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.

Fresh out of financial bailouts and massive restructuring GM is hoping to hit the ground running. A trimmed down offering down to a core profitable few the company (and the country) is hoping buyers will return, but will they? With the cuts all over the problems still exist. Buyers aren’t against buying a GM car, they are against buying a poorly made car. The introduction of foreign made cars opened consumers eyes to new possibilities.

“You mean my car should last longer than 3 years?”

Quality is still the main issue and hasn’t been addressed. You will still have the same old workers doing the same old crappy job sitting on the line waiting to collect their pensions. Collectively this group needs to do their jobs better, focus on the details, take pride in the product they produce. After all it’s their work and if you can’t be proud of your own work, then why are you doing it in the first place?

I think you can see the results if you look at Ford. “Quality is job #1″ Ford made a big push to improve the quality of their brands. Campaigned to earn the trust of consumers and I think you’re seeing the results now. It wasn’t a new model that saved them from the brink of bankruptcy. It was quality, customer service, and commercials voice overs by Dennis Leary and Kiefer Sutherland.

GM maybe be out of bankruptcy but … the consumers may not return. The solution is simple: build a better product.

17 days the garbage strike in Toronto has dragged on. For 17 days Mayor Miller has dragged his feet and done nothing. A lot of talk about “negotiation” “patience” blah blah blah. It comes down to Mayor David Miller avoiding the issue. His years of giving into the union have finally caught up to him. Given the city’s financial crunch the mayor cannot afford to give in once more. However the union is sticking to it’s guns. They are at an impasse and the citizens of the GTA are paying the price. Garbage is piling up, tourists are complaining, and there appears to be no end in sight. Do yourself a favor in invest in a nose plug, because it’s going to get a whole lot stinkier in Toronto.

Fight: Perez Hilton vs wil.i.am – talk shit about a band then expect to face the consequences. How the hell does this loser end up being so popular because of his blog? The interweb won’t protect you. He says she’s a liar. She says she did nothing wrong. Believe who you want to believe.

Nortel in financial trouble again. They’ve been under court protection since January. This is – what, the 3rd time being bankrupt in like 10 years? How does this company continue to operate? From the glory days of employing 90,000 and a stock price of $125 to 2,500 employees and $0.18 on the TSX. The writing is on the wall.

It’s gonna get stinky in Toronto. A garbage strike threatens to make summer miserable for the residents in Toronto. The union and city continue to negotiate but expect things to end this way: the city giving in, and property tax rates skyrocketing next year. Don’t you love unions? They should be so lucky as to be employed this year.

Talk about sore losers. Yet another Detroit Red Wing player has come out to criticize the Penguins captain for his actions after winning the Stanley Cup. Let’s see, you’re the youngest captain in NHL history to win a championship, add to this that this is your first championship, shaking hands immediately after accomplishing this task is not at the top of your priorities.

If you watched the celebration, you notice that the Detroit (big sucky) players lined up almost immediately after losing so they could get off the ice as quickly as possible. If you recall last year, the Pittsburgh players gave you ample time to celebrate before lining up to shake hands. However Detroit gave no such courtesy.

Yeah, it hurts to watch the other team celebrate their championship, but it’s the exact same thing you did to them the year before. Give them 10 minutes to enjoy their moment before calling them disrespectful.

All eyes are on Judge Redfield T. Baum. Who will he side with: the NHL or Balsillie? On the one hand you have a money losing location on the other you have a hockey mad buyer with cash in hand. If you stay in Phoenix you will guarantee many more years of financial loss. If the team is moved to a potentially better location it’s still a coin flip whether the franchise will be profitable. Attached to that will be lawsuits over a broken lease agreement and other financial obligations to Phoenix. Who’s interests will weigh more importantly? Creditors? The NHL? The bidders? It most certainly won’t be in the best interest of hockey fans.

It’s interesting how easily the Winnipeg Jets franchise was moved down to the U.S. but when the occasion arises to move a team from the U.S. to Canada, all sorts of barriers appear. The NHL is clearly against Canada and however they sure love our money. The NHL cannot exist financially without Canada but it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards that another franchise will appear in Canada in the near future. Maybe we should all become soccer fans.

New rules kick in today but the big question is: do you have your passport? Thankfully I renewed mine last month but I’m guessing many more may potentially be turned away. Not that I’m planning on making a trip south anyways. Shopping in the U.S. is just way too pricey. However they do have a lot of outlet shopping malls. The policy, while in the name of national security, seems to be leaning towards economic protectionist policy instead of security. Perhaps the Obama administration wants to unconsciously persuade Americans from crossing the border to buy cheap Canadian goods (drugs). I’m guessing most border patrol will show flexibility however there’s always that chance you’ll get stuck with that one hard-ass and you’ll end up turning around. Just get your passport to be safe.

In other news a small protest has forced the border crossing near Cornwall to close. It seems the local Mohawks aren’t happy about the new rules either. The guards have left their posts citing safety issues and the remaining few have armed themselves. Probably cooler heads will prevail. GoGo Mohawk power! Demand some new land while you’re at it.