On this Trans Day of Remembrance, I hope Albertans will remember that trans kids and teens are living breathing humans who just want to be themselves, without fear of hate and discrimination. Demonizing kids merely to score political points in some weird culture war is craven and cruel.

@melwoods.me: We must not overcomplicate what’s going on here. This is the Alberta government saying the rights of trans kids to receive life-saving health care, go by their own pronouns at school or play on sport teams don’t matter as much as the Smith government’s right to dictate their lives.

We are governed by the least serious people imaginable.

Canadians Can Give Themselves More than Anyone Could Ever Take Away™ as we rebuild to become Canada Strong®, except when it comes to the free trade of *checks notes* basic sustenance

antivaxx bullshit pisses me off more than anything else on earth just because of the pure stupidity. it is the definition of a luxury belief. we invented miracles that halt the spread of the deadliest diseases known to man but that has made us so comfortable that some morons turn against them

Until such time as the province signals they want to be serious on homelessness and adequate non-market housing, force cities to adapt more just land use, and cities themselves moving beyond outdated notions of where renters should live, no, everyone in this province does not want to solve this.

Not convinced of the headline. The provincial government has no interest in housing affordability. Our largest city won't allow adequate density w/in neighbourhoods, which means meaningful missing middle is banished to polluted arterials. The point of a system is what it does.

I am pretty sure that when Merv Leitch and Peter Lougheed first created the notwithstanding clause, they didn’t mean it to be deployed to bully and oppress literal school children. #ableg #abpoli #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Alberta #notwithstandingclause

Doctors request vaccinations be given to children at hospitals (when parents are willing to do so); province says no. Bananas. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Tired: Maximum Canada Wired: Maximum Waterloo Region

"Cities aren’t taxing every household for (ASE). It’s funded by those that break the law by speeding. Since the government is now taking this program away, guess what? Every household and business will now pay through property taxes for the road safety initiatives we’re implementing." -Cam Guthrie

My crazy idea for incorporating public feedback into city planning: You let residents vote for representatives in city government, and those people are empowered to implement the policies they promised while campaigning.

Inclusionary zoning is not just terrible policy. It’s also extremely neoliberal policy that outsources a key state function—providing subsidized housing for poor people—to private, market-based actors and shifts the financial burden for the subsidies from wealthy homeowners to middle class renters.

Join us to ride the first weekend GO Train Kitchener to Toronto! Help us mark a major milestone. Toronto activities: TTCriders Streetcar Summit, Santa Claus Parade, or just enjoy the city. Return via 4:48pm train or train to Bramalea + bus. Weekend GO Passes are $10, kids under 12 ride free.

So-called “inclusionary zoning” is a tax on new housing that reduces the amount of housing that gets built, worsening the housing shortage and driving up rent. It is bad, counterproductive policy and we should stop doing it.

It's very funny that in an urban context people say that apartments will destroy the neighborhood by bringing rich people in and in a suburban context people say that apartments will destroy the neighborhood by bringing poor people in. Is 'funny' the right word?

Despite planning dogma, “stable residential neighbourhoods” aren’t

"[W]hile the Islands Trust is aware of the many illegal dwellings on the island, if there are no environmental and health concerns, the occupants are left alone due to the housing crunch." Kinda gives away the game. If there aren't any environmental & health concerns, why are the dwellings illegal?

“The rise in high-fronted SUVs poses a clear and growing threat to public safety, especially for children,” states the report. “With no benefit to society, it’s time for lawmakers at all levels to act.” Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. Cap SUV/truck hood heights. And ban unsafe designs.

We have such a stupid transportation system in this goofy country that affects every corner of our life. Higher costs, worse air, more deaths and injuries, no places you can go and let your kid run around. These are all things we've given up so people can drive a car at 40 mph in a city.

Here’s something that’s really important for everyone to understand. If we design our cities just for cars, they fail everyone, including drivers. If we design our cities with many great CHOICES in how to get around, they work better for everyone, including drivers. Spread the word.

Lots of folks captioning aurora photos like "for a few minutes we didn't think about politics" guess I'm built different, every time I'm out trying to see night sky stuff I frequently think about how much light pollution is entirely preventable with just a tiny bit of regulation

Access to vaccines is not a privilege — it is a human right. In @statnews.com today, Stefan Peterson and I write about using a human rights-based approach to deal with vaccine denialism and the return of measles, whooping cough and diphtheria www.statnews.com/2025/11/12/c...

We have to turn the Growth Machine back on until median rent is less than 30% of median monthly income and median home prices are below 4x median annual household income.

Max nails it: state level mandates are how you make meaningful progress. Local government isn't just structurally hostile to yimbyism, it is functionally undemocratic. 1,000 fiefdoms does not a democracy make. Democratic governments have to be able to address voters' biggest concerns.

This so much! Parents (usually mothers) in car-centric areas are forced to chauffeur their kids around. It also means they emphasize predictable, scheduled activities (like sports leagues) that cost money. Youth mobility gives kids freedom, saves money, and reduces the unpaid-labor burden on women

Kitchener GO Train weekend schedule! (Sat & Sun) 7:49 Kitchener -> Union 9:35 15:49 Kitchener -> Union 17:35 16:48 Union -> Kitchener 18:38 22:48 Union -> Kitchener 00:38 Great (if minimal) start for daytrips into Toronto. I hope no one in Toronto was planning daytrips to Kitchener.

"There are too many cars and not enough roads. Absent a radical reform like a congestion charge similar to New York City — where a price on driving in the city causes people to look to alternatives — there’s no way to reverse the trend." -Matt Elliott

Speed cameras could prevent behaviour like this, but Doug Ford banned them

"And while the budget pours money into infrastructure and emphasizes resource extraction, it fails to leverage our country’s most significant economic drivers: people, research and education."

Good write-up by Max on the YIMBY-Strong Towns back and forth. I like Chuck Marohn, and I've written for Strong Towns, but as Max writes, fundamentally government is about getting good results, not about ideology. Housing is an area where local control has failed to deliver.

San Francisco is the richest city in human history. I believe that we have a moral obligation to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless. This means that some comfortably-housed residents are going to have to accept neighborhood change. Sorry!

I really enjoyed this breakdown of the implications of the Strong Towns approach, and this counterpoint to Marohn is very compelling. A supposedly socialist former city council member in Sacramento repeatedly spoke of the need to prioritize these millionaires over more housing. Why?

"What does prioritizing millionaire homeowners’ aversion to change over the needs of the poor and unhoused do to our souls?" is a truly ice cold line from @maxdubler.com www.maxdubler.com/blog/2025/11... #yimby

Some random group of NIMBYs, claiming to speak for all of Toronto, is deeply concerned about neighbourhood stores. The spokesperson (frequent activist vs planning reform) lives in a wealthy, deeply suburban part of Etobicoke. These people speak for no one, and ought to be ignored. cot-ra.org

How Toronto killed Sesame Street. My column on the retreat from allowing shops in neighbourhoods & other watering down of good ideas. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

MPAC is supposed to reassess property values every four years, but it has now been nearly a decade. The Ford Government has postponed assessments indefinitely to look into the 'fairness' of the system. Ironic given the resulting unfairness.

Ontario property assessments haven't been done since 2016 and it's getting ridiculous. Suburban homes are paying much lower property taxes than they should be. Annual property taxes: ↙️ $8575 | $6360 ↘️

I see we're starting the contest for who can balance the most snow on top of their car while driving around. I understand it's a Canadian tradition, but I maintain that it is a bad idea.

Agree with this take from Matt Gurney (and not just because I'm cited in it). There's a surprising lack of urgency from the federal government on any file, particularly when compared to the standard they set out for themselves on the campaign. Read here:

pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.

This is welcome but it does give a bit of "hm, wonder who could do something about this" energy, and I feel like that's been the case with Chow a bit too often. She still has time to be more bold.

in Toronto we aren’t allowed to build corner stores in neighbourhoods and we’re trying to change that so our mayor has to explain why corner stores are a good thing to NIMBYs like they’re children

Here is another way to look at the housing disaster

I will reluctantly admit that it’s notable that the mayor-with-strong-mayor-powers of Cambridge is against the extension of ION light rail into her city. Cambridge voters who like Cambridge getting nice things should keep that in mind in the 2026 municipal elections

You can get a better sense of what happened at the meeting by scrolling up through the livetweets here:

It's wild that about half of this article is about the naysayers, who were firmly in the minority in presentations, on council, in public surveys, and in public opinion polling

It is journalistic malpractice to omit any mention of the danger cars pose.

“Our premier seems to be taking acts of criminal vandalism like the cutting down of lifesaving speed cameras as if they’re policy demands and acquiescing,” said Spieker.