Made in Canada makes sense

When was the last time you tried on any piece of clothing be it a shirt, pants, baseball cap or even a tuque that had the label, 'Made in Canada' in it?

Even a 'Made in USA' label would be a shocker to see these days because North Americans simply do not manufacture clothing anymore. We buy it but the textile industry left our shores long ago and sadly so too did those jobs.

It appears another industry has picked up and left Canadian shores as well. This week Sher-Wood closed its Quebec operations and relocated to China. The Chinese now can lay claim to manufacturing hockey sticks National Hockey League stars used to proclaim as the best in the game. Of course they won't be the best in the game anymore because the Chinese manufacture nothing but junk. But they do so at the lowest possible prices.

Sher-Wood operated in Canada for 62 years but officials said the company had no choice but to ship out production of composite players’ and goaltenders’ sticks to China, where it has over the years steadily been moving its manufacturing facilities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper may be a huge hockey fan but nothing his party has done, including corporate tax cuts, was able to save Sher-Wood from shipping its sticks and Canadian jobs, overseas.

So if you wonder what's been happening to the shrinking Canadian middle class look no further than low-wage countries in Asia. A Statistics Canada report (February 20, 2009) measured the recent decline: “Canada lost nearly 322,000 manufacturing jobs from 2004 to 2008, with more than one in seven manufacturing jobs disappearing over the period.”

In Canada we're in the midst of a federal election. Today NDP leader Jack Layton made an announcement that his party would not cut defence spending – and that the money spent on procurement, especially for ships, would remain here in Canada. Wouldn't it be refreshing if more of  the parties running for office would do the same? If you're going to send Canadian soldiers over seas send them there in Canadian ships and planes made in their own country.

Middle class Canadians need decent paying jobs and governments of all stripes should attempt to attract and retain companies here.

It gets tiring reading about Canadian companies moving their operations offshore and far too often those headlines are splashed across newspapers and websites all over the globe.

The party that can make this a priority and follow through on it will have my vote for life.

A perfect opportunity for Senate reform

I’m no fan of Stephen Harper but when he pledged to make the Senate an elected body that would be accountable to Canadians he caught my attention.

Of course he’s now proven to everyone that all that election rhetoric meant zero, nada, zip now that he’s made more partisan appointments to the Upper Chamber than any other prime minister in Canadian history.

At this point I’m not surprised by anything Harper says or does. He’s the leader of a Conservative party, that since it’s been elected in 2006 has operated in a manner not even remotely Conservative.


But now Harper has an opportunity to change Canadians’ opinions of his party when it comes to the Senate. And the best part is that he can do it at the expense of a Liberal senator.

Quebec Senator Raymond Lavigne was banned from sitting in the Senate chamber back in 2007. He faces charges of fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice over alleged misuse of Senate funds from travel and for having a staffer perform yard work on his property.  Under orders of this suspension he’s also not allowed to sit on any Senate committees.

It was reported on CBC last night that despite being banned from the Senate Lavigne continues to charge taxpayers more than $10,000 a month in expenses.  How is that possible?

The guy is suspended from the Upper Chamber so basically he’s a senator in name only. How then could he in good conscience rack up $10,000 in expenses every month?

Lavigne was a former Liberal MP from Quebec while Jean Chretien was Prime Minister before he became a senator.  So if Harper ever wanted to reform even a small part of the workings of the Senate this provides him a perfect place to start.

Marjorie LeBreton, a Conservative senator, said “The rules committee needs to come up with procedures so this doesn’t happen again. When someone is suspended from a legislative body … it only makes sense to suspend the services too.”

If I were Harper I’d be on the phone to LeBreton with one request – “Make it so.”

Nobody would vote against such a motion, not even Liberal senators. It’s bad enough we’re still paying Lavigne’s $130,000 salary per year but to get slapped with these ridiculous monthly expenses is deplorable.

If the Conservatives don’t seize this opportunity and reform this gigantic loophole I hold out NO hope the party will ever deal with the Senate. It’s too good to pass up but unfortunately will have to wait until senators return from their winter break. What a tough job!