WHEN THE HOUSE FALLS DOWN

By God, they’re going to do something about the municipal garage, they’re just not quite sure what.  And they’re going to spend money on the place, but they’re not quite sure how much.  The place will exist in one form or another, just in what form, and for how long?

All of this formed the core of a discussion involving the long-dilapidated municipal garage, a structure in the midst of its slow, methodical march towards collapse and oblivion, hopefully with no town staff inside when it falls down around them.

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GAZA FALLS OFF THE RADAR

That ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is proof that, when serious and earnest minds make it essential to have something done to stop the misery, they can, in fact, stop the misery.

But make no mistake.  Nothing like that has happened here.  Not in this case.

Yes, there’s a “ceasefire,” or what they refer to as one, but honestly there’s been no “cease” to the “fire,” and that’s something that lay squarely at the feet of the Israelis.

Israel has emerged as the undisputed “victor’ in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, pretty much levelling the place and breaking untold numbers of rules and conventions that are stated as being important to the international community, the same community that looks the other way as Israel launches as new offensive in Gaza in complete violation of the “agreed-to” ceasefire.  Over the past 48 hours, over 90 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, many of whom were sheltering in “humanitarian” zones that were designated by Israel itself as “safe havens” for innocent “non-combatants.” 

The use of italics and that many quotation marks is an indicator of how slippery the slope is here, and how one side’s interpretation of facts on the ground differs from another.

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EV RANGE LIMITATION

There’s no doubt that there’s a seismic shift towards the purchase and operation of electric vehicles — EVs — in the North American market, and that includes us right here in Canada.

Where once you would see none, or very few, now the sightings of EVs, predominantly Teslas, are far more commonplace.  And with government subsidies and climate-specific legislation, that will become more of a fact moving forward.

Unless you plan on buying a Tesla in the recent climate of economic warfare foisted upon us by out erstwhile friends and neighbours to the south.  That’s something that might be politically and, and now economically, difficult.  Especially since all political parties in this country are bound and determined that, if government incentives are to ever be reinstated, that Tesla would not be covered in the program.

But never mind Tesla, let’s look at electronic vehicles generally.

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BARRIERS TO TRANSPARENCY

I’m back for another ride on the acountability/transparency train, not because I like the view or because I’m a train guy, but more because I feel as if I lost my wallet on a previous trip and have hopes that it might turn up.

Fat chance.

Today, I’m going to rant a little bit about agendas, as in meeting agendas, as in the ones that are released out of the Clerk’s office a few days before any general council meeting that’s open to the public.

Agendas are important, not because they’re road maps for discussion, but also because it gives the boys and girls at home and on our ships at sea an opportunity to get some idea as to what the topics for that meeting are to be.  It does double-duty as an informative and handy reference for anyone attending a meeting in person or viewing the process via the YouTube Livestream service offered by the town.

We all know, or ought to know, that accountability of public officials, whether elected or staff, is something more than merely the mouthing of words.  Words are cool and everything, but for accountability to have any meaning, those words have to be consistent with deeds, with real and appreciable evidence that efforts are made, and things done, to ensure that those words and deeds match up.

As it goes for accountability, so too does it go for transparency.

We can say transparency is a matter of critical importance to us, but then go about our business in such a  way as to render our lofty ideals as being practically useless.  No good idea is a good idea unless it’s backed-up and followed-through by good action to implement the good idea.  Anything short of this is lip-service, window-dressing, chimera, fool’s gold.

Take your pick, they’re all bad.

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THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF JOHN MCDONALD

I’m pretty sure that Renfrew Councillor John McDonald has always had game.  I don’t think you can be a big-city police officer without having a certain predisposition for getting to the bottom of things, and it appears that trait and that predisposition has transferred to his work on Renfrew Town Council.

All that said, at least from my perspective, the councillor has found his political and administrative accountability game, or has refined it, in the several months that I’ve been following Council.

Being a politician, and being an elected councillor, are not things that are easily done.  Like any job or endeavour, it takes a bit of time to sort out the environment, the players, the issues, and the answers involving those issues.  You don’t just open a jar of political acumen and pour it out on a plate.  Instead, it’s something that’s learned and earned, and if you’re earnest in your reasons for being a councillor, then that learning and earning are important parts of the process.

Councillor McDonald appears to be well on his way.

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CONSERVATIVE TV ADS ARE BRILLIANTLY BRUTAL

I’m a little disappointed at the craftsmanship, the tone, the acting, and the messaging.

Disappointed in a professional sense, in that I come from a history of political marketing, promoting, and advertising.  But that said, from a personal point of view, I’m equally encouraged that the failings alluded to in the first sentence are all to be found in the latest round of Conservative election television ads.

The usually sure-footed Tories have completely lost their way in an area where they were once kings.  They now look like the cut-rate hired help.  I suspect when they kick Pierre Poilievre out of the leadership of that party, they’ll be putting the boot to his communications guy, Sebastian Skamski, as well. 

So these ads, while terrible, are beautiful.

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LOVING YOUR CYBERTRUCK WHEN NOBODY ELSE DOES

That Tesla Cybertruck is truly something to behold.

It appears that more and more of them are out and about in the wild, so sightings of this futuristic beast are becoming more commonplace.  In fact, there’s even a couple in town.

I have to confess I have no idea what it must be like to own and operate one of these vehicles, with their supposed bullet-proof glass, a feature that I’m sure Elon Musk has included in all his personal vehicles, or at least the ones he shuttles around in.  I can’t say whether the vehicle could stop an RPG — Rocket-Propelled Grenade — but I did see Musk himself shatter the window with a rock in an attempt to prove that you can’t shatter the window with a rock.

And honestly, when it comes to rocks, why waste them on the truck when you could be flinging them at Elon himself, easily the most loathed man in the world, which is a hell of a statement when you consider some of the people who walk this planet at the same time that he does.  So why smash on the monster when you can get your licks in on Dr. Frankenstein instead?

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BRIAND CARRIES UPC BANNER IN ARP

I spent a few minutes before starting this trying to think of something good to say about Randy Briand.  It was harder than it may sound, and in the end, I could only really think of one.

I don’t know Randy from a head of lettuce, so in fairness to him, I should make the effort to learn more about him before I weigh-in on whatever it is that he’s all about.  

So I did.

Salt of the earth is Randy.  Born in Petawawa into a military family, he served himself as a weekend-warrior in the Reserves, an infantry officer by his own account.  A school teacher for over thirty years, with a couple of years way up North working with indigenous children before returning home to become an Ottawa Valley farmer.  With a resume like that, what’s not to like, for heaven’s sake?

I don’t know of Randy’s formative years, where he developed his belief system and moral and ethical compass, but he apparently went through a catharsis of some sort when he met Grant Abraham, the leader of the Alberta-based United Party of Canada.  Abraham either solidified Briand’s world-view or he totally knocked it on its ass, but either way, Briand has emerged as whole, a complete man, one who has found himself a home in a new political party when all the others had failed him.

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LONG LINES GREET VOTERS

I went to vote on Good Friday, the first available opportunity to do so.

I showed up at Ma-Te-Way and noticed that both parking lots were fairly busy, but there’s lots of stuff that goes on in that place, and I wasn’t really sure how a stat holiday like Good Friday would impact any of those things, so I just assumed it was the fitness and hockey crowds taking up those spaces.

As I pulled up, I did take notice of a number of people standing outside the main doors to the complex, and it looked from a distance that many of them had voting cards in their hands,  but I just optimistically assumed that these were voters in need of a smoke.  As a non-smoker, their need to pound back a dart or two before making a big and important choice was something I could understand, although my own choice had never been in doubt.  So I clutched my own voter card, and dressed in my Good Friday Mass clothes, made my way to the place where the bright yellow election arrows were pointing, there to exercise my democratic franchise.

It was a line.

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MANNING SQUAWKS ABOUT FEDERAL VOTE

When Preston Manning speaks, people listen, that is until they cringe.

The populist evangelical western fear-monger has the kind of voice that ranks right up there with nails on a chalkboard, and it would be a real treat to hear him and American Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. having a conversation.  That is, of course, before your teeth started to hurt and your eyes started to bleed.

The son of one of those strange bible-thumping preacher-premiers that only Alberta can produce, Preston seems to have picked up the Social Credit mantra of his father Ernest and carried it forward into the present day.

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