The Ugly Canada Thread

[J_Murphy]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

A pet peeve one this week - incompetence/corruption.


And now the corruption. As usual, the province sold an abandoned school building for pocket change (and it wasn't advertised, of course). $189K for a prime site in the centre city area.

They said it was sold through a tendering process, so I guess that is some form of advertising? Still, it's the first I've heard of a property being sold in this manner as opposed to a traditional style of real estate sale.

[Trevor3]

Originally Posted by J_Murphy

They said it was sold through a tendering process, so I guess that is some form of advertising? Still, it's the first I've heard of a property being sold in this manner as opposed to a traditional style of real estate sale.

It went to tender, so anybody could have made an offer. It's not like the Province or school board got into bed with a developer and came up with a scheme to dump the property. Since it's a 70+ year old building, tendering allows the vendor to sell the property as is and dump the remediation costs on someone else. That's an expensive building to tear down and probably has asbestos and lead all over the place, which just brings the cost up. Rather then demolish it and sell off the land hoping to make a few $$'s, it makes more sense to rid themselves of the liability and risk, sent it to tender, accept the highest bid, and wash their hands of it. After all this is a school board we are talking about, their business is running schools not real estate investment.

Tendering is the preferred route for government to divest themselves of assets or procure contracts as it generally protects against corruption. If it goes on the market anyone can make an offer, but it's very easy to turn down a higher $ offer and do your buddy a favour and sell it to him for less. With tendering, so long as the bids are compliant and all other things being equal, the highest $ offer is accepted. I think it's fair to say that nobody wanted to deal with the financial risk associated with tearing down that school and remediating the site prior to developing. Even as a prime location you would be looking at a lot of money to invest before getting anything back.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

Ladies wearing full face covering sun visors. I've been seeing this for a number of years in Vancouver but more so lately. Occasionally downtown but more often in the Kerrisdale neighbourhood on the West Side where I go every Thursday. I finally took a moment to take some pics today.

I find it especially disturbing when vehicle drivers are wearing them because as a pedestrian I can't establish eye contact with them before crossing in front. And I think it's illegal for a driver to have their face covered because if there's an accident or a hit and run then witnesses need to be able to identify the driver. In this car both the driver and passenger had these visors on. It's just bizarre to go to use a crosswalk and look over and see two robots sitting in a car looking at you, or maybe they're not looking at you.




West Boulevard in Kerrisdale neighbourhood, Vancouver, Sept.15 '16, my pics

It's an Asian thing. The paler your skin the higher class you are. I've seen Asian ladies here walking with umbrellas in the sun for this reason. I may have seen those visors once or twice too. My other favourite Asian mask is the germaphobic variety of white face mask covering your nose and mouth.

[Abii]

I don't understand the complaint against sun visors. Very odd complaint. They look super weird, but the whole "I can't see your eyes argument" is invalid because I can't see a person's eyes under sun glasses either, so what's the difference?? This is no different than wearing glasses.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Abii

I don't understand the complaint against sun visors. Very odd complaint. They look super weird, but the whole "I can't see your eyes argument" is invalid because I can't see a person's eyes under sun glasses either, so what's the difference?? This is no different than wearing glasses.

Yes, it's weird but not illegal. I wonder, however, whether the edge of the visor couldn't obstruct peripheral vision? Although when the driver is already blinded by the windshield .....

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh sorry guys. My mistake. I just assumed given the controversy that erupted with all the developers saying they didn't know it was for sale that it was a no-bid contact our something. Disregard.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

It's an Asian thing. The paler your skin the higher class you are. I've seen Asian ladies here walking with umbrellas in the sun for this reason. I may have seen those visors once or twice too. My other favourite Asian mask is the germaphobic variety of white face mask covering your nose and mouth.

Yeah, visors and umbrellas on sunny days are ubiquitous sights in much of Asia. Not surprised at all to see it carry over here... I see that in Winnipeg from time to time, although not of the full-facemask variety mind you.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Stations here and there across Quebec may have country music programming once a week, often for a couple of hours on Sunday. Our local talk and sports radio station on FM here in Gatineau does this on Sundays.

But the dearth of full country format FM stations in Quebec shows that it's not really viable to program country all day all the time here.

That's funny, because in SiriusXM's small Canadian ghetto at the upper end of the dial, there is actually a FrancoCountry channel run by CBC that plays, as you could probably imagine, French-language country music. If there aren't any stations actually playing that stuff over the air in Quebec, then who the hell is listening to this station?

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's funny, because in SiriusXM's small Canadian ghetto at the upper end of the dial, there is actually a FrancoCountry channel run by CBC that plays, as you could probably imagine, French-language country music. If there aren't any stations actually playing that stuff over the air in Quebec, then who the hell is listening to this station?

U of Ottawa radio station has a franco country show on a Thursday morning. I'd be interested to know who listens.

http://chuo.fm/show/lexpress-country/

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's funny, because in SiriusXM's small Canadian ghetto at the upper end of the dial, there is actually a FrancoCountry channel run by CBC that plays, as you could probably imagine, French-language country music. If there aren't any stations actually playing that stuff over the air in Quebec, then who the hell is listening to this station?

My guess would be prairie francophones in MB, SASK and AB. Also maybe some in NB.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's funny, because in SiriusXM's small Canadian ghetto at the upper end of the dial, there is actually a FrancoCountry channel run by CBC that plays, as you could probably imagine, French-language country music. If there aren't any stations actually playing that stuff over the air in Quebec, then who the hell is listening to this station?

Moncton and the Ottawa Valley are the hotspots for franco-country. Country music in Quebec has largely been replaced by neo-trad which lends itself well to the rock format.

[mcminsen]

Originally Posted by Abii

I don't understand the complaint against sun visors. Very odd complaint. They look super weird, but the whole "I can't see your eyes argument" is invalid because I can't see a person's eyes under sun glasses either, so what's the difference?? This is no different than wearing glasses.

The complaint is not odd. It's the lack of self awareness of these drivers that is. I know that I can't see drivers eyes when they are wearing sunglasses but you need to see their face. A lot is communicated by that. I was about to step into a crosswalk (with the right of way) and this lady was edging up to the crosswalk to make a right turn on her red light (which is legal here if she yields to pedestrians). When I looked at her I stopped in my tracks (as well as a person beside me) because there was zero way of knowing that she was seeing us. She may as well have had a bag over her head it was that hard to discern where she was looking or if she was looking. It is very different than wearing sunglasses and it's a safety issue.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

My guess would be prairie francophones in MB, SASK and AB. Also maybe some in NB.

NB for sure, but francophones west of the Ottawa River (with only a few exceptions) don't listen to much music in French. Which is ironic because some of French Canada's greatest artists like Daniel Lavoie (actually a big star in the international francophonie too) are from there. Lavoie is from Dunrea, Manitoba, for example.

There is a reasonably strong country music sub-culture in Quebec itself, but for some reason it does not translate into radio stations or even airplay. I don't know if it's because the market is still seen as too small or if people are just predudiced against country.

That said, even the biggest country haters and effete urbanites here will know and even be able to sing along to a few francophone country music standards, like Quand le soleil dit bonjour aux montagnes, by another Manitoban, Lucille Starr (born Savoie). Or Quand on est en amour by Patrick Norman.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

That's funny, because in SiriusXM's small Canadian ghetto at the upper end of the dial, there is actually a FrancoCountry channel run by CBC that plays, as you could probably imagine, French-language country music. If there aren't any stations actually playing that stuff over the air in Quebec, then who the hell is listening to this station?

Galaxie/Stingray on my cable TV also has a francophone country channel.

Maybe there is an untapped market there.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

Moncton and the Ottawa Valley are the hotspots for franco-country. Country music in Quebec has largely been replaced by neo-trad which lends itself well to the rock format.

If you can make it sound like this (just folky *enough*), commercial radio will just lap it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9teEgHZ4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwNKQbafLQo

[Franco401]

Funny, Fredericton has as many country stations as Ottawa, at a fraction of the population.

[Acajack]

Two years ago, my kids (and no doubt many other young people) were quite dismayed that a country singer won the Quebec version of The Voice. They cried that he won just because of the mémés and matantes (grannies and aunties). It's true that he was a rather handsome boy of just 19 years. And he did have a VOICE. Which is the point of the show.

Here he is singing a song that most of you will know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-pPdcTLFME

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Two years ago, my kids (and no doubt many other young people) were quite dismayed that a country singer won the Quebec version of The Voice. They cried that he won just because of the mémés and matantes (grannies and aunties). It's true that he was a rather handsome boy of just 19 years. And he did have a VOICE. Which is the point of the show.

Here he is singing a song that most of you will know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-pPdcTLFME

Did not expect to hear that voice coming from that kid!

[SignalHillHiker]

We only have one country station but then we have just a handful of stations overall so it counts for a bit more.

The rest are all pop/modNL or talk/tradNL or classic rock.

HitsFM and OzFM are the two big ones. Local stuff like Repartee but mostly Top 40, morning shows, live from local fun events, etc.

That kid has a great voice. Love that when you make something completely alone in Quebec it doesn't look like it was made in someone's basement. We haven't mastered that yet lol

[eemy]

Honestly, I didn't care for his voice. I'd vote for the girl instead.