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Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
By Elections
1. Vaughan: Mayor Maurizio has won this riding easily in recent years, and defeated Richard Lorello 49% to 34% in 2008.
My seat projection system gives the Liberals a 91.4% chance to hold Vaughan during a general election, but this is a by election - a by election featuring a legitimate star candidate in Julian Fantino. Yes, I know the term "star candidate" gets used to describe anyone who has ever run for student council, had an op ed published in their local paper, or appeared as an extra on Road to Avonlea, but Fantino is legit. He's a former OPP Commissioner and Toronto Chief of Police, and is well respected in Vaughan. He's someone Stephen Harper would dearly love to have at his side when talking about Conservative "tough on crime" policies.
Taking on Fantino will be Liberal candidate Tony Genco, the former CEO and President of Downsview Park (a site that hosted both the Pope and the Rolling Stones...sadly not at the same time).
This has the makings of a good fight, with the Tories likely the slight favourites.
Winnipeg North: This seat was formerly held by Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the name that everyone loves to say three times real fast.
Trying to fill Judy's shoes for the orange will be educator Kevin Chief.
Chief's chief competition will come from Liberal nominee Kevin Lamoureux, a man who makes up 50% of the provincial Liberal caucus in Manitoba. Also in the mix is Tory candidate
The projection model gives the NDP a 96.4% chance at holding the seat, with the Tories at 3.5% and the Liberals 0.2% longshots. Again, that's for a general election and anything can happen in a by election.
Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette: This has been Inky Mark territory since 1997. Like Judy, Mark gave up the glories of life on the back benches for municipal politics and, like Judy, he went down in defeat on Wednesday.
Mark won the last election by 45 percentage points and my seat projector has the Tories at a 100% chance of holding it in a general election. So, to put it mildly, the challengers have their work cut out for them. Especially since neither the Liberals nor the NDP have nominated a challenger as of yet.
The Tory candidate is Robert Sopuck, who "has earned a solid reputation as an outspoken advocate for Manitoba's rural communities". If elected, Sopuck would help the Tories cut into the NDP's long standing facial hair dominance in parliament.
Labels: by elections, Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Julian Fantino, Kevin Chief, Robert Sopuck, Tony Genco, Vaughan, Winnipeg North
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Where you live
The Torontoist has the map:
And BlogTO looks back at previous elections:
UPDATE: And Ottawa!
Labels: 2010 Toronto Muncipal Election
Don't Quit Your Day Job
Elsewhere in Manitoba, former Reform/CA/DRC/PC/CPC MP Inky Mark loses by 36 votes in Dauphin.
This leaves Maurizio Bevilacqua the only winner among the three MPs who jumped to municipal politics this fall.
UPDATE: I should add that former Liberal MPs Ken Boshcoff and Joe Fontana won their races on Monday. Though for Boshcoff (defeated in 2008), it was only for a council spot and for Fontana, it was his second attempt at the top job since resigning in 2006.
Labels: Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Sam Katz, Winnipeg municipal election
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Meet Naheed
Labels: Naheed Nenshi
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The Rob Ford Phenomenon
I'm not sure a thorough post-mortem is required for yesterday's election in Toronto. Much has been written about Rob Ford in recent weeks and it's fairly easy to understand what happened. It was simply a case of Ford being the right person with the right message at the right time. Politics is usually as simple as that.
But since people usually try to make it a lot more complicated, let's take a quick look at what this wasn't a case of.
1. It wasn't a case of Toronto suddenly becoming more conservative. Calgary has had Liberal mayors for 20 years without electing a single Liberal MP. So I wouldn't take this as a sign that Stephen Harper or Tim Hudak are about to march to the CN Tower anytime soon. This theory becomes ever shakier when you consider the number of conservative incumbents who were tossed out in favour of Liberals in other Ontario cities.
2. It wasn't a case of Ford winning by default or because other campaigns messed up. This election was all about Ford from start to finish. If voters truly didn't want Ford, they had plenty of time to switch their vote to Smitherman. If they didn't like Smitherman, there was plenty of time for a third candidate to emerge, the way a third candidate emerged (and won) in Calgary when voters were underwhelmed by the two front runners.
3. It wasn't Joey Pants' fault. If you look at the numbers, Pantalone wasn't the difference in this one. Even if he drops out, Ford still wins. And it wasn't like Ford came out of nowhere - everyone knew that voting for Pantalone meant they were tacitly endorsing Ford for mayor, and they were cool with it.
So what was last night all about? Part of it was the anti-incumbency craze which is sweeping the nation. Toronto voters, especially those in the suburbs, were fed up with waste at City Hall and felt the suburban car crowd was being ignored. Ford played on that sentiment beautifully.
He got his message out early and just kept blabbing about the "gravy train" over and over again like a broken Teddy Ruxpin doll. Most debates I watched went something like this:
What's your plan for snow removal Mr. Ford?
Stop the gravy train!
In politics, if you get a powerful message, you stick to it. And Ford did just that.
So that's the "right message, right time" part of the equation. The real question is how on earth an inarticulate hot head who opposes immigration to Toronto and has been charged with everything from drunk driving to spousal abuse could be the "right person"?
Well, for starters, he had credibility on the waste issue due to his track record of not spending from his council expense account. Having the right message isn't enough if you don't have credibility on it. Given Smitherman's track record at E-Health, he wasn't perceived to have the same level of credibility on this issue as Ford.
Ford also has the rarest of qualities in a politician - he comes across as genuine. Because they saw him as a real person, voters looked past the shaky math and were willing to forgive his many, many, many shortcomings. Ford reminds me more and more of Ralph Klein with each passing day (right down to the incoherent red faced victory speeches), which is why he cannot be underestimated.
I know the common sense is that he'll be a disaster and will be O'Brien'd in 2014.
But so long as Ford stays true to what got him this far, voters may very well continue to forgive. Ralph Klein had a good run and it's incredibly presumptuous to assume Ford won't be around to exasperate us downtown Toronto Liberals for many years to come.
Labels: 2010 Toronto Muncipal Election, Rob Ford
The Morning After
Monday, October 25, 2010
Ontario Votes Live Blog
As for the results...well, Ford ran a good campaign. I'll have more on that tomorrow. For now, I think it's important for progressive Torontonians to keep things in perspective. There's only so much the mayor can do - he won't be ripping up the streetcar tracks any time soon, or cancelling the Toronto marathon.
Plus, this is good news for McGuinty - it gets the "angry protest vote" out of everyone's system and gives McGuinty a possible stalking horse to run against in a year's time. This wasn't a conservative wave sweeping across Ontario - many progressive candidates, including Maurizio Bevilacqua and Jim Watson, won tonight.
While the results aren't shocking - I'd predicted a Ford win - it does leave me a big bafflegabed. I mean, I leave Calgary and now they've got Naheed Nenshi and I'm stuck with Rob Ford. I feel a bit like Eeyore with the conservative rain cloud following me around.
8:10 pm: Ford wins. Well, that was anticlimatic.
8:06 pm: The downside of the scan-trons is that you get results right away. With a third of the polls in, Ford has built up a massive 51% to 31% lead.
7:30 pm: My fellow Toronto elitists have begun arriving...we've already had to open up a second bike rack for overflow parking. The wine is chilling, the hors d'oeuvres are cooking, and the recycling boxes have been placed out for everyone. The fun is about to begin!
7:08 pm: Fun drinking game for tonight. Drink a shot of gravy every time someone talks about "the gravy train". See if you can avoid passing out before they declare a winner.
6:35 pm: My prediction for tonight - Ford 45%, Smitherman 41%, Pantalone 12%. But I'm hoping to be proven wrong.
6:25 pm: Just got back from voting for George Smitherman.
The exciting revelation of the day is that Toronto will be using scan-trons for this election - which means Canadian democracy has finally caught up technologically with most 1994 Grade 6 classrooms. Presumably, this should make for a quick reading of the ballots tonight.
Given how close the polls are, this election is going to be all about turnout. So your litmus test tonight is really this - are the lines longer in Etobicoke or in downtown Toronto? The answer to that question will decide the election. For what it's worth, the lineup at my polling station (downtown) seemed about as long as for the federal election.
I'll be hosting a "Toronto elitists" election night party tonight and will be live blogging all the festivities and snark, so be sure to tune back in here later.
Labels: 2010 Toronto Muncipal Election, George Smitherman, Rob Ford
Ontario Votes
I'll be live blogging the results tonight as they come in - as with most, my attention will be focused on Toronto and Ottawa, but there are other races worth watching. Can former grit MP Maurizio Bevilacqua take down Linda Jackson in Vaughan? In Oakville, can Rob Burton overcome the 28 vote deficit from last...
With polls open for 3 minutes, the Calgary Grit decision desk is ready to call our first election of the night. Congratulations to Hazel McCallion on her 45th consecutive election win in Mississauga!
As for Toronto, like all downtown elitists, I'll grab a latte and a New York Times this morning and then head out to the polls to vote for George Smitherman. This isn't just a stop Rob Ford vote - I honestly feel Smitherman is the best candidate in the field, has put forward the best ideas, and would make the best mayor.
That said, at this point, I'd be prepared to vote for basically anyone to stop Ford, a man who doesn't have the character to represent Toronto or any sort of coherent plan to deliver on what he's promised. Which is probably a good thing, because a lot of what he's promised would be a step backwards for Toronto (in my humble opinion).
So get out and vote Toronto - it's an important election and there are no excuses to stay home.
As part of the NDP's always consistent climate change strategy
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Lessons from Naheed
"Calgary: If you don't like the weather, wait 40 minutes. If you don't like the government, wait 40 years".
"The Alberta government is considering adding 'Liberals' to the endangered species list".
That sort of stuff.
Because of that, no one in Ontario would dare use an Alberta election as a case study of anything other than political silliness. And you won't see many gushing articles on "the genius of Naheed Nenshi" the same way you will about "the genius of Rob Ford" (Ford has promised lower taxes and played to the suburbs, where all the voters live. It's genius! What political mastermind could ever have thought of that!).
But there's a lot the rest of Canada can learn from last night's stunner in Calgary.
1. Social media matters: I've always had my doubts about the usefulness of social media in general elections. Yeah, yeah, you need to do it so the media includes you in their story about what the kids these days are blogging on the Tweeter and the Facebooks, but I've always been skeptical about how many votes it actually moves.
In this case, I would argue it made all the difference. Intentionally or not, the Nenshi campaign has become the best example I've seen of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point theory applied to politics. The simple version of Gladwell's argument is this:
A. For an epidemic, attitude or idea to take off, it must first gain traction among mavens, the "information brokers" of society. Obviously enough, most Calgarians weren't following mayoral candidates on Twitter this July - especially ones as obscure as Naheed Nenshi. But information brokers - the media and politicos - were. Because of this, Nenshi was able to use social media to solidify himself as the de facto "third" candidate in this race, over more recognizable faces like Kent Hehr, Wayne Stewart or Bob Hawkesworth.
B. Once an idea sets in, the connectors need to spread it. Ten thousand supporters on Facebook is impressive, but it's just 1% of the City of Calgary. However, when those 10,000 supporters start posting stories about Naheed on their Facebook page to be seen by their hundreds of friends...you start to reach a critical mass. That's why things tipped so suddenly in Nenshi's favour over the course of two or three weeks.
The real success of Nenshi's social media campaign was that it broke free of the political echo chamber. To have a tangible impact, you need to reach the non-political crowd...the kind of people who will actually change their mind based on a news story or video they see online. So the Nenshi campaign reached out to the non-political, spreading their message to places like hockey forums and online discussion boards.
The proof that Nenshi broke free of the political bubble are those 10,000 Facebook supporters - an impressive figure when you consider that Harper and Ignatieff only have 3 times that number despite having 30 times the electorate to work with.
2. Polls matter: More than ever before, polls are driving the narrative. The early buzz was all about McIver and Higgins, with Nenshi an afterthought, caught in a pack of 10 legitimate candidates grasping for air.
Then one poll showed him at 8%. Factor in the margin of error on a small sample poll where most respondents are undecided, and he was basically in Oscar Fech territory. But suddenly, Mr. 8% was seen as a the "leader of the pack" and began getting attention accordingly. With each new poll, words like "momentum" and "surging" were used to describe him.
Then, we had the real election game changer: A Leger poll with a week to go showing McIver at 32%, Higgins at 30%, and Nenshi at 30%.
Maybe those numbers were accurate, maybe Nenshi was already in first, maybe he was stuck in the mid-20s. We don't know. We do know that if the poll had shown him in the low-to-mid 20s, say 8 or 10 points back of Barb Higgins, it's a whole different ballgame, with Nenshi voters jumping to Higgins instead of the reverse.
3. Policy Matters: Not so much the policies themselves, but the perception of having policies.
Though Naheed might disagree with me, I'm willing to bet if you stopped Calgarians as they exited the voting booths, most of them couldn't name you a single one of Nenshi's policies. Sure, they'd tell you he was going to improve transit, they'd tell you he had a great vision for an inclusive city, they'd tell you he had lots of ideas about accountability. But press them for specifics and they'd be grasping for answers like Barb Higgins on a breakfast TV interview.
Yet at the same time, if you asked voters which candidate had the best policies, they'd all say Nenshi. After all, he's the guy who memorizes neighbourhood density statistics the way sports junkies know how many goals their favourite hockey players scored last year. Nenshi was releasing policies and his image was of "the policy guy", so everyone assumed he had a plan.
That was the idea behind the Liberal red book in 1993. No one ever read the red book, but knowing it was there projected the imagine that there was a plan and a vision.
Talking to non-political Calgarians I know, their biggest complaint with Higgins was that they didn't know what she stood for. These same people didn't really know what exactly Nenshi stood for but they knew he stood for something.
Which was more than could be said about his opponents.
4. Release your platform early to define yourself: Nenshi jumped out of the gate, releasing policy throughout the summer, when only the "mavens" were paying attention. When you lack name recognition, you need to do this to define yourself - and even when you have name recognition, it's not a bad idea.
Everyone knew about the common sense revolution before the 1995 Ontario election. In 2005, Stephen Harper released his platform before Christmas, while the Liberals were off caroling. In the current Toronto election, Rob Ford defined himself early on by repeating the words "gravy train" twenty times a day.
Even if the general public isn't paying attention, it's important to define yourself early, so that when they do tune in, they know what you're all about.
5. Front runners cannot afford to be complacent. We've seen this happen time and time again - in leadership races and general elections. This race had two complacent front runners, trying to out complacency each other. So the electorate found someone else to vote for.
6. Religion doesn't matter in Canada: Did you know Nenshi was Muslim? You probably didn't until today. It wasn't an issue.
7. Political affiliation doesn't matter municipally: As the saying goes, snow removal isn't a right wing or left wing issue. After 20 years of openly Liberal mayors, Calgarians picked the progressive option over the conservative or the Rod Love approved candidate.
8. Be Yourself: Naheed's a geeky policy wonk. He didn't pretend to be anything else.
9. Present a positive vision, but attack when necessary. Nenshi released scathing editorials on his opponents throughout the campaign, but he always attacked them on policy by explaining why their ideas were wrong...and followed it up with what he'd do better. It's a simple way to construct an attack, and it's almost always the most effective.
Unless, of course, your opponent kicks children in the face. Then you can have at them!
What others are saying...
DJ Kelly looks at the new City Council
The Commons recaps the day that was
Don Martin on Cowtown's new image
Kevin Libin on how Nenshi won
Labrador shows us the electoral map - Nenshi cleans up downtown and did quite well in the west and north
Labels: Calgary Municipal Election, Naheed Nenshi
Monday, October 18, 2010
Calgary Votes Live Blog
Yes, that's right. Canada's conservative heartland just elected a mayor who is a visible minority, practicing muslim, Harvard graduate, university professor, and a policy wonk. And he wears purple.
Nenshi's rise is truly astonishing when you consider that he was polling in single digits, 35 points back of first, just four weeks ago. Sure, he had a bunch of Twitter followers and had released more policy than anyone else in the race, but the election was all about McIver versus Higgins. The problem was, neither McIver nor Higgins were saying much of anything.
So, poll after poll, Nenshi kept rising. He kept offering solutions to the problems facing the city, while McIver and Higgins argued over the proper amount to increase property taxes by. In the end, Calgary voters showed they weren't hung up on image, on name recognition, or on political affiliation. They voted for the best candidate, and the best candidate won.
This was a good day for democracy.
10:03 pm: Bad sign for Ric McIver. The volunteer they send out to speak on his behalf calls him "MacGyver". At this point, it may take MacGyver to get Ric out of the mess he's in, because Nenshi keeps pulling away.
9:59 pm: In the more interesting race, for last:
Oscar Fech 25
Gary F. Johnson 30
Amanda Liu 32
And Wayne Stewart (380) leads among the candidates who aren't actually in the race any more...
9:58 pm: The Nenshi HQ numbers have him up around 13,000 to 9,000 (McIver) to 8,000 (Higgins) based on their scrutineer numbers.
9:48 pm: Well that didn't take long. Higgins falls down to third as McIver's home ward (12) and downtown north (ward 7) come in.
Nenshi 7681
McIver 7513
Higgins 6239
9:39 pm: The results to date -
Higgins 3860
McIver 3661
Nenshi 3267
But the far south wards (McIver country) and the city centre/NE/campus wards (Nenshi country) are still to come. I still think Higgins might wind up in third when all is said and done.
8:59 pm: ...and CTV is going to "Dancing with the Stars". Because, yeah, it's been an exciting election and all but, at the end of the day, we all really want to know how Bristol Palin is doing.
8:49 pm: Steve Mandel projected to be re-elected as mayor of Edmonton.
8:46 pm: CTV shows us the race in Pincher Creek - Rob Buckner is wearing a ballcap in his official campaign picture. The Calgary Grit decision desk is going to call that race for Bucker right now, with 0% of polls reporting.
8:21 pm: We have results! The first poll is in...presumably from Barb Higgins' street. Barb has 26 votes, giving her a 20 vote lead on Naheed.
8:09 pm: Darrel Janz is wearing a purple tie on the CTV broadcast. Is this a slight to his old co-host?
7:45 pm (mountain time!): I'm coming to you live from the Calgary ex-pat election night party in Toronto, surrounded by purple t-shirts, Barb Higgins haircuts, and Ric McIver action figures (pull the string and he says...nothing - just like Ric!).
I'll be updating the results and adding commentary as it comes in, while dishing out the numbers on aldermanic races and maybe even some Edmonton results. Hell, you might even get some hockey scores and weather forecasts while I'm at it!
While you wait, you can read my profiles of the candidates (here, here, and here), my endorsement of Nenshi, and my consternation at how Rob Ford could be the next mayor of Toronto and Naheed Nenshi could be next mayor of Calgary.
Labels: Barb Higgins, Calgary Municipal Election, Naheed Nenshi, Ric McIver
Calgary Votes
This time around, there are no execuses to stay home. Calgarians have close to a dozen legitimate candidates for mayor to choose from. And Oscar Fech! More importantly, there's a real race for the top, with three very different frontrunners in a statistical dead heat for the top prize.
While I don't have a vote, I actually like all three of the candidates at the top. Sure McIver is a Conservative, but he's not a scary socon or a buffoon, and he certainly has the experience to make a good Mayor. Higgins brings an outsider's perspective to the race and would be a great representative for Calgary. She's well spoken, affable, and likable. Had she committed herself to running for mayor earlier and developed a coherent vision for the city, there's little doubt she would have won.
Then there's Naheed. I won't call this an endorsement, because candidates I endorse usually don't do very well, but if I were living in Calgary today, he'd have my vote.
Quite simply, a win for Nenshi would be a win for substance over style. Naheed has run an issues-based campaign from the start, releasing his "better ideas" throughout the summer. The man has been writing about how to make Calgary a better city for years and he may finally get a chance to do that. He understands city council and city planning better than most of the current councilors, yet at the same time he'd be coming in as an outsider, ready and willing to shake things up and break Calgary free of the NIMBY mindset that has plagued City Hall for years.
Back in August, when I profiled the candidates, here's what I wrote about Naheed:
Naheed is brilliant and has, hands down, the best ideas of any candidate on how to run Calgary. So, of course, he will not win.
So come on Calgary - prove me wrong!
Voting Information - Hours, where to vote, etc...
Previous Calgary Votes Coverage
-Candidate Profiles: McIver, Higgins, Nenshi
-Nenshi, Lord, Burrows, and Connelly Calgary Grit survey responses
-What's the matter with Calgary
NOTE: I'll be live blogging the results tonight once the polls close, so be sure to tune in.
Labels: Barb Higgins, Calgary Municipal Election, Naheed Nenshi, Ric McIver
What's the matter with the Calgary Sun?
The Sun has never shied away from taking a bold stand when we believe it will benefit Calgarians.
We believe Naheed Nenshi should be Calgary's next mayor.
Luckily, they explain their decision:
He's a prof at Mount Royal University, but doesn't engage in the egghead bafflegab we've come to expect from some academics.
On Thursday, I warned Calgarians their city was going soft. I won't issue the Sun a similar warning, but endorsing professors in political races is the first step on a slippery slope...if they're not careful, the sunshine girl may soon be replaced with a page of book reviews or some other elitist nonsense.
Labels: Calgary Sun, Naheed Nenshi
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Stampede to the Polls: The Candidates Speak
Even though I only had time to profile four of the candidates running for mayor in Calgary (McIver, Higgins, Nenshi, and the since withdrawn Kent Hehr), I don't want to completely overlook the other candidates. Some of these men and women have good ideas and they deserve a chance to be heard.
So, in the interest of giving everyone a voice, I sent around a short 3 question survey to every candidate I could find an e-mail address for. I got 2 bites, which I'll repost here verbatim:
John Lord
1. What is your number 1 priority as Mayor of Calgary?
Without Financial resources, the City has their hands tied on everything else. Clean up the financials 1st and foremost - stop wasteful spending, take stock, then get on with fixing the problems and finding the opportunities for Calgarians. Triple E City Hall – Efficient ( doing things right) Effective ( doing the right things) and Ethical ( for the right reasons). Of any Candidate, I have the best Financial credentials ( know what questions to ask) Entrepreneurial outlook ( turning lemons to lemonade -vision and troubleshooting skills), Political relations( good relations with the City as former Alderman, good relations with Province as former MLA) and Track Record of actual achievements that have transformed communities ( Marda Loop), accomplished what others could not ( Legalize secondary suites, solve 30 years battle over Stampede Park expansion, etc.) and transformed the culture at City Hall ( World Environmental Achievement Award for Calgary, of which my ISO14001 initiative was instrumental).
2. What is one smaller concrete change you would make as Mayor that Calgarians would notice in their day to day lives?
A kinder, gentler Parking Authority – or maybe more better snow removal.
3. I doubt you've had much time to relax during this campaign, but if you had the chance to take 1 restful politics-free day, how would you spend it?
Catching up with my family – have a BBQ or something.
Craig Burrows (since withdrawn)
1. What is your number 1 priority as Mayor of Calgary?
Transparency, accessibility and accountability at City Hall. See my policy attached.
2. What is one smaller concrete change you would make as mayor that Calgarians would notice in their day to day lives?
Smartcard technology to eliminate the $3 park n ride fee.
3. I doubt you've had much time to relax during this campaign, but if you had the chance to take 1 restful politics-free day, how would you spend it?
I would spend the day with my wife and my dog, Max, and then later take my wife to dinner and a movie, I owe her many such days and nights!
Joe Connelly
1. What is your number 1 priority as Mayor of Calgary?
To give all Calgarians a true voice at City Hall. I don't believe Calgarians are heard. I would introduce a crowdsourcing process to have groups address issues that most affect them, discuss them openly, and provide solutions to City Hall. I believe Calgarians hold many answers to our challenges as a growing city.
2. What is one smaller concrete change you would make as Mayor that Calgarians would notice in their day to day lives?
Introduce a Community Liaison position such that communities have a direct ear to the Mayor. I believe communities are the backbone of neighborhoods and represent issues on behalf of their neighbours. But City Hall has never set a process in place that these issues can be heard by Council and particularly by the Mayor. By starting at these grass roots level discussions, I believe it will make a difference in people's lives.
3. I doubt you've had much time to relax during this campaign, but if you had the chance to take 1 restful politics-free day, how would you spend it?
Rollerblading on our great pathway systems. And later when the snow flies and the campaign is over, skiing.
Naheed Nenshi
1. What is your number 1 priority as Mayor of Calgary?
a. Get work started on the Airport/96th Ave underpass (aka tunnel) as quickly as possible to provide vital East-West link to keep airport access and so we don't lose the opportunity now to establish the foundation for LRT to airport in the future. While this may not be the overall #1 priority, it is most time-sensitive one and we will miss the opportunity to build it if we don't start now.
b. Fix City Hall. We need a major structural shift at City Hall - we must shift the culture from one of regulator to that of facilitator. It will take time, it will be difficult, but we must start this immediately to get Calgary on track for the future.
2.What is one smaller concrete change you would make as Mayor that Calgarians would notice in their day to day lives?
I would get the express bus system to post secondary schools and major employment areas as quickly as possible – getting more people to school and places of employment faster to make Public Transit more a preferred choice is a big priority that will help many Calgarians.
3. I doubt you've had much time to relax during this campaign, but if you had the chance to take 1 restful politics-free day, how would you spend it?
I'd start by sleeping in, having a great brunch and then spending some time with family and friends and then head out the theatre to see a performance.
Labels: Craig Burrows, Joe Connelly, John Lord
Friday, October 15, 2010
Just 22 short months after becoming leader, it's time to meet Michael
Labels: Michael Ignatieff
Thursday, October 14, 2010
What's the matter with Calgary?
You used to be cool. You were the conservative rebel without a cause. You welcomed George Bush and Sarah Palin with open arms. You could always be counted on for a good pro-Iraq war rally. Ann Coulter called you "the good Canadians".
The man who embodied this Calgary image was Ralph Klein. He was your mayor in the 80s. By voting for Ralph in 1993, you saved Alberta from a Liberal government. You stood by your man even after the drunken visits to homeless shelters, after the plagiarism, after he heckled the AISH recipients. The rest of the country laughed at Ralph, but you didn't care. Because, like Ralph, you were too cool to care.
This all led to a good natured rivalry with Toronto. In 2004, Scott Reid famously said "Alberta can blow me" during the election campaign. A decade earlier, you'd pasted "Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark" bumper stickers on your trucks. That was just the sort of relationship Calgary and Toronto have always had.
And you know what? The relationship worked. Calgarians hated the Toronto elites for their self-righteousness and their blind devotion to the Liberal Party, while the self righteous Toronto elites shook their heads and wondered what was wrong with those backwater Calgarians who would elect a donkey if you slapped a Tory logo on its behind.
But now, everything has gone topsy turvy. Here's the Leger mayoral poll from yesterday's Calgary Herald:
Nenshi has now rocketed to 30 per cent, tied with Higgins and just behind Ric McIver's 33 per cent support, according to a Leger Marketing survey of 500 Calgarians conducted between Oct. 6 and 11.
Holy chinook?!? The "it" candidate in the Calgary election went to Harvard, ran a nonprofit, and blogs about the best ways to limit urban sprawl. Rosedale parents are going to have a hard time using that to turn their children against Calgary and scare them into voting Liberal.
Especially given what's been going on in Toronto, where the front runner wants to limit immigration, says "oriental people work like dogs", and has a record of DUI and assault charges so long it would make Ralph Klein blush.
I mean, seriously. Take a look at these two pictures and tell me which one of these guys looks like he should be mayor of Toronto and which one looks like he should be mayor of Calgary:
And it's not just Naheed. The "conservative" candidate in Calgary's mayoral election, Ric McIver, has staked out the conservative turf by...promising to raise taxes less than the other candidates. Hell, he's been attacked by the NDP candidate in the race for wanting to spend too much on the airport tunnel. The guy isn't exactly the president of Tea Party North.
The other front runner, Barb Higgins, is assumed to be progressive but, in fairness to her, that's only because no one really knows what she stands for.
So Calgary, I'm writing you this letter as a friend. I feel someone has to let you know you've gone soft. Hell, you elected 5 Liberal MLAs in the last provincial election, more than "Redmonton". Here's an e-mail I got from a friend of mine in Calgary yesterday:
I for one, being a proud Western Canadian, welcome 4 years of insanity to the city of Toronto. I have always maintained that the real crazies in Canada live or reside in the city of Toronto, Mel Lastman proved that and may Mayor Ford continue that proud tradition.
All I know is that wack jobs like Lastman, Miller and Ford would never see the light of day in a sophisticated Canadian locale like Calgary, Alberta.
Is this how you want to be described Calgary? As "sophisticated"?
So I am begging you. To stop this insanity and preserve your reputation as Canada's conservative bad boy, I am urging a massive "Rob Anders write in" campaign for mayor. You need to make this happen, simply to keep the natural order of the universe in balance.
Or else next thing you know they'll be holding Pierre Trudeau parades down 17th Avenue and Stanley Cup parades down Yonge Street.
Labels: 2010 Toronto Muncipal Election, Calgary Municipal Election, Naheed Nenshi, Rob Ford
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Seat Projections
-Publicly released polling data
-2004, 2006, and 2008 election results
-Riding demographics
-The historical variance in riding results, compared to regional results
-Accuracy of Canadian pollsters in predicting recent provincial and federal elections
-By election results
The benefit of this model over other projections is that this gives you a robust prediction that smooths out some of the blips you get when you only use the last election as your benchmark (like the Greens projected to win a seat in Atlantic Canada), it's completely objective, and it takes "election day swings" when the polls are all off into account.
New this wave, I've assigned a two week "half life" to polls, which means a poll released this week is worth twice as much as a poll released a fortnight ago (assuming the sample size is the same and the "pollster accuracy" rating is the same).
It's NOT a prediction of the next election, but reflects what we could expect if the election were held today.
So, with that, here are the updated projections:
On average, the Liberals are up 13.5 seats from July, with the Tories down 4.2, the NDP down 7.2, and the Bloc down 2.2. The largest gains for the Liberals have come in Ontario (up 9.4) and in BC (up 2.9). The Liberals "best case" scenario (upper end of 95% confidence interval) in Ontario has increased from 47 seats in July to 59 seats now.
The odds of a Tory majority have dropped from 1.6% down to 0.4%.
Labels: Seat Projections
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
News & Notes
So how will the Vaughan by election go? Well, in my updated Seat Projections (to be posted tomorrow morning), I peg the riding at a 91% chance of going Liberal and 9% of going Tory if a general election were held today. But let's remember, by elections have a life of their own, and Fantino is a legit star candidate, so you almost have to handicap the Tories as slight favourites in this one.
2. The Globe and Mail applauds Ignatieff's Family Care policy (as do these people).
3. The Ontario PCs have launched pre-election ads.
4. Canada has lost its bid for a seat on the UN Security council. And the Tories have found a way to blame this one on Michael Ignatieff - huh. Let's all be grateful Canada won Olympic hockey gold this year, or else I'm sure that loss would have been Ignatieff's fault too.
Either way, I don't see this as a big vote turner. Foreign policy rarely is. But it's still an embarrassment for Harper, no matter how you spin it.
5. Speaking of embarrassments, a video of Rob Ford in action. (hat tip - Kinsella)
Labels: family care, Julian Fantino, Tim Hudak, Vaughan
Thursday, October 07, 2010
"These Questions Continue to be Essential"
But before we get there, it's fun to follow the bouncing ball and see how that old quote found the light of day.
We start with this morning's Toronto Star article with the headline "Even one dissenting Canadian enough to kill long-form census, says Clement". Yes, that headline makes Tony sound a tad silly, but it's not really less sensical than any of his other Census Greatest Hits, which include:
"Insisting you follow the law is state coercion"
"Large sample sizes make up for biased samples"
And who can forget this golden oldie - "StatsCan totally supports this move" (followed by the resignation of the Chief Statistician the next day)
Anyways, Tony took offense to this headline, calling it a "Star Torque" on Twitter.
Luckily, Rosemary Barton recorded Clement's comments:
Barton: "Mr Clement, there were never a 1,000 emails about the census..."
Clement: "Well, I can't speak for Maxime Bernier, but I can tell you that if you have a complaint about the census the last place you're going to complain about is to the census people. You're going to complain to your MP."
Barton: "I know, but if you're the industry minister and you were getting 1,000 complaints a day of whatever nature about the census, you would have told Statistics Canada, 'Hey, there's something going on here, people aren't happy'?"
Clement: "I can't speak for past industry ministers. They have to speak for themselves. But all I can tell you is, that it stands to reason that if you have a complaint about the coercive tactics of a government agency the last place you're going to complain about that is to the government agency. You're going to complain to your duly elected local MP."
Barton: "But then why aren't people tabling all those complaints? because we don't have them."
Clement: "I got a letter in my question period book from a Liberal MP from Richmond Hill who complained to the minister about that very topic. So to say they don't exist is not true."
Barton: "But they're not in the hundreds, they're not in the thousands..."
Clement: "I can't quantify. Even if there's one complaint, if it's a legitimate complaint, even if there's one complaint from a Canadian about the coercive tactics used by a government agency we have to consider that complaint a valid question about public policy."
Barton: "Sure, but we don't change public policy for one person do we?"
Clement: "Why not? If they're right."
Barton: "We change public policy for one person?"
Clement: "If they're right."
Like I said, this isn't really sillier than anything else Clement has said before, so I was ready to let this one pass without a blog comment. But notice this toss-away line from Clement: "I got a letter in my question period book from a Liberal MP from Richmond Hill who complained to the minister about that very topic".
Now, presumably this letter was given to Tony by a staffer in either his or Bernier's office. I guess it didn't occur to them to see what Bernier wrote in response.
Well, it looks like that thought occurred to a few Liberal researchers and, lo and behold, the next day, we get this:
To summarize, Bryon Wilfert wrote Bernier back in 2006 to pass along a constituent's complaint about the Census. Bernier wrote back, giving the best defense of the census we've heard during this 4 month crisis:
"I can assure you that all of the information collected by the census is needed and is used only for statistical purposes. Statistics Canada takes very seriously its legal obligation to protect the privacy and confidentiality of every census respondent. In fact, all census databases, facilities, and networks containing confidential data are physically isolated from any networks outside Statistics Canada. In addition, names, addresses, and telephone numbers are not included in the census dissemination database to protect the privacy of census respondents.
All of the questions are designed to meet important information requirements that would be extremely difficult to satisfy efficiently from other sources."
These questions continue to be essential for providing the information needed by governments, businesses, researchers and individual Canadians to shed light on issues of concern to all of us - employment, education, training, transportation, housing, immigration, income support, pensions for seniors, transfer payments, aboriginal issues and many more."
Yes, that's the very same Maxime Bernier who claims he got "thousands of complaints each day" about the Census back in 2006. Then backtracked. Well, at least now we finally have proof of at least one complaint.
This is just another example of how badly managed this issue has been from the start. Just when the story should be dying down, Clement and Bernier do their best to breathe new life into it.
Now, I'm sure some of the friendly anonymous commentators who frequent this blog will point out that Wilfert is just as hypocritical on this as Bernier. But at least Wilfert has a defence - the Liberal position has never been that there are no complaints.
After all, only Tony Clement seems to believe that one complaint justifies a reckless change in public policy.
Labels: Census, Maxime Bernier, Tony Clement
The Road to Civility
MPs agree to curb question period shenanigans
OTTAWA — A strong majority of Canada's federal politicians, stung by their own embarrassing behaviour in Parliament, have decided it's time to cut back on the shenanigans of question period.
On Wednesday evening, MPs voted by a 235-44 margin to pass a motion proposed by Conservative MP Michael Chong designed to elevate the deteriorating decorum in the daily 45-minute session.
Chong's proposals now go to committee, where MPs will spend 6 months hitting each other over the head as they study and debate them.
For more on reforming QP, the Public Policy Forum has some ideas up on their website, and a poll showing what Canadians think about QP.
Labels: Michael Chong, Question Period
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
What He Stands For
It's a positive policy. It's on an important issue. It's about families. It connects to people and is something they can understand and relate to.
All in all, this one is a winner, and it's great to see the Liberals puting ideas out there before the election campaign.
Michael Ignatieff announces Liberal Family Care Plan
OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff today announced the Liberal Party's plan to stand with Canadian families by helping family caregivers with the cost of caring for sick or aging loved ones at home.
"Families look after each other," said Mr. Ignatieff. "Canadian families want to shoulder the responsibility of caring for their loved ones at home, but they also want a government that stands with them.
"These are difficult economic times, so that means governments – and Canadians – must choose," said Mr. Ignatieff. "Stephen Harper and the Conservatives choose tax breaks for corporations. We choose to help Canadian families."
To enhance care for our parents, our grandparents and our sick loved ones, and to recognize the important contribution of family caregivers, a Liberal government will invest $1 billion annually in a new Family Care Plan to help reduce the pressure on hundreds of thousands of struggling Canadian families. The Liberal Family Care Plan includes two new measures:
A new six-month Family Care Employment Insurance Benefit, similar to the EI parental leave benefit, so that more Canadians can care for gravely ill family members at home without having to quit their jobs; and
A new Family Care Tax Benefit, modeled on the Child Tax Benefit, to help low- and middle-income family caregivers who provide essential care to a family member at home.
"Our Family Care Plan reflects the value of family caregivers – their value to our economy, our health, our families, and our communities," said Mr. Ignatieff, who made the announcement at the home of a caregiver who has spent her life savings to care for her husband, who has a rare form of cancer.
"Canadians want choices when it comes to caring for their families," said Liberal Heath Critic Ujjal Dosanjh, who joined Mr. Ignatieff at the announcement along with Liberal MP Marlene Jennings, who is a family caregiver. "Providing care at home allows our loved ones to live in dignity as they face their health challenges with their families. Making family care easier will also help to contain health care costs in the long run."
"CARP members would welcome the promise of $1 billion in annual financial support for family caregivers announced today by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff," said Susan Eng of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons. "CARP has called for substantive and targeted financial support for the millions of Canadians who care for older loved ones - providing massive savings to the formal health care system while shouldering an extraordinary financial and emotional burden."
"This is wonderful news for the millions of caregivers across the country who are providing care and support for loved ones at home," said Nadine Henningsen of the Canadian Caregivers Coalition. "These measures minimize financial burden and are critical components of effective policy for family caregivers."
Labels: family care, Michael Ignatieff
Monday, October 04, 2010
Stampede to the Polls: Barb Higgins
Ric McIver
Naheed Nenshi
The general consensus in Calgary seems to be that the mayoral race sits as:
1. McIver
2. Higgins
3. Nenshi
Sure, guys like Bob Hawkesworth and Wayne Stewart are still in the mix but...well...life is too short to blog about Bob Hawkesworth. As such, this will be the fourth and final instalment of my 2,372 part series profiling mayoral candidates.
Today, the wild card.
About Barb
Barb was born in Edmonton - something which will no doubt form the basis of nasty attack ads should the campaign get dirty. At the age of 27, she took over as an anchor at CTV Calgary News. For the next 21 years, Higgins and her co-anchor, Darrel Janz, were among most recognizable Calgarians around.
Higgins was a latecomer to the mayoral race - she declared in early August to much fanfare, but her campaign has yet to take off. Early on, she was criticized for lacking substance and concrete plans. Last week she axed her campaign manager, Don Lovett, replacing him with Alan Hallman. Regardless of what you think of Lovett or Hallman, replacing your campaign manager mid contest is not the sign of a healthy campaign.
(Appearance: 7/10, Functionality 7/10, Content 7/10, Uniqueness 5/10, Overall 7/10)
Higgins' site covers the bases. Candidate's picture in front of Calgary skyline? Check. Easy to donate or tell a friend? Check. Visible link to her platform? Check. YouTube intro and social media links? Check.
Much like the candidate, there isn't a lot to get excited about, but the site serves its purpose.
Social Media
Facebook: 1165 fans (well behind both Nenshi and McIver)
Twitter: 1348 followers (similar to McIver, but well behind Nenshi)
YouTube: 17 videos with 24,475 views
My Take
Barb says her motto is "be bold", but she's been anything but this campaign. After taking a beating in the press for a lack of ideas, she finally released her platform last week. Yes, there are some tangible things in there - an end to park and ride fees and extending recycling programs to apartments and condos. But you need to strain your eyes to find concrete ideas - most of the platform is as clear as mud. Among the highlights:
I would like to see business taxes reduced. I would not go so far as to eliminate business taxes because that would mean a drop in revenues to the City of $150 million, and I do not think the City has the capacity to do that at this time. I would add, however, that I have had good discussions with the Chamber of Commerce and as mayor would seek to develop an ongoing dialogue between the Mayor's Office, City Council and small and medium-sized businesses to make the right decisions about business tax rates.
I believe Enmax should remain in the hands of Calgarians. That said; it is time to re-visit Enmax's overall mandate. I will ensure that their activities in generating and transmitting electricity and other business ventures remain in the best interests of Calgarians, and that Calgarians are receiving a proper return on investment;
Almost all of our amateur sports and recreational facilities are at or over capacity. I am committed to working with our amateur sports community to expand these facilities, in particular for minor hockey and minor soccer.
Yes, it's not any less bold than anything that has come out of the Ric McIver platitude machine. But it's not any different. And therein lies the problem.
When you're in second place behind a competent and well organized campaign, you need something to differentiate yourself. At this point, the only real area of disagreement between Higgins and McIver seems to be on property taxes, with Higgins wanting them to be slightly higher than McIver. Hardly the stuff that will encourage one of the most apathetic electorates in Canada to vote for you.
With two weeks to go, the smart money is on a strong second for Higgins. She'll most likely need a game changer to pull this one out, especially if Nenshi continues to drain votes off the left.
Labels: Barb Higgins, Calgary Municipal Election


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It used to be that tourism was driven by aspirations of seeing pyramids or drinking tequila at the swim-up bar.
But as the population in Western countries is aging, accessing health care is driving many people abroad to get what they need when they need it.
Medical tourism is a $100-billion industry this year, according to the U.S. research firm Frost & Sullivan. It estimates business will increase a further 20 per cent next year.
It raises all kinds of questions from who should pay for botched care when Canadians return home, to the ethics of diverting scarce medical resources in developing countries to cater to the elective needs of those coming from wealthier ones. SFU's Medical Tourism Research Group is looking into some of those.
But there are other less obvious — and equally complicated — questions.
Should medical tourists get a tax deduction for some or all of the costs they incur, including travel? Or is medical tourism just an excuse for a penny-pincher to writeoff a visit to relatives?
And, perhaps more importantly, what does access to medical care really mean? Does it only mean having the services available within a certain geographical distance? Or does it mean being able to access affordable medical and dental treatments?
Those questions were all raised by Judge J.E. Hershfield in a Federal Tax Court decision released last month involving Victoria resident Janina Tokarski.
The judge even deemed them so important that he not only urged Tokarski to pursue the answers, but pledged to support her quest.
Tokarski went to Poland in 2009 for dental work. Canada Revenue Agency ruled that she could legitimately claim the cost of the work as a medical expense. But the $2,497 cost of travelling there twice to get the work done was not an allowable deduction.
Tokarski needed a lot of work. She had dental implant surgery for seven implants, 10 crowns and bone grafts. It required extended stays so she chose to have the procedures in a particular city in Poland where her relatives live.
The CRA rejected Tokarski's travel costs, noting that the Income Tax Act says travel costs can only be used if the person cannot access equivalent medical/dental services within 40 kilometres of home.
(When the act was written and debated in 1973, it was intended to assist people living in rural and remote areas that lacked hospitals, dentists and doctors.)
In March, Tokarski's appeal of the CRA's decision was heard in Federal Tax Court.
She freely admitted that her relatives live in Poland, but was adamant the reason she went there was that it was prohibitively expensive to have the work done in Victoria.
The cost of getting the work done in Poland was $9,849, excluding travel costs; the estimate for getting the work done in Victoria was $28,400 — well beyond her means. Her 2009 income – which included money she'd been forced to withdraw from her RRSPs for living expenses — was well below the estimated cost of the dental work if done in Victoria.
"Clearly, she had good economic reasons to go to Poland for the dental work," the judge wrote in his decision, noting the cost would not likely have varied significantly anywhere else in Canada.
In fact, he said having the work done in Poland even made sense from the tax collectors' point of view.
Had Tokarski paid the $28,400 in Victoria, and got 30 per cent of that back on her income tax, it would mean the government would have lost out on $8,400.
Yet, even if she were allowed to claim both her travel and dental costs from Poland, Tokarski would have received half that amount.
"It is impossible to say what Parliament intended in respect of travel expenses in a case like this," the judge concluded after reviewing parliamentary debates as well as the law in both English and French.
And though ultimately Hershfield ruled against her, he concluded that what Tokarski asked for "seems totally reasonable."
"Admittedly, there may be a gap in the current legislation. However, I am not at liberty to fill it," he wrote.
"I would join the appellant in asking Parliament to consider the problem of affordability but I cannot read the current legislation other than as the minister of National Revenue has applied it in this case."
Of course, fixing it is complicated. In his decision, Hershfield posed a string of questions.
How could Parliament write a law that would address affordability to a particular taxpayer? Would there be a reasonableness test? Would it lead to abuse?
Would there be dollar limits on the travel amounts? A distance limitation? An exclusion for travel outside Canada?
These are all good questions. And they're likely to be asked more frequently in the coming years by an aging population whose pensions are being cut or eroded even as their needs and desires for accessing more and better dental and medical care increase.
To read the full decision online go to http://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/en/dn/2012/04.html and search Tokarski v. the Queen.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Matthew Jonas
Matthew Jonas
Matthew Jonas
LONGMONT — Vandals broke out windshields and windows of dozens of cars Tuesday night, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage, police reported Wednesday.
Longmont Police Sgt. Bruce Wittich said officers found about 60 vehicles that were damaged. He said a resident called in one incident just after midnight, which led officers to the area where they found the other damage. Most of the vehicles that had windows smashed were between First and 23rd avenues and Francis and Terry streets. Wittich said later reports came from east of there, including at least two reports along Kimbark Street.
Wittich said most calls came in Wednesday morning as people discovered their own cars were damaged. One resident who heard a window breaking early Wednesday morning described a silver SUV with a rounded back leaving the area, he said.
Ann Kurronen said she did not wake when the back window of her new Mazda CX-9 was smashed overnight in Old Town Longmont. In fact, she got into the driver's seat and started to head to work Wednesday morning before she noticed the damage in her rearview mirror.
She turned around to work from home for the day and await an auto glass replacement company from Denver to make the $600 repair.
"I actually had to call a Denver company because Longmont's are too busy," she said.
She said she told a neighbor about the damage to his car, as well.
Residents driving through the struck neighborhoods stopped to speak with one another and trade stories. One man stopped to talk to Kurronen and said his vehicle was hit on Grant Street.
"I asked the cops if they find them if I could just talk to them," he said, with a bit of an impish grin.
Another woman on Bowen Street said she didn't hear anything overnight, either, but officers knocked on her door at 2:30 a.m. to tell her about her SUV's back window being shattered. She said a man who drove by and spoke with her earlier in the morning said he saw "the boys" early Wednesday morning and gave chase, but lost them. She said the man described a black SUV.
Wittich said it appeared the vandal used a bat or pipe to break the windows, and there was no evidence of BB gun use.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to call the Longmont Police Department at 303-651-8501. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at nococrimestoppers.com.
Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 or at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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|Oregon State Bar Bulletin AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2010
Unbundling in the 21st Century:
Ideas and Plans for 2010: A Report on BarBooks, Sustainability and More
By Kathleen A. Evans
In the interview for my "inaugural" president's article this past January, I outlined the board's priorities for the year, including changing the way we make our legal publications available to members. If you haven't already heard: Beginning Jan. 1, 2011, all active Oregon State Bar members will have full access to the BarBooks online library without a subscription fee. And we're not raising your bar fees to do it. This is the culmination of years of discussion and research by the Board of Governors, as well as other bar groups and individual members. I am taking this opportunity to let you know more about the BarBooks decision as well as some other big ideas we have in development.
Coming Soon: BarBooks for All
At its planning retreat in 2003, the board (with an entirely different composition than the current one) decided to create an electronic version of our legal publications library. The library contains 48 titles, ranging from 100-page booklets to five-volume treatises, from A (Administering Oregon Estates) to W (Workers' Compensation). The books are distinguished from those of national publishers because they are Oregon-specific, written by Oregon practitioners. The goal at the time was to make an already popular and valued product more useful and readily available to Oregon practitioners.
From the beginning the benefits of online access were clear, but the question of how to pay for it was the source of considerable debate. The board considered various models, surveyed the membership and took its idea to the bar's House of Delegates. The house considered the issue every year from 2004 to 2006, including a recommendation to create a task force for further review. Ultimately the task force recommended, and the board adopted, a subscription model with a tiered pricing structure based on firm size. It was a compromise that allowed the bar to move forward but left many bar members dissatisfied.
I was sworn in as a new board member in 2006, the final year of preparation before the BarBooks library was launched. Since that time we have heard repeated complaints about the cost and pricing structure of BarBooks. With years of collective member feedback on the issue, the board decided to act. Our decision was informed not only by history but also the current economic climate and its impact on law practice in Oregon. In particular, we have been focused on how to help the large number of new lawyers setting up in solo practice, as well as an increase in experienced lawyers now entering solo practice. These members, who stand to benefit the most from access to BarBooks, are in many cases the least able to afford it. By opening access to all practitioners as a member benefit we help not only lawyers but the clients they serve, improving the practice of law to the benefit of the bar and the public.
Our decision made, the next task was figuring out how to fund BarBooks without collecting subscriptions. We decided early on that asking for a member fee increase was not an option. Instead, we set out to see what we could carve out of our existing budget. We began examining everything that the bar does to ensure we are focused on services that best meet the needs of our members and that we provide those services in a way that makes the most efficient use of bar resources. We have already identified nearly $200,000 in annual cost savings through staffing adjustments and reductions in direct costs, such as paper, printing and postage. Because many of the ideas may take time to come to fruition, we also asked the Professional Liability Fund Board of Directors to assist us in achieving our goal. After much consideration and debate, they were convinced that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to embrace a loss prevention measure with the potential to lower the number and severity of future legal malpractice claims. We thank the PLF board for their support in making a $600,000 grant to the bar to help fund the BarBooks project during a three-year transition period. With those dollars and with judicious use of a portion of the bar's reserves, we will be able to make our goal a reality, come Jan. 1.
Sustainability Continues to Guide Us
Some of the savings we have identified further an additional goal: sustainability. In 2009 the board adopted the following bylaw:
The bar supports the goal of sustainability, generally defined as meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Because bar operations and the practice of law impact the environment and society generally, the bar will be cognizant of sustainability in its internal operating practices as well as in its service to members.
At the time we redoubled our efforts to reduce waste, starting at the board level. We reduced board travel and transitioned to electronic distribution of our lengthy meeting agendas. Now we plan to go further, first with areas where sustainable practices also save money or offer other benefits. As an example, in 2010 we will send all fee notices by e-mail.
We also plan to replace the printed membership directory with a desk-book publication containing the "blue pages" from the current directory, which will be mailed to all members packaged with a regular edition of the bar Bulletin. We are still considering possible print options for those of you who rely on the paper "white pages" listings for locating bar members. We hope, however, that most of you have already recognized and come to appreciate the advantages of the online directory, which is updated every business day. If you haven't switched to the online directory yet, please check it out at www.osbar.org, and let us know what we can do to improve it.
We continue to explore ways to give members flexibility in how they receive communications from the OSB. Members can log in to our site at www.osbar.org to customize communication preferences, such as what you would like to have delivered via mail versus e-mail. While some items will remain primarily print products (e.g., the Bulletin), we are moving more items toward a default e-mail policy, which saves money, supports our sustainability goals and is increasingly cited as the more convenient choice for members. If you have not logged on to customize your own preferences, note that it's about a five-minute process that gives you considerable control over how we communicate with you.
Program Changes Under
As the board assesses each program, we are guided by a cost/benefit approach to our analysis. One example has been a look at our Leadership College, which brings in a select group of highly talented lawyers each year for intensive work in leadership, mentoring and futures planning. The program is highly regarded by senior leadership and "faculty" members, and by the participants in the trainings. It does, however, directly impact just a small fraction of our membership. We continue to look at the costs and benefits of the program to assure that those resources are being put to their best possible use.
Another area of interest is the way in which we fund our Lawyer Referral Service, which is the most active and visible service we provide to the public. Although the service collects registration fees from lawyer panelists, it has been largely supported by general membership fees since its inception in the 1970s. There are numerous models that exist around the country for how to offer this public service in the most efficient and effective manner possible. We are exploring whether our current approach remains the most effective use of member fees, or if another approach might better serve the bar, the referral panelists and the public. That assessment is in early stages and is some distance away from arriving at any solid conclusion.
Similarly in early stages but garnering enthusiastic support from many corners is a change to how new bar members transition from law student to practitioner. With the active cooperation and support of Chief Justice Paul De Muniz, we have appointed a task force to develop and propose a first-year mentoring program based on models currently operating in Utah and Georgia. These programs require new bar members to complete a set of professional and practical skills objectives in their first year under the guidance of an experienced mentor. These programs go beyond substantive law training to include ethics, professionalism and the practical aspects of law practice. While our system tends toward the "slow and cautious" approach to big change, the enthusiasm for moving quickly on this one is strong.
Ideas Welcome
This column touches on just a few of the issues being explored by the board. We will continue our detailed review of all bar programs and services into 2011. It is a large and labor-intensive process, but certainly a worthy endeavor for any large organization to undertake periodically to assure the most prudent use of resources.
Your feedback, as always, is appreciated. We have received many suggestions and comments, both positive and negative, and welcome them all. We don't expect every decision to be popular, and we know that change can be difficult. Your board members are a hard-working and committed group of volunteers. It is my honor and privilege to work with them to best serve you, our members and the public we all serve.
Kathleen A. Evans, the 2010 Oregon State Bar president, is a Salem attorney, focusing her practice on estate planning and administration and business planning. Feedback to this article and the topics mentioned are welcome by e-mail at email@example.com.
© 2010 Kathleen A. Evans


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Moderator: Officers
Non-members should not get anything. Plain and simple. You want to raid with us awesome, some day you should join us.
Or is it that the Off think that TF should set at standard of ethics pertaining to loot and pick-up raids / guests?
I respectfully disagree. If someone is attending our raid, and we present ourselves well, they should want to join us for our skill and the hope to obtain such items in the future with a TF tag. Anyone that would complain or not raid with us based on not getting loot as a non-member is most likely the one that is too focused on loot. Do we want someone like that in our guild? I believe we limit loot whores this way, not quality people that we want. And for those former TF that come help on occasion; Do you think they expect or want our loot?Serano wrote:If your preceious DKP points and loot are more important than the equal treatment of our fellows that raid with us - then you are limiting who will want to play with us
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Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon title Sunday, and he beat defending champion Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 to do it.
Djokovic, who was already guaranteed to take over the No. 1 ranking from the Spaniard on Monday, extended his mastery over Nadal this season with a fifth straight head-to-head victory.
Djokovic assured himself of the top ranking just by reaching the final. He opened the season with 41 straight wins, including the Australian Open title, but his 43-match winning streak came to an end against Roger Federer in the French Open semifinals.
U.S. & World
The win over Nadal improved Djokovic's record in 2011 to 48-1, with five of them coming against the Spaniard in finals — two on hard courts, two on clay and now one on grass.
Serbian President Boris Tadic was in the Royal Box along with several former champions to watch the match on Centre Court, and when Nadal sent a backhand long on match point, Djokovic turned to face them and dropped to the turf, laying on his back with his arms spread wide.
Djokovic played near-flawless tennis in the first two sets, and his incredible movement and precise shot placement gave him a big lead. His play dipped in the third, but it returned in the fourth to secure him a third Grand Slam title.
Nadal had won 20 straight matches at the All England Club, including the 2008 and '10 titles. He missed the 2009 tournament because of injury, but was playing in his fifth Wimbledon final in six years.
Nadal injured his left foot in a fourth-round win, but painkilling injections helped him roll through the next two rounds and into the final.


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Have you heard about the Sketchy Sunday challenges created by Tiffany Johnson for her i[heart]art blog? If you haven't, you realy need to stop by and check it out. Each Sunday Tiffany puts out a new sketch for you to create with. Tiffany also shares a card that coordinates with her sketch.
Now for the lovely sketch ...
Products used ...
Here's to hoping that my design provides you with some inspiration to go forth and create!
|Close up of that adorable cat, and the sentiment!
|Inside of card.
Products used ...
- Stamp: Lawn Fawn's Critter's in the 'Burbs
- Paper: Paper Company Hunter Green (card), and DCWV - The Pet Stack (this set is sooo cute)
- Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, and Copic Markers BG10 & R85
- Other: Offray 5/8" Furry Friends Ribbon
- Tools: Trimmer, Fiskars Fingertip Blade, 1/2" Removable Glue Dots, and Adhesive
Here's to hoping that my design provides you with some inspiration to go forth and create!


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The Physical Layer
The physical layer characterizes individual signals and stipulates their behavior on transmission and receipt. It operates on the phit granularity; recall that this is the unit of information that the physical layer transfers per clock edge. This corresponds to 20 bits of information (for a link operating at full width). Note that the additional bits have meaning, in both data packet headers as well as in other packet types.
The physical layer transmits each bit in an individual lane implemented as a high-speed, DC-coupled differential pair. A uni-directional link consists of 20 such lanes plus an additional forwarded clock lane. Since each lane requires two physical wires, a single link requires 42 signals. Components are typically connected with two links, one in each direction, so that each component can simultaneously send to and receive from the other. At each end, the agent refers to its lanes as either Tx for transmission, or Rx for receipt. This coupling is dubbed a link-pair, also referred to as a full link, port (at each end), or connection. Thus a link-pair contains 84 wires, versus approximately 160 for the FSB. Furthermore, Intel QPI requires no side-band signals (additional signals beyond the ones comprising the link).
Electrically, the physical layer handles the conversion of digital data to and from high-speed analog signals, and drives data transmission in synchronization with the clock. As mentioned earlier, it supports a double data rate at two times the forwarded clock frequency, for signaling speeds of up to 6.4 GT/s.
To ensure proper data recovery at these high data rates and to ease some PCB layout burdens, the physical layer also implements waveform equalization, data recovery and deskew circuits, lane reversal, and polarity inversion. Waveform equalization adjusts the electrical characteristics of an analog signal to account for signal degradation along the interconnect channel between the devices. Signal integrity simulation identifies appropriate equalizer circuit tap settings that pre-shape the generated signal so that after it changes along the wire, the receiver observes the intended waveform. Next, primarily due to the routing of individual lanes, some skew occurs between the clock and the data lanes. Intel QPI data recovery circuitry allows several bit times of such skew, and performs deskew per lane. Finally, lane reversal is a PCB layout friendly feature which allows crisscrossing of lanes from Tx to Rx (lane 0 connects to lane 19 and vice versa) and therefore avoids routing congestion on the PCB. During initialization, two components connected with Intel QPI train with a pre-defined handshake sequence to detect and account for any lane reversal. Intel QPI also supports polarity inversion, which allows the PCB layout to swap the positive and negative signals in the differential pair defining a given lane.
The logical aspect of the physical layer interfaces with the link layer. The link layer provides and consumes groups of phits called flits; the physical layer manages this conversion. To reduce power consumption or to work around failures, the physical layer also allows width reduction. Its 20 physical lanes are divided into four quadrants of five lanes each, and (as a product optional feature) a link can operate at full, half, or quarter width. Intel QPI ports automatically detect this during link initialization, which can be re-triggered by a reliability event that may have made a lane unusable. When this occurs, the link optionally performs self-healing. This consists of dynamically negotiating at both ends to determine the new width (half or quarter) and deciding which quadrants will form the reduced width link. If a hard error disables the clock lane, the physical layer may also optionally execute clock failover, where it remaps the clock to a data lane and then dynamically reduces the link to half width (i.e. 10 lanes in each direction). Reduced bandwidth is the only consequence of either case. There is no loss of error detection or recovery capability and all message traffic can proceeds as before, just at a slower rate.
Thus the physical layer also controls how many phits are needed per flit, and how to map phits to the available physical lanes. Likewise, the physical layer is designed to accommodate a certain rate of bit errors due to noise and jitter. To keep this low, the link periodically retrains its usage of all of these features.
To verify link operational integrity, Intel QPI provides Interconnect Built-In Self-Test (IBIST), and several loop-back testing modes which allow self-diagnosing of the link at full speed without requiring external probes.


text:
Most aircraft have facilities which are accessible to customers with disabilities. Door handles and locks, grab bars, soap dispensers, faucets, flush controls and call buttons are designed to be operable with minimal single effort.
Although washrooms on most aircraft are fully accessible to passengers using the on-board wheelchair, please note that not all Air Canada Express aircraft have an on-board wheelchair able to access the plane's washrooms.
If this is an important consideration for you, please contact Air Canada Reservations for assistance in arranging travel on a flight with a wheelchair-accessible washroom.
See our fleet section for more information on aircraft configuration.


text:
When Nokia completes the sale of its telephone business to Microsoft, a transfer of its substantial patent portfolio will be conspicuously absent from the deal. Microsoft got licenses to those patents but won't buy the patents themselves. That situation immediately led to speculation that Nokia was interested in doing standalone patent-licensing when it would be mostly immune to counterattack.
As Nokia's management must surely have been aware, creating businesses that do nothing but license patents has become controversial. Whatever Nokia does, it isn't just going to become the chatter of the Internet—in Europe, antitrust regulators are watching as well.
EU antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia said in a speech on Monday that Nokia had better think twice before trying to "extract higher returns" from its patents, according to an AP report. "In other words...behave like a patent troll, or to use a more polite phrase, a patent assertion entity."
Almunia will open an antitrust lawsuit against Nokia if the company tries to take "illegal advantage" of its patents, he said.
The kinds of licensing that would be illegal, in Almunia's view, appears to be a gray area. Nokia, unlike many real "patent trolls," has a history of licensing patents to competitors as a big operating company. Almunia may expect the company to stick to those rates.
Patent attacks by a different defunct telephone company got some serious attention last month. Rockstar Consortium, which continues to be owned by Microsoft, Apple, and Blackberry, sued Google over Nortel patents purchased at auction. It looks like Almunia doesn't want to see a situation like Rockstar pop up across the pond.
UPDATE: The AP report, which says Almunia "warned Nokia not to try to become a patent troll," reflects a different tone than the text of the speech. The relevant section reads:
Since Nokia will retain its patent portfolio, some have claimed that the sale of the unit would give the company the incentive to extract higher returns from this portfolio.
These claims fall outside the scope of our review. When we assess a merger, we look into the possible anti-competitive impact of the company resulting from it. We cannot consider what the seller will do.
If Nokia were to take illegal advantage of its patents in the future, we will open an antitrust case – but I sincerely hope we will not have to.
In other words, the claims we dismissed were that Nokia would be tempted to behave like a patent troll or – to use a more polite phrase – a patent assertion entity....
You can rest assured that we are watching this space very carefully. DG competition will hold patent trolls to the same standards as any other patent holder.
A Nokia spokesperson said the company will continue to honor its patent-licensing agreements, adding:
Nokia has a long-established licensing program for our standard-essential patents, with more than 50 licensees. In most cases the licenses were agreed amicably and no regulators have yet identified any issues with how we license our patents.


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Document Reference: Parish Registers 1561 - 1915
The original register may be viewed at the NRO who also sell fiches of the registers, copies are also available for use at LDS centres. "This copy of the old Smallburgh Registers was made for Rev. H.T. Griffith, and left by him to be kept with the other registers for the parish....June 1897 H T Griffith, Smallburgh Rectory" a delightful handwritten copy of the orignal registers.
Transcribed by: Rose French
Date Added: October 11, 2000
Previous Year: 1580Next Year: 1582
Surname, ForenameAge No. Notes
LYFE Robert
TRACE Richards of William Jnr


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Google Street View provides panoramic 360-degree views from designated roads throughout its coverage area.
This video shows how you can use the Street View service to give your users a real-world experience of an address on the map, providing them with meaningful context about their destination or any place they're interested in.
The coverage available through the Google Maps Android API v2 is the same as that for the Google Maps app on your Android device. You can read more about Street View and see the supported areas on an interactive map, at About Street View.
StreetViewPanorama class models the Street
View panorama in your application. Within your UI, a panorama is represented
by a
StreetViewPanoramaFragment or
StreetViewPanoramaView object.
Code samples
The ApiDemos repository on GitHub includes samples that demonstrate the use of Street View:
- StreetViewPanoramaBasicDemoActivity: The basics of using Street View
- StreetViewPanoramaEventsDemoActivity: Listening to events
- StreetViewPanoramaNavigationDemoActivity: Controlling Street View panoramas programmatically
- StreetViewPanoramaOptionsDemoActivity: Changing UI and gesture options
- StreetViewPanoramaViewDemoActivity: Using the
StreetViewPanoramaView(instead of a Fragment)
Overview of Street View in the Maps SDK for Android
The Maps SDK for Android provides a Street View service for obtaining and manipulating the imagery used in Google Street View. Images are returned as panoramas.
Each Street View panorama is an image, or set of images, that provides a full 360-degree view from a single location. Images conform to the equirectangular (Plate Carrée) projection, which contains 360 degrees of horizontal view (a full wrap-around) and 180 degrees of vertical view (from straight up to straight down). The resulting 360-degree panorama defines a projection on a sphere with the image wrapped to the two-dimensional surface of that sphere.
StreetViewPanorama provides a viewer that renders
the panorama as a sphere with a camera at its center. You can manipulate the
to control the zoom and the orientation (tilt and bearing) of the camera.
Get started
Follow the getting-started guide to set up a Maps SDK for Android project. Then add a Street View panorama, as described below.
The Google Play services SDK client library includes a few Street View samples which you can import into your project and use as a basis for development. See the introduction for guidelines on importing the samples.
Use the API
Follow the instructions below to add a Street View panorama to an Android fragment. That's the simplest way to add Street View to your application. Then read more about fragments, views, and customizing the panorama.
Add a Street View panorama
Follow the steps below, to add a Street View panorama like this one:
In summary:
- Add a Fragment object to the Activity
that will handle the Street View panorama. The easiest way to do this is to
add a
<fragment>element to the layout file for the
- Implement the
OnStreetViewPanoramaReadyCallbackinterface and use the
onStreetViewPanoramaReady(StreetViewPanorama)callback method to get a handle to the
- Call
getStreetViewPanoramaAsync()on the fragment to register the callback.
Below is more detail about each step.
Add a fragment
Add a
<fragment> element to the activity's layout file to define a
Fragment object. In this element, set the
attribute to
com.google.android.gms.maps.StreetViewPanoramaFragment (or
Here is an example of a fragment in a layout file:
<fragment android:name="com.google.android.gms.maps.StreetViewPanoramaFragment" android:id="@+id/streetviewpanorama" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent"/>
Add Street View code
To work with the Street View panorama inside your app, you'll need to implement
interface and set an instance of the callback on a
StreetViewPanoramaFragment or
StreetViewPanoramaView object. This tutorial uses a
StreetViewPanoramaFragment, because that's the simplest way to add Street View
to your app. The first step is to implement the callback interface:
public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity
implements OnStreetViewPanoramaReadyCallback {
In your
method, set the layout file as the content view. For example, if the layout file
has the name
main.xml, use this code:
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
Get a handle to the fragment by calling
passing it the resource ID of your
<fragment> element.
Notice that the resource ID
R.id.streetviewpanorama is added automatically to
the Android project when you build the layout file.
Then use
to set the callback on the fragment.
StreetViewPanoramaFragment streetViewPanoramaFragment =
(StreetViewPanoramaFragment) getFragmentManager()
Use the
callback method to to retrieve a non-null instance of
StreetViewPanorama, ready to be used.
public void onStreetViewPanoramaReady(StreetViewPanorama panorama) {
panorama.setPosition(new LatLng(-33.87365, 151.20689));
More about configuring initial state
Unlike with a map, it's not possible to configure the initial state of the
Street View panorama via XML. However, you can configure the panorama
programmatically by passing in a
StreetViewPanoramaOptions object
containing your specified options.
- If you are using a
StreetViewPanoramaFragment, use the
StreetViewPanoramaFragment.newInstance(StreetViewPanoramaOptions options)static factory method to construct the fragment and pass in your custom configured options.
- If you are using a
StreetViewPanoramaView, use the
StreetViewPanoramaView(Context, StreetViewPanoramaOptions)constructor and pass in your custom configured options.
mStreetViewPanoramaView = new StreetViewPanoramaView(this, new StreetViewPanoramaOptions().position(SAN_FRAN));
More about StreetViewPanoramaFragment
StreetViewPanoramaFragment is a subclass of the
Android Fragment class, and allows you to place a Street
View panorama in an Android fragment.
StreetViewPanoramaFragment objects act
as containers for the panorama, and provide access to the
StreetViewPanorama object.
StreetViewPanoramaView, a subclass of the Android
View class,
allows you to place a Street View panorama in an Android
View. A
represents a rectangular region of the screen, and is a fundamental building
block for Android applications and widgets. Much like a
StreetViewPanoramaFragment, the
StreetViewPanoramaView acts as a container
for the panorama, exposing core functionality through the
object. Users of this class must forward all the activity life cycle methods
(such as
onResume(), and
onPause()) to the
corresponding methods in the
StreetViewPanoramaView class.
Customize the user-controlled functionality
By default, the following functionality is available to the user when viewing
the Street View panorama: panning, zooming, and traveling to adjacent panoramas.
You can enable and disable user-controlled gestures through methods on
StreetViewPanorama. Programmatic changes are still
possible when the gesture is disabled.
- setPanningGesturesEnabled()
- Determines whether the user will be able to re-orient the camera by
- setUserNavigationEnabled()
- Determines whether the user will be able to move to a different panorama.
Users can use a single tap on navigation links, or double tap the view, to
move to a new panorama.
- setZoomGesturesEnabled()
- Determines whether the user will be able to pinch to zoom.
In addition, you can determine whether users will see street names:
- setStreetNamesEnabled()
- Determines whether the user is able to see street names displayed on the
Set the location of the panorama
To set the location of the Street View panorama, call
StreetViewPanorama.setPosition(), passing a
You can also pass
radius and
source as optional parameters.
A radius is useful if you want to widen or
narrow the area in which Street View will look for a matching panorama. A radius
of 0 means that the panorama must be linked to exactly the specified
The default radius is 50 meters. If there is more than one panorama in the
matching area, the API will return the best match.
A source is useful if you want to restrict Street View to only look for panoramas which are outdoors. By default, Street View panoramas could be inside places such as museums, public buildings, cafes and businesses. Note that outdoor panoramas may not exist for the specified location.
private static final LatLng SAN_FRAN = new LatLng(37.765927, -122.449972); // Set position with LatLng only. mStreetViewPanorama.setPosition(SAN_FRAN); // Set position with LatLng and radius. mStreetViewPanorama.setPosition(SAN_FRAN, 20); // Set position with LatLng and source. mStreetViewPanorama.setPosition(SAN_FRAN, StreetViewSource.OUTDOOR); // Set position with LaLng, radius and source. mStreetViewPanorama.setPosition(SAN_FRAN, 20, StreetViewSource.OUTDOOR);
Alternatively, you can set the location based upon a panorama ID by passing a
panoId to
To retrieve the panorama ID for adjacent panoramas, first use
to retrieve a
This object contains the ID of the
current panorama and an array of
StreetViewPanoramaLink objects, each
of which contains the ID of a panorama connected to the current one.
StreetViewPanoramaLocation location = mStreetViewPanorama.getLocation(); if (location != null && location.links != null) { mStreetViewPanorama.setPosition(location.links[0].panoId); }
Zoom in and out
You can change the zoom level programmatically by setting
Setting the zoom to 1.0 will magnify the image
by a factor of 2.
The following snippet uses
StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder() to construct a
new camera with the tilt and bearing of the existing camera, while increasing
the zoom by fifty percent.
private static final float ZOOM_BY = 0.5f; StreetViewPanoramaCamera camera = new StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder() .zoom(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().zoom + ZOOM_BY) .tilt(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().tilt) .bearing(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().bearing) .build();
Set the camera orientation (point of view)
You can determine the Street View camera's orientation by setting the
bearing and tilt on
- bearing
- The direction in which the camera is pointing, specified in degrees clockwise from true north, around the camera locus. True north is 0, east is 90, south is 180, west is 270.
- tilt
- The Y-axis tilt up or down. The range is -90 through 0 to 90, with -90 looking straight down, 0 centered on the horizon, and 90 looking straight up. The variance is measured from the camera's initial default pitch, which is often (but not always) flat horizontal. For example, an image taken on a hill will probably have a default pitch that is not horizontal.
The following snippet uses
StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder() to construct a
new camera with the zoom and tilt of the existing camera, while changing the
bearing by 30 degrees to the left.
private static final int PAN_BY = 30; StreetViewPanoramaCamera camera = new StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder() .zoom(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().zoom) .tilt(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().tilt) .bearing(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().bearing - PAN_BY) .build();
The following snippet tilts the camera upward by 30 degrees.
float tilt = mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().tilt + 30; tilt = (tilt > 90) ? 90 : tilt; StreetViewPanoramaCamera previous = mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera(); StreetViewPanoramaCamera camera = new StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder(previous) .tilt(tilt) .build();
Animate the camera movements
To animate the camera movements, call
The animation interpolates between the current camera attributes and the new
camera attributes. If you want to jump directly to the camera without animation,
you can set the duration to 0.
// Keeping the zoom and tilt. Animate bearing by 60 degrees in 1000 milliseconds. long duration = 1000; StreetViewPanoramaCamera camera = new StreetViewPanoramaCamera.Builder() .zoom(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().zoom) .tilt(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().tilt) .bearing(mStreetViewPanorama.getPanoramaCamera().bearing - 60) .build(); mStreetViewPanorama.animateTo(camera, duration);
The following image shows the result when you schedule the above animation to run
every 2000 milliseconds, using


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BEIJING, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman denied a media report saying North Korea has informed Beijing about plans to conduct more nuclear tests.
Spokesman Hong Lei said he did not know where the report originated, China Daily said. North Korea conducted a nuclear test on Feb. 12, its third since 2006, which was widely condemned by the international community including China.
Hong said the situation on the Korea Peninsula remains "sensitive and complicated," and China wants all concerned parties to exercise calm.
China has been calling for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks aimed at denuclearization of North Korea in return for massive aid to the isolated Communist country.
The participants in the talks include the two Koreas, China, Japan, the United States and Russia and Japan. The talks, however, have remained suspended since 2009 after North Korea walked out.


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