Right in the centre - Observations and complaints

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Published on Friday, February 16, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

Over the past few weeks, I have had a variety of thoughts and emotions about the state of the world. I realize that my opinion doesn’t count for all that much and I have no expectations that many people will listen, but it makes one feel better if, every so often, they can shout out a few opinions. If you would like to do that, send us a letter to the editor.

• If the United States elects either Joe Biden or Donald Trump as president, I hate to think what will happen. Neither man should be president. Both are too old. Biden is showing signs of senility and Trump has other mental issues that are obvious. Both are too old and risky to carry the burden of President of the United States.

• The amount of money spent by political campaigns is obscene in the U.S. where politicians will spend hundreds of times the salary just to get elected.

• If you look at the net worth of presidents when they go into office and compare it with their net worth when they leave office, it seems they gather a lot of wealth from somewhere and it isn’t the salary.

• In the U.S., they elect every position from judge to dog catcher to state and national senators and house reps. How can you have an impartial judge who is elected? Might happen, but it’s questionable.

• It’s time to change the governing party in Canada. The Liberals have outworn their shelf life by a long way. Justin Trudeau isn’t half the man his father was and many of us who remember the senior Trudeau weren’t too happy with him.

• I am told there are two to three times the number of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) as there are Members Parliament (MPs). That makes no sense at all. lt leaves all the power in the PMO and very little in the parliament.

• So far, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is doing a good job and I told him so when he visited Neepawa a couple of weeks ago. I had a good visit with him that day. My experience with Wab Kinew hasn’t been extensive, but every time I have met him, it has been good. Kinew has been very polite and appears to care about the person he is talking with.

• The PC Manitoba Party is about to elect a new leader. Hopefully they will actually get an election and not an acclamation or coronation. The party hierarchy needs a major overhaul, but that would be more work than anybody really wants to take on. Their head office has been in a shambles for many years now. It’s in a poor location, understaffed and sometimes poorly managed.

• The NDP have a major advantage in that when they have a provincial convention, about one third of the delegates are appointed by unions and funded to attend the convention. PC delegates have to pay their own way and having attended a few conventions myself, I know it takes a lot of time and money. The results are often disappointing and frustrating.

• Considering how little pay party leaders get and how much crap they have to put up wth, it’s a wonder anybody runs for the office.

• On a different political level, I just read that Canada Post is on track to run up huge losses again this year I just got an email from a man named Alex at Canada Post asking me to use Canada Post to reach customers. Here is what I told him, “I am a local newspaper publisher and I just want to say that Canada Post deserves to lose a half $billion a year if they treat  all their customers the way they treat newspapers. I have taken almost all my business away from Canada Post and I should have done it sooner.” 

• Canada Post has fantastic local staff. The Postmasters do a great job in my experience. The problem is everything is centralized and Canada Post can’t get parcels or letters  from one town to the next in a timely fashion. 

• That’s about enough complaining for this week. I hope you all have a good week. There’s only so much an individual can do and may God bless you and yours as you do your part to make the world a better place.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the Banner & Press staff.