Some areas of australia have imposed an outright ban on the use of cameras on public beaches. Two reasons were given for the ban; a desire to clamp down on child pornography and to prevent women from being secretly photographed and their pictures sold or otherwise posted on the Internet. In one australian community the use of cameras, except by professional photographers, are banned from use in public swimming pools. This policy has the effect of preventing parents from photographing or filming their own children during a competitive swim meet. These laws are naturally seen by some as a gross overreaction to the problems that they are trying to solve.
Since Dalton McGuinty and the Liberals came to power it is hard for residents of the Province on Ontario to read or hear about such measures as those undertaken down under without wondering just when the Ontario government will impose such restrictions. We realize that it is just a matter of time before the government whose answer to everything is "ban it", will impose similar legislation.
In one of life’s little ironies, in the same edition of the i that reported the camera restrictions in australia, a column was published by Terence Corcoran entitled, "Canada’s Worst — Mrs. McGuinty’s Nanny State Whacks Ontario". Corcoran criticized the Ontario government on several fronts and characterized the McGuinty-led Liberals as "a moralizing nag, a righteous nanny whose government scolds and pontificates and imposes itself on the lives of citizens. If necessary, it will go from door to door, household to household, marching in with orders and instructions on how to live, where to live, what to eat, when to run the dishwasher, have sex or smoke a cigarette". Corcoran has managed to capture the essence of the McGuinty government in a few short sentences.
Liberal MPP Lorenzo Berardinetti recently got married and shortly thereafter discovered what Time Magazine learned way back in 1992 — men and women are different. The rookie MPP was shocked to find out that women pay higher prices for some things such as haircuts and dry cleaning and has introduced a Private Members’ Bill to make price differentials based upon gender, illegal. While Private Members’ Bill usually don’t go anywhere, this one has a chance, given the majority Liberals’ propensity to regulate what would otherwise be the free market. Some aspects of the MPP’s complaints seem to have justification such as the difference in dry cleaning costs of similar garments depending upon whether they are "shirts" or "blouses". But it will be interesting to see if the new Mrs. Berardinetti will pop into a barber shop for the type of clip that men get for $10 or $12.
Berardinetti’s proposed legislation is the type of legislation that this government loves. McGuinty has no ability or desire to control government spending. He simply isn’t capable. Every time he is forced to come up with more money, he just whines and complains. This government takes absolutely no responsibility for anything that it does. McGuinty blamed the previous Conservative government long after the usual time period that new governments get away with blame the old one. and when McGuinty’s criticism of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves became really tiresome and failed to be convincing, he turned his attention to the federal government and blames them for the province’s financial woes.
McGuinty needs to grow up and take some responsibility for the financial situation in his province. He is accountable for the spending of his government. But he won’t take any responsibility. It’s always someone else’s fault. Besides the fact that McGuinty is so arrogant that he thinks he knows how people should live their lives better than they do, banning and micro-regulating conduct doesn’t cost as much as buying MRI machines or hiring more police officers. as long as McGuinty remains in power, he will stay the present course — banning junk food and regulating the price of hair cuts.
Take pictures while you can — it’s only a matter of time before Ontario follows australia’s lead and bans cameras from public places.