Harry Shannon
A few weeks ago we had an ice/snow storm - the sort of conditions that cause an ice build-up on tree branches or utility lines that can bring them down. And sure enough we lost power for several hours, from mid-morning to early evening. There were several other outages in the region. I read via my cell phone that one of them wa…
The inefficiency of the private sector
Harry Shannon
A few years ago, my wife and I spent nine months in the
UK. Before we came from Canada, we had
to start a bank account to transfer some money to make a deposit ahead of our
arrival for our rental house. We tried
various banks; the only one that accommodated us was Lloyds.
We set up the sterling (pounds) accou…
United Nations vote on Palestinians’ right of self-determination
Harry Shannon
Here's a letter I wrote to my member of Parliament, Filomena Tassi. I copied it to François-Philippe Champagne, the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
Dear Ms. Tassi,Firstly, congratulations on your re-election, and your appointment as Minister of Labour. My main reason for writing is tha…
The value of public transit
Harry Shannon
Some years ago, even before traffic was as bad as it is today, I had to get into Toronto from the Hamilton area. There was a problem on the GO (commuter) train line, so I drove. But so did many of the people who normally took the train.Stuck in traffic, I did some simple mental arithmetic. At the time, there were three …
Data on Pit Bulls
Harry Shannon
Another letter to the Toronto Star which wasn't published. But they did print others that made the same point, and more.
Background: a few years ago, the Ontario's Liberal government enacted a ban on pit bulls. There's now a Conservative government, and one of their MPPs (MPP = Member of Provincial Parliament) has introduced …
Questions for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney
Harry Shannon
My letter to the Toronto Star - which wasn't published.
Background: The Canadian federal election in late October left Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a minority government. They won no seats in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Alberta is much larger in population, and the recently elected premier Jason …
Canada’s election: Andrew Scheer’s big mistake and how votes and seats don’t necessarily match
Harry Shannon
If you believe the latest projections, the Liberals will get the most seats in the next Canadian Parliament. The excellent website 338Canada.com has the Conservatives slightly ahead in the popular vote, but getting only 123 seats compared with 137 for the Liberals. Still not the 170 needed for a majority, though. It seems th…
Utopia for Realists
Harry Shannon
One of the most interesting books I’ve read lately is Utopia for Realists by the Dutch writer
Rutger Bregman. I’m not going to give
you a long review or description; just enough, I hope, to get you to read it.
Depending on where you look, the subtitles are
different. The one that gives away the
big themes of the…
News Flash! Province to remove number ‘13’ from crossing countdowns.
Harry Shannon
Premier Doug Ford today announced what he called ‘a new
world-leading safety measure.’ In a
first, Ontario will in future not allow the number ‘13’ on traffic
signals. Currently, when traffic lights
show pedestrians how long they have before the lights will change, ‘13’ appears
if the countdown is longer th…
FAANGs or …?
Harry Shannon
A couple of weeks ago the Toronto Star had a story on the big tech companies Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. The headline used an acronym to write: “Tech giants’ FAANGs sink teeth into our wallets.” (They also mentioned Microsoft, but I guess the acronym wouldn’t have worked.)
The story quoted a Univer…