DaveTraynor.com

As the US election approaches, the media is overflowing with stories about the campaign’s final days. The hype, the shrill nature of the coverage, the “gloves are off” style of reporting are with us everywhere. But it’s a high-paced kind of reporting, and I’ve been hoping for something a lot more thoughtful.

This past weekend, the New York Times Magazine ran this story. The piece was written by Ron Suskind, whom some of you may know as one of the most hated reporters covering the Bush White House. You can find out more about why if you want (see this) but for now, take a look at his most recent article.

It talks about the “faith-based” presidency of George W. Bush and how that runs smack up against the “reality-based” world that he’s struggling to govern. It’s a revealing look at Bush’s first term and a sobering preview of what may be ahead in the term to come. But it’s not a partisan attack. It’s something closer to what history will write when someone has the luxury of looking at the events that we have been living through with the advantage of sober second thought. Already, we can see that the US reaction to the events of 9-11 have influenced today’s events in ways that were never imagined at the time.

But enough about what I think about this article, and the natural questions and speculation that arise from it. Read it yourself. It’s a long piece, and you’ll want to take the time to sit through it all.

Then, when you’re done that…we can start thinking about some of the things that are happening here in Canada that deserve a lot more sober second thought.

One Ontario item is the recent flap in the media over the resignation of a Vice-President at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. There are also allegations that other administrators have been muzzled or removed under pressure from the Liberal government. (UPDATE – I changed the source of the articles because the Star put the originals behind their pay firewall)

(Disclosure Note — My interest in this story is decidedly personal, as well as professional. Cyndy DeGiusti, the VP in question, was my boss at Stentor for a couple of years.) Was she forced to resign for speaking out against the Liberal government’s decision to force hospitals to balance their budgets at all costs? It does sort of look that way. And the government did warn hospitals that if they said anything negative about the government, there would be hell to pay…Still, it does seem a little heavy-handed.

This morning, my wife posed an interesting question. “Do you think (Ontario Premier Dalton) McGuinty has a plan? Or are they just stumbling along from one crisis to the next?” Indeed…that is the question, isn’t it?

At some point, a more detailed look at exactly what is going on in the McGuinty inner circle, similar to the scrutiny now being aimed at the Bush White House, may prove revealing. I hope so.

I’ll finish with this thought. Suskind paints a potrait of a President surrounded by a tight inner circle of advisors. He does not hear dissenting opinions. For him, there is only certainty that he is doing the right thing. I’m not saying that Canadian politicians are acting in a similar manner. But I find it interesting that in today’s political world, leaders like George Bush (and lots of others) routinely ignore the facts while they implement their decisions. They’re not about to let facts get in the way.

But as “facts”, or “reality”, become less relevant, where does that take us? And what does the role of the media become, if simply reporting the facts doesn’t actually affect the outcome?

If you’re like me, you’re spending more and more time using various search functions of the Web. Google has changed my life, probably forever. Someone asks me a question, and the first thing I usually do is head to the computer to find an answer. I’m often amazed how much I can find in a very short time.

But one of the on-going issues for me is that it’s tough to find local info in a reasonable manner. Obviously, I’m not the only one, and here’s a very interesting piece on Yelp!, a new piece of software that’s designed to help us all live better lives. It’s an intriguing idea and I’ll be interested to see how it works…let me know if you try it.

By the way, Bob Cringley is a fascinating story all in himself…sign up for his regular columns if you like to know what’s going on in the Web world. And use things like Google to do a little research into who he is…and what the name of his column is all about. It’s a neat story.

Well, I’m back in the fast lane. Literally.

I left Regina on a Wednesday, and headed into the US, via North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. All the way down…things were all right. The Interstates were busy at times, but traffic was OK. I was travelling at about 120 km/h (or about 75 mph) most of the time and I was usually in the fast lanes…but it was a nice, relaxed kind of fast.

In Chicago, the construction was amazing…and the routes were in rough shape. Lots of detours and congestion, but fortunately, I went through late at night and passed all that stuff before stopping for the night. Good thing too, because the next morning was terrible weather and the traffic in Chicago was backed up big time. But I was heading the other way, and it wasn’t a problem for me.

At least, I didn’t have any problems until I hit Ontario and the 401. I guess I’ve been away from Ontario for too long, but I couldn’t believe how fast things happen here. And the most obvious thing is the way we drive. I was only on the road for about 10 minutes, and I was nearly run off by someone doing about 200 kmh. At least, that’s what it seemed like when they came running up my rear end. I just about didn’t swerve out of the way in time. And that was just the first one…there were plenty more.

Coming into Hamilton, I was doing about 130 km/h and people were actually honking at me for going so slowly. Geez…I felt like I was on a different planet all of a sudden. Oh well, talk about life in the fast lane. I guess all those things that people in the rest of Canada say about us have some merit after all. So now, my goal is to start my own slow life crusade. I’m not quite sure what that’s going to mean, but I don’t want to get sucked back into the fast pace. I liked the pace I was working at in Saskatchewan. I’m going to try to keep that perspective out here, even if I do have to put up with a few horns now and then. I’ll have more to say on this as it develops. I suspect I’m not alone…and I also think that like me before I left for awhile, many people don’t even realize just how fast a pace they’re operating at most of the time.

Well, time to head off to multi-task some more…

PS — For those of you who have been nice enough to write…the latest update on my Mom is that she’s doing much better. She’s still in the hospital in Regina, but things are looking positive, and I’m hoping that she gets home next week. But just where “home” will be is still up in the air. These strokes are a tough thing to deal with, as I’m sure many of you know. But we’ll just wait and see…

Right at the moment, I’m plugged in to the Internet at a cheap little hotel in Bismarck, North Dakota. Interesting, isn’t it, how sometimes the most obvious things are done by the less than obvious places? What I mean is that I’m sitting here in a very small hotel room that only costs me $39, plus $5 for my dog. But for that price, I get free local phone calls, a gazillion TV stations, including a couple of movie channels, and, best of all, free wireless Internet.

That’s right…all the things that always cost a lot more at most of these places come as part of the package here. It’s nice — especially the Internet. I just turned on my Mac and bingo! I’m hooked up and able to get my mail and surf to my heart’s content. I’ve even logged into Messenger but wouldn’t you know it, none of my family seems to be on line tonight. Oh well.

This is what communications should be like. For the weary traveller, an easy-to-use connection to the web is a godsend. It’s so nice to be able to check mail and make sure things are OK back home. And wireless makes it so easy. No messing around with dial-up and long distance and all that fun stuff. And the free local calls is a nice touch as well. Paying some hotel $1 just for picking up the handset really makes me mad…

The only one who seems PO’d by all this is Blue. She hates the noises my computer makes when I’m on-line and she spends most of the time trying to hide in the bathtub, or claw her way out of the doorway. Oh well, she’ll settle down eventually.

As you may have gathered, I decided to head back home to Ontario today. I left Regina about noon and I’ve decided to stop for the night here in Bismarck. I was going to try and travel a lot further today, but I’ve decided to hit the hay in favour of an early start tomorrow and a long day then. I’m heading home via Chicago, then Detroit and into Hamilton. With any luck, I’ll be home sometime on Friday.

Well, I wanted to take advantage of this nice connection, and I’ve done that. So I’m off to watch the baseball playoffs and fall asleep…I’ll come back on if the next hotel room is as thoughtfully laid out.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving, everyone. Here in Saskatchewan, this nice run of weather continues. Today was another warm, sunny day. It was a great day for closing up the cottage, which is just what I did. I ferried all the accumulated junk around the place to the dump, shut off and drained the water system, and shut everything up nice and tight for the winter. ‘Cause I know the cold weather is coming…

I’ve had just about enough of this being away from home business. My contract writing work is done here in Regina, so I’m ready to hit the highway back to Hamilton. But my Mom is still in the hospital after her stroke and we’re not sure just what her future prognosis is. So I’m hanging around until we know for sure what’s going to happen. But I’m getting more and more antsy to get home. I’ve been away for quite awhile already and I’d like to think that they need me.

Today, my Mom seemed pretty together, but she wasn’t able to remember anything prior to today. She was surprised to see me, and stunned to find that she’d been in the hospital for so long. But she isn’t able to walk on her own and that’s the main criteria for getting back to her former residence. Oh well…tomorrow I’ll be up there trying to get her back up walking. I hope we’re able to make progress. This week, since I won’t be working anymore, I hope to spend a lot of time working with Mom…let’s hope it has some effect.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a hospital room in Regina, watching my mother sleep. This morning, she had a fairly significant stroke and now she’s sleeping peacefully. Of course, we don’t know what kind of shape she’ll be in when she wakes up. We’re hoping she’ll still be able to walk and talk and feed herself, so she can stay at the senior’s home she’s been living in, but we won’t know for awhile. So for now, I sit and wait.

I marvel sometimes at how things work out. I live a long way away from Mom now. It takes me three days just to get here. But right now, I’m working in Regina, so when my sister called me to say Mom was having another episode, I was able to be there right away, and I’ve been able to be with her all day. Talk about good timing.

Life is like that, isn’t it? Sometimes, things seem to work out and you’re not sure why. Your timing is good or it isn’t. I’ve been so fortunate when it comes to helping loved ones leave this world. My father was sick for three years…and after awhile, we weren’t sure what to think. The doctors kept saying it wouldn’t be long, but Dad didn’t agree, and he just kept soldiering on. When his time finally came, I was a long ways away, in the midst of covering a provincial election campaign. I got a call that said I should come home soon. So I did. It turned out that Dad didn’t die that day, but I took a week off, just to be able to hang out with him. And not too long after that, his time did come, and I was right there by his bedside, in the house he’d built for his family. It was a privilege to be part of such an important part of his life…and mine.

And there have been others as well. My wife’s father died at home, surrounded by his entire family. It wasn’t a happy time, but it was as good as it could have been. And it happened just a couple of months after the birth of my son, who was born at home. Little did we know the roller coaster of emotion that we had climbed on to when Cory came into this world. No one knew that his grandfather would be leaving it so soon. But there was a sense of balance to the two events as well. Birth and death are equal parts of life. You can’t have one without the other.

For now, I’m glad my timing has worked out. And we’ll see what tomorrow brings for my mother.

I like to think that I’ve brought this wonderful weather with me to Saskatchewan, but who knows? All I know is that this poor province hadn’t had more than two nice days in a row all summer, until I showed up just after Labour Day. Since then, it’s been nice here.
 
That’s worked out well for me, since the cottage I’m staying at is not a year-round place. Calling it a three-season home might be stretching it a bit, although the fireplace does work, and I’ve been using it in the evenings and mornings.
 
Thankfully, there is a new addition (well, new 20 years ago) and it has some electric heat. Especially in the bathroom. Call me an old fogie, but give me a home with a nice warm bathroom, and I’m happy. I can put up with a lot, so long as my bum is warm when I’m doing what comes naturally…
 
It looks like I’m going to be here in the wild west until Thanksgiving. Then I’ll be hitting the road on my way back to Hamilton and my patient family. But my time here will have been worth it. I’ve been able to hang out here at the cottage during a beautiful time of year. But best of all, someone is paying me to work while I’m here. The commute into Regina is a really nice, 30-minutes. And there’s almost no traffic…not at all like home.
 
So, I’ve been having such a good time walking the dog, enjoying the weather and just generally hanging out that I haven’t kept up these postings.  But that’s OK, I figure. And if any of you want to know more about what’s going on, just comment on this. I’ll get your comment the next time I log on and I’ll be happy to elaborate.
 

I’ve been enjoying my time here at the lake. The cottage in the fall is a nice place to be, with the leaves turning like crazy. So far, the weather hasn’t been too bad, but having to make a fire in the morning to warm up is different from turning up the thermostat. Sort of puts you back in touch with more basic things. Same with Internet connections (now there’s a tenuous segue for you). Out here, I’ve got a phone line. So when I need to log on, I can’t use the phone. Fair enough, although the connection is a little slow. But it works.

One of the benefits of the Internet is chatting across the miles. Every night, Heather and Kelly (in Hamilton) log on to MSN about 9 their time. Jaime, our daughter is going to school in Victoria, so she logs in from there, and I log in from here at Buena Vista (just outside of Regina). Its a fun way to catch up on the events of the day…and it really does work. It’s a bit slower than talking on the phone, but in some ways, it’s more satisfying. But it does get comical when everyone starts typing at once…and the messages flow thick and fast. Sort of like supper table talk after a particularly busy day.

The real treat of being here at the cottage at this time of year is the colours of the trees. This year, I’ve been lucky that the wind hasn’t blown all the leaves off yet, so the views in the valley are stunning. There’s a riot of colour around and in the morning and evening, the sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. I’m enjoying them a lot. Of course, fall is a chilly time and I could use some more good wood to burn. I’m working through all the scap wood around here, but that doesn’t throw off a lot of heat. But a friend is coming out to visit tomorrow and he’ll be bringing a truckload of firewood. That should help get through the cooler days ahead.

I decided to drive across the U.S. to get here to Saskatchewan. I like the way the Americans treat people driving long distances. The Interstate Highway system is an amazing accomplishment. It connects the entire country with fast, straightforward roads. They’re all limited access and they have plenty of rest stops along the way.

As someone who needs to stop fairly regularly to “inspect the facilities” (my old dog feels the same way) I appreciate the rest stops along the highway. They’re all built along similar lines. You exit the highway and there’s a parking lot with clean bathrooms, some local information brochures, a phone and some vending machines. But there’s no McDonalds, Tim Hortons or any other kind of commercial activity. They’re quiet and friendly and they make for efficient travel.

It’s interesting that all across the US, you see taxpayers’ money used to keep up the highway system and the roadside stops along it. Sure, there are restaurants, hotels and businesses just off the highway. But if you stay on it, there’s always a place to stop and rest without being assaulted by commercial activity.

While the cost to build a similar system in Canada would be prohibitive, I wouldn’t mind seeing Canadians decide to put more tax dollars to work on our road system to make it as efficient. If I want to get somewhere, I like to be able to get there quickly, and not be forced to look at a lot of signs advertising everything in every town. In Saskatchewan, it seems like every small town has erected one or two signs for every citizen, just to tell us about the cobwebby antique place, or the dirt for sale, or the best place to get your septic tank emptied. As a traveler on the road, I don’t really see why I would ever be interested in who has the best septic tank truck…it’s just not a service I need to know about while I’m driving.

For Whom the Tolls Bill

Another item of note is the Yank’s attitude towards tolls, whether for bridges, or for special high-speed highways. In America, you roll up to a toll both, toss in your quarter, or whatever, and away you go. At each of the booths, there are people sitting there, ready to make change and help you out. The system puts a lot of people to work. Sure they may not be the most glamorous jobs, but they’re steady and dependable and they help a lot of families put bread on the table. And some of them are automated, with special lanes for people who travel through regularly. But there’s still lots of people working.

In Ontario, we’ve got a different system. The 407 ETR is an electronic toll collection system. You drive on and a camera records your license number and sends you a bill. It doesn’t matter where you’re from either. Out of province people get the bill as well. It’s a slick, automated system that uses the latest in technology to collect the money. And they collect a lot of money. It’s the most expensive toll road in the world. And the money goes to a private company that doesn’t even have to ask anyone to raise the tolls. They just do it.

My problem with this system is that there are no people involved. Sure, the technology is neat, but it’s put a lot of people out of work. And it must cost a lot, because they charge a lot more money than other roads. In New York and Illinois, and Michigan, and other states I’ve visited, the tolls are collected by a public authority which hires the people and puts the money back into the highway system. You know what your tolls are going to pay for and you know that a lot of people are making a living from the tolls you pay. It seems like a good system. Sure, it could be automated, but why bother?

Technology is a great thing, and I like it as much as the next guy…maybe even more. But sometimes, I think we get carried away trying to use new technology just because we can. We need to consider a different measure of when it’s a good idea. Taking away a lot of reasonable jobs just because it will improve the bottom line for shareholders isn’t always in the best interests of our community. At least, that’s how I feel about tolls. So there.

It’s been quite awhile since I updated anythng here…Oh, the joys of summer (such as it has been!)

While it doesn’t look as though much has been happening, that’s not quite true. There’s been a lot of travelling and my oldest daughter is off to school in Victoria. And today, I’m off to Regina, driving across the country with one of our dogs. I’m going to be spending a month or so at the cottage at Buena Vista, just outside of Regina. I’m going to be helping a friend with some writing work he has there, as well as visiting old friends.

And if I have some time (and I expect to) and an Internet connection, I’ll get around to updating this log and improving my website as well.

More to come as I hit the road…