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In the past 20 years the population of Ottawa has increased at an explosive rate. In those days Kanata, Orleans, and Barrhaven were just small collections of houses tucked away outside the greenbelt. Today those areas are huge sprawling suburban neighbourhoods which have shown some of the fastest growth in the city. With new expansions being added every day these areas are indicative of the urban sprawl problems faced in Ottawa and many other cities. On Monday September 23rd the CRTC released the list of companies that had put forward a deposit with the intention to bid in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. Unfortunately that list of companies is populated with only incumbent Canadian carriers and small regional players looking to pick up localized spectrum blocks, none of which will poster much diversity in the Canadian wireless market.
The problem is that Canadians are still being left with no real chance to break out of the current three-player system Canada is currently stuck with. As a certified sailing instructor I spend my summer teaching children, and adults, how to sail. As with any highly complex activity there are many concepts one has to understand in order to make a sail boat move. These concepts, at the most fundamental level, are things like understanding where the wind is coming from, how to orient your boat to the wind, and how your sails should be set for the point of sail you are on. As the development of the Ottawa Light Rail network continues the transit commission continues to make decisions about details of the Confederation Line. One of these decisions is the renaming of the LeBreton Transitway Station to Pimisi Station. This name, meaning eel in Algonquin, is supposed to pay tribute to the Algonquin tribe who once inhabited the area and relied on the now endangered eel for sustenance.
Unfortunately the name Pimisi is a terrible idea on the part of the city transit commission for many reasons, none of which are considered when guilt-driven pity decisions are made by governmental organization in Canada on issues relating to native Indians. For two months at the beginning of the summer I worked as a detailer at a car dealership. My responsibilities included cleaning up used cars that had been traded in and needed to be cleaned before being sold again as well as preparing some of the new cars that were going out for delivery. This position meant that I dealt with nearly every used car that came though the dealership for the two month period that I worked there, something which gave me a rare behind the scenes look at what goes into preparing a used care for sale.