The Rumour Circuit...and a party broke out...

We've all heard the old adage about PEI and the rumour mill... they say if you haven't heard a good one by noon you should probably start one... and never has it been more prevalent that this year’s Christmas Party circuit... I think the first official party started on Thursday night November 27th at the Downtown Charlottetown Inc's Meet and Greet and the favourite topic was PNP's and I'm pretty sure I was in for 30 units among a host of others. But as soon as the House was over and it came closer to Christmas the focus seemed to change to retail store closings. First it was Sears and someone spoke to someone who heard it from so-in-so, then it was Future Shop was going under and their gift certificates would be worthless, just as that one was settling down I was approached by a lady at the Confederation Centre and she heard it was definitely "Old Navy" closing and the employees were being let go on Christmas eve. I was getting a little tired of the store closing stories as they were getting a little boring so when Harper announced the Senate appointments I jumped at the opportunity to throw my name in the hat, but it didn't have any legs. So Saturday when I arrived at my usual table at the "Market" sure enough our very own Mike Duffy had surpassed Pat Binns right into a Senate seat and the announcement "was eminent"... today I was at the Superstore when I overheard I was getting a new "Falcon 7X" business jet for Christmas and I was quite excited as the weekly trip to Halifax would certainly cut down the tire wear... It is Christmas and for some reason people at these parties just seem to want to address these rumours with me as they think I'm "in the know".... so I guess the best way I can address these rumours are to look at the facts... so on the PNP front I went to OpenCorporations.org and I was in fact the name that was searched the most… so I strolled through the 25 or so Companies I'm involved in and I couldn't find any Wing’s, Wang’s or Wong’s... so I moved on to the Sears closing rumour and I thought maybe the first thing I should do was visit the store and witness firsthand the lack of activity but to my surprise the store was jammed with people and the local manager said they were having a "great year" which was pretty much what senior management had been telling our people... pretty much the same story for Future Shop and Old Navy and in fact the Guardian is carrying a story on "Island retailer’s sales being stronger this year"..... surely the "eminent news" about Mike Duffy had to be true, so I went to PEI's most factual source The Guardian and not a "peep" in print..... now I did mention to the staff the other day that with all the out of province bridge traffic heading to Crowbush that I needed something faster than my Porsche to get to Halifax.... so I thought I better look up the skinny on that "Falcon 7X" just in case my staff put in an order for me.... although the $9,700.00 an hour operating cost might be a tad expensive and the $36,000,000.00 capital cost might be a little too steep, surely the 15 minutes in the air to Halifax would certainly save me some time and at that price the Princess would “get to pick the interior colours”... look I don't really know any more than the next guy on what's truth or rumour but come Christmas morning I'm heading to the airport.... I love the Island at Christmas... http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/7x/