justcaws.com

GuelphMercury – Have your guns, my fellow Americans – after you pass__

GuelphMercury – There’s an argument to be made against French__

GuelphMercury – Turn off the tap on water conservation rebates

GuelphMercury_com – News – Do Teacher Unions Really Support Public Education

GuelphMercury_com – Editorial Reply to Cawsey Column – Some teachers need a few lessons(1)

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – Don’t worry, youth will vote — but only when it starts to count

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – High school students need a 3 a_m_ wake-up call

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – I’m winning gold at being an Olympic Cynic

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – ‘Is anyone sending their kids to that nice school down the street’

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – It’s time to regain our global relevance

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – Note to council we can’t afford you

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – Strong leadership needed on property tax increases

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – ‘Tis the season to talk about the other certainty of life

Poppy will only be meaningful if we pass its stories down

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – ‘Is anyone sending their kids to that nice school down the street’

If you want your kids to go to school with all of society – public schools are slowly no longer serving that need. Publicly funded speciality schools and programs are popping up everywhere and are breaking the system into fragments.

When public money dries up for these programs, and it will. The case for public education will be lost since the benefit of gaining perspective from being educated with children of all backgrounds will be gone. Chartered schools will spring up with cash strapped governments more than happy to reduce their education funding.

The loss of a strong public education system that has been a cornerstone of a progressive Ontario would be a shame. The irony is that it is being brought about by people wanting exclusivity in their public education system, but who are unable to afford the private option. This same demographic will be hurt the most – when these public programs get cut and parents come crawling back to a universal public system that many stakeholders have since abandoned.

GuelphMercury_com – Opinions – I’m winning gold at being an Olympic cynic

With RIM’s stock continuing to tank – the blackberry maker continues to be a lightening rod for business discussion and speculation.

What has been missing from the chatter is what makes RIM different from most businesses that are takeover targets.

Governments and corporations around the world continue to use blackberry as their mobile devices. The amount of sensitive data that transmits through RIM is enormous. The high level encryption and security standards continue to be RIM’s competitive advantage in holding its enterprise customer base – recent service interruptions notwithstanding .

If another company or individual tried to acquire RIM, the government of Canada would be under immense pressure to scrutinise the deal in order to ensure international security risks were addressed.

Whether a deal could or would ever be approved is mired in the certainty of uncertainty. This may be why no takeover attempt has been made to this point – even though it seems ripe for the taking. No company is going to bother making such a move if it knows it has no hope of getting government approval.

If anyone was looking to takeover or control RIM it could be the Canadian government. Yes, I know that may sound absurd, but if a state government such as the U.S. were concerned that RIM was being managed in such a way that could potentially lead to sensitive data transfers being compromised, it could push Canadian authorities to heavily regulate or even control RIM.

This of course is predicated upon RIM
remaining the gold standard for secure mobile communication. If this is compromised or duplicated then all bets are off. The talk and rumours surrounding RIM will disappear – along likely with RIM itself.

So what does the future of RIM hold. I suspect it will remain in its current form for quite sometime as long as its leading position in data encryption remains secure. There seems to be no marketing geniuses over there so it all comes down to the product.

It is for this reason I would be reluctant to throw Co-Ceo Mike Lazzaridis aside in any management shake up. He is the man that holds all the keys in keeping RIM secure and possibly coming up with anything new.

Well that didn’t take long did it. Wilson’s Leafs are staring to fall into that familiar pattern. Starting quick – till Wilson alienates and disrupts the confidence of many a player. Now the Leafs are falling just before winter hits – again.

Whether it be his mishandling and possibly ruining the promising and talented rookie Kadri. Or his treatment of his new whipping boy Luke Schenn. This coach can’t help himself but to let his personality get in the way.

Take the mishandling of back up Jonas Gustavsson. Just as this kid gets his game going and is gaining his confidence – Wilson decides to bench him and throw in a rookie Scrivens. Rook has a good game – so instead of letting him enjoy his contribution – you throw him to the wolves (or Bruins) and let him suffer through being lit up for five goals before pulling him. Now Scrivens confidence is shot and Gustavsson is left wondering why an unproven rookie gets more love from his coach than he does.

I do think Wilson is a great short term coach. His records in short tournaments proves this ( world cup, olympics). His best before date is just shorter than most coaches and the smell of losing in Toronto is getting very stale.

I also don’t think I am the only one who is annoyed by Wilson’s penchant for saying “we” when the team wins and “they” when the team loses.

Yes, I know it is early. Leafs are only 2-1 (nhl converted to nfl season – see previous posts) so far, but we have seen this movie before. Burke will have to make a change sooner rather than later if he wants to avoid another wasted season. My choice would be the PEI mouthpiece Doug Mclean. He was always a better coach than a manager and he has the media savy to handle Toronto.

Will see what happens – but if this two- game slide (outscored 12-1) becomes a six-gamer – Burke will have to make a move for a coach that instils player confidence and says “we” when the team wins AND when it loses.