Avatar Singh Sandhu is getting a new trial on cocaine trafficking charges and it starts on Monday Oct. 3, 2011 at the Supreme Court of Justice in Milton, Ont. As you may recall, truck driver Sandhu walked away on a technicality after he was caught with a massive amount of coke (205kgs) nestled in with a load of baby carrots. But that acquittal was overturned by the Ontario appellate court on Feb. 11 and we've been waiting ever since.

At the crux of the trial is the way the evidence was gathered and whether Sandhu's Charter of Rights to unreasonable search and seizure were violated. Many in the trucking community have been watching this situation partly because of the super-hero antics of a Halton-area truck stop owner who chased a couple of suspicious guys who were evidently up to no good in his parking lot. He finally blocked in Sandhu on a ramp to the 401 and was at first joined by a DOT officer. This is also an important factor as MTO officers are allowed to enter any commercial vehicle to check loads. However, some rookie Halton regional cop may have forgotten to get a search warrant before entering the trailer. We'll let you know how this unfolds.

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Things have been crazy here the last couple of months. I find as you ramp up to handle increased activity, you become more efficient and make quicker and mostly better decisions. We fell a bit behind, so we hired additional staff and worked longer hours to get caught up.

When you’re geared up to produce, meet deadline after deadline and you run into suppliers that barricade that journey, it can be very frustrating.

I’ve written before about achieving balance between process and performance, as big business continues to get bigger. Two things happened last week that made me question how big business can grow and still keep service in the forefront.

The Apple is Rotten. We bought three 27” iMacs last year. They are a great product and when we added a new artist this past week, we reached out to purchase another. We talked with a business manager at the Apple retail store we purchased from last year. They asked if we were happy with the performance of the machines we had and after a brief discussion, agreed that she would prepare a new one, just slightly faster than last time. I mentioned I didn’t want to wait around at the store for an hour like last year. She assured me that I just needed to bring the invoice and it would be ready to go. The short strokes were that I still waited an hour to get the machine and after taking it back to the office, the artists determined it was the wrong machine totally. When I called and suggested that they bring the correct machine to my office (15-20 minutes away) and take back the other one, the response was “we can’t do that”. End of discussion. Their error, but our problem to deal with. What do you think? Is this acceptable customer service for companies large or small?

1.888.Rogers.1- It’s great to be able to have a toll free number that spells your company name. Getting properly served through that toll free number is one issue and my recent experience with a lack of flexibility is another. We have a small rental house near Humber College. We got it when my son attended that school and have kept it as an investment. The short strokes were that the students using the internet services apparently went over the download limit and our bill doubled. We asked for a statement so that we could better understand what was going on. The answer was no. Why? Because we paid by credit card. I said, “If you are going to lose us as a customer because of this, is your answer still no? The representative had a well prepared, polite and concise answer, “I’m sorry sir, I can’t help you”.

I can tell you that I’m pretty flexible, roll with the punches and I’m not a complainer by nature but this type of close minded, process driven, lack of flexibility really burns my jets. How about you?

Lee’s Quote for the Day

One of the most over used taglines but good overall philosophy is “We’re big enough to serve you, small enough to care”. In some cases the tag needs to be updated to “Big enough to serve you, too big to care! J

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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Last week I was fortunate to once again participate in Richard Lande’s popular Transportation Conference. It was the 25th anniversary of the annual conference which, thanks to Lande’s personal touch and eclectic tastes, has gained a reputation for becoming a unique event in our industry. What other transportation conference can one go to and get educated on industry issues while getting a body massage or having his eyebrows flossed (yes, you read that correctly and I didn’t know such things were done either till attending Richard’s conference a few years ago.) Richard and his staff didn’t disappoint this year, hosting an opening dinner at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir complex, a masterpiece of intricate design and workmanship of ancient Indian arts, traditions, philosophy and Hinduism. The one day conference was held the next day at the Woodbine racetrack and many of us spent the conference breaks watching the thoroughbreds training on the sun drenched track.

Like the jockeys riding those thoroughbreds, carrier executives have been eager to race ahead and start their companies back on the road to growth. But the steady stream of negative news about the economy has left them pulling back on the reins. In fact the morning of the conference we woke to even more sobering news of the global economy as stock markets suffered another meltdown on fears of a return to recession.

It seems no conference can be without an economist these days and Kenrick Jordan, a senior economist from BMO Capital Markets, was one of the first speakers at the conference. Jordan confirmed the global economy is growing much slower than anticipated even just a few months ago and the North American economy in particular has lost momentum and is expected to grow less than 2% this year. Other speakers, such as George Magliano, an economist with IHS Global Insight, provided perspective on what the slowdown means for key motor carrier markets such as automotive. The average US automotive production from 2000 to 2007 was 17.2 million vehicles. It’s only expected to get to 12.5 million in 2011 and Magliano figured it could take till 2014 till production levels climb back to 17 million. That’s in part because Magliano fears it could be till 2014 or 2015 before the North American economy gains back all the jobs lost during the Great Recession and consumers get back to spending the way they used to.

Such forecasts grounded the executives attending the conference in the root reality of the moment: there are tough times ahead and more tough decisions to be made. But the messages from the conference included both roots and wings. And it’s important to pay equal attention to the words of those who give us wings, such as Silvy Wright, president and CEO of Northbridge Financial (parent company of Market Insurance) who advised committing to building customer loyalty. Studies show that only “excellent” service translates into customer retention. And also Mike Riggs, chairman of automotive hauler Jack Cooper Holdings, who swears by making decisions based on a 20 to 30-year window rather than on what is expedient for the moment.

For those of you still concerned the negative indicators being trumpeted by the network news signal a return to recession, I would like to share with you some economic numbers I read the day after the conference.
After all we’ve heard about the economic slowdown you would think it goes without saying that factory orders, which provide a gauge of coming production, should be on the decline. Yet, they are not.

In the US, the pace of orders that slowed in the spring has regained strength and is now up 15% at annual rates. And it’s not just the US where this phenomenon is being witnessed. Orders in Germany are up 11% since the beginning of the year. France is up too and in Italy orders are up an annualized 18% so far this year. Spain leads the pack with an annual average growth in order of 20%. And right here at home, new orders are up 12% on an annualized rate since January with growth showing impressive gains in June and July.

Unlike the speculation going on in the markets, the trend for new orders provides a firm indication of what to expect in coming months and it suggests things are improving.

So as the opening speaker from the conference, Stephen Leopold, a Canadian entrepreneur who bounced back after losing millions during the terrorist attacks of 9/11, advised, let’s continue to think ahead, think big and not shy away from risk. If we all do that we may just avoid needlessly worrying ourselves into an economic downturn.

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I collected this story from a gal several years ago. It's not really a hitchhiking story but it fits with the era as a lot of counter-culture young people were making a pilgrimage to India in the early 1970s. I'm sure she'd rather not have her name used but you might be able to guess who this closely resembles--she's a legend in her own mind (and other's). It's interesting to see how her belief system evolved as a result of this trip, and her observations on the Israeli-Palestinian debate are apropos in view of the current push to recognize Palestinian statehood. Enjoy.

In 1969 I was traveling alone in Europe, and I went to Canada House in London to check on rides. That was my form of hitchhiking. Eventually I hooked up with these two guys who were traveling in a van to Morocco but I ditched them in Madrid. They wanted to sleep with me and I wasn’t interested.

I spent a month in Madrid and then took a boat to Fomentera, which was a down and dirty hippie island off the south coast of Spain. Most of us were stoned all the time but it was mostly soft drugs, usually hashish. In Fomentera I encountered junkies for the first time. Heroin was cheap and easy to get. I’d lived in New York City for the last 10 months and hung out on the street a lot, but this was the first time I’d known any junkies.

It was pretty risky for woman to hitchhike alone in Europe so I didn’t do it much—only when other transportation wasn’t available. But I did some hitchhiking when I got to Israel, always with a guy, and a few times in Greece. In Israel got involved with a guy on a kibbutz and we’d hitchhike back and forth to Tel Aviv. It was OK for him to pee by the side of the road but not me. A woman was supposed to hold it in.

I spent a lot of time with Arabs in Jerusalem because I found them really interesting. I was 22 and Jewish but I wasn’t pro-Zionist. From my perspective Israel was an apartheid society. I wasn’t as political as I was now, but I certainly was radical and I’d been a radical at McGill. I had a friend who was an older Arab man. We went to the hospital to visit a mutual friend whose girlfriend had been killed by a faulty gas meter. My Arab friend had to go through a separate entrance. Stuff like that. It was really horrible.

I stayed in Israel for two months and then decided to go to Greece. Spain and Greece were two popular destinations for young people because they were cheap and warm.

I figured it was safe to smuggle some dope out of Israel because the Israelis only care if you smoke dope with other Israelis. They don’t like that. If you smoke dope with Arabs they don’t give a shit. That was the deal. So I wanted to smuggle some hash out of Israel into Greece because I heard it was hard to get there. I thought if I hid it in my body the Israelis wouldn’t care and the Greeks wouldn’t strip search me.

I was going to put it in a bra but in those days I didn’t wear bras and I couldn’t find one. So I wrapped up my seven grams of hash inside a Kotex.

When I got to the ferry docks they called my name and a man in a suit approached me. I knew I was trouble because nobody wears suits in Israel. I’m really stoned because I’d just attended a party before leaving. He says, “Come with me,” and I decide to play it straight even though I’m a stoned-out hippie.

He took me to an area with a sort of pit and there’s a woman there so I know they’re going to search my body. I was trying to be cool and calm while they’re going through my backpack and suitcase. The man who sold the hash to me had informed so they knew I had dope.

“Oh, you’re looking for microfilm?” I asked them. “You’re looking for bombs?”
Then he tells me, “Go with her.” I ask why. “Because she’s going to search you,” he says.

Then I started yelling at her, going into this tirade: “I’m Jewish and I’m a college graduate. Before this I was thinking of moving to Israel. This was supposed to be my homeland. I’ve never been so humiliated in my life.”

I’d cut myself that morning stepping on a piece of glass. A doctor had bandaged my foot. I’m down to my socks and underwear and she sees the bandage. “Take off that bandage.” I figured I’m really fucked now so I said, “If you want me to take off the bandage you better get on the phone and call the hospital and an ambulance. I’m not risking an infection for this stupidity.”

She says, “OK, take off your pants.” I just looked at her straight in the eye. “I have my period and I’m not going to take off my pants. I turned around and kept yelling at her and when the guy in the suit came back I yelled at him, too. I have to keep yelling as I put on my clothes, to show I’m not relieved.

“Did you look everywhere?” he asked “Yeah,” she says, lying. “I looked everywhere.” So I yelled at him some more and then I yelled at the passport guy.

It turned out they knew everything about me. They’d had me followed in Jerusalem. This is a complete police state. They knew who I’d been with in Jerusalem and this is why they were out to get me. Because I was Jewish and hung out with Arabs.”

So I got on the boat, still scared and carrying seven grams of hash. What if they followed me onto the boat? In the bathroom I can’t bring myself to flush seven grams of hash, so I ate four of them and started to drink on top of that. Man did I get ripped. As it happened there was man on the boat carrying 200 kilos of hashish who got through with no problem.

Anyway, I never took dope across the border again. Worse than going to jail, I was afraid my father would have to come get me. That was my worst fear.

Matala is an island off Crete and it supported a large hippie colony. You could stay there for nothing and sleep in the caves. The hippies lived on the beach and drank in the cafes. Joni Mitchell was there at the time playing on the beach. I knew the guy that she sings about in her album Blue. He had flaming red hair. Carey was his name. He was a character in Matala. I didn’t see him the way she did, but she was in love with him and I wasn’t.

You never got to know your fellow travelers that well. You were traveling around in sort of group but you weren’t part of any group, you know? Most of these kids were Europeans and Australians. Fewer of them were Americans but there were some Canadians too.

You’d find out from one kid where to stay in the next place: This is cheap and this is good; this is cool and this is not. My experience wasn’t so much as being a tourist as it was of traveling and hanging out other hippies.

In Greece I met two guys who were heading for India and I’d thought I’d start out with them and see what happens. People told me that a woman shouldn’t travel alone in Europe, but I didn’t find it so bad. So when people told me a woman couldn’t travel by herself overland to India, I thought fuck this. I’m pretty macho. It was my way of rebelling against the restrictions on women.

The entire experience was pretty heavy. Even talking about it makes me anxious. We took a boat to the north of Turkey and then buses across eastern Turkey. Most of the local people had never seen a western woman and the situation got scary at times. At one point the bus stopped in a town where it wasn’t scheduled and we got attacked by a mob of men.

It was like a scene from a bad movie. They wanted me out of there. The men started banging on the doors. I knew if I got off I’d be killed or raped. We managed to convince the driver not to stop, to drive right through, but it was a terrifying experience.

And then the guys I was traveling with became a problem. I wasn’t attracted to them but they kept pushing me to sleep with them. So I had to dump them, and I dumped them in Iran.

Then I was traveling on my own and every decision was life or death. This was a life-forming time me, it was one of the major experiences that made me into what I am today.

For one thing, I was suddenly really aware of the oppression of women in a way that I’d never been before. Alone I could be attacked, molested, sold and bought in one of those countries. And if I picked up a Western guy for protection, it would only be a matter of time before he started hitting on me. And, of course, there was all the poverty. For a middle class kid that had lived cheaply in New York in some degree of poverty, I’d never seen anything like this.

The train I was on stopped in Mashad and I was stoned. Literally. It was some type of Moslem holiday and I was out walking. I knew enough not to be wearing Western clothing, I had on these loose-fitting Indian clothes that covered my whole body. It wasn’t short shorts or anything. A crowd formed up behind me and began pitching stones. I had to run back to my hotel.

What happened next was even worse. Some of the townsfolk were so upset about what happened that they went looking for the ringleader of the stone throwers. They beat him to a pulp and dumped him at my door.

I was more comfortable in Afghanistan. Afghanies seemed less covetous of westerners, and more respectful of women for whatever reason.

I stayed mostly in Kabul until I ran out of money. I had money at home and it had been wired to me, but I had to wait a while for the money to clear. That was OK. The landlord let me stay on credit and hashish was legal. I was a hippie and I did a lot of dope in those days.

But another terrifying thing happened in Kabul. It was the 60s and I was into sex and all that. We all were in those days. But during the whole trip, I had been alienated sexually. Since I left Greece I was scared of getting involved with someone. Men had been awful to me the whole trip and I hadn’t had sex at all.

I was feeling really shitty. In retrospect, the reason I was depressed was because I was repressing all this fear. But at that time I didn’t know what was wrong with me. So I thought I’ve got to get laid, right? Those were the terms of the day. I’ve got to pick someone who I would find attractive if I was feeling good. That was how I talked to myself.

So I picked this American guy who had come from India. He’d been in jail in India. I didn’t find him attractive at all but I went to bed with him. We had sex and I didn’t feel anything, just numbness. He picked up on that and got freaked…really upset.

I didn’t realize how fucked up he was. He was hanging out with all these junkies who lived cheap in Kabul and didn’t have to steal. They could get cocaine and heroin at the drug store.

So he came to get me to take me to a party one night. I remember it was a huge gathering with a couple of hundred people sitting in a circle around a fire where they were roasting a lamb.

He went and sat in front of me in the circle. He’s a big guy and I watched him get up and start coming towards me. Part of me wanted to talk to him, tell him it’s not him, it’s me, that he shouldn’t be so upset. I was about to take a step towards him when I hear this thing whistle past me. I looked behind me there’s a knife stuck in a tree that just missed me. But everyone’s stoned and nobody notices he’s thrown the knife except me.

I got out of there real fast, packed up and left Kabul the next day. It had taken me four months to get from Istanbul to Afghanistan and the last experience had really shaken me.

I caught a cheap flight to India and lived for a time in a boathouse in Shrinigar, in the Himalayas. It was luxurious living. For one dollar you’d get three meals a day and servants that would take care of you. But that was expensive for me.

I got sick in India. Everybody gets sick on these trips but I got very ill. I was OK in Shrinigar but when I got to Delhi I had dysentery and a high fever and thought I was going to die.

I was staying in a place where I shared a room with this guy. The room was stifling: 104 degrees F and only a single ceiling fan swatting at the air. My roommate was really a cool man and he helped take care of me. I don’t remember his name, but I’d like to look him up now and thank him..

He was coming the other way, from the Orient. Everybody coming from the west was fucked up from the drugs. But travelers coming from the east weren’t as fucked up because they were coming from a less alienating culture, and they weren’t so messed up on drugs because drugs weren’t as available.

He helped me get over the worst of my illness. He told me, “If you can’t get enough money to go home, then go down south to Goa and live on the beach. You don’t want to travel back overland in the summer, it’ll kill you. Then you can go back later.”

My parents didn’t have much money when I left, but I decided to call them and see if they could get me a plane ride home. They knew I wanted to see Asia so they sent me a plane ticket that would take me from Japan to Vancouver.

I was still sick but this was my chance to get to Asia, even though, as it turned out, I had three different parasites inside me. I had amoebic dysentery, a parasite in my lungs, and another one that they didn’t find for a long time.

So I never got to Katmandu or anyplace like that. I flew from Delhi to Bangkok, Thailand, which was a completely different world. The war in Vietnam and Bangkok was full of prostitutes and American soldiers on leave.

I looked like a stoned-out hippie, and I was a stoned-out hippie. My hair was long and I was wearing these Indian clothes. The American soldiers looked at me like they wanted to kill me. “Are you a boy or girl?” some of them asked.

Somehow I got to Ching Mai in northern Thailand. I don’t recall how I got there. I had met this boy who was studying in California who told me his father was at this monastery. You know these Buddhists, they go to a monastery and become a monk for three weeks of the year.

His father was impressed that I was a young woman traveling alone and he invited me to their house in Bangkok. He was a businessman in Bangkok and I stayed with the family. This was good for me because they treated me with respect, fed me, and took me around.

If I was feeling better I would have tried to go to Vietnam. Instead I went to Honk Kong and tried to get into China. China had just started to open up to the French but they weren’t letting anyone else in. They’d just had their cultural revolution. I had a four hour interview and then I waited two weeks in Honk Kong but never got an answer. I hated Hong Kong so I left.

It was now 1970. I went briefly to Taiwan. It was a terrible place. Beautiful country, but a terrible police state.

When I landed in Tokyo I had $10 left. But I met up with this Japanese guy who called himself Christian Dior. He was bisexual and had this boyfriend who was a transvestite. He was a total outcast in Japanese society but no one bothered him. He was allowed to be who he was. But he was such an outcast that nobody talked to him ever. Nobody. Ever.

The couple supported me as they had lots of money and one of them was a famous dress designer. I got introduced to this whole other world. The gay scene in Tokyo is made up of western men and Japanese boys. I mean they weren’t really boys--they weren’t 15--but they looked like boys. Very feminine and effeminate.

In Kyoto I went to the World’s Fair. In the Canada pavilion I watched a film about Toronto that brought tears to my eyes. Being from Montreal, I’d always hated Toronto but know I realized it was time to come home when a film of Toronto makes me cry. I’d been gone ten months.

One result of this year of traveling was that I had become re-radicalized. I had rejected radical politics for awhile because I was so screwed up and settled into an existentialist kind of life which was about having as many experiences as possible.

That was the interesting part of my wanderings. No responsibility. I think the intensity of the experience was a big part of it, the freedom of being on the road, and the sense of community.

If you wanted, you could get involved in an intense sexual relationship for a week and then never see them again. Neither one of you really cared too much. It was just a very intense experience. You’d intensely connect with people and then they’d be gone.

It was what everybody was doing at the time, a way to be free. You could go wherever you wanted but in the end I didn’t find it all that appealing. When I was lying in bed in Delhi imagining that I was going to die, I realized I didn’t want to live like this, without roots and responsibilities. I had to do something to help change the way things were in the world.

Our generation was very naive. We thought we could change the world. I think that gave us tremendous energy. This generation, they’re cynical and don’t really think they can change anything. But they’re much more sophisticated. When they decide to fight they’re going to be a fore to be reckoned with.

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Many people come into my leadership workshops more interested in strategies for dealing with their boss and management then they are for strategies to deal with their team.

When it comes to "Dealing Up" many people shy away, not having the courage to 'risk' that conversation.
Ironically backing away is the only reason that their frustrations just continue to grow.

Great things happen when we actually deal up. You need to so that your issues get resolved. Your boss benefits from the feedback they otherwise wouldn't have gotten and couldn't have reacted to.

If you want some help, I've placed a pdf guide on my website entitled:


How to Deal with your Boss: 3 Steps to Dealing Up. Click Here to Download your Copy.

Have a great long weekend! David

David Benjatschek is "Your Man with the Plan" and is passionate about helping Emerging Leaders realize their potential. Contact David re dynamic training workshops for your company: david@marketbeamer.com

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Recently I read with interest a blog by Rickey Gooch (Legal Benefits Group inc in the U.S.) on a LINKEDIN Group about the TOP 25 CSA VIOLATIONS by drivers and carriers. I am sure once you take look there will not be any SURPRISES whatsoever. In order from most violations down from 1 to 25
Drivers record of Duty Status not current
Inoperative required lamps (direct cause of Being stopped and inspected)
Log Violation (general form and manner)
Requiring or permitting driver to drive after 14 hours on duty
Tire -other tread depth less than 2/32 of an inch (direct cause of being stopped and inspected
Brake connections with leaks and or constrictions
No/defective lighting devices/reflective devices projected(direct cause of being stopped and inspected)
Failing to secure brake hose / tubing against mechanical damage.
Clamp/Roto Chamber type brakes out of alignement
No/discharged /unsecured fire extingusher
Inspection/repair and maintenance parts and accessories
Automatic Brake adjustor CMV manufactured on or after 10/20/1994 air brake
Oil and or grease leak (direct causew of being stopped and inspected)
Failing to use seat belt while operating a CMV
Inopertive head lamps (direct cause of being stopped and inspected)
Driver failing to retain previous 7 days logs
Requiring and or permitting driver to drive more than 11 hours
False report of driver's record of duty status
Brake tubingand hose adequacy
Inoperative tial lamp(direct cause of being stopped and inspected)
Stop lamp violations (direct cause of being stopped and inspected)
Flat tire or fabric exposed (direct cause of being stopped and inspected)
Inoperative turn signal (direct cause of being stopped and in spected)
ABC malfunctioning indicator lamps -Trailer manufactured after 3/1/1998

Anyone want to be put of business with the new CSA ascoring and Audits being done. There's your list folks. Nothing new in it. However there are cracking down and going after as many of us as they can find.

You've been warned. Keep on Trucking. safely and don't them give anyone reason to pull you over.

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As I write this article the financial markets on both sides of the border have been in complete turmoil for a couple weeks and have lost the overall confidence of pretty much everyone who has been within earshot of a radio or have watched the news. These latest financial headaches were all living through were brought on by the division between the Republicans in the US not being prepared to allow the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so they could pay their bills.
It makes one wonder what their budget exercise is really for, it wasn’t that long ago that both sides fought vehemently over what the US budget would contain and finally each side appeared to capitulate and they had an agreement. Didn’t that budget spell out the money the US would need in the foreseeable future, it’s a financial budget right? Of course it did, so what was this debt ceiling crisis all about, nothing more than grandstanding and arrogance at the people’s expense, and complete disregard for what the implications might be.
So how does this affect you as you drive down the highway trying to flog your freight? I’ll get to that a little later, we as Canadians do not have a perfect system, no doubt about it but when the rest of the world look over here at the great White North and notice that we have our house somewhat in order, I like that, I think our guys at the federal level did and continue to do a pretty good job overall. We all got a bit of a beating back 3 years ago but it was mild compared to the rest of the industrialized nations of the world.
What happened in 2008, coming out of the US was an exercise in greed at its worst, banks selling security backed mortgages that had no equity and then absolving themselves of the responsibility of any kind of recourse when the bubble finally burst. I have always said that you can steel more money with a briefcase that you can with a gun, but this little charade was a theft of biblical proportions brought on by politicians who were grossly incompetent to say the least and these folks had no conscience as they pretended to be the stewards of that countries piggy bank, and no one goes to jail despicable! It is out of control, if the US government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year; they spend $75,000 a year and are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget that we can understand.
This latest financial crisis in the US is almost as bad, the fact that two political parties have such distain for each other that unless there is complete capitulation to the other party’s position there will be no agreement on anything. These folks have no regard for the greater good of their constituents’ or the general population, they appear in a continual state of campaign, the thought of governance never enters into their mind until they get into full campaign mode and have to formulate platforms that they then sell like a commodity to the voter, with no real intention of seeing anything through to fruition let alone fight for what is right.

Our own Dalton McGuinty here in Ontario is a great example when he ran on a platform of no way he would harmonize the sales tax with the GST and here we are folks. As I recall the HST was sold to us as a short term pain making our industries more competitive on the world market and then after some time we would see a relaxing of the pain and we would all see lower pricing, of course that didn’t happen. I also can’t believe that we receive rebate cheques from our government, who ever thought this up is a on the Premier’s Christmas card list forever, you got to know that. Here is the premise, we will take more of their money from the tax payer than we deserve up front and then we will give them some back a little at a time, every once in a while and they’ll think were great!
It’s kind of like your parent giving you an allowance right, NO, it’s our money and you ripped us off for it and then give us some back every once in a while, this don’t work for me folks, I for one can’t wait to get into the voters booth, can’t happen soon enough.
A quick overview of the pedigree of the American congress shows that 67% of the folks currently sitting in these chambers are lawyers, if that doesn’t scare the average Joe I don’t know what will. A good lawyer is a good debater, good debaters don’t really care what side of an issue they are on, they are motivated by winning first not by what is right but by winning the argument and ensuring that the other side is revealed to be inadequate. This is how gridlock happens; it is almost a pre-requisite to be a successful Politian these days that you need a law degree, getting scared yet. Politicians should be business people, they should be scientist, they should be truckers, they should be folks who live in the real world that interact with other real people so that they can represent other real people and know what their needs and desires are, legal ease does not replace common sense, cant, never will!
We are tied to the hip to the US and as the old saying goes if they get a cold we up here get the flue. Canada has shown amazing resilience with how we have managed our affairs at the federal level compared to what is going on around us but that can only last so long before we are drawn down with what is happening in the rest of the world.
So when you’re wondering where your next load is and worrying if you will make enough miles to cover your expenses, think about the silly display put on by these supposed political leaders and watch as folks lose faith, stop buying new homes, aren’t interested in risking their credit a loan for a new car or the cottage and trucking slows down to a little more. People become worried about their job security so they are not going to spend money on items that are not absolutely necessary, boomers are not retiring at 60 or 65 because they are worried for what might happen to their RRSP’s or their 401K’s and will their old age pension even be there? And trucking slows down to a crawl, rates don’t do go up, wages don’t go up, the middle class that drives our economy stops spending and continues to shrink while we watch and wait for the next display of stupidity to go on display by our elected officials?
Safe Trucking
Rjh

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