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dirty

Thursday December 13, 2018

December 20, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday December 13, 2018

‘Dirty’ oil finances Quebec’s schools, hospitals, Alberta reminds Legault

December 15, 2015

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on Tuesday invited Quebec Premier François Legault to “get off his high horse” when it comes to what the latter dismisses as “dirty” energy, reminding Legault that her province’s oil revenues help pay for Quebec’s social programs and infrastructure.

“He needs to look at what’s in the ground, and he needs to understand that not only is our product not dirty, but that it actually funds the schools, the hospitals, the roads and potentially even some of the hydroelectricity infrastructure in Quebec,” Notley told reporters.

October 13, 2016

The Alberta premier was reacting to comments made last week by Legault during a speech to the first ministers meeting in Montreal. Legault said there was no “social acceptability” to the idea of running a pipeline that would carry “dirty energy” through his province, particularly when Quebec could offer “clean” hydroelectric energy at a competitive price.

Legault’s comments took on a bitterly ironic aspect on Monday during a meeting with provincial finance ministers, when it became clear that despite posting a budgetary surplus, Quebec would receive the lion’s share of federal transfer payments for 2019-2020 — more than $13 billion.

Ottawa will pay a total of $20 billion in equalization payments to five provinces to ensure a uniform level of public services across the country. Apart from Quebec, cheques will also be sent to Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

Alberta, considered a rich province when it comes to equalization eligibility, complains it is going through an economic crisis because of the weak price for oil. The Notley government is forecasting a $7.5-billion deficit for the current financial year. (Source: Montreal Gazette)


Some Social Media jousting over this cartoon…

Posted in: Canada, Quebec Tagged: Alberta, Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, dirty, Kazakhstan, oil, Quebec, Russia, Saudi Arabia

Thursday November 29, 2018

December 6, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 29, 2018

A global shift toward electric vehicles is well underway, experts say

When General Motors cited plans to pivot toward electric and autonomous vehicle production as a key reason it had decided to mothball its Oshawa assembly plant, the company was talking about a future that many Canadians didn’t recognize.

August 4, 2017

But experts say the auto industry’s seismic shift away from the traditional internal combustion engine is already well underway.

“Pretty much every manufacturer’s making some decision and financial commitment to what the vehicle of the future is going to look like,” said David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, an umbrella industry association that represents BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, and Volkswagen.

“Our members, all of them look at … decarbonized transportation as what the future is going to be.”

In a news release Monday, GM said it would cease current operations in Oshawa, as well as four plants in the U.S., by the end of 2019. The company said the decision would save it $6 billion, and enable it to double investment in its electric and autonomous vehicle programs in the next two years.

July 17, 2009

According to Adams full automation of vehicles is likely still “decades away.”

But electric vehicles — either battery electric or plug-in hybrids — make up a small but rapidly growing share of the market. As of December, 1.4 per cent of all vehicles sold in Canada were electric, according to FleetCarma, a technology consultant firm, and there were just under 50,000 of the vehicles on Canada’s roads.

However, the number of electric vehicles sold last year increased 68 per cent compared to the year before. The 18,560 plug-in vehicles that drivers bought in 2017 represented a fivefold increase compared to sales in 2013.

The GM-made Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, was the hottest seller in Canada last year, followed by the Chevrolet Bolt, a battery electric vehicle. GM announced this week it would discontinue the Volt as the company prioritizes battery electric vehicles. (Source: Toronto Star) 

 

Posted in: International, Ontario Tagged: autos, cars, clean, dirty, electric, energy, fossil fuels, gas, gasoline, GM, innovation, Ontario, transportation

Monday November 12, 2018

November 19, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday November 12, 2018

Smug Canada probably wouldn’t let in a caravan of migrants either

September 16, 2017

Schadenfreude is of course the German word for taking pleasure in the discomfort of others. There should be a specific Canadian variant to indicate our enjoyment of Americans’ discomfort, which is and always has been a major source of satisfaction for many of our media elites. Maybe schadenfreud-eh?

The latest example is our media’s tut-tutting over the so-called caravan of 7,000 people making its way to the United States from poor, benighted Honduras (which caravan members might themselves categorize as a “s**t-hole country,” given its current lamentable state). I’m not aware of any Canadian journalists yet embedded in the caravan, although surely it won’t be long now given all the publicity it’s been getting in presidential tweets. U.S. President Donald Trump’s Twitter account has 55.3 million followers. Judging by the full-court news coverage he gets up here, at least five per cent must be CBC producers. (Free advice: To really #Resist, get off Twitter.)

Controversy over whether the 7,000 include gang members or “Middle Easterners” has so far obscured two crucial and true, not fake facts. The first is that it is a great tribute to the U.S. that the land of Trump — which is said to be boiling over in micro-aggression, rape culture, transphobia, systemic racism, toxic partisanship, you name it — is the declared destination of the 7,000, not neighbouring Nicaragua, El Salvador, or Guatemala. Not even Mexico, which they’re now trekking across to get to the U.S. Maybe America no longer seems the shining city on a hill it once was. But it’s a shining something north of the Rio Grande and the light apparently can be seen even from the Honduran jungle and through the determined anti-American media jamming.

July 3, 2007

The second clear fact, despite our media’s smug twitting at the president’s tweeting, is that if the 7,000 changed their minds about the U.S. and said they preferred to come to Canada instead, we almost certainly wouldn’t take them either. Without a doubt though, we’d be much nicer and more polite than the president in delivering exactly the same refusal.

None of this is to diminish the tragic situation most of the caravaners find themselves in. There may not be many classic refugees among them, in the sense of being victims of state oppression, but economic and social conditions have so deteriorated in many parts of Central America that few of us would willingly live there. Pity is the right reaction toward anyone forced to live in those conditions, even if that means most of the 7,000 would-be escapees are economic migrants. (Continued: Financial Post) 

 

Posted in: Canada, USA Tagged: Canada, diplomacy, dirty, Donald Trump, fear, fire, neighbors, neighbours, politics, toxic, USA

Saturday October 18, 2014

October 17, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Saturday October 18, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 18, 2014

What’s fair play in an election campaign?

The efforts of purported online hackers to “expose” a Ward 3 candidate as a Freemason just jumped to the top of a list of questionable campaign tactics in Hamilton.

It’s getting to be a long list.

Alleged mass destruction of Marie Robbins signs in Stoney Creek. An anonymous letter disputing how long Sandy Shaw has lived in Ward 1. A suspected “whisper campaign” about the health of mayoral candidate Brad Clark.

Mudslinging

Mudslinging

Clark, in turn, was accused of mudslinging after claiming candidate Fred Eisenberger misled the public by withholding rapid transit memos when he was last mayor. Clark then faced criticism when it was revealed he got the memos from outgoing Mayor Bob Bratina, not via a Freedom of Information request, as suggested by his campaign.

The difference between hardball tactics and dirty politics is often in the eye of the beholder, said political pundit Gerry Nicholls, known for creative attack ads during his time with the conservative National Citizens Coalition.

“Attack ads, brawling tactics … it’s kind of par for the course in elections,” said Nicholls, who fondly recalls skewering federal politicians using “farm animals and billboards.”

“Politics really is a blood sport. If you’re not ready for the rough stuff, maybe you’re not ready to run for office.”

Still, Nicholls said every candidate has to respect basic rules, such as libel law. “You don’t call someone a liar … You may hint at it, you may imply it,” he said. Also, do your research. A factually incorrect attack ad “can really come back and bite you.”

Clark rejects the characterization of his campaign as negative. He argued Thursday the vast majority of his announcements have been positive and added it’s fair to criticize the track record of opponents.

“There’s a difference between comparing performance and quite literally name calling,” said Clark in response to a Spectator question at a news conference on improving council relations.

The Stoney Creek councillor has indeed endured some notable barbs from mayoral competitors like Brian McHattie, who has called him “Machiavellian.”

Clark also recently held a news conference to address what he felt was a “whisper campaign” about his rheumatoid arthritis, which he said is in remission and has never interfered with his duties as councillor.

Hamilton Mayoral RaceShaw was irritated to learn about the anonymous pokes at her residency. The rookie candidate said she briefly lived outside the ward for family reasons but is back and has had a home in Ward 1 for 32 years. She describing the letter in field hockey terms: “like a crack at your ankles on a breakaway.”

Ward 3 candidate Matthew Green is the latest victim — or, possibly, beneficiary — of a political attack. A YouTube video ostensibly posted by the online collective of hackers Anonymous warns viewers the rookie candidate is a Freemason who moved his business to Ward 3 to “control” the neighbourhood.

Some online comments noted the video does a good job reminding viewers of Green’s activism and media plaudits for being a “young professional to watch.”

Green said he appreciates the shoutout, if not the “poor production values” and “tinfoil hat stuff.” He declined to say who he thinks is behind the video — but added it isn’t him.

“I don’t know, this election seems to have really brought out the kookiness in some people,” said the candidate, who described himself being “two-for-two” in unwanted election news after being accused of defamation following a heated exchange with a school board trustee.

“Maybe you haven’t arrived until someone makes an Anonymous video about you?” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: Brad Clark, Brian McHattie, dirty, dogs, editoral cartoon, election, Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton, mayoral, politics, social media

Friday September 26, 2014

September 25, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

Friday September 26, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 26, 2014

Bratina gave documents to Clark

By Andrew Dreschel — Hold onto your ballots, folks. This story is going to get smudgy and smeary in the best tradition of municipal politics.

Hamilton Mayoral RaceIt turns out Councillor Brad Clark’s gotcha moment against mayoral rival Fred Eisenberger was really a gimme from Mayor Bob Bratina.

Instead of receiving some allegedly damning LRT memos through a freedom of information request as he led people to believe, Clark actually got them directly from the mayor.

According to Bratina, he found the memos dating back to Eisenberger’s time as mayor while cleaning out his desk drawers in preparation for leaving office and passed them on to Clark.

“He had FOI-ed them so I knew he was after documents in the mayor’s office, which I had. So I gave them to him,” Bratina said.

Clark is using the documents as campaign fodder, arguing they show Eisenberger misled council and the public by keeping LRT information secret.

Eisenberger says they’re actually innocent briefing notes, that it’s Clark who’s trying to pull a fast one through false accusations.

“This whole thing is misleading,” says Eisenberger.

Speaking of which, didn’t Clark’s news release clearly state that his FOI request “generated” the reports?

Yes it did. And earlier Ken Audziss, Clark’s campaign manager, told me they got the information “through the FOI process and then ultimately that’s how we received it.”

Does that mean they’re, er, lying? Not at all. This is election season, after all.

Audziss says they wouldn’t have got the info from Bratina if not for the FOI request. “The mayor’s office generated these documents and when they provided them to us it was specifically in reference to the request.”

And please don’t jump to any rash conclusions that this means Bratina is supporting Clark for mayor, even though they’re both against LRT. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)


Posted as a lawn sign at the Andrew Haines residence:

Photo by Andrew Haines.

Posted in: Hamilton Tagged: Bob Bratina, dirty, Editorial Cartoon, FOI, Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton, Mayoral Race, politics, smoking gun
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