Understanding Without Sympathy

It wasn't long after Pauline Marois tried to turn a  frown upside down by announcing a $70 a year tuition hike at an education conference in Montreal yesterday that students were out, in force, protesting like it was 2012. But hey, it wasn't like it was the couple of hundred dollars in tuition fee hikes the Liberals were talking about, right?

Guelph From Space

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's been getting some great photography from his perch in orbit on the International Space Station, and yesterday, he posted a new photo of our neck of the woods on Twitter. The photo shows Guelph, Hamilton, Brantford and Waterloo Region at night. Unless I'm mistaken, Guelph is the one at the top left-hand corner. Gotta love that view, huh? Makes all the stuff we slug it out over in that little band of light seem kind of insignificant.

Weather Warnings

Here we go again. Winter weather is again threatening the serenity of our fair city, and City Hall's sent out a couple of warnings and advisories. Read all about it after the jump...

Robocall: Notes From a Year Later

A couple of weeks ago I was on Twitter and I read a post by Andrew Prescott, AKA: the blogger Christian Conservative. He addressed the tweet to Donald Trump and asked The Donald to come to Ontario where he can continue the good work fighting wind mills as he did in Scotland. Forget that Trump is basically fighting an entire Scottish town on this so that he can open some ghastly golf course he'll undoubtedly drive into bankruptcy, but as I said a few weeks ago on "Beyond the Ballot Box," if Trump comes to Ontario to protest wind mills, I'll support him so long as he campaigns to see Stephen Harper's birth certificate while he's here.

Joking aside though, I find these kinds of posts from Prescott as irksome as I find them tiresome. Not just because he's one of the few people in the free world that continues to beatify Trump - whose own kids after his election day meltdown last November told him to pucker up - but because in midst of Prescott's identification of so call liars and "Fiberals" he seems to forget that he, himself, has a lot to answer for.

Seriously, Do Not Call

I got this press release today, and my immediate visceral reaction was that it was so bizarre it deserved to be posted on Politico.

Granted, it's probably solid advice, and there might be two or three people that try and call City Hall in a desperate struggle around the lunch hour on Saturday, but honestly, what are the odds that you'll have to? Does anybody worth calling at City Hall work on Saturday? By-law enforcement maybe.

City of Guelph Acquitted of Charges in Warren Case

Hard to believe that it's been almost four years since teenager Isabel Warren died after a wall collapsed on her in a washroom at a south end park. The fallout included a full city review of facilities and resulted in more than a few closures and repairs in buildings across Guelph.

Since that time, it's been a point of legal curiosity if the City of Guelph was at all culpable in the death of this young woman, and on that account, the court finally release a decision today.

Sandals Makes The Cabinet

It's a day of tremendous pride for a little berg as Guelph's Member of Provincial Parliament, Liberal Liz Sandals, was announced yesterday as the province's new Minister of Education under Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The Pope Resigns

598. That's how many years it's been since the last Pope left the throne via resignation as opposed to, you know, dying. But in these strange times, we once again sail into the unknown as this morning came the shocking news that Pope Benedict XVI would be calling it a papacy at the end of this month after a little less than eight years in the office.

The Show Must - And Must Not - Go On

As the weather situation continues to pay havoc with people's schedules, the City's been sending updates about shows currently scheduled for tonight in the Royal City.

Snow Joke! Transit on Modified Service

guelphmercury.com

Now this is a snow day! Been a while since we've seen one of these. Probably why Guelph Transit is on modified service this morning.

Here's the release from Guelph Transit.

Guelph Transit is running base conventional service (routes 1 to 16, and 20) as well as north and south community buses.The University Express routes are not running today as the University of Guelph is closed.

Limited mobility services will be provided today, for medical appointments only. Discretionary trips will be rescheduled.

Delays are expected due to severe winter weather. Please plan your trip accordingly and give yourself extra time to travel to your destination.

Check back regularly for updates.

The University of Guelph is indeed closed, which is a rare occurance indeed. People joke about hell freezing over, when I was a student, we'd sub Hell for the U of G. But for Tranist updates, I might suggest to keep you eye on Guelph Transit's Twitter feed. Otherwise, the best advice might be to stay home today, and enjoy a mug of your favourite warm beverage.

Trudeau Draws a Crowd at U of G

Normally the kind of wall-to-wall crowd assembled at the Brass Taps this afternoon is there to see some popular indie band. Or are there for trivia night. Rarely does a politician make this kind of smash anyway, especially when he or she is from a major Federal party. But today, the Original JT - that's Justin Trudeau - brought political sexy back to the Brass Taps at the University of Guelph's University Centre.

There's a Hole in the Plan

The change in routes and arrival times to Guelph Transit this week has not come without the usual frustrations and complaints. Not surprising really, the perfectly viable and easy to understand 15-minute service has been traded in for a more confusing 20-minute schedule that's harder to follow and will more than likely make it just as difficult for some commuters to make their transfers.

But then I noticed this at the bus stop on the south-bound 2B route at the corner of Paisley and Imperial:

Press Release - Mayor Getting Jubilee Medal

I know Mayor Karen Farbridge isn't exactly everyone's favourite person, but you have to admire someone who's given a lot to her community, right?

Well in that spirit, the Mayor's being given a Diamond Jubilee medal for all her years of service to the Royal City, and for all her work to help make Guelph a better place.* Farbridge is one of 60,000 Canadians who have received the medal in recognition for their accomplishments in this 60th anniversary marking Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and ascension to the throne.

Press Release - City to Appeal Dolime Permit

It would surely be nice if the City saw all water taking permits as impacting with equally compelling zeal, but I digress.

Seriously, this actually might be worse than the whole Nestle situation. Think about the location - Wellington and the Hanlon - and what runs past there. Also, this news that Dolime wants to take more water comes with especially bad timing with recent reports that the Great Lakes are at near historic low water levels, and this just in, but the Speed River is part of the system that feeds into the Great Lakes.

Perhaps emboldened by the defeat of the Melancthon "mega"-quarry near Orangeville, the City feels that they have a good chance to get a stay. I hope so. Water is far too precious a resource, and I'm not yet sure people realize just how precious.

RIP: The Penny

Today's the fateful day. After hundreds of years of faithful service, the penny is being sent into forcible retirement. Or killed off, if you like.

The move was announced in last year's budget as a - ahem - penny-pinching measure by the Federal government to help bring Canada's fiscal picture into balance. No more pennies means an annual savings of $11 million to the treasury, considering that it cost 1.6 cents for every one cent piece minted. Still, what we will save in pennies is about to cost us in headaches.

Don't Plough Me In

This sight greeted me on the way to work this morning. Nothing quite like trudging through the wind and the cold and the snow with the additional headache of having to deal with man-made obstacles.