It is a beautiful day here in Sweetwater, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and everything else that isn't moving, and most things that are moving, are somewhere between slushy white and moving mounds of pure white snow. Yes, it is a beautiful, cold winter day here but we had a barnstormer of a storm the last few days, the second one in a week.

It led to lots of ugly moments (or hours) on our streets and lots of breast beating by politicians and civil servants over just who was to blame for the stuck cars, late trains, cancelled schools, a shut down airport and carnage on our highways.




I find these days that it doesn't much matter much who is doing the bleating into the cameras or the microphones. They start out coming from different directions or perspectives but they almost always end up at the same place. They blame us. Every time.

Thats right:

Clogged streets? The fault of those of us who have abandoned our cars or parked illegally.

Overcrowded street cars and buses that don't stop? Too many of us who should have stayed home, decided to take The Better Way instead.

Traffic accidents, cars littering the ditches all across the GTA? People without snow tires cause this. Along with people who drive too fast for the weather conditions.

We have been berated on a regular basis for months now by Julian Fantino, Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, who recently announced that they will no longer accept as a causal factor in a vehicular accident report the phrase, "weather/road conditions" . According to Julie, trying to get to work/school/hospital to keep the commerce of the province going on roads that are poorly maintained and not plowed and getting in an accident that may or may not result in a life threatening, or ending, injury. Is your own damn fault. NO EXCUSES!

If it isn't Julian it is everybody's favourite mouthpiece, (including his) Cam Wooley, the part time OPP talking head in charge of comic relief and blame placing. It is not the storm, not the budget restrained lack of snow plowing, not the fact that we no longer use salt because it might hurt the fishies in Lake Ontario, (For gods sake, haven't they heard that there are fish doing quite fine thank you very much in the Oceans!), and/or hasten Global Warming. It is definitely not the fact that we have absorbed several hundred thousand new immigrants into the GTA from sub-tropical climates and sold them all a brand new Lexus. No, no, no, it is not that, it is our fault because we drive too fast, don't have snow tires, follow too close and multitask with cell phones, blackberrys, make-up, and double mocha latte's. Imagine that!!

In Quebec, in Dec. 2007, they went so far as to pass legislation requiring snow tires for all vehicles. Starting in Winter, 2008/2009, you MUST have snow tires on your car in Quebec during the winter months. In what is surely no big surprise, I heard a talking head on the radio this morning demand that Ontario follow the lead of Quebec on this breathtakingly brilliant plan.

Here we are, bouncing around on the edge of a recession and to address a problem that is caused by these budget cutbacks, save the planet at all costs policies, and years of fiscal irresponsibility and these pinheads come up with a solution, a de-facto TAX on all drivers. That will solve the problem. Make every driver fork out an extra $1000 regardless of their driving habits or geographic location and the world will be a better place.

If snow tires alone are the solution, I have a suggestion on how to provide an incentive to folks to use them. Let's take a Billion Dollars, or Two, from the Carbon Tax that governments are currently coating with sugar before asking us to open wide and swallow, (or should that be bend over and exhale?) and use that money as a rebate to drivers who buy snow tires. I know, I know, the Carbon Tax is necessary so that these governments can use the money to stop Global Warming in it's tracks before it gets too warm for us to have snow. But, these same governments are busy making up new taxes to force us to buy snow tires because of the fierce winters that we have.................................... , uh, er.......

Reboot............ I'm sorry folks, I almost had a moment of clarity there but I managed to shake it off.

OK, so, here it is, they can take the money that you are going to TAX from us to use to STOP Global Warming and use some of that to offset the negative fiscal affect that the snow tire mandated TAX represents because winters are getting worse and we have way too much snow and Winter Cooling going on. And then......then....the driving will get better?

OK, I think am going to go take a nap right now and I will come back and finish this later cause my head is hurting right now. If you have any good ideas, let me know will you?


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