When does a biodegradable product not degrade? It seems that when the product crosses a border there are different levels of biodegradable. And it is causing trouble. It seems that the new wipes designed to replace toilet paper from companies such as Kimberly-Clark and SC Johnson are promoted as being
Continue readingTag: Municipal politics
Scripturient: Blog & Commentary: Six Rules for Politicians Using Social Media
This is an updated version of the talk I presented at the the eighth annual Municipal Communication Conference in Toronto, November 2013. I use social media regularly and frequently. As a politician, that makes me either very brave or very stupid. But I’ve been doing this for the last
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Bye Mr. Ford. See you in the funny papers.
There is an unsavoury anger in Toronto these days. It is directed at Mayor Rob Ford. It has to do with the fact that the city appears to be stuck with that guy until the municipal election planned for October next year. He has dragged the city through the muck
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Rob Ford’s evil twin Stephen Harper.
It seems appropriate. While the Toronto Police are sniffing around Mayor Rob Ford’s purported dealings with crack houses and drug dealers, the RCM Police are sniffing around Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s dealings with the Senate and expense account fiddlers. Are they not all the same? Do Canadians have one law
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Rob Ford, Civic Commando?
The Rob Ford mayoralty situation in Toronto is just like trying to get rid of a Condo Commando. These are tenacious troublemakers for condominium boards. They are the bane of property managers and boards because they use the Ontario Condominium Act to terrorize the condo to get their way. Whether
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: What is Wynne running from?
There is a television advertisement running these days of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne running. It should have a warning on it to tell kids not to try this at home. Maybe the Premier can close county roads for her run to be recorded. Try running like that in the city
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Rob Ford needs his fishing buddy Stephen Harper.
There is no better form of bonding between men than fishing. It is a quiet introspective time that you share with a true buddy. And what better buddies could there be than Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford? There are not many people who have been invited
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Rob Ford news is now officially boring.
It took a lot of excruciatingly boring repetition and alarmist claims in the news media over many weeks but we can now declare the Mayor Rob Ford affair to be officially boring. It took time. It was more than some people could handle. It has finally been resolved. Official boredom
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Is Chief Blair Mayor Ford’s doppelganger?
That spectre that comes for you as your life flashes before you in death is your doppelganger. It seems totally fitting that the wraith Toronto Mayor Rob Ford should see is Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. And remember, your doppelganger does not appear as others see you but as you
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: What’s needed to get rid of Mayor Ford; provincial or federal type voter turnout
Well, I don’t think I need to re-hash everything that’s gone on in Toronto; other then Mayor Rob Ford has had 2 press conferences in a single day where he’s come out and managed to combine a tearful ‘I smoked crack while in a drunken stupor’ admission into a tearful
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: All the King’s Horses and All the King’s Men
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again. That children’s nursery rhyme says a lot about the situation Toronto Mayor Rob Ford finds himself in, following the release of police reports, yesterday.
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Random Acts of Kindness
It goes by almost unrecognized, but for some, it is a special day that reflects the way we should all behave, to everyone, every day. It’s called Random Acts of Kindness Day, and it will be celebrated in Collingwood, on Friday, November 1. Council has contributed by making downtown parking
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Choosing challengers for Ford’s job.
It is far too early for a morning line forecast on the race for the Toronto mayoralty but the key apparatchiks are in play. While nobody can legally be campaigning until they formally file early next year, there is a lot for the teams to do. The Toronto Star City
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: The Circuitous Path from Bulge to Budget
If tinkers may have leave to live, And bear the sow-skin budget, Then my account I well may, give, And in the stocks avouch it. Autolycus in The Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Sc. III, Shakespeare These lines got me thinking about the town’s finances. Sow-skin budget? What does that mean? And
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: How to Break Your Election Promises
Taxman: I was thinking of this Beatles’ song, recently, after council received the pre-budget report from the treasurer at last Monday’s council meeting. It’s dated, the song that is, but still eerily appropriate (I will have to learn to play it on my ukulele). Last election, all of us who
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: A wonderful story about ‘Zoo poo.’
Apropos a recent Babel-on-the-Bay story about our backward burghers of Babel who run our small city, there was a delightful story in the Toronto Star the other day about a different kind of poop. And if you think poop is poop, you have never wandered too far at the Toronto
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 13: A proposal for one all-candidates’ forum on Oct. 16
The Enjoy Centre. Below: The Arden. Ummmm …. They’re both attractive venues! Is there any way we St. Albert city council candidates can all agree – for the sake of the citizens we are vying to represent – to all attend a single all-candidates forum on Oct. 16? I asked
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 12: Anonymity, advertising, Astro-Turf … & advice in St. Albert
Where’s Toto when St. Albert needs him? And what does he think about St. Albert’s leash bylaw? Here’s Toto, back in the day, exposing the Great Oz behind the green curtain. St. Albertans are curious about the anonymous groups trying to influence our city’s municipal election. At least one group
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Campaign Diary Volume 11: The uncomfortable truth about taxes and radical tax cuts
Radical cuts can’t be accomplished without harm – anyone who says different, like the city council candidate above, is presenting an illusion. Actual St. Albert city council candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: The philosopher Aristotle. A St. Albertan has asked me the tough question that all city
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Babel’s backward burghers blunder on.
Babel-on-the-Bay knows that our readers are not very interested in parochial items about our modest little city here on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay. We are only telling you this tale as fair warning. The jewel of Babel has always been our beautiful beaches and the joys of bikini watching
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