Elections can be teachable moments and I for one am not going to pass up this opportunity. So what did I learn from the Toronto mayoral election?

1. Great cities are made by giving car owners a tax break of $5/month. If I'm not mistaken this is a quote from Jane Jacobs.

2. Bikes are for riding in the woods, maybe to Grandma's house. Bikes are not for roads, and while we are at it, neither are marathons. Marathons are for parks. 

The symptoms have been cropping up for some time now but this past weekend the Toronto Star seemed to be particularly afflicted with tabloidism and it is unclear if they will ever recover. The symptoms of this including a focus on micro scandals (with correspondingly large headlines), anti-tax rants, grainy photos, a generally good sports section and women and men in swimsuits. Not pretty. Well maybe some of it is pretty.

And yes the newspaper business if failing so the Star is depressed and maybe indulging in some poor behavior that is affecting its health. Still, the journalist doctors should have been called in on the weekend for sure.

We should all know by now that weather and climate are two different things. Still in terms of raising awareness in Toronto about the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen it probably doesn't hurt that we had the first November without snow in over 160 years (or 70, it seems to depend who you ask). 

A review from Foreign Policy, not your most liberal slanting website:

Ultimately, Going Rogue goes rogue as a political memoir, demonstrating what can only be described as a persistent and guileless lack of knowledge of even basic foreign-policy or domestic political issues. It is what we might have expected from Palin. And it is much less than anyone should expect of a candidate for one of the most powerful offices on Earth.

So he's come.  Prince Charles, the man who, against my will, I had to pledge allegiance to, the future King of Canada.   Like all naturalized Canadian citizens I had to take the citizenship oath or be denied.  The oath says I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen. Trust me no American wants to plege allegiance to the English monarchy but at least we were warned. 

This could be good.  Tasty even.  The Ontario government announced today a feed-in tariff program for green energy production. A feed-in tariff (FIT) is a system of financial incentives by governments to promote renewable energy.

[Updated]

It looks like Harper and Co. will be bringing Halloween early this year first by bringing the fear,  and if history is a lesson, giving out pre-election goodies.  First comes the fear. Of course it can be dressed up all kinds of ways, but why make your own costume when you can get a decent cheap used one?  No surprise Harper likes the one Bush used when he used to bellow "Stay the Course" for Iraq and then in the 2004 Presidential campaign "don't change the horse midstream!" (points to Bill Clinton for observing if we don't change horses we will drown).

He hasn’t apparently been hiking the Appalachian Trail, or taking a wide stance, or having sexual relationships with that woman but Harper’s aides insist he did eat the wafer.  I think Harper has been eating the wafer for a long time, swallowing what he doesn’t believe in for appearances.  Well at least appearances that serve to keep him in power.  To stay in power he has swallowed

Al Franken as Senator and why not him?  Today the Minnesota Supreme Court  unanimously declared Al Franken as winner (pdf) and Norm Coleman has conceded.  This takes any pressure off the Governor who will sign the election certificate.