Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill recently, and people are upset about his “hidden message”. Take a read of the first letter of every sentence.

Catch anything unusual?

His reps are claiming it’s a “strange coincidence”… yeah, I’d claim that too if I were them! Coincidence or not, I still think it’s rather funny… and clever. I’m fairly certain it was intentional, because honestly, who says “kicks the can down the alley” in a formal veto? The rest of the letter I can believe was just written normally… but that integral “K” is just so strategically placed!

You can view the “official” letter (on the government’s website) here.

Sometimes, I wonder why I’m in Journalism - or, at the very least, if news will be around much longer. 

Michael Jackson has been news for over a week, (seriously, people? He was in the spotlight his whole life, and that’s arguably part of what led to his craziness, give him some privacy in death!), and now this is major headline news?  Talk about blowing things out of proportion! So, Harper didn’t eat the Host. I’m not Roman Catholic - and while I do understand that the communnion is very important to those who are - is this really major news?

Harper could have accidently dropped it, he could have been unsure what to do (I would have been), there’s a million things that could explain the “apparent” video clip showing… well, nothing.

Bottom line is - who cares what he did with it?  He was at a funeral mass for crying out loud, and the focus should be on remembering  and mourning former governor general Roméo LeBlanc, not on what Harper may or may not have done.

Does anyone know what’s going on with Canada’s isotope crisis or what North Korea has been up to recently?

Didn’t think so.

There’s been a fair amount of concern – and rightly so – over American protectionist legislation and its potential effect on Canada’s economy.

Essentially, the bill (which was tacked on to President Barack Obama’s $819 billion stimulus plan) aims to ban foreign iron and steel to be used in any infrastructure projects related to the plan.
Canada exports almost $7 billion worth of steel annually – a large chunk of which goes to the U.S.

Good job, Obama – you’ve been President for how long?

Prime Minister Stephan Harper is planning to lobby the U.S. over this legislation.
“Some of these measures go against not just the obligations of the United States, but frankly the spirit of our G20 discussions”, Harper said yesterday in Parliament.

He also added that he expects the U.S. to respect its international obligations.

Today, Ontario Premiere Dalton McGuinty expressed concern over the provisions, and added his support to the comments Harper has made on the issue.

“The American provisions will cause harm to the Ontario economy, further job reductions, and will cause more pain and anxiety for Ontario families,” McGuinty said.

Interestingly enough, back in August during campaigning for the American election, Wendy Sherman (who is a senior adviser to Obama) said she had “total confidence” that Obama would be working closely with Canada to ensure a strong trading relationship.

“Senator Obama values the trade relationship with Canada and Canada is a very, very crucial trading partner for us,” she said.

Let’s hope someone reminds President Obama of this during his visit to Ottawa on February 19th!

Premiere Dalton McGuinty was in Ottawa today to discuss an investment in a new “surveillance” program – designed to track information about Ontario’s children from an early age.

The program will begin collecting information about babies approximately a month before birth, and will continue to observe and track their growth until they are at least five months old.

According to McGuinty, the information gathered will be collected in a database that will help the province better deploy its resources.

For instance, if a certain community has higher than average birth weights, it will indicate that external factors – such as the environment – need to be examined closely.

Ontario is the first province to implement such a program.

It’s an interesting concept - and I think one that could be beneficial long-term - but it will be just that: long term. I have to question investing so much money (and while I missed the actual amount - it was a lot) into such a program with the economy the way it is.