Basilisk

Vancouver has a steam heating system around Gastown, which is what powers the famous steam-powered clock there (at least since they repaired it).

The problem is that “drive less transit more” is only an option if you live where transit is viable. If they were simultaneously investing money (or even reinvesting the carbon tax into) into subsidies for transit systems, cycling improvements, walkable cities, and the like so that these alternatives are accessible to everyone then there would be at least a carrot to go along with that stick. But there’s virtually no amount of tax that will ever make trading a 30 minute car ride for 2 hours on and off with multiple transfers with the bus a reasonable alternative. And there’s no way to get more people into buses or trains that are crammed full to the point of skipping stops even if you could somehow convince people to make that trade.

If that’s the case, then the whole process is as wrong-headed as can be. You can only choose an alternative if a viable alternative exists. Transit isn’t supported enough to be a universally practical option while electric vehicles are too expensive and have infrastructure requirements that can’t necessarily be met by everyone. And speaking as someone who’s tried cycling, well, Edmonton is making some big moves, but In Calgary? Maybe I’ll give it a shot again when I get tired of living.

And none of that covers the fact that what is being paid at the pump as a surcharge to cover carbon taxes holds no relationship at all with what the oil companies are paying. It’s being used as an excuse to bilk the consumer even further and to line the pockets of investors.

The problem is that if the candidate from Party “A” is a competent weasel who wants to undermine everything I stand for, and party “B”'s candidate is an incompetent boob who won’t help matters but also is popular and won’t actively ruin everything, then it’s far more important to my interests that party “A”'s candidate not be voted in than it is to cast a vote for candidate “C”. The system is working how is designed to and the only people who are capable of changing it are the ones benefiting from it being broken, so the only way that’s likely to happen is if there were somehow a mass exodus away from the big two parties.

That’s not an actual solution though. Not everyone is in a position to simply uproot like that, when you may need services that aren’t available in small towns, or you might be caring for someone who can’t move, or you might just be part of a tight-knit family or community and moving takes away more support than independence gives. Even if that’s irrelevant, not everyone can simply find a job in a small town because every job doesn’t exist in the same way everywhere. Think there’s a lot of demand for administrative assistants in Irvine, AB? And that’s not even counting the fact that while people can work remotely (assuming the destination has decent internet, which depending on how small & remote the town is is not a guarantee), there’s plenty of companies whose policies have removed it because they need to justify their investments in real estate and middle managers.

Even if we assume a genie appears and gives everyone who wants it the opportunity to find fulfilling jobs that they can work from small towns, exactly how long are those prices going to stay low as soon as people jump ship from the cities, or worse, once real estate investment companies are able to create income properties in these same places?

And that’s not counting the fact that it’s expensive to move, and especially moving a long way. Even if you just rent a U-haul and chuck all of your junk into it, the truck costs, fuel costs, there’s usually hookup fees for services, you may not be able to work during this time if you can work remote, or you may have to go without pay if you’re between jobs… It’s not an insignificant barrier to entry and that’s assuming you’re young and healthy and none of those are concerns. Moving away from major cities is potentially a workable solution for some people, but it doesn’t solve anything and it doesn’t help the people who most need help.

There’s a few notable crater lakes in Quebec. My favourite by far, though, are the Clearwater lakes/Lac Wiyâshâkimî in the far northeast. Two impact craters almost right on top of one another, now filled with water. What makes them really interesting to me is that they aren’t caused by one space rock breaking in two just before hitting the ground. The two lakes have been proven to be created almost 200M years apart, which means two separate asteroids hit almost exactly the same spot, separated by 200M years or so.

If you do go up by Témiskaming, you might check out Parc National d’Opémican, which is an old lumber site with historic buildings. It’s just outside of the town. There isn’t a huge amount there, but it’s all brand new and makes a decent place to stop, take in the lake, and get out to move around a bit.

I’ve done the drive from Calgary to Toronto a number of times, one place I try to stop at every time is Kakabeka Falls, just outside of Thunder Bay. It’s a beautiful waterfall with nice facilities right off the highway and it tends not to be super busy. Conveniently placed right around where I usually am ready for a chance to walk around without needing to hike for 20 minutes to get to actually see the falls.

It’s been a very long time since I was there, but there’s also the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina. I remember enjoying it as a kid, but that was almost 25 years ago, so it may have declined. Science centre are usually a great place to visit though, so it’s probably a safe bet

The rule of thumb I used to use as a draughtman was that plans would be metric for zoning and permit approval, metric for steel-frame or concrete, and US standard measurement for lumber and wood-frame. this is because dimensional steel mostly comes from China, which is sold in metric lengths, while lumber is cut to US standards.

Yeah, I mean I can do the math and get work it out if I care enough, but I doubt I’ll ever grok Fahrenheit the way I do Celsius. It’s like saying “oh it’s 300K”. You can do the math and work out what temperature that is, but until you bring it into the frame of reference you’re familiar with it’s just a number.

Yeah, basically. I think it kind of depends on your age though. I was almost 100% metric with the exception of baking until my teens or so (we never had a pool).

A lot of it comes from getting stuff from the US. Most of the cookbooks you find here come from the US so they use US measurement. Doing construction? The lumber’s cut to sell to the US market so you may as well use US measurement when you work with it. Steel lengths are usually available in metric so commercial construction is metric too. I’ve done a fair amount of construction and land surveying so I can do most length conversions like that in my head.

Temperature, though, I’m hopeless with Fahrenheit. Some older folk will still prefer °F to °C all the time but to me it’s just numbers. Most of my life is spent between -30°C and +30°C so it works out very conveniently as a nice symmetrical gauge between “cold winter day” and “hot summer day.”

The rest, well, it’s mostly just the unitary form of peer pressure. You just sort of pick it up. The really wild thing is that I might say something like “oh yeah, my cat weighs 5 lbs, so she’s like half the weight of one of those 5-kilo bags of flour” without irony.

There’s definitely something to be said about the cost of living becoming problematic, but I’m not jumping ship to the US anytime soon. I’ve seen too many US friends put into catastrophe thanks to health care issues, even when insured.

Is it a “mural” if it’s painted on a road? The term literally means “wall”…

The Mayan Riviera is absolutely gorgeous, but it’s not exactly a representative sample for what moving to Mexico would be like, and a vacation there is not the same as moving there either. I’ll very happily visit the US. I’ll do the touristy things, I’ll meet with my American friends, I’ll go to Vegas for a weekend and melt into a puddle. But if I were picking up and moving I would want to be good and damn sure that my life there would be an improvement and that’s not a great bet in a lot of cases in the US, especially when one half of the government is actively, intentionally and openly working to make everyone’s life worse and there’s a reasonable chance that they’ll be back in power with the next election. And even if they aren’t they’re still able to act through state government and the Supreme Court.

I’ve been doing some figuring to see if leaving the country is feasible for myself, but the US doesn’t make my short list of destinations. It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.