Skip to main content

Stuff is changing, for better or worse

Today, the famous Armdale Rotary in Halifax has been changed to a roundabout. (Chronicle-Herald article.) The Yield-and-Proceed rules have been dropped in favour of ... just ... yield to the people in the inner circle. Much like life. The people in the inner circle have the right of way. So just wait your turn to get into the spin cycle. Not being a Halifax driver, I have only experienced the Rotary's mayhem from the passenger seat. Frankly, I'm not likely to notice a difference. However, I'm told that there have not been any smash-ups there today.

On Saturday, the Nova Scotia government will implement gas price regulation. Sure, it'll prevent prices from bouncing around like they did today -- $1.088/L in the morning, $1.145 at noon, $1.088 again right now. But the prices will go up or down every two weeks without warning of the direction. And depending on big swings in the New York harbour spot price, it could change more often than that. The Premier says the regulation will mean stability, and guaranteed profits for the retailers, but he certainly isn't promising lower prices for drivers.

This weekend, the Tories' 1% GST cut comes into effect. So, big spenders, get out and consume. From reading this Star article, I don't expect to see much of a difference in day-to-day stuff.
"Parking meters, taxi fares, vending machine items and possibly some new homes are unlikely to fall in price after July 1 despite a 1 percentage point cut in the goods and services tax rate effective Saturday. They're all products that are sold at a GST-included price, rather than having the federal sales tax added at the cash register."

Cigarettes and pinot noir won't cost less, either, as I understand it.

And, the Sunday Shopping debate continues. (Focus On The Family has its own "news" take on the subject.) Major grocery chains Sobeys and Atlantic Superstores have been opening more stores each Sunday over the past few weeks. The NS government says it'll close the loopholes in the anti-retail legislation by the end of this week in order to prevent the stores from opening. Pete's Frootique will get to stay open, though, since Mr. Luckett had been exploiting the loophole successfully before everyone else rejigged their stores to get in on the action. The Tories promise another plebiscite to decide the issue once and for all (again). That'll happen in 2008. Word is that Sobeys could be planning to defy the law, Paul Magder/Hy & Zel's-style, this weekend. As long as they're not strong-arming their workers to work shifts they don't want to, I say go for it.

Comments

  1. Changing the rotary rules isn't going to change a damn thing. No one ever followed the yield signs to begin with. These new changes make me more fearful for my life to go to Spryfield.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is no need of Sunday shopping, come and visit our site.. and hear our side of the debate.

    www.saveoursundays.ca

    ReplyDelete
  3. "No need of"? What kind of debate is that?

    Please visit this spammer's web site, if only to chuckle at sos's weak command of the language.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Today was my last day at work, and I'm okay with that

Today marks a weird spot on the calendar for me. It’s one of those landmarks that really doesn’t mean anything, other than to illustrate the weirdness of time and how we feel it. As of today, my son Gordon has been without his mother longer than he was with her. The length of time Amanda has been gone is now longer than the length of time we were a family of three. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, but that dangblasted calendar tells me it’s almost three years. I have not said a word about it to G, but tonight, for the first time in a long time, he pulled out the Missing Mummy book for bedtime. Today was my last day in broadcasting for a while, as far as I can tell. I spent the past five years as Program Director at Newstalk 1290 CJBK in London, Ontario. And in recent years, I was also the noon-hour show host, afternoon news anchor, a commercial voice guy, TV news promo voice guy, and more. Also in the past five years, I’ve bought a house, endured renovation

A request, as we reach two years

Wow, long time no write. I didn't enjoy this past winter. I was certainly in a long slump. Things were very challenging at work. Gordon was awesome, as always, but I was just in a sustained funk from last summer on. And I'm not sure I'm all the way out of it yet. I'm still largely in quiet hermit mode, but have been making progress at resuming social contact. Little dude and I have a very busy summer that will go by in a flash. This Thursday will mark two years since Amanda died. I still replay the events of that night in my head almost every day. I'd like to not. Sometimes it feels like forever ago, but sometimes I'm right there all over again. Hey, can I ask for your help with something? Two years ago, so many wonderful people told me that if there was anything they could do to help .... Well, I don't ask often. And I should've asked more. And I should ask more even now. I'm still not comfortable asking. But I'm asking for this. I put

Hard to believe it's been a year - but it has

One year ago today, we lost Amanda. Time plays tricks on all of us. We can think "that was so long ago" at the same time as "it feels like yesterday." I run into this all the time with Amanda's death. Yes, it feels like just yesterday, or last night, or later today, that Amanda collapsed in the kitchen and died after that long, brutal battle with ovarian cancer. But every day has ticked by at a pace like any other, and it's been a whole year of those days, with incremental and sometimes revolutionary change. As I move about our home, it's hard to fathom that she's been gone a whole year. Amanda's garden awakens, early Spring 2017. Many of the decorative items she carefully arranged throughout the house are in the exact same place as the last time she touched them. She had the vision, not me, so I've been reluctant to disturb her decisions on what looks good and works. In other places, I'm reminded that it's been at least