License to kill

After reading the Star’s story on people caught driving more than 50 kilometres over the speed limit, who are shocked to find they face actual consequences: “I certainly would not have been doing 50 over if I knew this was going to happen to me,” “Look, I was speeding,” […]”I expected a ticket, and thencontinue reading

Boil, boil, toil and well, who knows

The unfortunate language of market madness combines “bubble” and “peak”. If a bubble is about to burst, though, wouldn’t it be “reaching its widest circumference,” or something along those lines? (No geometry critiques, please — it’s the reason I hated high school math.) So with the C$, which definitely deserves the petrodollar nomiker again, atcontinue reading

Wine update

Farnese and Citra have both released the 2006 vintages of their inexpensive $7-and-change Sangiovese wines. We didn’t take notes on either of them (not that kind of wine…) but they both actually strike me as kind of similar: ripe, good fruit, noticeable body, both great value for money. I am not sure whether it iscontinue reading

Better without Zucker

One of the first things we did in setting up our calendar for Ottawa to get season’s tickets for the National Arts Centre Orchestra. I used to go with my Mom ages and ages ago when I was in high school, and my parents now share two tickets with another couple down the street (usuallycontinue reading

Right back where we started from

Economic and Fiscal Update November, 2005: – Decrease lowest tax rate from 16% to 15%, retroactive to January 1, 2005 – Increase basic personal amount over 3 years to reach $10,000 in 2009 Economic and Fiscal Update October, 2007: – Decrease lowest tax rate to 15% from 15.5%, retroactive to January 1, 2007 – Increasecontinue reading

Everything’s (sort of) fine (for now)

RBC Royal Bank is feeling so confident about the Canadian economy that it thought it would hold a press conference to share its sunny outlook yesterday. According to Jim Westlake: “If the U.S. economy settles down and they get the types of growth that are forecasted right now, and you don’t see any more secondary effect,continue reading

Parks Canada encourages geocaching

Pretty cool, even if they are controlling it a bit: Parks Canada caches are located in publicly accessible areas and are accessible from trails and/or roads. Instead of containing trade items, caches contain messages that reveal interesting often unknown aspects of the area where they are located. Parks Canada aims to encourage geocachers to sharecontinue reading

Tiny bubbles

– Am I the only person who is baffled by the parity protests? What is it that makes Joe 2-4 think that Canadian prices should be identical to those in another country, with a different size, different transportation costs, and different labour laws? And why is Flaherty grandstanding on this issue, pressuring retailers, who havecontinue reading

Is the blond hegemony crumbling?

As Toronto has grown, the share of Toronto-born-and-bred residents of the city is ever smaller. As part of that diminishing minority, I’ve noticed that many people who move to the city later in life are blissfully ignorant of the significance of being from one part of the city or another. Overall, this is a goodcontinue reading