Phil

If you spend time in the bad place, you’re hearing this claim a lot:

Alberta sends $23B more to Ottawa than it gets back. If we separated, we’d erase the $9B deficit and have a $14B surplus.

It sounds simple. It’s wrong. Here's why. 🧵

The Schneider's sign is actually not far from our most famous landmark - the Cambridge ONRoute - that it could conceivably be enfolded into a scene like this. I'm not sure I could watch our beloved highway stop going through that though.

Michael.

🤷🏻‍♂️

Justin Ling: Trump and Netanyahu have made a dangerous gamble in Iran. Why is Carney cheering them on? We should cheer when the brutal Iranian regime falls, whenever that may come to pass. But we should condemn this chaotic, risky violence and all the death that comes with

"The United Kingdom, France, and Germany all managed to comment on the situation without endorsing this war."

www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

As long as those main streets aren't polluted arterials!

I think it fits in fine!

Canada’s immediate support for the Iran attack, and the surprise with which I think many are responding to it, is kind of a reminder that despite our Prime Minister’s oratory prowess, the philosophy behind our foreign policy is still rather hard to pinpoint.

Statement by Prime Minister Carney and Minister Anand on the situation in the Middle East Canada’s position remains clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records, and must ...

Canada would have been better off saying nothing. You can detest the regime in Iran without supporting chaos. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...

I wouldn't think a project could be turned down based on what should have happened in the past?

What would have been a better use?

Me and a friend literally went to shovel a completely inaccessible crosswalk in our city's core, after filing a complaint saw no action for several days. We could solve all of this by paying a few dozen more dollars in property taxes.

The sidewalk clearing in Ontario this winter was essentially just a societal shrug at anyone with mobility issues. Reactive bylaw enforcement models accomplish absolutely nothing of substance. Commercial and rental property owners skirted rules everywhere. Shambolic disaster.

This was the first blizzard warning NYC had in nearly a decade. Maintaining more snow clearing equipment than needed probably doesn't make sense; getting everyday resident help does. City governments choosing not to properly fund clearing in Ontario cities, OTOH, is a wilfully chosen policy failure.

City of Kitchener receives 2026 Municipality of the Year and Top 100 Events in Ontario awards from Festival & Events Ontario | City of Kitchener

Incredibly well deserved award for the City of Kitchener's events team. What has stood out in the past few years is the city's willingness to take risks on new events. There's an eclectic nature to what happens in our summers that feels legitimately unique.

www.kitchener.ca/news/posts/c...

Bluebird!

Ontario lamb chops, taters and greens

Peak use of free will in Waterloo Region: take advantage of the proximity to Stratford to snag last minute reservations in the off season to some of the best dining in the country

Strong "people should cancel their Disney+ subscriptions" vibes

He also says "I live in a decent neighbourhood, you know, families". I know we've all heard this so many times that we're a bit numb to it but I just want to say this is a call for the city government to segregate and only govern for a certain class and it's not compatible with liberal democracy.

Narrative violation!

The data visualization and graphic design in this piece are superb. Just supercharges reader understanding of what the reporting is saying.

And without being an expert in this particular area, it bothers me that city councils don't have some kind of overall veto on COA decisions. I can foresee the risk of politicizing planning policy too much, but isn't that already happening? Why shouldn't elected officials have the final say?

LORINC: It's time to talk about the Committee of Adjustment - Spacing Toronto The building pictured above — a three storey walk-up with five units — is located at the end of the block where I live. I’ve always thought of it as kind of radically non-conforming. The front wall is...

As this Spacing piece by @johnlorinc.bsky.social mentions (h/t @shawnmicallef.bsky.social), the need to sort out small variances will not go away. But surely we can come up with a system that prevents, as much as possible, projects from ever needing to reach this stage.

Six storeys, 10 units: On paper, it seemed the kind of housing Toronto wants. Then its Scarborough neighbours weighed in Mayor Olivia Chow is looking to reform the committee of adjustment after it rejected a building the developer says conforms to the city’s new housing goals.

With apologies to the Strong Towns crowd, the more I've seen this story today, the more I become convinced that we need much more pre-emptive, province-wide upzoning by the provincial government to ensure missing middle is just automatically allowed. Oh, and abolish committees of adjustment.

Probably a red flag I spend too much time buried in the news that I had a feeling this piece was going to mention 91 Barton before it even got there

Six storeys, 10 units: On paper, it seemed the kind of housing Toronto wants. Then its Scarborough neighbours weighed in Mayor Olivia Chow is looking to reform the committee of adjustment after it rejected a building the developer says conforms to the city’s new housing goals.

Colleague @poppedculture.bsky.social came into the office today ranting about this which I hadn't even seen yet but: "the rule of law for land use in Canada" remains an absolutely revolutionary political objective that nobody is interested in. www.thestar.com/news/gta/six...

A debate could be had if this constitutes ideal governance, but then again, a committee going rogue and circumventing the will of the elected officials who passed the policies they now want to thwart... also isn't ideal governance.

There actually is precedent now for using strong mayor powers to circumvent a COA. After the St. Catharines COA rejected a developer's request for eased parking requirements, the city's mayor used the powers to bring 3 zoning bylaw amendments to council, and they passed. Chow could consider this.

If you need a good news story heading into the weekend, read the details in this thread about a "growing, durable, and disciplined pro-democracy
movement increasingly
mobilized at the grassroots" in the US (quote pulled from further down, but read it all!). Change is afoot.

Nodes and corridors urban planning is wilful public health malpractice on the part of urban planners and elected politicians, part 2,575