The elephant enclosure at the Granby Zoo in Quebec, April 2008.
By Cynthia Vukets
Granby Zoo, with high-tech elephant enclosure, could be a new home for Thika, Toka and Iringa
Regent Park getting makeover — and jobs
Showing posts with label Getting screwed...... Show all posts
Showing posts with label Getting screwed...... Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Regent Park! Granby Zoo! Refuge For The Poor And Downtrodden?
Quebec zoo wants Toronto’s elephants
The elephant enclosure at the Granby Zoo in Quebec, April 2008.
By Cynthia Vukets
Granby Zoo, with high-tech elephant enclosure, could be a new home for Thika, Toka and Iringa
...born and living in Toronto for 77 years, working and paying taxes to the city, province and Ottawa for 55+ years and still paying, taxes that eventually made it virtually impossible to keep my home so it had to be sold and necessary to move into a MARKET VALUE apartment but still contributing to the $1 Billion+ (and you know it will escalate) for the downtrodden (the majority who don't seem to have yet made any significant contribution) and gawd knows how much the cost of moving the elephants to Granby will cost BUT like too many seniors we stay silent for fear of being labelled by the cadre of leftwing politicians, social in-activists and trough feeders.
The elephant enclosure at the Granby Zoo in Quebec, April 2008.
By Cynthia Vukets
Granby Zoo, with high-tech elephant enclosure, could be a new home for Thika, Toka and Iringa
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Most Of Us Missed The Announcement...
And The Winner is: Public Relations
Bumbling Bureaucracy Aided Iceless Waifs, But Wait, It Was All Fiction
Published on Friday, May. 21, 2010 8:20PM EDT Last updated on Friday, May. 21, 2010 9:14PM EDT
How could I have missed the announcement?
Oh yes, I’m writing a book. That’s why. My life at the moment consists of rocking in the fetal position, typing frantically, sobbing, walking the dog and occasionally bathing.
None of it is pleasant, even the walks I normally adore with the dog I utterly worship.
Obie, the white bull terrier, has developed an intense dislike of the new harness I got for him a couple of weeks ago, and now lies down every two or three feet, back legs stretched out like a frog behind him, and refuses to budge.
Since he is nearly 70 pounds, with a will of steel, I can drag him only so far. I have been reduced to bribery to get him to his feet with a constant infusion of treats, so soon he will be pushing 90 pounds, at which point we will both be fat, white and waist-less and no one will be able to tell us apart.
(For the record, he has beadier eyes and is marginally more friendly.)
The point is, for these reasons, I missed the big announcement.
It came out on May 7, though people were excitedly twittering the news the night before (I have checked), direct from the Liberty Grand where the gala was held, and no doubt dozens of Facebook pages were duly updated with the grand news (I could not bear to check).
There it was: “Argyle Communications wins People’s Choice Award at IABC/Toronto’s 25th annual OVATION gala.”
I apologize for all the capitals; this is how public-relations people actually speak and write, alas. I don’t have much truck for the breed, I confess, and every fall, when all the eager PR students newly enrolled at community colleges e-mail me with quizzes (“Can you describe why Public Relations is Important?” and “How do Public Relations practitioners help you in your daily Work?”) I’m afraid I reply by saying, “It isn’t” and “They don’t.”
Anyway, Argyle Communications is a PR firm; the IABC is the International Association of Business Communicators.
I have a friend who was in PR for years, and was an IABC member. I went with her to a function or two, in the dreary networking years, when organizations like this ruined the cocktail hour by forcing people to give out business cards and frantically glad-hand perfect strangers instead of relaxing over beer and some peanuts.
The way I remember it, women were particularly vulnerable to that networking horse manure: We would all show up at these stupid events in our Power Suits, secretly hoping to meet cute boys, but would end up instead talking to other women in their Power Suits.
These folks make me very crabby. I admit that. I wanted to slap them then and I mostly want to slap them now.
As it turns out, Argyle won the People Choice’s Award (what exact people, I’d like to know) for its “aggressive campaign in partnership with the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association to push Toronto City Council to enforce its existing policy and give girls their fair share of ice time,” the IABC press release said.
“Using media relations, social media, grassroots communications and meetings with public officials, the campaign drove Toronto City Council to enforce its policy and oversee ice allocation in Toronto, ensuring priority access for both boys and girls.”
A few days later, an additional release on Argyle’s own website described the “Fairness for Girls Hockey in Toronto” as “a pro-bono advocacy campaign,” which means, I assume, the agency did the work for free, though God knows, Leaside being the Land of the Affluent and Entitled, the parents could have afforded to cough up a few shekels.
That, of course, is the sly thing about social media. Just because it’s cheap (or free) doesn’t mean it’s not as manipulative as traditional advertising.
In any case, the award was Richly Deserved: Certainly, in the area of media relations, the Leaside Girls scored big, with only a few crabby types like me in the press pointing out that there actually aren’t great numbers of poor little girl hockey players in Toronto wandering about from rink to rink, looking in vain for ice time.
Rather, the whole kerfuffle was driven by the fact that what the Leaside Girls really want are the best times, at the best arenas most conveniently located to the Land of the Affluent and Entitled.
Given what is already on the public record in this story – that two of Mayor David Miller’s Most Expensive advisers, John Piper and Nick Lewis, have strong connections to the Leaside Girls, with Mr. Piper a former president of the Leaside Skating Club and Mr. Lewis a coach with the Girls – it is heartening indeed to discover that every last bit of it was a fiction.
There were no iceless waifs. There was and is no ice time crisis, only a bumbling, politically driven bureaucracy which couldn’t divide ice cubes at an IABC networker.
The only genuine note comes in this: The Monday Nighters, a group of middle-aged men who for 32 years have been playing pickup hockey at Forest Hill Arena, are getting the boot, thanks to Argyle’s aggressive, award-winning campaign.
The boys’ last game will be from 9-10 p.m. on May 24. They’re raising money for charity. I am planning to come out of the fetal position that evening long enough to raise a glass to them.
Oh yes, I’m writing a book. That’s why. My life at the moment consists of rocking in the fetal position, typing frantically, sobbing, walking the dog and occasionally bathing.
None of it is pleasant, even the walks I normally adore with the dog I utterly worship.
Obie, the white bull terrier, has developed an intense dislike of the new harness I got for him a couple of weeks ago, and now lies down every two or three feet, back legs stretched out like a frog behind him, and refuses to budge.
Since he is nearly 70 pounds, with a will of steel, I can drag him only so far. I have been reduced to bribery to get him to his feet with a constant infusion of treats, so soon he will be pushing 90 pounds, at which point we will both be fat, white and waist-less and no one will be able to tell us apart.
(For the record, he has beadier eyes and is marginally more friendly.)
The point is, for these reasons, I missed the big announcement.
It came out on May 7, though people were excitedly twittering the news the night before (I have checked), direct from the Liberty Grand where the gala was held, and no doubt dozens of Facebook pages were duly updated with the grand news (I could not bear to check).
There it was: “Argyle Communications wins People’s Choice Award at IABC/Toronto’s 25th annual OVATION gala.”
I apologize for all the capitals; this is how public-relations people actually speak and write, alas. I don’t have much truck for the breed, I confess, and every fall, when all the eager PR students newly enrolled at community colleges e-mail me with quizzes (“Can you describe why Public Relations is Important?” and “How do Public Relations practitioners help you in your daily Work?”) I’m afraid I reply by saying, “It isn’t” and “They don’t.”
Anyway, Argyle Communications is a PR firm; the IABC is the International Association of Business Communicators.
I have a friend who was in PR for years, and was an IABC member. I went with her to a function or two, in the dreary networking years, when organizations like this ruined the cocktail hour by forcing people to give out business cards and frantically glad-hand perfect strangers instead of relaxing over beer and some peanuts.
The way I remember it, women were particularly vulnerable to that networking horse manure: We would all show up at these stupid events in our Power Suits, secretly hoping to meet cute boys, but would end up instead talking to other women in their Power Suits.
These folks make me very crabby. I admit that. I wanted to slap them then and I mostly want to slap them now.
As it turns out, Argyle won the People Choice’s Award (what exact people, I’d like to know) for its “aggressive campaign in partnership with the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association to push Toronto City Council to enforce its existing policy and give girls their fair share of ice time,” the IABC press release said.
“Using media relations, social media, grassroots communications and meetings with public officials, the campaign drove Toronto City Council to enforce its policy and oversee ice allocation in Toronto, ensuring priority access for both boys and girls.”
A few days later, an additional release on Argyle’s own website described the “Fairness for Girls Hockey in Toronto” as “a pro-bono advocacy campaign,” which means, I assume, the agency did the work for free, though God knows, Leaside being the Land of the Affluent and Entitled, the parents could have afforded to cough up a few shekels.
That, of course, is the sly thing about social media. Just because it’s cheap (or free) doesn’t mean it’s not as manipulative as traditional advertising.
In any case, the award was Richly Deserved: Certainly, in the area of media relations, the Leaside Girls scored big, with only a few crabby types like me in the press pointing out that there actually aren’t great numbers of poor little girl hockey players in Toronto wandering about from rink to rink, looking in vain for ice time.
Rather, the whole kerfuffle was driven by the fact that what the Leaside Girls really want are the best times, at the best arenas most conveniently located to the Land of the Affluent and Entitled.
Given what is already on the public record in this story – that two of Mayor David Miller’s Most Expensive advisers, John Piper and Nick Lewis, have strong connections to the Leaside Girls, with Mr. Piper a former president of the Leaside Skating Club and Mr. Lewis a coach with the Girls – it is heartening indeed to discover that every last bit of it was a fiction.
There were no iceless waifs. There was and is no ice time crisis, only a bumbling, politically driven bureaucracy which couldn’t divide ice cubes at an IABC networker.
The only genuine note comes in this: The Monday Nighters, a group of middle-aged men who for 32 years have been playing pickup hockey at Forest Hill Arena, are getting the boot, thanks to Argyle’s aggressive, award-winning campaign.
The boys’ last game will be from 9-10 p.m. on May 24. They’re raising money for charity. I am planning to come out of the fetal position that evening long enough to raise a glass to them.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Anyone Surprised?
Only ourselves to blame......apathy seems to be a genetic trait and it starts with the pathetic turnout for elections and you need to get a permit to protest and those permits are issued by the same people that tend to piss you off in the first place.Consumers lose in TV/cable war
Canadian consumers cannot win in the showdown between television broadcasters and the cable/satellite industry.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Where Have We Heard That Campaign Promise.....
...Oh, Yea! "Depends" glorious leader and tutor "No New Taxes" McGoonty
'My city calls out'
The usually bold George Smitherman stepped gingerly into Toronto city politics yesterday with a suggestion he'd focus more on controlling spending than hiking taxes.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
A Christian In Malaysia
Malaysia – Under Malaysian law, any convert to Christianity must apply to a shariah (Muslim law) court to legally renounce Islam. Many Christians prefer to remain silent converts rather than take their battle to the shariah courts, where apostasy or conversion out of Islam is punishable by whipping, fines, imprisonment and—in the most extreme application—death. In a country where Muslims account for more than half of the population, conversion from Islam is punished with a 5-year prison sentence and a $3,000 fine. A Malaysian Muslim who marries a non-Muslim and who converts the non-Muslim to Islam is rewarded with an apartment, a car, a one-time payment of $2,700, and a monthly stipend of $270.
Friday, April 17, 2009
What A Surprise!!!
Eco-friendly labelling? It's a lot of 'greenwash'
98% of product claims fail 'sin-free' test, marketing experts say
>> More
98% of product claims fail 'sin-free' test, marketing experts say
Monday, April 06, 2009
No Surprise
Waste
I was just listening to a repeat of the Bill Carroll show on CFRB. He was talking about an Ontario government program to start electronic health records. Apparently its not working so they are throwing it out and starting from scratch. The cost for the failed system? $647,000,000!!!!! This is why I want to severely limit government. There is just massive waste at all levels of government. It is an....
Dr Roy's Thoughts
I was just listening to a repeat of the Bill Carroll show on CFRB. He was talking about an Ontario government program to start electronic health records. Apparently its not working so they are throwing it out and starting from scratch. The cost for the failed system? $647,000,000!!!!! This is why I want to severely limit government. There is just massive waste at all levels of government. It is an....
Dr Roy's Thoughts
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Get Out The Vaseline...Dullton Is At It Again No New Taxes
No harmony in merged taxes
Blizzard: Watch out, consumers. You're about to be soaked -- with a tax on everything. No, it's not Stephane Dion back to haunt us. But you'd think at a time of shifting economic fortunes, no politician would dream of burdening taxpayers even more. MORE...
Blizzard: Watch out, consumers. You're about to be soaked -- with a tax on everything. No, it's not Stephane Dion back to haunt us. But you'd think at a time of shifting economic fortunes, no politician would dream of burdening taxpayers even more. MORE...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
So What's New
Bureaucrats indifferent to Indian Affairs fiasco
For Canadian taxpayers who expect answers about government spending on Indian Affairs, it is to weep.
For Canadian taxpayers who expect answers about government spending on Indian Affairs, it is to weep.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
More Fees For Drivers?
No problem! Make all the fees tax deductible , including the taxes at the pumps, so that motorists aren't paying twice. I am willing to pay a special levy to go directly to road improvements and this levy would also apply to non-drivers to cover the cost of getting goods to their places of employment and the supermarket.
Expect more fees, drivers warned
Motorists in the GTA should brace themselves for a head-on collision with more fees for driving their cars when a plan for battling commuter congestion is unveiled today.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Comrade Miller Does It Again
City makes drivers pay, again
Even though Toronto's new Personal Vehicle Tax isn't ready, you'll get whacked retroactively
By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
Consider this column a service to Toronto's driving community.
Even though Toronto's new Personal Vehicle Tax isn't ready, you'll get whacked retroactively
By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
| Full Column |
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Another Provincial Government Failure......
Turning seniors into inmates is a poor solution.
Are 'ghettos' a cure for senior care?
The Romanow report pegged home care shortage a high priority. A top official's solution is to have seniors move closer together
July 5, 2008Comments on this story
(0)Joseph Hall
HEALTH REPORTER
Every aging person who needs home care in Ontario will be able to receive it provided they are willing to do one thing.
Move out of their homes.
That's the prescription one of Ontario's top hospital administrators gives for the chronic shortage of home care services that lingers almost six years after Roy Romanow's report on the future of health care pegged it as a national priority.
"When you look at home care, you have got to say what kind of home are we providing service to?" says Dr. Robert Bell, president of Toronto's University Health Network.
"Is it a bunch of different apartments or homes scattered across the city of Toronto, or are we actually going to try to provide a supportive housing approach that actually brings together people who need similar resources so we can provide them in an effective, efficient way?"
With no spaces available in chronic care or rehab facilities, patients needing these services can do one of two things: Plug up hospital beds or receive help at home, Bell says.
But in Ontario, where Community Care Access Centres have been set up to dole home care services out, there is still far less supply than demand, despite Romanow's recommendations, Bell says.
"Because of that, we've got people sitting in more expensive acute care facilities across Toronto, across Ontario, no question," he says.
But Bell says the province's three-year, $700 million Aging at Home Strategy – announced last August – could solve the problem, provided the homes where that aging takes place are clustered together in home care enclaves.
The strategy, said former health minister George Smitherman, is aimed at bringing preventive medicine to those who would otherwise slip to institutional care.
"We're going to reach out with many more preventative, proactive strategies to try and prevent the transfer to the hospital in the first place," Smitherman says.
But, he says these strategies will not only include medical visits, but transportation to clinics, phone calls to shut-ins, ethnically sensitive services and even home-based palliative care.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
And In This Corner We Have..........
Tory attack on carbon tax is dishonest: economist
Carbon zombies attack economy
Somewhere on the road to Kyoto, Canada turned into the land of the carbon zombies.
Full Column
Carbon zombies attack economy
Somewhere on the road to Kyoto, Canada turned into the land of the carbon zombies.
Full Column
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Toronto's SORRY State
Wait until you get downtown David......
* Sorry for the panhandlers....they are just waiting for subsidized housing.
* Sorry for the street crime....once we get guns banned things will look better.
* Sorry you have to go to Pearson....Toronto Island Airport expansion stopped by the leftist mayors and island squatters.
and the list goes on and on.
Welcome to Toronto, but we're sorry . . .
* Sorry for the panhandlers....they are just waiting for subsidized housing.
* Sorry for the street crime....once we get guns banned things will look better.
* Sorry you have to go to Pearson....Toronto Island Airport expansion stopped by the leftist mayors and island squatters.
and the list goes on and on.
Welcome to Toronto, but we're sorry . . .
May 18, 2008
Re:Your summer mission: Learn
to love tourists
May 15
Much has been said and written in recent days regarding the welcoming of tourists to Toronto. One thing I would do immediately is to remove that $2 charge for a luggage cart at the airport. Plus, Pearson airport is so unwelcoming it requires the typical Canadian word, "sorry," to be uttered many times:
"Sorry there's such a long walk from the arrival gates."
"Sorry for the lack of signage."
"Sorry there's no subway to downtown."
"Sorry there isn't regular bus service."
"Have a good day, and sorry our beer, wines and spirits are so expensive."
David Lawton, Sutton
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Are There No White Canadian Kids Dropping Out
Blacks not only pupils in need |
By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA
Trustees can't vote to create an Africentric school and then ignore higher dropout rates in other communities, one public trustee argues.
Toronto District School Board trustee Josh Matlow will introduce six motions tonight asking board staff to address an achievement gap among Arabic, Somali, Vietnamese, Persian, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking students.
The move comes less than three months after the TDSB approved a plan to open a black-focused school to help address what it called an achievement gap among black youth in the school system.
HIGHER DROPOUT RATES
"We have unintentionally stigmatized black students with the whole Africentric school debate," Matlow said, adding the board's own statistics show many groups have higher dropout rates.
In his motions, Matlow lists alarmingly high dropout rates for each group: Portuguese 43%, Hispanic 39%, Somali 37%, Persian 31%, Arabic (Farsi-speaking) 28% and Vietnamese 25%.
He stressed he's not asking for specific schools for each ethnicity but does want a concrete action plan on what the board can do to support ethnic groups with high drop out rates.
"If we're suggesting with black students that we have a role to play then we should not be ignoring students in other communities with high dropout rates," he said.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Every McGinty Statement Needs In-depth Analysis
No new taxes! Broken promises! Terrorism in Caledonia! Solution to health care- Depends! More power for Comrade Miller!
Dismissive Tories lack urban savvy
Royson James
Dismissive Tories lack urban savvy
Royson James
Mar 15, 2008 04:30 AM
Compare them and weep, Greater Toronto. At every point of measured weighting, the latter suffers by comparison with the former. And urban Canada, especially the Toronto area, feels the fallout.
Ontario under McGuinty is far from perfect in its dealings with cities and towns, the urban units that define where we live. But McGuinty, in word and ...
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Let's Not Just Center Out The CBC
The reluctance of many groups getting funding from various levels of government are aghast when you ask them to account for their grants and will usually see which of their labels they can stick on you, they don't file the requiredannual paperwork and still they are given more money. Call Toronto city hall and ask for a report on the various art and cultural groups given money by the city.
I don’t see a problem with the request
February 29th, 2008The Conservatives want the CBC to give them detailed costings of future endeavors before handing over any more dough. Why is this a problem? If I go into the bank and want a loan, I have to give all sorts of information - and yet it’s my responsibility to pay the money back.If I want to book a venue for my wedding, I request an estimate. The CBC wants money for nothing, no strings attached… yet it won’t even say what it’s for.
“Without having a full costing of the recommendations,” he [Ed Fast] said, “the government can’t respond. The challenge we have put to other parties and the CBC is come back to the government with full prioritized costings and full consideration will be given to the report. I hope the CBC will take up that challenge.”
Watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting said Thursday the Conservatives refusal to commit to specific funding deliberately sets the CBC up to fail. [a conspiracy!]
“The Heritage committee set out to more closely align CBC’s mandate and resources because it is widely recognized CBC resources are insufficient to meet its mandate,” said spokesman Ian Morrison. “The Conservative minority report would expand this gap, not narrow it. It calls for CBC to do more but denies CBC the required resources, It is a road map that would be extremely damaging to the CBC, especially its English television network.”
Oh, those big scary Conservatives are after us, run for your lives!
As a taxpayer who reluctantly funds this albatross, I really don’t see anything untoward with requesting a costing. It makes good financial business sense. If the CBC is actually planning on producing anything valuable, they shouldn’t have a problem with giving details.
However, if they just want to keep pork on the budget without a fight, I would see why it might bother them a little…
Posted by: Right Girl
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About Me
- Unhypentated Canadian
- I lean to the right but I still have a heart and if I have a mission it is to respond to attacks on people not available to protect themselves and to point out the hypocrisy of the left at every opportunity.MY MAJOR GOAL IS HIGHLIGHT THE HYPOCRISY AND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFTISTS ON TORONTO CITY COUNCIL. Last word: In the final analysis this blog is a relief valve for my rants/raves.