Re: Bigger Reports Savings - October 25, 2012

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To the editor of the Sudbury Star,
Published October 31, 2012

I was astounded to see Andre Rivest's comments with respect to the Auditor General's five year projection of savings relative to his audit program.  Councillor Rivest is quoted as saying "Just show us the savings up to this year, minus your office expenses. Why not go 10 years and show $4.5 million?" Indeed, why not? Is the councillor not aware that the cost of the audit is a one time expense while the savings that result are ongoing? If this is the level of business acumen sitting at the council table, the city is in real trouble.

Rather than accept Mr. Bigger's investigations as a guide to improving the efficiency of city operations, some of our elected politicians, as well as staff, seem to want to nit pick his reports. When the message makes them uncomfortable, they attack the messenger. The fact is that while Bigger nominally reports to council, his efforts are actually in the best interests of us, the taxpayers who must carry the burden of any waste and inefficiency.

So keep up the good work, Brian Bigger. Anyone who opposes the work you are doing should not get the support of any rational voter in the next municipal election.

Re: Rumours of Grits Demise Dead Wrong - October 22, 2012

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To the editor of the Sudbury Star,

I read Warren Kinsella's column in which he predicts the resurgence of the federal Liberal Party with great interest. At the present time, the conservative end of the spectrum has been staked out by the Tories while the NDP has a lock on the far left. The Liberals exist somewhere in the middle, where he suggests the average Canadians "swing left and right, as the circumstances warrant".

The flaw I see in Mr. Kinsella's argument is that he portrays the political spectrum in one dimension featuring left, right and centre. While I agree that most Canadians are not all left or all right, I believe after talking to many that they lean one way or the other, not based on circumstance, but rather based on the particular issue at hand. There is a second axis to the political landscape, and one end of it is populated by those who describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. This leads them to sometimes side with the Conservatives and other times to back NDP ideas. These people fit the label of classical liberal, aka libertarian, and they are not comfortable at either end of the one dimensional playing field. But they are definitely not moderate (although the popular left/right model forces them to describe themselves as such).

In my opinion, if the Liberals want to stake out grounds to rebuild the party, they should move onto this other dimension. On a fiscal basis, Paul Martin proved as Finance Minister that the Grits can be more fiscally conservative than anything the Harper government has done in the last six years. Meanwhile, on the social front, a party that steadfastly backs individual rights without the overtones of members rumbling about the government legislating private moral issues such as gay marriage, abortion and a draconian war on drugs that has been singularly unsuccessful would be welcome to many of us.

So let the redefined Liberal Party embrace the fiscal right and endorse the social left without trying to be moderate. This libertarian, who has supported the Conservatives for the last few elections as a compromise, would be happy to change his allegiance.