In a new two minute ad, Barack Obama details his plans for change, direct-to-camera, focusing on economic issues. It begins airing today in the U.S.
I Can See Russia From My House
For those of you who missed it, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton giving a joint address on Saturday Night Live.
The Federal Tories: The Gang That Can’t Think Straight
 |
No matter how much money the federal Tories have in their coffers heading into the federal election — expected to be called on Sunday — no matter that, over the course of the next six weeks, they’ll outspend the Liberals, the NDP and the Green parties combined, Stephen Harper’s Conservative can’t help themselves.
They just keep shooting themselves in the foot.
Writing in her column in the Toronto Star, Chantal Hebert says that …
The recent Conservative cuts to arts and culture have done what neither the pursuit of the unpopular Afghan war nor the demise of the Kyoto Protocol had accomplished: wake up a sleeping Quebec giant that is now gathering strength for a show of force in the upcoming election campaign …
On Tuesday, a 2,000-strong who’s who of Quebec’s art community gathered in Montreal to decry what has largely come across in the province’s media as an ideologically driven federal disengagement from the front of culture.
In no other province in Canada would the citizens express the ire that Quebeckers do over funding cuts to the arts — thank God that there’s one province in Canada that stands up for Canadian cultural identity.
The Conservatives probably feel that with a weak and inarticulate Stephane Dion leading the federal Liberal party, and a rudderless Bloc Quebecois, they’ll romp to election victory on October 14th. Don’t bet on it.
The Conservatives are so inept (not to mention, mean-spirited) that Harper won’t be able to help himself from putting his foot in his mouth during the 37-day election period. The Conservative party will, VanRamblings predicts, do everything in their power to snatch defeat from the jaws victory.
Hopefully, after October 14th, there will be a responsible and responsive federal government in Ottawa that will be committed to …
- the creation of affordable housing
- the development of a national transit strategy
- the development of a national telecommunications strategy
- restored funding of the arts, and a recommitment to the CBC
- the implementation of national daycare
- the re-establishment of the Canadian armed forces as peacekeepers
- restoring the economy so that Canadian familes can be provided for
If the Conservatives are re-elected, they’ll be committed to none of those initiatives. What an anti-Canadian government the Tories proved to be.
Come October 14th, it’ll be time to throw the bums out. Good riddance.
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: Hope for the Future
In an area of Vancouver defined by despair, drug addiction, mental health disorders, and a lack of hope for the future, the prospect of marginally better living conditions for the several thousand people who call the downtown eastside home emerged a year ago when the provincial government purchased 16 hotels in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood.
Since that time, the Province of British Columbia has also agreed to build new social housing for the poorest and most destitute of our citizenry, on land turned over to the province by the City of Vancouver. The City and the Province, working together, have fast-tracked the approval of up to 1,200 new social and supportive housing units, on 12 city-owned sites.
How is the renovation and construction process coming along, one year on?
The short answer: nothing good happens quickly. And so it goes.
 |
In the most recent report issued by Vancouver Housing Update, progress is slow, but steady. The 18 community non-profit partners who will operate the renovated hotels, as well as the 12 new social housing projects — range from the Lookout Emergency Aid Society to the Motivation, Power and Achievement Society and the Coast Foundation, to RainCity Housing and the Atira Women’s Resource Society, among a raft of other non-profit partners. All are onboard, and more than ready to house the homeless.
As to progress on those 12 City-owned sites, development on the sites continues to wend its way through Vancouver’s Planning Department.
The local architectural firm of Gomberoff Bell Lyon submitted their plan for the site to be developed at 188 East 1st Avenue, on May 2nd; this site will house 129 persons in a social housing building that will meet the LEED Green Environmental standard. Construction on the building is about to commence, with completion set for mid-2010, when residents will move into the building to by operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid Society.
GBL‘s remaining projects — at 1237 Howe Street and 505 Abbott Street — have made it through the design and notification process, and await final approval from the Planning Department before construction begins.
Meanwhile, on May 12th of this year, the Vancouver-based architectural firm of Neale Staniszkis Doll Adams submitted their plan to Vancouver City Hall for a 9-storey, 62-resident apartment building, to be operated jointly by the Katherine Sanford Housing Society, and the MPA. Again, construction is about to commence, with a completion date set for mid-2110.
The other NSDA-designed site, at 1388 Seymour, consists of 106 single units, and will be operated by the Granville Mennonite Housing Society.
VanRamblings’ readers may follow developments on the 12 sites (to be increased shortly to 14 sites, we have been informed by reliable sources) by clicking on this link, and when you arrive at the page to gain further insight, clicking on the addresses of the sites on the left-hand side of the page.
In time, as construction progresses, VanRamblings will produce a photo record of the social housing sites’ progress. We’ll see you back here soon.