Vancouver Secrets

Ontario Stops Sharing

No More Ride Sharing

Bus firm wins against Pickup Pal

An Ontario bus company has convinced the transport board that ride-sharing companies — such as Pickup Pal — operate illegally.

Pickup Pal matches up people who are heading to the same destination.

John Stewart, CEO of Pickup Pal, said the goal of the concept is to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution by getting more cars off the road.

In Ontario the only way you can ride with someone is if you meet ALL of the following extremely impractical set of specific criteria:

-You must travel from home to work only
-You cannot cross municipal boundaries – (Live outside the city and drive in – sorry you cannot share the ride with your neighbour)
-You must ride with the same driver each day
-You must pay the driver no more frequently than weekly

PickupPal was charged and fined for facilitating a ride from Toronto to Montreal for $60. The crime – a PickupPal member crossed municipal boundaries. They were fined $11,336.07.

Trentway-Wagar, the local bus company, says its beef was simply that it is unfair they have to meet labor, environmental, and equipment standards to haul passengers around when services like PickupPal can arrange rides without doing any of that.

The issue is not only that PickupPal’s site allows drivers and passengers to connect for carpooling. While it is up to the users to determine compensation, apparently the site “does nothing to check on insurance, roadworthiness of the vehicles, driving history, or anything else.”

This worried the Highway Transport Board most.

Good thing they are looking out for the folks.

h/t

photo credit: joeventures

Whoo Hoo! I Have Hulu

One of my great frustrations when I moved from the US to Vancouver was not getting access to US websites as a US resident.

In some cases, like iTunes, I want to be seen as Canadian. (It costs less with the dollar plummeting.)

Being seen as a Canadian resident means losing access sites like to Hulu. Hulu can’t be watched in Canada as it’s network sensitive. The TV powers don’t want us watching it, so they’ve blacked it out.

Hulu has a lot of the top shows and HD programming - all for free. With a HDMI link from my Mac to my flatscreen, I can now watch all the shows I like, when I want. It’s almost like TIVO on demand.

I found a work-around called Hotspot Shield - it creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop (or iPhone) and their Internet gateway. With it, you to access sites in the US and be seen as being in the US.

Another great feature of Hotspot Sheild is that when you are on a public network or wireless hotspot, it prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages, credit card information or anything else you send over the network.

The Hotspot Shield security application is free to download, uses VPN technology, and is dead simple to install and use. Mac or PC.

Happy Hulu’ing. Get it and then check out my favourite show (Not available in Canada):

Fox Continues To Beat CNN

Fox added another personality to continue its domination of CNN and MSNBC.

With Glenn Beck leaving CNN Headline News for Fox News, CNN is losing the only right-leaning personality they have.

I always thought it was a strange fit… one that I’m sure bothered the higher-ups over at CNN.

Glenn’s departure is a blow for CNN Headline News. Beck’s show was an instant sensation, and led the network to launch another talk show with Nancy Grace.

“I’m not surprised to see him go because it always seems like he fit in well with the other Fox people instead of with Headline News,” said Alan Breznick, an analyst with Heavy Reading, a media and telecommunications research firm based in New York. “I think (CNN) wanted character, but they didn’t necessarily want conservative ideologies.”

Maybe Fox News will get the channel placement that CNN has in Canada some day - where I have to pay for Fox while CNN is free.

photo credit: Joel Washing

I Guess We’re Black

photo credit: Telstar Logistics

According to this site:

The “socialist” label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.

…McCain and Palin have simply reached back in history to use an old code word for black. It set whites apart from those deemed unAmerican and those who could not be trusted during the communism scare.

Seems that we’ve grown so accustomed to the word, it now means NDP here in Canada.

Lewis Diuguid of the Kansas City Star has lost his mind.

Next up…”Welfare”

Garth Is Too Much

From Garth’s blog:

Apparently I am too much. Too much for a successful career in Canadian politics, anyway. As you may have heard, last night I lost my seat in Parliament in the first elections in the world to be held in the immediate wake of the financial and economic mess enveloping us.

Being Canada’s only blogging MP (my political site played a key role in having my butt kicked out of the Conservative party) was bad enough. But being with a political party which seemed to offer people no better safe harbour in this storm was likely the kiss of death. I’d urged my leader to adopt an immediate policy of guaranteeing all private bank savings, but that commitment was blown.

In any case, my own damn fault. If you want to know more, you can buy my book (the new one). More on that in future days.

Garth is too much…

The Left Is Getting Ahead Of Themselves

Listening and reading the news, the election is all but over. Obama is measuring drapes and Harper is getting a minority again.

The Canadian left is promoting strategic voting - and it’s sure to deliver unintended results.

I really believe the conservative base will be out in droves to vote. The left, being generally apathetic, will probably stay home to some degree.

If you are for Harper - make sure you get out to vote. A majority is needed dearly to get Canada moving, and to keep us afloat through this financial crisis.

The green plans the other have in store will cripple Canada at a time when we need our natural resources as leverage to keep us in the black.

Plus, it’ll send a message to the opposition parties that you can’t run a successful campaign by only attacking the leader - you need to have a message and a better plan.

What Aren’t They Telling Us?

photo credit: Cayusa

The loonie is on it’s way to 75 cents, oil to $50, home prices are falling… and the TSX has lost 40%.

The good news is that thankfully Canada has the world’s soundest banking system.

So why am I suddenly feeling the worst is yet to come?

With the election being days away, I am becoming certain that Canadians will vote in another minority government even though it will hurt the country.

As the crisis deepens and the economy slows, Harper’s hands will once again be tied by two bumbling idiots.

So do you buy, sell, hold, or panic?

A Great Way To Get Your Message Viral

YouTube censors comedian shock http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknew…

With the UK is almost taken over by Islam, a gentleman from England made a video to warn his countryman what was happening under their noses.

The video was pulled - as politically incorrect - and the traffic to Pat Condell’s YouTube channel soared.  Search Islam on YouTube and he is dominating the results.

We learn a couple of things:

1) That saying anything against Islam will get you banned - although if you load terror videos favorable to Islam you’re OK.

2) Sharia law is in place in the UK and on it’s way to Canada. Glad I am not female.

My favorite:

Saudi cleric favours one-eye veil http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/midd…

Canada’s move to Sharia law started quite some time ago, and we need to be aware of how it changes the face of our society - women’s rights being only one of the things sacrificed.

I just hope that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal isn’t reading this…

RIP The Green Shift - Garth Turner Defined It

As we remember the death of the Liberal platform…
Part 1 of a series.

Line of the day…

“… if you think the plan is full of crap, tell me why. If you think it’s a giant wealth transfer from Alberta to the rest of the county, explain it… and then tell me why that’s a bad thing.”

Garth Turner at his finest, showing how he really understands the west.

The bagpipes at the end sum up Canada’s feelings on the man.

Vancouver Leads the Country

photo credit: labanex

Vancouver leads the real estate trend and dragged the average price of an existing home in Canada lower last month.

The August sales numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) show 3 consecutive monthly drops in existing-home prices. This will be the largest decline in more than nine years.

Sales fell by 53.4 per cent in greater Vancouver in August compared with the year before, and average prices dropped by 4 per cent for both detached homes and condo units, to $737,985 and $374,366, respectively.

This is following July’s overall housing unit sales drop of 44 per cent.

According to Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., the cooling of the Vancouver market is the most “disturbing” figure in a series of recently released housing data, including national new-home prices, building permit applications and housing starts.

“The drop was pretty serious, especially coming on the back of a big sales drop there the month before. When you’ve got sales for your most expensive city falling like that, that’s going to knock the stuffing out of the national average,” he said. “The other [economic] data was a little better than expected, but it can be choppy from month to month, and continues to show the market is cooling.”

The market here in Vancouver is still ridiculously high - but there’s hope for those of us waiting for this correction to play out.

I am betting prices will be down at least 20% by next spring.

Harper Is Cutting Taxes Again?!

photo credit: romanlily

Stephen Harper’s plan to cut the excise tax on diesel fuel is a smart move. The last time this was used in an election, the PC’s beat out the NDP in Saskatchewan for the first time.

A diesel fuel cut will help lower the price of everything we consume on a daily basis.

If you read the story, it’s playing out as a horrible plan.

My favorite comment from the article:

Mark
Let me get this straight. Mr. Harper has cut the GST and now has some plan to decrease my taxes further? He wants to get tough on crime, improve Canada’s soverignty, strengthen our (Liberal) gutted military, protect families…

May I vote now please?

Good thing Canadians hate taxes more that the media and Liberals love them.