Thoughts of the last few days.

When I am on my stretch of night shifts for work, blogging takes a back seat to sleep and I have not been up to date with my posting for the week. Here are some late thoughts.

The torrid pace of the first hundred days continues with the budget on Tuesday and the crime bills tabled Thursday and now Hedy enters the race.

I will comment on the budget tonight, as I have to read the crime bill first and the Hedy stuff can write itself.


In my opinion the budget was not perfect. I have my doubts if a perfect budget could exist in the real world at all, but I do think this budget was pretty good based on real world standards. I also think the average Canadian feels that way as well and will remember come election time.


Most of the positives of the budget have been discussed to death so I will just hit a couple of my favorite bits from the budget to comment on.

GST Cut. Another promise made.

Choice for Childcare: I have always been in favor of this plan and am glad to see it implemented. I also was watching live when Carolyn Bennett made her now famous comments on the Duffy show. My big chance to scoop the blogging world occurred as I was about to leave for work and could post, arggggg.


Relating to prisons and children, there was a little nugget that did not get much press or blog time.

The $ 500 tax deduction for parents to put their children into sports / fitness programs.

I love this program as it will not only promote health in children by getting more of them active with the obvious health benefits which will not only be felt now but well into the future with healthcare costs; it may also keep those prisons a little more empty in the future as well. I am not going to get into all sorts of psycho babble here, but kids active in sports are generally not the ones that go around painting grafitti on buildings nor are they the ones commiting most of the numerous other crimes out there. There are exceptions of course, but my theory is a lot closer to reality than Dr. Bennett's is.

Oh and did I mention that this program will also gives parents a break on their taxes? Always a good thing in my books and those of us trying to raise children.

If you want a real innovative program this is the one, and we should be shouting from the rooftops about it as it shows real, dare I say progressive thinking. While some are banning soft drinks in schools in a misguided attempt to improve kids health, others are coming up with real workable solutions to the problem.

Bravo Mr. Harper!!