Worth Reading - February 26, 2015

Here's another link from Granola Shotgun. I shared a post from here a few weeks ago. The author of this blog has an interesting way of looking at urban change and the suburbs. In this piece he suggests that the bunker buildings of the suburbs will become the new hot real estate for artists, makers and other creatives/young people as old urban industrial properties grow out of reach.

Steve Paikin writes about the ongoing developments in the Sudbury by-election scandal. Premier Kathleen Wynne's (OLP - Don Valley West) strategy seems to be to rally the troops and throw all the other parties in the mud while she is at it. 

Alice Funke at Pundits' Guide points out that there are 21 MPs are not nominated to stand in the next election. It's possible that these people may retire and want to run out the clock to prevent other parties from nominating stronger candidates.

When I moved to the Northwest Territories there was a few times I was asked to justify the antics of my fellow Ontarians. Mostly is was to do with Rob Ford, but as the Ontario election raged in 2014 one of my colleagues asked why the Liberals looked like they might be re-elected, and ultimately were. I couldn't help but point to the ineptness of the opposition. Today Rick Nicholls (PCPO - Chatham-Kent-Essex) stated that he did not believe in evolution. The Tories cannot seem to get away from a base that is putting them at the fringe of Ontario political life. In the piece linked above Ashley Csanady links these comments to similar ones dogging the Progressive Conservatives.

Cuba is in a fascinating moment historically. It is entirely possible that 2014-2015 will be a transformational moment that will usher in an entirely new era. The Walrus writes about the transition taking place in the Caribbean nation. 

I was an early supporter of Michael Chong's (CPC - Wellington-Halton Hills) Reform Act. It passed the House of Commons yesterday and now is off to the Senate. Sadly however the bill was watered down to be passed, and in the name of fairness, here is a critic that says it didn't deserve to pass. 

The tragic death of a three-year-old in Toronto led to some remarkable charity on social media. Marco Oved in the Toronto Star raises some issues that also occurred to me, what is the proper response to something like this in the present era. 

Justin Ling writing for Vice on the infamous Bill C-51 anti-terror bill as it faces barriers to final assent. 

Eric Jaffe in City Lab tackles the myth that people only want trains and buses are unacceptable. This is a topic I've tackled a few times, the notion that millions/billions must be spent on rail when bus offers cheaper, appropriate-scaled solutions drives me crazy.