Tom Young

For our listeners who have feel it’s necessary to go online to the Conservative party or the Liberal party web site and be spoon-fed what to say during some time on “The Afternoon News,” I thought we could provide you some tips as to what might happen.

Tyler McLean, the Executive Producer will answer the phone by saying the following…

“The Afternoon News, Hello?”

At which point you will say to Tyler…

“My name is (Your Name) I’m calling from (Your Location) and I’d like to talk to Tom Young about how Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are making life much easier for Canadians…”

Or you may say…  “My name is (Your Name) I’m calling from (Your Location) and I’d like to talk to Tom Young about how Stéphane Dion’s Liberals are making life much easier for Canadians…”

You must use proper English.  Avoid such things as “yous” instead say “you.”  Say “should have gone,” instead of “should have went.”  Say “should have done,” instead of “Should have did”  Please say “anyway” not “anyways.”

Don’t use the word “irregardless,” because it doesn’t exist.  “Regardless,” which is a real word, means the same thing. 

Did I say be clear and concise with your diction? 

Always be prepared for the host to ask you a question or two.

Don’t sound as if you’re reading your statement, because it won’t be your statement, but rather something gleaned from either of the two previously mentioned web sites.  Always be respectful of the person to whom you speak and when you’re finished just prior to being hung up on, be sure and thank the host.

When lines are full and you’re involved in a call back situation you must stand by the phone waiting for Tyler to get back to you and not do one other thing during this time period, as it could prove to be a distraction.

Please note — These rules and regulations apply only to those of you who don’t think you’re smart enough to talk for yourself and get your own points across. 

If you just want to say something that occurs to you — Instead of saying what the party wants you to say — then forget all of the above, call us at 1-866-411-0889 and we’ll have a good ol’ fashioned conversation.

I’m Tom Young.

Sometimes I wish I was a whole lot younger, a whole lot smarter with a whole lot more energy — because if I could combine all three I would come up with an invention that is simply crying out to be invented.

If you’ve driven anywhere in the Maritimes, you know exactly what I’m about to talk about.

At the very least you’ve lost a hub cap, blown a tire, ruined a rim, knocked your car completely out of alignment or all of the above and maybe even more.  Asphalt just doesn’t cut it, cement is not the answer so where are all our smart inventors?

The other day I happened to drive on Rothesay Avenue, one of the busier streets in Saint John and it’s a joke.

The city and the province of New Brunswick spent a couple of million dollars to have the road completely re-done.  When I say completely re-done I mean completely re-done, everything.  The old black top was shaved off and it seems like they dug down ten or twelve feet putting in new sewers and new material and we were told Rothesay Avenue would be good for the next twenty years.

Were the kidding us?

The new Rothesay Avenue is just like the old Rothesay Avenue and I’ll bet you can point to one or two examples in the community in which you live where the roads this spring are just a disaster.  Forget pot holes, most of them are too big to be pot holes, I’m calling them “road craters.”  It is virtually impossible, at least on the roads that I drive on and that includes provincially funded four-lane highways to avoid them.

I’m not smart enough to tell you what works, but we all know what doesn’t.  Asphalt and cement.

Surely, some young man or woman with some type of scientific brain can ensconce themselves in a lab some place and come up with a road surface that once it’s put down will remain relatively smooth and “road crater” free year after year.

Just think of the money to be made and saved with this new invention.

Let’s get to work.

I’m Tom Young.

For years now, American politicians have been complaining about terror threats to their country from places like our country, and now I think there may be something to it…

Just the other day, four men, (at least we’re told four men) walked off a ship in the Halifax harbour.  They each walked past an unarmed official at the gate before disappearing into thin air — at least for a couple of hours…

We’re told these four men are now in jail — which prompted me to wonder aloud, “Where might they have been had it not been for an ever vigilant VIA Rail employee in Truro?”

His suspicions were aroused, he did the right thing in making some phone calls, and each man was quietly taken into custody.  We’re not being told anything about who they are or what the purpose of their visit to Canada was.  What the entire episode points out is that just about anyone who wants to get into this country illegally isn’t going to have much of a problem.

If these guys had been well organized and well financed terrorists, the most vigilant VIA agent in Truro would not have found them.  They would have simply disappeared into the Canadian landscape somewhere — and all the reassurance from every cabinet minister in Ottawa wouldn’t make someone like me feel any safer.

While I don’t know this for sure, I somehow doubt four strange looking men wondering through a major port in the United States would just as easily go unnoticed.

I don’t care whether its Stockwell Day, Doris Day or Dennis Day who tries to reassure me about safety at our ports.  Why can’t Stockwell Day just come out and tell Canadians that all ports in Canada are places of entry into this country and for the most part, they’re wide open and undefended?

I know it is impossible to stop every illegal alien from entering a country like ours with kilometres and kilometres of undefended coast line — But walking through the major port in Eastern Canada doesn’t make me feel any better about it.

No wonder Americans are worried.

I’m Tom Young. 

In political circles the world over, majority is spelled “majority” with one exception, that exception is Canada — where majority is actually spelled minority.  Now that I have you good and confused, let me try and sort it out…

In democratically elected countries if a party gets more than fifty per cent of the available seats in it’s elected government it is considered to be a majority.  It means simply if all the sitting members of the party in power are in attendance on any given day, the government can do whatever it wants to do.

The one exception is Canada. 

The Conservatives under Prime Minister Stephen Harper have way less than fifty per cent of the seats in the House of Commons, but at the same time the Conservatives can do pretty much whatever they want to do — and are they ever doing it.

The way a parliamentary democracy is supposed to work is that the opposition is supposed to hold the party in power’s feet to the fire and get the best deal the can possibly get for the tax payers.  But we don’t have anything like that in this country, at least not at the present time.

What we have is a Conservative government, a party interested only in Quebec, a socialist party and something that at one time was called “The Liberal Party.”  It seems the Liberals are far better when they’re in power than they are when they’re in the opposition.  Their members run around the country telling us all how bad the policies of the Conservative party are, but when push comes to shove, they fold their tent and go hide somewhere in caves. 

There is a segment of the Liberal party, and no body knows how large — who want to bring the Conservative government down at the drop of a hat and there’s another segment which doesn’t want to bring the government down under any set of circumstances.   The the past several months the dont’s have been winning the argument.  So as it stands now the “Harperites” could start doing the most ridiculous things they can think of and while the Liberals might make lots of noise, they still won’t oppose them on the floor of the House of Commons.

This is a very quick Politics 101 lesson in how a minority is really a majority — only in Canada eh?

I’m Tom Young.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians every year pay hard earned dollars to visit their local zoo. It cost me nothing to spend time every day just watching what goes on in our own zoo called “Canada.”