Tom Young

It was a pretty big deal, an expansion worth nearly 13-million dollars to Samuel de Champlain, a school community centre which services the needs of the French speaking members of the Saint John area.  All of the correspondence to our news room, (and we assume other news rooms in our city) came to us in English.

It somehow made sense to us that we send one of our reporters to cover the opening to hear from among others, Premier Shawn Graham and a representative speaking on behalf of the honourable Josee Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage.

Let me explain for just a moment — Our news department at News 88.9 is staffed by very competent news people who speak and understand English.  That makes some sense, since we are an English language radio station in a listening area where more than 90 per cent of listeners use English as a their first language.

The process is, the reporter goes to the gathering, makes notes on what he or she thinks are the important parts of the speeches, comes back to the radio station, writes a number of stories and incorporates what we call “clips” of the voices involved in the announcement.  There was however, a problem.

Whoever was in charge and for whatever reason, decided the entire proceedings should be done in French only.

Not much good for us and not much good for the other English language stations in the city, prompting one reporter to simply walk out.  We think it was a great story to tell, but we couldn’t tell it very well.  There was precious little need for us to write our stories in English and incorporate the voices of those making the announcement, all done in French.

At the very least, a dual translation should have been offered so the story could be told to everybody in our area in the manner in which the story deserved.

I can only imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and opening had been in Tracadie — where far and away the mother tongue is French and all the festivities had been conducted in English — there would be a great human cry.

In plain terms, whoever decided to do it this way on Friday in Saint John, blew it.

I’m Tom Young.

Constable Don Ranni of the Halifax Regional Police must think of himself as being the luckiest police officer in Canada over the past seven days.  Back in November 2007, in the early morning, an off duty Ranni took a breathalyzer which produced readings of 0.15 and 0.14, well above the legal limit 0.08. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to driving above the legal alcohol limit and was sentenced last Thursday.

It was a “conditional sentence,” which means if he follows the terms and conditions, his conviction will eventually be discharged and he’ll have no criminal record.  The judge in this case has ordered him to take part in substance abuse treatment and counselling as directed by his probation officer while making his best effort to not consume alcohol.

This entire episode causes me to wonder how many average Canadians under the same set of circumstances would have had the same sentence imposed upon them. Oh, and did I mention that Ranni can’t drive for a year?

It occurs to me that police officers who come in contact on an almost daily basis with the death and destruction caused by drunk drivers must be held to a higher standard and not to this kind of sentence.

On an average day in Canada, four people are killed and 187 others are injured by drivers who have consumed too much booze.

On Monday’s show,  not one caller agreed with the disposition of the courts and all of them called for a tougher sentence.  Some callers stated that they too have had a previous impaired driving conviction and not one of them got the same treatment out of the courts as constable Ranni did.

This entire episode is an outrage.

I’m Tom Young.

If it’s at all possible to become friends with a washing machine, the Youngs’ — Tom and Diana — this past weekend, finally say goodbye to an old friend.

I’m quite sure neither one of us will be around to find out whether or not they still build em’ like they used to.  If your television viewing goes back ten years or more, then you likely remember the late Gordon Jump.  After his role as Mr. Carlson on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” Jump went on to become “The loneliest man in town,” playing the role of the Maytag repair man who never got called — because the Maytag washing machine simply never broke down.

The Youngs’ can attest to this claim.  More than 40 years ago, shortly after we married, we purchased a Maytag washing machine.  This past weekend, we said goodbye to our 40 year old friend.  The machine still worked fine, but redoing our basement and installing new carpeting seemed like a perfect time to be out with the old and in with the new.  The machine was so old that all of the numbers and letters had been worn off of it’s rotary dial and replaced with magic marker to show where the washing cycle began and where it ended.

We’ve concluded that machine did somewhere around 18-thousand washings while in our home.  Our first daughter, Meaghan, was one of those who used the cloth diapers so Mom had to make sure they were washed everyday.  The other children in the house graduated from disposable diapers, but even then — one or two loads of washing per day were not uncommon. 

Thousands of pounds of detergent, hundreds of gallons liquid and fabric softener and hundreds of thousands of litres of water have all combined to provide the Young family with 40 years of clean clothes.  I haven’t had a chance to use the new machine, but one thing I do know — it’s got more dials than the old one.  How well it works — will only be answered by the passage of time.

Replacing the machine didn’t exactly bring a tear to my eye, since white always looked better than green anyway.  By the way, three dryers came and went before our parting of the ways.

I’m Tom Young.

Many people have called or emailed myself or our producer Tyler McLean for more info on some of the things we’ve been talking about over the past few weeks.  For the benefit of those looking for the right information for some of our recent guests and topics, here it is again…

We’ve had many requests for more info on how to obtain Dr. Anthony Martin’s book “Medical Crisis: Secrets your doctor won’t share with you”  You can find that info by going to www.drmartin.ca

Roger Hainault, from Help 4 Taxes and Tax Help in New Brunswick appeared on The Afternoon News for over the tax season answering your calls on anything tax related up to this year’s deadline.  If you’re still unsure that you may not be getting everything back to which you’re entitled you can find out how to get help by calling 1-888-450-1212 or by emailing help@help4taxes.ca

On Friday we spoke to Jonathan Howard who’s running roughly 40-to-50 km per day to raise awareness and money for autism research.  We spoke with him while running from New Glasgow to Truro, NS.  He expects to reach Victoria, B.C. ideally by the end of the year.  If you’d like to follow his progress, you can do so by going to www.runthedream.ca  Links are also provided to donate if you’re interested.

And finally, we took time on Friday’s show to listen to the story of Lucy Proulx, who lives in San Jose, CA and wants nothing more than to be recognized as a Canadian before she dies of terminal cancer.  She’s written a letter to the Hon. Diane Finley, Canada’s Minister for Citizenship and Immigration to be covered under recently approved bill C-37 which still does not recognize her or her husband as Canadian citizens.  I feel she should get her Canadian citizenship.  If you’d like to help Lucy with her dying wish to become a Canadian citizen, you can write an email on her behalf and your concerns will be forwarded to Ottawa. The email address to use for a letter of support:  dcinbc@hotmail.com

No show on Monday due to the long weekend, but we’ll be back with The Afternoon News on Tuesday right after the news at noon!

Have a great long weekend, I’m Tom Young.

There are lessons to be learned from the latest municipal election in Saint John, particularly by some of the losers.

Perhaps the largest lesson needs to be learned by those who operate the daily newspaper.  I have no idea how often they conduct “focus groups” or even if they do.  It would be interesting to know who gets invited to them and what questions are asked of the participants.

My advice to the powers that be, would be for the newspaper to return to what newspapers do best — report the news.

For years, the quality of the local paper could at best be described as less than ideal.  Less than five years ago, the owners, (the Irvings) turned the paper over to a fourth generation member of the family.  He was a bright, well educated, very keen, energetic newspaper man and in the beginning made lots of the right moves.  He had the local paper reporting the news.  However, over the last few months, the paper appears to have lost it’s way.  Instead of reporting the news, a decision appears to have been made that the paper would “make the news” and then “be the news.”

For some reason, it established itself as a city hall watch dog and has been prepared, fair or foul, to take on both elected civic officials and the city employees who operate in various city departments.  There has been no secret that both the paper, along with an unknown number of people, have been grooming the city’s deputy mayor for a move into the mayor’s chair.  In their eyes, she has done nothing wrong and virtually no one else at city hall has done anything right.

For the first time that I can ever remember, (and I’ve lived here for about 35 years)  the paper endorsed a full slate of candidates.  It is interesting to note how many of them will occupy council seats under new mayor Ivan Court when he takes over.  For the betterment of this city, one can only hope that the mayor-elect and the hatchet men at the Telegraph Journal can somehow develop a “let’s get along” relationship.

There are so many good things on the horizon and the paper can be an integral part of allowing the good things to happen — if that’s the root they choose to take.  If not, the paper will join the long growing list of papers from both Canada and the United States who complain about both declining readership and advertising revenue.

Hopefully the course that was charted a few short years ago can somehow take over once again.

I’m Tom Young.

You don’t have to look very far to read see and hear all the nasty things going on in the world.  Listen to the radio, watch the television news or pick up your local paper — it’s just story, after story, after story about man’s inhumanity to man.

Suddenly, there’s a small incident that tells you every once in awhile, everything is right with the world.

This story comes from a softball game, a women’s softball game in Portland, Oregon.

Sara Tucholsky plays for Western Oregon University.  In all of her years playing softball, she’s never hit a home run.

Two runners on base, a one-strike count when her bat hits the ball like it never has and it clears the centre field fence.  She obviously has not perfected “a home run trot” around the bases and she fails to touch first base.  So, she stops attempts to quickly go back to first — and blows out her knee.  She manages to crawl back to first base, but if she can’t negotiate the rest of the bases, she will be credited with having hit a single.

Her teammates, according to the rules can’t help her either.  So, what to do?

Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader in the league — and a player from the other team — asked the umpire if she and her teammates can help Sara around the bases.  The umpire says there’s no rule against it.  So Holtman and her teammate Liz Wallace put their arms under the injured players legs and with her arms over their shoulders the three set out around the bases — stopping at each base to allow the injured player to touch the bag with her good leg.

By the way, Sara’s three-run homer was enough to lead her team from Western Oregon University to victory.

Said one of those who carried her around the bases, “In the end it’s not about winning and losing so much as it is about this girl.  She hit it over the fence, she ended up in severe pain — and she deserved the home run.”

My faith is restored and suddenly everything is right with my world.

I’m Tom Young.

I’m going to spend a couple of weeks later this summer with my daughter, son in law and two grandchildren in Newfoundland.  The youngest is a grand son, but I’ve decided it’s time both he and my granddaughter saw some of the toys that “grumpy” played with when he was a little guy.

I’m thinking about what I should pack and how I should pack it and in fact, I’ve already begun to lay out some of these things.  Many, many, years ago when we were kids we all played Cowboys and Indians.  Now I know it’s not politically correct today — but that’s how it was then.  The cowboys got all dressed up with their six-shooters as the “good guys in white hats” and we went chasing after those Indians.

What was required of Cowboys back then?

Boots, spurs, chaps, vest, a white hat, a badge and of course guns!

Of course they were cap guns, but they looked a whole lot like real guns. As we got a little older, most of us acquired a Daisy B.B. Gun.  They were a little smaller than your ordinary single shot .22, but we thought they were pretty realistic looking all the same.

So, what better thing to do than pack them in my luggage and head on out to the airport.  Now I know you’re wondering: “Where is he going with this story?”  So, here is the conclusion.

Packing those toy guns and trying to get on a commercial airliner in 2008 makes about as much sense as packing a dummy hand grenade in your luggage and trying to get on the same commercial airliner.  At this point, you’re probably thinking nobody would be that stupid — you would be dead wrong!

A man who’s name for various reasons, not the least of which is stupidity did precisely that in Saint John earlier this week.  Among the things he packed in his luggage for a trip to Toronto was what looked like a hand grenade.  It was spotted by security as it went through the x-ray machine.  The Saint John Airport ground to a complete halt, staff and passengers were told to immediately leave the building and a flight to Toronto was delayed.  Emergency personal were summoned to the airport and Mr. Stupid was detained for a short length of time.

The grenade was discovered to be a dud and after lots of excitement, things at the Saint John Airport returned to normal.  Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what was going through this guy’s head, (if anything) when he zippered his suitcase before heading to the airport? 

A city police spokesman says no charges will be laid — it seems there’s not a chapter in Canada’s criminal code that covers stupidity.

I’m Tom Young.

It’s too bad the municipal election campaign in Saint John has to end a week from next Monday.

The reason being, if the campaign was to continue for those running for mayor, (all trying to out do the other candidate,) in another six weeks one of them would promise that he or she would actually pay you to live in Saint John.

I love it when I hear people say: “I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that, I’m going to do something else…”  It seems like they’re all suffering from the “I” syndrome.

The only thing any of the candidates can hope for is that he or she becomes mayor and is able to put together a group of like minded individuals on the council concerned more with the municipality rather than themselves.  Some of them have not yet grasped the concept that a mayor is much like a chairman of the board.  The mayor on any given issue gets one vote.  That one vote is no more important or any less important than the vote that comes from any one councillor.

In order for this city to become progressive, voters have to have something at City Hall that they haven’t had for a good long time. Instead of a bunch of “I’s”, they need a team.  They need people in Saint John who are willing to vote on an issue and then have the courage of their own convictions to stand behind the vote. 

They don’t need a mayor and council who will vote one way and then continue to cry about how the vote went after it’s over.  What the candidates should be saying to the voters is stuff like: “We think this needs to be done, We think that needs to be done, rather than this “I” business.

Every time when it’s election time, people always say such things as: “This is the most important vote in the city’s history” and with good reason, because it probably is.  What voters have to do is take a look at all of those running and ask themselves this question…

“If I owned a one-hundred million dollar corporation, would I hire this person as my CEO?”  Not only that, but: “Would I want this person to be a member of my board of directors?”

Too many of the mayoralty candidates in Saint John are trying to suck and blow at the same time, and no matter how good they think they are, that simply can’t be done.

Maybe it’s time for the provincial government to enact some kind of “honesty in municipal government act.” 

Remember, it’s your duty to vote!

I’m Tom Young.

Why do losers find it necessary to deface election signs?

The province of New Brunswick is currently in the middle of a municipal election campaign.  All villages, towns and cities will elect a new slate of men and women who will guide their municipalities over the next four years.

Far and away the largest percentage of those who have offered for election are honest, hard working, concerned citizens with the best interests of their municipalities in mind.  They get up every day, put in an eight hour work day and they are basically average people.

Most of them put up election signs in their own municipality, their signs are all sizes, shapes and colours.  Each sign has a simple message — “Elect so-and-so” or even,”Re-elect so-and-so…”

What they’re asking you to do is — when you go to the polls — if you can be bothered to place an “X” in the appropriate box to vote for them.  These signs can cost as little as two dollars and in some cases — several hundred.  I have never understood the psychology of spray painting, knocking down, cutting out faces or just plain ruining election signs.

I think however, I have been able to come up with a particular profile of those who are stupid enough to vandalize election signs.  He’s probably a guy in his late teens or early twenties, with a very limited education.  He’s probably never voted in his life and quite likely never will.  If he has a job, it’s at the low end of the economic scale and he’s angry at everyone and wants the government — no matter which government — to give him more.  He’s probably never been recognized for anything positive in his entire life, and if he lives to be 100 — it’ll be the same story. 

Most importantly, they likely don’t know any one of the candidates involved in the community and are also likely to say: “Why bother to vote?  They’re all the same anyway!”

In other words — THE GUY IS A BIG LOSER.

Something else, in response to the number of emails looking for more info on Dr. Anthony Martin who appeared again last week on the Afternoon News.

If you’re looking for more info on his book “Medical Crisis — Secrets Your Doctor Won’t Share With You” you can find it by checking out his web site at www.drmartin.ca

I’m Tom Young.

I’m going to assume that most New Brunswickers know by now that May 12th is Municipal Election day in their province for all villages, towns and cities.

If you’ve been listening to some of the political rhetoric already being fired, it becomes apparent that lowering taxes is one of the promises being made by any number of candidates in any number of towns and cities.

I have served on the council in the village I used to live in and am still serving on the council in the town I live in now — so I have a little experience in the preparation of municipal budgets.  If one of your local candidates is promising to lower taxes, I’ve prepared a list for you to ask the candidate about leaving out as a result…

1. Don’t plow the streets.

2. Don’t plow the sidewalks.

3. Eliminate public transit.

4. Fire half of the municipal workforce, unionized or not.

5. Close the local arena (or arenas)

6. Don’t prepare any outdoor playing fields.

7. Leave pot holes and road craters as they are.

8. Close all cultural facilities.

9. Eliminate Christmas decorations.

10. Cancel garbage collection, or just reduce it to twelve times per year.

And I’m sure there are other services which you as a voter demand from your municipality.

Feel free to print this list and take it to any of your tax cutting candidates and ask he or she which of these the residents in your municipality can get along without under the next administration.  Or rather, just ask the candidate to do his or her best to provide all the goods and services you have become accustomed to and maintain the tax rate.

Maintaining the tax rate is a very difficult job at the municipal level, cutting the tax rate is like getting toothpaste back into the tube — it’s impossible.

I’m Tom Young.