Calgary Blue Flame

Carbon R Us

2009-04-22T09:48:00.004-06:00

Happy Earth Day from Calgary.

Or more specifically, from Shawnessy C-Train station in the south of the city.

It's ironic that this morning, thanks to the introduction of a $3 a day fee to park in the Park'n'Ride lots, a car park that is usually full from 6:30am, was still half empty at 7:45am.

So where are all the cars? Driving into town.

At a time when cities all over the world are trying to coax us onto public transport, Calgary City Council have taken the decision to deter car owners from using the C-Train by charging them $3 a day to park. This has been done "to pay for cleaning up the stations and improving security" but really, it's a swipe at all the C-Train passengers who live outside Calgary. If you are a Calgarian, you can use the public bus system to get to your nearest train station. If you're outside the city, your only option is to park at a station or drive downtown.

So, really, they want to deter outsiders from using the Train which, after all, is subsidised by Calgary tax payers. Much better for those interlopers who used to use the train to drive their 5 litre trucks all the way into town.

Actually, council should go the whole nine yards and build a moat of flaming gasoline around the city, just incase their message isn't getting through to everyone. And then they can be parochial and anti-environment at the same time.

A ffine romance

2009-01-29T15:32:00.005-07:00

Looks like Michael Ignatieff has put the welfare of Canada before his own career aspirations by agreeing to conditionally support the budget announced by the Tories on Tuesday. I think the Liberals are to be commended for this move; the last thing Canada needs right now is an aggressive coalition takeover. Jack Layton and Giles Duseppe are already frothing at the mouth about getting oh soooooo close to defeating their arch enemy. Imagine what they would have been like if Ignatieff had sided with them and the coalition actually assumed power. You would have had to use a cattle-prod to calm Jack down.

So now the NDP is on the attack against the Liberals. Wow, the whole Obama message of cooperation and transparency really didn't get down to Jack's height or translate into French for Giles, did it? It's all about getting Stephen Harper out, at any cost. Well, that's really the job of the Canadian people. Maybe they'll do a better job at the next election.

A Man's a Man...

2009-01-26T11:52:00.003-07:00

Happy Burns Day (yesterday). To commemorate the birth of The Bard, here's the last verse of "A Man's A Man For A' That". Seems as apt today as ever:

Then let us pray that come it may,
(As come it will for a' that,)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That Man to Man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.

Yes, We Canada

2009-01-20T13:32:00.009-07:00

You know, I had this great Star Wars parody post all lined up when it was all kicking off between Stephen Harper and every other party in Canada last year. I chose Star Wars because the events in Ottawa were fast becoming as bizarre as a George Lucas plot. The rebel Prorogue Squadron, the Separatist Duseppe Army, Jack the Jawa and little Yoda May. Then it all fell apart when Dion the Hutt (so called because no one could understand anything he said) did the right thing and stood down.

Then, family birthdays and work and Christmas kind of got the better of me and, before you can spell Ignatieff, (the extra 'f' is just for Stephen Harper) it's Barack Obama's inauguration and I suddenly remember that I have a blog to write!

I must admit to getting as caught up in the whole Obamania thing as anyone else. It's hard not to, given the level of coverage here in Canada. I watched the CTV stream on the web and it almost made me feel a bit sorry for Canada when I heard the commentators focus on how the American politicians from opposing sides were able to come together for the occasion. And this on top of the fact that Obama is pushing for cooperation between the parties and has put his money where his mouth is by consulting with John McCain on defense issues this week.

Compare that to the Muppet Show that is Canadian politics at the moment and Canadians must feel like they've just spent the day with a sibling listening to stories of how their neice or nephew has been accepted to an Ivy League school or been drafted by the Flames or become an astronaut, only to return to their own home filled with kids who can't last 5 minutes without kicking each other's heads in.

As I watch Barack and Michelle walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I'm reminded of Labour's election win in the UK in 1996 after 17 years of Tory rule and Tony and Cherie Blair shaking hands with almost everyone in a packed, clamorous Downing Street . The same sense of optimism, the same feeling, that Tony Blair was someone who could actually change the system and make a difference. And, to some extent, he did before the political machine absorbed him.

So, on a day like this, with so much optimism south of the border, it's easy to wish that Canada had it's very own Barack Obama. But lets not forget that the reaction to Barack Obama owes as much to the previous incumbent and the present economic and foreign policy crisis as it does to the significance of America's first black president.

Canada, for all that it's parliament seems to be held together with pieces of duct tape, still has good reason to hold its head high on the world stage.

This country is still one of the most diverse and inclusive in the world and it has acted with pragmatism in its foreign policy and its response to American financial greed.

We are feeling the effects of the global economic downturn, just like everyone else, but our banks appear to be solid (and I stress the "appear"). I've been watching, with dismay, the looming collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, a organisation that was, only 4 years ago, quoted as being worth more than Ford, General Motors, Nike and MacDonalds combined. Now, it will be lucky if its market capitalisation is worth more than a Big Mac, with the share price dropping from a 2007 high of six pounds to just 10pence today. The UK, it would appear, is in even bigger trouble than the US and the financial projections of a 5% decline for Ireland puts it within spitting distance of a depression.

So Canada, with all it's political squabbling, seems to be holding on in there. Now we need to see what the Tories come up with in next week's budget. That should be ffun...

Last night?

2008-11-05T16:09:00.001-07:00

...was a good night.

What colour would you like?

2008-11-03T21:24:00.007-07:00

I dressed up as Michael Myers at the weekend (for Halloween, obviously). Not the guy who gave Shrek the worst Scottich accent in the world but the other guy with the mask and the knife. Our whole family had a great horror movie theme going, I was Michael, my wife was the girl from The Excorist, my oldest son was Freddie Kruger and my youngest was SUPPOSED to be Jason from Friday the 13th until he changed to Obi Wan Kenobi at the last minute.

Stupid Force.

But I still went out trick or treating with my boys and had a great time freaking out the pre-teens even though I don't think they had a clue who I was supposed to be.

Then we went to a Halloween party and I discovered a piece of Halloween etiquette that I thought I would share:

When you go to a Halloween party, don't wear a costume that has a mask.

Sure, it sounds great and it is when you first arrive but then practicalities take over. You can't really spend the whole party with your mask on because half the people don't know who the hell you are and it's almost impossible to drink anything, although I did use a straw for a while.

There were some great costumes at this party, Gene Simmons, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Amy Winehouse, the girl from The Excorcist (hey, I'm always a husband first), to name a few.

And there was me, Michael Myers. Problem was, as soon as I put the knife down and took my mask off, I was just a guy with overalls on (or a boilersuit as we would say in Scotland). I could have been there to paint the upstairs toilet.

So, if you want to be a big party hit, get the facepaint out. I'm thinking of going as the U.S. President next year so I'll need plenty of the dark stuff...

"You want Magnolia or Cream?"

Any spare change?

2008-10-27T23:29:00.003-06:00

So, I'm no financial expert, just a guy trying to do the right things. Like many people I have savings that rely on the health of the financial markets so I've been as concerned as the next bloke about the plummet of the numbers over the past few weeks. There's been a lot of talk about the sub-prime crisis, the broken financial system, government bailouts, looming recession, financial crisis, etc etc.

But let's be clear on one thing: this whole thing was caused by bad business practices. This is a crisis of greed.

A stable society places it's trust in the law, government, health, education and finance. If we act within the law we expect to live in relative freedom and safety, and we also expect that those who do not obey our laws are punished appropriately. We trust those whom we elect to represent our needs. If we are sick, we expect to be given competent and appropriate care. We expect to be educated without bias or propaganda. And, when we give our money to banks or to investment institutions, we trust that those bodies will temper their decisions and actions with objectivity and morality.

What we are seeing now is a betrayal of that trust in the banking system. In the U.S., the constant drive for financial growth-spurts and elephantine profits has resulted in a plague of sub-prime lending. In short, money was thrown at borrowers who were unlikely to pay it back.

And that is the root of the problem; very simple but requiring a complex fix.

When it became clear that this course of action would affect some executive bonuses, the banks tried to fix the problem by putting the financial equivalent of short skirts and lipstick on the debts and pimping them off to other banks and brokerages as attractive investment vehicles. Again, greed was the driving factor, making a quick buck out of the common man's misfortune.

But this was like putting a band aid on leprosy and, very quickly, these investments were dumped like the crack whores they were. Investors moved into commodities for safety, driving the prices of oil, grain and others through the roof. Banks reigned back on lending to each other and to businesses, which suffered or died, as did some major U.S. financial institutions. The rest of the financial world, being an active participant in the credit market orgy, felt the same pain as the money-men realised the mistakes they'd made.

But this orgy between the banks, this selfish, lazy, inbreeding has produced offspring.
What we have now is a six-fingered, buck-toothed, sloping-foreheaded financial system that has low intelligence, doesn't really understand what is going on and is easily swayed by outside suggestion.

Which brings me to the subject of George Bush.

It's interesting to consider that George's eight-year term has been bookended by two of the biggest crises the world has ever known. It started with 9/11 and ended with the near collapse of a financial system that, if it did go down, would take most of us with it like a suicide bomber.

Think of your pension, savings, mortgage, ability to borrow money. Think of how society would react if these things were suddenly lost.

It would be easy to blame George for this, last great exclamation mark on his presidency but it wouldn't be fair. This has a much more fundamental cause, that being our perpetual drive for growth, it being the fact that the very mechanics of our society are based on greed, on making more money than the other guy, on the mantra of EBITDA and on the paradox of the investor as being both served and screwed.

It would be nice to think that a better way could come out of all of this but it won't. The mother of all corrections will occur (helped along by those dumb taxpayer schmucks) and we'll all carry on, buying SUV's and MP3's, ignoring the third world and worrying about China (who, if you're American or European, you now owe a lot of money.)

I would worry about it more, but I'm going to play on my XBOX360.

If You Had a Robot, Would You Want it to Suck or Blow?

2008-10-19T21:22:00.003-06:00

We just bought one of those iRobot Roomba things that cleans the floor for you. What's next, a pill that turns into a roast-beef dinner when you pour a drop of water on it?

To think that it is now possible to buy a "robot" that actually does something useful! I hear iRobot's next product will be a Prime Ministeroomba.

I was sceptical about the concept of a totally automatic vacuum cleaner robot at first but this does actually seem to work, not to mention the added value my kids get by following it around and patting it. It's appearance is a bit dissappointing, no mechanical claw arms or red glowing eyes and not on single laser-phasor-plasma-deathray thing and the bugger hasn't said 'exterminate' once since we turned it on but I suppose you can't have everything.

A robot vacuum cleaner - my, how times have changed; I can remember when we used to sprinkle bits of bacon on the floor and let the dog lick the carpet.

59.1%

2008-10-16T21:41:00.003-06:00

Well, the election is over. Thank goodness for that.

And who won? Well, nobody really.

So, what changed? Ehm, well, nothing really.

On Tuesday, Canada had a minority government with a Conservative Prime Minister and today it has, yes you guessed it, a minority government with a Conservative Prime Minister.
Actually, something did change; the parties and the country spent a lot of money on an election that changed nothing. But at least it 'cleared the air' as Jim Prentice said on CBC radio this morning.

Cleared the air?

That's like me demolishing my house and building a new one because I had an argument with my wife in the kitchen.

I also heard some radio pundit say that Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Aberta and BC are now resoundingly Conservative. Surely a bit of a stretch when you consider that only 59.1% of the electorate voted. The only resounding thing about that is the lack of belief in democracy.

But, actually, democracy is working, just not in a good way.

Consider the scenario: on the Right you have the Tories, one party, a leader with stoic hair, a clearly understandable manifesto-of-the-me, something that people might not like but, at least, they get it.

Then, on the other side, there are three parties with very similar ideologies, the Liberals, the NDP and Lizzy's Green Party, who are all trying to do the right thing for society but with different approaches. They also fight just like three siblings, one bald, one with penchant for childlike simplification and one who can hardly speak English.

So, people have a choice: vote for a single right of centre organisation or dilute your vote into tense pool of leftism.

For many liberal-minded citizens, this choice is unnaceptable so they just haven't bothered. In this case, the Left has diversified just too widely.

So, is there a solution? I think the only way to restore voter willingness will be a reduction of the number of parties on the left, either through consolidation or attrition but the question is, does the left have what it takes to do the right thing for Canada?

We shouldn't have to wait too long to find out; there is already talk of another election in "a year or two" - those crazy pundits.
Hey, what else are we going to spend our surplus on? America has the sub-prime crisis - perhaps Canada will be the first country in history to experience an election-led recession.

This Post is Approved by Agents Acting for the Badminton Party

2008-10-01T09:15:00.006-06:00

I was driving home on Monday night listening to CBC radio when I found myself in the cutthroat world of the political broadcast. Apparently, CBC reserves a 10 minute slot, from 8.50pm to 9.00pm, for parties to push their messages, free of charge. Predictably, about half the slot was taken up with the Tories radio ad (one of those that's supposed to sound like a real call-in show but doesn't) which was repeated twice just to make sure the listeners are doubly pissed off.

Then there was some woman whose manifesto was based upon her belief that America, Canada and Mexico are trying to create some evil superstate (presumably to be called Camerico - A Halliburton Country).

Then came the Marijuana Party whose desire for political office seems to revolve around the legalisation of an illegal recreational drug. I couldn't help wondering if this is the best use of the political process; create a party and try to get elected to federal government because you disagree with something that's illegal. I mean, there are things I would like to do without being arrested but I would never dream of starting a Speeding on the Highway Party or a Naked Party or even a Bagpipes after 11pm Party.

Just how badly does this guy want a spliff that he would try to appropriate the system upon which we rely to provide us with security, stability and the chance to look down our noses at America, just so he can get a guilt-free high? It just seems so selfish; I want to get stoned, Man, and I want the WHOLE country to know it! And believe me, he did sound stoned on the radio.

Forget the common good, ending poverty, fair and free health care, affordable housing, the environment and the economy; let's just have a political system based on things we like to do; I'll tell my son to form the Bakugan Party, my wife to campaign for cheap shoes and I'll work tirelessly to have sleeping late on a Sunday written into our national legislation!!!

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that there are enough jokers in the 'proper' political parties; if want a joint that badly, join the Liberals.

NDP - American Mayor Sympathisers or Noble Environmentalists?

2008-09-15T12:29:00.012-06:00

Last week, Jack Layton, leader of the Canadian NDP, took some Alberta NDP candidates and a whack of journalists on a 5,000 foot plane ride over the oil sands in Northern Alberta. It was quite the stunt. In fact, I'm surprised his plane didn't do a loop-the-loop just to finish it off.

The reason for Jack's 'press conference' was a particular policy announcement, that being if the NDP win the election they will cease all further development in the oil sands until emissions are capped through his cap-and-trade proposal (well, not "his" proposal exactly, kind of borrowed from the world's other leading lefties).

I consider myself to be politically left of centre, i.e. a bit of a liberal, and I am concerned about the environment just like everyone else. I think the NDP proposal is bold (although I have to wonder at the wisdom of tut-tutting at the oil sands from the carbon-spewing comfort of a jet aircraft, not exactly known for their fuel economy or clean emissions).

Then I started to wonder whether there isn't more to this than meets the eye. Perhaps this isn't an aggressive defence of the environment but nothing more than a piece of pragmatism. Perhaps Mr. Layton has decided that he will never make it to the Prime Minister's office and is, instead, in the face of a majority Conservative government, positioning himself for a career change. As recently as June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors condemned the oil sands developments for producing approximately three times the carbon dioxide pollution per barrel as conventional oil production and proposed a motion to stop using oil that comes from the Canadian oil sands.

Could Mr Layton be thinking of a new job and putting himself out there among the mayors as a fellow detractor, kind of a "look at me! I hate the oil sands too!!)? Is Jack the next Mayor of Detroit?

Hardly. I don't see the NDP doing particularly well next month (especially if today's Canadian Press/Harris-Decima poll is anything to go by) but I'm sure Jack will never defect away from Canadian politics. If there's one thing that the NDP has by the non-oil barrel load, it's innovation, from their "kitchen-table" thinking to support for cap-and-trade to universal prescription drug coverage. Whether all this is viewed as nothing more than rhetorical gimmickry by the electorate remains to be seen. Perhaps, if the NDP keep coming up with new, radical ideas, Jack may be the next political leader to be excluded from a political debate.

Then he'll really be getting somewhere.

What do you get the Country that has everything? A new Prime Minister?

2008-09-09T22:36:00.007-06:00

All this talk of Barack and John and the American election is interesting enough but now we have a REAL political battle to think about. Oh yes folks, on the 14th October, Canada will go to the polls.

I have to confess to being less than clear on the rules for calling a Canadian election; it may be something to do with the fact that there is a minority government in Ottawa, or maybe it's based on phases of the moon, the mating schedule of the loon, Jack Layton's tea leaves or even Stephen Harper's crystal balls.

Regardless, it's coming and how quick! I feel like the U.S. race has been going on since I was about 15 but, with the nominations and then the actual campaign, it's actually been about a year. Canada, on the other hand, only needs a month! In America, the electorate are wooed in a leisurely courtship full of sweet economic promises, emotional rhetoric, tearful party workers and God. Up here, we have been thrown into a frenetic orgy of what I can only really describe as political fetishness that is building up to a huge spurt of an election.

I really thought the Canadian campaigns would be dull but they are anything but! Who cares about the first African-American or the oldest American president in history when you have Canadians who talk about things like the 'green shift', bringing a kitchen table into the cabinet room and home retrofits, who hold press conferences on planes that aren't actually going anywhere, who arrest people for being too nice to the prime minister, who help the smaller parties by giving them the kind of publicity that Paris Hilton would kiss a homeless man for.

This is great stuff, and we're only in week one!

Winter's Coming !

2008-09-09T15:50:00.005-06:00

-30 Degrees Celcius in Okotoks - Jan '08, originally uploaded by Stupointer.

Not even the official end to summer yet and I'm already thinking about winter; snow, skiing, Christmas, log fires; I can't wait ! This is what my home town looks like at -30C.

It's one of the things that I really love about Alberta, that at the end of every summer I get really excited about winter coming because I know it's going to snow and I know it's going to get really, REALLY cold (for a few weeks at least) but that's all good! There's nothing quite like spending a day skiing in the Rockies with your family.

McCain Leaves a Sour Taste

2008-09-05T15:00:00.018-06:00

If you're Canadian, you might think that this is a comment about the Maple Leaf Foods Listeria outbreak. But this has nothing to do with Maple Leaf's CEO, Michael McCain.

No, this is about the OTHER McCain, the one running for president of the United States, our little neighbour to the south.

I watched John McCain's convention speech on BBC World this week, a strangely psychedelic experience given the undulating skin and floating hair that had nothing to do with any chemicals in my body but was a side-effect of the low-bandwidth video encoding that my TV provider uses to squeeze more non-mainstream channels down the pipe to my house. To see John's cheeks stay in one place while his head moves is quite the experience.

But, like many, real, drug-induced experiences, this one altered my perception of reality, damaged my sense of well being and gave me nightmares.

And it wasn't John's Bush-esque oratory skills (or auditory as one of CNN's (couldn't take the melting-faces effect on BBC any longer) 'pundits' referred to them right after the speech - I didn't realise he was deaf as well) that gave me my bad trip.

No, my reaction was to the content of the speech, a speech so ultra-conservative, it could have been written by Margaret Thatcher's and Ronald Reagan's lovechild.

I can just imagine the speech-writers' pre-conference meetings:

"Okay we need to focus on John's strengths."

"Yeah, strengths. We'll he's not actually that strong but he's old. That's a kind of strength."

"Experienced, not old. And I don't really think we want to be highlighting his age. What about the thing's he's done?"

"Well he was at Vietnam; you know, the whole capture, torture, thing."

"Right. Vietnam. What else."

"He voted for more troops in Iraq."

"Okay, another war thing. What else?"

"His wife is young. Looking."

"He's Republican!"

"He's experienced!"

"Okay, War it is then. What could we use from that."

"Death?"

"No."

"Profiteering."

"That's not an election winner..."

"Well, I suppose you fight in a war."

"You're right! Fighting! That could be his thing! He's a fighter. He'll fight for this and for that and everyone will love him!"

"Yeah, we'll just put lots of fighting talk in between all the references to freedom and God and the delegates will love it."

"You bet. And, if they don't, we'll just direct attention away from him by talking about that Canadian guy who's company gave everyone Listeria. What's his name again?"

And so it was. In John McCain's speech, he says the word fight 25 times. That's a pretty strong theme and it certainly seems to have picked some popular opinion right out of Barack Hussein Obama's pockets. After all, like all absolutes, it's easy; he'll fight for all that's good, he'll fight for freedom, yada, yada.

But what does it actually mean?

Well, some of the specifics in his speech lay out Mr. McCain's particular style of fighting:

He said that Americans are "dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights" and that "no country ever had a greater cause than that." In other words, fight everyone not because it's right, but because you are right. In the big junior hockey league that is the world stage, God is the Republican coach, shouting from the sidelines for his team to beat on all the other guys.

He warned the "me first, country second crowd" in government that "change is coming". But what kind of change? More me-first? After all, isn't 'me first, country second' a particularly succinct definition of Conservatism.

He believes in a culture of life, whatever that means.

He believes in "personal responsibility" and unleashing the "creativity and initiative of Americans". I don't know about you, but I get nervous whenever anyone talks about unleashing anything. Fancy words are like fancy shoes; they cover up the hard skin which, in this case, is 'you're on you own - don't expect any sort of social conscience from THIS administration.' And, just to make sure everyone understood, he said he would open new markets to goods and services AND he would stop giving millions of dollars to countries who "don't like us very much" so I suppose that will give the States the biggest trade surplus in history! But, McCain's government will reduce government spending because, apparently, government spending is a really, really bad thing! I don't confess to being a political expert but I always thought that it was good for government to spend money on things like infrastructure, education, health, social welfare, you know, the little things.

Look back to the Social Darwinism theories that pervaded the American elite at the end of the nineteenth century and be afraid.

Next, John will cut taxes! Okay, fair enough, he is a Republican.

He'll make it easier to find and keep good health care insurance. How? A toll-free number? A new website design. Easier access to loans to pay the premiums? But, rest assured, he won't put that most evil of creatures, a bureaucrat, between you and your doctor. So it's still better to let people pay for healthcare (or have none) rather than get it for free. I mean look at places like the UK or Cuba or New Zealand or Ireland or Iceland or Denmark or Sweden or France. People are just dying in the streets because of those damn bereaucrats. We should round them all up and send them to somewhere really terrible, like Canada maybe?

For employment, Mr McCain says, "for workers in industries that have been hard-hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one." He is obviously referring to education where teachers who are "bad" will be "helped" to find another line of work.

Wow.

If only we could do that with politicians.

What about energy? John will attack it! Yes, attack! Nuclear Attack !! Nuclear is the way to go. Oh, and coal. Not that nasty old black stuff but good clean coal. Yeah, and there might be some of that other stuff, what's it called? The wind and the sun, that's it.

John McCain called his party, the part of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan and, as a tribute to the latter president, he is also promising us something that Ronald would be proud of, a return to the cold war. He laid charges that Russia "invaded a small, democratic neighbor to gain more control over the world's oil supply."

Ehm, wait a minute. Replace 'small, democratic neighbour' with 'country' in that last statement and doesn't that sound a bit familiar?

John McCain is a brave man, there's no denying it but, sadly for me, he is also a Republican. He hates war but he knows it, it's his 'thing'. He's bringing the army barracks to small-town America. He wants a society where people do the best they can for themselves and fight for the prosperity of the country they call home but, unlike the army, helping your fellow soldier doesn't count. Taking care of the less fortunate, the hurt and the poor, doesn't count. Giving everyone a chance, regardless of ability, doesn't count.

In John McCain's army, I fear, lots of people will get left behind.

Back to School - Back to Reality

2008-09-04T19:32:00.005-06:00

Both my kids ended their summer holidays this week, one returning to elementary school and the other attending for the very first time. Thank goodness; I was getting tired of being the only one in the house who had to get up early. Now both kids and, by association, my wife at least have to be up while the radio is still giving traffic reports.

When my oldest started school, in Scotland, we were so proud, and took lots of pictures of him with his little school tie and smart black trousers and little school blazer; looking just like the little gentleman, he positively glowed with the charm of stunted growth. However, second time around and with my youngest starting school looking like a cross between white gangsta and a Zellers TV commercial, it just wasn't the same. So much so, in fact, that we forgot to take any pictures of him (tell me he won't use THAT as an excuse for teenage angst, (tangst?)).

So, when my youngest attends again on Monday, we'll take some pictures and lie to him when he's older. Hey, it worked for "Where do babies come from..."

Views of 7th Ave

2008-09-02T17:14:00.007-06:00

Poverty to-go

The Old to the New

Food or Flames

Possibly ??

April on 7th

Trains, Cranes and No More Cheap Flight Deals

2008-08-29T15:48:00.001-06:00

It's been quite a time for the traveller lately: a couple of air crashes in August followed by a CTrain in Calgary being attacked by an Enmax crane last Wednesday. Then, Thursday saw a plane crash of a different kind, when Zoom Airlines went spectacularly out of business with the repo man turning up at Calgary and Glasgow to repossess some planes. My father, the master of bad timing, purchased Zoom tickets on Wednesday, just one day before the company collapsed, and is now fighting with anyone who will talk to him (ie the bank) to get his money back but I think there's more chance of Vladimir Putin kissing George Bush on the lips.

So, the one airline that offered non-stop, year-round flights between Calgary and Glasgow has, well, stopped and I must admit that I'm finding it quite sad, kind of like the way I felt when Freddie Mercury died, although that's kind of weird, I suppose. I liked Zoom, they were good at what they did and they made it possible for us to move to Canada without becoming totally isolated from our friends and family.

I had a thought over the weekend; suppose someone were to establish some sort of non-profit organisation, dedicated to providing affordable trans-Atlantic travel, kind of like a travel cooperative. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became - sign up 1000 people in the southern Alberta area, get them to contribute $20/month and you have $20,000 a month or $240,000 a year with which to charter planes. A volunteer executive board in the cooperative would put together a travel schedule that could be booked by the membership just like an airline and would also be responsible for the travel rota, budget planning and other administration. It all sounded great, a travel revolution no less.

Then, I looked up the cost of jet charter. In order for my scheme to be viable, I imagined giving every member the chance to travel every year, in a plane would have to accommodate at least a couple of hundred people, so approximately 5 trips per yer. But prices for chartering a commercial-sized airliner are in the region of $10,000 - $20,000 an hour, so for a nine hour flight from Calgary to Glasgow you would be looking at up to $180,000 (actually another site quoted around $300,000 for such a flight). Remember, that's one-way plus all the associated fees!!

So, maybe my idea wasn't so revolutionary after all. Even for a 30-seater jet, the one-way cost is in the order of $65,000 so, with a thousand people contributing $20 month, we could only hope for 1 transatlantic trip per year, meaning that members get to Europe once every 33 years !!!! Even with a plane that carried, say, 300 people, members would still only be able to travel once every 3 years, incurring a personal cost of $720.

Oh well. Looks like we're all stuck with the traditional transport methods for a while yet. Let's just hope that the other airlines stay in business and keep their prices decent.

Excellent...

2008-08-28T14:51:00.001-06:00

It's official; Canada is now the Mr Burns of the world with our $6.8B world trade surplus (http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=e7706cbb-967f-4a0a-8cd6-017921f987ae). Let's celebrate by driving to the forest in our 4x4s while there's still oil and trees in the country.

Oohhh, Canada, Mr Burns. Now I'm thinking who would the other cast members be. Can't let this pass - here's my World Simpsons and it's sure to offend SOMEONE so please also accept my apologies, don't take it too seriously and feel free to comment ! See if you can work out the reasoning behind my choices.

Homer : China
Bart : Pakistan
Lisa : India
Marge : Tibet
Millhouse : Sri Lanka
Flanders : Italy
Moe : Germany
Mr. Burns : Canada
Smithers : Scotland
Chief Wiggum : United States
Ralph Wiggum : Poland
Disco Stu : Brazil
Krusty the Clown : Israel

Boy, that was harder than I thought.

Where's the Choo-Choo ?

2008-08-27T16:17:00.002-06:00

I don't actually live in Calgary, but in a little town to the south called Okotoks (which is native for "Where did all these bloody English people come from??").

As I come from a country with an extensive public transport infrastructure (rail and bus), one of my biggest culture shocks was Alberta's lack of anything resembling public transport. For example, if you live in Okotoks and work in Calgary and don't want to drive to work, you have two options; carpool or get the commuter bus of which there are only two, running ten minutes apart, very early in the morning, and for only $240 per month.

So, if you have a job that entails working unusual or flexible hours, you have to drive.

Therefore, I'm interested to read about the Calgary Regional Land Use Plan which is beginning not only to address the lack of commuter services in southern Alberta, but also, how we remain sustainable in the the face of a potential 1.7 million new southern Albertans over the next 50 years. One of the effects of this plan is likely to be much tighter restrictions on development which may mean more concentrated residential development in order to maintain and protect green areas. While this concentration may have the knock-on effect of an easier transit implementation, I'm sure some people might wonder why, in a province as sparsely populated as AB, do we have to be packed together like the Stampede on family day?

The Calgary Regional Partnership has a website with all sorts of interesting info (including nice colourful pictures). You can see it at http://www.calgaryregion.ca/crp/projects/projects/regionalgrowth/presentations.aspx

Paying for It

2008-08-27T15:18:00.001-06:00

This is a shameless plug for my novel, Paying for It. If you like sex, drugs, the UK, confict, deception, emotional dead people and a story with a big twist at the end, then this book is for you. You can buy it on Lulu at http://www.lulu.com/content/766999. It's on Lulu because I can't get a proper publisher to take it on but I think it's great (even though I'm biased). There's a lot worse things you could spend your $21.50 on (or $5 for the download version).

This post will be repeated periodically throughout the blog, just to remind people...

My Rings Are Killing Me

2008-08-27T13:23:00.001-06:00

So, no more Olympics. Being a Scotsman in Canada, I am able to claim that my country of Sconada got 65 medals which places us 4th! Nice to see China doing such a good job with the games and so many people tuning in, even if they were hoping to see an organisational disaster or some protester being beaten. Also nice that Canada decided to show it's displeasure with the Chinese human rights record by not winning too many medals. Subtle as only Canada can be.