It’s too hot to blog

Source: therealtimer.com/Heat-wave-plagues-Ontario-Quebec

I don’t like heat.  It makes me irritable and extremely impatient.  Worst of all, it makes my very – very – lazy.  I simply don’t want to do anything. Not even write.

Advertisement

Our fair city

I really like Ottawa. For all the complaining I do about city leadership decisions, and as much as I miss the overwhelming power of ‘real‘ big cities, I’m still glad that I ended up here.

I spent some time sitting by, and wandering around, Dow’s Lake today. My plan was to just relax with some music, a book, and enjoy the distraction of runners, walkers and rollers.  As it turned out, I didn’t get any reading done at all.  As soon as I found a bench and sat down, I noticed the gently rolling water, the immaculate shoreline, the birds, the trees, the sun giving the lake an electric sparkle, and all the people enjoying one last day in the sun before returning to five days of office life. I forgot all about my book and spent my time taking wholly inadequate pictures with my phone. (You can see the rest on my Facebook profile.)

Other cities have other rivers, other canals, other lakes – but none of them are like ours. Ottawa’s outdoor life is distinctly Ottawa; it’s conservative, subdued, and definitely understated. It doesn’t have extremes of height, flatness, or vastness. But if you stop for a moment and really let it surround you, it can be as beautiful as any part of Canada.

Oh, and just as buggy too.

Add to: Facebook | Stumbleupon | Twitter

Ontario does NOT need more politicians!

I am not a Conservative – not even a Progressive one.  But today, I have found myself in complete agreement with Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak who actually said:

“I don’t think many Ontario families see adding more politicians as the right thing to do under these fiscal circumstances.  Surely to goodness we don’t need more politicians at this point in time.”

This was in response to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s suggestion that Ontario could increase the number of seats in the legislature to maintain the same riding boundaries as the House of Commons.

I’m all for making life simpler for voters. And having the same boundaries for both provincial and federal ridings certainly helps make things easier.  But it’s not worth it if it means adding politicians.  Our system of government is based on the idea that my representative gives my concerns a voice.  He is able to do so because his voice is one in a few hundred, rather than one in 30 million.

But for every new seat we add in the legislator, we diminish the voice that each individual representative has. Not to mention the immediate salary cost of the new positions, as well as the long term pension and benefits costs as well.

No, if anything Ontario needs fewer politicians – less money, more effectiveness.