Margy’s Neighborhood

On Thurs the Harper Government announced that they would block the proposed sale of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.(MDA), a Canadian aerospace firm based in BC to Minnesota-based Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK)
MDA recently re-aquired the possession of the Canadarm, sold years ago to an American company Orbital Sciences Corp. MDA is also responsible for the new Radarsat technology that is being used to monitor Canadian  Arctic waters.
The Government said in a release thursday that the sale of MDA, specificlly the technology behind the new Arctic observation satellite, Radarsat-2 was 'of no net benefit to Canada.'
Pressured by Canadian industry leaders, news outlets and the general public, Industry Minister Jim Prentice wrote ATK on April8 informing them of his decision to recommend blocking the sale.
Under the Investment Canada Act, which allows the Government to block the sale of Canadian Industries, ATK has 30 days to appeal to Prime Minister Harper. This is the first time since the law was passed in 1985 that the government has chosen to block a proposed sale of this magnitude.

If this had gone through it would have been yet another of a long list of Canadian Icons sold away to foreign investors.
In 2006 the Hudson's Bay Company was sold to South Carolina billionaire Jerry Zucker.

The Canadaarm, HBC and almost one of our major Aerospace firms....where is this taking us that every time Canadians create something we feel the need to sell it away.

Actor/Screen-writer Paul Gross recently wrote and produced a TV-Movie called 'The Trojan Horse'. It's a story set only  couple years in the future where Canada has voted to join the United States and cease being a country.
The story was complete fiction, but it told of the gradual sale of several  major Canadian industries to the Americans and then a referendum wherein we joined the States.

It's a little scary to think about, is this where we are going?...will we soon be singing the Star Spangled Banner and voting for a President instead of our Prime Minister?

2 blogs in 2 days and both of them have come from the CBC...there may be a trend forming.

I listen to CBC a lot. More then I'd ever thought I would actually.
The other day as I was driving home, listening to 'Here and Now', they had a story on a new play in Toronto called 'December Man' written by playwright Colleen Murphy.
The play is the story of Jean, a young man from a working class family in Montreal.
Jean was a student at École Polytechnique in 1989 when Marc Lepine entered the classroom.
Jean, along with all the other male students were sent out of the room before Marc Lepine opened fire killing the 14 women left.
The play begins 2 years later with Jean's parents, about to commit suicide. The story works it's way back in time scene by scene through loss, pain and guilt back to December 6th.

It's playing until May 17th at the Berkley St Theater in Toronto. Go see it...I'm going to.

Dec-Man

Well....here I am world.
I've jumped on the VOX bandwagon. I have a number of friends who have been using VOX for years, and I've always wondered what I might do with one.
So here I go.
I'll leave it up to you to decide if I have anything interesting to say,