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Solving a bunch of problems with one test

MPI should be doing mandatory retesting of the entire population every 10 years.  This solves a bunch of problems with one fell stroke. I recently filled out a survey for MPI where I gave them my opinion on the matter: Starting as soon as possible, we could ease into this new strategy by rolling it out on a small scale through a lottery.  100x drivers' names should be drawn from a lottery to be subjected to a written test this year.  Those who fail should be forced to redo their driving test.  Those who fail have their licence suspended and are mandated X hours of driving instruction with a qualified instructor.  The next year, same thing (having removed the names who were subjected to testing): 100x drivers up for re-testing. This lottery strategy should continue as capacity is built into the driver testing system to allow for the entire population (not merely a draw) to be subjected to this mandatory resting rubric on a 10-year cycle. Or maybe once the entire ...
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Ecological disaster through data centres nobody even wants

Glitchy products that never do what they say are bad enough, and then they add genocide into the mix. But what real options are there to Microsoft? Another (adapted) form letter from Stand for earth. Write your own here You’ve trapped us all into being forced to use MS for word processing since you simply drove all the competition out of the marketplace with injust business practices. The least you can do it not lie to us about your supposed commitments to green energy sourcing.  I was disgusted to hear Microsoft struck a 20 year deal with Chevron to supply massive amounts of polluting methane gas for a data centre in Texas. Microsoft used to pretend to have climate commitments by setting goals far off in the future so you could keep kicking the can down the road and never meeting them. But now you're not even pretending to try, Now it’s pursuit of ecological disaster through unnecessary AI data centres nobody even wants to use.  I’m asking: please start listening to the commu...

No more public money for LNG

It’s just so ludicrous that we’d be sending any public money to fossil fuel extraction. It doesn’t even make financial sense with major Asian markets ramping up solar and wind. And that's beyond the known climate change consequences of continued extraction.   So, another adapted form letter, thanks to Stand for earth.  Write your own here I am writing to urge you to reject any investment, financing, or de-risking of new LNG projects in Canada. I am sick and tired of public money flowing to subsidize fossil fuel extraction.  It does not benefit ordinary Canadians.  It is known to contribute to global warming – the effects of which we are already feeling with a huge increase in disastrous climate events which are costly and harmful. It doesn’t even make financial sense because the market is drying up. The rest of the world is smart enough to switch to renewables.  You are continuing to dehumanize Indigenous peoples by running roughshod over their territory a...

Build Canada strong but small

Am I a lunatic? Probably. Naive? Certainly. Hopeful? One must be else one will despair.  After reading this news story below (yes, I'm behind on all the tabs I've opened), I just couldn't help but feel the need to write to the Prime Minister and Minister of Housing to plead that some of the billions they're so eager to drop on housing be spent on organizations like this which will actually improve the homelessness epidemic, instead of all just funding developers and speculators (some of whom are genuinely trying to do a good thing while making money, others of whom are just profiteering).  https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/04/30/business-councils-new-housing-alliance-partners-complete-first-deeply-affordable-project Previously, Raising the Roof bought and helped develop Butterfly Lodge, taking an abandoned nail salon on Mountain Avenue and turning it into three affordable housing units, including two large three-bedroom suites for Indigenous families, ...

Winnipeg Transit woes

  “We’ve increased support for municipalities year after year because we know strong communities depend on reliable, stable and predictable funding increases,” Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard said in an emailed statement to the Free Press Tuesday. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/23/winnipeg-transit-needs-funding-boost-additional-staff-to-follow-new-provincial-accessibility-regulations-city-report This in answer to City of Winnipeg chair of Public Works Janice Lukes plea for the province to cough up money for the needed upgrades. Listen carefully because these are words I won't often say: I gotta agree with Lukes on this one. If the province is handing down new standards, given their higher capacity for raising revenues, they ought to help the city fund meeting said standards. What Simard fails to acknowledge is that those "year after year" funding increases started at the bottom basement after Conservative cuts and likely h...

more journalistic malpractice from Canada's national broadcaster

The government has just rammed through legislation to turn Canada into a police surveillance state where all the democratic and processed based guard-rails have been removed.  They used some legislative loophole to force a vote on amendments without debate at a committee meeting at midnight. But this is what the front page of our national broadcaster's news site looks like. Do you see any mention of Bill C-22? Do you see any word of a midnight SECU session with a forced vote? Do you see any mention of MPs in tears at how democracy is being shredded before their very eyes? Do you see anything removing about all legal protections against having your data intercepted, read and kept on file (in a word of hackers and data breaches)? Do you see anything about how experts in Australia (who have already gone partway down the path Canada has just widened, flatted, and turned into a racetrack) are warning Canadians not to do this? No. The CBC is spineless. Just a mouthpiece for whoever wield...

Carney's sound check

 The Liberals are advertising a summer survey. Let me Mr Carney know what you think! Of course, the multiple choice questions force you to give the answers Carney wants to hear, but fortunately, there's an open box for further comment at the end with a 2500 character limit.  I don't have all day to spend on this so it's a slightly in coherent rant, but I can't let this man think everything is fine while he turns this country into a totalitarian surveillance police state whose only industry is war-making.  https://action.liberal.ca/a-summer-sound-check/ Here's what I think, Mr Carney.  The things that "stand out" the most for me are the things that horrify the most. Every single thing Carney has done or championed since April 2025 is awful for ordinary Canadians (only good for Carney's investment portfolio). You can shove your AI. Yes, Canadians need protection from AI but your disgraced grifter of a "AI minister" is the last person to do that...