wow! Was it really 50 years ago that the Beatles invaded the U.S.?
Hate to show my age, but I remember it well.
I was at grammar school in England and we viewed the Beatles’ U.S. Trip as the beginning of the end.
We’d already got to know them. They were the likely lads from Merseyside who’d broken all the stereotypes and made good.
They were your average working class guys who went over the wall, escaped the constraints of a class system that was still in force in Britain.
The dreary post-war years in Britain had precious little for us to cheer about.
and then came the Beatles – with their long-hair, their odd high-collared jackets – Beatles suits we called them.
Lately, some have compared them to Justin Bieber. They were the bad boys of their age: sex, drugs and rock and roll, some argue.
That may be true, but the Beatles were so much more.
First, the Beatles treated their fans with respect. They worked hard, they put on great shows, they did their best.
Justin Bieber is all about Justin Bieber.
More importantly, the Beatles had a wonderful, often self-deprecating sense of humour. They made us laugh at ourselves, at them – and a society that needed shaking up from the top down.
Remember that great line at the Royal command performance, when they told the audience to clap along with them, “And the rest of you in the expensive seats, just rattle your jewellry”?
In the early 60s in Britain, war was still an awful memory for our parents. Cities like London and Liverpool had been targeted by Nazi bombers night after night.
The Beatles spoke for those of us who came after them who were looking to find a different world than the one our parents had suffered through.
They represented change – in a good way.
Politicians talk about making a difference in people’s lives. In fact, they rarely do. The forces that change society come from the popular culture itself.
And the Beatles’ creativity changed pop music. They changed a lot in modern culture, especially in Britain.
Even the Stones, who were the ultimate Bad Boys of their time, were not the self-absorbed juveniles that Bieber’s turned into.
I doubt we’ll be celebrating Bieber 50 years from now.
And if we are – well, I won’t be here to see it.
30

British Prime Minister David Cameron had a clever comment about new Pope Francis and his comment that the British were “usurpers” in the Falklands.

Sun reporter Sam Pazzano has a stunning story Friday on the abuse of a young woman in the hands of a monster.

The Children’s Aid Society gave custody of her to a man who physically and sexually abused her. Ombudsman Andre Marin has asked for oversight of Children’s Aid Societies for years.

Perhaps this horrific case will finally convince people that he is right.

All party talks have broken down over the contempt ruling on release of documents relating to the cancellation of two gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

Speaker Dave Levac ruled last week that Energy Minister Chris Bentley was in contempt of the House for not releasing the documents. Instead of going immediately into the contempt debate, however, he tossed the issue back to the House leaders and told them to work it out between them.

That politicized something that should essentially not have been a political decision. It set an unfortunate precedent, because Parliament is supposed to be supreme.

Now, predictably, talks have broken down between the parties. The Liberals offered two options: They would release them to the estimates committee – but they would remain sealed for six weeks. Since their are no committees up and running right now, that could drag on forever. And the government could prorogue the House, in which case the issue could get pushed to the back burner forever.

The second option was to create an ad hoc committee comprised of an MPP and a staff member from each party who would review the documents. A special panel comprised of the Provincial auditor and two judges would have the final say on what could be released.

That, too, was a non-starter for the other parties. They expect about 50,000 – 100,000 documents and don’t consider this an option.

“We have said from the beginning these documents have to be released,” said NDP House leader Gilles Bisson.

“Why should we believe anything they say when they haven’t kept their word before?” Bisson asked.

The government has until 6 p.m on Monday to produce the documents. Watch for fireworks next week.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced this morning that the provincial deficit for 2011-2012 is $13 billion – $3 billion less than forecast.

Tory Finance critic Peter Shurman just walked around with chart showing Ontario still has a larger deficit that all other provinces combined.
(Alberta $23 million; PEI $79 million; NS, $248 million; Manitoba, 1.124; BC. $1.84 billion; Quebec $3.3 billion.)

Methinks the government is doing some serious management of expectations. If they’re doing so well containing costs, why the haste to return the House to deal with teacher pay freeze?

One minute we’re drowning in debt. The next, everything is rosy. Which one is it?

Stop the buses.

It looks as though we’ve been saved from an unwanted and unnecessary election by a last minute bit of budget brinksmanship.

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this afternoon he’s reached a deal with New Democratic leader Andrea Horwath for her support getting the budget through the Legislature.

In addition to the additional support for welfare and childcare that he threw her way last week, he also agreed to a tax on the rich – an NDP idea that is popular with voters. His compromise? The money raised by the tax will go to pay down the debt.

So it appears to be win, win, win.

Voters get not to have another vote. The Libs get to cling on to their minority government. And the NDP get to look like they wrung concessions from them.

Horwath is taking her time responding to the premier’s statement, but if she turns this down, she will be toast.
Next year, of course, all bet are off.

Long before computers and viruses, the Trojan Horse was the subterfuge by which the Greeks finally made their way into Troy.

Of course, “Beware Greeks bearing gifts” has a whole new connotation, given the European debt crisis.

But the notion of infiltrating your enemy using what ostensibly is a gift is alive and well in this province.

When the Conservative government of Mike Harris initially negotiated the deal by which slots were allowed in racetracks, the revenue splitting was 20% for the racetracks and the rest for the province, with some of that going to municipalities.

The horse racing industry should have recognized a ruse when they saw it back then. Gradually, over time, racetracks have become slot venues, with everyone now wondering why they have horse racing happening at a slots venue.

The announcement that Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation will remove the slots from three tracks in Windsor, Fort Erie and Sarnia not just signals the loss of more than 500 jobs. It sounds the death knell for horse racing in this province.

Fort Erie, particularly, is a track that helped build up Woodbine. Without it, even Woodbine will have trouble continuing as a racing venue. Sad day for the thousands of people involved in horse racing in this province.

Now that karen Stintz has essentially pulled off a coup at Toronto City Council, perhaps the people of Scarborough should consider separating.
Like him or not, Mayor Rob Ford was elected by hundreds of thousands of people across the city.
Not so Stintz, who represents her own little fief – with its own subway.
Now Stintz, in her megalomaniac wisdom is telling the people of Scarborough – not one of whom voted for her – what kind of transit we should get.
PC leader Tim Hudak held a news conference to back subways Tuesday.
“Council has degenerated into a war of personalities,” he told reporters.
He’s right.
How would I pay for subways? I’ve been saying for years that people in the ‘burbs should pay more to travel the TTC. If we’d been doing so over the years, by now we’d have enough money to pay for subways. Then you get the fatcat developers who make a killing every time a subway is built near their property to kick in as well.
I live in Scarborough. I’m tired of downtown types sneering at us because we drive everywhere. We have to. We have such poor transit. Why should Karen Stintz and the rest of the city tell Scarborough we have to give up two lanes of a major east west road – just because we’re Scarborough and we can’t afford subways?
Thanks but no. If we’re not getting subways, you can stick the LRT. I’ll stay in my car.

PC leader Tim Hudak had a tough time in scrums this morning, explaining exactly his party’s position on the approximately $450 million the horse racing industry gets from slot machines.

When he was asked why his party supported horse racing, Hudak kept talking around the issue.

“Dalton McGuinty is not just cherry picking, he’s pulling big bricks away,” he said of the government’s response to the Don Drummond report. Except that wasn’t the question.

Quite apart from the horrible mixed metaphor, you’re left wondering if Hudak actually understands the issue.

The $450 million isn’t a subsidy. It’s shared revenue the racetracks get as part of a deal struck when the government allowed slot machines in to their racetracks. Now that the government no longer needs the tracks, they’re pulling the deal and leaving the gee-gees high and dry.

Why couldn’t Hudak just say so?

Health Minister Deb Matthews was fighting for her political life Friday afternoon, as she held a news conference to tell reporters that the government is moving to get some accountability back into the air ambulance system after the Ornge debacle.

She called in the OPP this week to probe “irregularities” at the air ambulance system.

Changes to the Ambulance Act will allow the government to appoint a supervisor or investigators when it’s in the public interest.

She also said she was lied to about the safety of the helicopters.

“We were assured they had fixed it,” Matthews told reporters – although she couldn’t say who had given those assurances.
Teh choppers were configured in a way that made it difficult to perform CPR in-flight.

They’d also been told there was no mixing of the private and non-profit parts of Ornge.

Tory critic Frank Klees, meanwhile, says Matthews should resign – and the government should change the name of Ornge to Ontario Air Ambulance. Or something more colourful – like, say, LEMNS?