Happy happy afternoon, Saska-Saska-Saskatoon! It’s 6°C at 2:52 p.m., down from a high of 7°. Sunset tonight is at 7:27. The next time I write a blog post it’ll be waaay after 7:30. All right, let’s aggregate.
1. STC FALLOUT: STRANDED WITH CANCER The most compelling reason shutting down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company is stupid and vicious? The 300 rural cancer patients who took STC buses to Saskatoon are out of luck. #BradBotchedTheBoom
2. LIBRARIES CUT TO RIBBONS The StarPhoenix reports most library districts face funding cuts between 50 and 60 per cent. Ugly. #BradBotchedTheBoom
3. TRENT WOTHERSPOON, QP BADASS? The interim NDP leader was kicked out of yesterday’s Question Period because he called the budget deceitful Wotherspoon refuses to apologize. #BradBotchedTheBoom
4. SASKATOON COUNCIL MEETS TO TALK BUDGET With essential Saskatoon institutions like libraries and the University of Saskatoon taking big budget hits IO imagine they’ll have a lot to discuss. #BradBotchedTheBook
5. I THINK THIS IS THE BEST MURRAY MANDRYK COLUMN I’VE EVER READ Murray Mandryk says:
“Sask. Party MLAs, you just raised taxes by nearly a billion bucks a year by gouging kids’ clothes and restaurant meals. You just fired 574 people. You just took away your own voters’ buses — buses used by sick, old, rural people and farmers needing parts. Hell, you won’t even pay for the funerals of those who in their whole life didn’t save enough money to buy their own coffins.”
Good stuff. Mr. Mandryk’s utter contempt for arrogance has always been one of his best qualities.
6. THE GREAT GRASSLAND SELL-OFF The Sask Party is selling 51 provincial community pastures. says Trevor Harriet:
“Among our large provinces and territories (i.e. excluding the Maritimes), Saskatchewan already leads the nation in the ratio of private land to public. Across Canada, 11% of land is privately owned. In B.C. 7% of land is private. In Alta, 30%. Saskatchewan is at 40% but south of the boreal forest in this province the figure is 80% and rising. In fact, believe it or not, by 1980 24% of all privately held land in Canada was in Saskatchewan[i]—almost all of it in the Prairie Ecozone. And now we are adding more?”
7. NO MORE CANADA SAVINGS BONDS The famous investment bonds won’t be sold anymore and CBC has an excellent and interesting story on it.
8. HOUSE OF COMMONS PASSES ISLAMOPHOBIA MOTION Good. Although I fear places like, say, the comically Islamophobic Facebook page The Republic Of Western Canada might be losing their minds right now…
9. TODAY IN AMERICA DON’T WORK NO MORE From the Washington Post: “The decision means the ACA remains in place, and a major GOP campaign promise goes unfulfilled. It also casts doubt on the Republican Party’s ability to govern and to advance other high-stakes agenda items, including tax reform and infrastructure spending. Ryan is still without a signature achievement as speaker — and the defeat undermines Trump’s image as a skilled dealmaker willing to strike compromises to push his agenda forward.” LOL.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE There’s a new trailer for the new Hula adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian book The Handmaid’s Tale. It looks horrifying. On the bright side, if you look closely you might catch a glimpse of Prairie Dog film critic Jorge Castillo, who’s onscreen for about a second in the background of a crowd shot. Yup, really!
https://youtu.be/PJTonrzXTJs
