The Bond Sept. 2015

Floor Plan for my Unit. L-Shaped. Right wall to Left & Balcony

Floor Plan for Unit 2004

19th floor

The Brawler at Rest & Play

Late Season Cruise on the Brawler

Late Season Cruise Lake Ontario on The Brawler

Pilings For New BMO Field Roof

Pope Francis

I'm not an expert on Catholicism and I have walked away from all religions, but you have to have some admiration for Pope Francis. I may be wrong but I'm guessing that Pope Francis was effusive in his praise of nuns, in the presence of the all male American bishops and cardinals, as a way of supporting the nuns and rebuking the church leaders in America.

Nuns have been the front line workers with the poor and marginalised in America. They have lived a westernised form of Liberation theology against the right wing American Catholic leadership. Nuns have put up with withering criticism from out of touch leaders. Ordered to conform and not stray from rigid Catholic doctrine. Bishops felt that nuns were straying too far to the left.

The reality is that the nuns do the dirty work for the Catholic church in America. Original feminists, business leaders and school administrators. They are far closer to the people and it is clear that they have much support in the Catholic community at large.

I don't think it was a coincidence that the largest cheers for Pope Francis were when he praised nuns. It was the polar opposite of when Pope John Paul II shook the Liberation theology priest in Central America many years ago.

It is no wonder that the extreme right wing Cardinal Law is critical of this pope. The same reason he was demoted when Francis assumed office.

The next pope may return the Catholic church to the far right policies of JPII but for know Francis is a breath of fresh air.

If I ran the Country

1. Lower EI premiums on the majority. If a person never collects EI continue to lower premiums like a true insurance program. If you collect every year you should pay higher premiums. Stop using surplus to pay the deficit. It is a true hidden tax.

2. Simplify the tax code and give everyone a tax break not just your base. Harper has made a mockery of the tax code.

3. Increase military spending to 2% of GDP as promised in NATO membership. Take procurement of military hardware out of government hands and stop using it as a make work projects for uneconomical shipbuilders and industry in the hinterlands.

4. The entire tax collection system is broken. Provinces should be the beneficiary of the majority of taxes. They spend money on healthcare, education, transportation and the majority of infrastructure.

5. Even out population of federal ridings and stop over representing rural areas. Representation by population is the fundamental tenant of a democracy. One man one vote. That is the reason $10B in taxes is taken out of the City of Toronto every year and spent elsewhere. That is why our subway system is a shambles and underfunded. We all know that the east coast provinces are over represented but even Manitoba and Saskatchewan have 14 seats each, when their populations support 10 each. Ontario should have 135 seats not 122. 

6. Foreign policy should not be dictated by pandering to ethnic groups such as the policy in the Ukraine and Israel. I'm not promoting abandoning those countries but return to a more balanced approach. 

7. Take the 2 cents eliminated from the HST and give the money to municipalities to build transportation. Increase the gas tax, implement road tolls and spend every penny on public transit. 

8. Reform the entire policy involving First Nations. Settle all land claims once and for all. Pay every native person $250,000 and be done with it for ever more. No more subsidies. No payments to any First Nation child born after 2020. Eliminate the Reserve system. It is sentencing natives to live in poverty and squalor in perpetuity. 

Working on 18th Floor of The Bond