Smoking

Rick's conversation with the Mayor of Bridgewater certainly sparked a good number of calls and a diatribe from Rick himself about smoking. Rick thinks we should ban cigarettes and I agree, but if there's one thing I hate more than smelling cigarette smoke, it's the hypocrisy of governments collecting tax money off these things, while at the same time spending money trying to get people to stop smoking. PLEASE! In Bridgewater, they've moving forward with a bill that would ban cigarettes from all public places, including walking down the sidewalk. Here's the thing, I don't think you can have one level of government decide something when another level of government profits off it. Cigarettes will never be illegal because of the tax revenue they provide, which is more important to the government than health care costs, apparently. So, it's government hypocrisy that keeps cigarettes in society and helps people to kill themselves with them. You can't fault a person for using a product which is fully legal. Like I said, if governments feel cigarettes are dangerous to the public, just ban them - don't do this piecemeal approach which is only a ruse so you can keep collecting millions in tax money. Please, we're not that stupid.

This story about the woman in Saudi Arabia being gang-raped and then lashed for it is disgusting. It is vile to think about rape, but then to be punished for it too? I'm desperately trying not to be ethnocentric here, but I'm finding it very difficult. I didn't read the Mail Star yet, but apparently there is a woman who has started a letter writing campaign about this. Maybe Rick will have her on the show, so that this issue doesn't die.

It was great to have Paul Pettipas of the Homebuilders' Association in today. I had spoken to him many times on the phone, but had never met him. It was an interesting/disturbing hour. Disturbing in the sense that you don't need a licence to build a home in N.S.? Of course you don't. Hairstylists are licenced, but not homebuilders. That makes a whole wack of sense, doesn't it? According to the CHMC, there are forms of licencing in B.C., Ontario and Quebec. I'm glad the province is taking baby steps to at least look into the leaky condo situation. I would not buy a condo that's just being constructed now. What a risk! The best thing to do would be to make sure the builder is a member of Paul's group, get some second and third opinions...and they just pray! It was funny because Rick was talking to Curtis Sliwa before the interview and Paul was listening and laughing at all Curtis' little sayings and slang and that in turn was making Rick and I start to laugh, so we're all essentially laughing in the studio, it was great.

What do you think about lawyer and former school board member Steve Boyce's move to raise money for the legal fees of the fired members of the Halifax Regional School Board? It's a nice thing to do, but it's not like they weren't warned! They received a warning letter and they didn't shape up. Wouldn't it have been anti-democratic to leave in people who weren't doing their jobs? It most definitely would have been unfair. The fired members might have been dedicated, but that dedication wasn't clear. Howard Windsor seems genuinely concerned about education and the issues, he has proven that on our show. Democracy is also about electing the right people to do the job. Howard Windsor was appointed by Karen Casey who was duly elected. We elect M-Ps, which in turn brings a Prime Minister to power, who in turn appoints judges. I don't think the firing of the school board was undemocratic, it was necessary. We've had Howard in twice, I think, and we were not bombarded with calls telling him how much they missed their elected representative, I think that says a lot.

Well, it's a beautiful sunny day, can't ask for more than that. Thanks for the calls today, sorry we had to let go of everyone at the end - please try back tomorrow!!

Thanks for today!

Cheers,

Amber