GCn20

True enough....and the vote has taken place on that. In October they were turfed and deservedly so. However, I find it amusing how people would try to use the federal CONS to defend the Manitoba NDP. At least the federal CONS spending came with tax cuts, and was nowhere even remotely close to the level of spending per taxpayer, of the Manitoba NDPs. The federal CONS got trounced for their deficits, among other things, but some people want to give the NDP a pass for spending and taxation that would make Karl Marx blush. It makes no sense. Both of these were governments that needed to be shown the door. They got big heads and stopped governing for the people. Perhaps, this will bring much needed rejuvenation to both parties involved.

I agree. Nothing could have damaged the Tory brand more than a conviction on all charges of a former high ranking member of their party. A complete exoneration only makes this all look more like it was politically motivated.

No kidding. History itself has proven they can run things with far more efficiency. It's why the Cons have the reputation of being better money handlers....because it's time proven.

Correct. Civil servants are very hard working people, that contrary to popular belief, for the most part get paid below the average industry standard for their area of expertise. The biggest difference between the civil service and private sector is not work ethic, it is the amount of hurdles each must overcome to see similar results. The Cons need to clear out the bloated bureaucracy and the civil service will produce results that Manitobans will be far happier with. It's just paper pushing up and down right now in our civil service and that creates huge inefficiency.

Kelley was used as a DB in their e-camp so I'm thinking he will not be the answer for them at receiver. More than likely if they are going to start a 3rd import it will be a rookie. Their current receiving corps looks below average imo, assuming that Chiles can play at a level near what he did before. If Chiles is not the same receiver he was before, that is one uninspiring collective of receivers.

This is page 3 of the speech Selinger tried to sell to Manitoba a couple weeks ago. Did you write it or are you just quoting it? Manitobans didn't fall for the boogeyman Tory propaganda then, and they won't now. Literally nothing of what you have said could be further from the truth imo.

Lots of union support to shore up, token patronage payrolls to meet etc. There is so much fat to cut that Pallister could literally throw a dart at any type of government department or expenditure taped to a dartboard and find millions in savings in minutes. He doesn't need to run with scissors...the fat is oozing out of every pore. There is a time and a place for an NDP government in this province occasionally. Unfortunately, we let them stick around far too long. It is a party that should only hold power every couple of decades for one term just for balance. If the Conservatives have truly learned their lesson from last time around then maybe even less than that.

It takes a good pension to attract our elite into government. Not sure that applies to Ashton but you get my point. I don't begrudge him his government pension either. It's his TigerDam and OmniTrax pension funds that bother me.

It's a fair question. The answer is this was in Thompson. There is only one hospital. Had I another option after around hour 5 or 6, I would have tried it.

Its the NDP way. Big government and big government control. Cow tow to CUPE and all it's affiliates. Pallister was not joking when he said CUPE controlled our province under the NDP. They really did.

I am fairly sure that it will start with a audit and savings venture and end in investigation.

Lots of misinformation about the Manitoba Civil Service and CFS problems in this thread. The jist of it is correct on many points but let me clarify some details. My wife is a front line civil servant and is an incredibly overworked and underpaid person. The no-layoff clause is not extended to every civil servant under the master agreement. Besides the components that did not negotiate a no layoff clause those components that did still have many employees not covered by the clause. The clause only extends to those hired before a certain time (about 3 years ago). All others do not have the layoff clause. When the NDP took over power, they started forming a network of incredible bureaucracy designed to establish the need for more management. In 1999 there was one manager for every 11 frontline workers on average. In 2016 there is 1 for every 5. Amounts of paperwork, and redundancy in reporting systems led to front line service working at an incredibly reduced efficiency rate solely due to unnecessary bureaucracy. All in the name of unnecessary management creating the necessity of their positions. It began a spiral effect that took front line workers away from dealing with the public to dealing with management instead. Early in their tenure as government, the NDP introduced very strict guidelines that would affect CFS to this day. Instead of working with the parents of children at risk, children were seized at an astronomical rate. We are all aware of the children in care numbers. To deal with this....you guessed it...more bureaucracy and management, less front line time spent on the actual clients of CFS. In around 2011, after taking a beating by the press and opposition about the size of the civil service, the NDP made the wise decision to put an unofficial hiring freeze in effect on non-essential positions to allow for the aging civil service to get retirement of civil servants to create a smaller civil service. Unfortunately, most of this protraction came at the expense of the front line workers. You see....management decides what's essential and non essential to their departments and in true NDP fashion replacing front line workers took a back seat to replacing management. This is when government records will show that the size of management truly started to spiral out of control in comparison with front line workers. This created a double edged sword. Managers needed to justify their jobs with less staff and they created more bureaucracy to do so. An already stretched thin front line service was asked to answer the bell of the increased bureaucracy and take on a huge workload to keep front line services working. When there is only so much time in the day to get the work done and not enough to get it done what happens? You guessed it....overtime. Let's pay them double but burn them out. Therefore, as most NDP supporters will proudly point out....the civil service hasn't actually increased in number in the past several years. What they won't tell you is that overtime costs in the civil service have expanded by nearly 400% over that time frame. Why? Because instead of doing some strategic hiring of casual employees in times of need, the NDP thought this would look bad on them politically and more importantly the MGEU does not get their money from casual hires. I can guarantee that not only will Pallister open up the books and find massive redundancy and an overstock of management, but he will find tremendous and needless spending on overtime. Some smart management of the civil service and he easily find the tens of millions of dollars necessary to help us reduce our staggering debt....AND he is able to do so without even laying off one front line worker while dramatically improving the civil service efficiency and thus overall effectiveness. This is where the fat will be cut. Hey dippers...other than ideologically....where is the boogeyman in that? I would imagine the MGEU will be squealing like a pig as management is protracted vs. the front line and therefore the NDP will be squealing about it. However, to the rest of Manitobans and the civil servants working the front line it will be relief that has been a long time coming. If the NDP ever want to show they are a party of the people they need to cut ties with the unions. Their management of our province would become infinitely better.

Don't take extreme positions and they won't be satire afterwards. Just saying....

2 years ago I took my, then 3 year old, daughter to the hospital with a suspected broken leg. After 9.5 hours in the ER without being seen by a doctor and having fallen asleep in my arms from exhaustion due to the pain she was in, I gave up and took her home so she could at least lie down. The next morning we went straight back to the hospital for another 6.5 hour wait before FINALLY being seen by a doctor who apologized profusely for the health care system that had let her down as he was now on hour 17 of a shift as the only doctor in an ER that should have 4 doctors on duty....MINIMUM. He immediately recognized that her leg was broken and advised us afterwards to contact a lawyer and sue the hospital. She had a broken leg that had broken in the growth ring of her leg. Because of the great deal of time between the break and her diagnosis, (must be diagnosed and treated within 5 hours) she required surgery and suffered a great deal of needless suffering. (lawsuit still in progress...seems the courts are just as slow as the health care system). That was the day that the NDP lost a supporter. The abomination that has become our health care system, while I pay more and more taxes is nothing short of criminal. This is the worst government in the history of this country, let alone province. Tomorrow, I will tune in at 8 oclock and watch as they get their come uppance for the chaos they have left behind.

Yep. Sorry folks.

Agreed. Having a bad day. Neither Johnny nor Mike deserved any of that. My apologies to them and to the rest of the forum for having to read it.

Just a joke Tburg....sorry if it offended.

So did I...at least once a week. You and I saw things very differently. I saw him assist with DBs at times, even with Lbers, however I would not call him the DB or LBer coach. If he spent any time with the backs it was minimal.

Your probably right. My apologies to the rest of the forum. I took the high road instead at that time.

No comment.

Rant detracted/.

No mistake at all Mike. The reference to him being a RB coach was one perpetuated by a paper at his alma mater. I attended practices through all those years, and I can tell you sure as **** he was NOT the RB coach. I will believe what I saw with my own eyes thank you very much...not what's printed by 3rd year journalism students a thousand miles away. Perhaps you should look at the Bombers official press release on his hiring as well. The Gryphon (Guelph's college newspaper) floated a rumor before he was hired that he would be joining the Bombers as STC/RB coach....a mistake they never bothered to correct after he was hired as STC only. However, if you have a link to any official Bomber source indicating he was RB coach, please share and I will gladly retract.

He was never a RB coach. Not sure where you have gotten that information, but the BB official website, along with his bios at several other CFL sites including CFL.ca list him as STC for those years. Further to that, all his prior coaching history was on the defensive side of the ball and STs. Therefore, if you cannot admit your mistake please provide a link to a source confirming that he was RB coach.

Here, here!! Last thing we need is any of this mamby pamby being a professional and earning the respect of the locker room. It angers the fans and media who need to know stuff. Signed, TBurgess

No he didn't.