Thanks, Larry Mudd. Your rant was fantastic and right on the money.
For those who may not have caught Uzi’s reference, an explanation:
This might have been less noteworthy if he hadn’t been chauffered around from pub to pub and to the shelter, where he drunkenly counselled the folks there to “Get a job” and threw some bills at their feet.
Swell guy.
I really want to thank Larry for this excellent OP. I’ve been fucking appalled at the damage that is being done to this province under Campbell and his band of idiots. I really am astounded at the “survival of the fittest” attitude and lack of compassion that this government has shown. That’s not to mention the incredible short-sightedness of efforts like the (thankfully defeated) plan to privatize the Coquihalla Highway.
Ya just gotta love a guy who does something like that. He’ll be elected for life in Alberta.
Probably where Larry got his info from:
From some socialist propoganda site
Alberta isn’t the only province to offer people one way tickets home, either. We are just noticed because people want a reason to criticize a conservative province.
[QUOTE]
Probably where Larry got his info from:
From some socialist propoganda siteWhat the hell? I get my information from the CBC and the Globe, like all hard-working comrades engaged in the Canadian People’s Pproletariat struggle.
Raise the red flag high!
I code terribly at 5:00am.
Hurry up, coffee…
That’s pretty noisesome, too. Home? Home?! Nice spin there, except that it’s a ticket away from home. No, it’s not just Alberta. Quebec does it, too. Any other provinces? Does it’s lack of uniqueness make it any less shitty? “We aren’t the only family that drowns kittens in a sack, people just comment on it more because we vote PC.” Sorry, doesn’t wash.
A) The term “poverty pimp” has been around at least 1983 and was (as far as I know) coined by economist Walter Williams in a series of essays about how money intended for the poor was being diverted to people who were clearly not poor and who’s only source of income was this diverted money.
B) A better phrased definition:
"Obviously, a lot of anti-poverty money is going to people who are not poor. There are whole classes of people who live off the poor – or rather, off the vast sums of money that are poured out from the public treasury and private philanthropy, in hopes of helping the poor.
Those who intercept the money intended for the poor have been aptly called “poverty pimps.” The poor are a commodity to these people, who include not only local politicians, community activists and small-time hustlers, but also people with impressive titles and academic credentials, who likewise milk the larger society, in the name of the poor…"
(from an essay about Williams by Thomas Sowell)
Therefore
C) Mr. Green, based on what you’ve said is not a poverty pimp.
D) Mr. Mayancourt is a nitwit (again, based on what you’ve said), if not a plagerist (for swiping the phrase, uncredited), certainly unethical for swiping the term uncredited and dumb* for getting the meaning wrong.
After a bit of research, it seems that everyone wants to take credit (or give blame) to someone else for inventing the phrase. I’ve yet to find a reference to it earlier than 1983 and I’ve heard from a number of sources (including Williams) that he invented the term…but I can’t find a cite or the original articles (which I’m remembering as 1983, but could be earlier or later by a few years)
Sorry, would you please tell me what this means?
Much as I agree with your OP, Larry, like Matt, I’m waiting for clarification on this. To my knowledge, this has never occurred in Quebec. A lot of people have gone out west in the hope of finding jobs, but as far as I know, this practise has not been supported by any elected official or any governmental organization.
So, I’m looking forward to seeing your sources. I hate to live in ignorance of what’s going on at home.
What it means is that I was way too hasty in my response to Uzi, especially since I had not quite woken up yet.
I’d never heard of any other provinces doing this, so I did a quick websearch to see if there were any references to other provinces busing their unemployed out to other provinces.
The only seemingly-relevant reference I found, searching for “bus ticket,” “welfare,” and “province,” which I did not scrutinize very carefully, made a reference to the Quebec government supplying folks with bus tickets to the Okanagan, which ought to have raised my suspicions just on the strength of the unlikely geography. Based on other interesting suggestions on that page, such as “The Bible says that those who will not work shall not eat,” and the fantastic claim that “Some arrive in BC and immediately apply for welfare. Then they pick fruit for the summer — getting paid in cash while still on welfare — and go to Mexico for the winter, where they live on their summer earnings. When winter is over, they return to Quebec to apply for welfare until the fruit harvest is ready in the Okanagan, and then they repeat the cycle all over again: spring and summer on welfare in Quebec and BC, winter in Mexico on the beach,” it should have been more than adequately clear that I was looking at an unreliable source of information. (It was located on the Christian Heritage Party Website, if you’re interested.) I only glanced at a single phrase out of context. I am appropriately ashamed of myself.
If I’d had my coffee first, I would have simply asked which other provinces offer a “Get the fuck outta town” benefit, and left it at that.
A more alert Googling turned up a reference to Ontario doing the same thing, but that’s about it.
Sorry about that, matt, and thanks for drawing my attention back to it.
No problem. Nothing like having a touchy montréalais about to keep you on your toes, eh? 
I found the Ontario links, too.
When I wrote that other provinces do it, I’m basing that on a reference I remember reading from a while ago. IRRC, it is an option welfare recipients can get if asked for. I can’t find any confirmation of it yet other than below. Take if for what it’s worth, which ain’t much.
Ontario municipalities. It also suggests that it is not just happening there.
http://www.northyorkharvestfoodbank.com/Resource%20Centre/Articles/Related%20Articles/down%20the%20road%20programs.htm
Straw man. OP was not about provinces exporting their poor. It was about provinces not supporting their poor.
One million dollars for the rug of Lorne Mayencourt.
Seriously. Mail it to me.
See that’s the problem with socialists. It is never about the poor supporting themselves.
Ah yes. The rarest of them all: a straw man squared.
Hey, Larry, when you mentioned lowered minimumwage, did you mean the “training wage” thing? Ah yes, another bright idea, courtesy of our dear Government. What they’ve done, you see, is let employers pay a much lower wage for the first 500 hours of a person’s first job. Needless to say, an incredible amount of people are found to be “just not working out” around hour 490 or so.
As far as the two year thing goes, unless you’re really sick, you’re out. Now, keep in mind this includes people with anger issues, lack of education, addiction issues, personality disorders, the list goes on.
Recently, people on medical disability were required to fill in huge forms, on the order of twenty pages to continue their coverage. Six, I think, pages needed to be filled in by their doctor. Needless to say, the doctors where overwhelmed and some just plain refused to do it.
Larry left out a couple other things too. We’ve got a couple of thriving tent cities in Vancouver, full of homeless people. Heck, never mind Vancouver, they figure around 300 out here in my neighbourhood, Wonderfull Wally-World, also known as “Ground Zero” All summer I went through the Athletic Park on my way home from the zoo and saw a couple of dozen people at any time, sleeping or sitting under the trees by the playground. There was an article today’s Province stating that Vancouver was second only to Miami for property theft in North America. Surrey is tops for car theft.
Hmm, that reminds me of something else. Did we mention that our Gordie took a little vacation to Hawaii this spring? Picked up a little souvineer, in the form of a well-deserved DUI. Might explain a lot…
Call it the curse of the NDP: whenever you vote the NDP out, you always get something eight trillion times worse.
Worked in Ontario, too.