Even More Stories

 

 Well, there have been a lot of stories published in the media over the last couple of weeks that interested me a lot. I try to let you know about them as quickly as I can but to be honest, I only have a few hours per day to do this kind of work now. It means obviously that it takes me longer to present these stories to you, dear reader. However, it is my job to get them to you eventually so you will see, at least from my perspective, what I think is important for us to know about these days.
 

Accordingly, here are a bunch of stories that I have seen over the past little while where I want to make some personal comments.  I do give you my own perspective quite often. By the way though, I will not necessarily give my position on every story because what I really want to do is to bring something to your attention to help you draw your own conclusion.
 

So, let's get started.

 

THANKS TO ANNE JARVIS

 

What a great column that she wrote in the Windsor Star on June 10, 2016 effectively telling us that we should not be concerned at all that Windsor's position in the best places to live rankings in the MoneySense story is #156.  
 

"Ignore Windsor’s ranking of 156 in MoneySense’s latest list of the best places to live. Here are some of the best and most admirable things about this city, stuff MoneySense doesn’t measure."  (Anne Jarvis, Windsor Star, June 10, 2016)
 

Pshaw.  I mean, after all, who should care that our financial position may be so horrible. We used to be #26 at one time a few years ago and that position has collapsed under a couple of our Mayors in a relatively short period of time.
 

Oh, you don't know the statistics. Well, here is something that you might want to consider about our position changing during a few short years under those 2 Mayors.  Click the pic twice to  enlarge it: 
 

 
WANT A CIGARETTE
 

I must admit that I'm not sure whether people smoke as much as they did before. I do assume that the volume numbers have dropped for the cigarette companies but I don't feel that the drop is really as big as it ought to be.
 

Here is an interesting perspective of what is going on. After looking at this, you may want to read the entire article for yourself:
 

"The theme for World No Tobacco Day on May 31, an annual initiative of WHO and the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), is plain packaging of tobacco products. Plain packaging prohibits the use of logos, colours, and promotional labelling on cigarettes and hand-rolled tobacco and gives graphic health warnings more prominence. In the FCTC, the legally binding international treaty to curb tobacco use signed by 180 nations, a ban on branded cigarette packaging is considered a key demand reduction strategy. 

On May 31, WHO calls on countries to “get ready” for plain packaging, following the example of Australia, which introduced plain packs in 2012 and has since seen declines in smoking. France, Ireland, and the UK will imminently require plain packaging, and Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and other European countries are considering tougher packaging laws for tobacco. 

Plain packaging is a big step forward on the journey to reducing tobacco use and its associated health risks. But it has not been an easy road. The Government of Australia spent AUS$50 million fighting a court battle against tobacco giant Philip Morris, which argued that plain packs threatened the company's intellectual property. The French subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco is planning a similar lawsuit. Last month, however, the European Court of Justice said the new EU law on plain packaging and a forthcoming ban on menthol cigarettes were legal. And on May 19, a high court in London ruled against four major tobacco companies who argued the plain packaging move violated UK and European law. 

These recent victories against Big Tobacco are another triumph for public health. However, they also put into stark focus the massive gap between countries in delivering tobacco control."  (The Lancet Editorial, "A growing gulf in the terrain of tobacco control," May 28, 2016)
 

 The Editorial is quite interesting because it shows you how many countries do not have an effective program to reduce smoking.  Here's a good description of those countries:
 

"The least compliant countries are often the ones with the highest rates of tobacco use, which compounds growing disease and cost burdens of tobacco."
 

You might want to take a look at the full article to get more information on the subject.
 

OUR TEMPERATURE
 

I just take the position that our weather is completely weird. I cannot believe how hot and cold it gets in this area so quickly. It has been rather cold over the last few days here but the prediction is that the temperature will be in the 80s shortly. Then, I would expect temperatures to fall again.

 

Here is a prediction from a Weather Man for our summer:
 

"Hot, humid summer in store for Windsor-Essex, says Weather Network (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star May 25, 2016) 

 

Prepare for heat, folks. Windsor-Essex weather over the next three months will likely be warmer and more humid than usual, says a Weather Network meteorologist.
 

“We anticipate temperatures to be slightly above normal for the summer months,” said Dayna Veteese of The Weather Network on Wednesday."
 

Is this a surprise to you? How could it be considering our relatively mild winter.  The one thing that I noticed about spring this year is the growth of plants and flowers. It just seems as if in my area over the last couple weeks that the plants have grown unbelievably bigger and have expanded rapidly. 
 

Our gardener firm at the condo where I'm living spent a day cutting away a lot of this increased growth. It was a lot of work for so many of their employees considering how many were here to do the job. I was told to expect them coming here several times a month to keep control over plant growth.
  

ELECTRICITY COSTS
 

What will the Ontario Government's new electricity program do for the Province. Here's what some people thought might happen that would be quite disastrous for people who are so dependent on gas for heating and how the Government had to react to it immediately:
 

"Premier Kathleen Wynne said Thursday that Ontario won't ban the use of natural gas for home heating as part of its climate change action plan. 

The plan hasn't been released yet, but the Liberals had been coy about details ever since a published report based on a leaked draft copy said the province would phase out fossil fuels for home heating. 

But in her strongest statement yet on the issue, Wynne called the report "false," and said natural gas will "absolutely" be used to heat Ontario homes in the future. 

"The criticism that we have been getting is that we were going to be banning natural gas, and that is not something that we're doing," Wynne said after meeting Alberta Premier Rachel Notley in Edmonton. 

Natural gas is used to heat more than three-quarters of the homes in the province, and critics — as well as natural gas suppliers — warned that phasing it out would drive up energy costs for everyone. 

"Replacing building heat and electricity would require $200 billion in investment in generation and distribution just to effectively duplicate what we've already spent on infrastructure," Enbridge Gas CEO Al Monaco said in Calgary on Thursday. 

"That would more than double electricity rates in a province with very high electricity costs."  (The Canadian Press May 25, 2016)

What is interesting to me though is that the Premier gave very little information about what its new policy would do to the use of gas by people at home. The Government does not have to officially ban buying natural gas for heating. However, it can set up a new pricing system that makes it ridiculous to continue buying natural gas.