How to end the war in Ukraine according to a Canadian Conservative "diplomat"

In my opinion, the war in Ukraine is much more complicated than most people realize. We are constantly bombarded with propaganda from all sides and it inhibits rational thinking. One of the few reliable facts is that Vladimir Putin is a very smart bad person.

Lots of people think they have the answer to ending the war in Ukraine. One of the latest pundits is Chris Alexander who has published his thoughts in the Feb. 16, 2024 edition of Canada's Globe and Mail: Ukraine is paying the price for our nonchalance toward Russia’s leadership. Alexander spent years in Canada's Foreign Service, including many years in Moscow and a stint as Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan. In 2011 he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative MP and served as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in Stephen Harper's cabinet. His reputation as a politician was very different than his previous, mostly admirable, reputation as a diplomat. Here's a excerpt from his Wikipedia article.

Vimy Ridge

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. The battle invovled four divisions of the Canadian Corps and it has become a symbol for Canada of the sacrifices made during World War I. The symbol is remarkable for the beautiful Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial designed by Walter Seymour Allward. He intended it to be a "sermon against the futility of war."

It is remarkably successful as such a symbol since, among other things, it contains the names of more than 11,000 Canadians who died in World War I and whose bodies were never recovered. We visited the memorial in 2011 with my granddaughter Zoë [Canadian National Vimy Memorial] and found the name of Lance Corporal Robert Alexander Hood, a cousin of Leslie's grandfather and Zoë's great-great-grandfather.

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Here's why Alain Beaudet, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, should resign

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the main source of research funding for Canadian health researchers, including those doing basic research like most of the researchers in my biochemistry department.

A few years ago, CIHR decided to revamp the process of applying for and obtaining research grants. They did this without taking into consideration the wishes of most applicants. (They did "consult," but consulting isn't the same as listening.)

The result has been a disaster. Most researchers are confused and discouraged by the new process and there's great fear that the results of the next competitions will be harmful to basic research and harmful to new investigators.

But even before the new rules came into play the funding of basic, curiosity-motivated, science was taking a major hit. Many mid-career basic researchers at the University of Toronto have lost their grants or are struggling to make do with a lot less money. This is partly due to a lack of money in the system but it's been exacerbated by a deliberate shift in priorities under the previous Conservative government of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

These are some of the reasons why Canadian researchers have been calling for Alain Beuadet to resign [Support basic research with new leaders at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)].

Celebrating Lucy Maud Montgomery

Today Google celebrates the birthday of Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942). She is the author of Anne of Green Gables and other books.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Prince Edward Island (Canada) and after getting her teaching certificate from Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown (P.E.I.) she attended Dalhousie University in Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) before taking up a teaching position in P.E.I. That's when she wrote Anne of Green Gables (1908).

In 1911 she married a Presbyterian minister, Ewen Macdonald, and moved to Uxbridge, Ontario (northeast of Toronto). In 1926, she and her husband moved to Norval, Ontario, a small village due north of where I live in Mississauga, Ontario. We've passed her house many times. She lived there until 1935 when she moved to Swansea, Ontario, now a part of western Toronto between the Humber River and High Park. She died there in 1942 and was buried in P.E.I.

Lucy Maud Montgomery is a distant cousin of mine. I descend from the Coles. The genealogy is confusing but at some point in time a Mr. Cole and his wife Mary (maiden name unknown) came to North America, probably New York. Their son, Benjamin Cole, is my great⁴-grandfather. Mr. Cole died sometime around 1765 and Mary married George Penman. The history is confusing, they may have lived in New England and moved to P.E.I. just before or after the American Revolution. They self-identify as United Empire Loyalists.

Mary is my great⁵ grandmother and she had several children with George Penman. Two of them were Nancy (b. 1768) and Elizabeth ("Betsy") (b. 1769). Nancy married Donald Montgomery of the "New Moon" farm in Malpeque, P.E.I. (Emily of New Moon). Her sister married David Murray.

Donald Montgomery, the son of Nancy & Donald, married his first cousin Ann Murray, daughter of Elizabeth & David. Their son, Hugh John Montgomery, was Lucy Maud Montgomery's father.

Thus, Lucy Maud Montgomery's great grandmother is my great-great-great-great-great grandmother.

Support basic research with new leaders at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

An important article in the Ottawa Citizen calls for the resignation of Alain Beaudet, recently reappointed President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) ['Demoralized' scientists demand changes at $1B health research agency]. Criticism comes from Michael Rudnicki but he is merely voicing what lots of other researchers feel.

“He has rammed through what he calls reforms which have radically altered the grant delivery system and the system for evaluating grants has been done in a way that distorts the entire process,” said Rudnicki of changes brought in by Beaudet.

Top research scientists from across the country, in interviews with the Citizen, described their mood as demoralized and deeply disturbed by what has been going on at the CIHR. “There is a lot of scorched earth out there,” said one.

According to researchers, the malaise cannot be fixed by simply unmuzzling government scientists. The federal government needs to support basic scientific research, they say, with more money and with a system that is transparent and designed to reward the country’s best and brightest researchers. Instead, researchers say, a series of recent changes at the agency that funds a billion dollars of research each year, notably to the peer review system, have done the opposite.

“The entire research community is very upset and extremely concerned about these changes,” said Rudnicki.

Among concerns are that basic research is getting an ever-smaller share of flatlined funding, in favour of applied or targeted research. Some independent scientists working in labs — doing the kind of work that has led to discoveries such as stem cells — are finding it increasingly difficult to keep going.

The President of CIHR is essentially a government appointee and he or she is not beholding to the researchers (clients) in any legal way. However, I have long advocated that the leadership of CIHR, and the other government funding agencies, should deserve the confidence of the Canadian Research Community and they should resign if they do not have that confidence.

That time has come. Not only has CIHR discouraged basic curiosity-motivated research but the effect of their policies has encouraged university administrators to do the same. We see more and more university resources going into directed research on specific applied targets and the few remaining basic researchers are treated as second class citizens left in the oldest, out-dated, facilities with the fewest university resources.

I will gladly sign any petition calling for the resignation of the CIHR leaders and anyone else who supports their disastrous policies.

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Canada's new Minister of Science, Kirsty Duncan, is NOT a Nobel Prize winner

Canada has a new government under the Liberal Party and a new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. I'm very excited about this change. I'm a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and I voted for the Liberal Candidate in my riding.

One of the big changes is supposed to be increased transparency of government, more openness with the press, and a promise to base decisions on evidence and science. In other words, truth is supposed to be the new buzzword on Parliament Hill. Trudeau's new cabinet even has a Minister of Science, unlike previous cabinets.

Justin Trudeau and his new cabinet

This is our new Canadian Prime Minister walking to Rideau Hall with his new cabinet ministers for the swearing in ceremony where he officially takes over the government. It's very exciting. No Prime Minister has ever done this before today.

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Election Day in Canada: seat projections

The CBC poll-tracker website shows the Liberal Party in the lead with 37% of the vote. The Conservative Party is polling at 31% and the New Democratic Party trails at 22%.

In close elections it is extremely difficult to project those numbers into seats because there are many close races and the number of people sampled in each riding is quite small. Nevertheless, ThreeHundredEight and CBC have been making seat projections since the campaign began.

Here's the latest seat projections as of yesterday ...

If these projections are accurate then the Liberals will win the most seats but will be far short of a majority. Justin Trudeau will become the next Prime Minister of Canada and Stephen Harper will be gone.

The main uncertainty is voter turnout. A lot of Liberal voters are uncertain about who to vote for and many of them will be first-time voters, if they vote. The Conservative vote, on the other hand, is pretty solid and Conservative voters are very likely to vote today. Most of the Conservative vote is concentrated in rural ridings that are guaranteed wins for the Conservatives. It is still possible for the Conservatives to win enough close races to finish on top with the most seats.¹

The NDP vote is soft and dropping. The biggest change in the past few days is the seat projections in Quebec where the NDP won 59 seats in the last election. (A big surprise.) As of today, CBC is projecting that they will only win 34 seats. All three of the other parties are projected to gain seats but the Liberals gain the most. The battle in Ontario was reduced several weeks ago to mainly a fight between Liberals and Conservatives. (There are a few ridings where the Liberals and NDP are neck-and-neck.)

It's interesting that the three-way race in British Columbia hasn't changed very much in a long time. The latest projections have the Conservatives slightly ahead with 16 seats to 13 for the Liberals and 12 for the NDP. (Plus one seat for the Green Party.) There are several scenarios where the overall winner will be decided by the vote in British Columbia. It could be a long night.

The result in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was decided weeks ago. The Liberals are going to capture almost all of the seats. The only secure victory for the Conservatives is Thornhill, and the only projected victory for the NDP is Toronto-Danforth. [See the interactive map at: ThreeHundredEight.] Olivia Chou is trailing badly in Spadina-Fort York.

In my area, Mississauga-Brampton, every seat is projected to go Liberal and many Conservative MPs are going down to defeat, including my own MP Bob Dechert. The NDP is not a factor in any of these ridings.

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1. This does not mean that Harper will be able to hold on to power but it makes things complicated.

Stealin' All My Dreams

Canada is in the middle of a Federal election campaign. The vote is on October 19th.

Currently the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper has a majority in Parliament but the polls show a three-way race between the Conservatives, the Liberals under Justin Trudeau, and the New Democratic Party (NDP) under Thomas Mulcair.

About two-thirds of Canadians are intending to vote for anybody except the current Prime Minister (Stephen Harper). If you want to know why, listen to Blue Rodeo singing Stealin' All My Dreams.



Vote for the party in your riding that's most likely to beat the Conservatives.

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Do Canadians "believe" in evolution?

A recent post by some anonymous blogger named "Darwin Quixote" made the following claim [see comment in: Be Careful, Evolution is Behind You]. The discussion was about teaching evolution in Ontario (Canada) schools ....

Of course I agree that these topics should be required, but I would suggest that it’s even more important that human evolution be a required topic because only 51% of Ontarians believe that humans evolved. It is likely that a significant number of teachers fall into the 49% category, and therefore leaving this topic to the discretion of the teacher becomes problematic.

This didn't seem right to me so I checked the latest polls that I could find on the internet.

Here's one by Angus Reid in 2012: Believe In Evolution: Canadians More Likely Than Americans To Endorse Evolution. The results show that 60% of Ontarians believe the following statement: "Human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years."

24% of Ontarians thought that: "God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years."

16% were not sure.

The results were somewhat different in other provinces. In Quebec, for example, the number of people who accepted evolution was 71% and only 13% believed in Young Earth Creationism. In Alberta only 48% of the population accepted evolution and 35% were Young Earth Creationists.

So Darwin Quixote was off by a bit (51% vs 60%) but not by much. However, I think he makes an error by assuming that a significant number of biology teachers (in high school) would be opposed to evolution and might not teach human evolution.

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Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie agrees to abide by Surpeme Court ruling banning prayers at city council

Shortly after being elected last Fall, the new Mayor of Mississauga, Bonnie Crombie, decided that the City Council would continue to say a prayer before each council meeting. She voted in favor of continuing the practice even though she heard the arguments against it and even though she knew that the Ontario Court of Appeal (in 1999) had ruled it illegal [Mississauga council debates removing Lord’s Prayer from meetings].

Crombie, who is Catholic, said she doesn’t have a problem with the recitation of the prayer. But, she does want to touch base with the municipality’s 11 councillors to get their opinions.

She has already heard lot of different ideas from her peers, such as leaving the practice the way it is to replacing it with a non-denominational blessing to even rotating a prayer from a different faith before each meeting.

"I don’t think there’s anything wrong with (reciting the prayer)," said Crombie. "But, I am asking each councillor about it and there is a diversity of opinion."

...

Larry Moran, who described himself as an atheist, is also a University of Toronto professor and an advisory fellow with the Centre for Inquiry Canada, an organization he said strongly supports the separation of religion and government.

He wrote a blog post condemning the practice in Mississauga earlier this year and Moran estimates about 30 per cent of Canadians aren’t religious. He strongly believes the Lord’s Prayer before council should come to an end.

"There is no reason to invoke any of the gods at a public meeting of any government body," said Moran. "It sends the wrong message to … citizens who don’t believe in those gods or who believe in other gods. Nobody has been able to tell me why religion has to be mixed in with government business."

Now Bonnie Crombie says she will obey the law—no mention of fairness or of consideration for non-Christians in the community. Oh well, at least she's not going to fight it and cost the city lots of money.

The Toronto Star reports that the mayor of Oshawa plans to ignore the Supreme Court decision. I bet he backs down after talking to the city lawyers [Oshawa mayor plans to keep Lord’s Prayer].

Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey stopped the practice of reciting the Lord's Prayer before council meetings earlier in the year and today Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie indicated her council will now do the same, after the Supreme Court decision. At the beginning of the year she supported keeping the Lord's Prayer in Mississauga council meetings.

"Today’s ruling sets a precedent and the City of Mississauga will abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling," Crombie said.

At the beginning of the year Crombie supported keeping the Lord's Prayer in Mississauga council meetings, after Councillor Carolyn Parrish had pushed to remove it from council meetings.

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Canada bans prayers at city council meetings

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that prayers at the opening of city council meetings are not consistent with a secular society [Quebec town can’t have prayers at council meetings, top court rules].

The Supreme Court decision is at: Mouvement laïque québécois v. Saguenay (City). The decision appears to be unanimous (9:0) provided I'm reading it correctly.

The state’s duty of religious neutrality results from an evolving interpretation of freedom of conscience and religion. The evolution of Canadian society has given rise to a concept of this neutrality according to which the state must not interfere in religion and beliefs. The state must instead remain neutral in this regard, which means that it must neither favour nor hinder any particular belief, and the same holds true for non‑belief. The pursuit of the ideal of a free and democratic society requires the state to encourage everyone to participate freely in public life regardless of their beliefs. A neutral public space free from coercion, pressure and judgment on the part of public authorities in matters of spirituality is intended to protect every person’s freedom and dignity, and it helps preserve and promote the multicultural nature of Canadian society. The state’s duty to protect every person’s freedom of conscience and religion means that it may not use its powers in such a way as to promote the participation of certain believers or non‑believers in public life to the detriment of others. If the state adheres to a form of religious expression under the guise of cultural or historical reality or heritage, it breaches its duty of neutrality. The Tribunal was therefore correct in holding that the state’s duty of neutrality means that a state authority cannot make use of its powers to promote or impose a religious belief. Contrary to what the Court of Appeal suggested, the state’s duty to remain neutral on questions relating to religion cannot be reconciled with a benevolence that would allow it to adhere to a religious belief.

This seems so obvious to most people that it's a wonder why anyone ever thought that reciting prayers at city council meetings was justified.

Now, let's see how long it takes for other cities to stop the practice.

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Hat Tip: Canadian Atheist

James Lunney doesn't get no respect - does he deserve it?

James Lunney has quit the Conservative Party of Canada and decided not to run in the next federal election. He's upset because he doesn't believe in evolution and lots of people, including me, are pointing out the stupidity of his views. Because those views are based on religion, he interprets this to be an attack on his faith.

Here's what he says on his website [Evolution Controversy].

Maybe it’s because I am tired of seeing my faith community mocked and belittled. To not respond is to validate my accusers and worse yet, imply that I lack the courage of my convictions to stand–up for what I believe. This is not a legacy I wish to leave behind. Many of you colleagues represent constituencies beyond the ones who elected you; I hope that no member of any faith community in Canada is compelled to defend the beliefs of their community in the future.

Freedom of Religion and conscience are fundamental freedoms in Canada. Bigotry cloaked in defense of "science" is as intolerable and repugnant as bigotry from any other source.

It is contrary to our multi-racial, multicultural and multi-faith character and the tolerance for diversity that defines us as Canadians.

I know members on all sides of the house are concerned about bullying in general and cyber-bullying in particular. The government has brought in new legislative measures to address some aspects of this brutal phenomenon and there are many social actions like the pink shirt initiative that seek to shield the vulnerable.

We are living in an era where knowledge is increasing at an astounding pace; there are so many technical advances it is hard to keep up and what we refer to in general as "science" has been parsed into more and more diverse pursuits of knowledge.

I urge you to read the entire article that he posted on April 1st 2015. See if you think he deserves the respect he craves. He sounds like a kook to me.

How many times have we heard this stuff before? And how many times have we seen this style of writing?

So is "Evolution Theory or Fact?

The late Stephen Jay Gould stated: "a fact is something that is proven to the extent that to not believe it is perverse"!

That translates to: a fact is something that my friends and I believe, AKA eminence-based science. There’s a lot of that in health-care, where it’s known as eminence-based medicine as opposed to evidence- based medicine. There are people in the medical world expressing concern about the immense influence of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) with influencing public policy and decision making in directing scientific inquiry

Darwin’s brilliant and convincing construct that defined a century and a half of scientific belief, is in crisis because of astounding advances in molecular biology and it’s all about THE CELL.

You have 80-100 trillion cells, 200 cell types, all reading the same genetic library, but as different as they are, working together in specialized communities to perform astonishing synchronized manufacturing, recycling, transport, packaging and delivery functions. Twenty-five thousand miles of blood vessels if you strung them end to end; that is a trip around the world at the surface.

Every cell is worlds within worlds of nanotechnology finely tuned and regulated.

Darwin’s elaborate construct is stalled at the cell; even the simplest prokaryotic cell is infinitely beyond the odds of ever coming together by random, undirected process.

Jame Lunney is attacking evolutionary biologists and their acceptance of the scientific evidence for evolution, which happens to be their area of expertise. It seems ironic that he accuses others of bigotry and bullying.

James Lunney is a chiropractor and he has a B.Sc. (science). He says, "I have a background in Science: my credentials modest as they are, are superior on this file to many in this chamber and most of my critics."

That explains a lot.

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Poor James Lunney resigns from the Conservative Party because of bullying over his religious beliefs

Some of you may recall James Lunney, Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Alberni in British Columbia. He's a chiropractor who spoke out against evolution back in 2009 [James Lunney: Creationist, Chiropractor, Conservative].

More recently, he defended another MP who didn't believe in evolution. He was mocked and ridiculed in the popular press and now he has decided to resign from the Conservative Party and sit in the House of Commons as an Independent. That's not working out so well according to CBC News [James Lunney defends views on evolution in House of Commons].

One day after he announced he was leaving the Conservative caucus to better defend his religious beliefs, Nanaimo-Alberni MP James Lunney attempted to do just that from his new seat in the corner of the House of Commons reserved for independent MPs.

But despite his best efforts, he was unable to convince House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer that the "cyberbullying" and "crowd-shaming" that he claimed to have experienced after questioning the science behind evolution constituted a breach of his parliamentary privilege.

Imagine that! He was unable to convince Parliament that making fun of his silly beliefs is wrong! This is exactly how the Canadian public SHOULD deal with people who act like kooks.

Wanna hear about his beliefs? This is what he said in Parliament ....

Speaking to CBC News Power & Politics host Evan Solomon on Wednesday evening, Lunney said that he was tired of seeing his faith community bullied.

...

Lunney described evolution — or, as he calls it, "macro-evolution" is "a theory in crisis."

"Scientists are not able to speak their mind on that — at least half of them who feel this way, they're gagged by an old construct," he argued.

"There's a whole generation of kids being taught that what they're taught in Sunday School or in church is garbage, it's wrong, it's false, and it's simply a form of bullying that's no longer acceptable. It's not scientifically tenable, it's a disservice to science… it's not freedom of religion if your views are put down by your peers."

Freedom comes in several forms. If you live in a free society then you have to be prepared to accept criticism of your most cherished beliefs. You can't hide behind religion to protect you when you act like an IDiot. Pointing out the stupidity of a Member of Parliament is not bullying

As far as I'm concerned, this is exactly how freedom should work.

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The University of Toronto ranks 16th in the world!

The latest Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings for 2015 are out [The World Reputation Rankings]. This ranking list universities by their academic reputation. It has little to do with undergraduate education, which in most cases, is just an important sideline for these universities.

The University of Toronto ranks #16 on this list. I mention this because many people in the USA are unaware of the quality of universities in other countries. They will not be surprised to learn that Harvard is #1 but do they know that Cambridge is #2 and Oxford is #3?

Canada has three universities in the top 40 (McGill #35 and the University of British Columbia #37 are the other two). Our population is 35 million.

The USA has twenty-one universities in the top 40. It's population is 320 million.

The United Kingdom has seven in the top 40 with a population of 65 million.

It won't be long before China takes over.

It seems pretty obvious that the number and quality of universities is proportional to the wealth and the population of countries in the "Western" English-speaking world. It is not obvious that any one country can claim to be better than the others at fostering good universities. If you had to pick a country, it looks like the United Kingdom would be the clear winner.

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Watch what happens when a Canadian politician says he doesn't believe in evolution

Rick Nicholls is the Progressive Conservative Member of the Ontario legislature representing the riding of Chatham-Kent-Essex. (Ontario, is a province in Canada. Each province has it's own provincial government. The members of provincial parliaments are called MPP's.)

Watch the video where he says he doesn't believe in evolution and listen to the questions that the reporters ask.

The Globe & Mail reports that Rick Nicholls was quickly reigned in by party leaders [Ontario PCs distance themselves from MPP who denies evolution].

On Wednesday, Mr. Nicholls stood behind his comments.

“[Ms. Sandals] was very flippant in her response to my colleague and I gave a flippant response back to her,” he said, adding that evolution “is one’s personal belief set.”

Within an hour, he followed up with an emailed statement saying he’d been given a talking-to by PC House Leader Steve Clark: “I acknowledge that my comment is not reflective of Ontario PC Party policy,” he said of his anti-evolution remarks.

Here's how the views of Rick Nicholls are covered in the Toronto Star: Tory MPP Rick Nicholls says he doesn’t believe in evolution .

And here's how it is covered in Huffington Post Canada: Rick Nicholls Says He Doesn't Believe In Evolution, PC Colleagues Distance Themselves.

In Canada, it's pretty much political suicide to admit that you don't believe in evolution.

In other news, there's a debate going on in Ontario's House of Commons on introducing a new sex education curriculum into public schools (including the Roman Catholic schools). Another Progressive Conservative MPP, Monte McNaughton, said "it’s not the Premier of Ontario’s job, especially Kathleen Wynne, to tell parents what’s age-appropriate for their children."

Our Premier, Kathleen Wynne, is openly gay. She was a bit puzzled by the comments so she addressed Mr. McNaughton with the following questions.

"What is it that especially disqualifies me for the job that I’m doing? Is it that I’m a woman? Is it that I’m a mother? Is it that I have a master’s of education? Is it that I was a school council chair? Is it that I was the minister of education?" Ms. Wynne thundered. "What is it exactly that the member opposite thinks disqualifies me from doing the job that I’m doing? What is that?"

PC MPPs sat ashen-faced as Liberals heckled them and applauded Ms. Wynne.

Not a good day for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

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The mystery of Maud Menten

Maud Menten is best known for the Michaelis-Menten equation and her work on enzyme kinetics. She was born in Port Lambton, Ontario and she is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

The "mystery" concerns her degrees and the year she graduated. The video below was prepared when she was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1998 [Maud Menten]. If you watch the first few minutes you'll hear that in 1911 Maud Menten was one of the first Canadian women to receive a medical degree. You find similar statements all over the web, although sometimes it says she graduated in 1913—as in the text on the Canadian Hall of Fame website.

The top ten cities in the world

The Economist has surveyed cities from all over the world to find the ones that are the most livable (i.e. best places to live). Here's a summary of the criteria described in the report [A Summary of the Liveability Ranking and Overview]

The concept of liveability is simple: it assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle in any given location, and allows for direct comparison between locations.

Bjørn Østman alerted me to the list by posting a link to this article: The World's Most Livable Cities All Have One Big Thing in Common. What do the top ten cities all have in common?—none of them are in the USA.

Here's the list ....

1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5 (tie). Adelaide, Australia
5 (tie). Calgary, Canada
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Helsinki, Finland
9. Perth, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand

There's obviously more to "livability" than meets the eye. Some of these places are a lot less interesting than Paris, London, or New York.

I think the ranking also depends very much on how much money you have. I'd need to be offered a hell of a lot more money if I were to consider a move to Calgary, Helsinki, or Perth.¹

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1. I've never been to Perth but it doesn't seem like a place I'd like to live.

Tim Hortons is seduced by the dark side

I'm not a fan of dark coffee but this is a cute commercial video.

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Payback for burning Toronto

From British embassy apologizes for cheeky tweet commemorating White House burning.

... in what some considered a cheeky jab, the Washington wing of the British embassy came under fire from some unimpressed Americans for its commemoration tweet. On Aug. 24, 1814, British troops invaded Washington, D.C., setting the White House on fire during the War of 1812. The attack was in response to an American attack on the city of York (present-day Toronto).

The tweet featured a photo of a sheet cake adorned with a miniature White House with the respective countries' flags on each side.

"Only sparklers this time," the embassy wrote to cap off the tweet.

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