What happens to a man when he becomes a billionaire?

I’d include women in that question if they represented more than the 12% of existing billionaires, but it would be surprising to a lot of us to know that there are fully 337 female billionaires out there in the first place.  Surprising, not because they’re women, but rather because 337 is 12% of a much larger number of total billionaires.  And to me, that’s just flat-out troubling.

Female billionaires don’t appear to be the type who run around wedging their names into the world’s headlines.  They don’t appear to offer overly contentious commentary of local, national, and international stages.  I’m absolutely positive they have the financial heft to make their opinions known, and probably aren’t terribly shy in making their wishes come true.  They just seem to go about it in a way that makes them come up a rosier version of their male counterparts.

There’s an adage out there that says you can’t pick your neighbours but that you can sure as hell pick your friends.

It’s an adage that can now be applied to the relationship that currently exists between Canada and the United States.

Geography and history gave us the United States.  The Americans and their bizarre choice of a deranged president have given us Europe.

Big Mouth and his Acolytes, duly elected by our friends and family south of the border, have decided to undo maybe 145 years of collaborative history by singling us out for economic punishment and the threat of economic annexation as America’s so-called 51st state.

Good for them.  Whatever makes you feel relevant, if for some reason relevance has been something eluding you.  Maybe push around Greenland, Mexico, and Panama as well.  Completely estrange yourself from Europe and pull the rug out from under Ukraine while you’re at it.  Kiss Vladimir’s Russian ass and try not to ruin your makeup before having to do the same to China’s Xi.  Makes me wonder if you simply forgot about Japan and South Korea or if you just haven’t gotten around to pissing on them yet as well.

When your local coffee shop becomes your office.

Not like anyone working here ever gave me permission to set up shop, it’s more like they’re just prepared to overlook the fact that I tend to occupy that same seat in front of the window most afternoons, pecking away at my keyboard, giving off the impression that I’m doing something really important.  For the record, I’m mostly not.  It’s all a smokescreen.

I’m just here for the window.

There was a time when that was sort of true.  Being a student of people and humanity, sitting in a window along the town’s main drag can bring a lot of those people and a lot of that humanity right to you and right by you as they pass along the sidewalk, busily on their way to wherever it is that they’re busily on their way to.

But, honestly, it’s become much more than that now.

When Renfrew Town Council went to a Committee of the Whole format, standing committees were made a thing of the past, and one of the casualties of that decision was the loss of a designated individual to handle the contract identification and enforcement duties usually undertaken by an HR person.

What this makes necessary is the appointment, or designation of such an individual, someone who can take on the role of Council HR Liaison.  As the name suggests, it’s a position requiring a liaison between council and administrative staff when it comes to the area of workers and the contractual conditions under which they toil for the town.

This designation is especially important as such a person would be involved in the grievance process.  Currently, there are three internal steps to any grievance procedure before the arbitration stage is reached.