Silly buggers in Ottawa

Kind of like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Hopefully they will not turn this economic disaster into a who has a bigger dick power play.

Silly buggers indeed.

OTTAWA – The spectre of a spring federal election loomed larger Wednesday as Liberals and Conservatives reached an apparent impasse over a $3 billion fund aimed at quickly stimulating Canada's sputtering economy.

Liberal finance critic John McCallum said his party will propose a motion next week calling on the government to itemize precisely how the $3 billion will be spent.

The move followed Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's adamant assertion Tuesday that his party will not approve the fund without details.

Read more at thestar.com

Mildly funny Green Party ad from Youtube

Slightly simplistic election video from the Green Party of Ontario vs the Grey Parties of Ontario. Parody of Mac/PC ads .

Using Ontario's power more wisely is not an option. Are people in Ontario, especially in the GTA, really committed to voluntarily reducing their energy consumption?

Pesticide presentation

Since this has now been publicly presented and distributed (and written about in the Burlington Post) I thought it would be fun to share the with a larger audience. You can read the entire presentation with notes in PDF format here.

Some highlights:

"We have to ask what is the City of Burlington waiting for? Where is our leadership and vision?

As you can see from the numbers on this slide (130 Canadian municipalities of which there are 25 Ontario Municipalities) there is a groundswell of smart, environmentally aware communities who are acting on the concerns from residents and recommendations from professionals like the Canadian Cancer Society, the Ontario College of Physicians and environmental lobby groups.

These municipalities are passing and enacting pesticide by-laws that protect the health and environment of their people. And today the city of Hamilton announced that a partial ban on lawn and garden pesticides will go into effect in Hamilton on Labour Day 2008.

It is important to remember that these communities are demonstrating environmental awareness and strong leadership. Where is Burlington’s leadership?

Anyone of us can search on the internet or in libraries for information that supports or denies the health effects of exposure to pesticides. Healthy and vigorous debate is an important part of the democratic process, but as more and more communities enact bylaws banning pesticides the tipping point of public pressure will only increase.

We urge you to take the time to absorb the information presented to you tonight and reflect on Mayor Jackson’s vision from the May 9 Burlington Post “My vision for Burlington’s future is one where we can live, work, and play in a clean and healthy environment.”

Finally as the great ad man David Ogilvy once said “Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark.”

2 worth reading

A couple of good reads from thestar.com today.

The first story is on how "Green" fuels are potentially worse for global warming.
snip
"Using biodiesel derived from rapeseed would produce between 1 and 1.7 times more greenhouse gas than using conventional diesel, the study estimated."
end snip

The second story is a good opinion piece by Kathleen O'Hara about our provincial leaders lack of leadership on green issues - Leaders fumble green ball

snip
"...we can't allow our energy future to be hijacked by profit-driven corporations the way the Internet was. "The great promise of the Net ... has been compromised, at every step of the way, by commercial interests determined to gain a foothold over the medium."

Yes, the world is getting off to a rocky start when it comes to "saving civilization." Here in Ontario, it doesn't look like any person or party is going to lead us out of the increasingly hot wilderness – no matter what the election outcome. That is a disgrace when so much is at stake."
end snip

Leading up to my first time as a delegate.

I am starting to get nervous and jittery about my appearance and presentation at city hall this Tuesday evening. Here is a Burlington Post article on the meeting with the CDC committee quoting Kurt Koster the chair of the Pesticide Action Burlington committee.

There are 12 delegates on the agenda for Tuesday's review of the staff report on pesticide use in Burlington. The revised agenda was released on Friday. The email that informed us of the revised report and agenda included this paragraph.

"Please be advised that a Revised Agenda and staff report have been issued for the September 25th "Special" Community Development Committee meeting to deal with the cosmetic use of pesticides in the City of Burlington as a result of a staff direction was approved at the September 17th regular meeting of Community Development Committee. Committee will not entertain delegations on the original report."

I do not know what "Committee will not entertain delegations on the original report." means, but I am sure this will make things more entertaining.

And just for the record the staff report was revised to remove this recommendation - "That staff proceed with a proposed by-law to restrict the cosmetic use of pesticides within the city of Burlington."

You can see the full agenda and matter for consideration here.

Baby democracy

Ah - if it were only this simple - no debates, no lies, no promises.

Ontario election blah

I never really trust surveys but I thought this one was a little interesting.

Thestar.com is running a survey on their election page asking readers "What Ontario election issue is most important to you?"

Here are the current results.

Taxes 27%
Health care 21%
Cash for cities 16%
Schools funding 14%
Environment 12%
Fighting poverty 7%


What saddens me about the results of this random, non-scientific poll is where the environment issue ranks. I thought it would be higher given the recent rhetoric around the world.

The top 2 issues are really about preservation of the self and I certainly appeciate being overburdened by taxes and underserviced by our health care industry but frankly if we do not get our environmental issues under control taxes and health care will be the least of our worries.

Or am I being too pessimistic and gloomy?

Slowly getting back in the groove

I have been shunning the computer and have only just now gotten back to thinking about all the work I have to do. And now that we have gotten through my daughter's 9th birthday and the start of school we can try and catch up.

The next big agenda item is finishing up the pesticide ban presentation for the September 25 meeting at Burlington's city hall. The meeting looked like it was going to be a no go with the provincial liberals campaign promise to ban the use of pesticides throughout Ontario. But I guess we are going to go through the excercise anyway.

With regards to the liberal election promise I never have much faith in seeing these things coming to fruition - but you can read the details (as skimpy as they are) here.

"Many fruits, including peaches, apples, pears and grapes, were found to contain residues of pesticides, the report said. However, the ban the Liberal Party is contemplating would not apply to farmers.

Both proponents and critics of pesticide use have called on the province to pass legislation on what is permitted. Mr. McGuinty will introduce legislation if his party wins a second term in office. No decision has been made on what the penalties would be for breaking the ban."

And just for the record I will not be voting Liberal - even with this "promise" on their platform.