In Canada on October 23, 2009 by Robert Jago Tagged: Politics, Tories
NationalNewsWatch had a story up this morning about Tory ads on Go Trains in Toronto – $42,000 to promote the economic action plan.
So it wasn’t a surprise to see this on the way to work:
Two of the cars idling at the station had those ads.
Translink’s advertising is run by a company called ‘Lamar Transit Advertising’. The ad you see in the picture is called a ‘Sky Wrap’, and cost $5,150 per car. So sitting at that one station was at least $10,000.
Absolutely pointless – though it does kind of lead to an interesting comparisson. Walk anywhere in Metro Vancouver, and within 2 or 3 blocks you’ll find a sign for the provincial stimulus plan – one of those “Every Job Counts” signs*. The difference is, the provincial sign is on an actual construction site, or new homeless shelter, rebuilt seawall etc… etc …
Can’t say I’ve seen a federal stimulus sign on anything other than a billboard, or in this case, a Skytrain.
In Life on October 13, 2009 by Robert Jago Tagged: Atheism
I don’t think it’s true, but I do enjoy how offensive it is:
Last week, a new study confirmed something essential about women, something that refuses to budge, even though many say it’s long past time. Professors at Trinity College in Connecticut analyzed the numbers of Americans unaffiliated to any religion. While the number of male nonbelievers was rocketing, the overall totals were slowed by women hitching themselves to the anchor of faith: “Gender difference is a brake on the growth of the No Religion population,” says the study, which found that 19 percent of men were no longer denizens of a religious America, while only 12 percent of women live outside the faithful fold. In the past, one could say that women tended the hearth, and men participated in the marketplace. But today?
… It’s hard not to compare women sticking with faith to wives confined to bad marriages: They’re so committed to the institution that they’ll willingly shrink under mistreatment just to maintain their own status quo.
In Canada on October 9, 2009 by Robert Jago Tagged: Blogs, Politics
… will not be appearing.
I’m too busy. The system needs tinkering and I don’t have a minute to do it. I’ve got a new business, it makes money, it’s fun, I just opened our downtown office etc… etc…
If I have a spare minute, I try and spend it at home with Cathy, catching up with old friends, or more likely than anything else – drumming up new business.
So until I do eventually find some time (or interest) to re-launch that list thing – it will be on indeffinite hiatus. If you are wondering who was on the list for October – I don’t know.
In Canada, Life on October 7, 2009 by Robert Jago Tagged: Google Street View, Vancouver
Google picked what was easily the most boring day in the history of the city to do their street view photos. There are some good views of the city – like this one of West Vancouver from the Lions Gate – but no prostitutes on the streets (excepting these Liberal candidates at a pr event), no heroin shooting galleries, most importantly, no one on the beaches. The only “gem” I was able to find was this one photo of a drug deal behind the library at Main and Hastings (in the back by the pole).
If you’ve never been to Vancouver’s downtown eastside, now’s your chance to take a tour. Just click on the photo:
In Politics on October 1, 2009 by Robert Jago Tagged: Canada, Hedy Fry, Olympics, Politics
Vancouver’s own Hedy Fry has spotted it again – no, not more burning crosses – but the pernicious meddling of the Conservative party. They have, it seems, coerced the Canadian Olympic Team to ape their party logo for the Canada ‘Olympic Retail’ logo:
Opposition MPs are alleging that “crass politics” have resulted in a Canadian Olympic retail logo that mirrors the federal Conservative party logo.
Vancouver Liberal Hedy Fry told the House of Commons that a new logo for February’s Winter Games “bears a striking resemblance” to that of the governing party.
Gary Lunn, the minister for amateur sport, responded that the federal government was “not involved in any way, shape or form in the design of any of the Olympic clothing.”
The clothing and logo was developed by the Hudson’s Bay Co., in consultation with the Canadian Olympic Committee and an athletes panel, and the minister says he first saw it on Wednesday this week.
The logo, unveiled Thursday by HBC, includes a red Maple Leaf surrounded by a black C-shaped arrow.
The Conservative party logo is a red Maple Leaf surrounded by a blue C.
Fry accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of “trying to politicize” the Games.
Lunn shot back that Liberals seem to delight in undermining Canadian retail institutions such as Tim Hortons and the Bay.
New Democrat Charlie Angus said outside the Commons that the two logos are very close.
“It is very clear, if the Conservative Party had nothing to do with this, then it would be suing the Olympic team for trademark infringement,” he said.
And they have a point – just take a look at the Conservative logo (boo, hiss) and compare it with the Olympics logo at the top of this post. Here it is:
Oops, that’s the logo for Cypress Mountain – venue for the freestyle ski and snowboard events during the 2010 Olympics. Here we are – the Tory logo:
Very similar-ish. A ‘C’ and a leaf – who would ever think of that? How unique in a country that begins with a ‘C’ and has a leaf as its national symbol. They’re right, the only way for them to have come up with that logo is if the Tories forced them to do it.
Well, either that, or some lazy designer took the old airforce logo and added an arrow to it. It is after all, like the identical leaf, and the relative proportions are virtually the same as in the old airforce roundel:
