Off To Ontario Tomorrow...

This will be my last post from Victoria. VERY early tomorrow I am off to the lovely city of Toronto. Woo hoo. My yearly pilgrimage to Ontario - The Mecca Of Stupidity - is a result of my parents. I don't BLAME them for me going there, I just wish they would've moved to Mexico. Seriously though, it's always nice to see family - and snow. Besides the usual fun of packing, setting my alarm clock fifteen times so I get up - the flight is at 0700 - and last minute Christmas shopping, I also get the added bonus of doing last minute shopping in the overcrowded malls. Why? To prevent myself from having to do it in Toronto, of course.

I will, of course, post here while out in the Big Smoke. Speaking of that:

"Liberal Leader Paul Martin was out pursuing the rural vote in Southwestern Ontario on Tuesday, offering to help farmers market their products around the world, and a new renewable fuels standard.

Speaking on a family farm in North Buxton, Ont., a tiny community 75 kilometres east of Windsor, Martin said the Liberals would introduce a national fuels standard that would call for gasoline and diesel fuel to be a mix of five per cent biofuel, such as ethanol."

from this article.

This seems like a great idea. NOT. First off, Canada already has at least one private company, Mohawk, that does this. I'm not at all in favour of the government "forcing" a new fuel standard on an industry. Who is going to build the ethanol plants? They are, last I checked, VERY expensive both to build and run. So is the federal government going to force private industry to build ethanol refineries? Or will they build them as a national mega-project, where they will no doubt all be built in Ontario and Quebec and use Alberta natural gas to make the ethanol?

While I think the idea of reduced emissions is a good one, why not just tell the industry that they have to reduce average gasoline emissions by five percent? I'm sure through better refining techniques that could be much more affordably realized. If this is an environmental goal, I think the liberals need to realize that it's not a perfect solution. Click on this link and scroll down to some of the environmental reasons why.

Government should NOT be in the business of deciding how fuel is made, period. Especially considering how sensitive inter-governmental relations have been vis a vis the Petroleum industry, perhaps a simple emissions limit is in order. Why doesn't the federal government take "The One Tonne Challenge" and stop blowing so much hot air! From the same CBC article it was noted that:

"Much of what Martin discussed on Tuesday has already been implemented or at least introduced."

Wow. Another ground breaking announcement. Thanks Paul.

To that end, I'd like to thank Jack Layton for this lovely soundbite, which made me laugh out loud:

"The Liberals are a Toronto version of a Seinfeld show: a caucus about nothing, and that does nothing,"

That made me laugh for two reasons: First, because of the nothing comment. Secondly, for it's Torontocentric view. Doesn't this apply to all of Canada Mr. Layton? I guess he made his point and his wheels didn't fall off.

You had to know this was coming! In other related news (hinted at in the top picture) Paul Martin encountered some problems on the campaign trail recently. Click here to find out why.

Suffice it to say - That was my laugh of the week.

Merry Christmas All - talk to you from Ontariooo.

PS - What is going on with messenger? Is it just me?