Lying Cheats or Cheating Liars?

Despite all the efforts to deflect the allegations of electoral manipulation it is now pretty clear that thousands of phone calls were made, both automated and from 'call centers' during the last election specifically designed to piss folks off enough that they would fail to vote. Whether they misdirected voters to a non existent poll location by pretending to be from Elections Canada or harassed folks late at night pretending to be an obnoxious Liberal or NDP caller it also seems pretty clear that said calls were aimed at anyone but Conservative supporters. The spin emerging from that party, who lets face it are the masters of spin and have an ever increasing department dedicated to producing it, is starting to fall apart, the lies are floating to the surface of the scum that passes for accountability these days.

I will not here even try and detail all the revelations over the last week or so, you may have seen SOME references to them in the MSM but for the most part that is only part of the picture, our on line community are gathering vast amounts of information yet to hit the evening news. Whilst you may have heard about the 31,000 complaints that EC has received (a massive increase over any previous volume) you may not have seen all the riding where citizens and opposition partys have come forward with allegations of wrongdoing, that currently being 77 riding and climbing daily. See the Sixth Estate list for an up to date list with links.

Over on my other blog at Democracy Under Fire I have added a permanent page where I will try and keep up with the major developments in this affront to our democracy. Only public pressure will get to the bottom of this, the Harper Regime has to date shown no willingness to commission a full public inquiry (hardy surprising given their distaste for ANY factual information on anything) and Elections Canada do not seem to to have the resources or the urgency needed having taken till now to reveal that they were 'investigating' complaints from just one riding (Guelph) and still have no real 'evidence' as to the perpetrators.

If you received such a call or are aware of any other interference with the election process it is not to late to make a complaint to Elections Canada or simply add to the Sixth Estate's database of fraudulent calls. This is Canada not one of those countries where a dictator fixes the election to suit his own needs...... or then again, maybe it is!

RVN Survey now online.

This is just a heads up to inform my readers that the 'Let Your Voice Be Heard' Public Survey sponsored by the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario via their project titled the 'Rural Voices Network' is now available online. The survey is the culmination of a one year project which included a series of forums to identify what questions to ask and what issues were important to rural citizens. Having just completed the survey I can say that it looks like they are asking all the right questions, the question then becomes what will become of the report to be issued in late June.

I originality became involved in this project in that part of the outcome desired was to establish a “Web portal designed to foster a living ‘Rural Voices Network’ to “facilitate community engagement and collaboration through online forums.”. As far as I know at this point in time this development of a major online forum is dependent upon both the result of the survey and receiving funding for the project to extend beyond the first year. This is something that is being pursued but has not yet, as far as I know, materialized. Whilst the results of the survey and the ensuing report will no doubt be very interesting, unless it leads to some PRACTICAL ways of enhancing rural communications and collaboration it is in danger of becoming just another report gathering dust on the shelf, and there is quite a pile of those there already!

One of the best of those is the Senate report Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty. Here is a summary of parts of the report:-

http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2008/10/senate-report-on-rural-canada.html

Full report (2.4 Mb PDF)

http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/2/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/agri-e/rep-e/rep09jun08-e.htm

Of particular interest in these discussions may be their recommendation to have more government services available from rural post offices (how about some of those Service Canada 'services') and their commentary on the need (indeed necessity) for rural residents to own and operate a vehicle.

Here are some posts regarding the governments dismal response, with links:-

http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/12/response-to-beyond-freefall-report.html

http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/12/response-to-beyond-freefall-report-part_26.html

http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/12/response-to-beyond-freefall-report-part.html

Also of interest may be the National Symposium on How to Build a Sustainable Rural Canada entitled One Vision, Many Voices held in Edmonton, Alberta in July of 2008

My synopsis and comments

http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2009/05/one-vision-many-voices.html

The report can be found here (36 pages - 3.9Mb PDF)

http://www.ruralmatters.ca/content/view/47/3

The net result of these reports and meetings of which I have only mentioned a small proportion has been basically ZERO! So whilst I encourage my fellow rural residents to fill in the survey (which can be found here) , I also encourage those who may wish to sponsor a comprehensive online forum or those who may have particular expertise in that area to contact The Rural Voices Network and offer funds or support in this regard. In these days of government austerity we may not get much help from that direction, but with a comprehensive on line forum at least we could coordinate our response to changes, share ideas for community development and perhaps save a village or two from disappearing into obscurity. You may comment upon the RVN project or add to the discussions at the online forum which may be viewed here, you will need to register however to post to the forum.

(a note for dial up users, have patience the survey site is a little slow to respond and comprised of about 6 pages totaling about 1.5mb – but prizes can be won upon completion!)

Mennonites show how its done!

A recent trip to the Elmira area made me aware of The Elmira Produce Auction Co-operative, an auction center for local produce that has met with enormous success and has spawned an increase in market garden operations in the area as well as providing existing farmers with an outlet for their produce. It seem like we have a lot to learn from this Mennonite community, this is a model that should be followed across the country to provide LOCAL fresh food in large quantities to local retailers as well as supporting our struggling produce growers.

Below are a couple of clips from an information PDF, for more Google “mennonite+produce+auction “

The Elmira Produce Auction Co-operative is Canada’s first wholesale produce auction and it is an important part of the closely-knit Mennonite community north of Kitchener-Waterloo. As a result of the BSE crisis Mennonite beef farmers began to explore other avenues of agricultural production. They started growing more vegetables and fruits but needed a way to sell their products if they chose not to market directly to the public. ......

The auction occurs three times a week during the summer season and once a week in the spring and fall in the co-op’s 8,000 square foot building in Elmira. Preference is given to produce grown within a 75 kilometre radius; however, if there is space the management will give the approval for producers that have traveled greater distances to sell at the auction..........

Both small- scale and larger producer members sell at the produce auction. This creates a variety of different vegetables and fruits as well as varying quantities of pro- duce which helps the buyers who come from a range of backgrounds. The largest group of buyers tend to be farmers’ market vendors or farmers with farm gate businesses. Grocery stores and universities also regularly partake in the auction to source the locally-grown produce. The co-operative has experienced a 600 percent increase in sales since it began in 2004. The auction doubled in sales every year for the first three years of operation and increased 30 percent in 2008. Because the auction is gaining in popularity, the co-operative decided to expand the building and parking lot for the 2009 season.............

In 2008, the auction sold 210,000 pounds of tomatoes, 160,000 pounds of potatoes, 14,000 cases of lettuce, 4,100 bins of watermelons, 100,000 pounds of carrots, 269 boxes of asparagus and a long list of other products.

http://www.coopscanada.coop/public_html/assets/firefly/files/files/Coop_Profiles/Elmira_Produce_Auction_Co-operative.pdf

Mothers fur coat?

Out here in the country we like to keep a few chickens to provide us with fresh eggs and a couple of months ago we found one of our flock with the neck tore out laying on the floor of the pen, obviously a weasel had set up shop nearby and decided that our chickens looked like an easy meal. After loosing a couple more to the same predator we caged them up at night in a cage with small enough mesh to stop said carnivore, that being about ¾” as it seems that they can squeeze through 1' holes as our lack of success in trapping them in the following weeks with a large live trap proved.

After a few weeks we again let the chickens out at night, it being a major hassle to cage them each night and the heated water supply not being suited for the smaller cage, and thought for a while that he had buggered off. But no, it was not to be within a week he was back reducing our flock again and even killing our Pea hen. At that point I gave up, opened the pen to the yard and let the remainder (2 hens and a Peacock) roam hoping that they could escape execution, but that move also was in vain as we now just have Mr P remaining, he having abandoned the pen entirely and making his home on the edge of the bush by out garden shed.

At this point none of us had actually seen the rotten little killer but a couple of days ago my son was getting some wood from the woodshed attached to the bird pen and saw a long white skinny animal with a black tip to his furry tail, yep, we have an Ermine.........

I don’t really care how nice a fur coat he has, he is still dead meat if I can ever catch him, and my efforts in that regard continue. Over the years I have had, and dealt with, foxes & racoons taking domestic birds but this guy so far has out smarted me being able to get into, and out of, just about anywhere or anything. Back in the bush I have great tolerance for our wild animals and in fact encourage them with brush piles and minimal disturbance but when they migrate up to the house, sorry but they have to go!

Its always a tough balance between the wild and human habitat but having provided and maintained a bush area for our wild critters I feel no compunction to put up with their invading my space even though I know I have invaded theirs. Each of us must find their own level of tolerance but when wild life starts endangering health, domestic flocks, pets or even children, as has happened recently in some cities then perhaps one has to 'bite the bullet' so to speak and take action.

And that’s the way it looks here in these wooded hills as the hunt continues.

Gathering Rural Voices.

Regular readers, the few that I have, will know that I have been encouraging rural folks to become involved in the Ontario Womens Institute Rural Voices initiative, unfortunately whilst they did get a great response at their recent public forum in Ridgetown the on line participation can only be described as disappointing. I suspect that this is in part due to the fact that it often takes months or even years for users to 'find' a new web page, blog or forum of interest to them given the enormous volume of 'stuff' on the internet. (There are just over 100 mentions in the last 3 months according to a Google search and 3 or 4 % of those are MY posts!) I will even go further and say that even the WIs own members seem to be avoiding getting involved, at least in the on line comments and survey questions. Very discouraging!

I am aware only too well of the challenges faced by many rural citizens to get connected to the internet and that only a small portion of those that are will seek such information or involvement, but given the rural population of Ontario is around 1.8 million you would think a few would find it and use it.

As I said above part of the problem may well be finding such sites of interest to rural folks and in that regard I have a proposal, some of you may be aware of a number of 'Aggregators ' on line which collect posts from blogs, news sites, or other on line sources and post a short clip of each new article along with a link to the full post as and when they appear. Such sites are usually directed to a specific subject like the CanadianGreens or ProgressiveBloggers for example.

My proposal is to create a Rural Aggregator that would collect feeds from rural bloggers, rural support and advocacy groups and similar on line posting related to rural things not only across Ontario but across Canada. Unfortunately Feedcluster is not accepting new accounts at this time but I imagine there are other such sites out there, if not independent software certainly is. The problem of getting the rural folks to be aware of such a one stop resource is still there but given time this could become a major resource to bring together the 6 million Canadians that live outside of urban areas. Perhaps such a site already exists but if so I have not found it!

We also wonder if the RVN should consider such a thing for their project. What do you think, calling all rural bloggers and organizations if you think this is a good idea let me know either by commenting here or by email (link in side bar) and if I get six or more bloggers or other who want to participate I will 'give it a go' and try creating such a site. Perhaps it could even be called 'Rural Voices' and promote the WIs other efforts in the main header?

As I say on my other Blog 'Democracy requires Dialog' but so does the sustainability of rural Canada – TALK TO US rural Canada!

UPDATE: I have been made aware of two sites that provide links to various web sites concerned with rural matters. They are not exactly what I have in mind but may be of interest to some of you, particularly researchers.

http://www.netvibes.com/ruralontarioreader#News_%26_Views
http://rural-research-network.blogspot.com/

Rural verses Urban populations in Ontario

Having located the data showing the rural and urban population split I though I would share a little of what I have learned, make of what you will because statistics can be manipulated to show almost anything and my selection of where to divide one area from another is purely arbitrary......

The data is for Ontario is divided into 48 Census Districts corresponding closely (so far as I am aware) with County, District, or City boundaries. These 48 areas are further divided into at total of 584 Census Sub Districts which very loosely reflect community, town or township boundaries.

Of the 48 Census Districts, Toronto has 0% rural population and just 7 more have less than 10% 'rural' population (as defined by Statscan) those being

Durham 10%

Ottawa 8.3%

Hamilton 7.3%

Waterloo 6.5%

Halton 5.7%

York 5.7%

Peel 2.7%

A further 5 fall below the 20% threshold namely

Brant 15.1%

Essex 14.4%

Niagara 12.1%

Sudbury 11.3%

Middlesex 10.9%

If we discount these large Urban populations the remainder of Ontario has a rural population of 41% verses the overall percentage of just 15%. It can be seen that when it comes to getting the ear of upper levels of government where the majority rules (as it probably should) large geographical areas of the province are at the mercy of small (geographical) but populous urban areas.

Breaking this down even further the Sub District data reveals that of the 584 sub-districts listed there are 101 'communities' that have a population of less than 20% 'rural' residents (over 80% urban) whilst the number of 'communities' with more that 80% 'rural' residents is 333. There is little doubt that some of the 100 or so largely urban community’s are considered 'rural towns' but it also includes such places as Barrie, Kitchener, Mississauga and of course Toronto, which clearly are not. This once again highlights the number of smaller 'communities' verses the number of larger Towns and cities, make of it what you will, I just like to see the actual figures so that when I say 'rural' or 'urban' I know (somewhat) what I am talking about.

All this started off with my efforts to come up with a suitable introduction page for a community web site which over the next year or so I am interested in helping develop, and desperately hoping will lead to a one stop rural data base and interactive 'portal' for all of rural Ontario.

Here then is a sample of the sort of thing I think a visitor should see at the top of each county or district page.

Grey County

Grey County forum - List of Municipalities - List of communities - Other resources - Video & Audio

You are here – Ontario – SW Ontario – Grey County

Stretching from Georgian Bay and the City of Owen Sound in the north west to Meaford and the Blue Mountains in the North East and to the towns of Hanover and Dundalk in the south. It has a population of 92,411 (2006) with almost 55% being considered rural residents. It has an area of 4,508 sq km (1740 sq miles) and is approximately 50km from east to west and 70km from north to south.

There were 2867 farms in Grey County in 2006 totaling approximately 2,300 sq km (888 sq miles) about half of which were under 53 hectares (130 Acres), more than one third of the farms were primarily beef operations.

A public forum with a variety of topics related to rural matters would be inserted here.

The Municipalities pages would be similar each with their own separate public forum.

I will be developing and sharing MY vision of such a network in future posts, suggestions and comments are welcome.

If such an Ontario wide forum were to be created would you use it? Let us know either here in my comment section or over at The Rural Voices Network forum. (please join and encourage this group in their efforts to bring our rural communities together)

Sources:-

Number of Census Farms and Number of Farm Operators, by County, 2006

Community Profiles from the 2006 Census, Statistics Canada - Census Division

Population counts, census divisions and census subdivisions by urban and rural, 2006

Green Christmas

 

Having just returned from a hike around our woodland trails, the first at this time of year without snowshoes that I recall, and all signs of previous snowfall totally disappeared I believe it is indeed going to be a green Christmas here. The bush is rather drab this time of year but the green of the mosses and lichens stand out in stark contrast to the browns of the fallen leaves and the bare trees and the bright overcast skys allowed for some really nice pictures.

Green, brown or white I wish all my readers a Very Merry Christmas and a Trouble Free New Year.