Ok. This is a cheap excuse to bring back a posting I really enjoyed in order to correct a bit of trivia. No one cared enough to correct me, even if they caught it.
Anyway, in all the hubbub as Stephen Harper desperately tries to force an election on Canadians who overwhelmingly don't want it, here's a reminder of Loyola Hearn and his complete lack of credibility.
This story about post offices, which Loyola was pushing, turned out to be complete crapola. So much for Loyola and his inside knowledge.
The trivia error? It wasn't Dr. Yes who used to say thlee possibirities, it was Harry Who, a send up of the old Charlie Chan character. He appeared in Season One of Get Smart in an episode called "The Amazing Harry Who". That's also the episode where we first meet The Craw.
And if you think I am the only Get Smart fan out there, check this post from Paul Wells. April 26 to be specific with a reference to the Cone of Silence.
Trivia question: What's the connection between Max, 99 and Newfoundland?
Following on Loyola Hearn's claim of having a list of 86 post-office closures in Newfoundland and Labrador, VOCM is reporting two things today.
1. Canada Post says there is no list.
2. Loyola Hearn apparently said, as VOCM put it, "a number of communities in this province, including those in his riding, would be in the same sort of situation." The same situation means being 24 miles from the nearest post office or inconvenienced enough that it feels like you are 24 miles away.
Being the curious fellow, I took a trip over to the Canada Post website and typed in my postal code in order to find nearby postal outlets. My house is in the middle of the riding, geographically and maybe a little to the western end by some assessments. I am certainly where a chunk of the people live and nearby are the more rural bits of the riding, like Kilbride and the Goulds.
According to Canada Post there are eight nearby postal outlets including an actual postal station in Mount Pearl. They gave me a whole bunch in another riding too, by the way. The majority of postal service is provided by retail outlets operating in drug stores and the like. The whole riding isn't really 24 miles across so I started to wonder what is going on here.
So here's the funky bit.
If the only actual Canada Post outlet is the one in Mount Pearl, how in the name of all that is sensible can Canada Post put Loyola Hearn's riding in a position where his constituents are going to be something like 24 miles from the nearest post office. Even if we assume that Mount Pearl closes - and there is absolutely no proof that is even being thought about except by me - there isn't a single resident of St. John's South-Mount Pearl who would be hard-done-by for postal service.
As Dr. Yes used to say on Get Smart, there are thlee possibirities:
- Either Canada Post is not telling the truth and they plan to shut a whole raft of postal outlets in St. John's, Mount Pearl and surrounding areas;
- VOCM has misrepresented what Loyola actually did say; or,
- Loyola is actually talking about some other riding than the one he actually represents. Maybe Loyola thinks he represents the place where he lives - Renews - which is actually in John Efford's riding of Avalon.
The source of this whole cock-up? I can see it now. Loyola in a trenchcoat talking to his very own Agent 13 inside a post office box on the streets of Ottawa.
Loyola: "I thought you said they were going to close 86 post offices."
Agent 13: " 'I said they might close post offices, 86.' I never gave you an exact number."
Loyola: "Don't tell me I got the whole thing screwed up again."
Agent 13: "You got the whole thing screwed up again."
Loyola: "I asked you not to tell me that."
I miss Maxwell Smart more than ever.
