November 13th, 2024 Saskatoon Municipal Election Issue!
Written by JAZ11/04/2024
A Saskatoon Mayoralty Candidate is Promoting Train Tunnels to Stop Trains from Halting Vehicle Traffic. No Saskatoon Mayoralty Candidate is Proposing This to Make Downtown Saskatoon Much More Appealing to Locals and Tourists. They Should Be! This and Dealing with Homelessness should be Top Priorities for the New Mayor and Council. Rather than Falling Further Behind Saskatoon needs to Lead Again!
Downtown Edmonton has one. The Calgary downtown has one. The Winnipeg downtown has one. Downtown Toronto has one. Shenzhen, China has one that is supposed to be breathtaking. Singapore's includes the magnificent Gardens by the Bay and if you pay the entry free and take the train connection, parts of Sentosa. Even the University of Saskatchewan has one.
Downtown Regina does not have one. The Saskatoon downtown does not have one.
Winnipeg is colder than Saskatoon and has an even worse winter. A colder and longer Winter.
Saskatoon is colder than Edmonton and has a worse winter -- colder and longer. It now also has a much colder and longer winter than Calgary.
Thanks to climate change, be it attributable to fossil fuel burning or the end of inter-glacial climatic instability -- yes, this is a thing according to the geological record -- Toronto doesn't really have much of a winter at present any more. It is supposed to have a high of 21 Celsius on November 5th and a high of 14 Celsius on November 13th. Sure, the -2 Celsius, -4 Celsius and +3 Celsius temperatures Toronto will experience in January feel like winter to Torontonians (and tshirt and shorts weather to a few Saskatoonians) but those temperatures are balmy compared to what Saskatoon will have in January and February and perhaps even March.
Regina is a little colder than Calgary in the winter but a fair bit warmer than Saskatoon. They can probably do without one.
Shenzhen is even warmer than Toronto. So is Singapore. Both do have rainy seasons though.
Toronto's is called "the Path Network". Calgary's is called the "+15." Edmonton's bears the rather unfortunate "Pedway" moniker. Winnipeg's is called "the Walkway or Winnipeg Skywalk".
What these are, for those who have never been to these cities and set foot in them, are a series of skywalks and tunnels that connect the major office towers and high rises and malls in the city downtowns. They make for improved motor vehicle traffic flow and most importantly, provide pedestrians with fairly efficient means to get from one desired destination to another desired destination or destinations without, once entering the system, ever having to go outdoors and onto the city streets and the snow, rain or dust storms that may be taking place there, until they have to get to their cars or a subway or LRT station in order to return to their homes or travel to another area of their city.
Sometimes the Skyways and tunnels run past a series of shops, restaurants and other small businesses, sometimes they run through tropical gardens such as Calgary's Devonian garden. Sometimes they are just overhead or underground walkways allowing people to efficiently and safely cross busy streets and to do so when they want to and without them causing any sort of inconvenience to cars, buses and other vehicles travelling the city streets.
They are also tourist attractions. People come from smaller communities and more backward cities just to experience these interesting, exciting and oh so urban, means of getting around. In the cases of Singapore, Shenzen, Toronto, and to a lesser extent, Calgary, they come from around the world to see them.
It is high time the civic administration, and whomever gets to be elected Mayor and to city council, fosters, develops, promotes and if necessary forces the creation of a Skywalk, +15, and Pedway for downtown Saskatoon. After the civic election is complete on November 13th, the new mayor and council should immediately create a task force to work with downtown developers, hotel owners, building owners, high rise owners and Cadillac-Fairview to get this done prior to the next civic election. It has got to be a bigger tourist drawn and a far less expensive proposition than a new downtown arena, and unlike the former will actually work to reduce motor vehicle traffic congestion and make for improved vehicle traffic flows. As a world first, and it is well past time Saskatchewan and Saskatoon had some of those again, the routes can and should feature special lanes for cyclists, e-bikes, e-scooters, mobility e-scooters and other ultralight electric powered urban vehicles.
October 26th, 2020 Provincial Election Issue!
Written by JAZ10/25/2020
THIS PROVINCIAL ELECTION VOTE THIRD PARTY IF POSSIBLE. SHOW YOUR DISPLEASURE WITH THE MISANDRIST, MORIBUND, UNIMAGINATIVE POLICIES OF THE NDP and THE CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT OF THE SASKATCHEWAN PARTY
The provincial election takes place on October 26th. A record number of people, more than 100,000 of them, have already voted in the advanced polls. Typically, high voter turnouts mean an incumbent government is being given the heave-ho. Dejected people and satisfied people stay home. Angry people vote. But as everyone knows, this isn't a typical year and Saskatchewan isn't a typical province. Rural votes are worth significantly more than urban votes. Additionally, covid-fear was probably responsible in part, if not in the main, for the advanced poll turn-out -- people probably strategized that they were less likely to be infected by voting in the traditionally lower turn-out advance polls than in election day polls.
Premier Moe and the Saskatchewan Party are likely, based on the foregoing, headed to a fourth term majority government. Do they deserve it? Hell no. The economy is in deep decline and has been in decline for a long time, pre-pandemic. The provincial debt has ballooned, and the government has seemed incapable of doing anything to grow the province by doing anything new-- fostering the development of a nascent tech industry let alone a thriving one, supporting film production, fostering green and alternative energies. If it isn't oil and gas, mining, farming or tourism, the SP isn't interested. Intellectual property and the creation of new income streams for the province are not on their radar. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan high school graduates and university graduates are leaving the province in droves. Immigrants, initially happy to be able to come to a country they perceived to be wealthy and happy, stomach it here for as long as they can before they get the hell out.
The worst of it is slow Moe and the Sask Party seem to be so insular and out of touch that their slogan is "Keep Saskatchewan Strong." Saskatchewan may indeed appear to be strong from the point of view of Moe's rich large farmer supporters, who seem incapable of knowing or caring that their towns are dying and their kids, or those of them that won't be taking over the operation, are not staying in Saskatchewan but heading to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Red Deer, Kelowna, or god forbid, Toronto. People living in Saskatchewan's large cities are painfully aware that Saskatchewan hasn't been strong in years.
Compared to Jason Kenney's Alberta, John Horgan's NDP British Columbia is looking pretty good. One might think that compared to Moe and the SaskParty and its corruption, mismanagement, debt creation and abject failure to make Saskatchewan into something more than a hewer of wood and seller of grains and oil and gas and to grow the economy and the population, the Saskatchewan NDP would also look good.
Unfortunately, the NDP has no real plan to grow the Saskatchewan economy either and give the Saskatchewan government the revenue streams it is going to need to support the promises to increase funding for health care and education and hire the plethora of new health care workers, that NDP leader Ryan Meili has made.
Nothing to support the development of a tech industry, little to support entrepreneurship, a 19th century solution to the 21st century problem of an ever growing disparity in the wealth of the 1% and the underemployed and underemployed, Sure there is a nod to geo-thermal energy and some greenification of the economy, but there is little to alleviate the suffering of the poorest of Saskatchewan's poor -- often First Nations people -- and nothing to stem the exodus of Saskatchewan's young adults and young families. An NDP government seems but a precursor to more debt, stagnation and suffering.
The NDP also seems steeped in identity politics and misandrist feminism with one candidate proudly proclaiming herself a former stalking victim. It promises to study the racist discrepancy between the incarceration rates of First Nations people and settlers but offers nothing in terms of the even greater disparity in the criminalization and incarceration rates of men in contrast to women. The ratio in Saskatchewan is about 20:1.
Instead of offering a Universal Basic Income the NDP calls for a $15 minimum wage which is going to hurt the biggest employer Saskatchewan has, small businesses, -- probably forcing a good number of them to close their doors -- and completely fails to address the growing wealth and power disparity between the unemployed and the owners of the big banks and big on and offline retailers, most of which remove capital from Saskatchewan. Instead of offering a Universal Basic Income that would allow more mothers to keep their children, the NDP offers unqualified support for "a woman's right to choose". Instead of alleviating the suffering of the poorest of the poor by giving them a livable income the NDP offers expanded mental health services and mental health centers to try and reduce suicide rates and the stress and anxiety that poverty and discrimination engender.
For their lack of creativity, lack of vision, lack of a plan for the economy, misandry, and for being for the last eight years a poor and ineffective opposition, the NDP likewise deserves rebuke and refutation.
And what has either the Sask Party or the NDP done to stand up for Saskatchewan in the face of the many and varied attacks against Saskatchewan and Saskatchewan's economic and social interests by federal governments of Liberal or Conservative stripe?
For better leadership and more dynamic, responsive and democratic government that will allow Saskatchewan to achieve its potential rather than continue to languish as a province people move away from, the Sask Party and NDP both need to be taught a lesson. Give them that lesson on October 26th.
For a Guaranteed Basic Income and environmentally friendly future, Vote Saskatchewan Green Party this Monday
Vote Progressive Conservative this Monday for a government that respects individuals' freedom of conscience, belief and speech and referendum-based decision-making.
For a confederation that allows Saskatchewan (and western Canada) to prosper, this Monday vote Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan
Or just spoil your ballot
Send the Sask Party and NDP a message!