Tag: local stuff

No-Candidates Meeting

I totally fail.

Or somebody does.

I was hunting everywhere last week and over the weekend to try to figure out when the stupid all-candidates meeting was for my riding. I figured people just haven’t gotten around to organizing it yet and it would emerge in due course. Then I got a couple items in the feed this morning telling me that [the damn thing was yesterday](http://news.therecord.com/sections/Election2008/article/419561). Poop.

(I also missed my chance to pick up the [Sontaran Stratem Set](http://doctorwhotoys.net/sontaranset.htm) yesterday, not that that’s terribly relevant to the discussion. Epic fail all ’round for me, though).

From the [reports](http://yappadingding.blogspot.com/2008/09/k-w-riding-all-candidates-meeting.html), though, I probably wouldn’t have got a seat, which means Ellen and I almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to stay. This sounds like a shoddy, half-assed excuse for a democratic exercise if you ask me.

Even if a candidate knocked on my door, I almost certainly wouldn’t be there. Those things are useless to me. I need stuff like these meetings to figure out who these people are to make any sort of useful decision.

Video from the event, though, will be broadcast on [Rogers TV](http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?lid=12&rid=54&sid=2964) over the next week, if I can figure out how to see it without cable TV.

If you happen to live in one of the other ridings in the region, your meeting is upcoming. [Check the Rogers site for dates and times](http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?lid=12&rid=54&sid=2964).

Maybe there’ll be another meeting (probably revolving around some special interest or other) in the coming weeks.

“We’re gonna make it better”

The Record [interviewed a Lake Erie fisherman](http://news.therecord.com/videogallery/386607) about what he does, about the lake and about the industry. What I liked particularly was his quote at the end, talking about pollution in the lake:

> I don’t think I’ve ever had that thought in my lifetime, that this is getting bad and it’s going to get worse. We’re gonna make it better. We’re just simply gonna make it better. We’re gonna do what we have to do to make it better. ‘Cuz it’s going to get better.
>
> You can never think that it’s going to get worse, or you’re liable to let it happen then.

This just in!

[UW Students Vote to Kill Campus Radio](http://atuw.ca/feds-election-results-are-in-ckms-fee-is-gone-wusc-is-added/)

I could never really bring myself to listen to CKMS, but I’m still kind of sad. Who knows, though… maybe they’ll find funding elsewhere. But probably not.

One Thing I Miss About Belleville

One thing I sorely miss about Belleville when I’m living in Waterloo has to be municipal sidewalk clearning.

9:30am the morning after a spectacular snowstorm and the sidewalks are clear and easily walkable. All of them. Everywhere.

I know that by the time I’ll have to walk to work in the morning, I’ll still have to trudge across unshoveled sidewalks and risk my back (again) on the ice. It’s awful. There are people who *never* do it. I suppose I could call the by-law enforcement people on them, but honestly, they might be bed-ridden old people for all I know. Yeah, it’s their responsibility, but it’s a shitty system.

I don’t even have a sidewalk in front of my house and I think municipal sidewalk clearing is an absolutely blessing.

Go ahead, raise my taxes!

Organic Restaurants

I’m on the lookout for local restaurants serving organic foods–meats especially. So I was impressed that the recent [Networking](http://news.therecord.com/Business/Small%20Business/article/269376) column buried in the business section of the Record had two potential options.

One was the Exhibit Cafe, located in the Children’s Museum in downtown Kitchener. By the sound of it, they deal in light lunch fare, serving local and organic meals. They’re attached to a local company called [Millbank Foods](http://www.millbankfoods.ca/) (with no website for the cafe that I could find). I think they had a booth at the Canada Day thing at UW.

The other is [Village Creperie](http://www.villagecreperie.ca/), which *does* have a website with a lovely PDF menu. The menu promises “We only use organic flours, fish, meats, vegetables, fruits, dairy,” which is nice. I’m not entirely sure what a “Galette” is, but some of them sound good.