Hillier and Hudak, political party rhetoric

Theoretically, in a political campaign, a party present its platform, made of of various planks:
I loathe the communication that says, pick the most important issue of the campaign.
A political party needs to come up with an holistic platform that will support their work in the next four years. It should cover all of the important topics, as a politician is responsible for all constituents, from jobs, the economy, healthcare, looking after newcomers, there are many issues...

Select just one!

•  Crime
•  Economy
•  Education
•  Environment
•  Health Care
•  Transportation

Hydro

Home maintenance & repairs

Hillier, my local (LFLA) MPP, doesn't seem to understand Hydro. I mean, who should pay for hydro? I believe that users have to pay. It is not cheap. When we cannot afford to pay our hydro bills, or maintain our homes, we will have to down-size. We have cashed in some money to pay for a new roof this week. If you cannot maintain your home, you need to make changes. House hunting we saw so many neglected homes. Residents who neglected themselves, too.

An excellent, well-researched article about Hillier's hydro position by Geoff Davies, reporter with Perth Courier, provides balance:

But Hillier needs to get his facts straight, says Bill MacDonald, the local candidate for the Liberal party.
When contacted for comment by The Perth Courier, MacDonald first took issue with the Tory pledge to scrap the HST from energy bills.
“The Liberal government has already removed 10 per cent off the top,” MacDonald said, whereas Ontarians would only see an eight per cent savings if the HST’s provincial portion is removed.
Next, he addressed the “weird math” behind the promise to scrap the debt retirement charge. 
(Read more here: MPP Hillier talks hydro)

Healthcare

Then there is healthcare...I am tired of those claiming the system is 'broken'. Those with a grudge, or an individual incident. Many do not understand healthcare protocols, and rant and rail at the system.

No room for elderly in Ontario hospitals, coalition charges

In Ontario, according to information from the health care workers' coalition, 18,500 hospital beds in Ontario have been closed over the last 15 years. Hurley said workers are concerned that further downsizing, and the movement of services, such as surgery, from smaller community hospitals to regional centres, may be on the way. The members of provincial parliament for Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington and Leeds-Grenville, Randy Hillier and Steve Clark, have both expressed concern about small-town health services moving to Kingston and Brockville, Hurley said.

There are many elderly in hospital and LTC. We are short beds, and have many ill at home, which is where they want to be. Hudak, provincial Tory leader, claims that we need to 'change'. I fear this.

Well, you can't have it both ways: either you cut taxes, and cut services, or you increase taxes and provide more services.

spring meltwater

The Environment
@randyhillier - "Dalton McGuinty banned pesticide use across the province.” http://ow.ly/6qgF9


This tweet blames bedbugs on the use of pesticides. As if. The professionals are still using them, but with restrictions, and not in the way we used to use them on private property. Hillier, get your facts straight! 


Especially for those of us living a rural life, we cannot continue to let cows pee in the river, or dump pesticides on the land where we draw our well water. We don't pee in your pool, don't pee on our watershed.


The recent LFLA debate was crazy, with many landowners demanding 'back off government', without understanding the purpose of environmental laws, and protections. Regulations and red tape, the libertarians claim, prevent landowners from making a living. Perhaps, they are saving us from extinction. We don't clear cut anymore. We cannot exploit the land for our own gains, as we are only borrowing the land from our children. These same libertarians decline to pay property taxes (i.e., liberty from government), are against same-sex marriage, etc. (The Tea Party Libertarians in Ontario #ontpoli http://bit.ly/mVc3Al) 
(onpoli Ontario Politics 

.@randyhillier, please pay your taxes. IC: "satisfied that the financial disclosure form is clear". bit.ly/rtZZ55 #PCPO #onpoli)
THIS makes @randyhillier look foolish!http://ow.ly/6u8KG

Thanks to Environment Canada for protecting our wildlife: the flora and fauna that makes Ontario a good place to live. We need to protect those who will exploit wildlife.
Here is one story:
Burns pleaded guilty to depositing bait within 14 days before the first day of the open season for waterfowl and hunting waterfowl within 400 metres of a baited area that has not been free of bait for seven days. He was fined a total of $2,500 for the offences, plus court costs. Burtch pleaded guilty to depositing bait within 14 days before the first day of the open season for waterfowl and knowingly making a false or misleading statement to an officer. He was fined a total of $1,750 for the offences, plus court costs.


Education

Just so you don't think that I back either the Liberals, or any other parties, I don't. McGuinty has instituted some foolhardy schemes: full-day kindergarten. This has resulted in crowded schools, and a lack of proper day care facilities for parents of you children. They confuse full-day school attendance with actual bang-for-the-buck learning. Kids learn by play, in a comfortable environment, in a day care where they are regulated by the school bell, when they can nap if needed. It is expensive putting 3 1/2 and 4 year-olds in school full-time, and truly ridiculous. My daughter thrived in day care, as has her daughter. We need licenced day care providers, not expensive teachers, with an ECE degree, not a one-year-degree and B.Ed., who may or may not understand young children. I taught kindergarten, and know that not all kids need, want or require full-day schooling.

Where is Canada headed now?

Harper and Layton share the railing

Our new Prime Minister, now with a majority of seats in the house (167/308), has run on a series of planks that scare me. Last time he ran (2008) and ended up with a minority of seats, he promised to reform our expensive Senate. It is stacked with party favourites, retirement age: 75, although Stephen Harper promised that this institution would be revised. NOT. The upper house continues, as appointed members, to influence laws created by elected House of Commons duly elected members. Large salaries, huge costs ($90 million), no accountability for attendance, and terrific pensions.

How the other half lives

His 2011 platform runs against my sensibilities:

• abandoning the gun registry

How police use the gun registry

'That adds up to a staggering 3,438,729 queries from police officers last year. It’s hard to imagine a federal database more intensively mined.'

• lowering taxes

life in the swamp

The middle class carry the bulk of the tax burdens. The rich get richer, the poor do not pay taxes. We'll have less money for universal healthcare, to support those who need our help. Big business, with lowered taxes (likely cut to 15% in 2012, the US rate is 35%), is theoretically supposed to improve our economy.


More was proposed in the last budget, likely to be resurrected...

• Additional or increased tax credits for family caregivers, volunteer firefighters, post-secondary education, children’s fitness and art programs and energy-efficient home improvements are probable. 

Road maintenance

Let's hope. Yet, the small tax credit for caring for failing parents, is less than meaningful. Many firefighters do not make enough money for their tax credit to be worthwhile. 

For middle class families putting kids into a fitness or arts program, what a drop in the bucket. 

A tax credit for improving our houses energy efficiency, might help the middle class, but not those living without the means to reduce heating and hydro bills by incorporating green solutions (especially fixed-income seniors). Many cannot afford repairs to their aging homes.

• Free trade agreements with the EU and India will be pursued. 
• The Canadian Wheat Board, the last major agricultural marketing monopoly in the world, will likely lose its exclusive hold over the buying and selling of Western Canada’s wheat and barley.

What worries me:

• little attention, understanding, or respect for the environment, 

Green energy sector not cheering Tory majority

May 03, 2011 – Industry executives say they don’t expect government to show leadership on renewables

It's an overgrown swamp

The previous owners of this house, while running on well and septic, have a large container of weed killer. Other neighbours and citizens shoot guns off-season, hunt protected wildlife, decimate habitat, and dump garbage on their land and in the ditches.

• media claims: universal healthcare is broken

Harper stares down the people

Articles in the media claim healthcare is broken. This is an excuse to go for private clinics, which drain the system of its doctors and nurses. Concierge healthcare is a scary proposition. We cannot aim for the US model. I predict they are hoping to create a two-tier system. In this way the poor will share its physicians, while the rich go to specialty Concierge clinics. The doctor/patient ratio will only get worse.

• getting 'tough on crime'

Ruffled Senate feathers

Crime rates are, in fact, are lowering. Getting tough on crime has resulted in crowded prison systems, the training of criminals, rather than their rehabilitation. Offenders more comfortable within the criminal system, rather than in the community, contributing to society and getting help for their psychosocial issues and addictions or finding work. The stories you read about criminal breaking out, running, are those who are not rehabilitated, and are destroyed by the crowded system. My contacts, where I volunteered in the prison system, assure me this is so. Those close to being able to be reached; minor drug offences, fraud, girlfriends who get caught doing something for a boyfriend...these people learn how to be hard core in prison. I believe more in rehabilitation and facing consequences, giving back to the communities they have exploited. 

• cutting back on the civil service work force

Public servants fear layoffs amid Tory majority  More than 150,000 public servants working in Ottawa awoke Tuesday to a new Conservative majority government, and new anxieties about what that will mean for their jobs.

Westport
expensive cottages, playground of the rich

Conservative John Baird, the re-elected member for Ottawa West-Nepean, had said the Conservative government would trim $4 billion in annual federal program spending if elected. They say, through attrition, but I am not convinced. Every time they cut jobs, it isn't the expensive managers. It's the people who work on behalf of those who have no voice.

• The Conservatives also support the elimination of mandatory retirement requirements at federally regulated employers such as banks. 

They are changing mandatory retirement age. Without workers to pay taxes, we'll have to find new jobs. There are many who must work at low-paying jobs who do not have pensions and cannot afford to retire. 
Why does our Senate have highly-paid senators who retire at age 75, if this is their philosophy?

This house is beyond redemption!

Another Conservative issue: 

• 'Back off government' rural Canadian attitude

Without environmental and safety legislation, we risk the land and our people. There are those who say not to fear, that our Conservatives are no where near the US Tea Party attitude, but I beg to differ. I've seen it here in Lanark County.

We shall see what happens!

Ghosts from the Day - Part 2

In 1876, the Muskoka Milling and Lumber CO. built a village, with housing and a school for the millhand's children. There was a church, and the Rossin House Hotel for visitors (Brown, p. 91). All would have been well, except that while lumber barons were floating their logs down river, or across the bay, sawdust poisoned fish spawning grounds. They were taken to court, the case dismissed, and eventually, despite this early warning, portent of things to come, the mill shut down in 1895 due to over-cutting.

Environmental Issues

Land rights

Settlements, created by early settlers, who travelled from Paris and London, to the deep wilderness, learned to farm. Read Lost in the Backwoods  or  Book Review: Raisin Wine for more information. This is a common story for South, Central and Northern Ontario.  However, imagine the impact on the tribes who had hunted and gathered for many years in this area. (Photo from Pancake Bay Trading post!)

Overfishing

A royal commission in 1898 found that Georgian Bay fishermen were using undersized nets, and exceeding the number of permitted nets. They estimated that more than 2,000 nest were strung in the Bay. This combined with effluent pollution, created these ghost towns.





Excess hunting and fishing contributed to the ravaging of the land. Native Peoples knew not to take more than their share, but greedy companies (HBC & NWC) sent in map makers, and created outposts which exploited the land. Settlers, fishermen and lumber companies cleared the land, decimating the ecosystem.


Logging Operations
Communally owned land was being begged, bartered, treatied and stolen away. In the meantime, the logging business in this part of the Great Lakes ramped up big time. Unfortunately, it was the mills that did damage to precious fish stock. Fishing harbours were profoundly affected by the mills.This photo is from 2009, of Mamainse Harbour in the fog. A former busy fishing port.

There was much action from Tobermory, the Bruce Peninsula, across Georgian Bay and the North Channel. Our visit to Lake Superior Park showed us some of these quiet, empty ports. Saw mills cut logs for schooners to haul out to settlers in ports. In the winter, as with Muskoka, many worked cutting and hauling logs. This was the time when the bogs were frozen and logs were piled on riverbanks awaiting spring thaw. Log jams, and accidents took their toll on families.

These massive logging operations in Canadian territory did a booming business, if you'll excuse the pun, with the USA. There were issues with this sort of cross border shipping, and one lumberman moved his operation (in the dead of night) from the US to Canada since even in the 1800s big business was seeking to protect its own. Many began to take advantage of the great pines. Eventually, Canadians built mills.


At the peak of the White Pine harvest they were taking 400,000 trees a year. Trees that were 20' around the base. See History of Nepean for more information. Sir John A. McDonald wrote to the Premier of Ontario:

“The sight of the immense masses of timber passing my window every morning constantly suggests to my mind the absolute necessity there is for looking into the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada and there is scarcely
a possibility of replacing it.”



But the mills...and a spot called Muskoka Mills, takes its place in history and is an example of how lives were changed by development and settlement.

Milling in Georgian Bay peaked by the decade of 1910, rivalling that of Ottawa, but limited by the government dictate of 1898 legislation requiring that all timber cut on Crown Land by milled in Canada. Shaped by the West Wind quotes James Angus,  writing about A.G.P. Dodge, the owner of the Georgian Bay Lumber Company:

By then, once the mills were no longer viable, lands were sold to cottagers, who longed for the wildness and wilderness of Northern Ontario. Some mills have become heritage buildings, but many, according to *Vanished Villages, have simply gone to decay.

This is the harbour in Blind River, formerly a busy port, with fishing and logging, but now for seasonal visitors and leisure boat activities.


Resources

Ghosts from the Day -Part 1

Ontario Visual Heritage Project

*The book is called, Vanished Villages: Discover whistlestops, old mills, lost hamlets, relics and ruins of Ontario, by Ron Brown (1996)
~Some photos from Canada.ca archives, see History of Nepean.
~See also: Lament for a First Nation: the Williams treaties of Southern Ontario

 By Peggy J. Blair (Amazon.ca, $80)

~Artist Gallery: A.Y. Jackson Autumn, Muskosh River

~Shaped by the West Wind: Nature And History in Georgian Bay, by Claire Elizabeth Campbell - 2005 - History - 294 pages
The ghost of log-driver Sandy Gray haunts the falls on the Muskosh River, ...

Tugs towed log booms from rivers mouths on the Bay to American mills 

Snowmobile pollution

I first came across this concept when I happened to read Selling Muskoka by the Gallon, by Michael Enright. (As accessed 8/5/2006). Mr. Enright (not the The Sunday Edition host) wrote that a PWC, a 2-stroke engine, for every day spent on the lake (100L of fuel), dumps 30 L of gasoline in the lake through inefficient burning of fuel. He has gone on to write another piece about snowmobile pollution: The Well Groomed Trail. Curious, my research took me to Haliburton County Collection Highland Cooperative research paper list, which cites a number of research papers. Predicting the effects of snowmobiles [PDF] is another frightening study.

Aside from the pollution, due to noise and chemical environmental affects, subnivean mammals are also impacted. These are small mammals such as rodents, shrews, squirrels and voles that inhabit the sub layer of snow during cold months through underground tunneling and nesting. An ecosystem is a fragile thing. As humans encroach on habitat, we loose the diversity that makes Muskoka special.

After contact with a new author, regarding Carol 'A Woman's Way, I became curious about snowmobile pollution. I know that PWCs are terrible noise and gas polluters, I wasn't sure about snowmobiles. I know that the smell of gas, after they fly by, is horrible.  In one hour, a typical snowmobile emits as much hydrocarbon as a 2001 model auto emits in about two years (24,300 miles) of driving. 
 
Amongst my research findings...

• Two-stroke engines used in snowmobiles are sometimes the same engines used in personal water craft (PWC) like jet skis. 
• PWCs have modified air and exhaust systems to adapt for water use. 
• PWC seldom operate at temperatures below freezing (0° C) where snowmobiles typically operate at colder temperatures when all engines want to run rich.
• Colder temperatures favor the production of carbon monoxide and warmer temperatures favor the production of unburned hydrocarbons (HC).
• Two-stroke PWC engines dump 25 - 40% of uncombusted fuel in the lake, the air, or on the land
• Snowmobiles emit a number of pollutants, including aldehydes, 1,3-butadiene, benzene, nitrogen oxides, fluoranthene, pyrene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
  
• The best estimates available comparing snowmobile emissions to average automobile emissions conclude that a traditional snowmobile produces 10 to 70 times more CO and between 45 and 89 times more unburned HC than an average car (National Park Service, 2001 report on Impacts of Snowmobiles in National Parks.)
• Snowmobiling has been shown to have various impacts on water quality 
• Snowmobiling has an impact on aquatic ecosystems
• Pollution from two-stroke snowmobile engines affects small lakes more than large.
• Scientists studied crayfish finding that down stream had injested PCBs, DDT, DDE, PAHs
  
• Snowmobile trails on farm land similarly leave emissions behind
• Snowmobiles travelling over land transmit heat 5x's that of covered land.
• Frost penetration allows pollutants to sink as much as 60 cm exploiting frost depths
  
• A Quebec (1987) study found winter cereal crops affected by snowmobile pollution
  
• When unburned fuel from snowmobiles accumulates in the snow, it is released into the ecosystem, primarily during spring thaw. 
• Lubricating oil goes straight through an engine without being burned, expelled as part of exhuast.

As with Kyoto, and the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen 200, progress is slow and negligible. 
There is so much to do in Muskoka, aside from polluting.


Ethical Issues_with Snowmobiles [PDF]

The pollution from snowmobiles mostly consists of aromatic hydrocarbons, which are a class of chemicals that result from incomplete burning of oil, gas, wood, tobacco, garbage and other organic sources. PAHs are also emitted by inefficient wood furnaces, fireplaces, and leaf burning. The chemicals are of concern because they can affect health. The pollutants are linked to heart disease, breathing issues, and cancer.

The Pollution Prevention Information Center, Clean Snowmobiles: Background and Overview,
writes: On November 8, 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated regulations limiting air emissions from snowmobiles. These regulations required a 30% reduction in emissions beginning in 2006, with more stringent standards (requiring 50% reductions) effective in 2010 and 2012. The standards were challenged in court by both the snowmobile manufacturers and environmental groups and were vacated in part and remanded to EPA in part by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, June 1, 2004. EPA has not promulgated any standards for snowmobile noise.

Not all pollute as much as the old two-stroke engines, but old machines, like old cars, will likely be running a long time in this economic climate.

Area snowmobilers urged to be patient until more snow arrives ...

Anyone wanting to hit the trails and be green this year can climb aboard a more environmentally- conscious sled. The new Skidoo 600 H. O (high output) E-Tec is quieter and cleaner than your average snowmobile and "virtually smoke-free," according to Sean Ward, of St. Onge Recreation in Barrie.
The 120-horsepower sled uses the same technology that has been designed for boats requiring low emissions. "It's definitely better for the environment and it burns less fuel, so it's easier on the wallet," he said."We start it up in the showroom. We'd never do that with any other two-stroke."

  
In other international research: Pollution on Svalbard 
 And that slippery slope: do not take into account all machines, like Kyoto, you can buy your way out of caps through trade offs.

• The reduction is a fleet average for each manufacturer depending on the number and type of engines used each year. 
• The regulations have allowances for minor producers and special use (racing) snowmobiles. 
• These cleaner, quieter snowmobiles have reduced audible noise by about half, reduced CO and HC by more than 80 percent, as measured using the EPA 5-mode emissions test protocol. 
  

If only the noise would stop!



 Further reading... 

1. ET 10/02: Pollution reductions from off-road vehicles ... The final standards snowmobiles are particularly troubling because they fail  
   
2. Animated Engines, Two Stroke Animated illustration and description of the two stroke engine 
3. The Story of Smog Get rid of your gas-powered devices: Lawn mowers, chain saws and pretty much anything that runs on a two-stroke engine ...

Buildings of Muskoka

As promised, here are my drive-by shootings of Muskoka buildings. Despite the myths, they are as varied as any city, much more so with cottages, lakes, farms, as well as thriving infrastructure. The first music*, to accompany the cottages: "Pulling on a Line", by Great lake Swimmers. The second piece: "Stone Town", by David Francey.

My YouTube video, which consists entirely of my personal photos,  celebrates both nature, and human kind, who must learn to live on spaceship earth. We can lessen our ecological footprint. Our grandchildren demand it.



This is a bow in honour to the artists and musicians who tell the story of the world around them in creative ways. Combining music and artist, with advocacy that we lesser mortals cannot hope to achieve.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) U.S. humorist, writer, and lecturer.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and lecturer.

Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) American black leader.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) British politician and author.

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-Swiss-U.S. scientist.

Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.

Plato (BC 427-BC 347) Greek philosopher.

 

* Music credits:

Great Lake Swimmers A Toronto band: check them out on YouTube. Tony Dekker take part in a Tennessee Riverkeeper PSA. Become aware of what is happening to our water systems and water ways, and get involved. 

David Francey  an outstanding Ontario songwriter and storyteller. "Seaway" is a lovely collection of songs by master songwriters, David Francey and Mike Ford - inspired by a voyage on the M.S. Algoville.

We are all connected to the earth

We depend upon tourism, and these issues (the environment, environmental protection, invasive species, pollution, land, forest and water management) are crucial to our economy. That said, I was shocked to read in our paper that the Muskoka Landowners Association, originally in the news to protest a recent attempt at forestry and logging control by the District of Muskoka Lakes instituting new tree-cutting by-law, shut down snowmobile trails last winter. They have now promised to band together to protest wetland and environmental land management policies.
Two pieces in The Gravenhurst Banner, concerned me: the 1st is an article, the 2nd an editorial:

1. Petition threatens more trail closures
After successfully quashing Muskoka’s tree-cutting bylaw, the Muskoka Landowners Association (MLA) is now taking aim at other government policies. 

I wonder how they can presume to intervene, undermining all stakeholders in our region?  I realized they cannot. Thank goodness that our politicians remember that this is a lobby group: they do not represent the taxpayers, residents, and, most importantly, the flora and fauna of our region. There must be balance, and a plan for our grandchildren who will inherit this earth. Our politicians must ensure that policies and by-laws protect Muskoka and Muskokans in the long-term.

2. Protecting now to ensure the future

The Muskoka Landowners Association’s latest petition, which threatens to close snowmobile trails again this winter if specific policies are not removed from the District of Muskoka’s Official Plan, demonstrates yet again the ignorance of this organization when it comes to planning matters affecting the environment.

I fear for our land, and for the children who will inherit the earth. Small things warm my heart about My Muskoka: other issues scare me. I saw Fish Jumping - in September. They are still jumping. But nothing like this. The video below comes from another scary story -coming from Lake Michigan's lake stewards: Invasive Species experts. Asian Carp, Invasive Species, May Be In Lake Michigan‎ -
Federal officials are reporting that the Asian carp may have gotten past a electric barrier meant to prevent the invasive species from entering the Lake


These fish escaped in the late 90's from fish farms which overflowed in heavy rainy seasons. These fish are much like zebra mussles, who can take over a habitat and ecosystem, with few predators, and a voracious appetite. Ugly critters, see the photo on cbc.ca.


They have begun to invade the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal, up through the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Inasive species experts there have installed an electric barrier to keep the Silver and Big Head Carp out of Lake Michigan, and out of the Great Lakes.The electronic barrier is not working. Experts collect water samples, and knowing that 'fish pee in their pond', they analyse it for specific fish DNA. Indeed, the huge carp have dropped their cookies there. Now, pond carp, similar to a tropical goldfish, have been used in Ontario for years. They are cute, eat, phytoplankton, and clean up the small or large pond. But this critter is ferocious. It is the piranha of the carp world. They can grow to be 4' and 50- 110lbs., and eat 40% of their body weight in a day. Plans are underway to take further steps: dump Rotenone into the area to kill the fish. Now, Rotenone, a pesticide, kills brain cells in rats and triggers debilitating physical symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease. The fish in the area tend to be this Asian carp, goldfish (like mine, above), gizzard shad - non-sport fish. And, experts say, this chemical dissipates quickly on its own. But, to accelerate that process, a neutralizing agent known as potassium permanganate will be used following the application. What are they thinking? They find that the fish cannot be caught through sport fishing, won't take a lure, says one comment on cbc.ca.

Electrofishing for Silver Carp on the Mississippi River near Grafton, IL.