Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘ottawa’

• The new Montreal transit chief – get this – actually uses public transit! What a concept! He’s even promised to ride the bus out to the west island to see for himself what a disaster the system is out there. Will it lead to improvements? Stay tuned.
• Meanwhile in Ottawa, citizens who’ve been held hostage by the OC Transpo strike, now in its 51st day, might get a reprieve in the form of back to work legislation. For their sake, here’s hoping.
• Back in Montreal, the snow removal crews walked off the job in the middle of a blizzard just in time for afternoon rush hour yesterday. They’re upset because of a payment dispute, and, as is typical for union workers, they believe that gives them the right to endanger people’s lives.
• In more union news, York University students head back in class this week after the government passed legislation forcing striking CUPE members back to work after nearly three months. But, as new blogger Chris reports, this may be only the tip of the iceberg.
• More strikes in France? So what else is new?

Looks like there will be a transit strike in Ottawa. Barring a last-minute deal, workers are set to walk off the job at midnight. In the middle of snowy, blizzardy weather. With no alternate means of transport for the thousands of people who will be left stranded.

The union workers are being offered a 7% raise over three years. Most of the people who rely on public transit for their livelihood would kill for that kind of cushy deal. The people hit hardest by transit strikes are the poor, the elderly, students, and those who have the fewest options. Many of them won’t be able to get to work. Many of them will likely lose pay or even their jobs. But the OC Transpo union still sees fit to hold the public hostage in its attempts to negotiate for more.

Once again, this only illustrates how incompatible unions are with public monopolies. A strike in the private sector targets the employer; a strike in the public sector targets the public. Whatever your stance on labour issues, it’s obvious that the system is broken.

To those of you in Ottawa: Good luck.

Q: What’s red and white and red and white and red and white?
A: Canada Day in Ottawa.

Another first for me, as I headed up to Ottawa for the day yesterday to celebrate our nation’s birthday. Here in Montreal, Canada Day is sort of lame, usually overshadowed by the moving day tradition, and the much more high-profile jazz fest. So, needless to say, I was not prepared at the overwhelming display of patriotism in our nation’s capital.

When I woke up in the morning, I’d briefly considered wearing a red t-shirt, but quickly dismissed the idea as cheesy. As it turns out, I would’ve been underdressed compared to the people draped in flags, wearing hats with umbrellas on them, faces painted, you name it.

Feeling very much like a tourist in my own country, I set out with some friends to celebrate in style. Drinks at the absolutely mobbed Byward Market, free concerts on the Hill, a quick stop at the Ottawa Jazz Fest, and a barbecue to cap it all off. I had to drive home before the fireworks, but it was a nice day on the whole.

Still, I think I’ve seen enough maple leaf flags to last me a good long time.

Number of people wearing those cheesy umbrella hats? Loads, though we stopped counting at 47.

Canada Day madness in the Market area

Free concerts on the Hill

A week late, but better late than never. Went to see Great Big Sea at Ottawa Bluesfest last night, and finally found all the maple leafs, cheesy t-shirts, and Canadian pride that had been sorely lacking from last week’s Canada Day festivities at the Old Port. The guys put on a great show, as usual, and went on for a while about their newfound obsession with Beaver Tails.

Moral of the story? Want Canadiana? Leave Montreal and head to Ottawa.

• It’s friggin’ freezing out there!!! Remind me again why I choose to live in this part of the world?
• Week before Christmas + SAQ strike = long lineups at the LCBO. On the plus side, LCBOs have great selections that include items like this… and they give you Air Miles. On the minus side, seems I’m supposed to be paying tax to the Quebec government for the booze I bought in Ontario. Yeah, right.
• What logical explaination is there for the price of gas being 15 cents a litre lower in Ontario than in Quebec?
• The map store is awesome. So is the game store. (I’m still accepting soybean donations).
• Chocolate frogs and turtle cheesecake are my new addictions.
• Coffee Coffee Coffee!!!

Spent the weekend in Ottawa and just got home. Regular posting to resume tomorrow.

Oh, grow up!

Ottawa city councillors, keen to boost their local Senators NHL ice hockey team, are proposing to ban fans of their hated rival Toronto Maple Leafs from wearing replica team sweaters at games here.

The tongue-in-cheek measure, due to go to a vote next week, could force any Leafs fans who transgress to make a donation to a local food bank.

That would make the Senators the biggest babies of the NHL. If Sens jerseys can fill the Bell Centre, and Habs jerseys can fill the GM Place, then surely Leafs fans can show their colours in Ottawa or anywhere else.

Ottawa has a great team this year. They have a real shot at the Cup. But now that they’re playing with the big boys, they need to get some backbone. The players seem to have figured that out… now the city has to follow suit.

The power outage that has shut down New York, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Cleveland, and virtually everywhere in between somehow managed to escape us in Quebec, for once. Maybe the gods of power figured we paid our dues with Ice Storm 98?

Like a lot of people I’m sure, my initial reaction was to ask whether it was terrorism. But now it seems pretty clear that it wasn’t. CTV News is reporting that the cause was a fire at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, although they still seem to be trying to sort that out.

The impact is absolutely staggering. To me, it says a lot about how dependant we are on electricity. Literally nothing works without it – the lights are the least of the problem. Transportation, business, the stock market, ventilation, even drinking water . . . it’s like mankind existed happily for thousands of years without electricity, but as soon as it was discovered, we moved ahead in a lit-up world so quickly that we can’t survive without it anymore. I remember having these conversations during the Ice Storm, and hearing the panic again in 1999 as we approached the millennium with trepidation that everything would simply shut down. That didn’t happen, of course, but the fear that it would just underscores this point.

I hope everyone in the affected areas makes it home safely and gets their power back soon.

Today, several pro-American and pro-war in Iraq rallies were held across Canada, the largest of which in Ottawa attracted over 5,000 people:

(Peter) Goldring said the fact that people were marching in favor of the United States on Saturday showed that a “silent majority” actually supported the war.

“We do have a new world reality following Sept. 11, and the new world reality says that we must go to root out terrorism,” he said.

More rallies are scheduled for next week, including a massive one in downtown Toronto on Friday. It’s about time that we Canadians spoke out in support of our friend and ally south of the border, who keeps doing our dirty work for us time and time again while we keep our noses clean and then criticize them.

Couldn’t get hired as strippers, eh?

Two women, wearing only bikini briefs, skates and leopard-coloured body paint, braved -25 C wind chills Monday on the famous Rideau Canal to protest the fur fashion industry. The pair, members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, covered up their freezing assets by holding up a banner reading: We’d Rather Bare Skin Than Wear Skin.

They said the use of fox, mink, raccoon and other animals for clothing is cruel and unnecessary.

I bet they wear leather shoes, though.