The "Trust Gap", "social licence" and the rule of law

Giant PR firm, Edelman, does a global annual survey to gauge of the "trust" the public has in its institutions: 1) Government 2) Business 3) Media, and 4) NGOs.

The people surveyed are categorized into three groups:
1) Informed Public 2) General On-line Population, and 3) Mass Population (all population excluding Informed Public)

The results are published in the "Edelman Trust Baraometer".

2016 Edelman Trust Barometer  Widening Trust Gap
2017 Edelman Trust Barometer   An Implosion in Trust! (Brexit, Trump, immigration/refugee crisis?)

Interesting, considering recent events but one does wonder about the validity of the results as a measure of "trust". If it isn't trust that's actually being measured, what is it? It's worth reading this bit of skepticism: "Can You Trust The Data On Trust?"

The surveys show that the "Informed Public", which includes the elites that control the four institutions, have much higher "trust" in those institution than the general public (ie the definition of the "trust gap"). Hardly a surprising result.

With the advent of Internet, the general public is in a position to be better informed and less subject to control of the message by the elites (especially the legacy MSM).  A widening "trust gap" might be a natural consequence of this.  However, a potentially serious downside is a diminishing respect for the rule of law and the constitution.  For example, certain of the elites (Justin Trudeau for one) have been pushing the fuzzy notion of "social license" ("governments issue permits, communities grant permission").  In the case of pipeline approvals this suggests that decisions by lawfully appointed and mandated regulatory bodies (like the NEB) are subject to being overruled by vocal interest groups ("communities") who have no legal status. Mob rule is "permitted" to supplant the rule of law.  Not good!

The new cabinet: the good news, and the bad

The biggest problem isn't in the cabinet, it's the Marxist eco-radical and Trudeau best pal, Gerald Butts, in the PMO:

"The cause of the Canada-U.S. price gap is obvious — the government"

Mark Milke:

... the federal government recently introduced legislation — dubbed the Price Transparency Act — that will force retailers to explain why Canadians sometimes pay higher prices than Americans for the same products. 

... To think a government is remotely capable of collecting and properly collating this type of comparative information assumes a degree of specific knowledge that governments do not possess, as it would be impossible to track the millions of business decisions that are made on a daily basis.

... All of this ...ignores one significant reason why some prices in Canada are higher than those in the United States: government policy.  ... For example ... Ontario’s rising electricity costs ... federal “supply management” policies ... airline fares - federal government policy that prevents full cabotage ...

Several others have also written about James Moore’s proposed law:

Andrew Coyne: The whole ‘Canada-U.S. price gap’ issue is a con surrounded by hypocrisy
John Ivison: Moore trades tariff relief for discredited 1970s policies
Peter Foster: Regulations R Us

All make excellent points.  There is certainly nothing “conservative” about such regulation.  We are blessed with (mostly) free markets in this country.  Retailers are best able to price their products in those markets and consumers are perfectly capable of sorting out where to buy them and deciding what price is fair.  The government should not be meddling with or attempting to micro-manage retail businesses.

James Moore's urge to micro-manage

If it isn't James Moore telling Tim Horton's how to run it's business,  it's James Moore policing prices at Toys R Us and every other cross-border business.  This is conservatism?

Must be an election coming.

Kathleen Wynne's self-destructive opportunitic mercantilism

Peter Foster: Ontario’s anti-markets deal with Cisco a self-destructive case of ‘opportunist mercantilism’

The loudly-trumpeted news that the Ontario government is to give California-based Cisco Systems “up to” $220 million to create “up to” 1,700 jobs is a typical example of “opportunist mercantilism” — that is, “beating” other governments at self-destructive policies.

...The one relatively clear statistic is that the Ontario government seems to be ponying up well over $100,000 a job. This is nonsensical.

... This game bears little or no relevance to the voluntarily, non-criminal cooperation of the free market, but it does explain a lot about the government behaviour.  ... governments aren’t interested in economically optimal results. They are interested in gestures that will win votes, whatever the costs to the economy. They play. Taxpayers lose.

Ezra Levant's take:

CPC 10th Anniversary - list of accomplishments

Via Joanne's post  at BLU is the Conservative Party 10th Anniversary Top 10 List of Accomplishments.  In the BLU comments, Sandy of Crux of the Matter points to her comprehensive list of 70 accomplishments 2006-2011.  Great stuff!

Question: I googled for a complete record of Conservative accomplishments and Sandy's excellent list was it, no others came close.  However, Sandy says she's given up on it, as it's too big a job.  Isn't this something the CPC should be doing and posting it on its web-site?  It's certainly worth bragging about.  Such a list, with links to the platform, would be a valuable reference for all conservatives, not to mention the general public.

Time to write another letter to the CPC.

Smart meters and the potential for encroachment by Big Brother

People object for a number of reasons to the new "smart meter" technology being installed by power companies across the country. Russell Irwin, the first guy in the above video, just doesn't want a new meter ("shoved down his throat") saying his original analog meter works just fine.  Others object to the installation of the remote metering WiFi technology on their premises, fearing adverse health effects. The second fellow, Len Miller, objects on grounds of privacy and the potential for government to monitor his activities.
 
First, the meters belong to the energy company and are installed by agreement between the buyer and the supplier of energy. If you want power you agree to pay for what you use.  If the company decides to upgrade its metering equipment that's strictly its business unless the equipment can be reasonably shown to be harmful to the customer.  If all BC Hydro did was use WiFi technology to remotely collect monthly power usage data, presumably reducing meter reading costs, then who could object?
Well, lots of people would anyway.  People like Russell Irwin and those who fear the health effects of WiFi. But neither has reasonable proof of harm.

Of all the objections against smart meters, the only legitimate one, so far, is Len Miller's objection based on privacy concerns.  The potential for future encroachment of Big Brother is a real threat that needs to be addressed.  [Miller's completely unacceptable treatment by the idiot thugs of the Vancouver Police Department is a separate and much more urgent matter.]

I wrote to BC Hydro last year with my own concerns about privacy and the potential for smart metering to be used by government to manipulate and coerce energy use (for example to enforce "climate change" policy).  Their response:

Thank you for contacting us regarding BC Hydro’s Smart Metering Program.

Our customers trust us to protect their privacy and security, and we recognize and take that responsibility very seriously. That’s why extensive privacy provisions are in place for the Smart Metering Program.

BC Hydro takes the responsibility to protect your privacy and security very seriously. 

BC Hydro has been collecting electricity consumption information for 50 years through a safe, secure and regulated process. The Smart Metering Program is no exception.

Privacy is governed by the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for which the Office of the Privacy Commissioner here in British Columbia provides oversight. BC Hydro has worked closely with the Commissioner’s Office over the past few months and will continue to work closely with their office to put in place the most stringent privacy standards, and to ensure privacy is built into the entire system.

Your information will remain private and secure with the new smart metering system because: 

• Smart meters do not contain personally-identifiable information. The only information stored on the meter is hourly consumption information. The information is encrypted much like online banking.
• Smart meters cannot detect what appliances you are using or when. Smart meters only measure how much energy a home used or generated in total. This is the same information we have always collected, just more frequently – up to three or four times per day rather than once every two months.
• BC Hydro does not sell or disclose personal information to third parties. The information collected will be handled in accordance with the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act – just as it is now with your existing meter. 
• The smart metering system uses multiple layers of security. Multiple layers of security ensure that any single point of vulnerability will remain contained and will not compromise the overall system. We have hired online experts to test our systems and develop the strongest possible protections.

All personal information will then continue to be handled in accordance with the British Columbia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

We do not have an opt out option. BC Hydro is committed to working with you to understand your specific concerns. We understand that some customers are uncomfortable with radio frequency based technology and that’s why we are working with those customers on a case by case basis to find mutually agreeable solutions.  The options available to you will depend on your individual concerns and circumstances.  In addition, the costs associated with customization will also vary depending on your unique circumstances.

Your concerns have been noted on your account and a smart meter will not be installed at this time until we have communicated with you further.  [They installed the meter without further communication].

I suspect that was a pro-forma response.  And they didn't address my point about the potential for manipulation to enforce policy for "fighting climate change".

The marijuana industry after legalization by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

PM Justin Trudeau

William Watson predicts what a Canadian marijuana industry would look like if Justin should become PM.  For starters, complete takeover by governments and unions:

... Provincial and territorial Cannabis Control Boards
... Board stores, naturally, will be unionized
... The Boards may engage in advertising campaigns
... Sales outside Board stores will be illegal
... GST, PST and/or HST
... Canadian Cannabis Marketing Board
... interprovincial sales of marijuana will be strictly prohibited
... Canadian Cannabis Exporting Agency ... 

... with prices to match.  And, on top of all that, pot will be subjected to the same health and safety regulations that apply to tobacco (eg. for control of second-hand smoke in public places).

Potheads had best be careful what they wish for.

2013 "Council of the Federation" meeting a big flop

Andrew Coyne's excellent column today explains how the Premiers, instead of attending to matters within their own jurisdiction, wasted their time (and our taxes) telling the federal government how to suck eggs:

It is possible to imagine a situation in which it would be useful for the premiers to meet, just as it is possible to conceive of a reason why anyone should pay them the slightest attention [but just barely].  ...

[They could discuss taking action in many areas]: 

... the hundreds of inter-provincial trade barriers that still disfigure the landscape

...  to stop their professional bodies from discriminating against those who have received their training elsewhere. 

... to allow each other’s oil and hydroelectricity to cross their soil without being held to ransom. 

... to put their budgets on the same system of accounts, so the public could have some idea of how much they were spending, relative to each other.

These would all justify the premiers meeting.  ...  there is nothing to prevent the premiers from doing any of these. Because, you see, they all have the inestimable advantage of being within the premiers’ jurisdiction. ...  It isn’t just that they almost never agree to anything that is in their power to do ...  They barely even talk about it.

Instead, they talk about the feds: what Ottawa should do, how much money it should spend, and on what. On this, let it be said, they have no trouble agreeing. ... And, of all the things the premiers might think to suggest the federal government spend more on, what do you supposed tops their list? Why yes: themselves.

... And when they have finished all this — when they are done writing Ottawa’s budget, and amending the Criminal Code, and drafting federal safety regulations, and demanding to be consulted on everything under the sun — the premiers use whatever time they have left to complain about federal interference.

The Premiers ought to be embarrassed.  They've made a joke of their meetings. It's hardly much wonder why Harper ignores their invitations.  He'd have to be nuts to attend.

Price fixing hypocrisy - criminal charges laid against chocolate companies

The charges, laid Thursday, come ... after Canada’s Competition Bureau ...  found evidence suggesting that a price-fixing cartel collaborated, agreed or arranged to set the prices of chocolate products.

... Criminal charges have been laid against candy makers Nestlé Canada Inc. and Mars Canada Inc., and ITWAL Limited...

... “We are fully committed to pursuing those who engage in egregious, anti-competitive behaviour that harms Canadian consumers,” said John Pecman, interim commissioner of competition, in a statement.

I agree, price fixing is, or should be, a crime.  Yet, ironically,  the milk used by those chocolate companies is produced by dairy marketing cartels that engage in egregious, anti-competitive, consumer harming, price fixing with full government approval.

Corruption in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) + nitwit mayors and useless media

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is holding its annual conference in Vancouver this year.  This is the conference attended by Mayors and municipal staff to share ideas (collude) on stuff like, you know, "green" plans, "sustainability" initiatives and "climate change" strategies (aka wasting wads of cash ripped off from taxpayers).   Ezra Levant describes it as a lobby group that received $550 million in taxpayer funds from the federal government. 

Ezra also pointed out in this segment how and why corrupt thugs from FCM blacklisted a Montreal contractor from its tradeshow for having the temerity to advocate more efficient, open and honest tendering of municipal acquisition contracts:



And where's the Media Party?  One wonders whether or not this FCM corruption was a topic of discussion at the conference, at least informally among attendees.   Also, was the corruption in Quebec discussed?  There's real corruption in the FCM and real corruption in Quebec municipalities, so you might think the media would give their reporters an assignment to ask some relevant questions.   Well, there was no sign of it on my local CTV news last night.  The one and only topic they saw fit to cover was: "Rob Ford criticism bubbles up at Canadian mayors’ conference".  [The mayors were all atwitter, like giddy schoolgirls sharing hot gossip.  Note that one scumbag mayor, Frank Leonard of Saanich, BC, skated close to slander by suggesting Ford should be in jail.]   A worthless media sinks farther into irrelevance.

“You didn’t build that!” - why Obama thinks government is responsible for private sector success

PJTV

No good deed goes unpunished

Immigration punishes dairy Farmer who doesn't hire illegal aliens

In praise of Bill C-38

From Environmentalism is Fascism comes an article entitled In Praise of the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (Bill C-38).

It's an excellent piece that not only praises Bill C-38 but also details the who's who behind its opposition, including:

The Black Out Speak Out (BOSO [pronounced 'Bozo']) Coalition
Canada’s Environmentalist Vanguard
Canada’s Green Academic Establishment
Clash of the Titans ("..an epic clash between two titanic constituencies")

[via FOS]

"Hate 2.0: Combating the Radical Right ... "

If we needed another example proving that university humanities faculties are, at best, a waste of time and money here’s one proudly presented in the Summer 2012 Carleton University Magazine:

With a major grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, [Jennifer] Evans and her Carleton colleagues Christiane Wilke, a legal scholar; historian Shawn Graham; and communications professor Josh Greenberg have embarked on a two-year project called "Hate 2.0: Combating the Radical Right in the Age of Social Technology."

Evans and her collaborators will examine the ways social media are being used to combat neo-Nazism and other radical-right strains of thought in Germany and Canada.

The Carleton Department of History announcement of Evans’ grant last summer featured this National Organization of Women (NOW) logo along with these details:

From the perspectives of social and gender history, critical legal studies, and media studies, the research team will examine how local, state, and federal authorities, together with institutionalized anti-hate initiatives [e.g. the HRCs], social justice organizations, and avant guard movements, employ digital media to promote awareness, combat denial, and contest the rise of xenophobic sentiment.






In other words our federal government is ponying up real cash for far-left academic ideologues to investigate ways of combatting a handful of lonely neo-Nazis operating from their moms’ basements. Couldn’t they have at least targeted a real and present danger? Was Richard Warman on the committee that awarded that grant? So many questions.

Oh the humanities! What a colossal waste! Shut down the whole lot and save billions!

Update:  Some of the comments regarding the proper place of Nazism and Fascism on the political spectrum reminded me of this post on the subject a few years ago.

Jeremy Rifkin - Maurice Strong on stilts

Peter Foster:

... Mr. Rifkin is the archetype of that creature known as the policy entrepreneur. He is a consistent generator of bad ideas, and it is bad ideas, more than anything, that help governments grow.

... For decades, he has been exploiting technophobia, junk science, postmodern psychobabble and folk economics to peddle a long list of anti-capitalist, anti-corporate scares, along with matching Big Government “solutions.”

... Mr. Rifkin, like his predecessors since Karl Marx, is very keen to “retire Adam Smith,” which in fact amounts to the continued rejection of a bunch of ideas that Smith never promoted, such as an alleged “conventional, top-down, centralized approach to organizing economic activity.”

... He teaches in the executive education program at the Wharton School of Business, and is an advisor not just to Chancellor Merkel but to the whole European Union. He is likely to get an enthusiastic hearing tomorrow from all those Queen’s Parkers supervising Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

Rifkin sounds like Maurice ("Mo") Strong on stilts, big stilts. Given that list of "buyers" he's unquestionably a master "visionary" snake-oil salesman.

The BC HST is gone

Good outcome!  I don't know if the HST is an economically superior taxation system or not.  Most economists think so - but given the extremely shaky state of the global ecomomy, how far can they be trusted? 

Either way the bottom line for me was always the arrogantly dishonest way the Campbell government foisted the HST on us with no debate whatever.   We just can't have our elected representatives telling us bald-faced lies and getting away with it.  Gordon Campbell is gone and good riddance to him.  But his replacement and many other Liberal pols are not much better.  A real downside now is that the NDP will likely be elected.  We need better choices. 

The micro-nanny state

Good grief!

Not having fitted sheets on hotel beds would now be a crime in California. This is not a joke. . .

Actually, it is a joke.  One of California's many sick nanny-state jokes.

Steyn on the riots and the debt downgrade

It's all in his just released book, "After America":

... Anyone who's read it will fully understand what's happening on the streets of London. The downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too....

... Anyone who has so much as glanced at British policing policy over the past two decades would be hard pressed to argue which party on the streets of London, the thugs or the cops, is more irredeemably stupid....

... As I write in my book: "Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity."

... "The evil of such a system is not the waste of money but the waste of people."

Update: Radio interview with Mark.

Selective outrage

Mark Steyn: “It’s time to re-aim our pitchforks” The News of the World hacking scandal versus the corrupt Atlanta Public School System (and the ATF guns-for-Mexican-drug-cartels) scandal:

The News Of The World, a populist, tabloid, low-life newspaper ... last Monday, it emerged ... hacked into the telephone of a missing schoolgirl subsequently found dead, as well as those of family members of the July 7 Tube bombing victims and of British servicemen killed in Afghanistan. On Thursday, Rupert Murdoch's son and heir announced the entire newspaper would be closed down. The whole thing. Gone.

... In the week of the News Of The World revelations, it was reported that the Atlanta Public Schools system has spent the last decade systemically cheating on its tests. Not the students, but the Superintendent, and the union, and 38 principals, and at least 178 teachers – whoops, pardon me, "educators," and some 44 of the 56 school districts ... in order to improve overall scores and qualify for "No Child Left Behind" federal funding that could be sluiced into maintaining their lavish remuneration. ... The whole rotten stinking school system is systemically corrupt from the superintendent down. But what are the chances of APS being closed down? How many of those fraudulent non-teachers will waft on within the system until their lucrative retirements.

Brian Lilley asks "where's the outrage?" over deadly hospital C. difficile superbug outbreaks compared, say, with the huge reaction to the relatively minor Maple Leaf Foods listeriosis outbreak:

... deadly outbreaks of C. difficile in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and several other cities and towns. Thousands of people have died, more than 2,000 in Quebec alone, as well as hundreds in Ontario, 91 at one Burlington hospital. Canadian hospitals have been dealing with this problem since 2002 but there has been very little public anger over these thousands of deaths.

... bad deli meat from a Maple Leaf Foods plant was linked to 57 people falling ill and 23 people dying from a listeriosis outbreak, the outrage was fast and furious. Investigations were launched, a class-action lawsuit was filed. Maple Leaf issued an apology, pledged to do better, changed its practices and settled the lawsuit within a few months for $27 million.

Terence Corcoran hilariously satirizes the Competition Bureau, with Commissioner Melanie Aitken proudly reviewing her mandate and record of successes (Bell Canada’s misleading advertising fine-print, CREA’s “abuse of dominance” and a VISA, Master Card “price maintenance” investigation) - all conveniently annotated in footnotes with Competition Bureau “fine print”. Footnote 1 reads:

1. Competition Bureau promises and commitments are limited to certain sectors of the economy and may not apply to you as a consumer or corporation. The Bureau’s claims to be a fearless champion of competition are invalid for regulated industries, government monopolies, liquor boards, electricity pricing, industries under foreign and national ownership limits and restrictions, farm marketing boards, chickens, eggs, milk, ethanol, advertising by political parties, governments and political institutions, subsidies that create uncompetitive advantages for individual companies or industry sectors. All of the above, and many other sectors and behaviours, are technically exempt from bureau rules and enforcement. Competition is not subject to definition and should not be seen as synonymous with free markets. Many restrictions apply. All statements and policies are subject to situational adjustment, reversals and arbitrariness. But the pay is good. 2. ......

Seems to be a pattern there.