Up to Page 61

I am up to Page 61 on this second last time through the Companion Charting Book. Not actually finding very much but will reread it one more time before publishing. The month of December has gone quickly as we are now at the 19th. 

Staying away from the news again for a bit; I know Ontario is in good hands with Premier Ford. I do think we might as well have a federal election and then a government would be in place for the next four years. I continue to feel that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did a great job during COVID except for the liberal habit of just throwing money at anything that they think might work without due diligence and we see that with all of the errors in people applying for money to which they were not entitled apparently and the need to have all of that refunded to the government. I think in general we remained a fairly calm people during COVID due to the calm and helping attitude of both our Public Health Officer (who was absolutely excellent) and the Prime Minister both of whom gave mostly daily accounts throughout the entire period of time. The distribution of vaccine was excellent and we enjoyed high rates of uptake which helped to get us all back to work once again (except me but I like to think I am working in retirement!). I actually got a great deal done during this time period and was absolutely not troubled by the shutdown. Went for food a couple of times a week and medicine for my husband and just generally kept to ourselves. 

I think there are enough cool heads in the Conservative Party to stay away from social conservative topics and manage the swollen public service to get it stabilized. I do not care what they do with school lunches, dental care or any of that - the present setup is inefficient (there are no school lunches served yet apparently but hopefully the news is wrong as so much has been spent already). Although there are comments that there is great uptake to the dental care I suspect that people can live with the loss of it but perhaps will prioritize their dental care so as not to become critical for them again. Perhaps some consideration will be given to removing the extra money from the over 75 year olds in the OAS and having the payout the same for all in that receiving group. Increase the GIS if people are in great need but I think that they should have to submit receipts to show value for money if received and CRA could add a couple of lines to the Income Tax reporting (i.e. dental care or medical drugs/care that is not covered).  Other than that I am ready to see the Conservatives in power once again hopefully doing what they have done in the past (fiscal conservatism and reducing the size of the public service using efficiency as the byword) until PM Harper mucked it up with reducing the GST and trying to balance the budget during a critical time when the method he used was harming LAC and Fisheries (and muzzling scientists which is unacceptable). Increase the GST to 7% or higher and I do dislike this GST holiday - it funds the government so that we do not have to have funding bills every couple of months like in my youth. All it does is increase the national debt.

Back to work and no more politics; I will try very hard to stay away from all of that. I must say though the idea of 13 new states continues to appeal to me. I love Canada - it is a great country but the world is changing and we need to protect our borders and could do it much more efficiently as a single entity as all of that border surveillance would become unnecessary allowing us to concentrate on the water borders which are in general somewhat easier to manage. If it isn't supposed to be there and it doesn't respond properly you just can just blow it out of the water or air. My grandfather used to say that about the English Channel and the North Sea when I was young - he did love England but he also loved Canada - after all his only child and grandchildren were all here and Canadians! We would be just one huge island with a small border to the south with Mexico which could be armed to the hilt if necessary and tunneling could be controlled with interesting methodology. Long live North America; God bless North America. Grandparents are interesting people I think. Definitely past their prime but always ready to help. 

Lots to do; busy day ahead.