King Arthur Movie Tristan

Last night I posted that the effects changes to Employment Insurance in the mid-90's had a dramatic cost on the auto Industry, the payments for which have now come due. Mere hours later, The National Post hit the street with a front page comment by John Ivison that expands on my thesis.

Significantly about federal government plans to add stimulus through the EI system, Ivison notes:

...he expects the government to create a more level playing field across the country when it comes to who qualifies for EI, so that an unemployed auto worker in Southern Ontario can access the same amount of benefit, for the same length of time, as an unemployed fisherman in Newfoundland. At the moment, Ontario workers are disadvantaged when it comes to coverage and benefit period.

Lets be clear, when Ivison talks about Ontario workers, he means the auto industry.

Now here's what I had to say on EI, just last evening:

Paul Martin balanced the budget in part... on the back of the auto companies, who every party now seems to agree need a bailout...

When Stephen Harper sits down to sort out the EI mess that Paul Martin & The Supremes have just handed him, and Jack Layton calls him to ask what he's doing about the auto jobs, he should look at the changes made to EI that affect the auto companies and consider undoing them.

So you see Mr. Harper, I write tomorrow's headlines, today. The perfect candidate for team Harper up in Ottawa. Why would you give a red velvet seat to some Toronto Red Tory?

A few weeks ago I got on to The Toronto Sun about a price increase from $1.00 to $1.50. Bollocks, said I, or something to that effect. I'll spend my money elsewhere. What I didn't realize at the time was this was a GTA issue. The Sun was still .50¢ in Toronto and area, $1.50 the rest of the province. It's fair enough really, and the same pricing system as the Star and if you can get $1.50 for the Star then you can for any old piece of crap. But I'm not playing that game, and since The Sun has become crap, I'll do myself a favour and keep my money.

Then along comes The National Post, who today joined the crowd and raised their outside Toronto price to $1.50. What grates me on this, and take a seat Globe and Mail who do the same thing, is the Post is supposedly a national paper, for all Canadians. But if you drive one-hour out of downtown Toronto, the price increases 200%. So by national you mean Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, otherwise their not really interested? Who are these guys, The Liberal Party?

It must be said I can't run a blog like this and refuse to buy any newspapers, but as I commute to Brampton daily I will most certainly change my habits and begin buying the Post in Brampton, but National Post take note, with less frequently.

A dollar-fifty for a daily newspaper. Kate's right, they really aren't waiting for the asteroid.