Nick P

what I want to do is elect politicians who are sufficiently numerate as to realize that the hundreds of people who write to them do not form a representative sample of a city of three quarters of a million people

Ah so you’ve decided to move to the big leagues of insufferably awful municipal politics

Voluntary taxation - that's the tax you pay when you buy certain treats. But is sugar just a treat?

To mark the upcoming chocolate holiday, here's a vintage Tillotson blog on sugar taxes, past and present.

Black-Market Gumdrops share.google/mgsETgQ0RCxm...

Since 2019, inflation adjusted wages in Canada have increased 5%. Since 2006, they’ve increased 18%. Note this is inflation adjusted - IE, after inflation: www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/14-28...

Most people don’t know this: Heat pumps REDUCE gas consumption even if running 100% on electricity from a gas fired power plant.

More here in my piece for @carbonbrief.org👇

interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...

A reminder: ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of energy in their fuel.

EVs are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain making it 3-4x more efficient.

Avocado toast meme

Prime Minister Carney talks with families in the Northwest Territories.

Our new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit has received Royal Assent.
 
That means more than 12 million Canadians will get more money in their bank account this year to help cover their everyday costs.

You were ahead of the curve. Avant-garde. We’re gonna make caring about the city cool.

I’m not thrilled about increasing tuition, but kudos to Ontario for acknowledging that there’s a crisis in universities caused by under-resourcing and recognizing that “Postsecondary education is one of Ontario’s most important long-term investments.” #cdnpse

#nspse? <taps microphone> #nsgov?

When we seize control of council in 2028 our messaging is going to be that it’s worth paying for a city that’s good to live in.

We’ve got a big budget shortfall so let’s debate endlessly cutting a bunch of small stuff that winds up being a rounding error but makes us look tuff

“What do you call your act?”

“The Provinces!”

Do you believe that if MPs were paid $64K there would be more MPs who are already rich or fewer?

reconfiguring the US trade relationship with Mexico is hard, so we're not even trying. Getting the Macedonians to sign a paper that they will lower their tariffs from 0.01% to 0% on the $10 of exports we have to them is easy, so that's all we're doing

I'm not sure even Keynes imagined the markets remaining *this* irrational.

Oh is that why everything has turned into not stonks?

Legislators should be paid generously. Skimping on legislator pay weights the ranks of legislators towards those that are already wealthy. If you hate landlords being legislators, you should want MPs to be paid more.

There's absolutely some political actors and journalists who are hacking it up, but leadership has been appropriately sombre and serious.

Mainstream news media has been surprisingly careful; eg the CP and CBC (at least online) have avoided a lot of the credulous coverage they gave anti-trans stuff even a couple years ago.

Okay so while the initial news was broken by that right wing disinformation account, Katrina here found the actual document and vote results so it is in fact true!

[Thanks Katrina!]

Or debt scolding!

Ahh the Canadian media tradition of either forecasting a recession or speculating about a snap election…

Routes that make more money could more easily justify an increased level of service.

If we cancel the Canada day transit charters I bet you we get more drunk driving crashes on July 1/2

TY so much for posting the original legislative source links! The best part of BSky culture is that folks are willing to do that.

I think that's a good reason to discourage exurb development, but not to consider notching up service levels for the exurban development we've done.

Disabled folks in the exurbs have transportation challenges anyway, though, even without transit.

The good news is we can fix that! If we card about affordability, we could raise taxes, expand transit service, and be explicit that we're subsidizing transit for rural districts.

What's that? “It is our lack of transit options” ? How do you get mature trees, Councillor Purdy?

Legislators should actually be paid generously! It's good that they make top shelf salaries. I hate this populist shit.