Brave or Foolish 2012 Political Predictions?

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

It's that time of the year again when yours truly goes out on the proverbial limb and reveals how much or how little political sagacity he really has with his annual New Year's Political Predictions.

If I'm laughed out of town before the end of 2012 no one can say I didn't ask for it.

Might as well start at the top with U.S. President Barack Obama, who I have to confess has been a huge disappointment for me in his first three years, especially on the foreign policy front, where you would be hard-pressed to squeeze a razor blade between his brutal use of military power abroad and former President George Bush. Obviously as former President – and a great general – Dwight Eisenhower warned, the Military-Industrial Complex calls the shots on American foreign policy and most every other aspect of American life as well.

Consequently, it wouldn't break my heart to see the first black American president denied a second term, but if I had to bet my life on it today, I'd pile my chips on Obama's name for three good reasons – Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

Romney, a political chameleon if there ever was one, would turn himself inside out to be president, but it's to no avail. He has long since lost his political cred with moderate Republicans for flip-flopping on so many issues like medicare and gay rights and he can never be right wing enough for the social conservatives and Tea Party flat earthers that are the tail wagging the Republican dog. (Or should that be elephant?)

As for the others, Rick Who will be the flavour of the day for about another week before he's forgotten while Dr. Ron Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman, who would be my choice because he's been against most U.S. foreign wars like Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn't stand a chance for that very reason.

Therefore I give Obama a second term and I earnestly hope that he proves me wrong about my feelings about his first term, but somehow I doubt it.

This takes me to my biggest prediction faux pas of 2011 when I insisted that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper would never win a majority. Harper certainly fooled me and he fooled a lot of other political pundits too. Obviously, barring a political catastrophe that I can't imagine, cunning Stephen will still be around for another year although I wouldn't empty my pockets betting on Defence Minister Peter MacKay, especially now that he has such a stunning, new, trophy wife. (Oops! I'm going to get into trouble for that one.)

Then there's the federal NDP, normally not of much interest, but now that they're “Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition” – fooling virtually every pundit in the land, – we must pontificate on their fate and frankly I think it's going to be a perilous one. Let's cut to the quick. On election night, those many months ago, I said the election of the 59 Quebecois as NDP MP's would be the ruination of the NDP and I stand by that prediction.

Why you rightfully ask? The answer is simple. I hate to be cynical but in my opinion Quebec politicians, regardless of political stripe, have one abiding passion – Quebec – and they care very little about the rest of Canada. Consequently the sh-- is going to hit the fan in February at the NDP leadership convention when the NDP old guard, which has had only limited success outside of Quebec, tries to boost its favourite son Brian Topp, who's never held elective office, over Thomas Mulcair, who was the only elected NDP MP in Quebec until the last election and was a MNA in the Quebec National Assembly for 13 years.

Great potential at this convention for blood on the floor.

And a quick note. I think the obituaries for the Federal Liberals are a little premature. Up until now Canadians have only seen Stephen Harper “light” with his string of minority governments. But now that Harper has his long sought after majority, we're going to see Stephen Harper “heavy.” It might not be a pretty sight.

And then, of course, there's the zany world of B.C. politics where you make predictions at your peril. With the Liberals still trying to figure out how to pay for their HST boondoggle and less than united behind their perky new leader, the outlook is decidedly grim. In fact the next election in May 2013 is the NDP's to lose, but as I've said many times before, never underestimate the ability of the B.C. NDP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

As for the bright spanking new team at the Cranbrook City Council table, I'm expecting an Academy Awards performance. But then again, I may be a little biased.

Good News $8.5 Million

It was good news and smiles all round today at Cranbrook City Hall.

David Wilks MP for Kootenay Columbia announced today that the City of Cranbrook would receive another 8.5million dollars towards the completion of Cranbrook’s major wastewater treatment upgrades. These funds will come from the Gas Tax Fund.

There are four phases of the waste-water treatment improvements to be completed but according to Jamie Hodge, City Engineer, these funds will enable ultra-violet treatment to be applied to the effluent that currently irrigates both the cattle feed and provides their drinking ‘water’. This provision is significant, as there has been much concern expressed about the effluent provided to cattle for drinking and the ultra violet treatment had been put on hold due to funding restrictions. The funding will also be applied to installation of aeration systems, completion of the transfer pipeline and improvements to the pump stations.

Mayor Stetski thanked the federal and provincial governments and the UBCM for their support of the Wastewater Improvement Program.  He said,  "This funding will allow us to vastly improve our treatment of effluent to better serve our community and our ranching partners"

Councillor Cross, Maryse Leroux,(Policy Analyst), Jamie Hodge, (City Engineer), Heath Slee, (President, UBCM), Mayor Wayne Stetski, MLA Bill Bennett, MP David Wilks, Councillors Pallesen,Warner and Davis

The Union of British Columbia Municipalities(UBCM) administers the Gas Tax Fund in BC in collaboration with Canada and British Columbia. On December 15th 2011 the Government of Canada passed legislation to make the Gas Tax Fund a permanent annual investment of $2 billion. Heath Slee, President of UBCM and also present at this announcement said, “ UBCM appreciates the support the Gas Tax program is providing as local governments upgrade core facilities".

Linking Money to Nature's Capital

When land is removed from the agricultural land reserve for purposes that are not agricultural in nature, many are concerned. At one of Citizens for Livable Cranbrook’s public meetings, a slide show with Randy Harris, we learned how land in Madagascar is being bought up by other nations for agricultural purposes. At the Conserving Natural Landscape forum (http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2011/06/notes-from-conserving-working.html ) we learned how the Agricultural Land Reserve often meets with resistance from land owners who wish to remove their land from the reserve due to financial circumstances.

Our valley is not immune to this problem and this opinion piece from the Tyee clearly spotlights to the real value of our agricultural land.
From the Tyee’s annual tradition - The Tyee's latest roster of Big Ideas, our annual series highlighting creative ideas for improving our lives and communities, launches today. (December 2011)

Idea #1: Link Money with Natural Capital

The coming year will see the world continuing to grapple with an increasing global currency crisis. Most modern forms of money are backed by nothing more than waning public confidence, and the symptoms of this deteriorating situation are splashed on the front pages of the world's newspapers almost every day.

These worries are in many ways well founded. The money in your wallet or bank account is progressively devalued every time a government cranks up the printing press, such as the recent rounds of quantitative easing in the United States. As the European monetary union lurches towards disintegration, and the U.S. demonstrates almost daily their political inability to deal with their ballooning debt crisis -- where is a safe place to keep your wealth in 2012 and beyond?

Many have turned to gold, a rare and otherwise useless metal that is valuable in the same way that Paris Hilton is famous -- only because we believe it to be true. Many gold hoarders are pining for the day when paper currencies collapse and their investments will hit thousands of dollars an ounce. Being lucky enough to live in a generation that has so far avoided significant societal turmoil, one might wonder why anyone would wish for such a thing. And while ballooning gold prices might yield short-term profits for the few who hope for the worst, it would also usher in an environmental disaster.

Gold extraction is one of the most destructive and wasteful mining processes in the world. With current prices over $1,500 an ounce, it is now profitable to mine ore with less than one half of a gram of gold per tonne -- meaning that 70 tonnes of polluting waste rock need to be crushed and processed to wring out a single ounce of gold. Things like clean water that actually have value are despoiled on an enormous scale to extract something that has no intrinsic value at all. Gold mining is perhaps the most poignant example of the yawning disconnect between conventional economic theory and the natural world that sustains us.

Drive natural stewardship

Imagine instead if some future currency was not pegged to mere expectations, or to arbitrary and polluting metals like gold and silver. What if money was instead backed by a basket of indicators like arable land and potable water? Such things not only have intrinsic value now, their value is expected to increase in the future.

In fact, this process is already happening. Institutional investors are rapidly scaling up speculation in the world's arable farmland. A recent survey by the OECD found that private investment in farmland in 2010 was approaching $25 billion, and most observers believe this will double or triple in coming years.

The Knight Frank International Farmland Index is another industry newsletter promoting investment on the world's remaining food growing areas. Their most recent publication showed that in contrast to slumping U.S. real estate values, American farmland prices increased by 10 per cent in 2010. Brazil's farmland increased by twice that amount. It seems the financiers of the world have finally realized the old adage that "you can't eat money."

For the complete article:

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/12/19/2012-Money-Capital/

What’s Happening…..

Thursday January 5th
Rockies Film Series
Margin Call
Tickets Lotus Books $10 in advance or $12 at the door
Columbia Theatre

Saturday January 7th
Banff Mountain Film Festival
7:30pm Key City Theatre
Tickets $22 Key City Theatre

Tuesday January 12th
Science Family Fun Night
Cranbrook Public Library
Especially geared to those who are not keen on science
For the next 6 Tuesdays
6:30 –8:15pm
8 to 12 year old accompanied by an adult
to register
250-417-2896

Tuesdays 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Rocky Mountain Melo-Dears
Singing for fun
#104 135, 10th Avenue South
Cranbrook and District Arts Council
Free to Arts Council members and $2 drop in for non-members
250-426-4223

Wednesday January 11th
African Travelogue
With Graham Knipfel
International Project Coordinator with COR
Admission by donation to the Stephen Lewis Foundation
Hosted by the GoGo Grannies


Wednesdays
1:00-4:00pm
Paint Talks
Cranbrook and District Arts Council
#104 10th Ave. S.
Painting support group


Get you tickets now for
Noises Off starting January 19th
Rankin Family Monday January 23rd
key City Theatre Box Office

Our Peaks from Above

This is an exceedingly beautiful series of images - with aerial views of the coal mines, the Flathead, the Bugaboos and Jumbo Glacier and is well worth the watch. 

Thank you to Douglas Noblet

Wild Air Photography, Nelson
http://www.wildairphoto.com/

Wild Flowers in Winter

Many plants hold their seed heads through winter. They are often just as pretty and often more architectural to look at than the original flower from which they formed. When dusted or piled high with snow, seed heads form a very eye-catching part of the winter landscape and often plants that are hidden by foliage in summer will be more easily noticed in winter.

Pinedrops is one such plant and it is special for another reason also, for it is a saprophyte. A saprophytic plant is one, which is dependent upon the dead and rotting matter of other plants and animals. Saprophytes are an essential part of decomposition of organic matter and contribute to the improvement of soil fertility. These plants will die if dug up and removed from their natural habitat for recreating that environment in the home garden is not easily achieved.

stem hanging over the path

This beautiful cinnamon-coloured, metre high, persistent seed or spore head of Pinedrops was found very close to the edge of Cranbrook last week. The botanical or Latin name for this special plant is Pterospora andromeda meaning feathered or winged spores and Andromeda of Greek legend.

The woody seed head stands a meter tall and is easily spotted when grass and other vegetation has died down.

Icy Sidewalks - continued

The previous council dealt with icy sidewalks for the last time in May of 2011. This excerpt is from the minutes of that May meeting.

CBK. IN MOTION – MAY 12/11 RECOMMEND. 221-11 THAT Council receive the Report Recommendation from the Corporate Services Department titled “Cranbrook in Motion Committee Recommendations May 12, 2011 Meeting; and further, that Council approve the recommendation from the Cranbrook in Motion Committee with regard to snow removal requirements to maintain the current voluntary-compliance system for snow removal on residential sidewalks; to include a component in the City’s Communications Plan that encourages residents to clear the sidewalks in front of their residences and encourage participation in the “Snow Angel” program by way of promotional events.

Given that the city likely does not have the extra funds or equipment to clean all sidewalks for us

Given that ‘voluntary’ is not working in many areas and many residential areas have dangerous walking conditions

Given that most people do not know how or where to contact Snow Angels and given that there have proven to be too few at this time

Given that there are many residents who are disgruntled with the dangerous conditions of many sidewalks

and Given that walking in the fresh air daily is one of the best ways to keep up or improve health and thus save the medical system

What would you suggest to improve the situation?


Please send us your suggestions?

Should there be an enforceable bylaw with fines for non-compliance?

Could garbage collection drivers or posties report dangerous sidewalks back to the city?

Should individual letters be sent to residents?

Could those required to do community service be asked to do this work?

Could the city offer crusher dust to spread on their frontage sidewalk to anyone who cares to collect it – free of charge?

Your solutions?

Willows on Waste

At one time Cranbrook’s spray irrigation fields held an area that was dedicated to the growing of different tree species on a trial basis. The experiment lasted a few years in conjunction with the Ministry of Forests. It is unknown why the experiment ceased and the city recently removed the old irrigation system that was languishing in the small arboretum where many now unirrigated trees have since died.

It would seem growing trees on this waste effluent might make a lot more sense than growing beef for human consumption.

This practice which is now being experimented with in Alberta certainly provides good food for thought.


From the Edmonton Journal by Dave Cooper December 10, 2011

EDMONTON — After flourishing on waste water from the town’s sewage treatment plant for more than two years, Whitecourt’s biomass crop of willows and poplars was ripe for harvest.

And last week, researchers brought in three different machines to cut, chip or bundle the various varieties of the fast-growing wood.

While trees aren’t usually on the list when farmers decide what crops they will plant, these species are being tested as both fuel and a way to naturally dispose of treated waste water and sludge.

Whitecourt offered the seven-hectare site beside its treatment plant to researchers in 2006, along with an electricity hookup and an unlimited supply of waste water to irrigate the young trees with underground pipes.

“The cut last week was our second on that site. The irrigated trees were 30-per-cent larger than the ones that weren’t irrigated, and we think they will be a good fuel source for our wood-burning power plant,” says Peter Yackulik, the town’s project manager.

“The question to be answered is what will it take to commercialize this operation in the future.”

The project is part of a federally led research program, with Alberta leading the way.

Whitecourt was the first test site in Canada, and there are now five locations in the province, says Richard Krygier, a researcher with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Wood Fibre Centre.

Saskatchewan is also interested, and Krygier hopes what has started here will eventually be copied across the country.

The other municipalities taking part with Whitecourt — Edmonton, Camrose County, Grande Prairie and Beaverlodge — met recently with government and industry supporters to form the Alberta Rural Organic Waste to Energy Network (AROWEN) to exchange ideas and encourage others to consider their approach.

“There are now 24 municipalities, companies or government departments working on this project,” says Krygier, listing an irrigation firm, a nursery company and a laboratory.

The research may provide an alternative way to treat waste water. Most areas with fewer than 5,000 residents still use lagoons and primary treatment systems, which eventually discharge into streams and rivers.

Larger centres with state-of-the-art sewage systems, such as Whitecourt and Edmonton, still have to dispose of the leftover sludge.

Researchers are studying the effects of applying this material to fields of willow trees, where it breaks down and acts as a natural fertilizer.

Edmonton’s project involves using sludge with trees on a test plot near the new remand centre being built on the city’s northern outskirts.

These trees produce biomass that can be burned for heating or to generate electricity, or in the future could be used in bio-products such as chemicals and drugs.

At the Whitecourt site, Krygier says five varieties of willow and two types of poplar were planted on irrigated and non-irrigated land.

The waste water is the same highly treated effluent discharged into the river, so it really can’t be considered sewage.

“This was our first project and we weren’t prepared to work with something that was a little ‘fresher’,” Krygier said, referring to sewage treated only to the primary level.

Using soil moisture sensors, irrigation occurred when the young trees were so dry they needed extra water.

Irrigation only works during the growing season, so a town relying on willow fields would need a winter waste water storage site, such as an engineered wetland, Krygier says.

Harvesting was done with a Claas unit, which did a good job quickly chipping the stalks, a baling machine and a cane cutter pulled behind a tractor.

It’s a new application for equipment many Alberta farmers are already accustomed to using. Farmers also have plenty of experience handling chipped material (silage for dairy cows) and round bales of hay and straw.

“But you are talking $35,000 for the cutter, $140,000 for the round bailer and $160,000 for the Claas head unit, so we were demonstrating different equipment scales of harvesting.”

The willow and poplar chips are being dried in the yard of Edmonton’s Northern Forestry Centre, testing a new technique adopted from Ireland — pumping air through slotted pipes under the pile — that has been modified by a local grain-drying firm.

“In Ireland they could dry wood chips with 45 to 50 per cent moisture content, which is what they are right now in winter, down to 18 to 20 per cent in four months,” Krygier says.

The chips will be studied and graded at a national forestry research lab to determine their quality.

Other countries, such as Sweden, have plantations of fast-growing trees harvested every few years just like crops. If it makes economic sense, large areas of brush land, marginal farmland and even the land under power lines could support willow crops in Alberta.

dcooper@edmontonjournal.com+

Read more: http://www.canada.com/technology/Alberta+harvests+first+crop+waste+raised+willows/5842836/story.html#ixzz1gFF0yimY

First Day of 2012 at Fort Steele

Evidence of the new water distribution system is everywhere at Fort Steele. 

The lack of snow did not hinder this New Year's Day tradition

Fine looking sheep with fine looking feed

No rink has a better view

Hot apple cider and cookies from the ladies of Lambi House

Snow or not the rides were still on and when else do you get a chance to ride in the covered wagon?

Icy Sidewalks

A Huge Thank You to those residents who take the time and consideration to regularly clear their sidewalks. Uncleared sidewalks become treacherous for walkers after the thaw/freeze cycles we seem to experience more of each winter.
The chart below displays information about deicers but nothing beats a regularly shoveled sidewalk with an occasional dusting of common crusher dust or gravel. Crusher dust is not harmful to the environment, is easily swept up in spring and can even be added to the garden if not contaminated with any of the chemicals.  A bucket of crusher dust lasts a long time and can be obtained from any gravel supplier - it is a lot cheaper than chemicals and can be cleaned up and recycled in the spring ready for use the next winter.

For those who like, want or need to walk a clear dry sidewalk is truly appreciated.


from
http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/a/aa120703a.htm

comes this list of chemical deicers, all of which have disadvantages.

Chemicals Used to Melt Ice

Name        Formula            Lowest Practical Temp       Pros           Cons

Ammonium sulfate (NH4)2SO4 -7°C(20°F) Fertilizer Damages concrete

Calcium chloride CaCl2 -29°C(-20°F) Melts ice faster than sodium chloride Attracts moisture, surfaces slippery below -18°C (0°F)

Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA) Calcium carbonate CaCO3, magnesium carbonate MgCO3, and acetic acid CH3COOH -9°C(15°F) Safest for concrete & vegetation Works better to prevent re-icing than as ice remover

Magnesium chloride MgCl2 -15°C(5°F) Melts ice faster than sodium chloride Attracts moisture

Potassium acetate CH3COOK -9°C(15°F) Biodegradable Corrosive

Potassium chloride KCl -7°C(20°F) Fertilizer Damages concrete

Sodium chloride (rock salt, halite) NaCl -9°C(15°F) Keeps sidewalks dry Corrosive, damages concrete & vegetation

Urea NH2CONH2 -7°C(20°F) Fertilizer Agricultural grade is corrosive