Morning Brew: November 28th, 2008
Photo: "Trapped in a dumpster " by mikepop2ca, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
The media is experiencing tough times for sure. First it was Canwest doing the canning, and now it's CTV axing 105 Toronto jobs. Fear not, though; Toronto blogs aren't next, I don't think. We don't have nearly the same level of resources, operating costs, overheard, or high-priced journalistic talent ;)
While the concept is still in its infancy, Loblaws is poised to take a leap and take the plastic grocery bag fee nationwide. They're insistent that it's not a cash grab, and are committing excess profits on the bags to outside environmental causes (after they pay for the required publicity, extra training, and checkout redesign costs associated with reusable bags).
It's big news for Waterloo. Superstar scientist Stephen Hawking has taken up a position as a research chair at the University of Waterloo. Understandably, he's not that keen on snow, and will spend a good chunk of his time there next summer. Who wants to hook up with Hawking and pick his brain over a beer on the patio? I do!
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Not one, but three Toronto area flea markets were raided by police in what is being lauded as the largest raid ever on junk merchandise sellers in Canada. A whole whack of counterfeit consumer goods have been seized, and there's no telling how many homes have been spared being turned into blazing infernos this Christmas. Phew.
As we hunker down for another Toronto winter, and ask ourselves once again why on earth we choose to live here, the city has announced its plans to ensure better snow removal this go around. Better equipment and tougher enforcement should be expected, which is great news for the elderly, disabled, and clumsy. If we're lucky, maybe this year we'll be able to see around corners too.
And Toronto Twitter types are going to clink glasses tonight at 5:30pm at C'est What on Front St. I'm looking forward to putting larger than thumbnail faces to usernames, and speaking in phrases consisting of as many characters as I so please. Hope to see some of you there! (Facebook event page)
And a poll related to some hot national politics:
Comments (17)
Re: Flea Market
I wonder if they shut down the puppy mills that operate out of those places? Probably not. Seems copyright infringment trumps animal abuse.
the story with CTV is that they fired far too many people who make TV, instead of the overpaid management who can only make decisions.
According to their union It was 61 union jobs lost out of the 105, so the knife was deep, and almost even. The question remains as to whether they'll be bringing folks back on a "freelance" basis, thus quietly busting the union.
Take it from someone who used to work there...there's no way for CTV to "quietly" break the union. You can't even use a union VTR without raising a stink.
CTV's problem is that they've been in growth mode without foreseeing the economic storm that was coming. That and the hubris they've had with being Canada's largest and most profitable broadcaster. Buying up shows like Commander in Chief and shelving them just so the competition can't get it is probably a thing of the past.
Maybe Ivan Fecan can show some solidarity with his employees by selling his Mercedes McClaren and just getting by with only his G-Wagon....
Whaddya say Ivan?
Despite voting for my local Liberal candidate, I did not do so for a coalition government. The Conservatives were elected into power, and any change should be put to a vote by the people. If that means the Liberals and NDP force another election then so be it. I doubt too many will look kindly upon them for doing so at the polls.
The fact is the majority of Canadians voted for Centre-Left to Left wing policy's (leave the partisan bullshit at the door and just look at the politics and policy's... Centre-Right to right wing is not what the majority of Canadians want)... I think a coalition of parties working to get the type of policy's Canadians want by majority is probably the best bet for some shit to actually get done in our government.
WOW! U of Waterloo gets Stephen Hawking???? I'm so excited, and amazed, and proud.... and confused!!
The Conservatives were only elected to power because there is only 1 conservative party. There are 3 liberal parties, and so they split the liberal vote. If we had a two party system, Liberals and Conservative, the Liberals would have easily won. This is because Bloq and NDP voters are much more aligned with the Liberal's policies than they are with the Conservative's policies. The FACT is that the majority of Canada is liberal, not conservative. You can't argue with the numbers. It makes total sense for the liberal parties to form a coalition because it would better represent what the majority of Canadians want. Please tell me how this does not make sense?
**Please note my use of capitalization of liberal and Liberal, conservative and Conservative, because it is an important part of the argument.
The Liberal, Bloq, and NDP party are not the same. Pretending like they are and thus have some sort of majority rule entitlement is silly. Our system is such that we elected a Conservative government, don't like it fight to change it.
The point is not that they are the same... the point is to get away from partisan bullshit and look at policies in terms of how they sit in the political spectrum... there is one major party which represents the entire centre to right side of the political spectrum.... there is 4 (Lib, NDP, Bloq, Green) for centre to left... so by judging by what majority of Canadians vote for... they vote for centre to left leaning policies.... add up all the votes for Lib, NDP, Bloq and Green, they vastly outweigh Conservatives votes... point being that the majority of Canadians want centre to left policy's being implemented... This is not about which specific party or which specific platform... it is saying that by votes centre to right policy's is not what the majority of Canadians want... but that is what we are being given. So the point being YES things do need to change... and people need to lose their bullshit blind partisanship tendencies, ignorance and apathy for us to rethink our systems of election and governance and make the changes that are needed
The Conservative party is also not the Progressive Conservative party that many people still think it is. How the average person votes often seems to be more about the brand than the policy.
Even though we in Canada seem to be a little less petty about issues of gay marriage and stem cell research unlike Americans, people here still have brand allegiance. Just instead of Coke vs Pepsi, we have Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and A&W.
Stephen Hawking took the research chair position at the Permiter Institute, which is located in the city of Waterloo. To my knowledge, the Institute is not part of University of Waterloo.
I'm curious how some of you are saying that the Conservatives would be decimated if the Liberals/NDP/Green/Bloc were all one party. Based on seats, Harper won 46.4% of all available seats. I was never a skilled mathematician, but 46.4% isn't a paltry number.
@Jenelle: The Perimeter Institute is an independent organization from the university of Waterloo, but there is a heavy overlap of influences. Mike Lazaridis (the founder of the PI) is the Chancellor of the University, and his first hire to run the PI was from UW. And there are joint programs.
@Shawn: The Conservatives received 37% of the vote. That means that over 60% of the country is left of centre. So in what world does is make sense that the governing party is far right-wing? It comes down to the flaws in our system. If Canada were a 2 party system, the Conservatives would never win, which is clear by their 37% of the popular vote. Out of the 4 other parties, I would say the Liberals are closest to the centre, so the Conservatives would essentially gain none of the popular vote if there was a 2 party system, however, the Liberals (or whatever name the more left-wing party went by) would stand to receive around 60% of the popular vote.
@Picard102: The problem is that the majority of Canadians didn't elect a Conservative government. They won by a technicality because there is only 1 party that represents the right-wing. Also, you use the phrasing "our system is such that", well our system is also such that there are rules in place to enable to the other parties to form a coalition government. Forming a coalition government is their right, and you can't take that away simply because it doesn't agree with you. Like you said, don't like it, fight to change it. However it is no more wrong than the Conservatives being the governing party with only 37% of the vote. That's the way our system works at the moment.
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