This is something I’d love to see move forward. At the end of the day there are only 3 American auto manufacturers and if you can find 3 new Asian or Euro ones you can do a lot to mitigate the damage of them inevitably leaving Canada.

The MOU on Korea-Canada Industrial Collaboration on Future Mobility is non-binding but pledges both sides to working together to promote the manufacturing of autos, electric vehicles, battery manufacturing and hydrogen-powered vehicles

I’ve been looking for new GeoData for the first time in a while and I have to say the new Geo.ca website is a dramatic improvement. It pulls from a lot of government sources, including the NCC who used to guard geodata with their life. Still needs improvements but overall it’s not too bad.

Any transit/GIS people out there know if Alto released their proposed corridors in shapefile format? I haven’t seen it anywhere but taking a shot in the dark it’s buried on their site or an FTP somewhere so I don’t have to deal with the tedium of tracing it.

23% of Americans want their State to separate from the USA. Alberta is polling at 19% wanting to separate. It's less separatist than: Alaska, Hawaii, Washington Montana, Idaho, California, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Arkansas, Indiana, New York.......

Any show is improved by the presence of a Kid in the Hall.

There are only two kinds of pop I’ll drink. Diet Coke and Dr Pepper. Maybe that says something about me. But I prefer to think peoples hatred of Diet Coke says more about them.

Brightline was not only guaranteed to fail, but will probably make private equity firms billions as it’s sold off in pieces unless it is nationalized. Half the systems funding came from public money anyways Call the whole experiment a failure, learn from it, and salvage it before it becomes scrap

For CBC Arts, I wrote about why I think Canada needs to revel in the beauty of its weirdest impulses www.cbc.ca/arts/canadia...

You can skip history class today because tonight they are playing all the Canadian Heritage Moments back to back at Eyesore Cinema in Bloordale. Free burnt toast snacks!

There is a lot to criticize about Alto. But biting the bullet and just tunnelling their way into downtown Montreal or Toronto is one thing they are doing right.

New Zealanders are set to go to the polls later this year amid a sluggish economy and rising unemployment.

I’m very glad I held off rushing out an article on Alto. I think I’ve been able to finally articulate why I both like and hate this project so much. And even more importantly, come up with a way it can be course corrected to make it worth the price tag that is being proposed.

Alto really does have some truly awful graphic design. I know its early & it was probably put together by bureaucrats (at least I hope it wasnt an agency…). But man use some of that 5 billion to do better And absolutely give your feedback on this project. They need to hear the criticism it deserves

The Iceland Space Agency has a strangely busy logo. It fascinates me.

There are times I wish I was skilled at video editing because there are some topics where writing is really not an optimal medium for the internet.

90% of the Disco songs that people claim “suck”. Some of the really stupid novelty songs are trash. But disco is such a great blend of funk and early dance.

Update: not sure how quickly or how easy it will be to get BYD’s when they hit Canada. But there is a good chance I should be able to keep my car going long enough to get one in the next year or two. I’ll call that a bit of good news

The more I think about and look at the Alto plan the more I realize that it actually seems to be modelled after the Shinkansen in the sense that they seem to want 100% HSR only tracks from start to finish. And that is a surprising choice. However…

So I took a closer look at the details that Alto released ahead of its public consultations… Man, this project could be truly fucking awful. Most of the stations are likely to be greenfield stations away from town centres…

The more I think about it the more I can see them using the “southern” option between Toronto and Ottawa as a way of wiping out all VIA service on the Lakeshore by saying “well you can just drive 20-30km north to an HSR station instead”. I’m getting some really bad vibes from that option…

The federal NDP is such a disappointing and depressing political party. Juiceless, cowardly and completely out of touch and ill equipped for the moment. Both them and the Greens need to finish their collapse so there is at least a chance for a new, competent, social democratic party to emerge

The first “details” in almost 5 years have been released for the Toronto-Quebec HSR project. There still seems to be a lot about the project that is a mystery, but I haven’t gone through everything in detail yet.

I talk a lot of shit about urbanist/transit YouTube. But there are some bangers out there. Cabview Holland is one. It is high definition cabview rides on NS trains through The Netherlands. At this point all major routes have been covered, often during many different seasons

I doubt he planned it this way but it’s funny that the day China says Canada should increase trade with them is followed with the US saying CUSMA is irrelevant It was obvious CUSMA was going to be destroyed so this isn’t a surprising statement. But now we find out exactly what that will look like

I want to have solidarity with the dirtbag left & have them be part of the anti-fascist/anti-America movement But fucking hell. They need to get off Twitter & do a 2 month detox with no internet whatsoever before they start integrating with everyone else. They are getting as cooked as the far right

I also see interim leader @donvdavies.bsky.social is on here and hasn’t said a word about it. So what’s your stance on Twitter and it’s criminal, fascist behaviour, Don? Are you going to show the leadership Carney & the Liberals aren’t, leave, and push for Grok or Twitter (if need be) to be banned?

I also see interim leader @dondavies.bsky.social is on here and hasn’t said a word about it. So whats your stance on Twitter and it’s criminal, fascist behaviour, Don? Are you going to show the leadership Carney and the Liberals aren’t, leave, and push for Grok or Twitter (if need be) to be banned?

I still haven’t seen any statement from the @ndp.ca or @heathermcpherson.bsky.social @rob-for-ndp-leader.bsky.social or @avilewis.ca about, at minimum, leaving Twitter let alone banning Grok or Twitter as a whole for its crimina behaviour Maybe they don’t realize how bad it really is. So…

Keeping Twitter and its criminal behaviours in the public discourse is working. Not everyone knows the full depths of it but the more people who know the more people who will leave. I appreciate Senator Pate for joining Senator Simons and leading by example.

Something different for the TL. For a period in the 60’s and 70’s this is how some cars were loaded onto trains. A truly insane but visually satisfying way to do it

Curious to see if today is the day the NDP or its MPs decide to start talking about Twitter & maybe I dunno take some initiative and at least say theyll leave the platform. Or are they going to be just like the Liberals & continue hanging out on the CSAM and Nazi machine. I wonder what it will be…🙄

After your skate are you going to fire Evan Solomon & put in someone who takes the proliferation of CSAM, sexual abuse of women and other crimes on Twitter seriously? Because his statement was pathetic and makes it sound like your government doesn’t care about those problems. Prove the public wrong…

If (and that’s a big if) the Canadian government and various federal agencies do leave Twitter there needs to be a real discussion about continually relying on American owned social media. This is why I don’t care if they join Bluesky. At the end of the day it’s also owned by SV techno-fascists…

It would be great if the @ndp.ca or it’s leadership candidates @heathermcpherson.bsky.social @avilewis.ca @rob-for-ndp-leader.bsky.social umm…showed some leadership… and stood up for getting the Canadian gov off Twitter and if necessary banning it flat out. Is the NDP still on there? Why not leave?

I fully support Canada banning Twitter. There are a lot of reasons it should be burned to the ground However, it’s also important to recognize that doing so would certainly lead to retribution from the US. In what form is unknown. But it could be severe and serious and we need to be ready for that

The leaders of all five Greenland political parties, including the PM, have issued a joint statement: “We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders.” “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders… We must decide our country's future ourselves.”

Its really surprising (okay not really) to see that @ndp.ca & @canadiangreens.bsky.social havent made getting Twitter banned in Canada, for their ever growing list of horrible shit, a key cause. Not only is it morally right, but shutting down Twitter hurts the far right which they should both want

In 2024, I rose in Senate QP to ask why the Govt of Canada was still using X for official communications. Today, they are still there. What exactly will it take to break the spell?

In Canada, call or email Evan Solomon and demand he do his job as “Minister of AI and Digital innovation” to stop the CSAM and non-consensual porn. X should be banned in this country. 📞 416-972-2030 📧 [email protected]

You can tell @mark-carney.bsky.social and the few active MPs like @karinagould.bsky.social via Bluesky that you want Twitter/X banned. But for others you can call or email. Minister of AI Solomon is a good start. And reach out to your local MP, regardless of their party. Make this a *big* issue

This is a perfect headline.

Hey @mark-carney.bsky.social How about this deal? Canadians will stop making fun of you over you’re weird need to have the federal government function with British English if you follow the UK and ban Twitter/X as well? If you’re going to copy them, copy the *only* good thing they might do

A lot of people here want to see Twitter die so that Bluesky can take off. I dont care what happens to Bluesky. Its also run by SV techno-fascists & will eventually degrade too But right now I want to see Twitter burned to the ground. Make an example of it. You’ve gotta start somewhere and X is it

I need to find a free version of this article but these are the kinds of moves I want to see Canada making. I want the country to be able to stand up for itself, and other allies, and for better or for worse this is a critical part of being able to do that. It’s not ideal. But it’s where we are.

I'm posting this for no other reason than goats Well, solar's a pretty good reason, too And also, solar is the GOAT

Newfoundland *is* part of the Maritimes, as is the Gaspesie and Ile d’anticosti

One of my favourite pieces of New Brunswick trivia is that the boat on the flag used to point the opposite direction. You can still find the backwards boat on government buildings built before the 1960s. (via @canada-gov-ca.bsky.social)

I feel out of an upper level barn door onto a cow & get seriously bruised Okay less fell & more pushed Okay less pushed & more knocked out by hay being tossed out And I was 3, and it was my dad who did it and had to convince the doctors it wasn’t abuse So not embarrassing. Actually really funny

objection