Resume

KERRY FORREST

182 Peter Street

Renfrew, ON K7V 1J3

PHONE: (613) 312-1515                                                               E-mail: KerryForrest@Gmail.com

OBJECTIVE                   To obtain work experience to complete requirements for pending Canadian International Trade Professional designation

CUSTOMER SERVICE   *Served customers both directly and over the phone to provide high quality customer service and issue resolutions as employee and assistant manager and owner of a taxi service

COMMUNICATION     *Polished public speaking skills by taking advantage of all opportunities within

SKILLS                           the Business Administration program to speak in front of classmates.

                                    *Interpersonal skill development within program of study with group work and discussion

                                   

ORGANIZATIONAL/   *Conducted human resources tasks of interviewing, training and hiring of

MANAGEMENT SKILLS  employees.

                                    *Organized employee schedules and improved staffing based on projected service requirements using sales data and trends, creating more efficiency of service.

                                    *Knowledge of issues and needs of business conducted internationally.

TECHNICAL/               *Completed Business Computers Applications course focusing on MS-

COMPUTER SKILLS       Office suite of programs, and MS-Project.

                                    *Regularly used MS-Office suite for business purposes

                                   

REPORT WRITING       *Analyzed business cases using the Harvard Methodology, written Marketing and Research plans graded by the Forum for International Trade Training

SALES                          *Made recommendations based on client’s needs in retail environment.

EDUCATION                Algonquin College, Ottawa, ON, Business Administration, 2004-2007

                                    Major:  International Business

                                    GPA in major: 3.0

                                               

EMPLOYMENT             2010 – Present: Renfrew Taxi, Renfrew, ON, Owner/Operator

                                    2008 – 2010: Brad’s Taxi, Renfrew, ON, Driver

                                    2007 – 2008: Winerack #128, Lincoln Fields Shopping Center, Ottawa, ON,

                                    Wine Merchant

                                    2007- 2008: Primerica Financial Services, 161 Greenbank Road, Ottawa, ON, Part-time financial services representative.    

                                    2004 - 2007 Brad’s Taxi, Renfrew, ON, Part-time Driver

                                    2002 - 2004, Brad’s Taxi, Renfrew, ON, Manager

2000 - 2002, John Pallen & Sons’ Construction, Haley’s Station, ON

1999 -  D’arcy’s Moving and Storage, Ottawa, ON, summer employment

                                    1998 - 1999, Olsten’s Staffing Service, Arnprior 

INTERESTS                      Marketing, Motivational Techniques, Athletics, History, Writing, Cooking

REFERENCES                            Michelle Cunnington-Fletcher    Norman Lomow                        Jeff Yantha

                                                Porter                                       International Business Coord    IT Specialist                                             Ottawa Hospital(Civic)                Algonquin College                   Ottawa Base Hospital

                                                (613) 301 5097                     (613) 727-4723 ext. 5770   (613) 228 4017    

                                                            

The Truth about the affects of Corporate Tax - Its not just the Fat Cats

This about that.  I am tired of people spinning corporate tax cuts as only for the fat cats.  I might be a little fat, but I'm definitely not a cat, but like many small businesses, I am incorporated.  Thousands of small mom and pops you deal with every day are incorporated too.  Our progressive tax regime is not conductive to sole proprietorships, so if you are a little bit successful, you quickly progress to making the CRA successful in collecting a lot of personal tax from you.

I'm not going to go on about how corporate taxes are just passed on to the consumer in higher prices, or less opportunity for the folks to get a job, or how a percentage increase in corporate taxes are magnified throughout the system, or how taxes like these, in general, are morally wrong because the tax on producers is taken by those that did not produce anything by force of law.  Not going to go on about all of that.

But those percent changes mean a great deal to those small businesses running on slim margins, already seeing those margins squeezed by increased sales taxes that have increased business costs while lowering client's purchasing powers, and reducing gross sales.  Costs for everyone are increasing, and income is static while governments grasp for even more revenue to pay for services we can not afford and often they need not deliver. Then this grasping chokes off more production, reducing government revenues, requiring more grasping.  You see where this is going, and its a sum zero result.

Give us some breathing room, and we will produce the goods, the services and the jobs needed by all.  And maintaining the scheduled corporate tax cuts is a start.  Cutting red tape and getting the bureaucrats out of our way is a great next step.  I know if I can just squeeze another 10% out of my bottom line costs, I can provide someone with a job, where they can gain pride from being productive and a well deserved income.  Corporate tax cuts aren't the only thing that could contribute to finding that 10%, but taking another 3% out of my business will prevent me from keeping those producers I have.

So when I hear the choices between keeping the scheduled corporate tax cuts as they are, as the CPC has promised, having them rolled back as the LPC has promised, or having them pegged as just under the US rate as the NDP has promised, my decision is clear.  For me, and for those I employ.

Perhaps this might help you decide when you hear about the menacing wrong headed priorities of the CPC ignoring families to give tax cuts to their corporate friends, that I am one of these corporate cronies, and many regular folk like me are as well, and we are the ones that produce the jobs for families in this country.  The thousands of small enterprises from Newfoundland to British Columbia and all points between that stand to gain from this policy.

And lose from the policies of the LPC and NDP.

By the way, to keep corporate taxes below US levels, the NDP have a lot of leeway.  Corporate Taxes in the US are 35%.  Ours are currently 16.5%.  Is it any wonder why we are doing better than the US when it comes to economy?  Even when our greatest market is in the tank worried about a double dip recession?

Take a trip to Galt's Gulch this summer

Since I can't up and move to Galt's Gulch, and will not have the time to sign out and travel to this amazing event put on by the Institute for Humane Studies

IHS Summer Seminars provide an opportunity to learn about classical liberal ideas, such as individual rights and free markets, and apply these ideas to topics in history, economics, philosophy, law, and other disciplines.

I invite you if you have the opportunity to check it out.  Decide fast, registration closes tomorrow, March 31.

Quick Election Hits from the Twitterverse

Ignatieff Challenges PM Harper to Debate
Iggy has challenged PM Harper to a one on one debate through his twitter account:

. @pmharper A one-on-one debate? Any time. Any place.

M_Ignatieff 47 mins

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No word if this debate will be held on twitter.  I believe it would be awful generous of Iggy to hand cuff himself by limiting all responses to 140 characters or less.


He has further offered us a choice:

A one-on-one debate will show Canadians the clear choice on May 2nd: the Harper regime or a Liberal government.

M_Ignatieff 48 mins

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The choice is between the 'Harper Regime' or a 'Liberal Government.'  A quick check of Dictionary.com uncovers this:


Regime: a government in power

Government: the form or system of rule by which a state, community,etc., is governed

Well, that is sort of what this whole election exercise is all about, isn't.  I figure Iggy just wants to use regime because it sounds menacing when its really French rooted.

Stephen Taylor is busy tearing into Iggy's Education plan.  Apparently its only skin deep.  I'm sure he's got something ready to go up on his blog.

NDP Promise Corporate Tax Rate Increase

Was it yesterday that Jack Layton was proposing a sure fired way to help the folks with household debt by introducing a policy that would make lower income Canadians unable to keep or obtain credit cards, then the non-promise today on corporate taxes.  How generous of you, Jack, to proclaim that under your stewardship, Canada's corporate tax rates would never be raised above those of the US.  I'm sure you are well away that the US corporate tax rate is about 35%?  

I actually expect Jack did know that.  After all the NDP and the Democrats have been in contact in the past.  So Jack has promised not a rolling back of corporate tax rates, not a freezing of corporate tax rates, but the increasing of corporate tax rates from 16.5% to somewhere under 35%.

All in the name of promoting job creation, right Jack?

Conservatives Promise Family income splitting

When we can afford it.  Up to $50,000 in income will be available to split between spouses in a family with children under 18 years of age.  But not now, but in 4 years when the books are cleared of all the stimulus spending and the deficit is under control.  Its a long term plan, and I like.  Because I don't have a family yet, but I know if the conservatives are elected, I can plan to afford one in four years.  Because an extra $100 a month can really make a difference.  Its responsible too, I do this at home.  I want something, I can't afford it right now, so I make a plan that will allow me to get it in time.

Atlas Shrugged

Been awhile.  What was I doing?  Reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.  Wow.  Long book well worth my time to solidify what I vaguely believed to be true.  Can't believe I had never read this book before.  If you believe the individual is the key to the human condition, you will find value in reading this book.  If you wonder why the world seems to be going the wrong way and can't put your finger on the why, read this book.

Ayn Rand shines a light deep inside mankind and exposes the anti-life philosophy we are burdened by and deftly illustrates not only the ills of collective sacrifice, looting of productive human beings and receiving that which you have not earned based on the vagaries of need that is the root of progressive thought.  The twisted reversal of morality is at the heart of the struggles we face in society is illustrated in great depth in every page of her work.

As I have just moments ago put down this book, I am processing the information fully for the first time and trying to apply it to every aspect of my world, and wow, is the world busy right now.  From the pending disastrous adventure in Libya, to the new federal election campaign, to the US days away from government shutdown, there are lots to talk about, and I hope to post more often going forward.

I have to stop tweeting interesting topics and stopping there.

Listening to a News Report right now, sounds like when the Regimists stop using flying tanks, the Insurrectionists are forced to 'strategically withdraw.'  The Insurrectionists are begging for close air support from the US and coalition forces, forces that have claimed they are not picking sides, but are the only reason the Regimists had to 'strategically withdraw' earlier.  Yes, Libya is going to go great!

Social Justice

I hear a lot of terms that sound pretty good at the outset.  Phrases like ‘social justice,’ ‘sustainability,’ ‘equality,’ and ‘fairness.’  And I am quickly discovering that what I would assume these things would mean are not what they actually mean to the folks using them.

Social Justice for example, is a drive for equal outcomes for all people regardless of talent, ambition and effort.  It is not an equal opportunity for all to use their talent, ambition and effort to create an outcome for themselves. 

It is not social justice when you or I or the other guy ends up with more stuff than each other.  It is social justice when this inequality of stuff occurs, to use the government to take it and spread it around to those with less.

I don’t see that definition of social justice as just.  I don’t see how living in a society were I can’t have more or less than someone else based on my efforts, talents and ambitions is good for the society at large, let alone for the individual.  I do not want to live in a world such as Van Jones[i] describes as socially justice[ii].

Van describes social justice as being completely comfortable in having your life thrown in a big hat with everyone else’s and being completely comfortable with drawing out someone else’s life because it is exactly as good as yours.

Everyone has the same amount of stuff.  If everyone doesn’t have the same amount of stuff, then laws have to be enacted to ensure that those with more forfeit it to those with less.  Blatant abuse of property rights lead to justice?

I suppose what I find so immoral about social justice as it is laid out by this definition is the removal of reward for applying your talents, ambitions and effort by applying social justice as a means to ensure all have the same stuff, regardless of circumstances.  Regardless of whether you work hard or don’t work at all.  It doesn’t matter.  And that is true injustice for all.

Found this on SlapBlog.com and thought it interesting.

The Grasshopper and the Ant NEW VERSION . . . (sad but true)

The ant works hard, in the withering heat, all summer long.He builds his house and stores supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks that the ant is a fool. He laughs, dances and plays the summer away, preparing nothing for the coming winter.

Winter comes, the ant is safe and warm.
The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and fed, while others are cold and starving!
CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN show up to provide pictures of shivering grasshoppers, next to a video of an ant in his comfortable home, with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast! How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer this way?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah, with the grasshopper.
Everyone cries when they sing “It’s Not Easy Being Green”.

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house, where the news stations film the group singing “We Shall Overcome”. Jesse then has the group pray for the grasshopper’s sake, and reminds the group to contribute to his group, so that he can “continue the fight” for grasshoppers, everywhere!

Ted Kennedy & John Kerry exclaim, in an interview with Tom Brokaw, that the ant has gotten rich, off the back of the poor grasshopper! Both call for an immediate tax hike, to make the ant pay “his fair share”! Finally, the EEOC drafts the “Economic Equity For Grasshoppers Act”, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire the proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his house is confiscated by the government.

Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper, in a defamation suit against the ant. The case is tried in federal court, with a jury comprised of unemployed welfare recipients. Surprise! The ant loses the case! The story ends, as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food, while the government house he lives in (which happens to be the ant’s old house) crumbles around him, due to lack of maintenance!

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found, dead, in a drug-related incident. The house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders, who terrorize this once-peaceful neighborhood. The moral of this version? Don’t vote for Democrats or liberals.

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[i] http://www.shiftinaction.com/discover/luminaries/van_jones Van Jones Bio

[ii] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_-vgtYkJdA Van Jones Social Justice video

Big Telco Strikes Back

Thought this was important enough to share.  The latest OpenMedia.ca press release:

Dear friends, Phone and cable companies have unleashed a deep-pocketed public relations campaign designed to confuse the public about new Internet usage fees. Case in point: on Friday, Macleans Magazine published an editorial that read like a Rogers talking-points primer (Rogers owns Macleans).  Big Telecom foot soldiers have been in the media saying that YOU are just being emotional, and that you don't understand what you signed when you signed the Stop The meter petition. This is elitist, condescending, and outright insulting. Globe And Mail ad paid for by donations At the same time broadcasters and cable companies are meeting in Ottawa to hash out a plan to deal with online services that are "competing for customers".  We can't let them turn back the clock. We need a well-coordinated response to prevent these corporations from interfering in the upcoming CRTC hearing, which is critical for the elimination of the new Internet fees. Thankfully indie ISPs Acanac and Teksavvy have agreed to provide some matching funds if we raise $15,000 in the next 48 hours. Please help us get there: donate now at http://openmedia.ca/drive Here's our plan:  1. Unleash the creativity and ingenuity of Canadians. People from all walks of life -- innovators, educators, students, entrepreneurs, and everything in between -- are getting together on February 26th for a Day Of Action to educate our fellow Canadians about Internet metering. 2. Put together a united front of public interest groups, creators, indie ISPs, online service providers and half a million Canadians to put forth a well-researched, evidence-based submission to the CRTC.  We've done this before and won.  We're confident this 1-2 punch can work, but it does require resources. Please invest the Stop The Meter campaign while we have this special matching funds offer. The pro-Internet community has seen a lot of success over the past month, and it's all thanks to your participation. You've engaged friends and family online, and helped to make the call for a more affordable Internet into a national movement. This is about the future of communications, our economy, innovation, democratic participation, and our society writ large. Please give what you can today. Sincerely, The OpenMedia.ca Team -- Steve, Lindsey, Reilly, Shea, and all of our volunteers PS. There are hundreds of thousands of us - if everyone gave $5, less than the cost of lunch, we'd easily reach our target. The phone and cable companies are gouging, we're just asking.  *OpenMedia.ca is a registered non-profit organization that relies on donations to operate.

OpenMedia.ca