Blair 🇨🇦
@blurr65.bsky.social
enjoyer of history, leafs and jays fan, sometimes rides a bike, thinks we need more homes, transit, and homes near transit | Views my own and do not represent my employer | Ontario-born British Columbian 🇨🇦 | he/him
(@blurr_65 🐦)
(@blurr_65 🐦)
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Disappointed to see Cambridge council pull the typical slimy politician move of making poor financial decisions to “keep taxes low” before an election year only to create worse financial burden in the future to the same taxpayer
This kind of common behaviour disillusions me with western democracies
This kind of common behaviour disillusions me with western democracies
November 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Disappointed to see Cambridge council pull the typical slimy politician move of making poor financial decisions to “keep taxes low” before an election year only to create worse financial burden in the future to the same taxpayer
This kind of common behaviour disillusions me with western democracies
This kind of common behaviour disillusions me with western democracies
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
It's been an incredibly frustrating day with Vancouver passing an austerity budget that will cut funding for important public services and infrastructure and fire hundreds of staff, even after over 600 speakers, including myself, speaking out against the harm that this budget will do to our city.
November 26, 2025 at 4:48 AM
It's been an incredibly frustrating day with Vancouver passing an austerity budget that will cut funding for important public services and infrastructure and fire hundreds of staff, even after over 600 speakers, including myself, speaking out against the harm that this budget will do to our city.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
I just want to point out that she pushed him and had this great line:
Gerson: “What I thought was really interesting about that column: at no point did you stop to consider whether or not America was a country worth joining.”
Douthat: “I did not.”
Gerson: “Which is a very American thing to do.”
Gerson: “What I thought was really interesting about that column: at no point did you stop to consider whether or not America was a country worth joining.”
Douthat: “I did not.”
Gerson: “Which is a very American thing to do.”
November 26, 2025 at 3:18 AM
I just want to point out that she pushed him and had this great line:
Gerson: “What I thought was really interesting about that column: at no point did you stop to consider whether or not America was a country worth joining.”
Douthat: “I did not.”
Gerson: “Which is a very American thing to do.”
Gerson: “What I thought was really interesting about that column: at no point did you stop to consider whether or not America was a country worth joining.”
Douthat: “I did not.”
Gerson: “Which is a very American thing to do.”
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Congrats to the VPD on defunding the City.
November 25, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Congrats to the VPD on defunding the City.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Apple is anti-union.
Tesla is anti-union.
Amazon is anti-union.
McDonald's is anti-union.
Starbucks is anti-union.
Google is anti-union.
Walmart is anti-union.
These mega-corporations aren’t on workers’ side and their actions make it painfully clear.
Tesla is anti-union.
Amazon is anti-union.
McDonald's is anti-union.
Starbucks is anti-union.
Google is anti-union.
Walmart is anti-union.
These mega-corporations aren’t on workers’ side and their actions make it painfully clear.
November 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Apple is anti-union.
Tesla is anti-union.
Amazon is anti-union.
McDonald's is anti-union.
Starbucks is anti-union.
Google is anti-union.
Walmart is anti-union.
These mega-corporations aren’t on workers’ side and their actions make it painfully clear.
Tesla is anti-union.
Amazon is anti-union.
McDonald's is anti-union.
Starbucks is anti-union.
Google is anti-union.
Walmart is anti-union.
These mega-corporations aren’t on workers’ side and their actions make it painfully clear.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Rush hour traffic in Utrecht.
Sound on 🔊 if you want to experience that rush hour IS possible without the constant, deafening noise of cars overpowering people talking.
Sound on 🔊 if you want to experience that rush hour IS possible without the constant, deafening noise of cars overpowering people talking.
November 25, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Rush hour traffic in Utrecht.
Sound on 🔊 if you want to experience that rush hour IS possible without the constant, deafening noise of cars overpowering people talking.
Sound on 🔊 if you want to experience that rush hour IS possible without the constant, deafening noise of cars overpowering people talking.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Streetcars crawling up Spadina.
Note the left turning cars taking priority over the streetcar.
Note the left turning cars taking priority over the streetcar.
November 25, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Streetcars crawling up Spadina.
Note the left turning cars taking priority over the streetcar.
Note the left turning cars taking priority over the streetcar.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Vancouver's 2026 draft budget has PASSED.
Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed.
Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others.
Full story to come.
Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed.
Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others.
Full story to come.
November 25, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Vancouver's 2026 draft budget has PASSED.
Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed.
Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others.
Full story to come.
Approved on a 7-4 vote on party lines, with ABC in favour and councillors Fry/Bligh/Orr/Maloney opposed.
Property tax freeze, $50 million more for VPD, and cuts to Arts, Culture, Planning and Sustainability departments, among others.
Full story to come.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
when its definitely not a hostage situation
November 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
when its definitely not a hostage situation
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Toronto deliberately killed apartment construction in the early 1970s, after a generation-long building boom.
Almost all of that housing was built by “the market.”
Almost all of that housing was built by “the market.”
Charting number of rental units in apartment buildings in Toronto by year of construction
(This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago)
#toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay
(This is a quick update to a similar chart I made ~2.5 years ago)
#toronto #housing #dataviz #NationalHousingDay
November 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Toronto deliberately killed apartment construction in the early 1970s, after a generation-long building boom.
Almost all of that housing was built by “the market.”
Almost all of that housing was built by “the market.”
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
No single person, especially someone with zero expertise, should be able to just change the CDC website on a whim. The fact that federal health and science pages are no longer trustable is a catastrophe for public health and democracy.
Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website’s Language on Autism and Vaccines
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
No single person, especially someone with zero expertise, should be able to just change the CDC website on a whim. The fact that federal health and science pages are no longer trustable is a catastrophe for public health and democracy.
hows the City of Vancouver imagine it's going to enforce new peak hour bus lanes when they can't even enforce the current ones or any other traffic law. It's constant: this car's been sitting 10 mins. while drivers violate the law on the other side too. Paint & automated enforcement is the only way.
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
hows the City of Vancouver imagine it's going to enforce new peak hour bus lanes when they can't even enforce the current ones or any other traffic law. It's constant: this car's been sitting 10 mins. while drivers violate the law on the other side too. Paint & automated enforcement is the only way.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
*stands on guard for thee*
November 16, 2025 at 11:57 PM
*stands on guard for thee*
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
I'll be the first to admit knowing very little about medical sciences, but god damn from the outside looking in, mRNA tech seems like actual magic
November 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM
I'll be the first to admit knowing very little about medical sciences, but god damn from the outside looking in, mRNA tech seems like actual magic
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
this is a rich text but my favorite part is that despite being presumably good at math, her husband is so illiterate that he cannot read a baby's report card
I think the belief by the powerful that "people will put up with many things if you are excellent at math" is incredibly revealing in terms of understanding How We Got Here
November 11, 2025 at 11:51 PM
this is a rich text but my favorite part is that despite being presumably good at math, her husband is so illiterate that he cannot read a baby's report card
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
UPDATE: Canada has announced that it has lost its measles elimination status.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
November 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
UPDATE: Canada has announced that it has lost its measles elimination status.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
This is a direct result of the increase in anti-vax disinformation, which has caused large, sustained outbreaks in the country over the last year.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
The arrests are presented by FanDuel.
November 9, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The arrests are presented by FanDuel.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
As usual, @sjamieit.bsky.social and colleagues at @strongtownsottawa.ca know how to make a point. Take a look at this thread. One of the core principles of taxation is that the burden needs to be distributed fairly. What we have in Ontario currently is not fair.
Ontario property assessments haven't been done since 2016 and it's getting ridiculous. Suburban homes are paying much lower property taxes than they should be.
Annual property taxes:
↙️ $8575 | $6360 ↘️
Annual property taxes:
↙️ $8575 | $6360 ↘️
November 9, 2025 at 2:28 AM
As usual, @sjamieit.bsky.social and colleagues at @strongtownsottawa.ca know how to make a point. Take a look at this thread. One of the core principles of taxation is that the burden needs to be distributed fairly. What we have in Ontario currently is not fair.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
SANDWICH GUY AVOIDS TOASTER
We have reached a verdict: Not guilty.
November 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
SANDWICH GUY AVOIDS TOASTER
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Its officially that time.
November 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Its officially that time.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
It’s always interesting when firefighters get political. Former Toronto chief Pegg was front & centre at first encampment evictions talking about fire risk but near absent in ongoing road carnage issue. Why that & not road carnage that firefighters attend to daily? Politics.
Has this firefighters’ union done a comparative study to explain why almost every one of the world’s richest nations allows single stair access? Or are they just making stuff up?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
There's a push for single-stair apartments in Canada. Calgary firefighters want the city to reject it | CBC News
Calgary’s firefighters union is trying to prevent what it calls a dangerous housing trend — in which multi-storey housing buildings are being constructed with only one stairwell — from making its way ...
www.cbc.ca
November 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
It’s always interesting when firefighters get political. Former Toronto chief Pegg was front & centre at first encampment evictions talking about fire risk but near absent in ongoing road carnage issue. Why that & not road carnage that firefighters attend to daily? Politics.
Reposted by Blair 🇨🇦
Every compromise is more dead & injured people of all sorts. And it doesn’t matter, Ford still banned them. So stop compromising & take a real stand. All this does is make drivers feel more emboldened to drive dangerously.
Here are the new speed camera warning signs Toronto will start installing on Nov 15, if speed cameras are still permitted. City also targeting that date for change limiting operating hours of cameras to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays only. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
November 3, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Every compromise is more dead & injured people of all sorts. And it doesn’t matter, Ford still banned them. So stop compromising & take a real stand. All this does is make drivers feel more emboldened to drive dangerously.