Preston Manning Centre Grabs the Sleaze, not the Steak

Preston Manning Centre Taking Money from Ultimate Sleazebag Cal Wenzel, as Revealed on Tape

 http://globalnews.ca/news/505627/exclusive-watch-the-entire-18-minute-secretly-taped-video-of-cal-wenzel-talking-to-a-meeting-of-developers/

Cal Wenzel of Shane Homes, Sleaziest Man in Calgary, dilates on friends and enemies at the Preston Manning Centre (cover, $100, 000.  Now that, in Ernest, is some _grass roots_ we be talkin’.)

Most people understand that Preston and his pals like Cal are sleazebags willing to circumvent any election or democracy law in order to get their ways, so it’s no big deal anyway, is it?

 No, I guess it isn’t; if it weren’t, Preston probably wouldn’t be so plummy and chummy about the way he gaily defaces Canadians who abide by laws he feels he is above.  He learned it from his father, I guess is the only way you can charitably interpret his actions. 

But you’ve got to really, really love Cal going over each councillor in Calgary and getting the Vegas response from the lacquered just-for-men sleazeballs in the house.

 

Here’s Cal on one of his favourites, a hurtin’ gal he can doggone manipulate six ways to Sunday:

Uh, Diane Colley-Urquhart,

Uh, y’know, uh,
unfortunately, she just lost her husband here,
a couple-three months ago
But we did go down and talk to her
Because,
the last couple years,
she just hasn’t been totally there
or totally on side
uh, y’know, and her explanation was,
unfortunately with her husband being as sick as he was, uh,
most of the time,
she didn’t have time to really pay attention,
uh, but, she’s assured us now that she will and so
y’know a Diane Colley-Urquhart that’s really prepared to work
is a good person for us I believe.

(ain’t she a trooper)

. . .and Peter Demong has done a really good job for us to this point.

(lord love a cheap date)

Preston, of course, according to sources and loving glances (lawyers, anyone?) was in the room, delighting in this foul language that you’d never find on my page.  But Preston, that’s just how Preston rolls.  No morals that can’t be compromised in the craven hunt for cash.  The sleaze just keeps comin’ for Preston.

The state of Canadian cities (this will have passed Preston by in reality, if not in federal Tory gerrymandering tactics) ought to concern every Canadian, for, more and more over the decades, and as more and more people have moved to urban locales, cities have become the engines of our economic growth.  People on other continents figured this out long ago, and they would be perplexed if they saw us weighting votes 10 to 1 rural vs. urban.  We just haven’t grown up, and our “action plan” has to envision dynamic cities with solid and stable infrastructures.

Sleazebag Cal of Shane homes, on the other hand, wants to make sure there are no sustainable cities.  His plan is that everyone can live in the country while living in the city.  Hey, it’s made him rich--made Preston rich, too.  Harper and Flaherty sure don’t want to see Canada’s cities profit and succeed—Flaherty, the Canadian-hater, even went to Washington to tell Americans what a useless place Ontario was (as compared to, say, Michigan).

Anyway, let’s go back to the hi-lite reel from Cal Wenzel, of Shane Homes, one of Preston Manning’s greatest benefactors.  What Cal, who, along with 10 of his best men, did, was pony up 100 grand for Preston’s (well, Preston, maybe you tell us just what it is).  Anyway, Cal came with the cash, and he wanted to make sure that he got some civic control, too (ain’t no grass roots like holdin’ ‘em grass roots by the roots, eh?’”)

Here’s Cal of Shane Homes, who insists that he is sometimes taken out of context (er, which con, or text, or context, or whatever, would that be, Cal?) on Dale Hodges:

Dale is 72 years old,

not too good a health,
and the rumour mill has it
he will not run again

--it’s a pretty classy thing to do, reflect on the health of others at a public gathering at the Preston Manning Centre, but, hey, it’s what you learned, I guess.  Preston Manning must have been abashed at the sheer classiness of it all.

Or take these bons mots about a city planner (Cal feigns astonishment): “she’s a relatively proper girl, an’ she sez he’s a fuckin’ idiot”  I would have been fired in the 80s for this, but Cal, well, Cal, he’s just that kinda guy, and the silveradoed gents who build your condos made this one go off like rockets!!  Preston Manning’s eyes glimmered at this rousing display of. . . !  Well, Preston’s obviously got a reckoning that includes only him, no thought of Him.

Or take John Mar, from a developer dynasty; cheeky Cal (who definitely bought in against the alternative) offered:

John Mar,

Uh, talking with a lot of you people in this room,
he’s a little bit wishy-washy, uh,
y’know, we’re never sure if he’s in the, uh, grey,
or, uh, in the purple, or just where he’s at,
so I ain’t not sure of that one there.

--well, that’s Preston.  He always did enjoy a purple joke.

If Christ were here, he would have said “un-believable.”

But hey, we’re only getting started!!

Here’s Cal on a guy he can really, really buy; I mean, this is a really, really Preston Manning Centre donation kind of guy:

Ray Jones, again,

my only concern,
is Ray is so sick and tired
of being lied to by administration
that he may decide not to run.
Now, I talked to him,
Jay’s talked to him
I think that’s just outta frustration
one p’ticular week
or at least I hope so
but he was pretty ticked the last time I talked to him, uh,
but I think we can kinda count on Ray to run

(and if, Cal, just for an instance, we couldn’t count on Ray to run, what, based on your speech, would you be prepared to do?)

Here’s classy Cal on Druh Farrell:

Druh Farrell.

In case anyone doesn’t know,
She doesn’t like me,
an’ I don’t p’ticularly like her

(guffaws)

Uh, I had 13 trucks out, uh, last election
delivering signs and assembling them
and I got called by, uh,
Druh and the elections, uh,
because they said I’d given 5 000 in cash,
so therefore my trucks that were out delivering
put me over the 5 000 and they were gonna take us to court
so, obviously, Druh and I don’t see eye-to-eye

(the Preston Manning Centre does not, under any circumstances, accept the rule of law)

So here’s the slate, as on tape, that Cal Wenzel of Shane Homes has said he has personally “looked after” or supported whilst at the Manning Centre; if you support them, then you know exactly what Preston-approved company you’re keeping:

Jim Stevenson 

Ray Jones

John Mar

Andre Chabot

Diane Colley-Urqhuart

Peter Demong

-zr

Tim Hortons Is Hiring!!

Tim Hortons Is Hiring!! (Must Speak Tagalog)

 Abstract: this is NOT an actual job advertisement for Tim Hortons.

Up the street from me, Tims has only foreign workers.  Down the street from me, it also has, more or less, foreign workers.

 

This whole thing about how the Harper government was encouraging employers to hire cheap foreigners and bypass Canadian citizens seems to have become sort of a big deal lately.  My only response was—what took so long, and why are people who formerly didn’t care what abuses the Harper government visited upon its citizens suddenly giving a damn?

 

I don’t get it.  It’s been going on forever.  Typically what would happen when there’s a shortage of labour is that: a) wages might go up; or b) companies might train workers to do jobs. 

 

Using ideology instead of pragmatism, Harper and Flaherty opposed this; using ideology instead of pragmatism, Harper and Flaherty discounted the successful models of north European countries, where they have things like apprenticeships, licensing, education, training, business-government-union cooperation and so on.   Instead, taking money from their corporate benefactors (it’s known, in Tory senate circles, as “the ol’ in n’ out”), Flaherty and Harper gave, and gave, in return.  You grease my palm, Jim and Steve said, and I’ll grease yours.  In other words, the Tories told businesses: “look, you don’t have to train or be responsible for anything.  And we feel your pain about living wages.  So here’s what we’re gonna do for you.  If you keep giving us massive campaign donations we can lie about through the ol’ in n’ out, we’ll let you bring in foreign workers you can exploit until kingdom come—and we’ll give you a 15% premium just to do it."  (In the form of cutting foreigners’ wages more or less to the tune of what the donors will give back to the Tories).

 

Easy peasy.

 

Friend of mine worked for close to 2 yrs at a Tim Hortons in Edmonton.  He was the only white man there.  He was the heat.  He was a big fat white guy who worked late nights, and his job was to shoo off panhandlers or beggars.  It was kind of a schizo job; on the one hand, he was supposed to be outside in any temperature in his visor bundling people off, but on the other hand he was also supposed to be inside, making himself useful cleaning floors and tables when there were no obvious lowlifes outside.  His boss from the south pacific, a non-Canadian citizen who was probably able to buy citizenship by “starting a business” and “hiring people,” and who does own a number of Tim Hortons franchises, tended to arrive to check up at, well, never the right time.  He’d show up when my friend was wiping tables when there *was* a homeless person outside, or he’d show up when tables had wrappers on them and my friend *was* out in the parking lot talking a guy away.  Whatever.  My friend was obviously a good employee or else he wouldn’t have been there so long and wouldn’t have gotten another better job shortly after. 

 

My friend’s co-workers were *exclusively* Filipino.  And they lived *exclusively* in places rented to them by the owner of the Tims—a classic company store model.  You bring in cheap foreigners that you don’t have to pay regular wages to, and you get their wages back in rent, and if they don’t like it, they’re on the next plane back—all this, facilitated by the ideology of Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper.  Stephen Harper curiously seems to imagine himself a family man, but of course his idea of “family” envisions only his own family.  The Tims owner in Edmonton who couldn’t (?) get Canadian employees is ruthless with his Filipinos.  It is bizarre even that he hired 1 white Canadian, but maybe he had to for token government or paperwork purposes; maybe he couldn’t find a Filipino bouncer for a coffee shop, or one who had the right language skills and special cultural abilities for defusing potentially violent situations.

 

Now, I realize I’m not giving the Tim Hortons multi-franchisee foreign-owner foreign-hirer his own space here.  Presumably, if he had the chance, he’d be right out there talking about how much he loves to support the economy and hire people, and so on.  It is nevertheless possible that, in his native Australia, he couldn’t get away with the stuff he pulls with the Harper government’s assistance in Canada.  Otherwise, he might be doing it in Australia.  Then again, he probably does get many more voluntary trips home than his Filipino workers.  And who knows?  Maybe he just got to Edmonton and said to himself: “Man, I just loooooovvvvveeee the climate here.  I can’t leave.”

 

Bottom line:

 

The foreign workers program was meant to fill gaps in the Canadian economy.  The Harper government has used it to slash wages to appease its corporate donors and unemploy Canadians and prevent training of Canadians, thus ensuring future economic ossification and suffocating not only secondary or tertiary, but also primary jobs for Canadians.  For ideological purposes, the Harper government has chosen to assist not Canadians, but foreign countries and governments, by helping them to offload cheap labour on Canada whilst enriching private companies in host countries, and decalibrating the ability of Canada to develop, train, and employ skilled workers who will bolster the Canadian economy going forward.

 

zr

Reflecting on Ralph Klein

On the far-right CBC Rex Murphy program the other day, Rex was inviting Canadians to call in and join in on his hagiographical paean to his idol.  He bagged a few Tory bagpeople, like Rod Love and Joan Crockatt, to help him on his onanistic foray.  I only heard bits and pieces of Rex’s fevered longings while I did other things, and my guess is that the Murphy screeners were NOT allowed to let anyone say anything negative about Klein (the word means “little,” or “small,” or “dinky” or “petty” etc. in German).

 

If you live where I do, it’s all Ralph all the time now, of course.  Soon the Calgary International Airport will be renamed the “Ralph Klein International Airport,” and when that’s not good enough, it will, paraphrasing Colbert, be renamed again, the “Ralph Klein Ralph Klein International Airport.”  You read it here first.

 

So whatever, since hagiography is the order of the day, allow a studious monk to have somewhat of a say.  Here’s a few of my reflections.

 

--My first was when I was a little kid and I got to have a special individual trip to CFCN as part of a school programme.  I was sitting with a CFCN cameraman in a small warren, asking goggle kid questions about cameras, and Ralph, then a reporter, rocked in hammered and unleashed a torrent of the bluest language I’d ever heard in my life.  I guess it was all over some prank that he was engaged in with another reporter, involving film and trees in front of his house and on his doorstep and so on.  I still can’t say I knew exactly what was going on there, but if I had to try to figure it out, then or now, I’d say that it went like this—Ralph played a prank, and someone got back at him, and Ralph was some p’o’ed.  Then he went away swearing.  I recognized Ralph from tv.  Ralph never looked down at me, and the hairy cameraman whose name I don’t remember, and who was a good guy with me, kind of didn’t really respond much because, well, there was a little kid in his little editing room.  But Ralph, red as ever, was some p’o’ed.

 

--Not so long after becoming mayor of Calgary, and being around for the 1988 winter Olympics, Ralph was supposed to appear at a dinner/reception for a central European city that was considering a bid for the Olympics; they wanted to know what his worship had to say about how to bring the big event to their city.  My closest friend’s family was there, partly as community representatives, partly even as translators.  An hour goes by, another hour, another hour, no Ralph.  The delegation waits patiently for his worship to arrive.  Ralph does rock in around 11 p.m., drunk as a skunk, and tells the delegation that, as he slurs his words, “if ya wanna, if ya wanna, if ya wanna have the Olympics, whatcha, whatcha gotta do, is, is, ya gotta (and here Ralph grabs his crotch) have balls!!”

 

--then I guess there’s the environmental and financial destruction during his MLA and premier tenure.  Elsewhere on this blog, I have criticized former Alberta premier Lougheed, but he did imagine things such as the heritage fund and caring for special parts of Albertan geography such as Kannanaskis country; under Ralph, Albertans found a minister of golf course development and a premier who tried to buy votes by sending Albertans paltry cheques and beggaring the ability of public representatives to represent the people in terms of such things as education and health care.  I also criticized Lougheed over his anti-Canadian attitudes that, surprise, surprise, the Conservatives are suddenly rethinking, but now as he lies in state, Ralph’s “let the eastern creeps and bums freeze in the dark” comments are somehow being recollected as statesmanlike.

 

--speaking of education, I guess there’s the papers Ralph plagiarized for Athabasca University.  Ralph figured Pinochet was a pretty savvy guy, really, but somehow he just kinda got the politics a bit wrong.  A funny number of people say this about Hitler, too, but it just ain’t funny, and yet Ralph gets majority adoration for hailing murderous dictators.  Hm.  I guess the average Albertan figures that, hey, so my kid gets kidnapped and disappeared, well, it’s just good policy. I wonder if there will be anyone at Ralph’s wakes and/or doing his eulogies who will “have the balls” to read from Ralph’s political science papers in which he figures that, hey, Pinochet was a smart leader who just got sidetracked by some socialist ratbags.  I guess we’ll have to wait a while on those.  But lawyers, I invite you.  Read them into the record, kindly.  Lawyers?

 

--then there’s Ralph kicking off his campaign in ’04 by taunting poor people on income supplements, saying that some apparent critics (who may or may not have been on supplements) were “smoking cigarettes and wearing cowboy hats” (things Ralph never did) and sure didn’t look like they were hurting.  When Mitt Romney told convives at a gala that basically 47% of Americans were losers freeloading off him and his audience, Americans, who often do have a sense of what is right and what is wrong, didn’t forget it.  Rex Murphy, Albertans, Harper—indeed a sad number of Canadians—just lapped Ralph up.  “Hey, it’s Ralph!”  Right on, Ralph!!  Another massive majority. 

 

--then there was Ralph getting pied at the Stampede.  Now, most politicians would have taken this as a fact of life.  They would have said, “hey, I’m a public figure, it goes with the territory.”  Not that I’m saying that getting pied is fun.  I would have been p’o’ed, too, no doubt.  Stephen Harper is so terrified of the public that he hasn’t met one since ’06.  Most European politicians would shrug and turn it around into a PR winner.  Jean Chretien would have throttled the pie-er.  But good ol’ Ralph, Ralph cost Albertan taxpayers 10s of 1000s of dollars$ by prosecuting the kid who pied him to the nth degree.  Is there one—just one, I mean one—lawyer in Alberta, or even Canada, who would discuss the 10s of 1000s of $ Albertans spent to prosecute the pie kid? 

 

I didn’t think so.

 

But do you know what?  I’ve been embarrassed before.  I could have sucked it up.  I wouldn’t have made the people pay 10s of 1000s of dollars for it.  I’m sorry, that’s not leadership.  But if you like dictators, it does kind of fall in step that way.

 

--obviously one of Ralph’s pieces de resistance was when he rocked up hammered in his chauffeured car at an Edmonton homeless shelter and started barking at people to get a job and scattered change around the floor as if homeless people were the cheapest and most worthless hookers and scum.  A homeless person, who HAD a job, coming in at 1 a.m., wanted Ralph to go home and get some sleep, so he could, too. 

 

Yep, that was Ralph.  And then there’s the countless unverifiable tales I could tell, the embarrassment I felt for him and for the people he represented when he was red-faced and repetitive and more or less completely incapacitated in the legislature and in public—yep, that was Ralph.  You might have liked to have had a beer with him, but make no mistake, just as his name bespeaks, he was a nasty, mean-spirited, petty, drunk, fat little man who scorned the people and sucked up to the rich by letting his province be governed from boardrooms and not cabinet chambers.

 

zr