Manitoba Politics

[Mark H.]

52 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Popeye's is better (IMO) and I am waiting for Churches' Texas Fried Chicken to show up. I like to eat dead birds.

I like Popeye's, but this stuff is 10 minutes from my doorstep

 

[GCn20]

On 2023-05-12 at 2:47 PM, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

Ok, so then a $31.54 mark up on a 1.7L bottle of liquor is far more than the taxes on the same bottle...

The mark up is including the synnovial tax. 

[blue_gold_84]

Oof.

[GCn20]

On 2023-05-14 at 8:02 AM, GCJenks said:

I believe you might have me confused with another poster whose name also starts with “G”. Pretty sure you are attributing someone else’s words to me. 
I currently buy my liquor from a private store, pricing is the same as a liquor mart but I can get gas, pick up my mail, mix and essential groceries all at the same time. Why does this model work outside Winnipeg and other large cities but shouldn’t be allowed in the city?

The heart of my question is what are the profits derived from liquor mart sales, assuming they are being charged the same value on the distribution side that the current private vendors are? 

Manitoba Liquor stores run on a legislated 14% mark up, the same mark up that private enterprise liquor/beer/coolers run on. I have been in the liquor game for almost 30 years, have owned several vendors and can tell you that it has ALWAYS been between 11-14% to the retailer the rest to the MLCC. We have legislated price control in Manitoba. The most that the MLCC stores can make is 14% mark up because they sell at the same price as private enterprise. They show the synnovial tax in their mark up, however that is not the % lost to the MLCC at all if private liquor outlets were in place. The difference is 14% that would go to the private retailer the rest is retained by MLCC no matter who sells it.,

Furthermore, currently in Manitoba there are 63 MLCC outlets and 168 private liquor outlets. Currently the MLGC has seen record profits on alcohol, mainly through increased taxation and increased sales.

On 2023-05-12 at 2:47 PM, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

Ok, so then a $31.54 mark up on a 1.7L bottle of liquor is far more than the taxes on the same bottle...

Absolutely wrong. You guys have no idea what your are reading.

Edited May 15, 2023 by GCn20

[Sard]

15 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Manitoba Liquor stores run on a legislated 14% mark up, the same mark up that private enterprise liquor/beer/coolers run on. I have been in the liquor game for almost 30 years, have owned several vendors and can tell you that it has ALWAYS been between 11-14% to the retailer the rest to the MLCC. We have legislated price control in Manitoba. The most that the MLCC stores can make is 14% mark up because they sell at the same price as private enterprise. They show the synnovial tax in their mark up, however that is not the % lost to the MLCC at all if private liquor outlets were in place. The difference is 14% that would go to the private retailer the rest is retained by MLCC no matter who sells it.,

Furthermore, currently in Manitoba there are 63 MLCC outlets and 168 private liquor outlets. Currently the MLGC has seen record profits on alcohol, mainly through increased taxation and increased sales.

Absolutely wrong. You guys have no idea what your are reading.

In what world can the government possibly make more money selling to private retailers rather than direct to consumers.

If the pricing is the same between the MLCC and private retailers, it's not possible.  The MLCC isn't going to be selling to private retailers for more than they would direct to consumers, and if they are charging the retailers the same as consumers, then we're just paying more for the same product.

Your math doesn't work.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

40 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Absolutely wrong. You guys have no idea what your are reading.

It's literally there on page 7 of that link. what am I reading wrong?

 

https://www.mbllpartners.ca/sites/mbll_b2b/files/pdf_pamphlets/Pricing Information Manual 2022 (1).pdf

 

[Wideleft]

1 hour ago, Sard said:

In what world can the government possibly make more money selling to private retailers rather than direct to consumers.

If the pricing is the same between the MLCC and private retailers, it's not possible.  The MLCC isn't going to be selling to private retailers for more than they would direct to consumers, and if they are charging the retailers the same as consumers, then we're just paying more for the same product.

Your math doesn't work.

Don't you know that privatization ALWAYS leads to lower costs to the consumer?  /s

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

Don't you know that privatization ALWAYS leads to lower costs to the consumer?  /s

AND better service. 

[Tracker]

7 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

AND better service. 

Of course! Just look at how MTS/Bell improved after Filmon privatized it- even though he "promised" the Cons would not.

[Wideleft]

Mad Max late to right-of-centre festivities in Portage-LisgarP

By: Dan Lett
Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, May. 15, 2023

OPINION

 

It’s not clear yet whether the good people of Portage-Lisgar should be honoured or concerned that Maxime Bernier wants to make this federal riding his home.

In a thoroughly telegraphed but woefully underwhelming announcement last Friday, the People’s Party of Canada leader announced he was going to be a candidate in the June 19 byelection in Portage-Lisgar, one of four key byelections to be held that day in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

You could tell by the tone of his news release that he thought this was going to be big news; unfortunately for the PPC leader, the national media reacted with little more than a shrug.

Still, Mad Max’s arrival in the middle of the country raises a couple of important questions.

Will this riding serve as the fertile ground on which Bernier can grow the base of the PPC and make Canadian political history? Or, will his party’s fortunes — which have hovered just short of a breakthrough — wilt like wheat in a Prairie drought?

In the final analysis, Bernier’s decision to play the political carpetbagger in Manitoba says a lot about the steep hill facing the PPC as it attempts to become the sixth party in the House of Commons.

In theory, Bernier could have run in any of next month’s four byelections, including in Notre-Dame-de-Grace, the Montreal riding held for 15 years by former astronaut and Liberal cabinet minister Marc Garneau. Bernier is, after all, a native Quebecer and represented the federal riding of Beauce (south of Quebec City) for 13 years.

However, he tried twice (in 2019 and 2021) to recapture Beauce and in both instances, he finished comfortably in second place. The thought of competing for a seat in a Liberal stronghold in ultra-urban Montreal was, in the final analysis, not all that appealing.

The same predicament faced Bernier in Winnipeg South Centre, one of the longest-held Liberal seats in Canada. Ben Carr, son of the late Jim Carr, who held the riding for many years and served in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, is hoping to keep the seat in the Grit fold.

Winnipeg South Centre is as inhospitable a riding for Bernier as Notre-Dame-de-Grace. The PPC ran a candidate against the elder Carr in 2021 and received only two per cent of the total votes cast.

That leaves the Ontario riding of Oxford, which has been left open thanks to the departure of Conservative MP David McKenzie. Oxford is considered a Tory stronghold and the PPC captured a respectable 6,500 votes — 10 per cent of the total — in the 2021 federal election.

But a right-of-centre voter in southwestern Ontario is perhaps not the same kind of right-of-centre voter likely to flock to the PPC. Even with anti-vax and anti-mask sentiments running hot across Canada, MacKenzie was still able to collect nearly 30,000 votes, overwhelming the PPC result.

So, by default, that leaves us with Portage-Lisgar.

Bernier knows full well that southern Manitoba has become a hotbed of far-right, libertarian activism, the core attributes of PPC supporters. With arguably the lowest vaccination rate in the country, it was not surprising the PPC and candidate Solomon Wiebe were able to collect some 9,790 votes in the 2021 election.

Manitoba is also a province where Bernier got great headlines for being charged two years ago with breaching pandemic restrictions. It is a brilliant coincidence that on Tuesday, just four days after he announced his Portage-Lisgar candidacy, Bernier is scheduled to make a court appearance to contest his June 2021 arrest and charges for violating pandemic restrictions.

When you’re campaigning on an anti-government platform, being arrested by the Deep State is priceless political marketing.

And yet, even with all those positive signs, there is evidence the voters Bernier needs to win this byelection are already comfortable tucked into the folds of the Conservative party.

For evidence of that, you need only look at the results of the recent Conservative nomination in Portage-Lisgar to see how successful the federal Tories, behind the hard-right leadership of Pierre Poilievre, have been at recruiting far-right voters.

Former Tory MLA Cameron Friesen — a health and finance minister in the Progressive Conservative government who was considered to be a thought-leader for the far-right and ultra-religious sects within the provincial caucus — was considered to be a strong option for the nomination to replace Conservative MP Candice Bergen.

However, when the final results were announced, Friesen was left behind in the dust of Branden Leslie, Bergen’s former campaign manager. Leslie, who organized pro-freedom rallies and is well-equipped to talk the libertarian talk, is a potent opponent for Bernier.

And therein lies the rub for the PPC leader: riding voters who share the same ideological plain as the PPC leader are fully and completely embedded in the federal Conservative party riding association, and likely in the Tory voting base.

Bernier can rail on about the “Fake Conservative party,” the “radical left” and “woke culture” all he wants. In Portage-Lisgar, it’s a song often sung by others with deeper roots in the riding.

dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2023/05/15/mad-max-late-to-right-of-centre-festivities-in-portage-lisgar

0 PM CDT Monday, May. 15, 2023

[JCon]

Two school divisions defy provincial tax-freeze order

More than one school board defied a provincial directive to freeze its local taxes — and in turn, forfeited an offset grant — to raise more money to pay for staff and programs in 2023-24.

Elected officials in Winnipeg’s Seven Oaks School Division and the Red River Valley School Division, whose headquarters are in Morris, both recently passed budgets that rely on resident fee hikes.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2023/05/17/two-school-divisions-defy-provincial-tax-freeze-order

 

Well, this is interesting. The Gov't didn't get involved in the Brandon SD (article below), so will they interfere here? 

 

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2023/05/15/school-division-will-deal-with-book-ban-issue-premier

Premier Heather Stefanson said her government supports the LGBTTQ+ community and the authority of school divisions.

“We want to ensure that nobody is being discriminated against when it comes to information that is out there,” she told the house.

“When it comes to this situation, I know that school divisions have been involved,” she told the house Monday. “We know we’ve left certain things and decisions up to those school divisions.”

The Brandon division will deal with the issue, she said.

[HardCoreBlue]

From CBC News A story by Ian Froese

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson doesn't support banning LGBTQ content from school libraries, but it doesn't mean her government will meddle in the affairs of a school board considering such a proposal.

In other news HS is a person in a leadership role but is not an actual leader.  

[JCon]

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

From CBC News A story by Ian Froese

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson doesn't support banning LGBTQ content from school libraries, but it doesn't mean her government will meddle in the affairs of a school board considering such a proposal.

In other news HS is a person in a leadership role but is not an actual leader.  

That was evident during Covid. She hid the entire time, dismantling healthcare in this province in the shadows. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

2 hours ago, JCon said:

That was evident during Covid. She hid the entire time, dismantling healthcare in this province in the shadows. 

Just to be clear, she was absent during a lot of that time due to a long-term personal medical issue that was not much reported in the media. Not saying this excuses every poor decision she has or has not made, but the “ducking the job” narrative is not completely fair. 

[HardCoreBlue]

4 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Just to be clear, she was absent during a lot of that time due to a long-term personal medical issue that was not much reported in the media. Not saying this excuses every poor decision she has or has not made, but the “ducking the job” narrative is not completely fair. 

Who then was delegated her responsibilities during her leave?

[TrueBlue4ever]

4 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Who then was delegated her responsibilities during her leave?

Not sure. That would be a question for Pallister. 

[rebusrankin]

13 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Just to be clear, she was absent during a lot of that time due to a long-term personal medical issue that was not much reported in the media. Not saying this excuses every poor decision she has or has not made, but the “ducking the job” narrative is not completely fair. 

So she should have stepped down. Never ok to be MIA and its especially horrific during a global pandemic.

[Sard]

14 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

So she should have stepped down. Never ok to be MIA and its especially horrific during a global pandemic.

That and when she did have press conferences, she never actually answered any questions.  She gave roundabout run-on non-answers.

[WildPath]

15 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

From CBC News A story by Ian Froese

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson doesn't support banning LGBTQ content from school libraries, but it doesn't mean her government will meddle in the affairs of a school board considering such a proposal.

In other news HS is a person in a leadership role but is not an actual leader.  

This has been the party's position in education - make cuts, don't provide leadership and give the responsibility of managing (and criticism) to the local school divisions. Parents have been told that school divisions will provide all supports required without giving them the funding to do so. When they can't manage, it must be their fault.

I don't have the same connection to the healthcare system that I do the education system, but I do see some parallels. From an outsider's perspective, it seems the intention of healthcare system cuts is to make way for privatization. For education, I think it is just trying to shift responsibility for failures elsewhere. Unfortunately, most members of the public don't really see when the educational system is failing, so it is easier to escape political fallout.

[Mark H.]

2 hours ago, WildPath said:

Unfortunately, most members of the public don't really see when the educational system is failing, so it is easier to escape political fallout.

The salaries for this past school year were negotiated based on COLA, because most school divisions didn't give any other improved working conditions, they had to give more $$. Some now don't have the funding to pay that cost of living adjustment, which we all know is through the roof.

[WildPath]

4 hours ago, Mark H. said:

The salaries for this past school year were negotiated based on COLA, because most school divisions didn't give any other improved working conditions, they had to give more $$. Some now don't have the funding to pay that cost of living adjustment, which we all know is through the roof.

And provincial funding hasn't kept up with inflation and other increased needs that come to school. Because of this, programs need to be cut and support staff, teachers and admin are stretched even further.

[iHeart]

Sanity wins again

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/brandon-school-board-votes-down-lgbtq2-book-ban/ar-AA1bCSI9?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=28b24367d91540f1ac1655dd97f13848&ei=25

[GCJenks]

On 2023-05-14 at 12:46 PM, TrueBlue4ever said:

Unfortunately for you, having a name starting with “GC” and posting in the politics threads here is like having the actual name “Karen” and going shopping. 

Finally spent the time to reduce an image small enough for a profile pic. Hopefully it never happens again, just felt so dirty...

[Bigblue204]

https://twitter.com/AudreyGordonMB/status/1663194749644292096?t=DV5vGyBOiBSCW5n1ZGh2DA&s=19

Audrey graciously donating our tax money to revamp a churches Cafe. Money well spent!!

[JCon]

4 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

https://twitter.com/AudreyGordonMB/status/1663194749644292096?t=DV5vGyBOiBSCW5n1ZGh2DA&s=19

Audrey graciously donating our tax money to revamp a churches Cafe. Money well spent!!

Gross.