Ish Theilheimer

Ish Theilheimer is founder and president of Straight Goods News and has been Publisher of the leading, and oldest, independent Canadian online newsmagazine, StraightGoods.ca, since September 1999. He is also Managing Editor of PublicValues.ca. He lives wth his wife Kathy in Golden Lake, ON, in the Ottawa Valley.

eMail: ish@straightgoods.com

Public workers are easy marks for bullies

Sep 042012

Editorials

Public workers are easy marks for bullies

Schoolroom lessons ignored in right-wing power politics.

by Ish Theilheimer

Working for the public these days is like wearing a bullseye on your back. Every passing politician wants to use you for target practice. After years of hectoring and propoganda, the right wingers' message has become dominant. They blame government, public services and public sector workers for public deficits. The talk show jocks and bully pulpit politicos who hammer these points home every day never mention the real reasons for big deficits, like cutting corporate taxes and corporation exporting jobs to low-wage countries — all of which leaves government treasuries stripped bare of tax dollars. It's pretty hard for a government to stay in the black if it depends on income tax from Wal-Mart workers.

Labour needs a better image

Aug 082012

Editorials

When working people keep siding with bosses, something has to change.

by Ish Theilheimer

The Civic Holiday weekend, which most Canadians celebrate at the beginning of August, is the best holiday of all because it has no obligations other than to put down tools, relax and enjoy. Other holidays require gifts, parades, services, and so on, but the Civic Holiday is about not working, which is a great reason for a holiday.

That's why it seemed ironic to me over the weekend to be imbibing beachside with a group of neighbours and hear them start to trash-talk other workers. My companions (even some who work for the public themselves) dumped special ridicule Unionized workers who "make too much money," like teachers and nurses and public liquor store workers.

I felt like I was sharing brewskies with Don Cherry.

Wreckers make a moonscape of Canada

Jul 272012

Editorials

After 13 damaging months, Conservatives' changes will be hard to reverse.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video "rant"

At his last news conference of the session, government House leader Peter Van Loan told the truth for a change. They "got the job done," he said. It's true. In 13 months, the Harper Conservatives have done what they set out to do nine years ago when Harper became head of the newly-incarnated Conservative Party of Canada. In just over a year, his government has laid waste to Canada's public services, its cooperative traditions and its reputation. Mission accomplished.

Tough medicine needed to save the world

Jul 242012

Editorials

Extreme weather brings home climate change reality.

The bills for climate change are coming due and the situation is alarming.

My part of Canada is experiencing the worst drought in memory. The eastern US has been buffeted by catastrophic storms and heat waves. Tornadoes have become common where they were formerly unknown (in fact one hit my home as I was finishing this piece!). Meanwhile, many parts of British Columbia are fighting floods and mudslides and the Arctic continues to thaw.

Climate change is no longer theory. It's a lethal reality that is already killing people, flora and fauna — through crop failures, weather catastrophes and the elimination of habitat needed to support life on land, in the air and in water.

Ish is in Schoolhouse

Jul 102012

Editorials

Publisher is also Producer of Ottawa Valley summer theatre.

Ish will return after July 17, when Stone Fence Theatre launches Schoolhouse, by Leanna Brodie, in Eganville.

Schoolhouse paints a loving portrait of rural one-room schoolhouses, which went out of use about 50 years ago in the Ottawa Valley. Just as importantly, it portrays a heroic teacher who worked, as so many teachers do now, for equality and fair treatment for their students.

"Producing Schoolhouse is only a small tangent", says Ish, "from my work with Straight Goods News."

Le NPD élimine le risque d’une bombe de privatisation dans le budget, McGuinty menace de déclencher des élections en Ontario

Jun 222012

Valeurs Publiques

L'annexe 28 du projet de loi aurait pour effet de créer un « csar de privatisation » et la vente des services vitaux à une perte.

par Ish Theilhemer

Toronto, ON, Straight Good News, le 15 juin 2012 : Le premier ministre de l'Ontario Dalton McGuinty menace de déclencher des élections en raison des modifications forcées par les Nouveaux démocrates et les Conservateur par rapport au projet de loi englobant des mesures diverses de son gouvernement qui empêchent la privatisation globale des services gouvernementaux.

Les menaces du premier ministre viennent à la suite des négociations article par article du projet de loi sur le budget (projet de loi 55). Les syndicats des services publics, les défenseurs des soins de santé et le NPD travaillent acharnement afin de modifier ou rejeter une section peu connue du projet de loi — l'annexe 28 — qui pourrait entamer la vente de tout service gouvernemental. Celle-ci contient des mesures pour nommer un ministre du Cabinet « le csar de la privatisation » et de lui permettre, sans débat législatif, de vendre tout service, y compris les soins de santé, les routes ou l'émission des permis de conduire.

Polarization destroying Canadian consensus

Jun 192012

Editorials

Polarization destroying Canadian consensus

Harper is making Brian Mulroney look like a beacon of progressive thought.

by Ish Theilheimer

When Canadians become nostalgic for the good old days of Brian Mulroney, you know something is seriously wrong.

Mulroney won two successive majority governments in the 1980 before being hounded from office in the '90s, having acquired the popular moniker "Lyin' Brian." He was pompous, full of himself, scheming and capable of downright nastiness. He peppered his speech with gutter-level expressions like "There's no whore like an old whore," and "You gotta dance with the one what brung you."

NDP defuses budget privatization bomb, McGuinty threatens ON election

Jun 152012

Public services

Schedule 28 of bill would create "privatization czar," sell off vital services at loss.

by Ish Theilheimer

TORONTO, ON, Straight Goods News, June 15, 2012: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is threatening an election because opposition New Democrats and Conservatives have forced changes to his government's omnibus bill which block widespread privatization of government services.

The Premier's threats are in response to clause-by-clause committee negotiations over the budget bill (Bill 55). Public service unions, health care advocates and the NDP have been working furiously to amend or reject a little-known section of the bill — Schedule 28 — that could result in the sell-off of any government service. It contains provisions to make one Cabinet minister the "privatization czar" and enable him or her to act, without legislative debate, to sell off anything from health care to roads to the issuance of drivers' licences.

Governments “omnibuster” to make stealth changes

Jun 122012

Editorials

Governments “omnibuster” to make stealth changes

Harperites, Ontario Liberals use omnibus bills to thwart democracy.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video rant produced by Samantha Bayard

If there's anything I can't stand, it's when you're out for a walk and you see a coffee cup from Horton's that some fellow Canadian has seen fit to throw out of the car onto the roadside. You go to dispose of the darn thing up and inside you find a cigarette butt or two.

I'm sure that only Stephen Harper Conservatives throw these damn things out of their car windows. They show the same level of respect and common decency in everything they do.

Quebec students are leading the way

Jun 052012

Editorials

Citizens resist politics of austerity, push back right-wingers' assets grab.

by Ish Theilheimer

with YouTube video rant, produced by Samantha Bayard

While Stephen Harper's omnibus Trojan Horse garbage truck bill is painfully discouraging for progressive Canadians, at the same time, an amazing and encouraging story continues to unfold in Quebec with the student protests over student debt.

Although the majority of recent mass protests have been peaceful, a small faction of crazies has managed to tarnish the reputation of the other hundreds of thousands of protestors. The violent tactics and property crimes of masked "Black-Bloc" types have again attached the adjective "violent" to media descriptions of the demos.

After the revelations of agents provocateurs at the G20 protests in Montebello, QC, and suspicious photos from the G8 two years ago in Toronto, the activities of these people is highly suspect.

Ish Theilheimer's rant on Quebec student protests and the politics of austerity. Please view and share.

Whether they are police agents or just idiots trying to make trouble, these provocateurs make the brave actions of the hordes of legitimate protestors even more amazing. The violent loonies make it much more dangerous for people to turn out for demos both because of what they do and the way they escalate police violence.

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