Op-Ed: Political Spat Between Saskatchewan and Alberta Is Like a Territorial Dispute between Drug Lords or Street Gangs-No Benefit to Public

Alberta-Sask-Wall-FNTEDMONTON – In the manner of drug lords and street gang thugs claiming personal territory, politicians in two Canadian provinces yesterday puffed out their chests in a pretentious mise-en-scene and launched invective at each other across the border between them.

In a nutshell, Saskatchewan blustered about banning Alberta license plates from construction sites in the province and Alberta retaliated by name calling and threatening to take Saskatchewan to court. There are behind-the-scenes rumours that Alberta is now scheming to build a wall along the border between the two provinces, and charge Saskatchewan for it.

The self-serving spat, driven by inflated egos, which was captured and egged on by national media, was supposedly about protecting the interests of trade within their perceived fiefdoms. It coincidently also happens to be about which side might get first dibs on taxing said trade. Despite the preening displays about their respective fiat boundaries, neither argument has any more locally-endorsed legitimacy than, in hindsight, did former jurisdictional landholding claims by colonial powers.

These escalating trends of political posturing by elected officials to restrict freedoms and levy tax grabs, conducted under the guise of protecting public interests, are getting more and more tiresome.

Notwithstanding the inherent and overblown silliness of this particular interaction, both sides seemed also to have forgotten both their manners and the fact that they hold office solely by the good graces of the general public, which would be seriously inconvenienced and financially disadvantaged by such overreaching intrusion into people’s day to day lives. Source: FNT Staff

Photo credit: Original images at; Wikipedia

Canadian Drive-thru Poutine Kiosk Restaurant Chain Sets Social Media Trending Record

Poutine Kiosk-FNT-Small.pngWEYBURN – A Saskatchewan company that launched a drive-thru chain of poutine kiosks has set a new Canadian business record. Poutine a Go-Go trended on twitter as Canada’s fastest growing non-e-business for two consecutive three-minute windows between noon and six p.m. on November 13th.

“This is exciting stuff,” said Marcel Boulanger, who is originally from Gatineau, Quebec and is expanding his chain of kiosks across the Canadian mid-west. “I mean, last week my bank manager was on my case big-time about paying down my student loan, but when I showed him the latest infographic on my expanded audience base, we’re now talking about going coast to coast.”

Boulanger said that his specialty poutine chain struggled like a lot of small start-ups in the beginning: “the restaurant business is one of the most risky games to go into”, but everything changed for him when he tweeted out a link to an Instagram photo of his cat, Sylvester, who was eating a dish of poutine with squeaky Gorgonzola cheese curds, while belted into his kitty-safe car seat in Boulanger’s ’98 Dodge Neon.

“Everything just exploded then,” the record-setting poutine entrepreneur said. “Since then, I’ve never been busier. “I’m cross-posting with Facebook, and on Friday we’ll be in their hot-topics report. I’ve also hired a team to update my Tweet marketing tactics.”

When asked about other plans he might have for the future, the Canadian drive-thru poutine king explained that he was also going to feature Sylvester the cat in a national Internet advertising campaign to further expand his burgeoning business empire.

“I mean forget quality ingredients, the best locations and an award-winning poutine chef,” he said. “We’re talking a major micro-influencer here!”  Source: FNT Staff  

Photo credit: Original images at: Canadian Living,  Dallas News  , La Poutine,