As you may or may not be aware Tuesday, May 16, 2006 is Census Day. The main function of the Census to collect basic population information, details on the lives of Canadians (Health and Welfare - Living with Disabilities and special needs of Canadians), Education, and Sociocultural data (Citizenship data, Language, demographics, electoral planning). By law, your information is kept secure and confidential. The Government does these periodically to keep their data up to date so that policy and services can adequately serve the communities we live in. Not bad. So why are some people are not to keen on this year’s Census?

Statistics Canada outsourced hardware, software and printing services needed for the census to Lockheed Martin Canada, IBM Canada and Transcontinental Printing Canada. Stats Can claim none of the contractors will be involved in collecting or handling census responses. The HOT issue here is WHY aren’t Canadians getting the job done and more Canadian Companies (not just Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. Companies) getting these contracts.

Lockheed Martin (Canada) inherits their scanning technology from the US Parent, Lockheed Martin, who first developed census software for the 2000 U.S. Census. Gee how well did the next election go after that…
IBM is handling the online portion of the Census. With their record on dealing (selling off) sensitive Census data has others up in arms as well.
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Good to hear that GTA musicians Stephen Page (Barenaked Ladies) and Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) are among the Canadian Artist speaking with politicians on the topic of copyright. I agree with their stand point that U.S. style “crackdowns” and litigation are not necessary here. Of course artists should be supported and their work, be it film, video, music etc, should be compensated if it is “consumed”. Sagging corporate profits and artist mis-management shouldn’t be masked over or recouped with the “copyright” issue.

In the U.S.there have been much publicized cases of attacks on kids and young fans under the guise of protecting artists copyrights. The biggest error is this has gone forward without recognizing the fact that digital media is here to stay and that much of the current media is priced out of reach (hence the internet “black market” now growing with broadband to include movies). It’s worth noting iTunes even fought to freeze their prices despite record company greed to charge more!
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A friend as me to check out the CLOTHING SHOW at the Exhibiton this weekend. Wasn’t sure what to expect but I’d definitley check it out again next year.

It wasn’t all girly or . There was a healthy selection styles for anyone: urban, punk, skate or goth to practical. You could even find familiar names/brands but that would kind of defeat the purpose of going. The best part of the show, and what I was pleasantly surprised by, were the local artists signature designs. Two that stood out were like Sick on Sin and Playdead who bring new life to old favourites like t-shirts, buttons even suits. Admission was a bit pricey ($8) but a lot of vendors had enough bargins and goodness to lessen the pain.

All in all a worthwile scene… If you missed it there’s always next year…

I wonder how many readers caught a hold off this last week? Go transit has profusely apologized for the incident since but makes you wonder how vulnerable most of these electronic displays are and whether or not there is any security on them at all, especially in places such as Yonge and Dundas square.

Gerry Nicholls thought he was hallucinating as he kicked back in his seat to take the 35-minute GO train ride to his Oakville home.

About every three seconds, the scrolling electronic sign that usually carries transit updates and advertisements had a very different message that he just could not keep his eyes off.

“Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies. Stephen Harper Eats Babies,” the message kept repeating.

“No one (in the car) seemed to be reacting to it,” said Nicholls, who happens to be vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, the same conservative think-tank formerly headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “You go home and you are trying to rest from work and all of a sudden where they usually talk about Ticketmaster, all of a sudden you see this thing say `Stephen Harper Eats Babies. I wasn’t even sure when I got off the train. Was I hallucinating?” Turns out he wasn’t.

An ingenious hacker, who boarded the Lakeshore GO Transit westbound train, made sure that on Thursday, Friday and yesterday, suburban commuters in at least five different cars continued to get his or her subliminal message…

Toronto MP and current Liberal Leader Bill Graham said “Why didn’t the prime minister tell the country in his campaign that one of his five priorities would be raising income tax for the poorest of Canadians?”. Harsh? The lame duck Liberals my be right this time around. Sad that the Canadian Conservatives are taking a sorry jab at “trickle down” US style Reagan-omics. Can’t quite agree with the short term gains tax cuts since they don’t pay off in the long run. Face it most people will spend their “extra” money (which of course was theirs in the first place) on luxuries. That means even less investment in Transit Infrastructure, Health Care, Child Care, Housing, etc (Even if you spent your tax savings building an Emergency clinic I doubt I would feel safe visiting it…LoL)

Cutting taxes and increasing spending… Hmm kind of what put our friends to the south into so much trouble. What does the U.S. have after increasing Defence spending and major tax cuts to the rich? Under funded services, massive government deficits and a currency much tarnished. Before the declaring war on Iraq in March 2003 US$0.66 bought a Loonie..Now it’s US$0.90 for a loonie.

The moral of the story…

If this budget passes you’ll get what you can pay for. Daycare, Health Care,…etc Who funded the Conservative campaign? You need only look to the major beneficiaries… The HAVES have more and the HAVE NOTS even less…
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I had to go to Oakville yesterday to get something from a lighting shop - I broke my 70s floor lamp. I had forgotten how pretty Oakville is. If you want a quick little afternoon of sightseeing, go to old Oakville, Lakeshore Rd. and Trafalgar area. It has lots of little boutique-style shops, a couple of ice-cream places, and it’s close to the lake. Just south of Lakeshore in that area are some streets lined with cute little houses. They are brick, clapboard, probably some board & batten, and well-maintained. They are cuter than the average old Ontario house, likely because Oakville served as cottage country to Toronto, I guess more than a century ago. Also kind of interesting are the huge houses east of that area, with their stone walls and iron gates. You can take the GO train to Oakville, or if you drive, along Lakeshore is a relaxing drive… well, west of Southdown Road it is. I love spending time in the old parts of cities; I see many similarities between old downtowns, and the small Ontario towns I grew up in.