THC posted:

It would be funny if instead of a visit from the Prime Minister Himself and 500 of Her Majesty's Finest Fighting Men they had got an army of private sector beancounters to make sure Nenshi and Redford haven't been embezzling the disaster relief funds. Then they'd be like "yeah there's a few irregularities here" and then the editorial board of every newspaper could tut-tut at the calgarians for being so irresponsible and castigate them for whining about old grievances. Meanwhile anyone who doesn't have an amphibious vehicle to escape in gets to sit all cold and clammy and waiting for relief that will never come

THC posted:

It would be funny if instead of a visit from the Prime Minister Himself and 500 of Her Majesty's Finest Fighting Men they had got an army of private sector beancounters to make sure Nenshi and Redford haven't been embezzling the disaster relief funds. Then they'd be like "yeah there's a few irregularities here" and then the editorial board of every newspaper could tut-tut at the calgarians for being so irresponsible and castigate them for whining about old grievances. Meanwhile anyone who doesn't have an amphibious vehicle to escape in gets to sit all cold and clammy and waiting for relief that will never come

Entropic posted:

The Debaters isn't terrible, but if I never hear This Is That again it will be too soon.

The Irrelevant Show is amateur hour too. CBC, you used to be good at this? What happened?

Helsing posted:

Entropic posted:

I just have vague fond memories of weekend comedy shows on CBC radio 1 that weren't awful.

Supplanter posted:

I like The Debaters and Wiretap. All the other comedy shows make me immediately turn off the radio.

quote:

Some Vancouver residents are holding their own community meeting to voice their objections to a city proposal to build a protected bike lane along a busy corridor.

In May, the city introduced a plan to revamp the traffic corridor that links downtown with West Point Grey's Jericho Beach, along Cornwall Avenue and Point Grey Road in Kitsilano.

Locals who aren't on board with the proposal are meeting tonight at the Sunset Grill on York Avenue to discuss a strategy for bringing their objections to the city.

Duane Nickull, who ran as a Conservative candidate in the recent provincial election, said there are many different voices that all agree on one major sticking point in the plan.

"The main one that has people up in arms is to close down traffic to build a bike route parallel to an existing bike route, [which is] two blocks away ... on 3rd Avenue."

Nickull said the city's green vision may be guiding planners to close streets to traffic and add bike paths instead, but there's no proof that doing so will get more cyclists to use the route.

"My concerns ... are that they're forging ahead without doing the proper research and data," he said.

Jerry Dobrovolny, the city's director of transportation, said encouraging sustainable transportation is definitely a goal, but the plan also targets reducing the potential for accidental injury or death.

"We have, according to ICBC data, some of the highest cycling collision locations in the city along that route, along Cornwall," he said. "So it's to move us towards our city-wide goals of improving and increasing walking, cycling and transit, and also to improve safety."

Nickull, who says he's a cyclist, said he couldn't find evidence of a single reported crash between a cyclist and a car on Point Grey Road, which is about half of the stretch being altered in the plan, when he looked at ICBC's crash data.

"You know, I'm not for the bike lane, I'm not against the bike lane. What I am against is spending taxpayer money without due diligence and due course of an investigation," he said.

Dobrovolny says the city is still looking at the plan and consulting with stakeholders.

Since January, there have been six open houses with over 1,000 people attending the last three, he said. City representatives have also had about 50 individual meetings with residents and community groups to share information.

Dobrovolny said the plan isn't a done deal, and the public consultation process continues. City staff are slated to make a final recommendation and provide a cost estimate for the plan later this summer.

"Ultimately, council will decide," he said.

THC posted:

The much-beleaguered car drivers of Vancouver have had enough of the city's unaccountable behaviour and are setting up their own town hall. Open to all who can afford a $14 entree.


There has been an extensive planning process, numerous public consultations, and overwhelming support for the plan. But in the parallel reality of Point Grey, the city has failed to do its 'due diligence' and is 'imposing its will' on the hard working tax paying majority. The cost! The insanity!

Blade_of_tyshalle posted:

Christ, least he could do is zip the jacket up over his Snickers-gut. Look at his disrespect for the uniform.

Cordyceps Headache posted:

Harper does that all the time:


_{[G8 Summit 2013 Press Conference]}

Everybody knows you're supposed to button your jacket when you stand up!

Dolash posted:

Man does that photo look surreal. The ten of them up on that little stage, no accompanying staff or onlooker or photographers, the weird castle and mix of foreboding clouds. It's quite a shot.

Mr. Wynand posted:

Considering the land values around Cornwall I am honestly shocked it wasn't $140 per plate.

Dolash posted:

Man does that photo look surreal. The ten of them up on that little stage, no accompanying staff or onlooker or photographers, the weird castle and mix of foreboding clouds. It's quite a shot.

Lexicon posted:

To be fair, I'm sure plenty of the 'homeowners' will be highly house rich, cash poor.

Fine-able Offense posted:

Also, do you really think deploying the Army to a reserve would play well with... anybody? I mean, come on.

vyelkin posted:

edit: Also, the right wingers over at the NP comments section are eating each other alive on the matter of whether or not it's right for Alison Redford to run Alberta into a deficit in order to pay for disaster relief, or whether the people who built/bought houses on a flood plain when insurance wouldn't cover floods should just suck it up in true conservative economic Darwinist fashion. The amount of cognitive dissonance present in those who are saying "No time for playing politics, people are in need and we should help them!" when it's rich white Albertans who are in need for a disaster that's clearly not their fault, but who may be the first to turn on poor minorities for being poor, and question why their taxes should be spent to bail out those lazy irresponsible people, is astounding.

THC posted:

Reminder that the only reason Alberta is in deficit now is because they have a single income tax bracket and no sales tax. Their fiscal issues would be solved overnight with two simple measures.

Quantum Mechanic posted:

Sales taxes are regressive, though. You're better off tweaking the income tax brackets more or adding some sort of super profits tax (or an oil sands industry tax!) than a sales tax.

THC posted:

The feds should have sent immediate emergency relief, just as they have done in response to the disasters in Alberta. They should not have presumed wrongdoing by the victims and demanded to see their ledgers before sending relief. I wasn't really suggesting they should have responded in exactly the same way to different emergencies, I was comparing their response to the emergency in Alberta to those in the reserves. But in terms of sheer ethics, sending military personnel with foodstuffs and shelters would have been a vastly superior action to the one they took.

Pinterest Mom posted:

Well this is interesting. Abacus has decided that they'll no longer be asking a follow-up "well who are you leaning towards" question to voters who identify themselves as undecided, and they'll just be reporting those first question results as-is. They say this is as a result of their post-mortem on the BC election.
Their first poll breaks down LPC 23/CPC 21/NDP 21/UND 21, and LPC 23/CPC 22/NDP 21/UND 20 with their turnout model.

THC posted:

Reminder that the only reason Alberta is in deficit now is because they have a single income tax bracket and no sales tax. Their fiscal issues would be solved overnight with two simple measures.

quaint bucket posted:

Isn't the reserve a really sensitive issue? I'm fairly sure we would have seen an outcry from the same people of the military arriving on reserves as an "inappropriate and excessive action on the Canadian government."

quaint bucket posted:

E: Sales tax is better than income tax, what are you talking about?

THC posted:

Reminder that the only reason Alberta is in deficit now is because they have a single income tax bracket and no sales tax. Their fiscal issues would be solved overnight with two simple measures.

quaint bucket posted:

E: Sales tax is better than income tax, what are you talking about?

Faux Shoah posted:

While the government's actions there were indefensible I don't know how you can compare a reserve with a city of over a million people.

Faux Shoah posted:

While the government's actions there were indefensible I don't know how you can compare a reserve with a city of over a million people.

AllTerrineVehicle posted:

Is there some sort of population cutoff before an area is considered worthy of assistance?

JohnnyCanuck posted:

So the Daily Show just told millions of Americans that Canada's banking system is perfect, and that we all love our bankers like they were a part of our own families.

Faux Shoah posted:

Obviously the reserve warranted assistance too but to criticize the scale of the response to a disaster in one of Canada's largest cities compared with a reserve of under 1000 people is more than a little ridiculous.

Faux Shoah posted:

Obviously the reserve warranted assistance too but to criticize the scale of the response to a disaster in one of Canada's largest cities compared with a reserve of under 1000 people is more than a little ridiculous.