Woolwich walking trails
There’s a lovely trail in Woolwich township, about a five minute drive from the Waterloo market (and from my workplace). It’s at the first bridge on Three Bridges Road. The…
Yappa
More for Uptown, Part 2: Parks at King and William
At the corner of King and William there are two little parks of identical size and shape. This one, on the east side of King, is called Heritage Green. You…
Demand more for our uptown
Development in Waterloo is booming. Four large high-rises are going up: 144 Park, 155 Caroline, a condo building in the Barrelyards (Erb and Father David Bauer Drive), and a rental…
Libertarians return to school
The Wall Street Journal published an article this week that, in line with its usual far-right stance, argued that a libertarian approach to education is far superior to the American…
Uptown Waterloo: Where trails go to die
The Iron Horse Trail officially ends at Caroline Street. A few years ago, the Trails committee managed to get the trail unofficially extended along the west side of Caroline as…
The Iron Horse Trail in Uptown
There’s a minor uproar in Waterloo over city council’s decision this week to sell a portion of the Iron Horse Trail. I have some concerns about the sale, but I…
A classless act of petty personal vindictiveness
“When Joe Clark’s portrait was unveiled in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Stephen Harper skipped the event, a classless act of petty personal vindictiveness.” – Jeffrey Simpson’s column in…
Troubling news from the Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada, like all central banks, is supposed to be independent from the government. That, as the Globe & Mail put it this morning, is sacrosanct. When a…
Improving accessibility
Here’s a photo from the inside of the washroom in the COC Friend’s Lounge at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts in Toronto: (Sorry for the fuzziness. The…
Improving accessibility
Here’s a photo from the inside of the washroom in the COC Friend’s Lounge at the Four Seasons Center for the Performing Arts in Toronto: (Sorry for the fuzziness. The…
Stealing a car to steal a truck
When I first moved to Africa my employer assigned me a luxury double-cab pickup truck. I quickly learned that that particular model was the number one choice of car jackers…
A VERY good first week
I supported Justin Trudeau. I voted for him for leader. But I had no idea he would burst from the gate with such incredible vigor. He has far surpassed my…
The right to bear pressure cookers
So the main import of the events this week in Boston is a demonstration that the US is not invulnerable to another terrorist attack. Of course it was never invulnerable,…
En garde!
Here’s a still from the first Harper attack ad against Justin Trudeau, which was released about 12 hours after Justin became Liberal leader. It’s a weird ad. I thought with…
Fingers crossed
I admit it: I’m a worrywart. At our last leadership convention in 2006 Conservatives played dirty tricks, circulating fake buttons and posters to try to discourage delegates from voting for…
Governments are longing for WikiLeaks… or should be
So the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists scored the largest leak in history, and they’ve got the names of thousands of people with off-shore bank accounts, many (or maybe all)…
Tribute to Bob
I’m watching the leadership convention live at liberal.ca/live. It’s great – John Turner is giving a very funny speech at the moment – but the tribute to Bob Rae is…
The class system is alive and well and living at the GRT
(Conestoga College, WLU and UW fares are based on a 4-month term, and I converted that to monthly to compare them to monthly pass prices.)(Update: Perhaps the figure for high…
Loliondo and the Shiek
The A marks Loliondo, a Maasai village in northern Tanzania. I have written about the Maasai before, on this blog in The Wheat Field, and in African publications in the…
What I would do with a 3-D printer
Every time I see a piece of furniture or plant or piece of art or food that I like, I would take a 3-D photo of it and then reproduce…