paulhillsdon.com

With the federal election right around the corner, the latest polls are showing that the Tories are within “striking distance” of a majority, something that is both shocking and quite frightening. If you have followed Stephen Harper or some of his colleagues’ history, you will know that they are truly conservative individuals with extremely right wing agendas.

However, what frustrates me the most is the fact that the majority of Canadians are in fact progressive individuals. There’s the Conservatives who are scooping up the right vote, but then there’s four parties splitting the centre-left vote: the Liberals, the NDP, the Greens, and the Bloc. 

Here’s the latest polling data done by Globe/CTV:

• CON: 37%
• LIB: 29%
• NDP: 17%
• GRN: 9%
• BLC: 8%

Which, if you add up the percentages of the four progressive parties, goes to show that there are in fact 73% of Canadians that do not want a Conservative government.

When a progressive populace and a progressive country are represented by a conservative government, I think the alarm bells should be ringing and people should be questioning the representative capacity of our elective system.

I understand why the progressive parties want to stand on their own, but after the Progressive Conservatives merged with the Canadian Alliance, it has in effect given them are unfair advantage over the remaining progressive parties. They collected up their vote, while we continue to split ours.

I do not think the burden should be on gathering the centre-left vote, because Zeus knows the last thing we need is a US-style two party system. We need to be looking seriously at overhauling the elective system and installing some form of proportional representation.

Canada is not a conservative country. Canada should not have a majority Conservative government. Plain and simple.

Or “green shifting” as the Liberals would have you say. As you may recall, I support the notion of a revenue neutral carbon tax. Carbon needs a price for the market to react and engage the notion of pollution in a way it currently does not. However, that does not mean that a carbon tax is a tax grab. If the new revenue from a carbon tax is offset by lower income taxes, then I really don’t see what everyone in BC is all screwballing over. Especially when it will only increase your average gas bill by $46 per year! 

In any case, the Liberals plan seems to look out for all potentially affected groups, at least from my perspective, in a way that Gordon Campbell’s plan doesn’t. And it’s showing. Despite Harper spouting off like an idea and saying a carbon tax would “screw all Canadians“, a new survey just goes to show that just because some guy is the leader of your country does not mean he represents a major portion of the population. 

A Canadian Press survey asked this to 1000 Canadians:

The Liberals are calling their policy A Green Shift. The main elements are putting a tax on carbon or greenhouse-gas emissions, and using the money raised by this tax to reduce income and other taxes, to provide financial support for those less well off and to invest in green technologies. The tax increases will be phased in over four years and will not apply to gasoline. Based on this description, would you say this is a policy you strongly support, support, oppose or strongly oppose.

And heck, it turns out 47% of those polled liked the idea. 39% were opposed. Regardless of how you read into these numbers, it just goes to show that Canadians still think the environment is a major issue in this country, clearly aren’t happy with how the Conservatives have handled the problems we are facing with climate change, and are able to actually grasp the concept of a revenue neutral carbon tax - more than can be said for Stephen Harper. 

Now it’s time for Harper to put his mouth where his beliefs are and face off with Dion in a serious debate about the idea of a carbon tax. Canada certainly deserves nothing less. 

And in other news, the scientist that first told the US Congress about global warming recommended America adopt a carbon tax!

“We have to level with the public that there has to be a price on carbon emissions,” Hansen said. “That is the only way we are going to begin to move toward a carbon free economy.”

Hansen said urgent action was needed to cut carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the globe and are already causing arctic ice to melt. He said world leaders had only one or two years to act before the Earth reaches a “tipping point” with major consequences to the global climate and species survival.

“We have reached an emergency situation,” Hansen said.

He said the government should not keep the proceeds from any carbon tax, but refund the money to taxpayers to help them pay for more fuel efficient technology.

More info as it comes. Here’s the press release.

Update: It will be available on Fido as well. Prices will start at $199 CAN on three year contracts. The important info now is how they will be sold (through Rogers stores, Apple stores, online?) and the ultimate monthly plan costs (in the States, the cheapest voice+data plan will be $70 US).

Dylan Pattyn, who is currently writing an article for Time Magazine on the issue, has official confirmation from sources within Bell Canada and is interviewing a marketing representative from TELUS who confirms the story and states that TELUS has already started blocking all websites that aren’t in the subscription package for mobile Internet access. They could not confirm whether it would happen in 2012 because both stated it may actually happen sooner (as early as 2010). Interviews with these sources, more confirmation from other sources and more in-depth information on the issue is set to be published in Time Magazine soon. 

[via I Power]

I was under the impression that net neutrality had been taken care of after legislation in the States rejected the major American ISPs plans to shift their business model similar to that of TV. In doing so, ISPs would basically have total control over what sites or services you access on “their” Internet. 

However, here comes news that that win for net neutrality was nothing more than a tiny success in a much larger worldwide battle. It sounds a little out there, but it’s not hard to believe that the major ISPs across the world are planning to collectively restrict the Internet, as we know it, by 2012. What’s absolutely disgusting though is hearing that it’s not Verizon, AT&T, or Comcast leading this transition - it’s Telus and Bell! Of course, Canada already has some of the world’s worst traffic shaping done by Rogers, Bell, and Shaw, so it’s not all that surprising that they want more control over the traffic that’s running through the tubes. And with the Conservatives in power, I seriously doubt that the government will step in and do anything. 

I do believe though that the Internet has been so successful precisely because it is a Wild west - content access or control is regulated by collective consciousness of all users worldwide. We the people will not take lightly to any efforts to restrict the web. 

With all the brouhaha about H&M’s arrival to Pacific Centre on May 22, it’s easy to forget that another highly anticipated retail store is coming to Vancouver - the Apple Store. Now, I hadn’t learned about the official opening date, so it’s news to me, and could very well be news to you as well, that it’s opening two days after H&M: that’s right, May 24! Here’s the email release. Thanks to Peter for the heads up! I expect to see you there in line!

From The Province:

People love their cars and need more roads, so gas taxes should be directed to encourage the car culture, not fund public transit, says Maureen Bader, spokeswoman for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

WOW. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything that could be more *wrong*! It’s like saying, people love to drink, so let’s build a ton of bars! With free drinks for all! 

*shakes head*

At a press conference yesterday to promote the CTF’s 10th Annual Gas Tax Honesty Day, Bader attacked Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives and Premier Gordon Campbell’s B.C. Liberals as unprincipled tax-grabbers.

“About 30 per cent of the price you’re paying at the pump here in Vancouver is in tax,” said Bader.

“In Vancouver, 20.5 cents of each litre is provincial tax. What’s worse is we’re about to be hit with a carbon tax. Starting July 1st we’re going to be paying an additional 2.4 cents per litre, then we pay GST on top of that.

“This is just wrong.”

Yes, the gas tax is getting high. I would possibly argue a little too high, considering we aren’t seeing very many big improvements to cycling or transit infrastructure. However, market demand isn’t going to suddenly drop - even with people supposedly reducing car usage - so trust me, getting rid of the gas tax will do nothing but provide customers with a short term reduction in gas prices. Ironically enough, if you were to slash the tax tomorrow, demand would spike as people would rush to fill up - causing the price to increase!

She called on Ottawa to transfer five cents per litre of the federal gas tax to municipalities for roads.

Now, this does make a bit of sense, as long as municipalities aren’t forced to use the money for roads. Cities have been demanding a bigger transfer of the gas tax or GST for years, because they just don’t have the means to support the infrastructure they require. It’s the smart cities that would put this money into providing alternatives to the car, not building more roads and highways for the status quo. 

And she questioned the widely accepted opinion of world scientists that human CO2 production is causing dangerous global warming.

“More and more scientists are coming on record and saying that man-made global warming is probably not the cause of the global warming that we have been experiencing over the past few years.

“We’re spending billions of dollars, and really, what we’re doing is allowing politicians to essentially finance their next election campaign,” said Bader.

I’m not even going to touch this one, because we all know how ridiculous her claims are. I thought we got past the point of asking “is this happening” and “did we cause it”, to “how are we going to fix this”.

She sneered at governments’ funding of public transit.

“Taxpayers have got to ask themselves: ‘Do we really need to have a $14-billion Cadillac transit plan when all the government is really expecting to see is maybe a five-per-cent increase in transit use?’ People here want to use their cars.

I agree. $14 billion for such a small increase in usage is a complete waste of money. However, we must look at what we are paying for. Due to the construction of the Millennium Line as SkyTrain, it would be foolhardy to not complete it, with the eastern UBC Line extension, and the western Evergreen Line extension, in a different technology. In a sense, we are locked into the expensive proprietary SkyTrain. But, it must be built - and frankly, we need it ASAP. 

Once we spend the billions for those routes, then we can begin to look at cheaper alternatives that wil increase transit usage such as Light Rail Transit or Bus Rapid Transit. 

And don’t forget about one of the cheapest modes of transport, not just in acquiring the vehicle, but also the construction of infrastructure - cycling!

“Governments cannot pick winners [in business] and they shouldn’t be determining for us what we should be doing with our money and with our time.

“It didn’t work in the Soviet Union, it’s not going to work here either. People are driving more now than they ever have and gasoline prices are the highest that they have ever been.”

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon couldn’t be reached for comment.

To summarize,

• BC is not Soviet Russia, 
• we need a gas tax to fund alternatives *before* everyone stops driving due to insane fuel prices, 
• climate change is real and needs to be solved, 
• Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation doesn’t speak for all taxpayers, and 
• Maureen Bader is an ignoramus. 

Oddly enough, there’s been two articles from the major media recently that are clamouring for improved rail in Canada. This topic is something I actually experienced recently during a trip to Regina.

As everyone knows, rail in Europe is essentially “the” way to get around. Unfortunately, while Europe and parts of Asia were investing in rail, North America put all it’s money into highways. It’s this “road first” mentality that has destroyed John A. MacDonald’s dream of a coast to coast railway for Canada.

Throughout the past 5 decades, the government has refused to properly fund passenger rail, and has handed over complete control of the rail system to private corporations.

To put it into today’s perspective, during my recent trip to Regina, I examined the three ways to get there without a car: Greyhound, Via Rail, and WestJet. Now, as most know, flying in Canada is almost as expensive as our cellular data plans! Course, many will pay the premium to skip the long travel time that a train or bus presents.

Now, due to funding cuts, Via no longer even runs trains through Regina - closest I could get was Saskatoon. This routing has also eliminated any national rail connections through Calgary. All rail from Vancouver is looped north through Jasper and Edmonton, to Saskatoon and Winnipeg, and finally to Toronto.

Beyond that “small” annoyance, the cost comparison of rail to a coach service like Greyhound is unbelievable. For example, it was almost $600 one way for me to get to Saskatoon from Vancouver, whereas a return trip via Greyhound could be obtained for only $400. Not to mention the rail trip took longer!

Same scenario for rail south to Seattle or Portland - two wonderful day trips that could easily be a wonderful experience via rail transport. Unfortunately, the provincial government refuses to cooperate with Amtrak and the federal government of the States, which are trying rather futilely to upgrade the “Cascadian” route to handle high speed rail. BC has chosen to implement the cheapest of the proposed upgrades - a couple of rail passes. Like that will speed things up much!

It’s all a very disappointing state of affairs. With three major corridors ripe for high speed rail, governments across Canada are neglecting our rail system at a time when considerable investment is needed. With the advent of both climate change and peak oil, not only are citizens going to look for rail as a “green” form of transport, corporations are going to shift from trucking to rail for continental shipping.

And we’re still stuck with a 100+ year old rail bridge in New Westminster causing numerous backups and limiting expansion and growth of our rail system - with no plan or funding in place to replace it!

What in the hell is going on here?

I don’t seem to recall this news hitting the Van-blogsophere, although it seems as though it’s rather old now. Maybe we Vancouver bloggers don’t visit Pacific Centre very much ;)

We all know the endless questioning of why Vancouver has been gipped by Apple for years with the lack of an official store. At one time, it seemed as though the company was planning to redeem our patient waiting with a flagship store, similar to the one in San Francisco. Apparently, it’s going to be *that* cool, but we are getting more than just a typical mini mall store.

We’ve known for a bit now that Pacific Centre had been chosen as the site. The rumour was that it would be in the space formerly occupied by Holt Renfrew. Now, finally, the walls have been put up with the lovely white Apple logo and a link to the Canadian site.

This of course means that construction is officially underway! The walls went up at the beginning of this month. According to the reports, the store will take over two levels!

Now, if the timeline follows that of previous Apple stores in Canada, Vancouver’s could very well be ready in time for summer!

This is all corroborated by Pacific Centre’s website:

We expect the exterior portion of the project to be complete by March 2008 and the interior portion including new store openings by Summer 2008.

We are pleased to share with you that, Apple, Browns Shoes, H&M and Teenflo will be joining the Centre and will reside in the old Holt Renfrew location on the upper level. We expect to announce the other new tenants in the coming weeks.  On the lower level Geox and Jacob are now open.

As one of Surrey’s initiatives under the Cultural Capital of Canada designation, the City has funded a digital art project named “Glocal: Your World in Motion“. Here’s the synopsis from the project’s site:

Glocal is an interactive screen and online artwork now in production by a team of local artists: Sylvia Grace Borda, M Simon Levin, and Jer Thorp. They have envisioned building a massive community media experience that will challenge perceptions about the city of Surrey, Canada’s fastest growing metropolis.

With the use of digital cameras and motion capture, audiences will witness how speed, size, density and diversity have enabled Surrey to exist in local and global (Glocal) consciousness.

All the content produced under the banner of the Glocal project will form a large relational artwork in which ‘moving’ images of Surrey will become a central point of exploration. This interaction will then be repeated internationally through community workshops and public exhibitions. When realized, audiences will be able to compare, contrast and examine the world from all points of the globe – and experience how we all share the same horizons … and how we have a lot in common with others, wherever you are!

So how can YOU become part of Glocal and Think again about what’s cool where you live.
The Glocal team of artists will be residing online and at the Surrey Art Gallery TechLab to guide you on your way. Surrey youth and residents can become partnering artists through a series of mentoring workshops developed by the team. The team will also be producing low-tech toolkits to help you record your world in lots of new and amazing ways….

The project already has a Facebook page and a Flickr pool.

It sounds interesting enough, but I fear “Glocal” will be just another waste of time and money. I found it quite surprising that, as of yet, I didn’t even know this project was even in progress. For such an interactive and multimedia project, it hasn’t seemed to reach out to the local web community at all. Is this just another case of artists sharing their art with no one else but other artists?

Furthermore, the pictures that are currently posted on Flickr are nothing more than a series of boring, webcam shots. It’s like this group of artists is being paid to sit at a computer, make faces, and take pictures of themselves. I want that job!

We’ll see where this goes, but as of yet, I am not at all impressed.

I put together this little animated GIF the other day. I think it’s pretty darn cool. I’d like to make a version incorporating the provincial government of the time, which would relate to certain periods seeing a lot of expansion versus stagnate times. Click on the version below for the full size.