It was municipal election night in Ontario tonight. About half of the people/answers I put a mark beside turned out to be winners. I was really surprised by the outcome of the fluoride vote... a narrow victory for the "no" side. I don't personally mind that our water won't be fluoridated, but I just found the "no" campaign was mostly based on fear and ignorance. I hear it called a "poison" and the phrase "evidence suggests there might be adverse health effects" when any major (reputable) medical association I could find said that there's nothing wrong with it. Then there was the "we're not sure, so better safe than sorry", which is one of the worst arguements that anyone can use for anything... being not sure (uninformed) is pretty sorry.
I have this nagging suspicion that there's a swelling of an underground "Tea Party"-like movement happening in Canada. It seemed that every candidate had in their platform that taxes should never be raised more than inflation. Not that that is a bad idea, but the way it was always thrown around made it seems very disingenuous. Is there any jurisdiction in Canada that ties taxes directly to inflation? I'm not sure... at least I've never heard of one.
And the point of tax increases brings me to the subject of LRT (light rail). It seems after approving the project, asking the other levels of government to pitch in financially and getting the funding, almost all the regional councillors are now calling for a reconsideration of the project because they think the Region's financial portion is too much. What I ask is did they think that we wouldn't be on the hook for some of this project locally? Did they think that the other governments would reject the funding, allowing the locals to be able to say that they tried... but then the Feds and Queens Park called their bluff? Do they think there's no cost to not having this project built and running in say, 30 years time? How many widened roads will we need that we don't have space and money for? Do we want to shape our cities to be an all-driving-all-the-time adventure?
All that and I think it's humorous that Toronto elected Rob Ford. That'll be fun to watch (but it also fits with my underground Tea Party theory).
I say important things of importance
I completely missed the fact that Canada had any elections going on. I am so out of it. I have this feeling that when I go back next time it's going to be a different country. It's already been close to two years since my last week's holiday back home. Do people still eat poutine and drink double doubles?
ReplyDelete<span>Don't worry about not knowing about the election... it was just a municipal election. Apparently most of Ontario didn't know about it either as turnout was below 50%, as usual.
ReplyDeleteI never ate poutine (boo gravy) and drank double doubles (yuck coffee). Although, it really is a different country now. Since you've been gone we now wear hats on our feet and hamburgers eat people.</span>
Cool! I guess a water gun full of degreaser would be a good idea if I want to stay safe from burgers. I'll see if I can carry that on or if I need to check it with the big bags. Thanks!
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