Better Warnings

Canada is to beef up the graphic warnings on cigarette boxes. The new labels, like the one found below will cover 75% of packages. It also includes the phone number of a quit smoking hotline. This is a good initiative from the Conservative government to improve the health of our nation. Cigarettes harm the different systems of the human body. Smokers eventually have to go to publicly funded hospitals for their problems. The cost then falls on all of Canada to pay. While the new labels might not be that efficient in encouraging smokers of a long time to quit, I can see this marketing scheme discouraging people from taking a first smoke.

The Liberals and NDP have accused the Tories of backing down in the face of lobbying from the tobacco industry against these labels. They say that this announcement is just "damage control" from when Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq postponed the creation of the new labels and the quit hotline. Maybe they are right. Maybe they are not. There is no proof to support these claims. Therefore, I do not care whatsoever. The plan is laid out and ready to be set in action.

Read more at the Toronto Star.

Related articles

• Canadian Tobacco Warnings Bigger, More Graphic (cbc.ca)
• Smokers shrug at graphic new warning labels (thestar.com)

Popular High Speed Rail

A survey done for the American Public Transportation Association shows that 62% of adults would use high speed rail if it were available to them. Only 11% would not use it. Again, another poll comes out assuring support in large numbers. Barack Obama has listened to these polls and to the experts and has proceeded to invest money in high speed rail. Stephen Harper has not. However, Ontario and Quebec have and there is a chance that they might use United States money to build high speed rail. However, that is speculation and would only happen if Democrats take back the House and retain control of the Senate. Building high speed rail would be a great achievement for Canada and the Conservatives would be able to garner support if they build this project.

Today U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the distribution of $2.5 billion for high-speed rail projects nationwide, and the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) released the results of a large travel survey which shows that nearly two-thirds of adults (62 percent) said they would definitely or probably use high-speed rail service for leisure or business travel if it were an option. The survey, among 24, 711 adults, was conducted for APTA by Synovate.

Read the full results of the survey here.

Related articles

• Trainwreck: Canada's high-speed rail failure (ctv.ca)
• Yes, High Speed Rail is Still On the Way (treehugger.com)

Redistricting the U.S

Redistricting is a process that happens every 10 years after the census report. This is the problem most of the states that grew or that lost have a Republican governor or a Republican house or both means that this could be a problem for the democrats at least in the short term. See historically in the past few decades states that are up north are losing population or are growing less then the average of the country while states in the south with the major exception of Louisiana are growing population. Texas grew 4 new congressional seats this year that is a big boost now Texas will have 38 electoral votes 4 more than last year. that means in a election a Republican would get 4 more electoral votes for him. this is of course a gain for the republicans. See because if your party controls the state senate and house than you can change how the map looks like knowing where people live. Meaning in a district that is 50/50 Democrats and Republicans you can actually put in that district a bunch of more democrats from other district that are leaning towards the Democrats and for the price of not getting one seats you can get 4 more seats to vote Republican as there Democratic population was all shoved into one district. If the Republicans are the governors of this state they can veto any new map that a democratic house and senate passed. The Republicans will benefit from this in the next election and probably the election after that, but I think by 2016 it will all blow up in there faces. See if people are moving from the northern states that tend to be Democratic territory and go to south states like Georgia and Texas and of course Florida than those states are going to be more leaning towards the left. In Texas especially there Hispanic population is growing and Hispanic people tend to vote at least right now for the Democrats , So in Texas where Hispanic population and Democratic population is growing I can say that by 2016 Texas could be the new swing state that will decide the election.

Canada's Trainwreck

It has been almost fifty years since Japan has launched its Shinkansen, the first high speed rail line in the world and Canada now finds itself the only country in the G8 without a high speed rail network of some sort. This would allow for a two hour trip between Montreal and Toronto, instead of the present five to eight hours.
In 2009, EKOS found out that 88% of Canadians support high speed rail coming to Canada. That is because the benefits are clear. Besides providing more jobs and enriching the economy, high speed rail is ridiculously safe and punctual, with many countries offering a refund if a train is more than five minutes late. It provides a rival to polluting cars and airplanes, reducing transportaiton emissions. Investing in high speed rail would be a good thing for Canada. The studies are done, the benefits are clear. It's time to start building.

Dedicated high-speed rail lines are ridiculously efficient -- at least in Japan. Officials there point out that trains are punctual down-to-the-minute, even with 300 million riders a year.

They're safe. There has not been a single fatality in either the Japanese or French system. An average of seven Canadians die in road accidents every day.

Environmentally, there is no better way to move a large amount of people, unless someone builds a really, big bike.

Read more at CTV.

No Majority for Years to Come.

With there being now three consecutive minority Government and that there are now expected to have another minority government if an election would be held now some might be thinking when a majority might come along. Well the last majority we had was in the 2000 election. The problem is that in that election the Liberals got 40%, but that even today will not be enough. In that election there was still a divide in the right wing vote between the PC and the CA. Which split the right wing vote enough to allow a majority government. This is the only reason the Liberals I believe got a majority three times in a row. Now a new problem also emerged that made even getting 40% not allow you to have a Majority. The problem is the Bloc Quebecois. They keep grabbing the majority of the seats away from the other parties. The Conservatives couldn't get the 12 something seats in the last election to get the majority. The Liberals before the Bloc and before Mulroney dominated the province now they can't get those seats again. The NDP is the last addition to this recipe that won't allow a majority. With there new found growth they keep some rural seats away from the conservatives while taking some urban seats away from the Liberals. How then will anyone get a majority.Well besides a coalition or a merger the other solution is to have a new more popular leader on either side's. Either of these things are very unlike;y, but will probably happen after some odd number of years of gridlock and talks of coalition all around years of minority Governments. There is still hope that if the NDP get lower were they were a few weeks ago at 12% and with the Conservatives hitting 40% again the conservatives might be able to squeeze out a majority that will be very weak and unstable. This shows that for years to come unless a drastic events happen no majority will come for years.