April 14th, 2009 Andrew Cash
Electric shock
Those dreams of the e-car refuelling our economy? Not if they’re China-made.
By Andrew Cash
I admit I’m not really a car guy. When I rent a car, the conversation at the rental desk goes like this: Clerk: “We’ve got a blah blah or a blah blah..,” to which I reply, “Oh, just give me the cheapest one.”
But this time, for a trip to Pennsylvania to visit relatives, I’m handed the keys – well, there are no keys really – to a Prius, Toyota’s smash hit hybrid. Wow, this car I know about, since it’s the kind of vehicle that’s carrying the hopes of the folks who make cars, the environment that chokes on them and the taxpayer who seems increasingly on the hook for producing them.
But are all those billions we’re lending Big Auto really going to produce enough of the pollution-?free wheels greens are dreaming of?
In Pennsylvania, in the belly of car culture, green cars, electric or otherwise, seem so far way. Still, at one point, our 80-year-old uncle saunters around behind the rental. I’m thinking, “Okay, I’m going to get it for renting an import.”
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April 2nd, 2009 Andrew Cash
Saving Ontario’s backbone means more than bailing out cars
By Andrew Cash
The hate-on for artists and cultural workers as whining pigs at the public trough is alive and well across Tory land.
The latest round of this particular blood sport occurred in the last few weeks, when the feds forced a crisis on the CBC by withholding bridge funding, necessitating the cutting of 800 broadcasting jobs.
The provincial Liberals, it’s true, have a more civilized take on the creative class, but they weren’t exactly going all out for culture in last week’s budget either. McGuintyites handed over 20 mil to the Ontario Media Development Corp, $77 mil to film and TV in tax credits and $17 mil per year in tax support for interactive digital media products.
Still, compared to the gnashing of teeth over the decline of manufacturing, forestry and steel and the consequent $26 bil increase in new provincial infrastructure spending, arts and culture seem like bit players. Building cars, making steel, chopping trees – now, that’s where the big boys play; that’s the economic backbone of the country, isn’t it?
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