If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
Foreign aid. And by association, military aid.
I am ashamed and disgusted at how much poverty exists in Canada. All of my citizens have the right to emergency health care, dental coverage, healthful food and safe drinking water, shelter, safety-and-security, rule-of-law, and broadband telecommunications.
It’s unconscionable for there to be water-boil-advisories in First Nations communities. My country had its Truth and Reconciliation events. That’s nice — now it’s time to get on with it. I’m a big fan of harm-reduction. If European colonists and colonialism has poisoned our/my relationship with indigenous communities, then I/we have to stop being paternalistic assholes. I want my country to be a cohesive nation or confederation of tribes and/or communities. If aboriginal communities need self-determination and self-government, so be it. My Canadian society needs maintenance. I want to focus on that. I want a well-equipped, disciplined, psychologically-vetted, and HIGHLY TRAINED military and police force. When I allow my law-enforcement personal to use deadly force, they have to be firm, fair, and focussed. Police brutality is avoidable.
Foreign military and monetary aid has strings attached to the recipient. My society has no right to be meddling in other countries’ affairs (if we must provide safe-haven for political, war, or economic refugees, let’s consider it). Cut the foreign and military aid and reallocate it to Canada’s government.
Don’t even get me started about electoral reforms. I’d change The Elections Act. We dump the first-past-the-post nonsense and replace it with representation by population. “Rep by pop” (we were arguing about it when I was in grade 10 FFS [1986-1987]). And I swallow my distaste at the nasty political parties that could crop up.
I’ve been thinking about these questions for years. In June 2009, CBC Radio aired Ideas, The Munk Debates. From the CBC website, “Be it resolved foreign aid does more harm than good.” The debaters are: Dambisa Moyo, anti-foreign aid advocate and author of Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa; Hernando de Soto, author of The Mystery of Capital and a leading advocate for the use of property rights to increase living standards in the developing world; Paul Collier, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and author of The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It; and Stephen Lewis, Professor in Global Health at McMaster University and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. His best-selling book, Race Against Time, comprised the 2005 CBC Massey Lectures and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Award and the Trillium Book Award“. (link to CBC site). You can also click on the following link to access the this treasure-trove of “civil and substantive debate“: https://munkdebates.com/debates/foreign-aid/
I learned how to switch data plans when off-grid. February 21 2025 digital update.
TS and I had to reduce our monthly cell phone bill. For 2 devices, with us sharing 90GB/month, Canada-wide calls, and basic voice mail… we were forking out $220/month to ROGERS. Their cellular coverage here on the North Bruce Peninsula is spotty. At the rock farm, it’s almost non-existent. When one steps inside our strawbale home (that, by happy happenstance, is a Faraday Cage), there is ZERO signal inside the living zone. To get reliable telephone service, we must use WiFi calling on our home network, and then pay ~$300/month to Starlink for broadband internet service. Hell, last billing cycle, our satellite ISP bill was $325 for and we used 200GB of data. I just ran Ookla’s SPEEDTEST on our Starlink ISP (with its target Huron Telecom Cooperative @ Ripley, ON; ~150km away). Download speed at 16:30 EST on a Friday is 140 Mbps and 23 Mbps upload. 0.0% packet loss; PING responsiveness results: 69ms idle, lowest 60ms, highest 161ms, jitter 25ms; 101ms download, lowest 61ms, highest 188ms, jitter 21ms; 89ms upload, lowest 55ms, highest 146ms, jitter 11ms.
Goodbye ROGERS. Hello FIDO (that is also owned by ROGERS, for f**k’s sake [Shaw is owned by Bell]). 2 lines. 20GB/phone. PN and TS use their own devices. Canada-wide calling, basic voice mail… now for ~$90/month including taxes. That’s a-okay for me. And TS can use her POS (point of sale [Square]) device at the markets, when it’s linked up to her device.
I learned the following points when setting up a new phone plan:
- It can be done without going to a bricks and mortar store. I completed the entire process using FIDO’s chat feature and telephone service.
- Our mailing address is NOT recognized by all business portals. FIDO’s set up program did NOT recognize our address. I suspect they are using outdated Canada Post data (this was a similar problem with BMO when we updated our banking information). PN had to have the registration process completed by a FIDO agent, who manually inputted our mailing address. This can become tricky when companies like FIDO check ones’ credit history (if they don’t match, the credit check fails).
- PN and TS are using physical SIM cards, not the e-SIM feature on our devices. Our devices are older and I suspect they are not 100% compatible.
- Porting or transferring ones old phone number to a new carrier is easy (since ROGERS and FIDO share infrastructure, it was successful in <30 minutes). I don’t get a 226-xxx-yyyy dialing prefix. (416) all the way, yeah!
- When activating a device, the phone and its FIDO SIM card need to connect to the cellular network BEFORE setting up WiFi calling. TS and PN had to drive out to the highway to get reliable cellular coverage (from the FIDO-ROGERS towers).
- Once PN’s device was able to “dial home” on the ROGERS-FIDO network, he was able to set up basic VM, activate roaming data, and 911-calling (i.e., WiFi calling). PN got fancy with his 911-calling address on file — he provided some local landmarks so that the 911-dispatcher can help EMS reach the farm.
- The moment PN returned to the rock ranch farm house, his phone activated its FIDO Wi-Fi calling feature.
- FIDO mailed the physical SIM cards in 2 separate mailers. Odd. And wasteful. TS’ SIM chip arrived this evening, after she dug a path to the mailbox.
If you are a FIDO user and need help setting up the Wi-Fi calling feature, use the following support post to guide you through the process: https://www.fido.ca/support/mobility/wi-fi-calling#does-wi-fi-calling-use-data-from-my-wireless-plan- …Remember, I had to drive out of our rock farm to get reliable cellular coverage and fully activate the device BEFORE activating Wi-Fi calling from the iDevice’s Settings >>> Cellular >>> Wi-Fi calling feature. My instincts also tell me that one needs to select “Roaming On” with the “cellular data options” (you might disagree with that setting).
I also had good luck with the following 2023 How To Geek articles: https://www.howtogeek.com/234608/how-to-enable-wi-fi-calling-on-an-android-phone/ …and/or… https://www.howtogeek.com/229216/how-to-enable-and-use-wi-fi-calling-on-an-iphone/
February 22, 2025 rock farm update — analog activites!
TS is perfecting her bread-making skills. And her end product has dramatically improved, since talking to Little Buck Bakery‘s owner-operator (link to their business site). Look, PN is grateful that he gets fed at the farm. I honestly can say TS’ latest creation is… what… 50% more flavourful, 50% more crusty, 50% more risen (than prior, dense accidental flatbreads). TS uses wild yeast as her starter, like a beast-mistress-womyn. Sourdough on the Bruce can be fickle, with poor rises, lackluster starch hydration, and its ultimate success at the whims of the house’s abiotic and biotic factors. I won’t share the trade secrets TS and her business associate TN (from Friendly Owl B&B [their link]) learned from Little Buck Bakery. TU, I’m GRATEFUL you taught them new baking strategies.
PN is rediscovering the cardiovascular joy of snowshoeing around his back yard. I’m listening to my friend-and-neighbour MS about the risks of walking around in deep snow and am heeding his advice. I can easily break an ankle if my booted foot slips into a crevasse. My snowshoe bridges the gap.
Click on the image to expand panorama images, see detail, and tolerate witty meta-comments.
TS is leading the snow clearing efforts about the rock farm house. Those piles need to be moved downhill from the building’s skirt before the predicted thaw commences. We cannot risk water ingression into our walls’ envelopes (there’s no plastic vapour barrier under the plaster. We must let the strawbale wall breathe and gradually dry out).
TS and PN maintain driveways and paths to and from our farm. The municipality keeps scraping the icy snow and throwing it onto our mailbox and block the entrance. We keep digging it out. After the thaw, we plan on anchoring the mailbox onto the hidden boulder (and woe to the contractor who tries to ram into it with a snow-blade). And a Black Dog Biscuits sign needs to go up to attract hikers and tourists, for direct farm-to-dog sales! Sooner or later, we also need to get a bear-proof garbage locker installed. And a small night-sky-friendly street light.
PN & TS are testing out a new brand of fuel pellets on the Froling boiler. This brand is made up of hardwood species. It burns with a different odour and noticeably more steam than the softwood brand. Which fuel is superior for heating and which has fewer emissions and ash-build up? Stay tuned!
Key phrases and showcased hyperlinks:
Friendly Owl Bed And Breakfast. https://www.friendlyowlbnb.ca/ ; 3557 Hwy 6 Lion’s Head, ON N0H 1W0 ; 519.793.3940 ; friendlyowlbnb@gmail.com .
Little Buck Bakery. https://littlebuckbakery.com/ ; You can reach [them] by phone, text, or email at (519)-331-6633 or littlebuckbakery@gmail.com. Or simply submit the form [on their website and they will] get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for supporting [their] small, family-run bakery – [they’re] proud to share [their] baked goods with you and [the] community!
https://www.howtogeek.com/229216/how-to-enable-and-use-wi-fi-calling-on-an-iphone/ Accessed Feb. 22/25.
https://www.howtogeek.com/234608/how-to-enable-wi-fi-calling-on-an-android-phone/ Ibid.
https://www.fido.ca/support/mobility/wi-fi-calling#does-wi-fi-calling-use-data-from-my-wireless-plan- Ibid.
https://munkdebates.com/debates/foreign-aid/ Accessed Feb. 21/25.
https://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2009/06/08/the-munk-debates-1/ Ibid.
http://lacwood.ca/home I.C.S. (Lacroix) Lumber Inc. Softwood fuel pellet supplier. Purchased from Home Hardware Building Centre, Lion’s Head.
https://logik-e.com/default.htm P.W.I. Industries Inc. Hardwood fuel pellet supplier. Purchased from Rona, Miller Lake.
https://blackdogbiscuits.ca/ Look for this product at your local Bruce Peninsula vendor!
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 