OC Transpo is out of Council's control

Somebody on city council better wake up pretty soon to the fact that OC Transpo is out - way out - of control.

The cost of bus service is going up and the service is crashing down. 

Just when we are trying to struggle to understand why a new bus barn goes 100% over budget, comes the news that Transpo may buy double decker buses that do not even fit into the $100 million new structure.

Who is running this mess?  It certainly does not appear to be city council.

It is a matter of degree?

If I am a member of PETA and hit you with a tofu pie, according to PETA, that's just peaceful discourse - not assault. 

If I am a member of PETA and hit you with a stone.  Is that assault? 

What if I am a member of PETA and hit you with a tofu pie that has a peach pit in it.  Is that assault?

What if the tofu pie filling got into your eye and blinded you?  Is that assault?

If I hit you with a feather or a pie or a dump truck in an attempt to intimidate you - that's assault!

Expect a contract to be put out on Kevin Page

President Steve has got to be cursing the day he made Kevin Page the Parliamentary Budget Officer. After all, Steve is in charge and what he says is the Word of God. That a mere mortal, such as Page, should contradict the Word of God is good reason to strike with a bolt of lightning.

The current misunderstanding between God and Page is over the chance of Canada entering a period of structural deficit. In a recent report (Page ignored the edict from above to vacate the Hill during prorogation), Page opined that there was going to be a structural deficit going forward if the government did not make the right (according to him) moves.

"Unfortunately, you've got to start dealing with the structural fiscal problem that's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger," Page said in an interview, "We're saying right now the government has no targets. That's not a good place to be. We don't know how much of this debt is going to be passed on to future generations."

Not so, insists Harper. "If we do what we've said we'll do, which is end stimulus spending when the recession is over. . . and if we discipline spending growth in the future, I don't think that should be a serious problem. If you look at Canada's deficit compared to other countries, it is much lower, and more importantly our debt levels are much, much lower. So the possibility of getting into a debt-interest-payment trap is, in my judgment, not high."

Well who can you believe? Page, who calls a spade a freaking shovel? Or Harper, who refused to see an economic tsunami coming and had to be pushed into acting?

I know who I believe.

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”

Sounds like a very enlightened comment.  Surely worthy of being quoted now that Stevey Harper has decided that Parliament is a thorn in his side and that democracy is not good for Canadians.

I wonder who it was who said that?  Let me look that up in my quote encyclopedia.

No!  It can't be.  The sage advice is a quote from Steven Harper in a Canadian Press interview on April 18, 2005.

Hypocrit!

Is this any way to run a country?

The shear arrogance of Harper is clear in this work!

For a PM who ran on a platform of transparency and accountability, his arrogance and true nature shines through like a beacon in the fog.  Beware the beacon!

Competent city staff?

I am all for letting professional managers run the city.  That would free up councillors to develop a vision and policies to move us forward.  But what happens if you have an obviously incompetent manager - such as Alain Mercier.  Mercier is responsible for OC Transpo and OC Transpo is any but efficient.

You can blame the unions if you want and you can blame councillors for making it tough on managers - but in the end the responsibility falls on Mercier.

His job is simple in scope.  Keep the buses moving on schedule and within budget.

Is he up to the task?

Civic political parties? Boo, Hiss!

If we want to make civic politics more relevant to Ottawans then we need good and bright people to step forward for office.  We need ideas... not stuffed shirts.

The idea of political parties at city hall is one of the dumbest ideas possible.  It is floated out as a panacea to dislodge the deadwood lifer politicians that clog up city hall in great numbers.  But would it work?

Let's look at those levels of government where parties do exist.  Both the provincial and federal governments are liberally strewn with lifers.  They are kept in power BECAUSE of their party affiliations.  Both the federal and provincial systems are subject to the perversion of parachuting "desired" candidates into ridings even if the local party members don't want them.

Party members meet as a caucus and generally vote as a block.  What happens to local rights if the decision of the caucus is contrary to a riding decision?

The party system is anathema to democracy.  This has been shown time and time again.  When an ego the size of S. Harper can overrule the conscience of all Canadians, such as with the Afgan detainees controversy misunderstanding, it makes one long for a RETURN to independent MPs.

Two thumbs and eight fingers down for municipal political parties.

Hudak stays on his stupid message

Tiny Timmy was back on CFRA yesterday.  He was extolling the virtues of two of his caucus who have decided to stage a sit in at Queen's Park.  They are battling the dreaded HST legislation.  What heroes they are.  Here they are a ray of sunshine standing, or sitting, or sleeping, against an unwanted tax.

Rob Snow, who is well known for his Liberal leanings,... NOT, asked every self-serving question that Timmy could easily answer.  The only question he ignored was..."If you get elected in 2011, will you cancel the HST?"

Now, Timmy knows the sound-byte answer to this one.  He claims that the dreaded Liberals have made the HST legislation loophole resistant by putting in clauses that tie the hands of future government for 10,000 years.  Iguess no one has told him that if he forms a government he can do whatever he wants with past legislation including lower the rate.

But, you know, Timmy will hide behind his accusation because he knows that the economic mess that Ontario is currently in will not be solved by growth.  It will take tax dollars and to lower the rate or cancel the harmonization with the GST would make him dumber than Tiger.

Grow up, Timmy.

What's good for the Goose?

It is interesting to note that while governments at most levels are required by law to maintain an Access to Information or Freedom of Information facility, none of the major or minor political parties, which make up such governments, support or maintain, internally, such Freedoms or Access.

Odd thing, I'd say.

Tim Hudak should join the Leafs

Tim Hudak, the diminutive chef de la partie Conservative de Ontario (not bad french, eh?) is so good at his job as a politician that he should moonlight as a player for the Make Me Laffs.  God knows that they need help.

What leads me to this conclusion?  Timmy was on the Lardo Green show the other day wailing and lamenting about the Ontario HST.  It is ungodly... it is unclean... it is illegal... it smells of dog doo.  There was no epithet that Timmy could think of that could not be used to describe the new tax.

"So, Timmy", asks Lardo, "when you win power will you repeal the HST?"

"On the ice for the Make Me Laffs is number 666, Timmy Hudak, the darling of the limp dick crowd.  Just watch him SKATE."

Hudak will attack the HST because he is the leader of the Opposite Position and that is his job.  But would he kill it?  NO WAY.

As tough a bit of medicine that it is, even Tiny Tim knows that it is the right thing to do for the long term health of Ontario.

I think I give up!

Between the Bozos on Ottawa City Council, the non-communicators at Queen's Park and the lying bastard government on the Hill, there is not a single politician I trust or wish to vote for.  Not one.  Not a single f'ing one.

I lament for my country.  I lament for my children and grandchildren.  And I apologize to them for the utter stupidity of my generation.

Lansdowne Live

Well the first hurdle for this project is past.  I have a few random thoughts on the process I thought I would share with you.

The first is that, if someone with the verbal bombastic penchant of Alex Cullen ever became mayor of Ottawa the Dark Ages would be upon us.

The second is that I am please that for once Councilor Doucette was put in his place when the mayor cut off his remarks when his time was up.  The crocodile tears, the wavering voice and the mild tantrum that he exhibited was a telling thing.  Doucette is a spoiled child in a man's body.  He is the kid who took his ball and ran home when he wasn't the centre of attention on the playground.

There appeared to be many councilors that were absent even while they were in the room.  I am thinking specifically of Councilor Desroche.  Unless he snuck in a question while was out of the room, he did not even take part in the final debate.  Oh, he made a fine speech in the closing but where was his questioning otherwise?

I mentioned at the outset that the project was past the first hurdle.  The next hurdle is the design panel headed by George Dark.  Who, you may ask, is George Dark?

He has a resume overflowing with projects and kudos.  During the final stages of he first hurdle process he was handed a series of documents on the project and wrote a report, of which I have a copy, that made all sorts of statements and assertions on how to improve the space at Lansdowne.   In general the document is good, however, in his General comments, on page 19, he makes a somewhat strange observation that makes me wonder.  He notes: "The schematic design drawings are too site plan like for public use.  The problem is they look very precise and final … like a site plan application and do not convey the conceptual ideas well.."

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't the whole idea of a "schematic drawing" to look as precise as possible?


All in all the project is moving forward.  That is a good thing.  Let's just hope that it doesn't get bogged down in deciding on the colour of the drapes and making sure that they complement the sham.

That would be a sham(e).