Let the silly season begin

Not - not Autumn per se - but municipal election season in Toronto.

Mayor Miller has just bought us into a landfill near London. Londoners aren't exactly "willing hosts" for this. I seem to remember that this was the reason that council's leftists chose Michigan over the Adam's Mine. What a bunch of pelletized sewage effluent! We don't know the price, terms etc. Miller just wants us the trust him. We'll only find out after the election.

Jane Pitfield - Miller's main challenger in the race - is making as issue of this. Rightly so in my book.

Of course, trained NDP seal John Barber (Globe & Mail) is bounding to the Mayor's defence.

Of course, it's always silly season in "Barberland". It's no surprise that this reporter supports Toronto Mayor David Miller's plan for the acquisition of the Green Lane landfill. Barber's views unerringly align with Miller and his cadre of left-leaning councillors. His columns save me from having to read the contemporaneous writings of my local councillors in the neighbourhood flyers. I'm often left wondering who gets to write the first draft.

The poor Pope

One has to feel sorry for the Pope. When a man devotes himself to his faith and church, there's little time, perhaps, to become an expert in politics. I guess some Muslims have taken offense to some of the Pontiffs statement.

The Pope should have know that anything he might say about Muslims, Islam, Muhammad would have raised a negative reaction. Today's Muslims seem all too ready to take offense. Many have raised being thin-skinned to an art form.

Ken Dryden the dreamer

Ken Dryden is one of Cornell's (my alma mater) most famous athletes. No doubt, the man once had some level of intellect - or he wouldn't have graduated. However, perhaps as a result of a puck in the face at some point in his NHL career, he appears to have lost it. There is no other explanation for the continuous stream of babble forthcoming from this candidate for the Lberal leadership.

This is a man who played for perhaps the greatest collegiate hockey coach (Ned Harkness) and the greatest NHL coach (Scotty Bowman). At Cornell and with the Canadiens, Dryden played to win and his teams did so. This is Dryden remembering Harkness:

"At Cornell we played only twenty-nine games a year, as opposed to over a hundred with the Canadiens...Ned knew just how to maximize the importance of each one. Not only was every game vital and critical, so was every practice, every period, every shift. Every player soon understood this and was motivated by the realization."

So why on earth would Dryden join a party where nothing really matters except appearances: where signing Kyoto is important - but results are not; a party that spends on national unity in Quebec, but has no measures of how the money is spent; a party that sends money willy-nilly to the provinces and calls it a child care program; a party that creates a gun registry, without any results.

To continually implement policies that don't work is a policy of continually losing. For the fed-Fibs, all that ever matters is winning power. I wouldn't have thought that this was the right place for someone who has been used to really winning. hmm - perhaps it was those years spent with the Maple Leafs.

Now there's an example of how things should GO!

GO Transit's Board are to be commended on taking swift action to stem absenteeism problems - which are especially impacting Friday service:

Toronto Star - September 9th 2006

Unionized crews contracted by Go from CN have been leaving passengers in the lurch to enjoy long weekends.

Per GO Transit Board member Bill Fisch:

"We'll solve it.... We are going out to the tender process to see if others will be interested in (running GO trains). That will hold everyone's feet to the fire to provide a better service for us. I don't think people will stand for bad service."

It's too bad that the people running (yes I realise - a rather loose use of the term) the Toronto Transit Commission, don't have the same passion for providing service. The TTC has terrible absenteeism problems. Did Howard Moscoe and his fellow traveller commissioners try to address this in the most recent contract? Don't be silly, they were too busy telegraphing the fat juicy raise they were all too eager to grant the union.

Self-styled transit advocates such as Steve Munroe hand ring over the TTC service problems. However, they seem to dismiss any notion that the Commission push for increased performance. In my view, we need true passenger advocates - such as Mr. Fisch instead of the likes of Moscoe and Munroe.

A different view of the Canadian International Airshow

With Ernesto and the rain finally clearing, I biked out onto the Leslie St. Spit this afternoon. I had two purposes: to exercise (getting a break from step machines and weights), and to catch some of the Airshow.

Of course, being out on the Spit is not the same as being front row center down at the Ex. However, the view - especially from the lighthouse 'hill' has some advantages:

1. Fewer crowds - no parking or streetcar hassles.
2. No ticket - if it's raining or the jets can't fly because of the ceiling, you don't have to go.
3. Different views - the jets will circle around to the East in advance of theri actual performance. Many of the high performance jets actually pass very close to the end of the point as they approach the show.

Today, I was a bit late. I could see the very end of the B-1B's peformance as it ascended into teh clouds and away. Someone mentioned that this was an F-14 - because of the intense noise. Well - no, there isn't anything I've heard that's quite as loud as the B-1B. (I once stopped at a rest stop in South Dakota near Ellswoth AFB. The B-1s were on a circle that went right over the MacDonalds. I've never heard anything like it. )

After that, followed the F15, CF-18, F-16 and various more specialized planes - not to mention the small aerobatic planes. (I'd recommend going to the Ex to see these.)

I cycled around until about 4:00 pm. I guess the Snowbirds were a little later - but I had other things to attend to. (Hmm - and there are no concessions out on the Spit.)

L'Affaire Bombardier

The TTC (i.e. the nine city councilors who sit on the Commission) have voted to approve the award of a contract for replacement subway cars to Bombardier - without having allowed competitors to make proposals. Of course, the likes of TTC chair Howard Moscoe (a.k.a. resident windbag) and Moscoe-lite Adam Giambrone are spouting off about what a great deal it is.

Yes - they did get some outside consultants to bless the deal. This is no surprise. Consultants know what side the bread is buttered on. They would never in a million years concluded that the decision needed to be reconsidered - because they would certainly never get any work at The City of Toronto again. As one of my classmates put it in B-School : "Give me Lotus 123 and a few hours and I can make any company look good" - well the same is true for anything transit related.

Giambrone - who was caught getting election help from Bombardier - is brazen enough to defend the decision in today's Toronto Star (Giambrone - OP ED - Sept 2 2006). Write Giambrone:

Justice Denise Bellamy, in her report on the city's computer purchasing scandal, points out that "if a government's policy gives priority to the local economy, a large procurement decision might properly favour a company that is a bit more expensive but local, so that tax dollars stimulate the local economy."

Firstly, Thunder Bay isn't local. Obviously, Thunder Bay didn't think of Mississauga as local when it purchased low-floor buses from a Quebec company - despite the fact that there is a bus supplier in Ontario. Furthermore, there is no way to tell if a local supplier is 'a bit more' or 'a lot more' expensive without actually allowing different suppliers to quote.

Giambrone goes on:

Transit agencies do this because transit vehicle purchases are incredibly complex and customized. It's best to work with a manufacturer to achieve the product you want more quickly than you otherwise would......We already have Bombardier cars, and they've served us well for many decades. There's value in continuing to use a tested, trusted product. And in this case, that product is a good value at a good price for the residents and transit riders of Toronto.

However, the Thunder Bay plant has a poor record of being able to deliver. Montreal's MR-63 cars - made by Vickers - have far outlasted Thunder Bay sourced subway cars. Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant is also the source of the TTC's disastrous streetcar fleet.

Much airport silliness

Porter Airlines - the startup that will be flying spanking new Q-400 turbo-props out of the Toronto Island Airport - took delivery of the first such aircraft this week. This of course meant a rekindling of howls from the L.F. (that's lunatic fringe or left field - either interpretation will do.)

I actually think more Torontonians are catching on about our Miller-lite mayor. There were three letters in The Star supporing the new service. Today, there was a particularly vehement letter which took issue with the mayor and minions using waterfront examples such as Melbourne, Barcelona and Chicago.

It's telling the that lists of shining examples of waterfronts invariably do not include Canada's own Vancouver. Could this be because Vancouver has a busy commerical airport nestled in Coal Harbour - snug between Stanley Park and downtown? The airport, BC's fifth busiest, uses a control tower on the 29th floor of a downtown office building. Planes frequently (or usually) approach and depart over Stanley Park.

The Coal Harbour facility hasn't prevented Vancouver from having a beautiful waterfront. It didn't prevent it from attracting EXPO or the Winter Olympics. Neither did it prevent Travel & Leasure Magazine from naming it among the top 10 tourist destinations.

Perhaps we should trade David Miller and some minor league councillors to Vancouver for an airport. Oh - we already have an airport. Well, let's just trade them for some cedar shingles.

Summer draws to a close

I've had a busy summer - albeit that little of it has been devoted to writing. With the upcoming municipal elections, I plan to be writing more in this space.

Today, I thought I'd pen a few thoughts on the happenings in the larger world. The biggest story of the past few months has been the 'war' between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah that has ensconced itself in southern Lebanon. Here are some of my observations:

Disgust - Aside from the initiation of hostilities by Hezbollah, the most disgusting thing has been the attempt by the Liberals to make a domestic issue out of this. To try to score domestic political points from a conflict is unconscionable - which meant various prominent figures in the federal Liberal party ploughed right in and did so.

The claim that supporting Israel's right to defend itself was spoiling Canada's good name as an 'honest broker' is completely spurious. Canada is no broker at all - we couldn't even get a modicum of justice for the Canadian journalist who perished in police custody in Iran. I'm sure the terror groups are cackling quietly at these useful Liberal idiots.

Amazement - I ventured into a few online discussions on the Globe and Mail's board (i.e. the one that the editor enable son some stories and columns.) I was amazed at the ignorance and vitriol by some posters against Israel - akin to what reared its ugly head in the Liberal Party a week or so ago. One poster actually claimed that Syria hadn't attacked anyone in 500 years. I guess her fogot about 1948, 1956 etc. when Syria attacked Israel. hmm - I guess like Syria, he didn't recognize Israel.

Winners and Losers - Many of the pro-Hiz posters are ready to pronounce that Israel 'lost' the war. My take is that there was no winner and loser in the immediate conflict. Too much is made of the fact that Israel didn't finish off Hezbollah. Perhaps they would have been better off following the 1982 strategy of simply occupying South Lebanon - but perhaps not.

Some commentators were cheering the Israeli losses in the lost offensive. In fact, the casualties were low considering the risky natire of the operations: commando raids and infantry advance my helicopter.

Israel won the following:

1. Managed to get a larger multinational force (at least promised) in South Lebanon
2. Destroyed quite a good proportion of Hezbollah's existing armaments.
3. Showed that it was prepared to retaliate against agressors with force. In fact, the retaliation was certainly in proper proportion to the threat - seeing that Iran has been threatening to incinerate the place.
4. Managed to get the Lebanese to move troops to the south - which apparently hasn't been as difficult as they protested at the start of the conflict. (The Lebanese appear to have the same disease as many in the Arab world - that being rampant duplicity.)

Israel lost the following:

1. The PR war - but it would have probably lost this no matter what.

The Liberals - the Seinfeld government

In the latest news on the the fallout from the Chretien-Martin Regime, we find out that the plan an legislation that was supposed to help supply poor countries with better access to AIDs and other medicines has in fact delivered ZERO drugs.

The Toronto Star - Aug 3 2006 - Canada Breaks AIDs Pledge

This should hardly be surprising - given that the Liberals:

1. Signed up for Kyoto - but made no progress in meeting the targets
2. Created the sponsorship program - which seems to have produced nothing but a scandal
3. Apparently (per Bill Graham in The Globe and Mail yesterday) had a policy of buidling bridging between adversaries in the Middle East. No such Canadian built bridges seem to exist.

It's clear that the Liberals think of Acts of Parliament as play acting. I guess someone forgot to mention that they are supposed to be real. The Liberal emporers had no clothes - and it wasn't a pretty sight. The Liberals - a government about nothing!

A review of TTC streetcar air-conditioning

I must admit that Steve Munro is a truly dedicated transit enthusiast: to wait around for a specific streetcar vehcile to come around. In this case, this is the TTC 1st air-conditioned streetcar - recently returned from Howard Moscoe's buddies at Bombardier with a new box on top.

Well, Munro is honest enough to point out some significant problems with the experiment - unlike other transit boosters who'll sing the TTC's praises not matter how badly it performs.

Concludes Munro:

If this is an example of what we’ll get on new or rebuilt streetcars, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Perhaps the TTC will go back to the drawing board - but I'm guessing that they wont. They have the habit of calling a failure a success: streetcars in general, and the Spadina "LRT" specifically. Moscoe and his TTC will do anything to avoid getting political egg on their faces - the riders be damned.

Woe is the Order of Canada

Now that former Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg has been named to the Order of Canada, I can only say that OC is henceforth a honour to which I'll no longer aspire. Landsberg's columns betrayed unequalled levels of ignorance, bias and plain bitterness.

I remember Landsberg complaining about suburban politicians and city staff in the most bitter and twisted way. At a time when Toronto needed to come together as the 'Megacity', Landsberg was bitterly divisive. Do we want bitter divisive people garnering such honours in our fair land? Well that's what we are getting. I guess being married to Stephen Lewis might have helped. Did she ask for the OC so that it would match his? (I at least respect Mr. Lewis.)

In one of Landsberg's later columns, she conjectured that the US was only de-Talabanizing Afghanistan so that it could build a pipeline. It's astonishing that anyone could write such dribble - and all the more get it published in a major newspaper.

Thankfully, Landsberg's column no longer appears.

New Angels in Town

The city's first Guardian Angels will be beginning citizens patrols in Toronto. However, it seems that do-gooder Mayor David Miller would rather they go away. Yes - Toronto knows better than to 60 other cities world-wide that have such patrols. Baloney!

There are two good columns on the subject today:

Toronto Sun - Joe Warmington - July 14 2006

and

Toronto Star - Royson Jame - July 14 2006

Personally, I find it hard to fathom Mayor David Miller is so dismissive of the Guardian Angels - after all, they sport his favourite colour: red.

Miller's statement "Policing should be done by the police; it's very simple" reaches the zenith of disingenuity.

The city has a non-police Community Safety Secretatiat, and non-police programs such as City Watch. In fact, city employees have been commended for following and assisting police catch perpetrators. In can only conclude that Miller's beef with the Angels must be that they are volunteers - and not part of the ever expanding city bureaucracy.

I think Miller fears that the GAs will be successful, And why is that?:

1. They may be credited for improvement - and steal Miller's thunder (lol)
2. Torontonians may embrace volunteerism - and begin to prefer that to massive and costly bureacracy. This would be bad for left-wing business.

Grading The Star's Jim Coyle

The Star has some good or excellent columnists - but Jim Coyle doesn't rank up there from what I've read.

In a recent column:

Hard Truth in Report Card - July 4th 2006

Coyle cherry picks some quotes from a recent report by "education" lobby group People for Education. Do you expect a columnist in a major newpaper to pick a few tasty quotes from a report - and wrap them up into a column - without doing any due diligence? If you are reading Coyle that's likely what you are expecting:

Coyle quotes the report:

Increasingly, this revenue also pays for essentials. It also risks creating a system of have and have-not schools where quality of education depends on "the amount of free time parents have, parents' capacity to raise money and the wealth of the community."

Somehow lost is the fact that the current funding formula - implemented by the Mike Harris government - greatly reduced inequities between Ontario schools in terms of funding. The equitable funding model arose out of the 1995 Royal Commission on Learning (under Socialist Bob Rae no less!):

As a result of variations in assessment wealth, many boards provide program levels that appear to be significantly in excess of provincial standards, while others have difficulty offering a basic program and very few options. In the past, when resources were more readily available, the inequities could be dealt with by increasing the level of the "have-nots" to that of the "haves," but this is no longer possible. Instead, the same pie must be sliced and distributed differently. Given that some boards will get a smaller portion, proposals for such funding reforms are necessarily controversial. (Love of Learning - Chapter 18)

Some school boards had twice or more the spending power as others:

Commercial and industrial revenue is often generated in one place but paid to a municipal authority in another. In most such cases, it is paid to larger urban centres, regardless of where it has actually been generated. For instance, major corporate head offices tend to be clustered in a few large urban areas, while the corporate income comes from across the province.

The presence of Parliament in Ottawa and of the Ontario Legislature in Toronto generates considerable tax revenue for those cities, through direct government spending and the spending of government employees, as well as through the impact on tourism.

The taxes that sustain these operations, as well as taxes that directly or indirectly subsidize such tourist attractions as the National Arts Centre (which gets tax money raised in all parts of Canada), the Ontario Science Centre, and SkyDome come from all parts of the province - as do visitors to them. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Ottawa Board of Education has almost twice the provincial average of per-pupil property assessment wealth, while Metropolitan Toronto has more than twice the provincial average.

Well, I guess with nothing else to write, Coyle just decided to add to the already mile-high pile of fluff reporting mindlessly denigrating the Harris government.

Ryerson non-University

Ryerson here in Toronto has surely reached a new low in higher-education in it's handling of the granting of an honorary degree to Dr. Margaret Somerville - a reknowned ethicist as McGill University.

The National Post's Lorne Gunter captures it correctly - Ryerson's awards committee has been "spineless and rude".

Mr. Gunther writes further:

In a news release, they pointedly scoffed that "several things have become abundantly clear ... One is that the Committee was unaware of some positions for which she has advocated in the press and before Parliament -- positions that would have given Committee members serious pause before approving the award.

I think what is abundantly clear is that serious pause should have been taken before granting Ryerson status as a university.

Ducharme's resignation

I've always though that Rick Ducharme - soon to be former Chief General Manager of the TTC - was little more that master of buffoonery Howard Moscoe's stooge. I was a little surprised when I heard of his resignation. I guess there is only so much c++p that a professional can take.

John Barber wrote in the Globe today that it Mr. Ducharme who 'lost the game'. The sad fact is that running the transit services in a city isn't a game. However, for Howard Moscoe - it's all a game, one that's played with other people's money. More and more money is being pumped into the system - but every penny is going straight into the union trough. That's the great sucking sound you hear in the city.

Ducharme had finally worked up the gumption to save a few dollars that might have actually been used to run more service - and now he's gone.

The message from the union is clearly 'You ought to know us by know' - similar to the macabre warning issued by the jewel thief in the movie 'Shoot to kill;. In this case the innocent victims are average Torontonians. Until we have a council that puts the interests of 2.5 million citizens before those of 8,500 transit workers, we'll continue to be so.

My musical take on the transit strike

To the tune of ... hmmm I shouldn't need to explain:

Once in David Miller’s City
Grew a transit wildcat strike
Where his union-loving minions
Payed them dearly for their votes
Toronto was that poor city
The A.T.U. its spo-i-led child

He came down from Ha-ar-vard Yard
Full of leftist clo-op-trop
And his castle was City Ha-all
And our money his to waste
Yet with all this insane spending
Labour relations still need mending.

Plotters amongst us

It's extremely worrying - but in no way surprising to find treasonous plotters amongst us. Some might ask how first generation born and bred Canadians might come to identify with a cause such as radical Islamism than their own country. However, a more relevant question is as follows:

"Given what young first generation Canadians are and are not exposed to - be it in the education system and in the media - how could we expect any of them to think of themselves as Canadian first?"

In my opinion, to be strongly rooted to one's country requires a deep appreciation of its history. In our schools, "history" doesn't exist as a separate subject. In the public schools at least, it has been rolled into 'Social Studies". The teaching of own history is further waterered down by an agenda-driven 'ethnocentric' balancing.

I'm convinced the average high-school graduate in Ontario has no idea that the real history of Canada and our democracy began in England. The English people's long and desultory journey from serfdom to being free men and women is the fundamental pillar of our own history. Without an understanding of this foundation, what is a young person's understanding of Canada? How can they appreciate our democratic institutions and rights?

In its place, Canadian youth are exposed to ideas from the frivolous to the plain noxious. The most noxious of all is the wide-spread self-hatred of Western ideals and institutions.

Without a knowledge and appreciation of how Canada came to exist - and bombarded with messages of self-denigration, it's no surprise that some young men have decided not to be Canadian - and to treasonously pliot against us.

Latest construction project

Last year I undertook the rather simple project of raccoon-proofing the bird-feeders. This spring the task was Herculean by comparison - building a critter-proof enclosure for the lovely green-bin - as well as hiding all of the other debris.

Hurray - perhaps I'll finally be able to sit on the front porch - $250 dollars and 20 hours of work later. Sighhhh!


Raccoon (and probably bear proof!) garbage and recycle box

A BIG Toronto story

It seems that Howard Moscoe will have some stiff competition on the race for the civic incompetence prize. The Bowmanville Zoo has been acquitted of the charge of illegally showing an elephant on the streets of Toronto.

Toronto Star - May 18 2006

It seems that the by-law officer filing the charge failed to take notes about what was on a placard near the animal. Since zoos are allowed to bring animals to the city of educational purposes, the by-law officers lapse sunk the case. As The Star reports:

In his final decision Justice of the Peace Kevin Madigan reprimanded the city's solicitor for bringing the case forward, suggesting it was a "serious inconvenience" to the defendants and the court system.

The ruling came after Geoff Uyeno, the prosecutor from the City Solicitor's office, surprised Madigan by asking that the defendant be acquitted of all charges because testimony gave proof of a bona fide educational program.

hmm - goes to prove the elephantine stupidity rampant at city hall.

Herbicides no - Urbicide Yes

The Globe & Mail's Margaret Wente describes the all too litter strewn state of the City all too accurately in her column today.

Reports Wente on the experience of a couple from a recent visit:

The other day, someone from out of town e-mailed me in a state of shock. He and his wife had just ventured downtown for the first time in a couple of years. They were horrified at the mess. They thought we were having a garbage strike.

Well, I don't go downtown myself very often anymore. The litter, the panhandlers and the general lack of interesting retail add up to me either shopping at home in The Beach - or zipping down the Gardiner to Sherway Gardens.

However, even in the glorious Beach, there are cracks. Likely due to a combination of the the City's decision to discontinue the use of pesticides - and the super-sized wages it pays - our parks have turned into fields of weeds.

Filth, muck and weeds do not a liveable city make. Herbicides have been deemed safe by Health Canada. In contrast, David Miller's regime seems to be successfully committing 'urbicide' against this city.