“I find it unbelievable that a governing party in Canada would refuse to support a motion expressing confidence in the institution that keeps our country’s elections fair… And I think Canadian citizens will find it unbelievable,” Mr. Ignatieff told reporters Tuesday.

Seriously?! No seriously, how can the governing party have no confidence in the electoral system that go it elected? Guess they should just pack up and leave office, or maybe the authoritarian party wants the country to go the same way. In all seriousness this time, it is a shame that Joe Public has no clue (read: could careless) about what is going on in Ottawa. Can somebody get their act together and actually lead the country (besides into deficit, recession, and environmental disaster)?

Please, we the people are begging you!

“No one has ever said we shouldn’t have these pools; they’re important for safety and teaching good social habits and they’re absolutely wonderful for the disabled and for older people,” said the former Conservative MP, who said he hopes to find a funding solution by the end of June.

Toronto public school pools are set to close because there is no funding. There is no funding because of the awful way the Ontario government changed the funding formula in the mid-1990s. The TDSB is the only Board of Education with such an extensive list of community schools with pools. So when a standard formula is applied across the province 1) the Toronto board will be short changed because of the extras it provides to the 2.5 million residents of the city (in particular in urban areas), 2) the (costly) pools will not get direct funding because they are atypical of all the other schools in the province.

The problem I have is where the funding is supposed to come from. The city that has been running huge deficits thanks to downloading of programs and the lack of property tax increases several years ago? The Ministry of Education that still has not reworked the funding formula to provide suitable funding across all Boards of Ed?

Child obesity has more than tripled in the last 20 years, and is only getting worse. Particularly in the communities where these pools are located; high density urban with few safe places for physical activity for children. So why is this issue not being address by Ministry of Health? They spend hundreds of millions bailing out hospitals that overspend because they know they will get more. Well how about doing something that will reduce the burden on those hospitals, specifically in 10-20 years when these kids develop early diabetes and other health issues?

True political leaders set out a path that will extend well beyond their terms in office, politicians only see the next election. The latter is going on far too much in Ottawa, but there might still be hope for Ontario. You can help them see the light on Thursday at Queen’s Park (more info @ Let’s Make Waves, or sign the online petition Save-our-pools. Restoring pool funding would be common sense, let see if this revolutionary idea gets through…

First there were cows on the QEW and now pigs on the 401. Highway driving is tough enough with the right lane passers, left lane slowpokes, and drowsy truckers. Now I have to contend with livestock!?

Hey Jim, the “free market” operating as the psychopath that it is is what got us into this mess in the first place.

Starbucks has resisted moving to fair-trade organic coffee because it cites the fact that there is not enough in the marketplace to procure the volume of beans it needs. If Wal-Mart can do it, anybody can. If Howard Schultz really wants to make over the image of his little coffee shop that could this is how, not espresso shot glasses and fresher foam.

Do you use one the Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver traffic widgets daily? Would you mind seeing some ads if it helps with funding improved and expanded widgets? What frequency would be acceptable?

Marketing peeps, want to target a specific market in a geographic area? Mac buyers are typically discerning consumers that have a keen sense of value for money. Is that what your product or service in Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver provides?

Further, I’m looking at doing a widget for Montreal. The shear number of cameras and routes would require some upfront funding. Lately my spare time is asymptotical to zero, having to learn, teach, and pay the mortgage.

Under the heading of Environment:

$300 million to the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for its operations, including development of the Advanced CANDU nuclear reactor.

Considering its environmental policy (or lack thereof), the Chalk River affair, and the fact that the Harper government isn’t hiding the fact that it wants to sell off the AECL. The budget allocation to the AECL should not be seen as a sign the government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by funding clean air nuclear power. Rather it should be seen as sweetening the pot for GE Power or Areva.

Late last week, the federal government appointed three new members to the CBC Board of Directors. Two of the three have strong ties to the Conservative party:
…
The appointments were made without the supervision of the federal appointments commission that Prime Minister Harper had promised during the last election campaign.

With the budget due in 2 hours, more evidence that an election right now might not be a bad idea. The last election took power away from the Liberals based primarily on accountability reform. That reform was supposed to make the government more transparent and would eliminate patronage appointments. The Accountability Act allows a less accountable government, seconded by Gomery. The patronage appointment pledge went out the window with the first cabinet selection and the appointment of Michael Fortier as a senator, and continues today at the CBC. But alas, these things are expected in politics. The scary part of the announcement is that it raises more fodder that the government will privatise the CBC.

Internet advertising is expected to slow from the previous exponential growth, but still accounts for less than 10% of all ad spending. Do you advertise online? What is your return on investment? Is that the most effective use of your spending?

“A study by Canadian scientist Martin Hocking shows that making a paper cup uses as much petroleum or natural gas as a polystyrene cup. Plus, the paper cup uses wood pulp. The Canadian study said, ‘The paper cup consumes 12 times as much steam, 36 times as much electricity, and twice as much cooling water as the plastic cup.’ And because the paper cup uses more raw materials and energy, it also costs 2.5 times more than the plastic cup.”

The only excuse that the major chain coffee shoppes have about not using biodegradable cups is cost. They cost more, so it would take a bite in to the fat margins on coffee and tea. Since Toronto is now taxing for garbage why not extend this tax to every major chain coffee house. The effect of taxing non-degradable cups would push the cost of their use above the cost of using biodegradable cups that the city has to deal with. A stroll along any street in Toronto yields countless of Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, Second Cup, etc. cups. Now think of how many of these are just taking up space in the trucks that the city is sending to Michigan.

Botanicalls Twitter DIY

Starbucks is testing a 360-millilitre cup of “fresh-pressed” coffee at $2.50 (U.S.) each. The price is $2.25 in a Boston trial. Starbucks charges $1.55 for a regular brew in those stores.

Much like a French kiss, a French pressed cup of coffee is the best kind. Howard Schultz had a vision for his chain of coffee houses that was based on the experience. The company strayed from that mission and now he is back and making things right again.

A normal programmer would conclude that Office’s binary file formats:

• are deliberately obfuscated
• are the product of a demented Borg mind
• were created by insanely bad programmers
• and are impossible to read or create correctly.

You’d be wrong on all four counts.

The one true statement that is missing from above is the culture of development that lead to such a complicated spec: are not designed following software engineering principles.

The details provided in Joel’s post expose the lack of disciple to age old software principles (that for the most part are still unknown to many in the field) Low cohesion, high coupling, poorly defined interfaces, and (most importantly) little information hiding led to the mess that is the Office binary file formats.

If that is the software culture that designed the Office specs, is it any wonder Windows works so well.

The McGuinty government suffers from a “lack of leadership, a lack of vision and a lack of economic stewardship,” he said in an early morning speech in Toronto to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. The provincial government “fails to understand the long-term benefits of tax relief,” he added.
…
Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello, who attended the speech, reacted angrily afterwards, telling reporters that Mr. Flaherty’s comments consisted of “an appalling string of bald-faced lies.”… Mr. Flaherty, who was once Ontario’s finance minister, “left Ontario with a massive deficit and headed to Ottawa and found a massive surplus thanks to the previous government.”

And is about to do the same in Ottawa. Thanks for the tips Jim, but maybe you should be more concerned about your own coffers instead the one you helped to empty and took 3 years to recover from. Oh and don’t go blaming Ontario for the pending Federal deficit, you can thank the GST cut for that.

On the subject of GST cut, I’ll merge a pending post here:
Inflation cools on GST cut

Canada’s annual inflation rate dropped to 2.2 per cent in January, as the GST cut that took effect at the start of the year helped to keep the cost of living down.

Inflation had been 2.4 per cent in December.

Statistics Canada estimates that a one percentage point cut in the GST should cut the inflation rate by 0.6 per cent “if the entire amount of the decrease were transferred to consumers through lower prices.”

Estimates have put advanced 1% GST discounted car sales in December at lowering the inflation rate by 0.2%. So there is still 0.4% of inflation that was lost to higher prices. Net result: consumers pay almost as much, government gets a lot less. Great mathematicians and economists in the Ministry of Finance. Oh wait, they don’t believe in science anymore.

Read the link above, because only Rick can tell it like it is so bluntly obvious, sad, and comedic at the same time. I know the options are grim, but is this best path for Canada?

Update:Supporting evidence, from the right-most leaning newspaper.

Update 2: I forgot to blog that the same government snubbed the 25th anniversary of the Charter too - CBC.ca - PM’s snub of charter anniversary ’shocking’: Chrétien