Quebec: graft, theft, and misdemeanours.

So, a few points: First, sovereignty in Quebec is on the downswing since Trump discussed the possibility of tariffs, and second, Quebec is fuming about the way it seems to be removed, largely from discussions of national importance. Quebec is the second most populous province in Confederation yet, it continues to have one of the smaller impacts in elections and the like. So, what is happening with Quebec? Why is it on the downswing?

There are two reasons, the first is political, and the second is largely financial. Quebec decided a while ago to try to go its own way. It pushed the sovereignty question in the hopes it would then leave. It was defeated then and it will be continually defeated. The party Bloc Quebecois was the driver of that question and the sharp point of the spear in that debate. The Bloc Quebecois essentially removed Quebec from the national discussion. It became focused on the separation question and hamstrung its ability to compete in the national discussion, ironically. Ironic that once they pushed for greater national recognition, they became less relevant. Now they are arguing that they should be considered increasingly relevant, but they aren’t and won’t be, thank goodness.

The second reason is that Quebec became less relevant in the national discussion as it hindered national infrastructure projects, specifically, the national East-West pipeline. It argued against it on the national climate change platform, but it was mostly disingenuous. Quebec acted as a hindrance to that pipeline. Now, since Trump has come aboard, the liberals in Ottawa realize that they need to be able to get their product (crude oil) to global markets and Quebec is a hindrance. Intentionally being a hindrance. Quebec will have to adjust itself if it wants to be a loved partner in Confederation. It is a part of Confederation but is it loved as such. Sadly, no.

The next question is how do we remove it? How do we correct it? I would never support becoming the American 51^st state, but it may be an option, a kill switch, sure, but it would work. 

DEI and You. 

 “Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment, And cause it to give off a foul odour”

                                                                                Ecclesiastes 10:1 NKJV

What does a fly in the ointment have to do with anything? This article will be about the LA fires. The conditions and circumstances which contributed to it and the results.

I’m sure by now if you follow the news remotely, you know about the LA fires. I’m going to look closely at the problem, which precipitated the cause of the fire. That is DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.  The problem which led to the conditions and circumstances of the fires is the focus and preoccupation with DEI initiatives. The goals of DEI may seem nice to some, but they aim at the heart of meritocracy. They do not consider the job's actual requirements and may not seek to cause chaos or harm, but they do most effectively. I find it interesting that the Fire Chief and her few deputies are lesbian. This is obviously the result of the Chief wanting to have people around her who affirm her biases and judgement, which is what DEI purported to correct, and of course, it does not. It merely amplifies faulty values, values which have no place in the workplace. There is no contradictory position or cause heard among her senior staff who reflect a different set of values or goals. The other part of this issue is that it’s surprising to me how little DEI needs to be considered before it causes failure in the entire system. Three lesbians at the top of the chain and the entire system collapses. The lack of effectiveness, capability, and redundancy or available backup causes the system to collapse. The failure to provide water promptly and accurately on target and the entire system loses. Now, I understand that budgeting matters and that there were decisions made that weren’t the purview of the Fire Chief, but obviously, the Fire Chief was not able to communicate her needs and have them reflected in the city’s budget tells me that either the system is broken or harmed in some manner. The mayor thought that a fire wouldn’t break out and no one would know, but we all know now.

So, what? What can we do about it? Well, for one, we can learn why this is dangerous and broken. We can prevent these behaviours from being present in our communities. We can ensure that training standards are clear and universal as much as is feasible. When training standards are reduced for a segment of the population, we can be sure that some degree of failure will eventually happen, and we make sure that we are witnesses to it. Any reduction in merit ruins whatever it touches, we can be assured of that. It would be nice, perhaps, if it wasn’t so, but it is so. It is definitely and always so.

I hope that everyone will learn this lesson. I hope that this won’t happen again, but I believe it will happen again, and again more severely. Why? Because as people we want to believe what we believe, and we want to have our values reflected in the world around us. The only questions are whether or not our values are reflected around us and whether they contribute positively to taking action and correcting the faults we work to correct, whatever that might be. In LA, those values did not. 

 Python, Game Theory, and Warfare. 

 The Operating Environment. 

 How can game theory improve decision-making? Well, game theory is the formal mathematical study of decision-making. By applying mathematical models, we can minimize the ambiguity of our decisions. By evaluating a great deal of data into manageable models, we can impact operational decisions and fast-track the process shrinking the decision delta from information into action. A good case study of this would be to look at carrier warfare in the South Pacific between the United States and Imperial Japanese navies. This is a good case study as there are a lot of factors which could be largely uniform conditions shared between all belligerents. There were uniform environmental challenges and distances between command units, and the feedback loop was largely at its theoretical maximum for the period. There were shared challenges in logistics and supply, the food, water, ammunition, and fuel had to come from similar distances and therefore no one side held an advantage in that. One key factor often overlooked is that the operating conditions were identical. Poor weather conditions, rough seas, and foul winds had to be managed identically by both parties and would put operating strains on each group identically. The operating environment in the South Pacific is largely an isotropic plane, with uniform conditions in largely unlimited directions and distances without any real limitations except at the extreme end. It differs completely from the operating environment found by allied forces in Europe. 

Game Theory. 

Game theory allows us to create decision-making models, which reduce extraneous data through a series of filters. It reduces the unneeded data and concentrates data into manageable chunks of maximum utility as efficiently as possible. Game theory is much more than solely Prisoner’s Dilemma. As developed by the early specialists such as Jon Von Neuman and John Forbes Nash. A solid education in game theory should be mandatory for all commanders and taught informally at junior levels to increase mathematical and logical thinking. Game theory seeks to reduce the unknown and ensure that we may operate with increasing confidence within an ever-narrowing window. This increases the utility of our resources and inputs allowing us to do more with less as we have maximised our focus to defeat the enemy. 

Python and Mathematics. 

 Python as a computer language is an excellent choice for analyzing data and information in a quick and accessible manner. Not that military commanders all require the mathematics and computer science education that comes through Python, but formalizing the lessons and reducing them to as simple as possible means that the methodology can be appreciated as easily as possible. As Python is geared towards mathematics and data analysis, it has become a great language for breaking down components to be compared mathematically using arrays, for example. 

Historical study leading to future-proofing. 

Not that this study means learning the challenges of the past means that we can easily criticize the past and the previous actors, it means we have the opportunity to prevent the same failures that beset previous actors and their commands. When we study past historical engagements, we can formalize as much as possible, the methods that bring success (victory) and use that as a basis for education and training.

Bombardier, Cronyism, and You. 

So, by now you have probably heard that the Government of Canada has decided to give Bombardier a loan to maintain its push for its C-Class jets. In return, the GOC gets its name on printed paper and the feel good fuzzies you get when you think you’ve done something right. Unfortunately, there are some losers in this, namely the Canadian taxpayer. Mr. and Mrs. Canadian taxpayer lose out big. They lose out big for a variety of reasons, and I will detail a few of them for you.

Bombardier will get $372.5 Million over four years (or $93.125 million/yr). Now, those loans are to be repaid as part of the deal, and let’s assume that they will be. According to Bombardier’s web page, their operating budget is $28 Billion annually. This means that the loan they are getting will only be approximately one-third of one percent of their overall operating budget each year over the next four years ((372.5/28,000)/4). So, it’s not really that much in terms of a contribution to them.

Why would they do this? Why would they give them such a small amount and make such a big deal over it? The obvious answer is political influence. The Canadian Government is buying political influence within either the political environment of Quebec or it is seeking to intervene in the global marketplace and provide whatever incentive it can possibly can to Canadian Aerospace competing against its global counterparts.

There may be legal challenges to this internationally, and those may come. However, this bothers me for a different reason. It bothers me for reasons of morality. Specifically, moral hazard.

It can be easy and a lot of fun to feel important and make a big splash with easy money that’s not yours. However, this leads to poor decisions. This is because of a few reasons, not the least of which is because First of all, you make investments in places that have the largest political and vote-grabbing splash and not where you can have the best business impact. You make investments that reflect personal and not national priorities.

For example, does the $372.5 Million really make that much of different to Bombardier’s operating budget and growth plans? It’s almost inconsequential.

I am not going to offer any alternatives here, except that money doesn’t need to be spent just because you have it (if in fact you actually do have it).

Government money should not be spent ‘incentivizing’ private industry.

Why should the government invest money (our money) in a way that disincentives private industry? Government will not see a profit from its lending. The company is not in need of a bailout. There’s nothing that benefits industry and its needs in any way. This is publicity and pure and simple, and even that, poorly.

There’s no way that Government money should be involved with private industry. Government should be creating a competitive marketplace where more actors (companies) can participate. What happens when government gets involved is that private industry and industrial methodology gets corrupted.

One of PM Trudeau’s campaign promises was to increase diversification of the economy. How does this do that? Simple, it doesn’t. By picking winners and losers in this economy, the PM is reducing our economy’s diversification, its ability to be diverse and its flexibility. If he were to fund another private company which competed with Bombardier, which he never would, I would agree with his actions on this basis, but of course, on this action, I cannot agree.

The issue with the government’s action on funding Bombardier, is the same issue with the government’s actions in Quebec generally, it funds corruption in Quebec’s economic and political arena. By essentially paying for Quebec’s economic cooperation, we are funding and encouraging their isolationism and irritability, their sense of favouritism.

Also, there is a lot of talk about how companies seek to privatize profits and publicise losses through government intervention. This is exactly how this happens. Companies receive government money through political collusion and drain the public purse for their own gain; not capitalism. This is government-powered theft; pure and simple, unfortunately.

The government is not even picking a winning horse. As you can see from the picture of the Bombardier’s share price over the past few years, it’s performance is poor. It is not incentivizing good performance, but instead poor performance. Not a smart decision, exactly.

What can we do? What can the regular voter and taxpayer do when government goes to give industry money? The simple answer is to inform one’s local representative about what you feel is right, pray that your elected officials would not waste the public purse, and live a life that reflects a strong Christian work ethic and saving. I know that sounds strange, but it’s true. The best way, the true way to live is to live a life that Christ has deemed good and fitting in all areas of your life and to champion such a life in the lives of others. 

Resources cited: 

 http://www.bombardier.com/en/media/newsList/details.binc-20170207-government-of-canada-and-bombardier-announce-signi.bombardiercom.html

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/bombardier-and-canadas-corporate-welfare-trap

http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/terence-corcoran-bombardier-a-symbol-canada-cant-keep-bailing-out

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1186219

Peace like a river.

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about for the last few days. I hope you enjoy it. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

                                                                 Matthew 5:9 NKJV (emphasis, mine)

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

                                                                 Luke 14:27 NKJV (emphasis, mine)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;

and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

                                                                 Rom. 5:1-5 NKJV (emphasis, mine)

            So what? Why does that matter and what difference does it make to my life right now? What difference does this instruction matter to me and why should I pay attention to it? This is a good question, and, like every question, it needs an answer. Is living according to the Peace of Christ essential, does considering myself a Christian require that I live peacefully with others?  

 

            In the context of mental health, these two passages and the above questions are critical to Christian maturity and living obediently according to the promises of God in a world sick with mental illnesses.

            There is a need for peace in this world. Obviously. There is a need for peace in our own lives. Issues like anxiety, depression, and heartache are all around us, even within the Christian church these issues are clear and present. This is simply because we fail to live obediently according to God’s word. The first passage tells us that we have peace. We have Christ’s peace. There is no need for anything else outside of the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ is perfectly sufficient for everything we may need. There is nothing else we need; there is nothing else which can replace it, there is nothing better than it. Since there is nothing else can replace or is better than it, we need to acquaint ourselves with it. We need to cling to it and live according to its pronouncements, its promises, and its power.  

            The issue for me in this is that peace, needs to be a marker of who we are. We are sons of God. That is who we are. When we are peacemakers, we will be known as, we will be seen as God’s children. If we wish to be known, to be seen as children of God rather than children of Men, we must live by peace.  That is, we must live with peace as our identifying principle.

The second passage is how we are to live as Christians. We are to live peacefully. We are to live with the promise of peace guarding and living in our lives. We must read this as instruction. We must read this as a manual for our lives. If we live according to Christ as the Lord of our life, we must live with this in our hearts every day.

The last passage is the most critical for Christians today, or rather, for people who profess themselves to be Christians. If I am a Christian, I will live my life with the peace of God and with being at peace with God. Through Christ, I am brought into a peaceful relationship with God. When I have peace with God, I live peacefully with others. When I do not have peace with God, I cannot live at peace with God, or with others. If I call myself a Christian, if I choose to be identified as a Christian, I must live peacefully with those around me, whether I agree with them, or not. Not only all of that, but also if I choose to be called a Christian, how I behave under duress will identify me as such (or not) more effectively than anything I may say or believe otherwise.

I want you to think about peace and how it changes lives, communities, and countries for Christ. I want to leave you with a final challenge;

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.

"These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

These things I command you, that you love one another.”

                                                                                    John 15:9-17 NKJV

            I hope you will live peacefully. I hope you will love others and therefore fulfill the commandments of Christ. 

Thank you, 

Around town is an amazing place to photo shoot.

Just wanted to post a few pictures from my time around Kelowna. It's not my first fall here, but it is my first fall with my camera in action.

I bought a camera a while ago before I left for Afghanistan. The battery I had had a serious issue keeping a charge and I recently replaced it. This has allowed me to get back into photography. I always loved it.

        So those are a few of the photos I took. If you've lived in the Okanagan, you know how much of an impact the Okanagan Lake makes on the town and the entire region. 

I am looking forward to sharing more photos with you soon. 

Welcome to my blog! Coffee, Gunpowder, and Liberty!

Welcome to my blog!

Coffee, Gunpowder, and Liberty!

First, a little bit about me and how that will affect this blog.

I am a Christian, a conservative, and a member of the Canadian Forces. I have a degree in English Literature and Education from Vancouver Island University. In this blog, I will look into economic, military, and political issues from my Christian conservative perspective.

As I am a member of the Canadian Forces Reserves, I will write this to explain and defend not only God's sovereignty but also the power and wonder of scripture, of literature, just military action, conservative economic principles, and colonialism. Each, in turn, and in its own time.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I will. I am looking forward to commenting on the issues of the day in this medium, and I am looking forward to hearing and reading what you have to add as much as I hope you are looking forward to what I have to say.

I hope you enjoy this. I look forward to your comments.