Unfortunately, a couple of things have evolved that has thrown this valuable “educational tool” out the window, and we can’t blame the children for the problem it has created.

Who can we blame? Well, we can blame parents who have morphed into a society of bleeding hearts, as well as the growth of a socialist, politically correct, weak kneed political system. Too many parents today have adopted the new “time” out method of discipline that “spares the rod and spoils the child.”

I am sure that by now many of you are speculating that I am suggesting that parents beat their children every time they perform an act of defiance or mischief – that is not what I am advocating. However I can tell you that a tap on the bare bottom or a few strokes of the razor strap will impress right from wrong more quickly in a child’s mind, than a half hour time out followed by a shower of hugs and kisses because mommy feels guilty.

Time out is then followed by a progression of failures to instill an understanding that parents are an influential component of growing up; eventually they lose control, and respect for right and wrong goes out the window.When this happens, kids lose respect, parents lose control, and the charade of political correctness takes over.

In a politically correct society such as ours, parents no longer have the right to challenge children when they have practised acts of defiance – and children darned well know it. Today, all around us children are committing crimes against individuals, properties, and communities, and parents no longer know where or what “little Johnnie” is doing. When ‘little Johnnie” is subsequently accused or charged, parents then almost always declare him innocent, and exhaust all means to supply a defence, both publicly and in court. They have “spared the rod and spoiled the child ” and nine times out of ten someone has been a victim of a criminal act that could have been avoided with proper parenting.

I get incensed every time I hear some child psychologist, social worker, politician, or anyone for that matter, who suggests that poor parenting is a defence for the commission of irresponsible acts against society. I do not for one minute believe the suggestion that eleven and twelve year old children do not know right from wrong, is valid – not if good parenting has been practised in the up bringing of a child.

Why am I angry? Because I am sick and tired of acts of vandalism that are occurring daily in our neighbourhoods. Garbage bins upset and dragged down the road, tires slashed, windows broken from cars and trailers along our streets, and most recently -  five foot slashes in the side of the Rocky Lake Dome -  all because we would not allow the drug culture to use our property as a smoke zone.

I hope the parents of these children are happy with the success they have had in raising these inconsiderate, unappreciative brats, and I hope those who have endorsed our politically correct society are pleased that we are slowly losing control. I am not asking for extreme measures – I am only asking for parents to begin parenting at an early age, with a little good old-fashioned application of the rod .

Gary Hines is a long serving member to the District 2 community. The views expressed here are his own.

I would like to congratulate Bob McDonald, Waverley Amateur Athletic Association nominee for garnering the 2010 Volunteer of the Year Award. This year 27 candidates for the award were honoured by the community at the Waverley Legion.

Secondly, I would like to thank my favourite group of volunteers, the men and women who have served over the last seven years on the awards committee. They have organized the banquet, raised funds, and provided any and all services asked of them leading to the yearly celebration event for the nominees and their respective parties of five.

The key word in recent years is ” fund-raising “, as business constraints and an unstable economy has limited the contributions of our generous sponsors from the business community, personal contributions, and political representation to fund the banquet for the growing number of nominees.

This year has been particularly challenging as two of our elected representatives, for two entirely different reasons, have chosen not to contribute to funding for this years banquet.

First our fund raising request to MLA Percy Paris was responded to by mail from, not him – but by his constituency assistant. Funding was denied because of MLA expense cuts. MLA Paris requested participation with the presentation of Provincial congratulation certificates. Paris did not attend the banquet, but instead provided provincial award pins to the recipients. I would suggest that Paris found the volunteers not worthy of a small contribution from his personal bank account that is presently topped up by some $135,000 from tax payers.

The second ” kick in the ass ” came from MP Peter Stoffer – by e-mail – suggesting that he could contribute only if he had a personal advertisement placed in the banquet program . Our program traditionally includes a back page list of sponsors that includes our elected representatives. We also place a enlarged list of sponsors on respective tables for guest recognition. Stoffer requested, in an e-mail from his office assistant, a personal contact ad, complete with his contact numbers . A receipt was also requested so he could recover the cost of the $150.00 advertisement from Canadian tax payers.

As founder of the volunteer appreciation committee, I was shocked and disappointed that elected representatives making in excess of $135,00 a year would suggest (by not giving) that volunteers in their constituency are not worthy of a personal commitment to a recognition celebration.  This recent denial by our members – and in particularly Stoffer, angers me greatly as I recall a commitment made to constituents in 2001.  At that time, on receipt of a 20% pay raise, Stoffer was quoted:”I’ve decided to set up a fund for the area and I will do what I did the last time in 1987,” “I did environmental scholarships for schools, and now we are able to expand a bit more on that.”

Very disappointing, when one considers that single pay raise committed to our citizens would , today, be in excess of $200,000.00 – not including interest. Denial of $150.00 is purely a slap in the face to our volunteers and the residents they serve.

Gary Hines is a long serving member to the District 2 community. The views expressed here are his own.

Bear in mind there are exceptions to every rule, however, in most cases someone is either buying time, covering up for inability to formulate their own opinion, looking for a support to begin a legal action, or trying to appear to be acting on behalf of others. Posturing for personal gain would aptly describe such actions.

Examples from today’s local news sources are; Herald headlines, “NDP wants probe of sports violence”; “Municipal staff have been directed to prepare a report on private roads.” And the list goes on. Anyone want to guess how much either of the above requests would cost? What will be done with the information that would be gained from the exercise? Who would really give a
shit about the results, because the reports would either be senseless – in the case of the sports study – or would be a repeat of the information obtained the last time the private road study was done.

The only benefit either study and most studies/reports that are commissioned would have, is satisfaction that people would see on the news that something had been done by their elected official. Oh yes, and the consultants and researchers would get a hefty sum for, in most cases, a useless exercise and waste of my and your money.

A good example is the money wasted to look into protecting terrorists from the Afghan police, who have targeted, and in many cases killed or wounded, our FREEDOM FIGHTERS; but then again, the Liberals and NDP would like a full blown investigation and report performed. And what for? To make them look like they are working hard – spending money on another report to collect dust in the library in Ottawa .

I guess all these worthless reports that you and I pay for to gather dust, provides great research material for the next time someone commissions another senseless request.

As a resident paying the tax, I had attempted to determine some accountability for the spending, but was denied accountability when I asked. On more than one occasion I had asked for Line Item spending in each budget category. True accountability was replaced by a Treasurer’s Report that vaguely presented a budget with several general categories of spending. I was denied, as was everyone else, a breakdown of spending. The reason given was that HRM pays the bills submitted, from the money collected from you the taxpayer so no breakdown was available.

With the exception of this latest meeting, the meetings were so poorly attended that a quorum was often reached by calling in friends and relatives of the Executive Board. Therefore, accountability was not forthcoming. I thought we were on the road to responsible governance of our money with a motion putting forward a new set of bylaws with amendments – a motion to adopt the new bylaws and have them forwarded for ratification by Joint Stocks and HRM. The amendment called for the new bylaws to be implemented by the ratification by HRM and the new Executive, however, when the motion passed, the presiding president was basically stripped of her duties and disqualified from serving because she does not presently live in the LWF area. The new Executive was to develop a policy to recognize ex-patriots; instead, our president was given the boot by a bylaw change that was not ratified.

My concern is not only that we lost the accountability of a good president, but she was replaced by the individual she was asking for accountability, and a slate of officers loyal to the new Chair .The Board of Directors was also elected, and some are employed by LWF programs funded by the taxpayers dollars over which they preside as Board Members – a conflict of interest in any other organization.

An even greater concern is the lack of concern amongst the families paying the taxes, who neither ask questions or attend the meeting once a year where votes on the budget and tax rate take place.

My third concern is that with the exception of our councilor, who was in attendance, our MLA and Member of Parliament were once again absent when the money was being discussed. Does anyone care?

They passed a budget that cost Nova Scotians an additional 300+ million dollars over the previous Tory government, while suggesting that it was the Tory budget they passed. During this time they passed a motion to suspend the debt payment from funds the off-shore deal secured by former Premier MacDonald has brought to our province. This was the real reason they gave for defeating the Tory government.

The NDP, upon election, immediately axed the tax on our electrical bills and almost immediately dismissed the department dealing with energy studies and appointed a new committee to do the same work. The only difference is the appointment of a new director and a committee under another name that will be paid for by, you guessed it, you the tax payer on your electrical bill. They also cancelled the heating subsidy program for fuel assistance that the previous government had in place for a number of years. Yes they gave in one hand and took it back with the other.

The utility and review board are now controlling the pricing of gas at the pumps. Have you noticed anything different other than we are now paying a high price for the utility and review board services.

They promise immediate end to emergency health care shortages and have responded with closures all over the province. Yes folks they do not have the medical practitioners to avoid closures ; however they did find the money to appoint a 135,00 a year man to carry out a study to fix the problem. Do they not understand that practitioner shortages and a bloated bureaucratic system is the problem?

I also found it amusing that a NDP member , Stirling Beliveau ,looking for a cabinet position was able to obtain a loan from the fishermans loan board ( a department that he administers as fisheries minister ) for a friend to buy his fisheries operation that the loan board had funded for him..Would this be double conflict of interest ?

Perhaps most alarming has been the free ride that the media has given them during the first few months, then again the socialist media put them in power so it will be awhile before they come out from under their blanket of hypocrisy..

I would first like to ask MLA Paris, who stated that he was not “shocked but surprised” by the financial state as indicated by the
independent audit; if the additional 300+ million dollars that his party has added suprises him in the least ?

The hypocrisy does not end there.  Someone should inform the N-Dippers that Nova Scotians are not dumb enough to believe that a smaller cabinet does not decrease the cost of government when the bureaucracy grows on a daily basis and former government duties get farmed out to the Utility and Review Board at greatly increased rates.

Although I believe it is important to protect our wilderness areas and in fact acquire ownership when possible, I don’t believe these costs should be added to a bloated deficit but should be made when budgets are balanced.

I also find the new government somewhat full of it when they appoint an economic development panel, one from out of province, after criticizing Premier MacDonald for taking the advice of a dozen Nova Scotian economists and successful businessmen who all suggested the need for a stimulus package in lieu of balancing the budget. If I remember correctly the reason for defeating the government was  ”defecit and legislation change to allow deficit spending”.  Now the NDP are going to change the legislation to accommodate their bloated deficit budget.

When the Dippers finally identify the 30 million in highway construction stimulus I certainly hope it is not abandonment of rural roads projects that were promised at the electoral doors or will that just be another chapter in the” hypocrisy diaries”.

I would like to address a number of the suggestions emitted by the above.

There has been suggestion that a” special interest group” in Bedford has wielded political influence as high as the Prime Ministers office to effect payback for electing an NDP government in Nova Scotia and a Liberal MLA in Bedford and the Rocky Lake Development Association has been identified by several councilors and media sources as the “special interest group.” As a member of this board I can assure readers that our group has been quite clear that we support rinks for our region regardless of who builds them or where ; our concern from the start has been the cost of construction to the tax payers and provision of the best facility in the best and most affordable location and that is not on the Hammonds Plains site chosen by the HRM.

There was suggestion that former MLA Len Goucher, a member of our board, had actually had a recent conversation with Prime Minister Harper asking for exemption of the HRM project from shovel ready stimulus projects. This suggestion and suggestion that any one else on our board had conversation with the Feds. Regarding their decision is false . The suggestion is overzealous political response from the Liberal team in a community where they have been silent until now, regarding support for ice facilities in the Bedford region. MP Geoff Regan has never been at the table in the 9 years that our board has been actively pursuing the Rocky Lake Project and Councillor Outhit threw us under the bus in the early months of his first term. We remain the only active group offering sports facilities at a reasonable price in a prime location.

Why did the federal government cancel the funding for the stimulus package?

In my opinion the HRM project did not meet the criteria set out for stimulus funding on at least two areas. Number one, stimulus funding was to create jobs in a timely manner with completion dates being paramount for the flow of funds and creation of jobs. The time lost with a provincial election, delays and issues surrounding environment ( despite the fact Councilor Outhit denies this there are wetland issues and water supply issues related to the site which could cause lengthy delays) have been a concern for all levels of government regarding construction deadlines.

Number 2 the requirements asked for a shovel ready site that would only proceed with stimulus funding if no other funding was available. The HRM staff at a public information meeting in April , in answer to a question from the floor, responded that they would proceed with or without federal and provincial money. This statement, since supported by Mayor Kelly and Councillor Outhit, in itself disqualifies the stimulus program.

HRM also did not take ownership of the land until June of this year putting the term” shovel ready” in the grey area category as well when coming before the federal review.

I would close by suggesting that HRM do the taxpayers a favour and bring their project to the Rocky Lake site where we have a project nearing completion to supply one ice surface and cut their costs in half in a much preferred site on a shovel ready development that has sewer and water on site.