Vegas is currently the only place where you can legally bet on sporting events other than horse racing, but the Ontario government is seeking a change to the federal criminal code so that casinos in Niagara and Windsor can offer the same - and I say why not?

Sure it’s a form of taxation, maybe on those who can least afford it - so are lottery tickets - but you don’t pay unless you want to play, and no one is forcing anyone to play.  I don’t buy the idea that it’s the government’s role to protect people from themselves and what could end up being the destructive consequences of their actions.  A fool and their money is quickly parted in many ways that range from stupid stock market picks to buying swamp land in Florida.

Sport-booking is available anyway and anyone who wants to wager money on a game can find a bookie to take the bet, or an online venue that is happy and equipped to process a credit card.

I don’t think it’s the government’s role to protect people from themselves, but I do believe it’s the government’s role to protect a healthy economic environmnet from deterioration and to proactively help create one when it has the chance to do so.  If the Feds can help the economy of southwestern Ontario get some “oomph” by being the only place north of Vegas, where those who want to, can bet on sports - then why would they not? Especially after greasing the economic slide by telling the world that Ontario is the ”last” place in which they should invest. 

Not only does Cohen leave the impression in his CBS blog that he thinks lying is an acceptable part of the government gig (not surprising from a lawyer), but he tarnishes all PR practitioners (of which Mclellan was one before Bush) as professional liars whose sole mission and skill is to be slickly untruthful or half-truthful on their clients behalf. What a disconnected response and characterization of a profession and service that CBS shows or any other media, 680News included, could not live without, because good PR people bring information to news and boardrooms that is then shaped and molded into media product, including blogs like Cohen’s.

The blog flack began when the Public Relations Society Of America opined that McClellan as press secretary violated the “ethics” of his craft.  Cohen countered that the PR profession questioning ethics, was like the Burglars Association of America having a creed not to steal.  Well, as a colleague of mine pointed out “a lawyer questioning PR ethics is like giving the Boston Strangler an Avon route!”

Good PR makes, builds and saves companies and careers - which is more than I can say for legal analysts who pass reckless judgments off as insight.

I have a ton of admiration for Diane , who I first met and became friends with in the early 80s.  She revolutionized business journalism in Canada. She made it sexy, understandable and interesting. Like many of the self-made entrepreneurial billionaires she writes about,  Diane is ambitious and self-made as well. 

A lot of people may not know this, but it all began for Diane when she decided one day, as a young mother in the late ’70s, that she would take a creative writing/journalism course at Sheridan College. After only a few weeks at Sheridan she was encouraged to bail for an internship at the Brampton Daily Times where she spent 15 months flogging freelance pieces to magazines and papers around the world!

It wasn’t long before the Toronto Star came calling for her to help expand it’s business coverage – which she did through a sexy little column called the “Insiders.” Diane used the column to cultivate the persona of an insider herself — which essentially led other insiders to tell her inside information and sexy tidbits about people, places and business deals that no other business journalist would ever know about, much less be able to spin into gossipy, but discreetly factual tales that readers (including the establishment)  couldn’t get enough of. 

The “Insiders” column and a growing international profile led to regular appearances with Barbara Frum on The Journal, with Peter Gzowski on Morningside and with me on the radio interview show I was hosting at the time on CFRB.  Along the way she was snapped up by the Toronto Sun, Maclean’s magazine and The Financial Post, which Conrad Black bought and re-tooled into the National Post.

What distinguishes Diane from most journalists in Canada is that she has been willling and able to cultivate real and personal relationships with many of the business leaders she writes about. She’s earned their trust, friendship and admiration to the extent that they socialize with her and share their knowledge and experiences knowing that when they may be the subject of her stories she’ll be discreet, but thorough. 

Who Owns Canada Now is from the perspective of Canada’s consummate business insider.

To be fair, the bb  doesn’t cause ME as much grief as it does the family around me when it goes off in the middle of the night or during a face to face conversation. More often than I like to admit it’s carrying an urgent bulletin from a pollster informing of the latest change in the political landscape, or to let me know what the premier’s itinerary is going to be for the next few days. My better half  has on more than one occasion threatened to throw it down the toilet or into a snow bank, and once put it in the refrigerator freezer to chill out.

But this week, I was having dinner in a restaurant wondering about the safety of two dear friends who are on the final leg of a once in a life time trip around the world.  I knew they were somewhere in China but not sure where because they were doing 14 cities in 16 days.  I feared they may be near or god forbid caught in the terror of the earthquake.  As the garlic bread arrived, I pulled the blackberry out of it’s holster, track-wheeled down to the black book icon, clicked their e mail co-ordinates and in the ”subject” line simply asked ;   “Are you OK?, ” please respond”.  By the time coffee and desert arrived the familiar “ding ding” Buzzzzzz Buzzzzzz went off around my waist.  I didn’t worry at that moment if my dinner partner was offended.  When I clicked open the e mail I saw the words I was waiting for “Yes, we are OKAY,” “we were in the earthquake zone a week ago, thank God.” “We felt the earth move though from here,” ”Back home next month, see you soon.” I shook my head and said to my dinner partner “These things are unbelievable”, What a world we live in.”

The Golden Triangle is where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand converge and where the Mekhong and Ruak rivers come together. It’s a little more than a stones throw across the Mehkong to the former Burma. The Golden Triangle is the notorious zone that used to be the centre of world opium trade because of the fields that grew poppy like southern Ontario farms grow corn.  Although the poppy fields had been eradicated when I visited about 15 years ago,  I distinctly remember seeing local nomads wandering through the dirt back roads clearly disoriented and numbed by the “opium gum” they would have no trouble acquiring and using. 

In a strange and perverse way, I am almost hoping that victims the of the cyclone who have been abandoned and discarded by their repressive military rulers were, and remain so numbed by opium that they are unaware of their predicament and destiny. The magnitude of this catastrophe and loss of life I fear is going to astound the world when and if outsiders get their eyes on the remnants.

I’ve  also been caught in and reported from the wreckage of two devastating hurricanes, one in Jamaica and one in Carolina.  Just three days without water, food, gasoline and communication is enough to trigger panic, corruption and desperation.  And that’s in relatively prosperous countries with democratic governments who are willing and anxious to accept help from the outside world.  I can’t imagine what it must be like in the outposts of Myanmar after 10 days without any help from anyone who knows or cares what they are doing.  We may find out in the days ahead and I predict will be shocked beyond belief!

NDP Leader Howard Hampton admitted to me on Sunday. as we gathered at Queen’s Park for the back to work legislation, that the transit union leadership tier was crumbling.

 What’s clear now is that the current leader does not have the confidence of his membership. He was not able to convince them that the deal he negotiated at the table with the city was the best they could get, and that they should ratify it rather than strike . Or,  he is so far out-of-touch and out-of-sync with his members that he was not able to follow their instructions and expectations at the table – so he came away with less (than what we now know they expected).

Ratification of a negotiated settlement rarely fails as this one did, because the members usually trust that their leader has taken their interest as far as it can possibly go before recommending they accept it.

Leadership is not an easy job, and it can be lonely because that’s where the buck stops.  But you gotta lead, follow, or get out of the way! 

I don’t doubt for a second that if Buzz Hargrove recommended a negotiated settlement to his CAW members and they rejected it — he’d get outta the way.

Now this may not sound as bizarre as I’m making it out to be when you consider the number of North American cities, including Toronto, that have extended their smoking bans to outdoor patios sheltered by umbrellas that are touching as opposed to those with no umbrellas, but this city allows smoking INSIDE many of the grandest of hotels and in ALL of the casinos.  Ash trays are happily passed out at all if not most of the card tables and slot machines.  Anyone who sits down at a black-jack table or row of slot machines  and who objects to those around them who are smoking, quickly realizes this place is different from where they come from.

I guess the by-law makers of Nevada figure the air-cleaning technology inside the casinos and hotels that gambling money can buy is more capable of saving the lives (from second-hand smoke) of the gazillions of people who spend 24-7 in them than mother natures open air desert can of the few who sit outside.  In fact, it’s hard to find an outdoor patio on which you can sit and have a drink or light meal.  Wonder why they want everybody inside? Where smoking is allowed and their is no limit to the amount of money you want to gamble.

Viva Las Vegas! 

It was the summer before last that I succumbed to the mid-life pull to put at least one more sporty-like car under my seat, before maybe beginning to consider the possibility of giving into practicality and maturity. It’s not exactly a Porsche, but a very snappy looking pearl white, five-speed Mitsubishi that’s way too low for the snow, but high enough to clear any railway track on the back roads of my regular path to and from Georgian Bay.  Her name is “Mitsy”– she’s  smooth and sleek, with some great curves in the right spots.

The first day I brought her home, my very attractive 24-year-old  step-daughter dropped her jaw and screamed “it’s a sex machine!,” “a babe-mobile!” — so I coaxed her into the front seat to see how many heads we could turn driving down Yonge Street, with the sunroof open, the windows down and the tunes cranked a little louder than usual. Yes, the heads were turning big time, but I’m not sure if they were looking at her, the car, or the sight of a 50-something alongside a babe who was 30 years younger. Doesn’t matter. It was fun, felt great, was trouble-free and scratched the itch of winter, not to mention mid-life! (just kidding sweetie).

The only other “babes” who have been in the front seat since (apart from my gorgeous mate Marlane), are our two dogs, Tia and Moe, who dig the leather seats, the tunes, the sunroof and who know how to pose for the heads they turn at traffic lights. In the meantime, this older dog is diggin’ it all, especially this weekend’s first coat-free, window down, tune crankin’, run up the ribbon of back roads to Georgian Bay, to the tune of Mack the Knife.  Look out, ole Mitsy’s back!

I received an e-mail this past week from a listener who wondered why we,  (not necessarily me) did not point out in the early and first reports about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s ” hooker hell” that he was a DEMOCRATIC governor? He answered his own question by concluding  ( in his mind) that all media – political reporters, commentators, analysts — were left-wingers and he was sure that had Spitzer been a Republican, his political affiliation would have accompanied every mention of his name as the story was being reported.  And this is a Canadian listener referring to Canadian coverage of the story.

I sent him a note back pointing out that those reporting the early and first hours of Spitzer’s problems here in Canada would probably not be aware of his poliltical affiliation much less leave it out because they might be like-minded. They probably hadn’t even heard of him until the American media pack propelled it to “world worthiness”

The listener’s conclusion of course is that most media is left-wing, Liberal or Democrat and will slant the story they are reporting because of their own personal politics. As a political analyst and reporter I can assure anyone who thinks the same way that nothing could be further from the truth.  I have to deal with these accusations all the time and the only conclusion I can come to is that people will hear what they want to hear and those who are among the most vicioulsy partisan in their own lives are the ones who will “think” all of the people reporting are like them and would do what they do every waking hour of their lives.

Not true!

I’m back down to Florida for some sunshine - Happy Easter.

In the last week alone, the Prime Minister he has had to defend against allegations his party attempted to bribe a dying M.P. to bring down the Liberal government of Paul Martin as claimed by Chuck Cadman’s widow and daughter. He’s had to explain his own admission in a tape recorded conversation that party officials did indeed pay a visit to Cadman just before the Liberal budget vote and that financial considerations were to be discussed.  And now his own chief of staff is being fingered as the source of information that is rocking the U.S. Democratic Presidential Primaries.

Untill now, Mr. Harper has been able to keep a lid on his simmering minority government’s agenda partly by stigmatizing Stephen Dion and partly by keeping his own people quiet, but the heat has been cranked from simmer to boil and Stephen Harper is about to learn what P.M’s before him have all endured:  The Loneliness of Leadership.