Monthly Archives: April 2008

Bike Lanes Averted

TORONTO – Negotiators for the TTC union and the City of Toronto worked two hours past their self-imposed deadline yesterday to avoid a transit strike that would have seen the creation of new bike and carpool lanes.

A plan approved last month by city council called for the curb lane on Bay Street from Queen’s Quay to Yorkville to become a bike-only lane, along with curb lanes on Queen’s Quay from Lower Spadina Avenue to Yonge Street, and Dundas Street East from River Street to Broadview Avenue.

City politicians celebrated the deal, saying they can now go back to claiming that bike lanes are very expensive and take a very long time to establish. “That was really close,” one councilor said. “Just imagine. If we’d created those bike lanes, cyclists might have gotten used to them! Heck, some people might have even tried biking to work in safety for the first time and enjoyed it. It could have been habit forming.” When asked if he was trying to equate cyclists to drug users, the councilor replied, “what do you think?”

Another councilor agreed. “Drivers can rest assured that this council will not do anything to jeopardize their unquestioned supremacy on the roads,” she said.

Media Idol

Since I haven’t blogged in almost a month, I felt it was important to make sure my first post back was a significant one. So here it goes: I need your vote. Not for Parliament, but to win Media Idol. It’s just like Canadian Idol, with a few key differences: it’s only open to people who work in the media, instead of making you line up and suffer for hours you wait in a green room with free refreshments, and the winner gets to dedicate $1000 to a charity of their choice. I’m singing for Camp Big Canoe, a boys and girls summer residential camp that I sit on the board of directors of.

Click here to vote for me. (Watching the video of me singing is optional. And try not to get distracted by my flashy competitors with their big budgets and Argos cheerleaders.)

I’ll try and get back to blogging more regularly as soon as I can, but as soon as the election dust settled I noticed a very neglected day-job (not to mention a neglected fiancée), so my days are full right now making up for lost time.