Toronto Uncovered

Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

I have been given an amazing opportunity to guest blog with the CBC’s G20 citizen blogger team. The G20: Street Level blog launches today and will cover street level events and issues in and around the G20. My main goal is to reach out to as many Torontonians as possible and listen to their experiences and insights surrounding this event.

If you have a story to tell or want to share your experiences or opinions let me know! I’m hoping to hear from all sides and perspectives. Are you happy to host the G20? Has the G20 disrupted your day to day life? If so, how? What do you want to say or share?

Hello, my name is G. Wander and I was asked to contribute my first guest editorial for Toronto Uncovered. The reason I am writing the post is because in a very selfish way, I like to have people read what I think. Yet in a very unselfish way, I never force anyone to read what I think or use any trickery to promote my agenda. The issue I have today is with the quick dismissal over the very responsible proposal regarding the Province of Toronto.

Why?

I’m neither arrogant nor ignorant enough to believe that I know the best course of action here, but I also know that you should never waste a good opportunity. In this case, we finally have a chance to address the unspoken angst that the province and the city of Toronto share towards each other. We’ve all witness the numerous battles over matters over jurisdiction and encroachment of each other’s powers. Yet, here we are almost three decades or so after the first words were even uttered on a possible secession for the city, and we have yet to properly research and debate the issue to see if it holds ground in today’s time. We have an opportunity like no other with the proposal put forward by Bill Murdoch (MPP – Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound).

You might have missed it. The most important part of that last paragraph was actually in parenthesis. You see, the reason this opportunity is worth exploring is because for the first time in a long while, this idea is being pitched by someone outside of Toronto and the GTA.

For the first time in a long while, we are being told by someone else in the province that, “Hey Toronto, we don’t want you around!” For those who have advocated for the secession, sometimes over a decade, this comes as welcome news.  Toronto will not be perceived as being selfish, self-centered and the centre of the Canadian universe as is almost always the case, especially when we ask that we be represented properly. Toronto is humble enough to be subservient to a larger provincial government that has repeatedly used the transfer payments to feed the rest of the country (except the resource-rich, AB, SK) and left us with a crumbling infrastructure and a public transportation system whose promises are made and broken due to provincial wrangling.

I think it’s time we stop begging the province to give us what is rightfully ours. At the very least I think it’s time we debate this openly and without any hurt feelings. The time for Toronto to show its true selfishness is now, Bill Murdoch has spoken up for the other side and has given us the out we need to explore the issue without being perceived as selfish.

In the end, that was the most unselfish thing Bill Murdoch could have done for the City of Toronto.

What do you think?

- G. Wander

*Thank you for reading and I hope you find a side of this issue that you can believe in, because in this case any decision is better than the status quo. You can find me debating issues on Twitter, Facebook and at Gwander.com

photo via BlogTO

The TTC has taken a pretty hard hit lately: workers sleeping on the job, their chairman caught in one sexually scandalous lie after the next, a Facebook group lashing out at TTC riders, videos of blatantly rude drivers; and all of this after a substantial and hotly contested fee hike.

TTC employees,  TTC management and the union are being called into question, and rightly so. I take the TTC to and from work everyday by way of the King streetcar.  I don’t expect perfection, but  I do expect to a) get where I am going and b) be treated with respect.  A is usually satisfied, although I still don’t understand how 15 streetcars can go by in one direction while you wait over 30 minutes for one in the opposite direction. But that’s a subject for another post.

TTC drivers are taking a brunt of the backlash as they are the featured “stars” of these videos and photos. My feelings on this are as follows: There are definitely times throughout the day when I might feel like curling up and taking a nap, or dropping the phone mid conference call and running to get a doughnut, but guess what? I have responsibilities and a job and I act accordingly. I also feel that if I have a question for a streetcar driver about an upcoming stop, I should be answered with respect, minus the attitude. At the end of the day, TTC employees are working and we, the riders, are their clients – it is fair that we expect to be treated as such.

All that said, there are also TTC employees that are amazing – funny, nice and even personable. These guys get the real shit end of the stick, branded with the same cloth as their less than stellar counterparts. Despite the bad rep the fact that they probably put up with way more shit than we could ever imagine, they are friendly and even manage to maintain a sense of humour. They deserve to be rewarded.

With the influx of mobile applications I would love to see a rewards system put in place which works to highlight impeccable service and point out employees not meeting expectations.  I would definitely input information via my smart phone on good vs bad experiences and drivers. People are already tweeting about it all the time – why not create a systemic solution using mobile communications? This would serve to reward those who truly do go above and beyond, penalize those who are taking their frustrations out unnecessarily and re-empower a public who feels they are currently paying for a service that doesn’t take into account their basic requirements.  Lets face it, a stern memo to workers about their recent behaviour isn’t going to cut it! We need something more compelling, that gets everyone involved.

What do you think??

On September 21^st , 2009, the global premier of The Age of Stupid starring Pete Postlethwaite was presented in 32 countries around the world. Tickets for this sold out event at Toronto’s Royal Theatre, were by invite only.  I was fortunate enough to be among the lucky people in the audience.

For those that don’t know, The Age of Stupid is a documentary about climate change. It takes place in 2055 as a survivor (Postlethwaite) describes how changes global temperatures (and the events which caused them) resulted in  resource scarcity, war, and ultimately the end of civilization. Postlethwaite depicts a world where New York and London are underwater; most of the land that remains is torched desert; the polar ice caps are nothing more than a sea of blue; billions are dead due to war and famine; and those that do remain seem to be located in enclosed futuristic modules.

Viewers are taken through snippets of interviews and stories outlining the events leading up to this reality. A hungry aviation entrepreneur in India, a student in West Africa, and an oil and gas researcher in the USA are among those describing their vantage points.

One phrase comes to mind after seeing this film: “Shock and Awe”. The movie does a great job in depicting the message: ‘Do something now or face peril’. The image and message are so shocking that it really leaves one wondering how stupid our collective humanity can be  (hence the title). The movie had such a profound influence on my guest that after the show she came out and said, in a teary voice, “I think it’s selfish for me now to have children now.”

What makes the movie scary is that even though it portrays the worst case scenario, it may not be that far off. It is in the realm of possibility. For decades, scientists have been pushing worst case scenarios of climate change. The Age of Stupid does a great job of capturing the intensity and reality of these scenarios on the big screen.  I’m not sure how probable it is that 2055 will look  the way Pete Postlethwaite describes it, but I can tell you that just by scanning news headlines from the past 5 years,  scarcity of resources (oil & water), and increases in the number of environmental refugees and disasters is an absolute reality. In many ways the movie does give the message to viewers that you are stupid if you don’t realize we are living this reality today !

One big criticism I have about the movie is that it is too much of a “doom and gloom” scenario. There is absolutely no portrayal of hope. We are simply, as a species, going consciously make ourselves extinct. ‘Greed and selfishness will eventually conquer generosity and benevolence’ is an underlying message. Prior to the commencement of the film, a man stood up and gave a small speech (not sure who he was or the title). He said, “if there is one thing to take away from this movie, it is hope”. Well, I missed the boat on that one buddy. I have to say that this movie is the furthest thing from hope. This is, from all the ‘end of the world’ type films out the, the ultimate dooms day movie!

I had originally intended to go with a different post for today’s Toronto Uncovered, however, the recent decision for Toronto’s city workers to go on strike deserves priority.

Starting today, many services and facilities in Toronto will come to a screeching halt. The most noticeable of these will be the garbage collection of all Toronto residents and businesses. For those who remember how horrible it was to be in Toronto during the last garbage strike 7 years ago (Toronto Garbage Strike 2002), you’ll agree it was NOT pretty. I lived in the Annex at the time and remember literally walking over mounds of garbage stock-piled on the streets, and watching mice and other vermin scurry about. The smell was nothing to gloss over either.  Friends living in China Town stayed with us to escape the filth of their neighbourhood. The strike eventually ended two weeks later when Ontario lawmakers forced workers back to their jobs due severe health concerns. The Pope’s scheduled pilgrimage to Toronto that summer also helped push legislation through, as the city needed to be cleaned for the arrival of the thousands of tourists.

From all the on and offline discussions I had this past weekend, I can tell you that the garbage strike was definitely on the minds of many Torontonians. Most people couldn’t understand how a city the magnitude of Toronto could allow this to happen again, especially in the wake of pandemics, epidemics, and other health concerns. I would hope that hygiene and disease control would be top priorities for all city officials as we enter into the hot summer months.

I am an avid user of Twitter and one of Mayor David Miller’s many followers.  One would hope that the looming strike would have been a top priority for him over the weekend.  I was really disappointed to see his weekend tweets updating followers about his fathers day gift, and his attendance at various TFC games, picnics, ribbon cuttings, and NXNE events. Sounds like he was having a pretty good little weekend while the rest of us were stressing about potential garbage strikes, park closures, day care and summer camp closures, and lack of transportation to and from Toronto Island (putting many businesses who depend on ferry traffic in the red).  I was surprised to read  this morning’s National Post where Miller was quoted saying, “While we will continue to negotiate with the union locals during a strike, I want residents and businesses to know that we are working in their interests to protect the future of services in our city”. I am still unclear when all this “work” was being done – he must be quite the multi-tasker.

I am not typically a supporter of unions. I feel that since the introduction of the Human Rights Act, most have become outdated and unnecessary in contemporary society.  I believe that if you are unhappy with your job, your earnings or allotted vacation time you should either negotiate with your current employer or start looking elsewhere – just like the rest of us un-unionized folk. If I have a problem with my workplace, I probably wouldn’t get very far by threatening not to come in. That said, it seems the city got themselves into this mess (again), and they will now need to get themselves (and the rest of us) out of it. A majority of other municipalities contract garbage services to private companies to eliminate the possibility of a strike and save money at the same time. Why didn’t Toronto learn from past mistakes and take necessary actions to ensure public health and safety was upheld? Negotiations have been on the table for six months without resolution. How can that be? In six months, the US can elect and swear in their first black president, Wall Street can crumble beneath its own feet and begin to rebuild, and the landscape of the global economy can change forever.  So, my question is: How “hard” were our city negotiators really working?

I understand that city politics are not always cut and dry, especially when unions are involved, but this is unacceptable and inexcusable. Bring on municipal elections!