Rose's Cantina

The media has been a-flutter recently, ever since Quebec media mogul Pikachu Peladeau announced he was running for the Parti Quebecois in this weird winter provincial election. It's like he is some kind of weird Sigfried and Roy character who has mesmerized all the typists and deep thinkers with his bedazzle. Or a Moses who is standing on the banks of the Ottawa River ready to part the waters, once and for all. Quebec will separate, Pikachu has ordained. So it is, and so it shall be, for now and all time. Put on the brakes a minute. Settle down, already. Nobody's going anywhere. The day after we wake up, and the PQ wins, if that happens, the sky will not fall. Poutine will not lose its flavor. Molson Canadian will taste just as good. We've seen his ilk before, he's a paradox. Handsome in that French sort of way, Pikachu is a wearer of shiny Hong Kong suits and slave to meticulous grooming, save for a serious case of bed head. He is a friend of Brian Mulron...

As the killer storm dumped a pile of snow on the streets of Ottawa, it became clear that this wouldn't be an average day. Senators and Members of Parliament would have to stay in Ottawa instead of getting back to their constituencies. Public servants would have to drop their vital work to clean off their minivans and SUVs for the long trek home to their five bedroom houses in Kanata and Orleans. Residents of the Glebe scrambled to find other arrangements because the City of Ottawa had raised its heavy hand and announced there would be a parking ban. Yoga classes were cancelled. Ditto indoor soccer. The RA was forced to cancel bandminton tonight. Oh my God, what will we do, they cried. There is nothing, but nothing on premium cable this evening. In a panic, members of the Canadian Forces took to their Twitter accounts to decry the cancellation of their flights south to their time shares at Disneyworld ...

I just got back from the Starbucks and it was a friggin'  car wash. It's always busy before 9 a.m. and so we thought we'd wait and go a little later. Didn't matter. The line snaked out the door and if Scott didn't desperately need a Vente Bold Black, I'd have been outta there. Sorry if I'm snarkey this morning, but there's nothing worse than going to the dog park and not being able to find a parking spot. Today, the line was down the road with dog owning SUVs and their precious little red coated foo foo doggies waddling down the road. Today, we saw a couple with two dogs who looked suspiciously like Bernese Mountain Dogs, without all the fluff. Turns out they were Swiss Mountain Dogs, according to the snooty owners. Welcome to Black Monday which really is Remembrance Day in Canada. It's the day when all the federal and municipal public servants get the day off while their kids are babysat in provincial schools which are forced to stay open...

I'm going out on a limb here in agreeing with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty about rethinking pension contributions in the public service of Canada. Public servants in this country are well paid and have one of the richest pension plans in the country. The Canadian public service pension plan is the envy of the Canadians served by those who toil for the Queen, and bureaucrats have had a pretty smooth ride. If they want to keep their pensions, they should pay more for them. I don't think asking them to pay 50 percent is out of the question. At a time when many Canadians don't have pensions, and others have watched while their plans have gone bust thanks to greedy and irresponsible employers, it is not a lot to ask government employers to pony up and inject more into the system. The argument that the government will lose the "best and the brightest" is ridiculous. If these brainiacs went looking, they would find that the private sector a) doesn't hire th...

The papers and social media today are filled with stories about abuses of power by the Harper government. The first story I read was an investigative piece by Canadian Press concerning the Conservative government's obsession with branding everything with "The Harper Government". Apparently, many announcements are delayed because of interference by the PMO and Privy Council office. Government bureaucrats have done their best to resist putting "The Harper Government" in the body of their press releases but have been told to surrender or else by the PCO. Columnists are complaining about the branding of the Grey Cup game with Defence Minister Peter McKay standing on the field accepting thanks for Canada's success in Libya while military bands play in the background. All Peter needs is a curly wig and gold braid and he's set. There is another story about the military being hogtied by the politicos, forced to suppress costing information about th...