Thursday, March 25, 2010

Thursday Cheers and Jeers

It would be tempting, but very career-limiting, for me to opine about yesterday's provincial budget. However, if you want to, be my guest. In the meantime, here's my list for this week.

Cheers
  • Sports Exchange (again). Good deals on used sporting gear - and a chance to get some money back on your own "gently used" gear. What's not to love?
  • Mitch Blair and Rob Vanstone, for cajoling me into treating the J-man to the cultural phenomenon known as High Impact Wrestling on his birthday tomorrow. This entry could be moved to the jeers category next week, depending on how the show goes!
  • Access Communications - hopefully Access helps fill the void (even more than it already does) for locally-produced tv programming created by the impending end of the Saskatchewan Communications Network. Okay, I guess that was sort of budget-related.

Jeers

  • Whoever came up with the brilliant idea of forcing Regina police to write more tickets for inconsequential vehicular issues, rather than focussing on actually getting lousy drivers off the roads. Mind you, the young female cop who cancelled my ticket on the weekend was quite fetching, so it wasn't all bad!
  • The stomach flu. Just because.
  • The lack of a proper indoor tennis facility in this city. Granted, the courts at the Fieldhouse are better than nothing. But just barely.

C'mon, let's hear from the raging masses! What or who is making you happy/ticked off this week?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cheers:

High Impact Wrestling
- Children of the 80's can appreciate just how good we had it back in the day going to a weekly show. These guys get over, and have an incredible in ring work rate. Can't wait for the show.

Quality Tire
- Always ask for Mark when you go to get tires. If there is a guy that treats customers better I'd be at a loss to find a comparison.


Jeers:

Sask Party Government
- Cool Aid drinkers think it's great. However how you go from Boom to Bust/Belt Tightening needs to be addressed. The reality is we have nobody asking the hard questions of just how this government screwed up a golden goose in 2 years.

SCN
- I wouldn't have completed my education without it. They provided distance education services, and it's sad to be losing this.

Local Media
- Instead of cheerleading maybe start investigating and asking questions. The lack of local content is extremely dangerous. The role of the media is to be the watchdog. That's not happening, and we're all going to be relying on "infotainers" like CJME or Gormley for what passes as "analysis".

PA Herald
- Losing a local paper is terrible for a community.

Thanks
Devin

Bev said...

Re: Local Media -- I think the problem lies in the fact that most of our 'local' media is run by big companies outside the province. I was told once that, even though a certain local paper (not Regina's) was making a lot of money, every cent of that was being sent to the big guys to cover their debts elsewhere... which meant this local paper wound up having to cut staff. If you don't have the people, you don't get the news. And it's not like the people aren't available in Saskatchewan -- with CBC, CanWest, and so many others cutting staff, there are more than enough communicators out there to do the job.

So, I think the Jeers actually belong to the big companies that run the local media, and probably the people who let that happen.

As for the Sask Party and no one asking the hard questions: that's because the answer is far too easy. They based the majority of our budget on potash revenues at a time when the potash industry was laying people off. Yeah, that's the sign of a good economic resource base...

Now, I'm a bit grumpy today, so only one Cheer:

Temple Gardens Spa in Moose Jaw. Very nice place, the service in the restaurant was pretty good last night, and the water was warm on a cold night. Of course, good company just adds to the good times.

And that's it today. I think. We'll see how much grumpier I get throughout the day...

Oh, I'll just add this: I agree with both of you about SCN. A lot of our northern peoples use SCN for distance education. Now what?

I'd better sign off now before I start ranting about anything else...

Anonymous said...

Well, apparently the distance education component will be picked up by Sasktel. We'll see how that goes.

It was nice that SCN provided an opportunity for budding film makers to learn/practice their craft - but is it really the responsibility of a government to provide that opportunity?

Bev said...

Okay. One more thing, and then I'll shut up:

Jeers to the City of Regina and our unfortunately elected mayor. They're pulling a classic con: tell the people they're budgeting for an unreasonably high tax hike, then pretend to take another look at it to bring the amount down.

They expect the people will be more likely to accept a slightly lower tax hike, and it paints Mr. Fiasco and company in a 'good light'. Taxes will still go up, but hey, they 'tried'.

(You did say you wanted to hear from the 'raging' masses, of which, I believe, I am one. Yes, one raging mass.)

Anonymous said...

The City of Regina tax issue is a two sided sword. On one hand nobody turns out for the election. That clearly is a case of don't complain if you don't vote.

The other side is it is generally accepted taxes will go up. This Mayor and Council are supposed business types. The municipal taxes and services have increased tenfold since he was elected almost 10 years ago. City Hall is a bloated mess with more layers than it has ever had. The problem is nobody demands efficiencies. THere is no reason the City of Regina needs to be in golf course business, and gym business for starters. The issue of increasing management layers, and City Manager raises is downright insulting.

The problem stems from a lack of quality competition.

Bev said...

Problem is, even those of us who *did* vote, and voted against him (for the last three or four elections, when we had a chance to vote), have to deal with this, too.

And it's not so much the tax hike I mind - as you said, it's generally expected - it's the way they're going about it. They're trying to make themselves look like the 'good guys' by saving the citizens some money. Oh, they say, they came up with this rainy day money. Well, they knew it was there. They knew they were going to dip into it.

It's just like buying anything, really. Even though the price goes down, it still doesn't mean it's a good deal. Chances are good the merchant had overpriced it to begin with.

Anonymous said...

Every politician and political party does it. Doug Archer used to do it, and the NDP were pretty much masters of it under Romanow/Calvert.

Of course, when the party/politician you didn't vote for does it, it becomes a bad thing. I get it.