David Akin’s On The Hill

It was tougher in August to get visitors to drop by here: Just 34,235 unique IP addresses were recorded by the Blogware server here, down from over 50,000 in July. By comparison, nearly twice that many visitors – 59,829 — dropped by in August, 2005. Ah, well. Onwards and upwards in September.

For those that did hang around here in August, here’s the top 20 posts last month, ranked according the number of times they were viewed with the date of their original appearance here in brackets:

1. [What they said] Apple calculator a bad joke (Tue 10 Aug 2004)
2. Chrysler's Dieter Zietsche (Mon 10 Jan 2005 11:33 AM EST 
3. Jane Austen (Sat 18 Jun 2005)
4. Conservative statement on the nomination issue (Wed 16 Aug 2006)
5. Camille Paglia (Sat 18 Oct 2003)
6. Hard at work (Sat 05 Mar 2005)
7. A Porsche moment (Mon 10 Jan 2005)
8. Boeing and tactical airlift – not gonna happen (Wed 16 Aug 2006)
9. Who pays for this blog? Some disclaimers (Fri 13 Aug 2004)
10. Canada's multi-billion dollar military aircraft purchases — someone wants to steal Boeing's pie (Fri 04 Aug 2006)
11. For the record: Media pays its own way for travel with PM (Tue 01 Aug 2006)
12. Digital voice recorders (Fri 04 Aug 2006)
13. Chinooks and Globemasters: Boeing wins nearly $4 billion from Ottawa (Fri 11 Aug 2006)
14. Sitting Tory MPs gear up to defend their seats (Tue 15 Aug 2006)
15. For the record: Bill Graham, then Borys Wrzesnewskyj on Hezbollah (Mon 21 Aug 2006)
16. Harper at Vimy Ridge (Tue 18 Jul 2006)
17. Conservatives smashing opponents on fundraising (Wed 02 Aug 2006)
18. A grave at Vimy (Tue 18 Jul 2006)
19. Kennedy asks Harper to repudiate “tasteless” fundraising letters (Mon 31 Jul 2006)
20. [What they said] Mobile phone detects bad breath  (Wed 22 Sep 2004)

Folks in the capital are interested in this project: The City of Ottawa wants to build a north-south commuter rail system that would run from a shopping centre a few blocks from Parliament Hill out to a suburban development on the city’s southern edge. This week, the Canadian Transportation Agency signed off on the deal.

Some excerpts from the CTA decision:

• “the North-South light rail transit line (hereinafter the LRT) Project is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects taking into account the implementation of the mitigation measures proposed by the City of Ottawa. “
• “The total LRT Project consists of some 31 kilometers of twin-track electrically powered Light Rail Transit service running from its southern terminus in the future Barrhaven Town Centre to the Mackenzie King Bridge, including a link to the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. The LRT Project will be constructed in phases. “
• “The City of Ottawa's notice of application and environmental assessment was published in local area newspapers and eight interventions from the City of Ottawa's residents or citizen/business associations in respect of the construction application were filed with the Agency. Interventions were received from Mr. Clarke, Albert/Slater Coalition, Bentall Real Estate Services, City Centre Coalition, Mr. Berthiaume, Citizens for Safe Cycling, Ms. Allogia, Crowne Plaza Ottawa and SaveOurGreenspace.”

The intervenors’ concerns can be lumped, broadly, into three areas:

• The proposed route will hurt Albert Street and Slater Street businesses in the downtown core, inhibiting pedestrian traffic and access to some buildings.
• The proposed route has not been optimized for safety.
• The proposed route does not do enough to protec the natural environment.

The City of Ottawa had replies for each of the intervenors (a summary of the objections and their responses is at the CTA link above) and, if the City didn’t satisfy the intervenors, it satisfied the three-person tribunal from the CTA which reviewed the decision.

Canada is arming it border guards; the U.S. is upping the user fees for Canadian air traveller and cargo shippers. Once we were such happy neighbours … 🙂 I reported yesterday for CTV on the border guard story. Some notes that didn’t make it into that file:

• The Conservatives say it will take ten years to train, arm, and deploy 4,400 border guards but yesterday officials could not say how many points-of-entry will get an armed guard. Canada has 1,200 points-of-entry, including 119 land crossings with the U.S., but officials with the Canada Border Services Agency and Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day’s office did not know if the plan was to put an armed guard at each one of those 1,200 points-of-entry.
• The Conservatives announced a plan that will take ten years to fulfill but only announced funding for two years. In the run-up to last year’s election, the Conservatives often criticized the Liberals for the ten-year horizon on the Liberal daycare plan.
• In June of this year, Alain Jolicoeur, the head of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), told a Senate Committee that of the 119 land crossings with the U.S., 21 were not wired into any data network or the Internet. So, if a bad guy named David Akin showed up at one of these posts, the guard there could not run the name “David Akin” through a central database to see if I ought to be detained. Senators, at the time, were more than a little unhappy about this state of affairs. Yesterday, a CBSA official said that all 21 had now been wired up.
• The vast majority of land border crossings are single-officer posts. The CBSA said that of the 119 land border crossings, 95 are normally staffed by just one person. Including those 95 land crossings, there are a total of 138 single-officer posts. That’s an improvement over 2005 when there were 139 single-officer posts. Some crossings, as several news outlets have reported over the last year, consist of a videophone terminal where visitors are asked to phone in and identify themselves.
• Some other stats provided to in the backgrounder issued by the Prime Minister’s Office: 260,000 travellers are processed into Canada every day. In 2004, there were 621 weapons seizures, 8,711 drug seizures valued at $290–million, and currency seizures of more than $12–million that were believed to be the proceeds of crime.

OK all you political trivia masters — here’s one: Have a father and his son ever served as an MP at the same time in the House of Commons? We ask after noting that 30–year-old Ryan Warawa is out to seek the Conservative Party nomination in the riding of Burnaby-New Westminster, a riding currently held by the NDP’s Peter Julian. Ryan Warawa is the son of Mark Warawa, the 56–year-old MP for the riding of Langley.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recently spoke to the annual meeting of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association. His department has posted his remarks on its Web site and here is an excerpt:

Corner stores are the cornerstone of our economy in Canada. You are the heart and soul of small business. You keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive from generation to generation and many of you, I know, work long hours alongside your families. Many of you provide young Canadians with their first jobs and their opportunities to learn and to teach and to be taught the value of hard work and responsibility and the value of a dollar. So your contributions cannot and should not be underestimated and certainly are not underestimated by the new Government of Canada.

In Ontario alone, convenience stores contribute $12 billion a year to the Canadian economy and provide more than 70,000 jobs, which is an enormous contribution to the province of Ontario, Canada. As your association itself has noted, every 30 days Ontario’s convenience stores have as many visitors as Canada has people—that’s about 32 million people. This impact is profound and your determination is inspiring.

 

Benoit Sauvageau (left) died today in a car accident. Sauvageau was the MP for the riding of Repentigny. I knew him only because he was an effective member of some of the committees, namely Public Accounts, that I covered. He was, it seemed to me, a highly intelligent man with a good sense of humour. A former professor, Sauvageau was first elected to the Commons in 1993 and handily won in the last election, winning by a margin of more than 25,000 votes and taking 62 per cent of all votes cast.

[Wow — the Wikipedia entry for Sauvageau is already updated with news of his death.]

Here is Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe on M. Sauvageau’s death:

« C’est avec un immense chagrin que j’ai appris le décès du député du Bloc Québécois de Repentigny, Benoît Sauvageau.

Mes premières pensées vont à son épouse, Jacinthe, ainsi qu’à ses quatre charmantes filles. Je sais bien la douleur qu’elles doivent ressentir actuellement. Ensemble, ils ont construit une famille merveilleuse.

Benoît était pour nous également un membre de la famille, un frère. C’est pourquoi je tiens à assurer ces êtres qui lui étaient si chères : ses filles Laurence, Catherine, Elizabeth, et Alice, son épouse, Jacinthe, ainsi que ses parents, qui ont toujours été extrêmement présents au cours de sa carrière, que nous sommes entièrement avec eux en ces moments pénibles.

Benoît était un collaborateur de longue date. Il avait été élu la première fois sous la bannière du Bloc Québécois en octobre 1993 et il a ensuite représenté la circonscription sans interruption jusqu’à son décès tragique.

Sur le plan parlementaire, Benoît Sauvageau a accompli un travail remarquable, autant par exemple au niveau de ses responsabilités face aux dossiers liés aux langues officielles que ceux touchant les comptes publics.

Je sais à quel point il aimait son coin de pays, sa circonscription, comme il aimait profondément le Québec à qui il a consacré ses meilleures années.

Les événements comme celui que nous traversons actuellement sont toujours particulièrement pénibles. Durant les treize ans où j’ai côtoyé Benoît au sein de la famille du Bloc Québécois, je peux dire que nous avons vécu ensemble un large pan de l’histoire de ce parti. Ensemble, nous avons traversé les moments heureux comme les moments les plus difficiles.

En 13 ans, des liens très forts se créent. C’est particulièrement vrai quand nous sommes impliqués dans une aventure aussi enivrante que celle de vouloir se donner un pays. Je veux aujourd’hui simplement tenter d’exprimer l’immense vide que je ressens personnellement aujourd’hui à l’idée de son départ.

Professionnellement, Benoît Sauvageau était un député consciencieux, compétent, intègre et dédié à l’endroit des gens qu’il servait. Il a également toujours su relever les défis qui se sont dressés devant lui. Il abordait ces défis avec l’enthousiasme et la bonne humeur que nous lui avons toujours connus. Il était un homme respecté et apprécié de ses collègues du Bloc Québécois comme de ses adversaires.

En privé, Benoît Sauvageau était de ceux qu’il fait bon côtoyer. Il était un homme patient, généreux et qui illuminait son entourage par sa gentillesse et sa joie de vivre. Le matin même de son terrible décès, il faisait savoir aux gens de mon équipe à quel point il se réjouissait de ma visite qui était prévue dans quelques jours dans sa circonscription.

Croyez-moi, Benoît était de ce type de personnes qui sont appréciées de toutes et de tous. Il nous manquera beaucoup. Notre travail, lui, doit toutefois continuer. Benoît ne verra pas un Québec souverain. Soyez sûrs toutefois, et je parle ici au nom de toute la famille du Bloc Québécois, qu’une part de lui restera bien présente en nos coeurs. Nous poursuivrons la tâche comme il l’aurait souhaité.