AprilRoad.com

Well, the provincial voting process is over for another 4 years. I'll miss the corny, mildly offensive tv and radio commercials, the racially tinged newspaper ads, the ubiquitous blight of candidate signs plastered over every square inch of public and private land, the news sound bites that cast good and bad light on every baby kissing candidate in the race, the pundits battling over who's better than who, the goofy editorial cartoons that are neither funny nor entertaining (other than Dan Murphy who is usually brilliant), the political discussions with friends, work mates and complete strangers and finally, input and output from all the ignorant authorities who usually don't have a clue. But most of all I'll miss Carole James. Repeat after me Carole..."Would you like fries with your order"?

Today's Province newspaper has an interesting article about our covert Translink Board and its inner workings. Ethan Baron writes that the 9 member board received nearly $575,000 in pay and benefits in 2008-2009. Remember, this is the same board that continually pleads poverty and comes up with new and exciting ways to extract as much money from the pockets of taxpayers as it possibly can. How can this appointed board increase property taxes, increase gasoline taxes and increase transit fare rates by 10% over ten years without answering to the public? The board committed to part of the province's $14-billion transit plan, for a total of $300 million more of your tax dollars. And all this from a group that meets behind closed doors and seems to be unanswerable to…