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Morning Brew: Transit privatization pros and cons, gender-neutral update to our national anthem, Kaberle waives no-trade clause to no avail, budget hearing outburst, Port Authority objects to proposal to designate the Canada Malting silos a heritage site
The privatization of the TTC is a concept that seems to get thrown around a fair bit whenever a serious customer service failing comes to light, but a look at other systems around the GTA and in other cities reveals both pros and cons. On the plus side, full-blown strikes are eliminated and customer service parameters are easy to establish in supplier contracts. But, privatization also involves the serious risk that the companies contracted to provide service may fail financially, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
Although it falls beyond the scope of local news, today's lead story in the Star gets mention here so as to save readers from experiencing the overexcitement and ultimate disappointment that its juicy headline caused me. "Conservatives eye new lyrics for our national anthem" got me thinking that that full scale changes were proposed, but the reality is that only one line is under consideration for alteration. "In all thy sons command" may indeed hint at the patriarchal underpinnings of our nation, and is probably worthy of a gender-neutral update, so isn't that crucial aspect of the story worthy of headline treatment?
Although Leafs GM Brian Burke indicated his team would be both a buyer and a seller at the NHL trade deadline, he wasn't able to do much more than dump salary yesterday. Along with yesterday's trade of Alexei Ponikarovsky to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Burke moved Lee Stempniak to the Phoenix Coyotes for fourth and seventh round draft picks. But the biggest news is what didn't get done. According to a number of reports, Tomas Kaberle was willing to waive his no-trade clause to go to three teams. Had he moved, it would have been the most significant deal of the day.
Councillor Paula Fletcher brought a little drama to last night's budget hearing by daring a member of the audience to "come and run against me. Come on down, baby!" Fletcher has since apologized for her outburst, saying that "if my tone was argumentative" it doesn't mean that she doesn't "value [citizen] participation in the budget process." I don't think there's any "ifs" about it -- that's about as abrasive as you can get.
The Toronto Port Authority has formally objected to the designation of the Canada Malting Silos as a heritage site. Citing a 24-year-old agreement regarding the use of waterfront lands, the TPA fears that the designation will impede its future ability to build a parking lot to service the Island Airport (or Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, as it's now called). Although Port Authority CEO Geoff Wilson claims he has no problem with the heritage designation so long as his land-use rights are protected, I can't help but think that this is a contradictory stance.
Lead photo: "late afternoon at cherry beach" by louise@toronto, Canada Malting Silos photo by arcticlamb, both members of the blogTO Flickr pool.
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Otherwise I think privatizing the TTC is a red herring: in my opinion, they need to (this is an overly simplistic argument, mind you) do three things: call the Provincial and Federal Government's bluff, and say if you want a world-class transportation system, you can't do so with the current subsidies; two, find effective, sensible cost-saving measures that take advantage of economies of scale: ie, have automatic pay booths like in New York and Boston, eliminating the cost overhead to employ booth operators, and three, implement fares-by-zone, so those that use more of the system pay a slightly hire fee than those who don't, also used in NYC and Boston. I mean, heck, if I'm traveling from Dupont to St. George station, why am I paying the same rate as someone traveling from Scarborough to Kipling?
Maybe a tweak here or there, but why would you really want to make big changes to it?
The negative spin here on most things (including the commenters) really does get tiresome sometimes.
Our home, their native land... Maybe that's the compromise. Although I'm fairly certain that "native" doesn't mean aboriginal here. Native as in "birthplace" and in that context it IS Our Native Land.
"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love thou dost in us command.
We see thee rising fair, dear land,
The True North, strong and free;
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
From here: http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/anthem-eng.cfm
I still think 'sons' is cool. But what do the MAJORITY of women think? I don't think the opinion of one old lady warrants a front page news story.
I'm going to start using the word 'homeslice' in place of 'sons'.
Seriously, if they do change it, "thou dost in us" is rather awkward... just make it "in all of us command".
Or better yet, don't change it at all. It's a small squeeky wheel that's complaining about this, and I bet if this went to a referendum even most women would vote against it.
And actually they really overdid this anthem thing during my high school years. I mean, if you have to listen to something EVERY FRIGGING MORNING FOR FIVE FRIGGING YEARS, you start kinda hating it after a while. So I would suggest a complete change of lyrics and melody. Maybe something a little heavier on the bass... :-P