Editorials, Letters & Political Commentary

The recent performance by VIA Rail’s Canadian between Vancouver and Winnipeg – but not between Toronto and Winnipeg via Northern Ontario – on its first trip in nine months is the death rattle of Canada’s passenger trains.  It needn’t be.   Working on my book on this long and sad Canadian saga, I frequently look south at Amtrak.  There, a ...

A sure sign Canada’s rail passenger service is near death slunk into Winnipeg on Monday, December 14 – 15 hours late.  For the first time since March 12, VIA Rail’s Canadian arrived from Vancouver.   It was really only a half-Canadian.  It short-turned and went back west the next evening rather than continuing to Toronto.  The Canadian will do this ...

The provincial government unveiled a fancy new proposal titled Connecting the North: A draft transportation plan for Northern Ontario. The MTO has indicated they are exploring options for passenger rail services between Toronto, North Bay, Timmins and Cochrane.   However, the proposal fails to answer one obvious question: When exactly is our train supposed to return?   Last month, the ...

La saison de golf est officiellement terminée. Avez-vous déjà remarqué que les vrais golfeurs, en tant que groupe, ont plus de mal à gérer la saison froide que pratiquement tout autre sport sur terre? C’est vrai. Un de mes amis dit qu’une fois que ses enfants seront partis de la maison et qu’il aura un nid vide, il a des ...

Golf season is officially over.  Have you ever noticed that for real golfers, as a breed, have a harder time dealing with the offseason than pretty much any other sport on earth?  It’s true.  One of my friends says that once his kids are out of the house and he has an empty nest, he has detailed plans on how ...

The other day I was having a zoom-coffee with an old friend of mine, catching up on what’s been happening in our lives.  At one point we were talking about pressure tactics that some fly-by-night companies and scammers use to hook people into purchasing a product or service on the spot.  Many of us have heard lines, for example, perhaps ...

L’autre jour, je prenais un café-zoom avec un vieil ami afin de se rattraper de ce qui se passe dans nos vies. À un moment donné, nous parlions des tactiques de pression que certaines entreprises et certains fraudeurs utilisent pour inciter les gens à acheter un produit ou un service sur place. Beaucoup d’entre nous ont entendu des répliques, par ...

I remember a favourite primary school teacher who, when I think back, really knew how to get her students to quickly switch gears and engage their minds on a particular focus.  It was nothing terribly special really, but she would tell us to reach into out desks, pull out our thinking caps and be sure to tie them on securely ...

Considérez ce scénario: BigBlue, un grand constructeur automobile, est frappé par un rappel massif de milliers de modèles de voitures récentes parce que le mécanisme à cliquet dans les ceintures de sécurité est défectueux. Les autorités de sécurité automobile découvrent cela parce qu’il y a eu tellement de personnes tuées parce qu’elles ont été éjectées de leur voiture dans des ...

Consider, if you will, this scenario: BigBlue, a major automaker, is hit with a massive recall of thousands of recent model cars because the ratchet mechanism in the seatbelts is defective.  Automobile safety authorities discover this because there have been so many people killed because they were ejected from the car in accidents.  An investigation into the cause determines that ...

Ontario Land Trust Alliance (OLTA) welcomes yesterday’s announcement that the Government of Ontario will make a significant investment to “preserve more areas of significant ecological importance, protect natural areas and promote the importance of healthy, natural spaces.” The investment $20M over 4 years to support land conservation and stewardship, will be matched by OLTA and our partner organisations, Nature Conservancy ...

The newly released Ontario 2020 budget sets a strong course forward for economic growth and recovery, but there is little in it that addresses the real needs of seniors. While there is a marked increase in health care investment and a promise to improve long-term care over the next few years, C.A.R.P.—A New Vision of Aging (also known as the Canadian ...

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Doug Ford’s 2020 budget is waving a white flag in the battle against COVID-19, and telling people: you’re on your own. With Ontario on the brink of a health and economic disaster, Doug Ford’s budget doesn’t take any new actions to make everyday families safer or healthier. In fact, as the second wave of COVID-19 ...

La cheffe du NPD, Andrea Horwath, a déclaré que dans son budget 2020, Doug Ford lève les bras dans la bataille contre la COVID-19 et livre les gens à eux-mêmes. Alors que l’Ontario est au bord d’une catastrophe sanitaire et économique, le budget de Doug Ford ne prévoit aucune nouvelle mesure pour assurer la sécurité et la santé des familles ...

The Ministry of Transportation is seeking feedback from Northerners to “better understand the unique transportation needs of people and businesses” situated along the Toronto, North Bay and Cochrane/Timmins rail corridor to “help develop a plan to improve the transportation system” in the region.   Remind me again … didn’t Ontario Northland just submit its very own passenger rail business case ...