Trudeau's Take

How Stupid do You Look?

2008-05-13T13:32:18Z

Couple of drownings already off small boats in the Saint Lawrence and the boating season is hardly open.
One man disappeared and another had to be rescued last week in the Lachine rapids on their way to Heron Island.
Then another disappeared downriver leaving his motorboat going around in circles with a dog aboard.
In the first case, the man who disappeared had no life jacket, HE WAS NOT WEARING A LIFE JACKET even though travelling in a light boat on the St. Lawrence at the foot of the Lachine rapids!
People don't put on their life jackets because they think they look stupid!
But think how stupid you look when they bring you back dead from the boatiing outing BECAUSE you did not put your life jacket on!
Come on, put your life jacket on, you'll look smart when you come back alive.

Au Pied du Cochon

2008-05-13T13:29:19Z

Just in case you wanted to check it out, the name of the Martin Picard cook book--we interviewed him on Tuesday at 8:45--is Au Pied du Cochon, a cookbook from the celebrated restaurant. Published by Douglas and MacIntyre, the cook book is not cheap: retails for $40.
And the restaurant itself is on Duluth in the Plateau neighbourhood near Berri.

Keyboard Killers

2008-05-02T11:42:08Z

From the BBC World News website comes the news that a swab test of keyboards in the office of a consumer watch magazine showed keyboards covered in bacteria, some of them dirtier than toilet seats, covered with things like E-Coli or Staphloccus Aureus.
Cleaning up the keyboard is one solution, but if you share a keyboard in your office, you never know.
So Shaun McMahon came up with the solution and here it is: The Roll Up Keyboard from the website known as Think Geek, that would be www.thinkgeek.com.

Military Religous Freedom

2008-05-01T13:16:09Z

This is a short blog, but an important one. After listening to Mikey Weinstein from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and his contention that the US military has been all but taken over by fundamentalist evangelical Christians, I had to put up his link to his website so you could judge for yourself. Here is the site: www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org

Do It Ur-Self Taxes

2008-04-30T11:04:37Z

This morning I confessed to two things on the show: One is that I have an accountant who does my taxes, and, two, that I still file by mail on paper.
Turns out, according to Revenue Canada, about 25 to 30 per cent of all Canadians still do file by paper.
However, if you want to join the majority, Fred Pye, of Capital Wellington West, had a recommendation for us.
There are lots of income tax preparation programs on sale or on the web, but Fred Pye recommended ufile.ca which you can find easily on the web. Fred says the program is well done, with plenty of help for each field to be filled in.
I looked it up myself on the web and it turns out you have a choice right from the start: you can download the program and use it on your computer--for a price--OR you can do use the program on the web and fill it in right there for a lower price.
All that is at www.ufile.ca. Happy filing.

You Saw it Here first

2008-04-28T12:57:56Z

Air Canada has done exactly as I predicted, that is started charging us poor economy--steerage--passengers for a second piece of luggage.
In my Blog on April 11, I predicted that Air Canada would soon follow the lead of its Star Alliance partner United Airlines and start charging for the second bag. Sure enough. last week, Air Canada dropped the other shoe.
Some interesting reaction to that too. A number of letter writers suggest airlines charge by the pound, that is the pounds that you weigh and the pounds your luggage weighs. Can that be far behind. If you are over a certain average weight, will you pay more?

As the Garbage goes, so goes the City

2008-04-18T12:10:20Z

If I gave you 10 years to get something done, would you still be asking for a little more time after 10 years?
Worse yet, would you be asking for another 10 years?
The City of Montreal would. Quebec gave Montreal 10 years to reach 60 per cent recycling or composting of our household waste--also known as GARBAGE!
And Garbage is what we got form the city.
Now, ten years on, the city has not met the target, won't meet the target another 10 or 18 YEARS, and claims they don't have all the money they need to get there.
Give me a break.
Arguably, after clean water, sewage and roads, Garbage should be the top priority of any city government,
Lord knows they do pick it up, most of the time. But ten years notice, for a recycle, reduce, reuse and compost program should be enough.
And as i read back what I have written I realize that water, sewage and roads are all problem areas in Montreal even though they should be priorities.
So what are they doing down at city hall with our $4 billion dollars.
One thing is sure, when it comes to the environment and recycling, they are pulling the wool over their eyes. They don't really believe in reducing and recycling, even though the evidence is that citizens and
people buy into these programs in almost unanimous numbers.
No, they , the poltiicans in city hall, the Alan Da Sousa's and the Marcel Tremblay's talk a good line.
If they really believed, the ten year deadline would have been plenty.

Public or Private?

2008-04-14T12:03:38Z

Andre Pratte, chief editor of La Presse, was one of the people who signed the "LUCID" manifesto in Quebec a couple of years ago, so it is no surprise to me that Pratte, in his editorial on Saturday, gave pretty unqualified support to the report from a committee recommending higher fees for all kinds of government services and permits. plus higher Hydro Quebec rates.
I don't intend to belabour the issue, because it is a question of ideology more than anything else.

But Pratte described public service pricing policies in his editorial, and I immediately thought of the pricing policies of gasoline--the ultimate PRIVATE pricing policy.

Pratte described those public pricing policies as "illogical, arbitrary and opaque"--or non transparent. (My translation.)

Illogical, arbitrary and opaque: now does that not sound to you like the pricing policies of the gasoline and oil giants in our market? Or should I say pricing POLICY, since all the integrated oil and gas companies
tend to follow the SAME pricing policy. And oh no, it is not a result of collusion or anti-competition behaviour.

What Next up in the Air (Canada)?

2008-04-11T12:33:42Z

You've become used to paying for meals or bringing your own lunch when you fly domestic economy with Air Canada. You've become used to renting a blanket and a pillow on Air Canada domestic economy flights.
So what could be next?

]]> Well, not too long ago we heard Air Canada was offering traveller's assistance insurance for a modest fee. Now I predict Air Canada will attempt to start charging economy passengers for anything more than one piece of checked baggage.
Just surfing around for information on the American Airlines cancellations story, I came upon the United Airlines site, which featured an announcement about checked baggage. The gist of it is that any tickets sold after a certain date for economy class travel include only one checked bag, any more bags cost 25 or 35 dollars more on top of the ticket price.
Can Air Canada be far behind? Well Air Canada has been a trailblazer in the pay as you go break up of the cost of flying, AND Air Canada and United are in the same airline alliance: Star Alliance.
If United tries it and gets away with it, can Air Canada be far behind?
Stay tuned.

SPARE CHANGE ANYONE?

2008-04-10T11:20:30Z

A penny for your thoughts? That old saying could go the way of the dodo if a slim majority of Canadians get their way.

]]> Just a sllm majority has had enough of the penny and wants to get rid of it. Personally I couldn't agree more. Pennies--and nickels and dimes too--are waste of money and energy.
Let's bring everything down to the dollar store system, tax included of course, and get rid of all the energy and time we waste carrying and counting those coins below one dollar.
In fact, we could go even further than that, in a revolutionary inflationary move, and get rid of most of our paper money too. Make the penny the dollar, the nickel the five dollar, and on up.
The loonie would be the hundred dollar coin. The twoonie the two hundred dollar coin.
That would make pennies worth something, and get them out of the penny banks and into circulation.
The other advantage is that coins last a lot longer than paper money, and with my suggestion of making the penny the dollar etc combined with all the plastic we use--credit cards and debit cards--we might be able to do away with paper money altogether.
What do you think.
As for Jay Bryant's rant in the Gazette against a five dollar coin: well, if we hadn't made the one dollar coin so large, meaning the two dollar had to be larger, we would not be in this horrible spiral of bigger and heavier coins such as a new five-dollar coin might be, scaring the bejeesus out of Bryant. I just got back from London, where the one pound coin is just about the size of a quarter but about twice the weight. That means their two-pound coin could be a little smaller, like our loonie. That was the mistake we made, the original loonie was made too big.

BOTTLE THIS

2008-04-07T13:16:02Z

Geoff Green, explorer and environmentalist, wants you to stop using bottled water and bottle your own at home. He wants me to do it too. Am I up to the challenge?
As for you, for more on Green's campaign, go to www.filterforgood.ca , his website for more.

Everybody misses Nick

2008-04-07T12:20:43Z

Nick Auf der Maur, reporter, columnist, politician, boulevardier, drinker, smoker, hat wearer and exceptional storyteller, died 10 years ago this week.
His funeral at the time was an event at St Patrick's Basilica filled to overflowing followed by a New Orleans Basin Street style march through the streets with his coffin behind a jazz bandd.
Nick never did anything boring or just like everyone else. That was part of his charm, and he has yet to be replaced in Montreal by anyone anywhere near so colourful.
If you remember Nick, as councillor, columnist, or boulevardier patron of Crescent street bars--and that includes a lot of people--you will be welcome at Ziggy's on Crescent street tonight after five o'clock.
Along with a chance to reminisce about Nick and see his and your old friends, this will be a chance to help
cancer patients who need taxi fare to get to the Montreal General for their treatment.
Ziggy provides the vodka, Schwarz's provides the smoked meat and you can provide the tall tales of Nick's adventures. See you there. And share your Nick stories here with me on the comments.
My own favorite memory is when I managed to interview Nick and Melissa Auf der Maur together as a surprise to Melissa on my old interview show Sunday Night with Dennis Trudeau.

Vote for Denny Boy on Media Idol

2008-03-14T19:27:41Z

Vote for me on Media Idol on www.idol.ctv.ca and help Dans la Rue.

I have done the unthinkable, singing on camera, but for a good cause. The winner of Media Idol in Montreal wins $1,000 for a charity of his choice and I have chosen Dans la Rue which helps homeless young people in Montreal.

So yea, Ben Mulroney of Canadian Idol came to my house with his crew to record me singing Danny Boy and me imploring people to vote for me early and often to help Dans la Rue.

Now I am not a singer in any way shape or form, so you have been warned, but it is a good cause.

All the contestants are posted to the www.idol.ctv.ca site tomorrow Saturday March 15 and you can vote for me as often as you like until Tuesday March 18. Winner announced Wednesday March 19.

Thanks for your support.

Vote for Denny Boy on Media Idol

2008-03-14T19:15:29Z

Vote for me at www.idol.ctv.ca for Media Idoi Montreal and Help Dans La Rue.

I have done the unthinkable! Singing on camera but for a good cause. I am not a singer in any way but this is for a good cause!

The winner of Media Idol Montreal gets $1,000 to give to the charity of their choice and I have chosen Dans La Rue which helps homeless young people in Montreal.

So yes, Ben Mulroney and his crew came to my house and recorded me singing Danny Boy as well as me imploring people to vote for me. The contestants all go on the www.idol.ctv.ca web site Saturday, and you can vote as often as you want until Tuesday March 18, winner announced March 19.

Up on the Roof--Look Out!

2008-03-13T11:26:30Z

After the terrible events of Morin Heights this week, many people are worried about what to do about their roof and the snow accumulation.
Well with a little Googling I found the following website on the Government of Ontario Labour Department website. The site has advice about checking and clearing the roof that has too much snow on it. Now
my links have not been working so if the link does not work, simply Google the phrase "snow roof collapse precautions" and you will find the site I am referring to.
So, in a triumph of hope over experience, here goes the link: www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/alerts/a17