My City Lives

Episode 33 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition features My City Lives, a website that allows Torontonians to upload videos about their favourite parts of the city.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Sept. 10, 2010

Made In Your Neighborhood

Episode 32 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

The Freedom Clothing Collective is an eco-friendly store that supports local artists and designers. However, it's more than just a clothing store.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Aug. 27, 2010

Toronto After Dark

Episode 31 of This Is Toronto is now available!

This latest edition previews the 5th annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival; Aug. 13-20.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Aug. 13, 2010

Late Night in the Bedroom

Episode 30 of This Is Toronto is now available.

This latest edition profiles Late Night in the Bedroom, an online talk show that features local artists, musicians and cultural players.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: July 30, 2010

Toronto Youth Shorts

Episode 29 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition previews the 2nd annual Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival; July 14-17

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: July 16, 2010

Parkdale Showcase

Episode 28 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition previews the 12th annual Parkdale Film + Video Showcase; June 25-27.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: July 2, 2010

Choosing How We Choose

Episode 27 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

Better Ballots is a non-partisan organization that wants to create a public discussion about voting reform in Toronto. Is it time to change the way we elect local officials?

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

Silver Screens

Episode 26 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition previews the Silver Screens Arts Festival, a week-long event that celebrates the vibrancy, vitality and creativity of adults 50-plus.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

Next Episode: June 4, 2010

- ER

From Russia with Film

Episode 25 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition previews the inaugural Toronto Russian Film Festival; May 14-16

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

Next Episode: May 21, 2010

The Baseball Leafs

Episode 24 of This Is Toronto is now available!

The Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League have been a part of the local sports scene since 1969. They are also one of the city's most successful franchises. Maple Leaf P.A. Announcer, Statistician and Fan 590 Sportscaster Roger Lajoie discusses the team and previews the 2010 IBL season.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

Next Episode: May 7, 2010

Silver Screen L'Chaim

Episode #23 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition features a preview of the 18th annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival; Apr. 17-25

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Apr. 23, 2010

Toronto Museum Project

Episode #22 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

The story of Toronto goes back 11,000 years. However, there is no museum dedicated to our city's history. The Toronto Museum Project hopes to change that.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Apr. 9, 2010

#VoteTO

Episode #21 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition features #VoteTO, a venue where people can offer ideas for the city and discuss the upcoming Municipal Election.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Mar. 26, 2010

CBC: Telefilm Wants US Stars in Canadian Films

Got a bit of a shock in the last day or so.

Details here: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2010/02/20/telefilm-rules-change.html

Personal opinion time.

I've said it elsewhere, so I may as well say it here: Michel Roy committed an act of rudeness and contempt by wanting this rules change at all, never mind saying so publicly. One of the main points of Telefilm Canada - from where this Canadian sits, at least - is to build up and promote the homegrown talent base for a domestic motion picture industry. That talent base includes the actors, and it occurs to me that we've built it up considerable in spite of past mistakes.

Now, Mr. Roy's proposing to set that talent base aside for supporting roles only?

No, thank you, sir. If we're funding made-in-Canada movies, then we want Canadian talent for lead actors.

(Mind you, I'll certainly make allowances for US actors deciding to make permanent, full-time homes here, particularly the ones who find our films more interesting to work on than anything they've done back in the States. I've heard of a few of those hanging around, and am glad of such company!)

Radio Royal York

Episode #19 of This Is Toronto is now available!!!

This latest edition features Radio Royal York, a website and podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes at the Royal York and highlights the hotel's green action plan.

www.thisistorontopodcast.blogspot.com

NEXT EPISODE: Feb. 26, 2010

...and we're back!

New URL, same content, picking up where we left off!

Marc Garneau Plus 25 - A Quick Comment

So...I hear his first spaceflight was a quarter-century ago yesterday! At least, according to these sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/05/tech-space-garneau-anniversary.html

http://spaceref.ca/missions-and-programs/canadian-space-agency/canada-celebrates-25-year-of-human-presence-in-space.html

You'd think Canada Post would've done at least a commemorative issue, yes?

Apparently not from my quick investigation at the Sparks Street postal office this morning.

Only some things change.

Today's society is an ever changing and evolving one to say the least. Technology has improved to the level where a lazy person can have an affair without leaving the comfort of their recliner. Simply click, chat, and tell lies..about how good you look and how tall you are, and how single (although your wife doesn't know that) you are--just looking for love with the help of the kind folks that allow you to pay for your cable, house phone, and Internet on the same bill. Oh... the uses for technology.

Here we live in a time where putting a man on the moon has been replaced by now we can can buy a seat on the shuttle. And to think that just forty years ago a Black woman was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Can I get a...whoa technology! Human beings have come so far that if your co-worker whom occupy the cubicle next to you is talking too loud and disturbing your "office time net surfing," all you have to do is...send them an e-mail. Think about it...your grandparents couldn't do that. Not unless you're related to the Jetsons.

Man oh man. Who needs to worry about staying home by the phone waiting for your beloved to call? You have a phone in your purse, on your hip and even in your ear. If that's not enough and you don't want to hear his voice--send him a text message. And who said folks don't read anymore?

How about this one? People are now afforded the great opportunity to call a company and have a lifeless voice prompt them to push multiple numbers until another soul less voice says, "I'm sorry your call can not be completed at this time..." Oh... the wonders of technology. It's so good that cloning isn't a thing of science fiction, it's real, very real. Anyone looking to find themselves? Give it a few years, you might just run into yourself as you race for the space shuttle that will drop you off on Mars so you can watch the NBA's newest franchise. You haven't lived until you've seen a three foot green dude dunk a ball.

But, with all the changes in the world and the many new gadgets coming out almost daily, there's one thing that won't ever change. People still want, need and strongly desire to be loved and appreciated. So put down the remote, the interactive video game, the cell phone that does everything but your hair and go to your wife, husband, mother, father or whomever you may care for and remind them that no matter the changes in this world and the distance that they create...tell them how much you love and appreciate them.

Transit, Ages, the City and the Future - A Happy Ending

Sometimes, the song lyrics are proven wrong in a happy way: you not only get what you want, but it's also exactly what you need.



Case in point? This morning at Ottawa City Hall.

The age limit on qualifying for student-rate bus passes is dead. To the last man and woman on city council, they repealed that ill-considered age limit of 27 in the name of economics and equity.

Last week, the Ottawa Transit Committee took the recommendation of the Pedestrian and Transit Committee to drop that age limit into the dumpster and ran with it. Unanimously. Given how the eight members of that committee tend to get on as a rule, you can guess how deeply the responses from the public at that committee hearing got to them.



At the full-council hearing, the Transit Committee's recommendation was put forth by committee chair Alex Cullen. There was some brief debate and comments by several councillors about assorted aspects of the topic before "ayes and nays" were called for.



In the end, council was as unanimous as the transit committee. Cullen had warned the people in the gallery last week that they had eight on the council in hand, and needed ten more to get the rule overturned. I suspect the students and their allies took that advice to heart.

Happy ending.

Transit, Ages, the City and the Future

Seems a generic title, and it is. I grant you that right now. But there’s a point to the mundanity which we’ll get to right now: I spent this particular morning at Ottawa City Hall, watching the presentations to and deliberations of the city’s Transit Planning Committee.

From Photos

At issue this particular morning was the matter of a new policy begun this budgetary year at OC Transpo with the result being that if you want a student-priced bus pass, you’d better be age 27 or under or you might as well forget it.

From Photos

Yes, I know: students don’t always start post-secondary education at 18, and they don’t always finish with a degree or diploma or certificate in hand before they hit 27.

Well, there were fifteen presentations from assorted interest groups and individual citizens at this meeting on that particular subject. To the last man and woman, with their own specific concerns in play, they all had variants of the same reply to this policy: you forget it. We can’t afford this. The city can’t afford this. The country and the planet cannot afford this.

For assorted reasons - budgetary for the individual students and their families, legal and budgetary(for different reasons) for the city, environmental(and possibly other aspects as well) for the nation and planet - they were all of them absolutely right to say this to City Hall in my eyes.

To their credit, with some caveats to varying degrees, the city transit committee agreed with that logic and they’ll be passing along that recommendation to the full city council. Which is where the crunch comes in. The transit committee is made up presently of eight of some thirty-plus councillors from across the city. The student pass recommendation needs at least another ten councillors onside, preferably from the core, suburban and rural wards.

From Photos

Yes, there are at least these three factions in play within the full council. It’s a legacy of the shotgun marriage of a merger of cities, towns and a couple of villages that the Ontario legislature pushed through back in the days of Mike Harris and his “Common Sense Revolution”. As a result of that, we have what we now call the City of Ottawa. More on that era of the province’s history has been said by smarter people than myself, so I’m not going into that digression right this moment.

Back on point: the idea that an age-based rule on who qualifies as a student, rather than the definition being rooted in whether or not you’re taking classes full-time, strikes me as nonsensical on its face. I’ve been to community college twice so far, and may yet do so for a third, “hat trick” diploma. In both instances, I attended classes alongside fellow students who would be characterized as “mature” to varying degrees. Certainly, several in each of those two batches of fellow students were over 27.

How many would the disqualification for student pricing on bus passes have made the difference between affording their studies or ploughing onward in some other, possibly more desperate direction for their lives? I heard a figure of somewhere between $200 to $500 over an entire year being bandied about at a couple of points. One month’s groceries or car insurance premiums, it was said.

Another aspect of grabbing one form of cost savings at the expense of some nastier bills being payable down the road: it was mentioned in one of the presentations that the mayor of Saskatoon recently said that making bus passes more affordable for their local student population made a considerable dent in their annual road and highway maintenance expenses.

And as for pollution issues...well, let’s leave that to your imaginations. They’re certainly at least as well informed as my own on the subject by now. Asthma incidence, global climate derangement and so on?

Right.

It was suggested that other cities across Canada are doing this kind of age-based definition of “student” for public transit purposes. If we’re the National Capital here - last we checked, Ottawa still holds that title - then it falls to us as a city to set a better example than everyone else on the map. If we fail in that, then we’d better call the PMO and ask for that referendum on transferring the title and its responsibilities, privileges and landmarks.

Over to you.