Rod McQueen's Blog, page 64

Enough

For a time I was able to argue the Occupy Toronto situation either way. I agreed with those encamped at St. James Park that there are wrongs in society and within the economy that need to be addressed. But once attention has been drawn, then what? They have no plan, no leader, not even an ideology to keep them warm.

And yet I don't want the rough-and-ready police response that we have seen in some cities. The protesters are not terrorists although they did charge through a few downtown office towers a couple of weeks ago. As a result, access for the rest of us was limited, security beefed up, and I had to be taken a circuitous back route to my destination because of all the locked doors. No big deal, and I was not much bothered.

But the ruling by Justice David Brown, released yesterday, has crystallized my thinking. I thought he wrote common sense when he said, "The Charter does not permit the protesters to take over public space without asking, exclude the rest of the public from enjoying their traditional use of that space, and then contend that they are under no obligation to leave. By taking that position and by occupying the park, the protesters are breaking the law."

Nor have the protesters gained support from the Cathedral Church of St. James by arguing that church land abutting the park should be made available for their tents. No, said the Very Reverend Douglas Stoute, the land in question is not two separate pieces, it is a "seamless garment." The church will obey the court's ruling.

In fact, I guess I made up my mind about the situation when I walked through the encampment last Friday. It is familiar ground to me. I am a regular visitor, particularly during summer, when the garden is in full bloom. Any previous approval I might have offered the Occupiers evaporated when I saw what they had done to this beautiful space. To be sure, no flowers are in bloom at this time of year and the fountain is dry, but still it seemed an inappropriate use of the fountain to have a circle of protester sitting on its rim, winter boots scraping the bottom.

Worse, they have brought in items using heavy equipment that they ran across the park grass thereby creating muddy ruts. They have marred and marked the magnificent Victorian gazebo. They have damaged trees with wires and tie-downs. They have broken branches by pitching tents high above the ground. They have painted signs with no care or concern about the mess they left behind. Irrigation equipment has been rendered inaccessible and will be damaged if not properly prepared for winter.

These don't look like crunchy-granola eco-people who care about the world, they just seem like the usual hooligans who have broken windows and torched police cars on other occasions. Here's my bottom line. We have listened to you; now it's time for you to listen to us. It's time to move on … or be moved out. Your trespassing ways are no longer welcome.

Up a lazy river

The Conference Board of Canada has been harping about productivity for years, but their most recent figures are startling. Canadian productivity levels are only 80 per cent of what they are in the U.S., our largest trading partner. If Canada had kept pace with productivity growth in the United States during the last two decades, every Canadian would have $7,500 more in annual disposable income. Moreover, real GDP would have been 21.3 per cent higher, governments would have collected $31 billion more in revenue, and deficits would be less troublesome.

Why has this happened? First off, productivity isn't about people working harder or faster. Productivity gains occur when work is more efficient and people produce more with the same effort. It helps when machinery is up-to-date and when the goods produced have a high value added factor. Exporting wheat, bitumen, and logs, for example, doesn't offer much value added. The BlackBerry does.

The problem is that too many Canadian manufacturers are lazy. They are content to supply local or easily accessed U.S. markets. For a large part of the last two decades a devalued Canadian dollar skated even the least efficient companies onside.

Just look at the automotive sector. We've had free trade with the U.S. since 1965 yet there are only a handful of Canadian companies that have built on that advantage to become global giants. After Magna, Linamar, and Wescast the rest are small potatoes.

We need a lot more driven individuals like Frank Stronach, Frank Hasenfratz and Mike Lazaridis with visions bigger than themselves who are unafraid to take on the world. Without such entrepreneurs and the necessary investment in technology, Canada will continue sliding into third world status.

Road to the White House

Now that a second accuser has come forward to talk about sexual harassment at the wandering hand of Herman Cain, I think it's safe to say that his run for the Republican presidency is all but over. With Texas Governor Rick Perry also sinking in the polls, it looks as if Mitt Romney will eventually prevail.

I had an interesting conversation a few days ago with an old friend, a Republican, living in the Deep South. There was a time when he couldn't have voted for Governor Romney because of his Mormonism. "How can I support someone who thinks Jesus Christ was just another apostle," he once said to me. My friend, who is himself deeply devoted to his own faith, has had a change of heart. He now thinks Romney will win the nomination and says religion should play no part in anyone's decision. After all, church and state are supposed to be separate.

I formed my own positive opinion on Romney 18 months ago. He was coming through Toronto to promote his book, No Apology, at a question-and-answer session scheduled for Indigo's flagship store at Bay and Bloor. Indigo CEO Heather Reisman couldn't attend, so they asked me to stand in. I was to ask Romney four questions and the only constraint, according to his staff, was that I could not ask if he intended to run for president. Well, I thought, there's my fourth question. He didn't blink when I asked, simply stating that he was going to decide after Labor Day.

As I watched him sign books and work the delighted crowd of four hundred, I concluded that he was an excellent retail politician. While I don't agree with many of his policy pronouncements, I have admired his performance in the recent debates. My prediction is that he will be the GOP nominee. And if the economy does not improve during the next twelve months, Mitt Romney will be elected the forty-fifth president of the United States of America. At least he knows where Canada is. He was born and raised in Michigan and has a summer property in Ontario.

To catch a thief

I passed my neighborhood Shoppers Drug Mart today and noticed the life-sized Justin Bieber cut-0ut had been replaced by another display. I wheeled inside, hoping to buy or otherwise obtain Beebs for my granddaughter, a fan.

The cosmetician just rolled her eyes. Turns out I'm not exactly the only interested party. The cosmetician had recently attended a Shoppers gathering at which she'd learned the Justin Bieber cardboard cut-out had already been stolen from 36 Shoppers stores. The cut-outs are meant to promote the pop singer's new fragrance, Someday, and according to the contract must be displayed in every store for a year.

The number of stores that have suffered losses must surely be higher now that a character called Sheena Snively stole a statue from a Yonge Street Shoppers live on MTV. In another instance, a women pulled up outside a store, sent her daughter in to grab his Beebness, then they all three drove away. Talk about your getaway cars.

The stories are legion. In Florida, a man was charged with theft for grabbing a Bieber likeness. At my local Shoppers a man walked off with their copy for an appearance at his daughter's birthday party then returned it later in the day. After that staff watched the target even more closely but somehow it was still stolen. A review of the surveillance cameras did not show the actual heist. That's why there's a new window display.

My son Mark, who writes the best blog in the country, has a solution. If there's a demand, create a supply. He suggests making as many cut-outs as will sell at $175 each with all proceeds going to the two charities that Bieber has designated for receipts from the fragrance: Pencils of Promise and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Fathers and mothers everywhere would happily pay. Maybe even a few grandfathers, too.

A Ford in the road

At last, Rob Ford has done something normal for a holder of his high office. The mayor yesterday attended the closing ceremony of the Pan-Am Games in Mexico to accept the flag passed along to the next host city, Toronto.

What a disappointment he must be to those who voted for him. What a civic humiliation he is to the rest of us. And Toronto has had some looney-tunes leaders. William Dennison (1966-1972) once greeted a visitor by holding up a writing instrument and saying, "This is a ball point pen." "I know," came the reply, "I was educated at Oxford." Talking about a trip to Africa, Mel Lastman (1998-2003) said, "I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."

Those comments now seem like minor gaffes compared to Ford giving the finger to a woman who wanted him to put down his cell phone while driving or his expletive-filled tirade last week to a 911 operator. Nor, after a year, has he made any progress on his "stop the gravy train" election promise. He agreed to a four-year police contract that set a record and approved a police budget that's the same as last year after demanding a 10 per cent cut.

Some people grow in office, others never should have been allowed in. We can only hope by the time the 2015 Toronto Pan-Am games comes to an end, that a new mayor is handing over the flag to the next host city. Meanwhile, all we can do is duck and hope any damage done is limited.

The sputtering flame

It's been almost two months since Lloyd Robertson resigned as anchor of CTV National News. That's long enough to conclude that his replacement, Lisa LaFlamme, doesn't have what it takes. LaFlamme was an excellent journalist in the field but rather than make me pay attention, she renders me uneasy. I don't like her manner, her clothes, or the slight sneer that curls her upper lip.

This is not a complaint caused by a woman taking over from a man. I like Sandie Rinaldo, CTV's weekend anchor, and would have been happy to watch her during the week. I was one of the few who admired the job that Katie Couric did on the CBS Evening News. But as a refugee from CBC, I'm about to do the unthinkable and go back to Peter Mansbridge rather than continue to watch LaFlamme. The main reason I fled CBC, the inane items by Keith Boag from Ottawa, are no more now that Boag is in Los Angeles where he hardly gets any face time.

To keep me watching CTV news, here's my nominee for LaFlamme's replacement: Lynne Russell. The former CNN anchor now lives in Toronto where she works in real estate and is also Storyteller-in-Residence at Centennial College, whatever the heck that role entails. Storyteller-on-my-TV again would suit me just fine.

Dazzle or be done

Shares in Research In Motion are up almost $3 this morning in what might be called a relief rally, relief that the new iPhone didn't impress. Welcome to the new world of overwrought expectations. Because the iPhone 4S is unable to solve the problem of debt in Greece, the media and techies have pooh-poohed it.

The BlackBerry has been suffering through similar denunciations for months. How soon the worm turns on success. Look at Yahoo. Not so long ago Yahoo was hot. Now they fire CEOs three before tea.

To be sure, Research In Motion has fallen behind. The new models released in August were catchup only. An updated version of PlayBook is overdue. Competitors are gaining ground in business via the same route BlackBerry once infiltrated the office. Employees are buying their own Androids, iPhones and iPads, thereby forcing IT to accept what's already within the firewalls. Time was when RIM won major contracts doing the same.

I haven't done any interviews with RIM executives since my book was published 18 months ago. Nor, as far as I can tell, has anyone else learned much. But I do know that RIM has upped the internal ante. People have disappeared and projects are being pushed. Will it be enough? Maybe this breather will help. As long as the next round of new models using QNX software dazzle the market. And as we have just seen with Apple, jaded observers don't impress easily.

And the winner is ….

If I had to declare a winner in last night's debate, I'd say it was Dalton McGuinty. Both Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath were fine but they used too many rehearsed sound bites. They also relied on some of the same old ideas from other campaigns such as Hudak's promise to reduce the size of the cabinet and Horwath's plan to raise corporate tax rates. Yawn. And what the heck was this "ticket to the middle class" that Hudak kept talking about? Most voters are already there.

To be sure, McGuinty fouled his nest going after Hudak's views on foreign workers and foreign investment as if Hudak were somehow anti-foreigner. It was a tactic unworthy of a premier. McGuinty should have taken to heart the quote he attributed to Bill Davis about how it was unbecoming to run down Ontario. It's equally unbecoming to besmirch an opponent the way he did.

The format was fine but too often the question got lost in the rhetoric. Still, the three leaders likely managed to secure their respective party's voters, although I'm not sure how many undecideds they snagged. But none of that matters. Last spring the vast majority of Ontario residents said they wanted change. The fact that neither Hudak nor Horwath have managed to tap into that discontent shows that they don't have what it takes to win. This election is still McGuinty's to lose and so far he hasn't.

Stealth mode

This is, bar none, the quietist election I've ever known. I can't tell if no one cares or if there is a storm brewing and a government is about to be thrown out in Ontario. Only one party has been to my door canvassing. With but ten days to go, the other campaigns mustn't have enough volunteers.

There's no question that Tim Hudak stumbled out of the gate. His sound bites about "foreign workers" were tasteless. Those who saluted were already voting for him anyway. But there must have many voters who cringed and thought, "He's as bad as I feared."

And yet, the polls say that the PCs and the Liberals are tied. A minority government looms with the NDP as kingmaker. It has always been said that people don't vote for minority governments but maybe that's changed. We grew so accustomed to minorities in Ottawa that seemed to work we now want one in Ontario.

In this climate, tomorrow night's debate is crucial. The winner becomes premier.

Their country 'tis of me

The Canadian Journalism Project has published a list of the top 27 books every journalism student should read. What a great idea except the list looks more suitable for students at Columbia than Canada. Of the 27, three-quarters are non-Canadians, mostly American authors. I can't imagine the people of any other country in the world being so self-effacing to the point of such silliness.

Folks associated with The Washington Post have three on the list: All the President's Men, by Woodward and Bernstein, plus memoirs by Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee. Other big-name Americans on the list who have written non-fiction, fiction, essays, profiles, and reference works include Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, and Gay Talese. You get the idea.

Here's my list for journalism students of fifteen Canadian books:

• just about anything by Peter C. Newman but certainly Renegade in Power (McClelland & Stewart 1963) and The Establishment (M&S 1975) the first major Canadian non-fiction books on politics and business respectively;

• speaking of politics, two more by the writerly Dalton Camp, a memoir, Gentlemen, Players and Politicians (M&S 1970) and Points of Departure (Deneau & Greenburg 1979), about his time on the 1979 election campaign;

• and a third, Larry Zolf's Dance of the Dialectic (James Lewis & Samuel 1973) an irreverent look at Pierre Trudeau;

• Game Misconduct by Russ Conway (Macfarlane Walter & Ross 1995), the investigative book that laid Alan Eagleson bare;

• The Traders, by Alexander Ross (Collins 1984), the best book ever about Bay Street;

• A Gentleman of the Press, a biography of John Bayne Maclean (Doubleday 1969), who started as a $5 a week reporter and became a publisher, written by Floyd S. Chalmers, long-time editor of The Financial Post;

• The Treasure-Seekers (Macmillan 1978), Phillip Smith's rollicking account of Home Oil;

• A Life in the Bush, by Roy MacGregor (Viking 1999) a great writer's best work about his father, Algonquin Park, and the stuff of life itself;

• The Far Side of the Street, Bruce Hutchison (Macmillan, 1976), a most readable memoir by one of the last of the real newspapermen;

• Towers of Gold, Feet of Clay (Collins 1982) a wry look at bankers by the indefatigable Walter Stewart;

* Fowler's Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler (Oxford, many editions), the essential and readable guide to a writer's life;

• The Kingdom of Canada by W. L. Morton (M&S 1963), the best history of the country from Viking explorers to modern times;

• The Scotch, by John Kenneth Galbraith (Houghton Mifflin 1985), my all-time favorite book, a coming-of-age memoir by a great thinker and economist.