… I fall into the latter group.

Disclaimer – the following should not be considered to be blanket statements about all dogs and dog people. I address this specifically to friends and family who for some reason, that is completely a mystery to me, think dogs are just super.

It’s not that I hate ‘em or anything… and I would never harm one… I just don’t see the point in willingly keeping company with a drooling, stinky, annoying, high maintenance critter. I’d rather have kids. Which are equally drooling, stinky, annoying and high maintenance – but at least they are human.

Public parks are where dog people and people like me don’t mix well. Many dog people think they have the right let their mutts run amok wherever they please – and don’t tell me about dog people respecting off-leash rules… from what I have observed in parks around my neck of the woods, these rules are largely ignored.

This issue is coming to a head in Vancouver where dog peeps are demanding more off-leash areas and peeps like yours truly aren’t so keen.

The fight over dogs in parks is long-running, but it’s one fought on many fronts. There is the familiar face-off between those who want more space for their dogs in the parks and those who want stricter limits on where the pets can be taken. And then there are people like Ms. LeBorgne, who are caught between those two camps, wanting the troublesome dogs to be under control, while resenting the ever-shrinking urban space allocated to their own canine companions.

Celena Benndorf, part of a group called iCare Vancouver, is pushing hard to bring what she sees as the problem of canine chaos to heel, lobbying for more restrictions on dogs in parks and more enforcement of current bylaws. She says she is tired of watching what seems like a never-ending stream of pets running unleashed all over Kitsilano Beach, near where she lives.

Dogs scare and attack other dogs and sometimes, even kids, she says. Some of them have run up and licked her, which gives Ms. Benndorf, who is allergic to dogs, a rash. And “aggressive, entitled” owners are just as irritating, she says, especially when she asks them to leash their dogs, or go to off-leash areas. “Someone threw hot coffee on me once when I did that. Another one said, ‘Do you want to die?’”

I grew up in a household with dogs (and cats, chickens, cows, pigs, ducks.. etc., etc.) and know that canines need space to run – being the hyperactive critters that they are. BUT, I don’t want to share that running space with them. And I don’t want my kids playing in a park where Rottweilers et al are burning off steam.

Solution: Why don’t dog people do what most people do when a group finds that there is a common interest that they share – form an association of dog people! Call it – Association of Free Pooches, or something.

Approach the municipality about fencing off a good-sized section of an existing park, or find land for a new space. Raise funds to build fences and make the space dog-suitable. Approach dog food manufacturers about sponsorship in return for advertising rights on the space. Get creative!

That way, we non-dog people and you dog people can peacefully coexist.

You’re welcome!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Sitting in the AC international departure lounge in Vancouver right now. Not a bad lounge, but the domestic location has more than one tap of beer. Nothing but Molson available here, so I’ll stick to some Clamato for now. Still another 1.5 hours till boarding, so what better way to kill time than to pen some blah-blah.

Real excited about the trip… yeah, this one… sure, sure… but the one that immediately follows Beijing in yankin’ my chain a helluva lot more!

Juts got off Skype with the Resident Love Goddess and she was just finishing up the booking for our trip to the DR on easter weekend! Woo-hoo! Burn away that jet lag with beach, sun and cervesa!

Both of these trips will serve me well to distract me from my disappointment with the whole Canuck mindset these days. Did you see the EKOS poll the other day? The one that shows the ReformCons pulling open a wee bit of a gap over the Grits… a gap that is just outside the margin of error, but a gap nonetheless.

What are Canadians thinking????

Here we have a government that has made themselves out to be fools in the following ways over the past little while:

• said they would – for whatever reason – change the words to the anthem. Then decided not to after their supporters screamed and ranted.
• had two of their Ministers freak out at airport/airline employees… yeah, flying can be frustrating and folks lose their patience sometimes, but for crying out loud! You are supposed to serve as examples for the rest of us!
• took a cue from their christian conservative base (read: Alberta) and at first excluded family planning from their strategy to ameliorate maternal health in LDCs.

ON WEDNESDAY, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a Commons committee that his government’s initiative for maternal and child health care in the developing world “does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed, the purpose of this is to save lives.”

• And then, they flip-flopped – in a most hilarious way…

On Thursday, Cannon was sent onto CTV and CBC TV to eat his words. It turns out that he thought — apparently for real — that family planning was code for abortion, and didn’t include contraception.

“I take full responsibility for what I said, but our policy, our government policy, I’m not saying I was misquoted,” he said to Tom Clark on CTV. “I was quoted perfectly. But I did make a mistake. This has nothing to do with abortion. But it does not exclude any other options, such as contraception.”

Cannon, who does not always seem to be the most articulate foreign minister that a country could have, had apparently sown confusion in error.

“I said those words but that is not what the policy is,” he explained. “It wasn’t what should have been said.”

Eh?

So, I don’t get it… who out there would actually vote for these yahoos????

Oh yeah, and check this out:

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario