Power to the people

We live in the 4^th largest city in North America. We are the economic backbone of Canada; And Toronto’s population has always steadily gone up. As well as the population of the GTA and Ontario. With more people comes more demand for electricity, but wait! Were not prepared to handle this increase in demand. All summer we hear on the news “The power grid is under a large amount of strain turn down A/C’s turn off lights, blah blah blah. The black out of 2003 showed us that we as consumers of electricity had been let down. The province did not act accordingly to insure every Ontarian has reliable power. The thing that bothers me the most is that because of the province fucking up the consumers are punished. It’s the consumers who are being told that if we use too much power during the day we will be charged an arm and a leg. This method seems to make sense right? It will deter over use of the grid during peak hours.

But why should we give a shit in the first place, It’s not our fault there is not enough power for demand. But yet you’re expected to sit in your dark living room during a 32c day sweltering because your central air system turned itself off because you agreed to have hydro install a smart switch on your central air which shuts down your AC during periods of extreme power use.

Only problem is, it’s generally during this time you need your AC. This entire mess is really only a Burdon on the working class poor, or middle class. Anyone else could care less about a few extra hundred bucks on their energy bill.

So here we sit a power hungry province with 3 nuclear power plants neither of which has operated at 100% full capacity for years, due to safety concerns, money restraints and of course how can we forget the Harris conservatives selling off the generating plants to private companies, there by losing its control in saying when stations are down for maintenance, or when they all have to be running.

We should not have to turn to the US or Quebec to assist us when we need power because we cant keep up with our own demand.

Allot of people seem to have this notion that building new nuclear power plants is a horrible idea. Nuclear power has a bad stigma attached to it. But if you do the research on it (especially in regards to CANDU reactors) Nuclear power is not that bad at all.

Here are a few quick facts:

One: The only this released into the atmosphere during the production of nuclear power is steam, that’s it!

Two: CANDU reactors, the made in Canada used in plants around the world solution is touted as the safest reactor ever. It would take a direct high impact bomb impact to cause a CANDU reactor to fail.

Three: The biggest argument is that to produce nuclear power you get nuclear waste. Yes this is true and yes it takes thousands of years for the material to become safe, but the amount of waste produced is not very large at all. And in recent years scientists have discovered a way of re-using that waste.

Four: Canada especially Ontario has always been a large uranium producer, Neculer plants not only keep the air clean but also help support the economy.

The fact remains the options for energy productions are limited; Wind farms need massive amounts of land. And usually involve destroying farm land to erect them. Also no wind no power, Solar plants only work when it is sunny, and again require large amounts of space for little output. Hydroelectric (Water falls/streams) this is always a good option but not when you have to flood large areas to achieve it.

Anyways that’s just my whole take on it, feel free to comment.

Maybe we are to accepting?

Due to some good points brought up by a friend i revised this blog.

I have been increasingly concerned over the years with what was happening to the city and country I was born in. I'm talking about are never ending efforts to bend over backwards (in the name of multiculturalism) to accommodate new comers into this country. Before I get into this to far let me first say this. I myself owe my being here to immigration, as do millions of other Canadians. It is essential to the growth and prosperity of our country that we continually accept immigrants. But here is what bothers me. Over the past decade the majority of immigrants/refuges coming here have made no effort to embrace our way of living. They have little to no regard for our customs. When my grandfather came here from Romania he realized he had to learn English right away. It would be inconsiderate and also counter productive for him not to. He knew that living in a city like Victoria was far different then the poor village in Romania to which he came. So he knew that he would have to change his habits, and learn what was acceptable and what was not. This was the case for all new immigrants to Canada. But it seems to me like that level of respect no longer exists among today’s immigrants/refugees. Due to our effort to preserve people cultures and try and cater to all the new arrivals into Canada, many new immigrants/refugees don’t even bother to learn English. Why should they? When they come here they can move to a community entirely of there own kind, and never need to speak a word of English. This is where Canada’s experiment in the method of a “melding pot” as opposed to a “melting pot” went horribly wrong. The new arrivals into Canada now for the most part have no interest in what Canada is, what Canada was founded on. They come here and bring there religious finaticalisum with them and push it onto others. They being there civil wars here, there intolerance towards homosexuals, woman and other people, here there intolerance towards anything that defies there religious beliefs. I find this awful; you came to this country for a new beginning to get away from the 3^rd world living conditions and political persecution you faced in your home land. Only to try and force your intolerance and fanaticism religious beliefs onto us. You expect us to change laws and ways of life to accommodate your religion. Would your society do the same for us? When these people know full well knew what the standard is before coming here. Why should we have to stop calling Christmas what it is? Christmas is not about religion it has become a tradition of coming together of family and giving of gifts. The RCMP a symbol of Canada’s begging’s and a national trade mark. A Sikh joining the force took the RCMP to the supreme court arguing that there uniform policy’s were breaching his human rights as he could not where his turban on duty. My response to this again is you came here for change for a new life. This is a different world all together, if you are not prepared to make a change then don’t cause a fuss. Do you think Iran would change there policy’s on woman to cater to us? Doubt full. Exceptions were given to a certain religious group so that students could wear a dagger into class. This is a serious safety/security risk. And again why did we allow this? Why not say “no” If a none Muslim student did the same thing they would be arrested, where is the logic in this?

It seems to me that we have been so busy trying to make everyone happy that we have neglected the citizens’ who were born here whose grandparents founded this nation. No one wants to speak up for fear of being labeled a racist. Well if I'm racist so be it, the fact remains were losing our identity as a nation, our history due to poor integration of new arrivals into Canada. There is something wrong when an anti-gay march goes thru the downtown and the participants are all new comers to Canada. I say how dare you, we let you come into our home we sheltered you and now you spread your hate thru our streets.

It is hard to touch on a subject such as this without offending some people. Or perhaps not having the point I'm trying to illustrate come across clearly. I’m not saying all immigrants and refugees are like this, What I'm saying is that due to our society falling into a sense of complacency over the years, And the government not paying closer attention to how new arrivals into Canada become part of society. We have in essence failed many of the immigrants and refugees coming into Canada over the past decade or so.

At some point immigration changed, Persons coming to Canada move into communities entirely of there own home land. They don’t try to integrate into main stream “Canadian” society because they don’t have to.

And the government did not see this happening soon enough. We are now stuck in a situation where racial tensions have arisen here in Canada between different religious sects who in their region of the world are at war.

The most recent example of our failure to immigrants into Canada is the death of a high school student at the hands of her father. Had the family been educated on customs in Canada perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided. Had the mother and father been educated that western teens grow up in a very free environment one where people are encouraged to so independence and develop into their own person? Perhaps the girl her self would have been made familiar with the fact that domestic is absolutely not tolerated here, and given the outlets to report a violent home life. But instead we are left with a dead young girl.

How many more families like this are out there? How many teenage girls live a restricted sexist and abusive home life because they don’t know they have options? How many members of these families don’t even know of the consequences’ of treating woman as a lesser life form?

As time goes on the cultural differences grow larger, the resentment towards certain races and religions grows. Why does it seem like everyone has stopped caring?

Here is a thought you can dwell on after reading this. Upon successfully declaring refugee status when entering Canada. The claimant automatically get moved to the top of any social housing list in Ontario, is issued an Ontario health card. And is put up in a hotel. I agree with the last two but refugees are bumped ahead of Ontario born citizens’ on social housing lists. Why are we not watching out for our own first?