Sue's Blog often refers to Iceland when drawing comparisons with Newfoundland and Labrador in various industry sectors. Today is another one of those days.
Yesterday to the delight of many people and business (for now) - Air Astraeus announced regular direct flights from Newfoundland and Labrador to the UK and return. The mighty Air Canada - did the Canadian thing not too long ago and virtually eliminated the service and moved that flight to Halifax.
So when Canada bails despite the undeniable viable route for business and pleasure travellers - Iceland steps to the plate. Yes this northern "country" of 300,000 people continues to thrive in all significant economic indicators - and has managed to put together a competitive and profitable route between NL and the UK.
Their interest in expanding tourism to our province is great news and smart on their behalf. The beauty of this land and the hospitality of her people continues to draw people from around the world. They come for the icebergs - the whales - the fresh air - clean water - incredible adventure tourism - and the friendliness of the population renowned worldwide.
The real question here is why Canada's namesake airline abandoned an economically successful service? Newfoundland and Labrador is the oil capital of Eastern Canada and industry travellers expressed their displeasure in the decision. Forcing people to go to Halifax or Nova Scotia may be great for the economy there - but it is not reflective of the practical service needed.
It is time for our local entrepreneurs - especially in the regional airline business to see if they can get some money action in this group.
Here for the record is the makeup of this airline group:
ASTRAEUS BECOMES PART OF NORTHERN TRAVEL GROUP
A new leisure group, Northern Travel Holding ("Northern Travel"), has been formed by the Icelandic investment groups, Fons (who will hold 44%), FL Group (34%) and Sund (22%).
Northern Travel has acquired the following travel related investments:
" Sterling Airlines (100%)
" Iceland Express (100%)
" Astraeus (51%)
" Ticket, the Swedish stock-market quoted travel agent (29.3%)
" Hekla Travel, the largest travel agent in Denmark (100%)
It remains ever questionable how industry in Canada works against the development of our rich province. Part of the problem is our patience with the less than fair treatment we get in this country - and part of it is the makeup of Canada's confederation. We must continue to move forward despite it - and around it - if necessary.
As for the airline sector - we must find a way to make Labrador travel affordable and competitive.
Showing posts with label newfie. newfoundland and labrador. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newfie. newfoundland and labrador. Show all posts
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
How deep does the Prejudice Go?
Bordering on cultural racism - alive and well in Central Canada.
As you may have noticed Sue's Blog has been alerting people to a very bias web blog out of Ontario. The comments I caught quite accidentally were demeaning enough - but his latest post to his Ontarian blog is something else again.
This was his first commentary:
Attention Canadians. Two jerk-offs are after your money. No, they are not thieves, although you might think so at first glance.
They are Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Lorne Calvert, the Premier of Saskatchewan. They love to operate on the basis that there’s “free” money - yours and mine - available to eternally support their provinces under the so-called equalization principle. Except there’s no “equality” in this scheme at all — just a blood-sucking scheme to have the rest of Canada pay money to their coffers.
Now read this and if you would like to visit the site PRESS HERE
Somewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador, under a slimy rock, is a miniature flock of sheep. So small that their combined brain mass and intellectual powers would be exceeded by a single-celled organism.
They think of themselves as their province’s patriots. In reality they are only sheep, or perhaps rodents lured by the notes of their Pied Piper, Mother Mendacious. Writing drivel, especially the most uninformed and erroneous drivel, is their specialty.
Their mission is also clear, and blind, and immature. Blame the rest of Canada for every slight, imagined or real, that has ever occurred to their province. Not enough pogey? Blame Ottawa, maybe even those stingy Ontarians despite the fact that the Toronto GTA alone sends out $20 billion per year more in taxes than it receives back. Declining fish stocks? Ottawa’s fault, without a shred of thought that there might be some small measure of culpability by fishermen and their province’s politicians.
Not enough taxpayer-funded federal buildings, universities, offices, free-money dispensing institutions in the province? Blame Ottawa, not their own politicians for failing to make the most of their meager resources and assets. And having to depend on the rest of Canada to pay for unlocking their hydro potential? Blame Ontario, Quebec and Ottawa.
Because, you see, it’s infinitely easier to sit on your duff, collect pogey for the rest of the year after only working 10 weeks, and moaning rather than actually doing something about their “plight”. Better that the rest of Canada continue to keep sending money to these few unfortunates, so that they will be able to buy pencils to write how nasty the rest of Canada is to Newfoundland and Labrador.
It’s just a few Newfies, but they must be amongst the most stupid in their province because their “leader”, one “Sue” who writes here and on other blogs, professes to be a “CA”. I wonder if it stands for “can’t add’, because this mendacious little dingbat seems to have forgotten to attend the Business and Economics 101 lectures in her course. Woe is us, she proclaims. Let’s develop Churchill Falls and keep the output for ourselves, cutting off any use by Quebec, Ontario or, for that matter, any other part of Canada.
Except Sue is deliciously vague on where the development and construction money would come from if there were no markets for the output power. Nor to answer a single question: is there a big enough light bulb in her province to soak up the gigawatts of power that is going to start flowing out the end of that power cord? Nor to consider another conundrum: why should Labrador ship it’s power to Newfoundland when it could make real money selling the energy to westward provinces? Sue is actually quite thick on these and other simple economic questions.
But the absolute disgrace, the betrayal, is Sue’s propensity for whipping her flock of sheep into a Canada-hating and spiteful group of navel-gazing dodo birds. Don’t ask Sue to look forward, to think about helping her province out of this servitude that she conjures up for her followers. No, even when one offers to freely help Sue and her motley rag-tag group of rearward-focused nimwits, she whips the huddled masses (about 10, from what I can see) into another retrospective frenzy. Nearly 40 posts and comments, and not one non-whining and non-moaning comment. A solid record of accomplishment for the public-funded education system there, I’m sure.
Is this the best that taxpayer-funded education in Newfoundland can produce? A “CA” who can’t spell Economics 101. A “CA” who can only think in terms of the rest of Canada continuing to be a huge reservoir of money to be sent only to Newfoundland, preferably only St. Johns? One who has great difficulty discerning the concept of working for a living, rather than living off the public teat? As Sue puts it in one post:
“We could be looking at policy for transportation infrastructure - federal jobs and crown agencies - municipal infrastructure - educational institutes - and federal funding - being focused even more on Halifax.” Poorly-disguised pogey money in the form of taxpayer-funded “civil servant” jobs.
In her post on Bill Gates and the Prime MInister, “CA Sue” has great difficulty disguising her loathing of capitalism and philanthropy. In addition, of course, to misleading readers into thinking that the Prime Minister chose a Gates meeting rather than attend an AIDS conference. They were at least 6 months apart, Sue, the PM sent his Health Minister to the AIDs scream-up, and the learned friend you quote actually said, the other day, that the government should be congratulated for this!
One wonders why Sue would chose to be a “CA”, and have to deal with books and legers of dreaded capitalists, if she loathes that crowd so forcefully. Thank God Sue can suck and blow at the same time, though, or she might really be handicapped!
Newfoundland and Labrador have enough of a challenge to grow the self-sustaining part of their economy without blithering idiots like “Sue” and her pimply-faced youths making the job more difficult. I would help that province freely, but not if sheep and nutbars like “CA Sue” are involved. Who needs more boat anchors around the necks of those trying to make a difference?
And we don't have real problems in this federation?
on another note - I am not a Chartered Accountant CA - Mr. Sorenson mistook my Country Code CA as my professional designation...
As you may have noticed Sue's Blog has been alerting people to a very bias web blog out of Ontario. The comments I caught quite accidentally were demeaning enough - but his latest post to his Ontarian blog is something else again.
This was his first commentary:
Attention Canadians. Two jerk-offs are after your money. No, they are not thieves, although you might think so at first glance.
They are Danny Williams, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Lorne Calvert, the Premier of Saskatchewan. They love to operate on the basis that there’s “free” money - yours and mine - available to eternally support their provinces under the so-called equalization principle. Except there’s no “equality” in this scheme at all — just a blood-sucking scheme to have the rest of Canada pay money to their coffers.
Now read this and if you would like to visit the site PRESS HERE
Somewhere in Newfoundland and Labrador, under a slimy rock, is a miniature flock of sheep. So small that their combined brain mass and intellectual powers would be exceeded by a single-celled organism.
They think of themselves as their province’s patriots. In reality they are only sheep, or perhaps rodents lured by the notes of their Pied Piper, Mother Mendacious. Writing drivel, especially the most uninformed and erroneous drivel, is their specialty.
Their mission is also clear, and blind, and immature. Blame the rest of Canada for every slight, imagined or real, that has ever occurred to their province. Not enough pogey? Blame Ottawa, maybe even those stingy Ontarians despite the fact that the Toronto GTA alone sends out $20 billion per year more in taxes than it receives back. Declining fish stocks? Ottawa’s fault, without a shred of thought that there might be some small measure of culpability by fishermen and their province’s politicians.
Not enough taxpayer-funded federal buildings, universities, offices, free-money dispensing institutions in the province? Blame Ottawa, not their own politicians for failing to make the most of their meager resources and assets. And having to depend on the rest of Canada to pay for unlocking their hydro potential? Blame Ontario, Quebec and Ottawa.
Because, you see, it’s infinitely easier to sit on your duff, collect pogey for the rest of the year after only working 10 weeks, and moaning rather than actually doing something about their “plight”. Better that the rest of Canada continue to keep sending money to these few unfortunates, so that they will be able to buy pencils to write how nasty the rest of Canada is to Newfoundland and Labrador.
It’s just a few Newfies, but they must be amongst the most stupid in their province because their “leader”, one “Sue” who writes here and on other blogs, professes to be a “CA”. I wonder if it stands for “can’t add’, because this mendacious little dingbat seems to have forgotten to attend the Business and Economics 101 lectures in her course. Woe is us, she proclaims. Let’s develop Churchill Falls and keep the output for ourselves, cutting off any use by Quebec, Ontario or, for that matter, any other part of Canada.
Except Sue is deliciously vague on where the development and construction money would come from if there were no markets for the output power. Nor to answer a single question: is there a big enough light bulb in her province to soak up the gigawatts of power that is going to start flowing out the end of that power cord? Nor to consider another conundrum: why should Labrador ship it’s power to Newfoundland when it could make real money selling the energy to westward provinces? Sue is actually quite thick on these and other simple economic questions.
But the absolute disgrace, the betrayal, is Sue’s propensity for whipping her flock of sheep into a Canada-hating and spiteful group of navel-gazing dodo birds. Don’t ask Sue to look forward, to think about helping her province out of this servitude that she conjures up for her followers. No, even when one offers to freely help Sue and her motley rag-tag group of rearward-focused nimwits, she whips the huddled masses (about 10, from what I can see) into another retrospective frenzy. Nearly 40 posts and comments, and not one non-whining and non-moaning comment. A solid record of accomplishment for the public-funded education system there, I’m sure.
Is this the best that taxpayer-funded education in Newfoundland can produce? A “CA” who can’t spell Economics 101. A “CA” who can only think in terms of the rest of Canada continuing to be a huge reservoir of money to be sent only to Newfoundland, preferably only St. Johns? One who has great difficulty discerning the concept of working for a living, rather than living off the public teat? As Sue puts it in one post:
“We could be looking at policy for transportation infrastructure - federal jobs and crown agencies - municipal infrastructure - educational institutes - and federal funding - being focused even more on Halifax.” Poorly-disguised pogey money in the form of taxpayer-funded “civil servant” jobs.
In her post on Bill Gates and the Prime MInister, “CA Sue” has great difficulty disguising her loathing of capitalism and philanthropy. In addition, of course, to misleading readers into thinking that the Prime Minister chose a Gates meeting rather than attend an AIDS conference. They were at least 6 months apart, Sue, the PM sent his Health Minister to the AIDs scream-up, and the learned friend you quote actually said, the other day, that the government should be congratulated for this!
One wonders why Sue would chose to be a “CA”, and have to deal with books and legers of dreaded capitalists, if she loathes that crowd so forcefully. Thank God Sue can suck and blow at the same time, though, or she might really be handicapped!
Newfoundland and Labrador have enough of a challenge to grow the self-sustaining part of their economy without blithering idiots like “Sue” and her pimply-faced youths making the job more difficult. I would help that province freely, but not if sheep and nutbars like “CA Sue” are involved. Who needs more boat anchors around the necks of those trying to make a difference?
And we don't have real problems in this federation?
on another note - I am not a Chartered Accountant CA - Mr. Sorenson mistook my Country Code CA as my professional designation...
Monday, February 12, 2007
Branding is working in Virginia
Here a Newfie there a Newfie everywhere a Goofy Newfie...
No wonder one would swig some rum.
The little pitcherless plant is drowning in rum and apparently kissing a cod.
It's one thing to perform this in Newfoundland and Labrador - but it's spreading. No need to come here and cross on the ferry - kiss a cod and belt back some rum in Virginia.
Here are the headlines we get south of the border:
"A 'screech in' is when you kiss a fake codfish on the lips, and afterward the ritual is to have a drink of rum, or Coke, if you don't drink," said Elaine Corning, one of the eight original members - four couples - who founded the club nearly 20 years ago. "After that, we give them a certificate to be an honorary Newfie," said Corning, a Windsor Woods resident.
Read the STORY HERE
Not a word about Newfoundland and Labrador - the tremndous resources - the beautiful scenery - so it remains the best kept secret where people kiss cod and drink rum.
No wonder one would swig some rum.
The little pitcherless plant is drowning in rum and apparently kissing a cod.
It's one thing to perform this in Newfoundland and Labrador - but it's spreading. No need to come here and cross on the ferry - kiss a cod and belt back some rum in Virginia.
Here are the headlines we get south of the border:
Local ''newfies'' offering opportunity to kiss a codfish
"A 'screech in' is when you kiss a fake codfish on the lips, and afterward the ritual is to have a drink of rum, or Coke, if you don't drink," said Elaine Corning, one of the eight original members - four couples - who founded the club nearly 20 years ago. "After that, we give them a certificate to be an honorary Newfie," said Corning, a Windsor Woods resident.
Read the STORY HERE
Not a word about Newfoundland and Labrador - the tremndous resources - the beautiful scenery - so it remains the best kept secret where people kiss cod and drink rum.
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