Turbines For T.O.

Sunwincor International and our partners are actively engaged in planning and developing an exciting and ecologically balanced wind farm. The Leslie Wind Farm will be located on the Outer Harbour East Headland at the base of Leslie Street adjacent to Toronto, Ontario

With the help of the government of Ontario and as directed by the Green Energy Act it is our desire to begin a meaningful conversation with the local community to gain early support for this project.

Well, good luck with that:

From here.

I am a supporter of wind power, and wind power along the shores of Lake Ontario, because of course that's where the wind is.  I am not, however, confident that the provincial government has the stones to stand before the forces of NIMBYism that this project will unleash.  Rob Ford will add it to his list of things to demagogue, and Tim Hudak will see it as a another way to crack the OLP's Toronto Fortress.  On the SunWinCor site they say that the project "will be a tremendous way of showcasing Toronto as a willing host of sustainable, responsible Green Energy".  I wonder if the people of T.O. are up to that challenge.

What's Bugging The Great Lakes?

GLEAM, the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project, has a series of interactive maps of Great Lake Stressors.  I've included a couple related to Global Warming:

Water Level Change

Water Temperature Warming

Decreased Ice Cover

As you can see, T.O. and surrounding gets off pretty easy in regards to climate-change-related stressors, although it is located in one of the parts of the lakes under greatest stress when all issues are taken into consideration.  Our particular problems seem to mostly involve toxins.

Save Toronto Olivia Chow!

Olivia, or John Tory.  Center-left or center-right. I don't care.

Someone please just send the clown away.

Some Numbers

Government spending per capita, Toronto: $24,000.
Government spending per capita,  Attawapiskat: 11,355.

That is all.

Toronto Coyotes

I've actually seen one, about six or seven years ago, like a scrawny gray dog travelling parallel to the rail-tracks that cross Don Mills South of Ellesmere. All I've read indicates they are pretty much impossible to exterminate when you've got 'em. They're like roaches; if you've see one, that means there's more around (as today's TO Star story points out). They lair around warehouses and industrial buildings where there isn't a lot of human traffic, and come out to eat from dumpsters and other sources of human garbage. Sarnia has been having problems recently, and the West End has had coyote issues for over a decade now, with the occasional tabby becoming lunch.

This piece suggests that urban coyote populations may be underestimated by a factor of 10.

Alberta To Ontario: Freeze In The Dark!

There is seldom any point to taking issue with a columnist from the Sun Chain, especially one of their girl writers, who seem to be chosen for their ability to foam up cutely rather than reason at any length or use words of more than a single syllable. It's too much like trying to review a bubble-gum card or being a heckler at the Special Olympics. However, the Calgary Sun's Licia Corbella has decided to take a few gratuitous shots at my beloved Toronto in her Friday column, and I could not let that stand.

Licia writes:

Ontario Liberals are burning mad over the gasoline shortage in Toronto and across the province. Dan McTeague, Liberal MP for Pickering-Scarborough East, blamed the gasoline shortage on "Big Oil."

We had 44 refineries in Canada 20 years ago and we now have exactly 13, and two or three of them are either running offline or have very little capacity," McTeague complained to reporters.

Uh, but isn't that precisely what Liberals want? Aren't less refineries, less oil-sands development, higher gasoline prices and more Canadians riding public transit the Liberal plan?

Yes. That's exactly what the Liberals, and therefore, by definition, most Torontonians, say they want. It's also what the Green Party and NDP advocate.

Actually, what Torontonians want is:

1) What the mayor of Fort MacMurray wants, which is the development of the tar sands according to a plan that does not allow unchecked growth to trash the Alberta landscape or allow tons upon tons of of CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere. Surely the mayor is not alone among Albertans in wanting these things?

2) More and better public transit. Licia gets that one correct. We Torontonians do tend to approve of public transit. But what does Licia have against public transit? Does she think it unmanly to not own a pickup truck?

3) As for higher gas prices, thanks but we already have those.

Ms. Corbella goes on to blame Health, Safety, and Environmental standards that are just too damn high for the fact that Canada has so few gas refineries on-line these days. I wonder, since she is happy to ascribe beliefs to literally millions of people on the basis of statements by a single Ontario MP, whether it is safe to say that Albertans, or maybe Conservatives, are in favor of lower health and safety standards. If so, they should make it a part of their next election platform.

Anyway, Corbella winds up with:

In any event, many Albertans who fear Ontarians will vote Dion into power and thus destroy their economic security again, as they did when the National Energy Program was imposed upon the oil industry in Alberta, are enjoying watching Torontonians line up for gas.

"To quote Ralph Klein, 'Let them freeze in the dark,' " wrote one reader.

As a Torontonian, let me say that I'm glad we're providing Alberta with entertainment. Of course out here in the East it is considered pretty tasteless to get a kick out of the misfortune of others, no matter what their politics might be, but I suppose that must be put down to cultural differences.

And, oh yes, one other important cultural difference between Toronto and, for example, Calgary, is that out here we make it so that our roads go both ways.

When Calgarians have figured out the concept of a two-way street, they can call us and we'll be happy to explain the more complicated stuff, like Opera.