Close but no cigar. FIRST you become mayor, THEN you start having affairs. Apparently Adam Giambrone got the order mixed up. All the chips were in place but it would seem he got a little ahead of himself. A hot little number on the side for booty calls and a successful photogenic “partner” for his political career. Perhaps he didn’t quite understand what he was getting himself into when he decided to run for mayor of Toronto.

While political scandals aren’t anything new, it would seem the would be candidate has gotten off to a rough start, and I don’t mean sex on the couch type of rough. Let’s see his silly YouTube video, the history of poor TTC service under his watch, and now this sex scandal with a 19 year old. (I wonder what she looks like under those clothes? Giambrone seemed to think ‘good-looking naked’” Good enough for me!). 3 strikes right off the bat and we aren’t even into the meat of the campaign yet.

His opponents are quietly snickering and cheering at his successive missteps. It should easily sweep in Smitherman as Toronto’s next mayor. I mean, do YOU want to vote for this guy after these types of scandals? Giambrone might as well call it quits right now, because it the job of mayor only gets worse.

PM Harper decided to bury his head in the ground and hoped everything would go away. Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea. In an attempt to avoid further grilling about Afghanistan, Harper prorogued parliament (yes, he did this before) using the Olympics as an excuse. Wow, just completely the wrong move. Well if you were the PM and looked at the opposition, you wouldn’t be worried either. Neither the Liberals or NDP have decided to come out of hibernation for most of the year, but here’s their chance.

Ignatieff called Harper’s move “undemocratic”. Oooh, that will teach him. And don’t forget the classic Liberal attack ads that you’ve seen on tv. Are they working? Hmm, not a peep from Layton. Go ahead, make fun of his sweater again! While both parties have little media presence this is a good opportunity to make up some ground. Get your shots in now while he’s stumbling and bumbling.

(link)

Looks like Canada can’t win. It’s getting criticized from all sides when it comes to global warming and other climate issues. There’s idiot Greenpeace protesters scaling parliament and hanging up banners. Activists like this never take into consideration the ACTUAL COST to implement such changes, they only make ridiculous demands and point fingers. Listen hippie … FUCK YOU! As if ONE country is responsible for the world’s problems. Canada by no means is the worst polluter in the world. Yes, China, I’m looking at you.

Even native groups are getting into the act. Complaining about how the revised agreement is watered down. Again it’s a numbers issue. You can’t expect major corporations to overhaul their technologies in 2 or 3 years to meet some emissions requirement. Perhaps you have missed this recent recession we’ve just managed to survive?

Being out of political office allows people to set unattainable goals without recourse. Bill Clinton has offered to help raise a trillion dollars over the next 10 years to help address climate change. Oooh, but you didn’t notice the fine print did you?

“But there’s a catch. Two, actually. Countries must agree to a climate deal at the UN talks in Copenhagen, and all must agree to “transparency” in reporting and verifying cuts to greenhouse gases.
The latter condition was clearly directed at China, which has balked at what it sees as an intrusion on its sovereignty. ” (link)

Obviously he knew no such agreement would take place which is why he could set such a goal. He knew he’d never have to follow through. Looks like he’s following the footsteps of Al Gore.

The talks at Copenhagen are a joke. The guns are aimed at Canada, in hopes of pressuring them to agree, which in turn would pressure the U.S. to agree, which would ultimately lead to China being the lone detractor. The ones doing the pressure have little to lose economically while the ones resisting have the most to lose. Perhaps you don’t realize that the international economy will suffer if your largest economies go into ANOTHER recession? I guess not. Why are people so stupid?

People post everything on Facebook and it never ends well. This latest case may prove to be quite costly for one Canadian woman. Her insurance company revoked her benefits after noting that she posted vacation pictures on her Facebook page. She was supposedly on long term disability suffering from depression. The pictures appear to show her having fun during her birthday party. The insurance company decided that was enough proof that she was fit for work and not entitled to benefits. It now becomes a touchy issue whether pictures from a social networking site can be used to determine someone’s mental state.

Another posting has the Federal Liberal party in a tizzy. Stephane Dion’s wife has ripped the current “leadership” for lack of progress and ineptitude. She also touts her husband as being more fit to lead and rebuild the party. Grab the popcorn! This one’s gonna be a good one.

Both sides aimed their guns and headed to the CRTC meeting ready for war. One argues “pay for local tv” while the other says “we don’t care about local tv, and you make enough money as it is”. So who’s right? Do you support content or the distributor. And the CRTC is stuck in the middle, most likely to make a decision all sides won’t like.

Funny thing is they both need each other and stubbornly deserve each other. It always comes down to money. Neither wants to give up any in order to further line their pockets.

Bottom line is that our tv bill is going up. We all lose.

Chandra’s Takeout Restaurant and Catering
201 Markham Rd., Scarborough, Ontario.

Heavy cockroach infestation. The place has already been fined $20,000 for health violations. How badly do you want that samosa?

Have you heard about the Coor’s lite billboard ad? Just plain silly. I can tell you if you visit Toronto you will get a chilly response from people in the downtown core, but that’s just the usual response to everyone. Downtown, everyone has some place to go, things to do, deadlines to meet. Unfortunately there is little time to meet, greet, and hold hands of the millions of visitors. There is only one speed: fast. It’s probably just an unexpected environment for most to land in. While the west coast pace is much more relaxed and laid back. Change of pace never suits anyone.

There’s always been a mutual dislike between Toronto and British Columbians (and everyone else for that matter). Just remember one thing: if you visit B.C. don’t tell them you’re from Toronto, and vice versa.

Please, can you take a joke? Laugh at yourself? Self deprecating humor is the best kind. Perhaps now we’ll see a Coor’s lite ad poking fun at Vancouver? Unlikely.

While the American economy has shown signs of recovery the Canadian economy is still lagging behind. With the unemployment numbers recently announced as well as the report of Canadian bankruptcies mounting, we aren’t out of the woods yet. The Conservative Harper government is still in a state of denial unwilling to further stimulate the economy for fear of putting Canadians further into debt. It’s a double edged sword however, doing something is always better than sitting back and waiting for foreign economies to bail us out indirectly. Unemployment and bankruptcy go hand in hand and I find it hard to believe that these numbers are a surprise to any economist.

The Canadian economy needs more stimulus or faces mounting unemployment numbers and companies going under. When in doubt, throw money at the situation. This always works … at least at the strip club.

How quickly can you pull daggers out of your back Mayor David Miller? The prospective candidates for his job are quickly lining up to take shots at him after his handling of Toronto’s garbage strike. All are in agreement that it took way too long to settle and all are saying the mayor failed miserably. Let’s take a look at the whole sick bank issue.

Has it been “eliminated”? No. It’s going to be phased out. Basically current workers get to keep their sick days. The union refused to budge on this issue. If someone was planning on taking away your pension contributions, I don’t think you’d agree to that.

The city tried to out-wait the union on the issue, hoping they would relent, however that did not happen. So on to plan B: give them the deal you were originally willing to offer them. Yeah, it’s not a great deal for taxpayers now, but going forward this deal will cost less.

Like it or not garbage pickup is an essential service. Despite everybody bitching about how they don’t deserve the money, the point is they do the work nobody else is willing to do. The dirty work. You don’t like doing it so you pay someone else to do it. And the cost of that is $40k/year.

Unfortunately Miller is going to be forced out because these last 36 days. The public, council, and media have turned against him. Perhaps he didn’t know exactly what he was getting into after defeating John Tory. He inherited a dysfunctional city council, out-of-control spending spree by workers, a mountain of red tape, and most importantly, an overprivileged nitpicking bunch of whining city folk. No, Mr. Miller, not your ideal job, but somebody had to do it. Despite being paid less than neighboring municipal workers, you did the dirty work. This past year has simply been overwhelming and there was no support from the bickering city council. Move to the private sector, at least you will be paid decently for the work you do.

The strike may be over, or rather, the two sides may have come to an agreement, services have still a long ways before returning to normal. Each has to vote on the proposal before things get back to normal. It seems the union is happy with what they were able to negotiate while the members of city council may not be. A lot of political posturing is taking place with some councilors stating that they may vote against the agreement.

Wouldn’t that be a ray of sunshine? The union members voting to accept the deal while city council voted against it? Who would the public turn against this time? 36 days without city services and I’m sure people would take their venom out on somebody. It would certainly get ugly. As well the newspapers would name those who voted against the deal. Here’s hoping both sides agree to get back to work already. The garbage is piling up.