Month: March 2014

It’s back to city hall this April Fools Day, to root for the councillors who say NO to Porter plans for Toronto Island jet traffic.
Danica may be along this time, if a sore foot permits. The more the merrier!
There is some worry that certain councillors have gotten a way to weasel on the vote, because city staff have come up with conditions that they say should be met before jets can be approved.
A “Yes with conditions” opens the door to all kinds of trouble. Not only will this expensive, tedious sideshow drag on even longer, Porter’s Deluce will see such a vote as encouragement. If and when his jet plan is finally defeated, he will probably sue the City (us) for millions. We will waste even more time and money on this nasty business.
I certainly hope the votes will be there to stop Porter plans dead in their tracks on April 1st.

It was a fine day for free antique streetcar rides up and down Kingston Road today. Our tireless city councillor, Mary-Margaret McMahon, gave up 4 hours of her Sunday to shepherd the eager crowds aboard.

I was on a nostalgic mission to remind myself of the days when streetcars had comfortable, padded seats. Didn’t actually get to sit in one, but they looked as comfy as I remember them.

We didn’t have to go far … 2 blocks over, to the local school gym. What a nice surprise! Huge turnout and an amazing variety of “makers” projects.
Danica and I are big fans of the Textile Museum, so we were happy to see neighbours supporting it, front and centre, at one of the best locations. In addition to promoting museum visits, they were sewing, showing and selling very attractive embroidery and quilts. Some examples here.
One woman had followed an interesting career in textiles, creating historically accurate costumes for museums. From there, she moved to making puppets, also in historical outfits. She showed me her fox, (see picture) dressed in splendid medieval style. The detail was wonderful and the construction was completely authentic, right down to the codpiece.

Peter Sever used to manage musical acts and has always maintained his eye and his appreciation for good, and especially novel, performers. Thanks for this one, Peter.

The police aren’t ready to charge Rob Ford yet, so it’s up to the opposition to get him out of office. Chow, Tory, Soknacki and Stintz need to nail the blustering, bullying liar. He brags that he’s a businessman when he’s just a spoiled brat son who inherited his millions.
Everybody knows his saving a billion story is a lie and it’s been proven over and over to anyone who can read. He was instrumental in cutting the budget by nearly that amount, but look around Toronto and see the results. He’s hasn’t been cutting taxes, he’s been raising them with his stupid subway scheme. He has been undercutting Toronto and we’ll have to make up for that once we get rid of him.
Rob Ford is a crack-smoking blowhard, a public drunk and a foul-mouthed boor who pees in public parks. His friends include the criminal underworld of drug dealers and gangsters. One of his closest connections is facing extortion charges.
The only true thing to come out of Rob Ford’s mouth is that he isn’t perfect. Understatement of the century. He’s not fit to lead a circus parade, let alone Canada’s largest city.

When we replaced the hard drive in Danica’s iMac (see below), we took the opportunity to triple the storage capacity. That meant she could use a backup drive 3 times larger, too.
I bought a 1TB drive to match the new iMac drive, opened the case of her 500 GB Elephant backup drive (left) and swapped the smaller one for the larger one. Easy. $72.00 including tax.

As you’ll see in the two posts below, I spent my day at city hall, listening to arguments for and against expansion of the Toronto Island Airport (Billy Bishop) to allow Porter Airlines to fly jets into the downtown core.
Porter CEO Robert Deluce has been putting up a fierce fight for his jets, stacking meetings with supportive employees, pulling in allies from who he would buy planes and pitching, today, to a committee of city councillors who are mostly (ahem) in his camp.
There is much to be said about the jet proposal (and believe me, there was!) but upon reflection, one impression stands out above all. I think Porter will fail as a business if it doesn’t get permission to fly jets. I think that’s why we are seeing the expensive ad campaigns, the PR spin, the political games and manoeuvers. Desperation to survive.
Porter’s books are private, so we only have trends in declining passenger loads to make us wonder. Is this a financially insecure weakling that the City is listening to, considering partnership with?

The committee meeting about Toronto Island jets was expected to continue for another 4 hours, but my bum was numb after only the 3 hour morning session and an hour and a half after the lunch break.
My discoveries:

• Council committee meetings are a VERY slow way to get information.
• Everybody, on every issue, spins the truth.
• Some councillors, left and right, are remarkably thick and inarticulate.
• Half the audience was Porter staff (self-identified by show of hands)
• Current Porter airplanes violate the Tripartite Agreement already
• Health issues around downtown jet traffic are serious.
• Porter CEO Deluce reminds me of Napoleon.
• Napoleon ended his days unhappily on a small island.
• Bird strikes on airplanes can be repaired with a rag. (Porter pilot)
• Deluce was evasive and unresponsive about plans to sell Porter.
• Porter employees seem genuinely loyal to their company.
• All pro-jetters have financial interests as motivators.
• Recreational use of the waterfront is a trivial side issue to Porter supporters.
• Local community centre and schools could become Porter parking space.
• Anti-jetters have valid quality of life, health and safety concerns.
• Porter has received tens of millions of taxpayer dollars already.
• Porter has made unrefundable deposits on CS100 jets. (Deluce)

My conclusion
There is no need for the City of Toronto to expand the Billy Bishop Airport. The need for Porter Airlines, however, is very real and I suspect that it will fail as a business without the expansion.
The best interests of the private airline company are not the same as the best interests of the city at large. Billy Bishop Airport should continue to serve us as a small regional airport and a place for emergency planes. Councillors should deliver a firm, unequivocal NO to Porter’s requests for runway extension and jet traffic.

There is a committee meeting this morning, regarding Porter Airline’s request to land jets on our Toronto Island Airport. I am in the council chamber to cheer on the over 200 deputants who will speak against the jet idea.
Yes, Mayor RoFo will be here. Yes, he is pro-jets, of course. No, we will not change his mind, but there are other councillors here who may be impressed by the turnout. The public gallery is packed. Originally, the meeting was to be held in a Committee Room, but it was necessary to move the meeting to the full council chamber, just to hold everyone.
Break for lunch at 12:30, meeting resumes at 1:30.
Impressions from the morning. The Porter machine is here in force, but most of the deputants have been making strong arguments against jets. Porter CEO made his usual pitch to committee members who are mostly in his corner.

I was just watching a TV history of the Great Canadian Flag debate, wherein Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson wrestled with Opposition Leader John Diefenbaker. Pearson got a new flag … not the one he wanted, but new and free of the past colonial symbolism.
As it happens, my walk today took me past another Canadian symbol. This one had a rough year and fell to a wind storm last summer.

Danica and I attended the tree funeral and scored a keepsake.