Bell Canada’s new slogan “From A to Z, the calls are free” doesn’t quite work here. In this country it would have to be “the calls are fred”.
Archive for the ‘o canada’ Category
clearly an American agency
Thursday, June 14th, 2007i think not
Sunday, June 10th, 2007Barr’s Irn Bru Irish? Surely not, but that’s what Dominion thinks:
your vote counts - or does it?
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007I was a little bemused about Ontario wanting 21 extra MPs, so I did some sums to see how many MPs each province/territory should have:
| 2005 Population | ‘Fair’ Ridings | Actual Ridings | %age over/under represented | |
| Canada (total) | 32,270,500 | 308 | 308 | |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 516,000 | 5 | 7 | +42% |
| Prince Edward Island | 138,100 | 1 | 4 | +203% |
| Nova Scotia | 937,900 | 9 | 11 | +23% |
| New Brunswick | 752,000 | 7 | 10 | +39% |
| Quebec | 7,598,100 | 73 | 75 | +3% |
| Ontario | 12,541,400 | 120 | 106 | -11% |
| Manitoba | 1,177,600 | 11 | 14 | +25% |
| Saskatchewan | 994,100 | 9 | 14 | +48% |
| Alberta | 3,256,800 | 31 | 28 | -10% |
| British Columbia | 4,254,500 | 41 | 36 | -11% |
| Yukon Territory | 31,000 | 0 | 1 | +238% |
| Northwest Territories | 43,000 | 0 | 1 | +144% |
| Nunavut | 30,000 | 0 | 1 | +249% |
The population data is from StatsCan for 2005, and the riding counts from Wikipedia, and checked on CBC’s election 2006 site. My analysis is a bit simplistic; everyone counted as population gets the same federal representation.
Ontario, BC and Alberta are getting stiffed. Quebec is the fairest of them all. But if you really want your vote to count, and you can’t handle the Territories, move to PEI.
Tim’s Discourse (in which soup nearly comes down Stewart’s nose)
Friday, May 18th, 2007Grabbed a Tim’s lunch today, and glad I sat in, otherwise I would have missed the following:
One: I heard this astrologer say the science shows …
Two: Astrology’s not a science!
One: Okay, well, but he says a lot of professors agree with him, and he’s got scientists working for him, and he says you can predict things.
Two: What sort of things?
One: Well, he said that on 9/11, Saturn and Mars were aligned with Uranus …
Two: Wasn’t my anus!
(I think they may have been discussing Richard Tarnas, who was on CBC last night.)
oh noes!
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007Ghali Kitchen - home of the unbelievable Rasta Pasta - is no longer on Queen West. Seems like they went back to their roots at Queen E and Greenwood.
They shall be missed, though my cholesterol level will stay sane.
worse than no map at all
Friday, May 11th, 2007I’ve been using my GPS to track roads around the wind farm. I’m most disappointed with the coverage that Garmin’s MetroGuide Canada gives. Sure, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh might not be Canada’s most vibrant metropolis, but it seems that much of the MetroGuide routing is screwy around the Huron shores. A couple of frinstances:
Hwy 21 around Goderich is about 100-300m of its location, and the junction from Hwy 8 is almost a kilometre out. The GPS does an amusing “Hey, make a turn … whoa, how’d you get here?” kind of thing as you come into Goderich.According to MetroGuide Canada, you are “Arriving at Lucknow” when you’re on Hwy 21. Lucknow’s almost 20km from Hwy 21. It also doesn’t seem to know about routing along Hwy 86, and also tries to route you across an entirely imaginary road near Belgrave Road.Visiting friends near Wingham last night, the GPS suggested I should go back to Goderich via Clinton, a detour of 20km.
I know I didn’t really need to use the GPS for this (except I now know how to navigate the backroads of Wingham), but some of the map choices it was giving me were downright useless.
Helps if you load the right map …
bandshell kitty
Sunday, April 29th, 2007There is a timid calico cat that lives in the wing of the Bandshell at ExPlace. There is no picture; I said it was timid …
leaving Calgary
Thursday, April 26th, 2007The conference was good (learnt a lot about wind integration and forecasting), but I was most taken with the little Richardson’s Ground Squirrels that lived in burrows around the hotel.
run screaming from the building
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007I’m attending the CanWEA / AWEA Wind Integration & Forecasting seminar in Calgary. While the hotel is very nice, I should’ve pegged there might be trouble when the room next door to mine is marked Crew Lounge. And yep, between 0100 and 0300, the crew was there. And they lounged loudly.
Bluffer’s Park notes
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Sights: water, bluffs, rock, birds, blue sky.
Sounds: water, redwing blackbirds, grackles, geese, falling limestone.
Smells: the lighting of BBQs.
no illegalsigns.ca?
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007did someone take down illegalsigns.ca? It’s blank today.
365 Days #103 - The Ukuleles Of Halifax - Country Roads (mp3)
Monday, April 16th, 2007So I wonder how many Canadians can still play the uke?
365 Days #103 - The Ukuleles Of Halifax - Country Roads (mp3)
nasty snow pile
Sunday, April 15th, 2007There is a nasty snow pile at Kennedy Commons:
jays
Thursday, April 12th, 2007I’m at the Jays game … and it’s a bit slow.
économisez les baleines! <beep>
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007Greenpeace Canada decided I’m francophone, and so sent me their French welcome package. I don’t particularly mind, but I don’t remember being given a language option.
I’m not proud of being monolingual (in fact, round these parts I’m sometimes considered nihilingual). At school, if you wanted to take science, you dropped the arts by about age 15. It didn’t help that our school used minging old readers like Aux Pays des Flamantes Roses and used genuine 1960s reel-to-reels with écoutez et répétez <beep>!
signs of Canada
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
I took this a while back (June 2004), but forgot about it.
first groundhog of 2007
Sunday, April 8th, 2007Seen at Warden TTC — spring’s here!
five great years
Monday, April 2nd, 2007Catherine & I have been in Canada for 5 years.
these ain’t buildings ..:
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007… They’re bvildings, the Bay Street stone edifices.
punks 4 peace at the courthouse
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007Someone has scrawled - in chalk, so it’ll wash off - “End War”, “Kyoto Not War”, “Smart Kids or smart bombs”, “Bring our troops home” and “Punks 4 Peace” all over the court house at 361 University. Sentiments I approve of - and it gives work to Guardsman Surface Restorations.
