Jets Overhead - Beach Dream

Via Facebook:

We are pleased to announce a new video for the song Beach Dream, directed by Jeremy Lutter and starring Cameron Bright and Sarah Desjardins. Watch the video here:

Elizabeth May: Kickass Canadians

All photos courtesy of Green Party of Canada

A little while back, I got the following email from Ottawa-South Green Party of Ontario member James Mihaychuk:

“You need to get Elizabeth May on your site. Elizabeth has been an activist, environmental lawyer, federal policy advisor, head of the Sierra Club Canada, our first elected Green MP, and was the 2012 Parliamentarian of the Year as selected by other MPs.”

Quite the endorsement. Not that the Green Party of Canada leader really needs it. She’s had an extraordinary life so far.

Read through Elizabeth’s Green Party bio or Wikipedia entry and you’ll learn that she was just a teenager when she led a successful campaign to prevent insecticide spraying on the forests of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. That finances kept her from finishing an undergraduate degree, but that she got through Dalhousie Law School anyway as a mature student (graduating in 1983 with a reference letter from then-Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton).

Good read.

Click title to read more.

PM's former chief of staff controlled secret Tory fund - Politics - CBC News

CBC News has learned that Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, had control of a secret fund in the Prime Minister’s Office when he cut the now infamous $90,000 “personal cheque” to disgraced Senator Mike Duffy.

In exclusive interviews, sources familiar with the fund tell CBC the money in it comes from Conservative Party coffers, and at times has reached almost $1 million.

Like all political party funds, more than half of all the cash in the secret PMO stash ultimately comes from taxpayers’ pockets. Individual donors to political parties receive generous tax credits. Parties also receive millions from taxpayers through a per-vote subsidy, which is being phased out by 2015.

Sources tell CBC that Harper’s chief of staff — to date, there have been four, including Wright — has exclusive signing authority over the fund, which was set up in the PMO when the Conservatives came to power in 2006.

Its existence has apparently been a closely guarded secret for the past seven years, even within the Prime Minister’s Office. Only a few Conservative insiders know how the PMO cash stash has been spent.

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New CRTC wireless rules ban contract break fees after 2 years - Business - CBC News

The CRTC has unveiled a new code of conduct for cellphone companies that forbids charging customers to break their contracts after two years, and makes it easier to unlock cellphones.

Its a canadian miracle.

Canada is run by some of the greediest cellphone and telecommunications companies in the world. I’m glad we’re finally getting some progress towards fairer cell contracts.

Hats Off Day Parade and stuff! (photos)

So today I went to another local parade/community event. I went to The Hats Off Day in Burnaby today. Basically its a long running tradition of shops in a particular area of burnaby (the heights) to give back to the community, and so there is a parade and lots of deals at stores and prizes, as well as a car show.

If you’d like to see my photos from the event today, click the link above. They’re in a facebook photo album which is public, so you don’t have to be my friend to see them (thought if you want feel free to add me).

Later I’ll post the best photos on my tumblr photography blog, facebook photography page and the like.