top of page

The Blanche Report: The Senate, The First Dawg & The Blackberry


You know the old saying – it’s now what you know, but who you know. Well, Senator Pamela Wallin was definitely good friends with Stephen Harper and he made sure that she was handsomely rewarded for that friendship. Alas, things didn’t exactly work out the way they were supposed to. She should have been happily riding away into the sunset for the next 20 or so all expenses paid.  Unfortunately her little fairy tale life didn’t pan out quite the way she wanted it to.

It seems that she was spending your money on travel expenses unrelated to her position as a senator. Traveling around for boards which she is on, for the Conservative party etc.  It’s not really what she or Mike Duffy or any other senator did. It is their sense of entitlement which is nauseating and their insistence on defending that entitlement.

May we suggest the barf bag for the next few pieces of information:

…There are 105 senators in Canada.

…In 2009 and 2010 Harper appointed some very young people to the senate.  Patrick Brazeau does not have to retire until…2049! Hello? We are in 2013. He got an all expense paid job for life. Same with Claude Carignan who can live off your tax dollars until 2039

…Hold the bag closely: They each make $132,300 per year. Your cost: $106,264,111 a year, not including contributions to the pension plan

…What do they do? Give “sober, second thought” on all House of Commons legislation representing different regions around the country.

We saved the best for last: How long do they work each year? 3 days a week for 29 weeks. Your tax dollars at work.

The Obamas have gone on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard. They need 70 rooms for the secret service agents, one person in charge of Obama’s precious basketballs (we kid you not), and, again we saved the best for last – a special plane for the first dog Bo. Yes Blanche, you read that correctly. The dawg got is own special airplane. Arf. Arf.

Looks like Hillary Clinton is slowly, very slowly gearing up to make a presidential run. She is a highly intelligent and extremely shrewd politician, keeping her cards very close to her chest. But the signs are there. She recently spoke to democrats in San Fransisco, whose support she would need for a run. As well, she has scheduled a number of other speeches all over the country. Looks like Anthony Weiner’s wife Huma is still her aide.

And speaking of Weiner – his run for mayor of New York is basically over. He has fallen to a distant fourth place with just 10% of the popular vote. 51% of New Yorkers say they are embarrassed by him and would never, in a million years vote for him. First Blackberry got a new CEO. Then it got a new name. Now it looks like it’s looking for a new owner. Some basic history about the company: RIM – Research in Motion – was founded in 1984 by a pair of engineering students, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. For years it was one of the world’s most innovative builders of communications products like two-way pagers and e-mail devices. About six years ago the stuff hit the veritable fan.

The company failed to recognize that the iPhone could hurt it. Then it overlooked the threat of low-cost competitors in Asia. Finally, and most recently, executives threw the company’s little remaining energy into a new line of high-end smartphones that failed to resonate with consumers, having arrived far too late with too little to offer.

On Monday the company announced they have formed a committee to see how to either sell the company or form a joint venture with another business, among other options. How the mighty have fallen.

We’ll talk…

2 views0 comments

Commentaires


bottom of page