It’s going to be an interesting election if we laid out a case like this to Canadians. There are plenty more than these cases against The Harper Government™… add yours below.

It’s going to be an interesting election if we laid out a case like this to Canadians. There are plenty more than these cases against The Harper Government™… add yours below.

“This is not the time for an election,” he said. “Our economy is still fragile and recovering.”-Stephen Harper  Nope. Sorry Steve. The economy does whatever it wants to do, despite elections.  Source data: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:CAN&dl=en&hl=en&q=canadian+gdp+graph (hat tip to @c_9)

“This is not the time for an election,” he said. “Our economy is still fragile and recovering.”
-Stephen Harper 

Nope. Sorry Steve. The economy does whatever it wants to do, despite elections. 

Source data: http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:CAN&dl=en&hl=en&q=canadian+gdp+graph

(hat tip to @c_9)

When I first saw the address of the latest Harper Conservative political attack site (http://www.ignatieffselection.com), I thought this. If Loblaws had this on the shelf, I’d definitely buy it.

When I first saw the address of the latest Harper Conservative political attack site (http://www.ignatieffselection.com), I thought this. If Loblaws had this on the shelf, I’d definitely buy it.

The Jason Kenney Award for Questionable but Vote Buying Excellence™

It was made aware to me today that back in 2009, Jason Kenney, Minister for Ethnic Exploitation in the Harper Government, awarded Yang Sheng Restaurant an “Award for Excellence” for “creating an authentic multicultural dining experience”. For starters, any Chinese restaurant that serves chicken balls in its menu is hardly, in my opinion, authentic. And furthermore, the award is totally ridiculous, offensive, and a total abuse of Kenney’s Ministerial office by including the Conservative logo in the background. Gotta love their graphic skillz as well.

Want to receive your very own Jason Kenney Award for Questionable but Vote Buying Excellence™? I’ve uploaded a PSD file for your awarding pleasure, and would love to see who else deserves this fine honour. 

PSD File on CloudApp: http://cl.ly/143o3k2y0s3H1u2x1W2m

[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

In these uncertain economic times, babies could be a source of food. Is it wise to eat them? Let’s ask Stephen Harper.

One more analysis with the maps. Isolating just the areas of Toronto that would be no longer be within a five-minute walk of late evening TTC service, should the proposed cuts proceed, then taking the sum of the proportion of all the census zones these areas intersect with, I get a decent approximation of how many people would actually no longer have late evening TTC service. That number? 160,000 Is this major? Roughly 1 in 15 Torontonians may be losing late evening TTC service. That’s pretty major to me. The commission meeting to decide on these cuts is February 2nd.

One more analysis with the maps. Isolating just the areas of Toronto that would be no longer be within a five-minute walk of late evening TTC service, should the proposed cuts proceed, then taking the sum of the proportion of all the census zones these areas intersect with, I get a decent approximation of how many people would actually no longer have late evening TTC service.

That number?

160,000

Is this major? Roughly 1 in 15 Torontonians may be losing late evening TTC service. That’s pretty major to me. The commission meeting to decide on these cuts is February 2nd.

It took me awhile to do this, but it actually changes my opinion a bit on the proposed route cuts during the late evening currently proposed by the TTC. Admittedly, the first map was very crudely put together on the whim - I had an old MapInfo table from 1999 - and many of the branches (even routes) in that table no longer exist. So all I could do is select entire routes that would be affected by the proposed cuts, and not show what the actual impact may be. However, after getting an updated map file for the current route network, I was able to do a better analysis, the results of which is the map above. Clearly, several areas of the city will be significantly impacted by the cuts, but in general, most people will still be within a 450-metre (five minute) walk of a TTC route in the late evening.  This goes back to what I mentioned before: the conflict between financial and service standards. The RGS-related ‘service on all routes until subway closes’ service standard made sense, but might not make financial sense when routes overlap as closely as some do. A suggestion for compromise, therefore, would be to change the service standard to ensure all Torontonians are within a 450-metre walk of late evening bus service. Thoughts?

It took me awhile to do this, but it actually changes my opinion a bit on the proposed route cuts during the late evening currently proposed by the TTC. Admittedly, the first map was very crudely put together on the whim - I had an old MapInfo table from 1999 - and many of the branches (even routes) in that table no longer exist. So all I could do is select entire routes that would be affected by the proposed cuts, and not show what the actual impact may be.

However, after getting an updated map file for the current route network, I was able to do a better analysis, the results of which is the map above. Clearly, several areas of the city will be significantly impacted by the cuts, but in general, most people will still be within a 450-metre (five minute) walk of a TTC route in the late evening. 

This goes back to what I mentioned before: the conflict between financial and service standards. The RGS-related ‘service on all routes until subway closes’ service standard made sense, but might not make financial sense when routes overlap as closely as some do. A suggestion for compromise, therefore, would be to change the service standard to ensure all Torontonians are within a 450-metre walk of late evening bus service.

Thoughts?

Today, Rob Ford announced that TTC staff have recommended a 10-cent fare increase, effective February. First of all, I believe that this is smoke-and-mirrors to create an issue that is emotionally charged and will receive the bulk share of media coverage in order to hide the fact that he will be substantially raising other user fees, despite his mantra of “no tax increases”. I’m predicting that come the end of January, there will be a splashy news conference, titled “Respect for Taxpaying TTC Riders”, where Ford will proudly hail that he had slayed the fare increase. What is more worrying, however, is that TTC is planning on cutting back service on many routes. While it is true that many of these routes carry ridership below TTC’s financial standards, these services have been provided to achieve a basic service standard: bus routes will run when the subway is running. The map above (with a somewhat dated route structure, I need a more updated TTC route MapInfo file!) highlights all the routes that will be seeing service span reductions - that is, service will be cut outside of peak periods, mainly in the early and late evenings. The removal of such service is disconcerting - Toronto is becoming an increasingly 24-hour city, with a large proportion of taxpaying shift workers that depend on transit in odd hours. Removing service in these periods impact them the most: a worker may no longer have a way to work. How’s that for a major service cut, Mayor Ford?

Today, Rob Ford announced that TTC staff have recommended a 10-cent fare increase, effective February. First of all, I believe that this is smoke-and-mirrors to create an issue that is emotionally charged and will receive the bulk share of media coverage in order to hide the fact that he will be substantially raising other user fees, despite his mantra of “no tax increases”. I’m predicting that come the end of January, there will be a splashy news conference, titled “Respect for Taxpaying TTC Riders”, where Ford will proudly hail that he had slayed the fare increase.

What is more worrying, however, is that TTC is planning on cutting back service on many routes. While it is true that many of these routes carry ridership below TTC’s financial standards, these services have been provided to achieve a basic service standard: bus routes will run when the subway is running. The map above (with a somewhat dated route structure, I need a more updated TTC route MapInfo file!) highlights all the routes that will be seeing service span reductions - that is, service will be cut outside of peak periods, mainly in the early and late evenings. The removal of such service is disconcerting - Toronto is becoming an increasingly 24-hour city, with a large proportion of taxpaying shift workers that depend on transit in odd hours. Removing service in these periods impact them the most: a worker may no longer have a way to work. How’s that for a major service cut, Mayor Ford?

What to do with King and Queen?: Some Options