Sticks & stones will break my bones

Enlarge Image

You’ve seen this many times in the media.

Enlarge Image

Displaying opinions at the Brandon Folk, Music and Art Festival. (FILE PHOTO)

Enlarge Image

Canadian star Jane Siberry performs at Folk Fest. (FILE PHOTO)

A tearful man, woman, couple or entire family are standing in front of the burned out rubble that was once their home and they are explaining how they only got out with the clothes on their backs.

And no, they didn’t have insurance.

While some people choose to gamble about the need for house or apartment insurance, many others simply can’t afford it.

And a new tax by the NDP slaps the seven per cent sales tax on various insurance policies in Manitoba, including on land and buildings, property damage, sprinkler leakage, fire insurance, flood insurance, sewer backup insurance, weather insurance and related business interruption or income insurance.

Brandon insurance broker Nate Andrews told CTV Winnipeg any new or existing policies which take effect after July 15 are affected.

"The public’s just starting to figure this out," said Andrews, who’s also president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

This new tax could persuade more people not to buy insurance policies.

And as someone who was once left homeless by a fire in an apartment block — not my suite, but the smoke damage was extensive and the block was condemned — I know the value of insurance.

Trust me, I was glad I had bought insurance. Even though it was at a time in my life that I would have preferred to have spent the money on some lifestyle want, instead of a real-life need.

So that’s why I had no time for my friend Drew Caldwell, who didn’t like the tone of my above tweet, which I had sent out earlier in the week.

Here’s the Twitter exchange between myself and the Brandon East NDP MLA yesterday:

• Caldwell: "Name-calling? Isn’t that the domain of Sound Off or eBrandon?

Tsk … Good, decent, hard-working Manitobans elect governments."

• O’Connor: "It got attention. You should be encouraging folks to buy insurance, not taxing them for it."

• Caldwell: "Name-calling is just name-calling. Lighting your head on fire and running down a street naked also get attention, James."

• O’Connor: "Sticks & stones, dude. The NDP’s tax on house insurance is just wrong."

I’ll remind my dear readers that the NDP Premier Greg Selinger promised not to raise taxes during a leaders’ radio forum during the 2011 provincial election.

And this is just the latest in a series of levies and fees that Manitobans have been saddled with. Except this is actually being called a tax.

So I’ll resort to a bit of name calling if it brings some attention to the issue.

And in this case,­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ it did — right to the man who has Selinger on speed dial.

Delicious irony at Brandon Folk Fest

In what was a rebuilding year from the rained-out 2011 event, the Brandon Folk, Music and Art festival managed to stage a very entertaining event last weekend.

While the final numbers haven’t been released yet, it was plain to see that there were quite a few people on the southeast treed corner of the Keystone Centre grounds — and all appearing to be having a good time.

About the festival site. It needs work. The ground is more rutted and difficult to navigate each year and the ancient stage is a joke. It’s tiny and offers almost no protection from the elements for performers.

It would be fantastic to have some kind of clam-shell style as found at secondary performance areas at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. But clearly that would be a stretch for the local folk society to afford. I suggest sprucing up that nice treed corner of the Keystone Centre grounds would give the facility an area that could provide new sources of revenue, as more events could take place there during the year.

But I digress.

The headline acts at the folk festival were a wonderfully odd mix. You had the trendy and current Great Lake Swimmers on Friday. That band was followed Saturday night by the slightly forgotten eclectic and just plain odd ’90s era Canadian star Jane Siberry — who bravely performed in a midnight downpour. Then the Sunday program ended  — and international folk music legend Judy Collins closed the show Sunday night.

I’m told Siberry, shown Sunday night in the photo at right, was so pleased with her experience at the festival that she made a sizeable donation on her way out. Now that’s a class act.

The festival actually kicked off Thursday night at the nearby Canad Inns Roadhouse with a roster that included The Young Pixels and Nathan.

Following the #bfmaf hashtag on Twitter and talking to real humans on site, it was clear that Winnipeg’s Little House band, Brandon’s Son Latino Band and Sebastian Owl were favourites.

There was a Five-Act Community Play that was performed between sets on Saturday that was a bit hard to follow and was essentially taking swipes at some of the folks in Brandon who aren’t supportive of the folk festival and some of its ongoing projects. Large puppet heads were used — very creative — but the narrative was hard to follow.

Especially if you weren’t there all day.

And naturally, as it was a folk festival (yes, there was some art too, but not enough of it and not varied enough to my liking), there were plenty of political statements. And obviously, they ranged from calls for some mild social activism to savage socialist rants.

One item caught my attention Saturday. I couldn’t resist the irony of having a 45-minute multi-artist workshop called Songs For Stephen Harper when the festival is partly funded by the feds and Brandon-Souris MP Merv Tweed also bought a quarter-page ad in the festival program.

So while the folkies might want to learn a bit about the concept of not biting the hand that feeds you, the Conservatives also need to realize it is a folk festival.

And apart from repeated one-offs about Harper hating the arts and one woman looking pretty dumb doing an impression of Senate page Brigette Marcelle with a Stop Harper sign (see above), it was relatively tame, with many of the songs simply being anti-capitalist in nature.

But I’ll leave you with one odd attempt at an anti-Harper statement made by a fellow going by the name of Graham Peaceful.

"It’s pointless to fight drugs like it’s pointless to fight terrorism," he said. "It’s going to happen any way.’
Sheesh. Some socialists aren’t all that savvy.

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition July 28, 2012