For the last eight years every working day our daughter Mallory has been in the care and tutelage of the teachers at Glebe Parents Day Care. I still remember those days in July 2007 when I took Mallory to the toddler room at the main centre for her integration week.
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cmkl: Chemin Farrellton
Fabulous ride today, up around Denholm, down towards Wakefield and then back past Edelweiss and up through a series of back roads that ended up with a four kilometre stretch of ATV trail. Hilariously, part of it was totally underwater as spring runoff from the surrounding hills was using it
Continue readingcmkl: Armine, I need to hear more about this ‘fix don’t scrap TFSA’ business
I have huge amounts of respect for Armine Yalnizyan. In the People’s Republic of Chris she is Finance Minister. For life. However her latest item on rabble.ca wherein she (or her headline writer) calls for the Tax Free Savings Account program to be fixed (as opposed to scrapped) has got
Continue readingcmkl: Seniors organizations support doubling the TFSA limit? Can we have a source please?
Normally the Globe’s Parliament Hill coverage is pretty good. But this Bill Curry item makes the unattributed claim that seniors organizations support the trial-ballooned proposal to double the annual contribution limit to tax free savings accounts (TFSAs). Really? Which ones? The Society of Retired CEOs? Or maybe the Grey Circle
Continue readingcmkl: Eduardo Galeano has died
Eduardo Galeano, one of my favourite writers has died. The cited Huffpo article says he died of cancer. There was a power to his writing. A wit. A lyrical quality that brought the truth of colonialism and the history of Latin America into razor sharp focus, leaving me laughing even
Continue readingcmkl: Bushtukah changes gendered promo copy after complaint from awesome blogger
Okay, I admit it. Irene Jansen is my partner. But I still think it’s pretty cool that she got the normally excellent outdoor gear retailer Bushtukah to change some of the promo copy for its kids bikes so that it’s not so Ken and Barbie.
Continue readingcmkl: The first 2000km
With the exception of my spring break 100km ride in Essex, UK and 180km of commuting when I remembered to turn on Strava, it’s all been indoors. Today I had planned to ride outside. With both wheels. I spent some time yesterday getting all the sensors lined up, took the
Continue readingcmkl: First solo walk to school
This actually happened Monday, but things were too squirrelly to note it then. However I cannot let this even go unmarked. Lately she’s been walking to school with her next door neighbour and friend C. Which has been great – school is not far, there’s a crossing guard and C.
Continue readingcmkl: Canada’s public sector keeps private sector pain at bay: Michael Babad in the Globe
Okay, that’s my take on his headline. Unlike him, I am morally and contractually bound not to repeat the enemy’s framing. At least in a headline. But apart from that Babad’s commentary in the Globe today is just about right. It’s a critique of a CFIB study complaining about how
Continue readingcmkl: Heading home
After a short stay in London I’m heading home today. Currently enjoying Heathrow’s new terminal 2. Here’s a photo for you from yesterday’s walk about.
Continue readingcmkl: Back on two feet
I made my way back to the bike hire place today, wending my way down from Hackney through Shoreditch, Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate to London Bridge. I don’t know quite how bike commuters handle it. I found riding very tense, the streets utterly choked with cars, buses and taxis. One
Continue readingcmkl: Humbling ride through the wilds of Essex
At a certain point I just fell off the back. I’d been keeping up with the three Cycling Club Hackney riders in the group that chose the longer route, albeit wheel sucking the whole way. But about 10k from the planned rest stop the other riders just kinda floored it.
Continue readingcmkl: Biking on the wrong side of the road
? ?I am in London for my sister’s 50th birthday party. It occurred to me that since they don’t really have what you and I understand by ‘winter’ here, that I should set up to go for a ride while I’m here. Like outside. Moving forward. But two things struck
Continue readingcmkl: The Toronto Star is dropping their paywall
Ah ha. Told you so. In a medium where ubiquity is authority and authority is viewership, paywalls were never going to work. A pre-internet business model applied, unmodified to completely different media. See Note to Readers: Star to end paid digital subscriptions on April 1 | Toronto Star. I have
Continue readingcmkl: Scrubbed
Damn. Damn damn damn damn. I put on running shoes for the first time since Jan 8 this evening, to test these new traction aids, test clothing and see how well my achilles was progressing in preparation for the race tomorrow. The answer? Clothing great. Traction aids probably fine. Achilles
Continue readingcmkl: Going to Lap the Gats again: please sponsor me
We don’t have real climbs, where I live. Well, not really anyway. But we have this. Please consider sponsoring me to ride this fundraiser race/ride to raise money for the University of Ottawa’s Parkinson’s Research Consortium. Any amount helps. It’s true adequate medical research money should be one of the
Continue readingcmkl: The first 500km
Or 516.3 km to be exact. More to come too. Haven’t actually moved an inch. It’s a little weird riding on a trainer. I tried it about ten years ago and couldn’t stand it. It’s maybe there’s better television now, but I think what really does it for me is
Continue readingcmkl: CSIS to be given ‘power to disrupt,’ not arrest, in new anti-terror bill, CBC reports
I really hope this is one of those trial balloon thingies where the government puts out feelers, leaks ‘drafts’, spreads rumours about something far worse than they actually intend. Because if they actually do plan to let CSIS ‘disrupt’ people without due process, as CBC reports, we will truly have
Continue readingcmkl: Families earning 30K-$60K to see least benefit from Tory income splitting plan
Well now I’m just shocked. The Globe has an item about some finance department documents Canadian Press unearthed via an Access to Information Act request Families earning $30K-$60K to benefit least from Tories’ family plan. Yes, the kleptocracy is here. And it’s now.
Continue readingcmkl: Conservatives’ red tape commision saves next to nothing
Red Tape Cuts Rated Modest Blacklock’s reports. I do so wish they’d come up with a revenue model that lets them get their journalism out there more. Because they’re actually doing as much real Hill journalism (if not more) than the entire Parliamentary press gallery. But I’ll go straight to
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