Trashy's World

Did you know that this week is Kindness Week in Ottawa?

I didn’t either.

Over at kindottawa.ca, kindness is in the air! Hostilities have ceased! Flowers are blooming and hugs abound!
“Celebrating the kindness that exists and encouraging the kindness that can be.” that’s the motto.

There are even different levels of kindness. One can accept the challenge of a bronze, silver or gold level of kindness. Hmmmmm…. Sounds kinda Olympian… The kindness folks should watch out for the IOC police.

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Um. Apparently the kindness club hasn’t heard of spellcheck…

Kindness is being touted everyone – but only now am I noticing. The signs in the bus ask “what do you choose to do?” and have the catchy text lingo banner “choose 2bk.” Wow. That’ll inspire the teens!

All kidding aside, I guess it isn’t a bad idea for the city to encourage it’s citizenry to be kind. What with the great service we receive from city-provided services like OC Transpo, for example, we should be kinder to those ever so pleasant drivers! And why not hug a Councillor today? Or give a flower to the by-law dude who just plunked a $50 ticket on your windshield because you were 5 minutes late getting out of the dentist!

Hell ya! Kindness for all!

But what if I don’t feel like being kind today? I am kind of grumpy. I didn’t sleep well last night. I have another one of those post-concussion headaches. And my right knee’s meniscus is acting up. What will happen if I’m not kind at all… maybe even UNKIND??

What if I tell the surly bus driver to get a life? What if I kick my Councillor square in the butt? What if I grab that by-law guy by the throat and….

No, no no. I won’t do that. The website implies that those things would be wrong.

After all, the man behind this intiative has lofty goals:

As spiritual leader of the congregation Machzikei Hadas and a well-known community leader around Ottawa, Rabbi Bulka is often approached to lend his name, wisdom and support to many community causes. On more than one occasion, he has been asked to participate in activities against anti-Semitism and other initiatives aimed at fighting injustice and intolerance.  “All very important causes,” the rabbi thought, “but I’d rather fight FOR something POSITIVE, than be AGAINST something NEGATIVE.”

So he set about meeting with other community leaders all around the city and across all sectors, engaging them in this common dialogue: what if we could make Ottawa a kinder community? Would we need to spend so much time on anti-bullying, anti-racism, issues of mistrust, and other nasty stuff?

So the theory is that by concentrating on the positive rather than the negative in a sense of building up kindness “capital”, then the bad stuff will go away. Nice idea, and I’m sure that the Crips or the Bloods will totally buy into it…

Yet, I’ll try to be kind. I really will…

But Harper or one of his robots is SURE to do something this week that will piss me off! And I will likely be a bit unkind in my remarks! Should I postpone my unkindness to sometime after the 19th?????

Must be kind. Must be kind. Must be kind.

So be kind Ottawa!

Dammit!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Here in Ottawa, the landslide of Mayoral wanna-be nomination papers has begun to swamp City electoral staff… so far there is a grand total of TWO declared candidates!  But Ottawa is Ottawa and we can expect a number of sincere and not-so-sincere candidates to step up to the plate before the cut-off date. Some will be eminently qualified, and some not so much.

And that is where I come into the picture.

It is true that I served for a term on a municipal council in a small community located in Central Ontario. It is also true that I ran (sigh, unsuccessfully) in a bygone General Election. But really, this is not Smallville, Ontario. And running in one major election campaign hardly qualifies me for such a high-profile and important post.

Or does it? Let me think about this for a sec… Hmmmm… maybe I am qualified…

OK – what would be the positives and negatives if I were to take a run at this – and (shucks) furthermore, what if I won?

Upside: I could give a little of myself back to the community that I have called home for the past 12+ years – the community that two of my three kids were born in.
Downside: Over the top way to “give back” Batman! I mean, I sit on the Board of my son’s daycare and I could do more – like volunteer at a soup kitchen or something – without having to go all über-giving-like!.

Upside: The money is good – about $160 K a year.
Downside: Yeah, but I already get paid quite well already and the extra money/extra work ratio would be off the chart.

Upside: I’d be in charge of one of Canada’s largest cities. The sense of power would be pretty cool.
Downside: The power would likely go to my head. I would lose my valued perspective and start decreeing every Sunday as The Simpsons Day in Ottawa And change the City’s logo to the silhouette of a bald guy with a goatee. I would also try to annex Montréal.

Upside: People would respect me more.
Downside: An equal number of people would hate me and want me dead. And besides, the people from whom I actually want respect already respect me. I think.

It’s pretty clear, I guess. The downsides outweigh the upsides even before I start to consider:

• I would have to take an unpaid, leave-of-absence from work for at least 6 months.

• I don’t have any beginnings of a politically-connected network in this city – ergo, no campaign funding

• I’m a relative newcomer to the City and some folks would frown at this.

• Campaigning means long hours. And I have a real hard time staying up past 10 pm!

All that being said, if anyone wants to drop about, oh, 50K on my lap as a gift to make up for lost salary (so my kids will be able to eat while I’m going door-to-door), offer to volunteer  as my full-time campaign organizer (it would help greatly if you already had a firm and obedient politically-connected network in place), and think that Trashy would do just fine as Ottawa’s Mayor, I’m ready to listen!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Composting:

Small government and who-gives-a-crap-about-the-environment (often they go hand in paw) folks in Ottawa are all a-steaming about the roll out of the new curbside composting program which is being launched this week.

The complaints are as varied as there are pebbles on a beach. It costs too much. Composting isn’t effective. Why weren’t we consulted. I already have a compost bin in my backyard, so this is a waste of taxpayer dollars…

• Costs too much – at about 77 bucks per household, the start-up costs are far less than what is currently paid for recycling – which is far less beneficial, environmentally, than composting. Much of the operating costs of the program will be offset by compost sales. And program costs should fall slightly as time goes on and more see the program’s benefit by diverting from landfill what can be 40-50% of a household’s waste, by weight.
• Isn’t effective. Not only can a household divert much of the waste they generate from disposal, but there is a bigger impact from an environmental perspective. Less energy is required to transform organic materials into something useful – most of the work is done by micro-organisms. Dry material recycling takes energy to bind paper into bundles, crush cans and to sort our all of the materials. Composting works.
• Why weren’t we consulted? Um, you were.
• I already have a bin. This is a bit trickier. Yes, perhaps the City should have gone door to door asking residents if they already had a bin that they used. But the problem with this approach is that people move and the compost bin should stay with the dwelling. If I told the City in advance that I already composted, didn’t receive a bin, then sold my house to someone who didn’t want to backyard compost, then the new resident may be SOL… but still, yeah, the City might have been wise to do some advance scouting.

Bottom line is that composting – including curbside pick-up – is the best way to divert waste from landfill, aside from not generating it in the first place. And when landfill tipping fees increase dramatically over the next decade, Ottawa will look back at this initiative and say “Hey! we did something right! How about that!”

Tunnels:

Big surprise. Some are saying that the proposed tunnel under the Ottawa city core will run into cost overruns and engineering difficulties. And all this way before a single shovel has hit the pavement.

Well, duh! Of course there will be cost overruns and other problems! Can anyone honestly point me to a major engineering project that has NOT run into these glitches? Hell no!

Carry on – even though I’ll be dead and buried before I see this thing running!

Mayors:

Alex Cullen is the first candidate to declare his intention to run for the honour of being the Mayor of Ottawa.

According to the Shitizen, he promises to raise taxes, oppose Lansdowne Live, support a downtown transit tunnel, and stop the flow of sewage into the Ottawa River.

Run on raising taxes? Hell ya! Nice to see some honestly! Much of the infrastructure in this City is quickly deteriorating due to mayorlarry’s unrealistic promises to not raise taxes. Check out some of the ramps off the 174, the potholes downtown and the sad state of many of the City’s facilities

I especially like this quote:

Cullen criticized his expected opponent, O’Brien, as a “weak mayor” and said that O’Brien’s recent vow — to pre-emptively lock out O.C. Transpo workers if faced with the possibility of another winter strike — was “amazing, astonishing, and absolutely repugnant.”

Yeah, and mayorlarry himself  is amazing, astonishing, and absolutely repugnant!

Bring on the ballot boxes!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Am I surprised to hear that there are some questions around mayorlarry’s company, Calian Technologies; the one on which he still serves as a member of the Board of Directors.

According to the MotherCorp:

Calian Technologies has seen the value of its contracts with the City of Ottawa skyrocket since the company’s founder was elected mayor in 2006.

Mayor Larry O’Brien still sits on the board of directors for Calian, which supplies technology staff to governments and corporations.

According to City of Ottawa records, the company received $1,837,175 in city contracts for technology staff in 2008 — up more than 10-fold from $167,250 in 2006.

Yes, he does declare a conflict whenever an issue comes up around the Council table that might involve his company, but c’mon, this is just a symbolic gesture. I remember that during my time as a municipal councillor, there were several times when I or one of my fellow Councillors would declare a conflict and leave the room during discussions. Great, but that would not have stopped any one of us from being involved in the discussions in an informal, off-the-record manner. I don’t think any of us ever did anything untoward, but the opportunity was certainly there.

Will mayorlarry be brought under some scrutiny for this – yes, probably. But will he lose his job before his term is up or be subject to a criminal investigation? No way. As was seen during the Kilrea trial, mayorlarry has many resources and knows many folks in this burg. And this will discourage anyone from launching anything serious.

We’re stuck with this joker for a while longer. I can only hope that the voters of this town remember this. And the Kilrea thing. And the transit strike. Etc.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Just a quick tip of the cap to everyone involved in the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine at the Jim Durrell Centre yesterday.

Expecting chaos yesterday morning at 7:45 am, I packed drinks, snacks, reading materials, ensured my mp3 and cell was charged, dressed warmly for the inevitable wait outside in the cold and flurries… etc. I was prepared for anything!

Except for an efficiently-run process…

After all of the media accounts I had heard and read in the past few days, I had expected disorder to reign, a long wait and cold feet. But what I got was, chronologically:

7:45 am : a nice greeting at the door, shown to a seat inside (?!!)

8:00 am: told that wristbands would be distributed shortly

8:15:  moved to another waiting where wristbands were distributed by a very enthusiastic and funny gentleman

8:45: given wristbands and, after staff ensured that they were firmly affixed to my wrist, I left the building.

Total time elapsed – 1 frickin’ hour!

So fine, they got the wristband thingy right… surely things wouldn’t be as smooth at the appointed time of 5 pm?

But again, I am happily surprised. We walk into the arena at 4:55, are greeted with a smile, documents checked and all-injected and outta there after the obligatory wait in the designated area by 5:20.

Wow.

This whole business may be a bit wheezy elsewhere, but on this particular day and in this particular place, they sure knew what they were doing!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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As always, I say – well put XUP. Another great commentary on that little, twisted organization that we in Bytown like to call: OC Transpo.

And as I said in an earlier post,  this is one almost-former OC Transpo user who has had quite enough and has his name on a few waiting lists for a parking space close to where I work. After 12 years of faithful ridership, I am sick of it all.

One thing that XUP didn’t mention is the arrogant attitude that many (not all) drivers have toward students and anyone who isn’t white.

Students are regarded almost as a necessary evil and are often berated by the driver for holding their pass upside down or something. Last week, a driver called my daughter a “stupid idiot” for trying to use a transfer that was ONE minute past its time stamp! Gimme a break. And the bus was 10 minutes late!

And I’m not saying that all of the drivers are racists but I cannot count how many times I have seen a non-white person be denied entry to a bus for no apparent reason. Some blokes will stand outside the door, arms extended in a pleading fashion, and the driver just ignores him and drives away.

But if that person is a hot white chicky-poo… well, then there isn’t a problem.

Come aboard miss, glad to see you!

But – enough of all this negativity.  In the spirit of all things that we LOVE (I’m trying to be positive cuz I’m a positive kind guy, eh?) about OC Transpo, I humbly submit the following.

Things to love while on that packed aluminum coffin racing 100 km/h down the Transitway

• I love the way that the drivers will almost intentionally jerk the bus ahead before the passengers have a chance to anchor themselves.  I especially love the way that seniors’ heads are smacked right into the upright posts – makes a cool “boing” sound.

• I love the way that folks with strollers / wheelchairs or crutches are treated – like the dawgs they are. Shame on them for not being able-bodied. Shame!

• I love how some buses just do not show up on Fridays… I’m just guessing that the driver has called in “sick” that day and the office  cannot be bothered to replace him. What’s the big deal? It’s not like the riders have anywhere important to go!

• I love the way that stay behind the yellow line is unevenly interpreted. If the rider is a non-white male, behind the yellow line means a good 6 feet. If the rider is anyone else but a non-white male, they can crowd the front much as they want… especially if they are a hot and white chick wearing short shorts.

• I love those buses that appear to have not been cleaned since Chretien was PM… though I suppose that is also a reflection of the general slobbishness of many riders… so,

• I love the general slobbishness of many riders – it seems as though I have been mistaking the floor of the bus as a floor all of these years – while in reality it is the bus’s own little landfill. My bad.

• I love interior climate control. It is for the driver’s comfort. Not the passenger’s. It is the operator’s union-given right to wear his or her shorts and ATU t-shirt and jack up the heat to “unbearable” in the middle of January if  they so wish! The riders should be thankful for the free sauna!

• I love the Special Constables. Or are they the Gestapo – 2009 version? Hard to tell the difference. But you have to love all the cool stuff on their utility belts.

• I love windows that do not stay closed.

• I love windows that don’t open.

• I love how the bus schedules are pretty much just a “guide”. Plus or minus 15 minutes is quite acceptable. What’s the hurry?

• I love how the bus stops are plowed right when you need them in the morning… provided you start work sometime after 11 am.

• I love those doors that close on you as you are exiting the bus. I really love that sense of panic when you realise the the bus will likely take off from the stop with you trapped half in and half out of the bus. Gives me a rush to think that I can be beheaded by a passing car.

• And it would of course be my fault.

• I love the operators who greet your sunny “good afternoon” with a grunt. Kinda like a “unghn”… hard to pronounce. But it’s attractive.

• I love the operators who provide monosyllabic answers to sincere questions from a rider. As in “If I want to get to Elmvale, am I better to take the 86 or to take the 148 – or should I take the 112 from Billings?” Response: “unghn”. Clear enough to me! Why don’t you learn how to speak Canadian, eh?

• I love how it seems that, when I’m in a hurry to get to work, 27 express buses in a row from the ‘burbs go by as I’m waiting downtown to transfer before one arrives that is going as far as Tunney’s Pasture. I really, really do love that!

• And then I love how it’s completely packed.

• With high school kids juiced up on Red Bull.

• And my MP3 player is outta juice.

• And the driver decided that it’s a good time for a layover.

• I would really like to drop a very, very special note to the fine fellow who wouldn’t let the guy with the busted bike get on the 148 at Alta Vista a few weeks back. The front of the bus was completely empty and the guy – with a pass – said “please, just for a few blocks”… and all he got was a “get of my bus” response from the driver… OC Transpo operators do not believe in cutting anyone a break. Not that they deserve one anyhow.

Sigh.

The fact remains that many transit riders have no other option but to avail themselves of this crappy system. And that is truly sad. Maybe the folks of this fair borough will rise out of their red and white shackles and cry for good service, civil drivers and on-time buses!

But I doubt it.

Finally, if you have ever gleaned anything from my posts on this blogs, you will know that I’m a freakin’ LEFTY.  But even I am saying that maybe, just maybe, we should think about contracting this out to the private sector. If I ever run again for municipal office, that will be one of the planks in my platform. I swear!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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I’m a bit surprised to hear that the former Hab coach is now a Senator.

I wonder if he’ll be able to pull Dany Heatley back into the fold.

Eh? Oh. Not THOSE Senators….

Ooops. My bad.

I guess he is qualified. He has experience dealing with a has-been hockey team. Now he gets to work with has-been political hacks.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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The latest Harris-Decima poll conducted for The Canadian Press shows that neither party is within reach of a majority and both would be risking a defeat at the polls if one of them forces an election this fall.

Thirty-two per cent support for the Liberals and 31 per cent for the Harperites ain’t gonna buy you a whole lot of love at the ballot box..

This is in stark contrast to a we threw darts a the dartboard Ipsos-Reid poll that indicated – contrary to any other poll done over the summer – that the Harperites had built up a huge lead.

Predictably, the Cons are are jumping up and down like a nudist standing on an ant hill about how a forced vote would create political instability, cause dogs and cats to mate and bring about a plague of locusts. This is all in response to Iggy suggesting having a fall election wouldn’t be harmful at all to the economy. I can understand his position because those ReformCons are damned tough to work with and he is not sure how much longer he can hold his nose.

“There’s not one single person in the world who’d agree with him on that. You can’t just say things that are so outrageously false,” Transport Minister John “So what if my face looks like a pitbull” Baird said.

Mr. Baird said an election would mean government would “grind to a halt,” and all those really important decisions (like what colour jumpsuit to wear on a helicopter) just wouldn’t get made.

Hmmmm… the Harperites weren’t too concerned about shutting down the House last Fall  in order to avoid a non-confidence vote… just as the economic shitstorm was picking up steam… funny, that.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Of course he was found not guilty… was there ever any doubt?

I’m not a lawyer but it sure seemed to me that the prosecution had a weak case to begin with and did not do enough to compensate for it.

Guilty or not, did mayorlarry do it? Probably. But one thing is for sure, his chances of being re-elected in 2010 is likely next to nil.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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Yet another staffer at the PMO has flown the coop.

Carolyn Stewart-Olsen has worked for the big guy for more than seven years (!) and was the director of strategic communication. She was considered the “gatekeeper” who strictly and loyally controlled access to her boss. Ms. Stewart-Olsen is the second major cog in the PMO machinery to bail in the past little while. Kory Teneycke, the PM’s Communications Director was the last to bid adieu.

“Stephen is not the easiest guy to work for. He takes a lot of handling sometimes. And Carolyn, she was good at that,” said University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former Conservative campaign adviser.

Gee Tom, really? I’m starting to picture meetings with Stevo and they ain’t pretty.

“Kory, get the hell in here. NOW!”

“Ye-ye-yes sir….. wh-wh-what’s wrong s-s-sir? You look angry…”

“WHO authorised THIS picture???

“WHO, Damn it???!! I want them waterboarded!!”

“B-b-b-ut… you said the other day th-that you wanted to portray a more, uh, human image… and our strategic communications staff thought this would do the trick… sir…????”

“I look like a freakin’ WIMP! Maybe even GAY! And you KNOW what I think of THEM!” CAROLYN! GET THE HELL IN HERE!!!!!”

Hee-hee. At this rate, Mrs. Harper will be the one and only staffer in the PMO!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

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