A two-zone transit pass in Vancouver costs $100. The fine for getting caught without a pass is $150. And yet I have yet to be checked on the Skytrain for a pass. Granted, for most of the past four months I’ve only been taking it two stops – the rest of my journey was via bus, where one usually has to flash a pass to the driver. But if I am not checked in the next two months, I’ll consider Vancouver’s transit fining authority out of wack.
Let’s consider your average commuter living off of the Skytrain. If you pay a $150 fine every two months you’ll come out ahead of those who buy two monthly passes. Even given an extra $30 for the worry caused by looking for cops and maybe a couple of bus passes once or twice, you’d still be better riding na gapa, as they say in Poland.
Of course, maybe they check passes more often out in Burnaby, where there are more two-zone riders. So we’ll see.
The Americans voted in Obama, who vows to get rid of the partisan bickering in his nation’s capital.
Canadians voted in Harper who, as economies crumble, tries to pull the chair out from under the other politicians while stating that the government will wait months to do anything that might help our economy.
The Americans have voted (we’ll see what actually happens) for less political bickering. Canadians seem to have voted for more. Of course Canadians can say, ‘look at our options,’ but if political change was what they were looking for. If they wanted to send a message, it seems pretty clear now that voting Harper back in wasn’t the way to do it. In fact, it seems like the message he got from Canadians was directly opposite from the message Americans sent to Washington.
So the real outrage of yesterday’s economic “update” is not that it seeks to impose on most parliamentarians a change to funding rules that most of them would never ordinarily accept; it’s that it accomplishes nothing else. It’s that in the most dangerous economic times Canada has faced in 20 years if not far longer, this prime minister can’t wipe the smirk off his face and grow up a little.
In the thirty minutes preceding, Flaherty had explained, in the most ominous of adjectives, the depth and breadth of the crisis that now faces us. Unprecedented. Sudden. Devastating. Historic. “Canada,” he said, “has not faced such severe challenges in a generation.”
Perhaps hoping to assist those of us who traffic in symbolism, an infant wailed from the gallery.
The Finance Minister’s response was simple enough. “We cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts,” he said, “without looking in the mirror.”
The United States has committed $1.5-trillon to its wobbly economy. China, $600-billion. Britain, $418-billion. Japan, $275-billion. Germany, $213-billion. Canada’s government has looked in the mirror and decided to do away with the subsidy that sees political parties receive a couple dollars for each vote it receives. By our government’s count, doing away with this subsidy will save the national treasury approximately $30-million. A bit more than 89-cents for every Canadian man, woman and child.
There might yet be more. The government promises to get back to us. Perhaps next spring.
When you don’t have a job or a TV you notice the weather a lot more. It rained for most of today, confining our Okanagan butts to our apartment. We meant to buy an umbrella. We really did. But we didn’t. We were blessed for the first two weeks of our European adventure with sun and general good weather. I joked that I slaughtered a lamb to buy off the weather gods. By the second week I had upgraded to a sheep. Now though, we’re waiting for the rain to turn to snow – which CNN is promising us this Sunday. In the meantime we’re cooped up in our relatively small apartment with a couple books and one computer between us.
So the first time I left the apartment today to go buy chicken at the local meat store, I got to the bottom of the stairs, poked my head out the door, and quickly retreated back to the apartment. An hour or so later, around 3:30, the clouds finally exhausted themselves I walked a block and a half to the store where I bought two well-portioned chicken breasts. For three bucks.
Which brings us to my point. The corner stores here, which abound and sell everything from booze to sauces to meat, are not more expensive than your big supermarkets. I am guessing that they manage because they can sell relatively healthy quantities of food and snacks – even at low profit margins – because of the density of the population. And the low prices likely help finance the economies of scale by keeping local shoppers in the neighbourhood. Of course in less dense cities like those in Canada that poses more of a problem. Still, as a consumer, it would be nice if I didn’t have to drive to Safeway everytime I wanted some decently-priced quality cheese.
Then read this story, which gives one a broader overview of the current situation in Poland.
The author’s observation of Warsaw as being dotted with cranes holds true a few months later, altough I’ve been told the building boom the city has experienced in recent years is starting to cool.
Oh, I haven’t personally seen this commercial yet, and my ears would definitely have perked up had I heard someone speaking English.
