There are too many people that think in the short term in Toronto. The Pan Am games is a prime example. I'm not sure what the price tag was? Maybe $2.5B. Or about 20% of Ontario's deficit this year. What did we get out of it? Two weeks of feel good athletic stories? Some traffic problems. My marina was all but blocked off for 3-weeks. We still have the Para Pan games coming up.
It doesn't matter. What we gained was an entire new neighbourhood fast tracked forward in Corktown. $Millions in future property taxes. An amazing redo of Queen's Quay. Head down there if you live in the city. It is jammed packed with tourists and locals. One of the best waterfronts I have seen in North America.
We have Olympic calibre pools, tracks and other facilities badly needed in Southern Ontario. Hamilton has a new football stadium. None of the facilities would have been built without the games. It is a small price to pay.
Toronto has too many naysayers. People that do not want to build anything. It is the reason our subway system is so pathetic. People want transit but don't want to pay for it. Nathan Phillips Square has a half-assed reno because City Hall wanted a to save a few bucks. There is nobody with vision running the city.
Toronto is a great city with a dynamic downtown core that is packed 7-days a week. But it was built by businesses not politicians. The city succeeds despite the politicians. This is not an endorsement of free enterprise. Most Canadian cities turn the lights out after 6PM downtown. It is just that Toronto has the population and economy that makes it work.
Thursday, 30 July 2015
Sunday, 5 July 2015
Harbourfront Toronto July 2015
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| Harbourfront Improvements |
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| Boat I trained on 3-years ago |
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| Alternate Pick-up Point for Brawler |
Boating July 2015
My first summer boating in 2013 I would rate my confidence level at 10-20%. Last year it improved to 30-50%. In 2015 I would say I'm 80+%. The change has been incremental. It was not an overnight change but a combination of practise and formal training with useful tips thrown in. Small things that add up to increasing confidence in my driving and parking ability.
I'm pleased that Martin was able to adjust the RPM on my twin engines. I had asked Great Lakes Yacht Service to fix the issue but they failed to show up. I would say that the slow idle speed, which led to engine shutdown, was the main culprit in 90% of the issues I had last year.
I still have a lot to learn but what I considered slow progress is starting to show constant improvement. I no longer consider myself the worst boat driver in Toronto. I even notice my neighbours no longer consider me a hazard to navigation.
I'm pleased that Martin was able to adjust the RPM on my twin engines. I had asked Great Lakes Yacht Service to fix the issue but they failed to show up. I would say that the slow idle speed, which led to engine shutdown, was the main culprit in 90% of the issues I had last year.
I still have a lot to learn but what I considered slow progress is starting to show constant improvement. I no longer consider myself the worst boat driver in Toronto. I even notice my neighbours no longer consider me a hazard to navigation.
Friday, 5 June 2015
A Senator's Entitlement
I don't know if Senator Mike Duffy will be convicted of fraud and various other charges but I urge people to read Christie Blatchford's National Post columns and watch her videos summarising the daily events at his trial. Duffy may be able to convince a judge that the rules were too vague and allow him to walk away a free man but he clearly fudged or broke the rules on many occasions. What is astonishing is Duffy's sense of entitlement, shocking expense claims and cavalier attitude towards taxpayers money.
Duffy's attitude appears to have been that the mere act of waking up entitled him to bill the taxpayer for every moment forward until he lay his head on a pillow that night. Many times in a taxpayer funded hotel. His 6-day trip to BC to visit family at the taxpayers expense without any real senatorial business is particularly galling.
I recall when Duffy was a TV pundit on Parliament Hill that he was so deep into the Conservative party pockets that I was astonished that Liberal and NDP politicians would even appear on his show. They should have showed an ounce of integrity and self worth and boycotted his program. It is little wonder that Harper awarded his lapdog with a senate seat.
Duffy's attitude appears to have been that the mere act of waking up entitled him to bill the taxpayer for every moment forward until he lay his head on a pillow that night. Many times in a taxpayer funded hotel. His 6-day trip to BC to visit family at the taxpayers expense without any real senatorial business is particularly galling.
I recall when Duffy was a TV pundit on Parliament Hill that he was so deep into the Conservative party pockets that I was astonished that Liberal and NDP politicians would even appear on his show. They should have showed an ounce of integrity and self worth and boycotted his program. It is little wonder that Harper awarded his lapdog with a senate seat.
Catholic Drift Eastward Into the Third World
I was offered a seniors discount at The Bay. On Tuesday at The Bay restaurant the elderly sales lady asked if I was over 60, as I would be eligible for a 15% discount. I still have 8-years and 1-week before I get my discount. M told me this week that I was already past middle age.
A week Monday I take my boat driving lessons. Lake Ontario will be a safer place.
The vote on gay marriage in Ireland and the Vatican's reaction to it showed that Ireland has become a secular country and the Catholic Church has increasingly become a Third World institution. The church which continues to do good works in poor nations has become a single issue, right-wing, anti-abortion crusader in the west. Priests and Bishops lecturing their flock to vote in Republican and Conservative politicians to office. Issues like fair wages, worker's rights, poverty, victims of paedophile priests are all irrelevant to the western Catholic Church. The church has joined up with evangelical Christians, Muslims and Third World immigrants to push forward their socially conservative agenda.
Advances in science, liberal attitudes towards social issues, increased access to information on the Internet will further distance the church from the youth in western nations. I don't think other Christian churches will benefit. I believe that that people will continue to drift away from organised religion. Many will lose faith altogether.
For the Vatican to label the Irish vote on gay marriage an abomination is further evidence of the eastward drift of the church. This comment coming from a church with massive, largely gay paedophile scandals is further proof of an institution that has lost its credibility in western society.
I don't think the Catholic Church should necessarily modernise its teachings. Jesus didn't appear to have any female apostles. Though that may be in dispute. Married priests apparently were the norm in the early centuries of the church. The Dogma and biblical passages are what they are. I do not believe abortion was an option in biblical times. The church doesn't have to change with the times. Adherents, followers, parishioners have to decide whether they still believe.
If the Catholic Church offered Confirmation to parishioners when they were 30 rather than 13, fully able to make an intellectual choice as a free thinking adult, how many would still go through with the sacrament? It doesn't really matter in the end as many, if not most just drift away. Many of those people nominally clinging to a faith in name only.
A week Monday I take my boat driving lessons. Lake Ontario will be a safer place.
The vote on gay marriage in Ireland and the Vatican's reaction to it showed that Ireland has become a secular country and the Catholic Church has increasingly become a Third World institution. The church which continues to do good works in poor nations has become a single issue, right-wing, anti-abortion crusader in the west. Priests and Bishops lecturing their flock to vote in Republican and Conservative politicians to office. Issues like fair wages, worker's rights, poverty, victims of paedophile priests are all irrelevant to the western Catholic Church. The church has joined up with evangelical Christians, Muslims and Third World immigrants to push forward their socially conservative agenda.
Advances in science, liberal attitudes towards social issues, increased access to information on the Internet will further distance the church from the youth in western nations. I don't think other Christian churches will benefit. I believe that that people will continue to drift away from organised religion. Many will lose faith altogether.
For the Vatican to label the Irish vote on gay marriage an abomination is further evidence of the eastward drift of the church. This comment coming from a church with massive, largely gay paedophile scandals is further proof of an institution that has lost its credibility in western society.
I don't think the Catholic Church should necessarily modernise its teachings. Jesus didn't appear to have any female apostles. Though that may be in dispute. Married priests apparently were the norm in the early centuries of the church. The Dogma and biblical passages are what they are. I do not believe abortion was an option in biblical times. The church doesn't have to change with the times. Adherents, followers, parishioners have to decide whether they still believe.
If the Catholic Church offered Confirmation to parishioners when they were 30 rather than 13, fully able to make an intellectual choice as a free thinking adult, how many would still go through with the sacrament? It doesn't really matter in the end as many, if not most just drift away. Many of those people nominally clinging to a faith in name only.
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