Uncle Sam says: we want your power

A little background from the Globe and Mail on why Hydro Quebec wants to buy NB Power:

This comes as U.S. officials pressure eastern Canadian utilities to merge, a move that would make it easier to co-ordinate production and transmission of electricity to the eastern United States. Given that the region's most important source of electricity is Hydro-Québec, U.S. officials are eager to see it take over its smaller rivals in the Maritimes, the government official said.

Full analysis here. This is a very, very bad move, selling public assets. Contact your MLA and the Premier and tell them they don't have the authority to sell NB Power without a public debate. All it is going to take to stop this deal is for a couple of Liberal MLA's to cross the floor and trigger an election. The consequences are going to be enormous, and shady backroom deals are never in the interest of regular people - our residential rates are not going to decline under these terms of sale.

Let the waiting begin

Packed house for the meeting last night - ten times more than I've ever seen. The proposal for rezoning was put on hold in order for PAC and Council to review the new drawings submitted by Mr. Cronkite. If Council proceeds with the next step and public hearing, they will likely take place in early December. I'll keep you updated.

In other news, Kerry O'Toole won a national sculpture contest at St. Andrew's Kingsbrae Gardens. His flying geese will be installed permanently in the gardens. Congratulations Kerry! Kerry had originally offered this sculpture to the Town of Woodstock for placement downtown but they declined to purchase it.

Speak up for the Weslyan church

Boy, there's a lot going down in the downtown.

The Weslyan church will be torn down and replaced with another vinyl apartment building unless Woodstock Town Council votes "no" on the rezoning next Monday night. October 27th will be the first of three readings necessary to demolish the historic church and establish apartments. Neighbourhood residents are opposed to the demolition.

I will be going to council and I encourage YOU to make time and go, if you're concerned about the preservation of historic buildings in "New Brunswick's First Town." We need a vision for our historic downtown, and vinyl isn't it! Sorry to be so blunt but if this keeps up we are going to be another drive-through town in the drive through province.

Make your municipal democracy work and get out there!

Ahoy, me Canadian pirates

Turns out we host 4 of 5 of the world's best/worst file sharing websites. This is a complicated situation, but three things are for sure:

1. The downloading genie will never go back into the copyright box.

2. Internet file-sharing has changed the role of information and culture in our society.

3. Our "intellectual property" laws and ways of thinking about information sorely need updating.

Over and out.

We're gonna kick it up a notch

So, RiVA is having its first ever membership drive. At the oh-so-obvious risk of appearing recklessly partisan, here's why you should go to Fusion Thursday night at 8pm and buy a membership (or several):

1. Carleton County needs an arts centre and that takes money.
2. It will get you into the Halloween party for FREE, and your name on our VIP list.
3. The more members we have, the more clout we have locally in lobbying for cool projects.
4. You will have a chance to make a cool mask and hear some good tunes.
5. You never know what might happen. Really.

Your support means a lot. We have spent the past six months working, sweating, dreaming, and fighting for this to happen. The parking situation at 702 is coming to a head and whatever happens, we'd love to know you're on our side. Cheers!

Support the library book rate

The library book rate is a partnership between Canada Post and libraries. It helps reduce the cost of sending books and information across our sprawling country. It will expire at the end of 2009 unless the public demands the government support it.

Do your part, take 15 seconds to email Harper here. Happy reading!

Two nightcaps on writing

So, a reporter's paper shuts down, throwing him out of work. His response: buy his own paper, get back to work, double time.

Also, here's an excerpt from an interview with Toni Morrison. She was asked where her ideas come from and how she overcomes the difficulty of the blank page.

TM: It's that being open - not scratching for it, not digging for it, not constructing something but being open to the situation and trusting that what you don't know will be available to you. It's bigger than your overt consciousnessor your intelligence or even your gifts; it is out there somewhere and you have to let it in.

PH: And does being open in that way to your writing spill over into other areas of your life?

TM: I feel more friendly when I am writing, nicer to people, much more generous, also wiser. I am full of a kind of tenderness towards people and all they have to hide, all they have to construct. Not pity, not sympathy, just tenderness. Knowing that the job of being human is so hard, and it is the only job there is left - though we keep on pretending otherwise. If I am in that good place, and I run into someone I dislike, I feel more human and they seem more human.

PH: Connected.

TM:Precisely. I keep telling everyone whenever I get a chance that it took 60 million years to make a human eye. And before that, it was just a little cell at the bottom of the ocean that was sensitive to light. Just think of how complicated and truly magnificent a human being is. When you think of all we are capable of - being able to love each other, and being willing to do something good in the world for no recognition . . . I am not saying there are not people who want to step over each other, who want to maim and kill, but that is a perversion of the beautiful things human beings are made for.

There are all sorts of ways people try to stay connected, try not to live in hate. Religion may be one of them, but for me the central thing is the writing. The art itself. Putting my intelligence and my humanity to the best possible use, and I get better because I am doing it. The writing teaches me that I can't just reach some little plateau and say that's it, this is the place. It is always a search.

PH: And that's the good news.

TM: That is the good news.

The Good Place or No Place

Before you get finished your turkey day, or your Tofurkey day, take 15 minutes to listen to this excellent talk about food and how it should be central to our thinking. My life in large part revolves around food, so of course I liked this talk, but I think when we get back in touch with real food and real human company, we will be on the road to recovering from this industrial hangover.

Bon appetit!

Local Links

Lee and Yolande Clark have a beautiful new pottery website! Read about their process and see the amazingly unique work they produce. What a great gift for that person who has everything . . . hint, hint.

The lady's got brains

This year, four Nobel Prizes were awarded to women. In the history of the Nobel Prize, only 35 have gone to females, including this year. This post is dedicated to my grandmother's father, who encouraged her to get an education and become a teacher, despite the objections of her mother and brothers. My grandmother's education had a tremendous influence on me, so it would be fair to say I owe her father a debt of gratitude as well.

Educate yourself about these hard-working thinkers and their accomplishments. The human brain is a pretty miraculous device.

Stranger than fiction

Bizarre claims from this article in the New York Times:

Researchers have long known that people cling to their personal biases more tightly when feeling threatened. After thinking about their own inevitable death, they become more patriotic, more religious and less tolerant of outsiders, studies find. When insulted, they profess more loyalty to friends — and when told they’ve done poorly on a trivia test, they even identify more strongly with their school’s winning teams.

The theory is exposure to bizarre and unexpected things could actually stimulate creativity. Tim Burton would be a prime example, I suppose.

Also: James P. Johnson gets his propers, finally, after 50 years in an obscure grave in Queens.