Politics, Politics, Sinks and Good Times

We just finished the Municipal elections. Hi-Tech millionaire Larry O’Brien won a landslide victory with 47% of the vote, against former city councilor Alex Munter (36%) and incumbent mayor Bob Chiarelli (15%). In my opinion Chiarelli lost because he attempted to ram his ideas for Light Rail down our throats. It started with the O-Train, which was a trial. Having fallen below the minimum ridership targets, city hall declared it a success. The plans for Light Rail focused on a north-south route, even though most commuters go east-west. Rather than diesel, electric trains where chosen, though curiously enough none of the drawings presented by city hall had ugly overhead wires draped all over the city. When taxpayers asked for details of the bids and details of the final contract with the chosen bidder, we were told that the contract was secret and the bidder would not allow the details to be made public. Then Chiarelli’s plans fell apart when the Federal Government said they wanted to review the contract before giving over their $200 million contribution. And then came the election. I think Light Rail is a good idea, and hopefully this time we’ll get a chance to do it right.

Garth Turner, political maverick and gadfly, said he was going to have a press conference today in which he would make some disturbing revelations. He said a lot of people wouldn’t be happy with him after today. And in the end he announced almost nothing. He did a great job of hyping his press conference, but nobody will ever listen to him again.

Our kitchen sink was plugged. I was going to call a plumber, but decided to try to fix it myself. I partially disassembled the plumbing, removed 4 popsicle sticks from the drain, put it back together and tested it to make sure there were no leaks. Success! Incidentally, the children are now forbidden to place half eaten popsicles in the kitchen sink.

It’s too soon to say the good times have returned in Kanata’s hi-tech community, but things are definitely getting better. We began to see evidence when they started putting light bulbs in the fixtures again. Then we heard hi-tech employment is back to the levels we were at when the bubble burst. Today we got some new flat panel monitors (replacing a lot of old junk) and some new coffee machines at work that grind beans and make coffee, espresso, cappuccino, and hot chocolate.