You are right, Simon — its all about density. Many of us want the Toronto subway to extend up Yonge St to Richmond Hill Centre — and possibly beyond, but until Yonge St is completely lined with condos, the low densities will not justify it. But there are many pressures at play. Veolia and other companies have brought some valuable expertise that has helped York Region get serious about transit, but should that be a forever cost? Shouldn’t our elected officials and staff be able to learn how to run an efficient public system?

1 It was only a few years ago that York Region moved to amalgamate all of the separate transit systems (Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markahm, Newmarket, etc). So, I suppose you could make a case that the Region is still learning how to run a larger single transit operation — within the context of a rapidly (too rapid, I think) growing region.  There are probably still many efficiencies to be had.

2) As long as population densities remain low, transit will always be more expensive in York Region. Don’t forget, the TTC used to have a zoned fare system so riders in outlying suburbs paid more to travel downtown.  The TTC only began running deficits when they were forced to bring in a one-fare system.  We currently run two zones on VIVA — perhaps we need 3 and/or a zone system for YRT.  At least with a public system, any higher worker wages would be plowed back into the local economy.

3) Veolia profits are currently sucked out of the community and I don’t know if we can even discover what those profits are. Contracting out still requires considerable resources on the part of the Region. Do we know the real cost of VIVA transit enforcement system? It involves 60+ enforcers, additional police time as well as court time for some offenders. How much does this cost us?

4) No one likes to hear about Peak Oil, but it will almost certainly start to affect us more in the coming decades. Here is an excellent overview of Peak Oil from a physicist’s perspective.  As Tom Murpyhy says:

So how can I look at the total hydrocarbons figure and still have concerns? Most simply, peak oil is about rates, not amounts. It’s also about economics, the speed with which we could scale, energy returned on energy invested (EROEI), carbon caps, and other practical matters. The fact that oil prices recently rose by a factor of three while no relief arrived from other hydrocarbons can be taken as empirical evidence that the vast amount of hydrocarbons in the ground is not immediately useful in a pinch. The market did not cradle us and take care of business, as the perennial promise goes.

Perhaps even [much] higher-priced transit will likely be viewed as an absolute bargain in the coming years.

As we look for efficiencies in York Region we will soon have to address the fact that we currently support 9 local councils and dozens of duplicate departments, multiple fire fighting services, library systems, etc. We will have to do better.

• The town wants public input before it makes a case to the province about a new growth plan
• The town is under a tight deadline — Jan. 31 — to make its submission to the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (2006) affecting the Simcoe Sub-Area.
• The town wants to commit to just 23% intensification rate instead of 40%. In other words, watch out for thousands of acres of farmland to be scraped down to the clay and turned into subdivisions and shopping centres.

Once the “plan” has been agreed upon through this oh-so- friendly consultation process, residents can look forward to rapid approval of new development projects. And, if York Region is anything to go by, watch for Simcoe to begin borrowing large amounts of money to build the infrastructure needed to support this artificially inseminated building boom.

The end result will be more generic sprawl, further replication of the usual super stores and franchises. And Ontario will have tied up billions more in energy sapping infrastructure that it can barely afford to maintain.

Here’s a silly thought: design policy that encourages slower physical growth, combined with wide and deep intellectual and creative growth (invest in education). Design policy that encourages each generation to continously produce healthy, highly educated replacement generations (invest in health).  Design policy that ensures that the current generation can’t arbitrarily deplete resources that belong to the future. Then, within this framework, let’s see how much physical growth is possible and desirable.

Never gonna happen, but I can dream, can’t I?

Obama’s acceptance speech and McCain’s concession speech were remarkable for different reasons. Obama is always very much aware of the arc of history and he has an uncanny ability to map paths along that arc for both himself and his audience. I envied the crowd in Chicago as tears of joy rolled down their cheeks in concert with his words.  MLK had a dream and now (finally!) Obama is living it and inviting the world to go along.

As for McCain, while he is not a particularly eloquent speaker, tonight he was gracious, transcendent and real. In fact, this was McCain’s most presidential moment since the campaign began and it should be a harbinger of the attitude the Republicans must adopt if they hope to rebuild.

All in all, a truly remarkable evening.

And now, as a Canadian, I wonder how, and if, Stephen Harper can work with Obama. Tomorrow morning Harper may discover that he has gotten up on the wrong side of the ideological spectrum. We shall see. All I know I that I will soon have to change the PenOpticon banner. After all, Tony Blair is gone and Bush and Cheney are starting to pack up their stuff.  Can Harper be far behind?

It is amazing that Americans can shoehorn most of their political views into these two political parties, especially when much of the democratic world requires three, four, five or more parties. As Canada lurches forward with four national parties, it is obvious, that the change we need here is a proportional voting system that will enable these diverse voices to obtain seats in government and work together in a spirit of practical collaboration. Until that day comes, Canada will be cursed with a series of minority governments that will have a hard time getting the job done.

Congratulations President Obama! Now how can Canadians get the change we need?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DypeeLR5yTI[/video]

[video]http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-6328398048222998033[/video]

At first glance, this eco-plate scheme sounds harmless enough: a low-cost, low-impact bit of PR.  Look a little deeper, however, the the scheme is nothing but a minor Liberal tip-of-the-hat to the wealthiest Ontarians who could (if they wanted) purchase an expensive hybrid car.  The plan will do nothing to help alleviate global warming or get cars off congested roads.  And it will do nothing to improve public transit. In fact, the eco-licence will bring additional traffic and demand for parking.

Sorry Dalton, but we need tougher emissions laws now to make it hard for car makers to sell cars that spew carbon.  Your recently announced $650-million fund to develop green cars in Ontario sounds like money wasted on big auto makers.  Why not direct that fund into an Ontario-grown green transit manufacturer.  Put green buses on the roads and help Ontario industry re-tool to build renewable energy products. Then you might get my Green vote.

Whose Lying in State Now?

The death of Gerald Ford is probably a more extreme example, because Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush senior got their first big political breaks while working for him. And so the praises pour forth:

• President Bush’s father called Mr. Ford “a Norman Rockwell painting come to life”
• Tom Brokaw, the former television anchor, described “Citizen Ford” as a “champion of Main Street values”
• Henry A. Kissinger said the man he served as secretary of state “had the virtues of small-town America.”

Now, I’m sure Ford was a nice guy. After all, he helped get Canada into the G8 club and put the wheels in motion to grant amnesty to American draft dodgers. I’m not so sure pardoning Nixon was such a good idea, but that’s just the kinda guy he was — unless there really was a deal to let Nixon off the hook in exchange for his sudden departure (and Ford’s rapid promotion).  But Gerald and Betty Ford were complicated people. They claimed to have welcomed gays into the Republican fold and to support pro-choice and gay marriage. I wonder if George W was thinking about such things when recently uttered these words:

"Gerald Ford distinguished himself as a man of integrity and selfless dedication," Bush said. "He always put the needs of his country before his own, and did what he thought was right, even when those decisions were unpopular. Only years later would Americans come to fully appreciate the foresight and wisdom of this good man."

No doubt Bush was sincere in his praise, but he may also have been grasping at Ford’s glory, hoping to rub some of that "foresight and wisdom" onto his own hind end.

That’s such a cynical, horrible thought to have so early in the new year (though not as cheerless as Pat Robertson’s recent prognostications about an unpleasant "I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear" 2007).  Still, I think I’ve lost my faith in the sanctity of a good ‘ole state funeral.  After all, in the U.S., such events tend to occur at the "Washington National Cathedral",a  structure whose very name rings with officialdom (as if it is run by the U.S. Dept. of Religious Affairs).  While I did just make that up, I did not make up the fact that that this church features a gargoyle carved in the likeness of Darth Vader. What is that about?  An apolitical ploy to get children to come to church or a not-so-veiled reference to Ronald Reagan’s original Star Wars program?  I’m not sure what George Lucas thinks about carving Darth Vader’s head on the Washinton National Cathedral, but it ought be a crime to exploit the dead for quick political gain. Even a man as magnanimous as Gerald Ford might not be willing to pardon someone who is guilty of that crime.

On the Northern Afront

It turns out there are currently three remaining Canadian veterans of the first world war still living, all of them over 105 years old. The Canadian government recently approved a plan to hold a state funeral for the last one to survive. But it turns out that none of the three survivors want to be part of a political circus. I salute and commend Lloyd Clemett (106 years of age), John Babcock (106 years of age) and Dwight Wilson (105 years of age) for their wisdom in this matter. I do remember meeting WWI veterans at a Remembrance Day service in public school many years ago. I had no understanding of that war (and not much more to this day), but I was in awe of those old warriors who stood straight and proud on that cold November day.

Considering that Stephen Harper’s last "tribute" to Canada’s veterans looks more like a propaganda/recruitment video,  our remaining WWI veterans are right to stay clear of Harper’s media machine. They fought for freedom all those years ago, let them enjoy it.

So, although I have my peculiar opinions, I’m a rank amateur at this. I find it too easy to fall into the trap of trying to appropriate an “authoritative” voice of a pundit or analyst. What I really mean to say is just too obvious, I guess: simply that war is such an ugly, repugnant thing, it is difficult to believe we still have ‘em. I believe violence and war really are “the last refuge of the incompetent”, as Robert Heinlein used to say. It’s interesting that “civilized” nations seem to have more than their fair share. But such things are easy to say, aren’t they? Especially for someone who has never experienced the real thing.

So I’ll defer to better expressed opinions and information at antiwar.com.  As harsh as his words are, much of what Paul Craig Roberts writes in “The Shame of Being an American” rings true to me and applies equally well to Canada, the UK and Australia and any other country giving Israel a free pass to use terror tactics to subdue the people living in southern Lebanon.

Dyer’s argument resonates with me because he is essentially suggesting that we might all be better off obeying the “Prime Directive”, and, it is probably true that leaving people to their own devices to work things out for themselves is often be the best policy. Before the era of instantaneous communication, that was the way the world worked. A fifth century Mongolian would never know if there was a war or a famine among the Aztecs of Central America. Vikings would have been blissfully unaware of the plight of Polynesian islanders. When it comes to war, famine and all other geopolitical “bad things”, does instant communication always mean we must bear instantaneous moral responsibility? That’s a hard one, is it not?

Of course, the Prime Directive is a slippery concept. It can look like an attractive option for those on the outside of Afghanistan or the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It can appear to be an utterly immoral option from the perspective of those who have rockets whistling over their heads and bulldozers ripping up their homes. Things get even more slippery when you realize that some external powers have already interfered by providing some combination of weapons, personnel, etc.

As much as I admire Dyer’s argument, it is hard to imagine that Middle East hotspots will be quickly defused after the withdrawal of “Western armies. I’d much rather imagine a global, cowardly retreat of all armies. Perhaps on a global scale, the applied use of cowardice will bring about the end of most of the world’s armies. (Ha!) Wouldn’t that be a grand thing?

[July 16 - Today at least 8 7 Canadians were killed during Israel's bombing of Lebanon. It's all too easy to forget there are thousands of foreign nationals living in that country. It is depressing to think that Stephen Harper actually mimed Bush's exact words about Israel's right to defend itself. As others have pointed out, every bomb Israel drops may as well be emblazoned with a big "Hiya, from Uncle Sam!". Hezbollah and other militant groups will not forget the country that has been bankrolling Israel's military escapades.]