Get it for the iphone from the App store.

UPDATE: The problem has been resolved.

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney says surprising the markets with a rate freeze last week was not “ideal” but was the right thing to do given that inflation risks are on the rise.

Picking Mark Carney as successor to David Dodge is probably one of the few good things Jim has done as Minister of Finance. He sure has not helped help the situation for Carney by cutting the GST, raising income taxes then cutting them back to the previous levels, and of late done nothing about sustainable growth once the oil patch dries up or prices fall to $50/barrel.

Core inflation is does not indicate a need for a rate hike, rather it is why the a cut was expected. The impact of higher transport and food costs will take time to diffuse throughout the marketplace but likely not to a level that will cause rates to rise. Should the core rate jump, then rates will surely follow.

For more detailed information about the restrictive and punitive fine print see Michael Geist’s blog.

A Conservative MP who on Wednesday told an Ottawa radio station that former residential school students need a stronger work ethic, not more compensation dollars, has apologized for his comments.

Pierre Poilievre stood in the House of Commons Thursday to say he was sorry for his remarks, which were made just hours before Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a public, formal apology to former students of the native residential school program.

These statements form a dichotomy of positions, I wonder which one is true and which is PR?

Despite the fact that the latter is only electioneering, at least they did the right thing. I suppose it is better late and politically motivated than never.

– Quick Stats –
Lifetime Average Mileage: 16.4km/L, 6.1L/100km, 38.6 US mpg, 46.3 Imp. mpg
Best Mileage: 23.6km/L, 4.2L/100km, 55.5 US mpg, 66.6 Imp. mpg
Max KM between fills: 1078.6 (with 5L, or 120 km left in the tank)
Savings over gasoline @ 10km/L: $3,649.84
Running B50/B20 (50/20% biodiesel, for 80% of fills)
Total fuel consumed: 6097.227 L
Total CARBON NEUTRAL fuel consumed: 941.094 L
TDI Mileage Summary page
– –

November 2004 - April 2005 was mostly highway trips between Toronto and Hamilton, May - August 2005 was mostly city driving with a July roadtrip, since September 2005 - 2 Montreal roadtrips and mostly highway to/from Hamilton with traffic and some short run city KMs. The dips show mainly city months, while above 17km/L months are mostly highway. November 2006 to May 2007 on Gislaved NordFrost5 winter tires. December 2007 to April 2008 on winter tires.

June-September 2006, filling up with B50 from Stohos Petro Green @ Queen and Pape

I had this discussion with my students Monday night and I’ve been fighting with a client’s email problem because of POP, so the timing of this couldn’t be any better.

The virtues of POP lie solely in from the perspective of the email provider. Hold the mail only until the receiver fetches it. Back in the day of expensive disk space that made perfect sense. Distribute the data load over all the clients instead of storing everything. Problem with this is, as my client’s case demonstrates, that “as a backup” people don’t want to remove messages from the server. The other reason is that if they do then the emails will not be available via webmail access or mobile devices.

IMAP give you 2 way communication, storage, and access between the server and any client. This is the level of service users desire and it is an easy solution to provide. Disk space is cheap and so is bandwidth. So if your email provider/IT department will only provide you with POP access, you deserve more and you deserve better.

Why the LCBO should not be privatized. 1) It is a cash cow. 2) It is easy enough for kids and alcohol dependants to get booze now, it would only get much easier.

“We think that is a foolish and unnecessary policy that is being proposed by our opposition.”
…
But Harper said the best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is through regulating large industrial emitters.
…
Harper said that in the 2004 election, the Tories committed to taking off 0.7 per cent off the excise tax on gasoline.
But he said after that election, they decided broader tax relief for consumers would be better for Canadians.
…
“We also concluded that the ability of a government to affect the price of gasoline per se is so small that it is not worth doing. What you really got to do is lower costs for consumers generally.”

Are carbon taxes foolish? Yes, for one reason alone. They are not sustainable for the government. By reducing other taxes and replacing that lost income with the gains from carbon taxes are a negative sum game. Say those carbon taxes get high enough to force big polluters to develop or implement more carbon friendly processes. Those carbon tax gains disappear along with the carbon emissions. The government’s petty cash box will get pretty bare.

The alternative is a cap and trade system. Problem here is that the big polluters will not be charged enough, at least for the first 5 years, to make some reductions cost effective. So the buying up carbon credits will just be a new cost of doing business. Problem is the carbon et. al. keeps getting pumped into the environment, while it takes the time for the price to go up. Once the price gets high enough though, emissions are reduced as above but it is not hitting the government’s revenue directly. Having all the polluting companies jump ship to China or India is another matter.

The current plan of Canada’s New Government (TM) is regulation in the form of politely asking big emitters to stop. Good luck with that.

With respect to the gas price relief, there should be none. It is about time the true cost of transportation was realised. Maybe now people will start walking their kids to school, buy local produce, and stop buying gigantic SUVs for a five foot momma to take little Billie to soccer.

And on the note of broader tax relief… GST cuts are not broad tax cuts. They are niche cuts for those that spend 5 times of more than people at the median.

For those that fly a lot, here is an interesting site that will forecast if you should buy your tickets now or wait for fares to decline in the next 7 days. Farecast.com has a clean interface, searches many travel sites, and the forecasting algorithm even gives a confidence percentage. Please turn off all mobile device, secure carry-on baggage, and place you tray table in the upright position… Enjoy your flight.

Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live.

See that little spec on the map in the North Atlantic? Maybe it is because of it physical isolation, but the 313,000 people seem to have benefited from the space. There is more than a critical mass of awareness about how to live, it is quite nearly everyone of them.

These people are happy because they are true to themselves, true to others, and true to their environment. To be fair they had a bit of a head start. In 930 A.D. they organized of the first parliaments, while the rest of the western world was still in the dark ages. In many ways it still is, with respect to the behaviour of may people toward: women, races, respect on to others, respect of the environment. Icelanders had a strong and stable structure that has gone on to build the many fine character traits the article discusses. In comparison, that is something that has just barely begun in Canada. Read, think, act accordingly.

“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.