the resources for Freedom 85. Oh it’s not that I didn’t see this coming. One doesn’t work in a not for profit field for forty-five years and still hold out hope of finishing with a residence, a beach house, a chalet, a motor coach and a yacht. Decade after decade there is an overcast prospect of coming to the end of my working life with only the monies that the governments provides and what I have managed to RRSP from meager wages.

We are definitely in a recession. Whether we are in a depression remains to be argued and proven. Economies have generally rebounded from recessions without government intervention because equity prices pick up. A depression is different because it does not self correct and requires help. As we see in the USA, huge monetary help. In Canada Harper and company have already given fiscal assurances. Harper was here in BC this week standing with our Premier to champion a new highway which will provide 7000 jobs. Oh yes and it will cost BC in excess of 700 million dollars while the feds put up 300 million. (Photo is of a Depression bread line)

Christine and I have saved money for a glorious vacation in 2009 with its bleak forecast. Should we sit on that money and wait out the downturn for all its dark possibilities? Nope, we are vacating. We are going to pump our monies into the economy and have a blast. Freedom 66 I call it. When we return I don’t think I will be forced to living on the street. If I have to, I will go back to work. Tim Horton’s is looking for part-time and full-time employees. Seriously. It has to be Horton’s. Starbucks speak is like speaking in tongues to me. Or I can serve pizza at Pizza Hut. Buon appetito.

Maybe The Peter Principle Explains Palin

A NEW LEARNING
As Barak Obama’s inauguration approaches even as a Canadian I give thanks that the US has been spared Sarah Palin as its VP. I was nervous for her every time she spoke. I shudder when imagining four Palin years. I believe I know what happened with her nomination.

The TV show The Office demonstrates the Peter Principle, that "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence." Formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1968 book The Peter Principle, it observes that members in a hierarchy are promoted as they produce competent work yet eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent. Of course I am old enough to remember Vice President Dan Quayle. Palin’s foot and mouth dance would have made her a constant distraction as the butt of cartoonists and pundits as Quayle was.

Quayle was plucked from obscurity as Indiana senator by George H.W. Bush 20 years ago. Like Palin, Quayle was supposed to hook the presidential nominee to his party's conservative wing, and usher in a new generation of republicans and replace cultural political elitism with small town authenticity. Wrong!

Here is a string of his verbal gaffes and they represent the proverbial tip of the... "For NASA, space is still a high priority." - "A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls." - "The future will be better tomorrow." - "Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child." - "I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn’t study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people." - "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’." - "We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe." - "If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure." - "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."

As for Palin, notable examples of her ambiguity and naivety follow.
Asked by People magazine if she was ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency she answered, "Absolutely. Yup, yup." - On an ABC News interview, she mispronounced “nuclear” as “nucular” but then George Bush has called it “nucler” so given the benefit of a doubt it’s a regional accent. - During the same interview, when asked about her foreign policy insights regarding Russia she answered, "They're our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." - Explaining the $700 billion government bailout she said, "But ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy." - Asked about oil and coal fuels she said, "Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."

Today Quayle is chairman of an international investment firm and living in Phoenix. His children, who were preteens when Quayle hit the public eye, are in their 30s and successful. He has been married to Marilyn Tucker Quayle for 36 years and has two grandchildren.

From where she lives, Palin can probably see Putin turn off the gas to European countries this week. Having said that, she will likely have a competent rest of her life.