I retired from Calgary Water in 2016, having been the Sr. Infrastructure Engineer at the time of the first concrete main break (2004) and started the inspection program that would have reached the current problem by October.
I gave two interviews to Lily Dupuis of CBC, who did extremely good "explainer" pieces on the technical problem. Two interviews (and a new one yesterday) to Don Braid of The Herald; and talked for 15 minutes to Rob Breakenridge on QR77.
I told all three journalists of my contempt for the City of Calgary Communications Department, that grew from about 10 people to 300 in my last few years there. "Communications...doesn't" was my joke to other staff. That I was pleased that retirement allowed me to do what I was allowed to do on the job until about 2008.
Engineers LOVE to talk about their work; journalists have to shut them up, and edit heavily. The Communications people have set up a whole structure that prevents us from talking to the media any more, or every journalists in Calgary would be able to write a book on why that main failed, and why we didn't catch it.
As to the journalists just accepting that, for crissake don't blame them; they have to write four stories a day these days; and have no time for you, vastly prefer if you set it all up for them - and Communications KNOWS that, and panders to their overwhelmed needs.
Yesterday, I told Braid that a colleague was willing to explain why they cancelled the project that would have provided a relief/resilience second main by 2022, in great detail, was polishing a 13-page narrative on it. The document is ready today, but Braid ran a story based on my two sentences of summary of what my friend talked about(!) That's when I got how desperate the News is, these days: no story should take more than 2-3 hours of your time.
Just got off the phone with Don; he's calling the document author and will try to tell the hard-to-tell story of Calgary assuming stagnant population growth 10 years back, never correcting the assumption when it did not fall by 2017, even 2018, and falling behind. Best of luck with it.
The Cdn press can quit its whinging & wailing about loss of trust because OMG BOTS! are misleading Cdns! The leftie press ARE the damned bots. It richly deserves its loss of reputation.
I was hanging onto the G&M subscription but, that, too, is going into the bin. Whoever runs that show, fire the editors & retire your partisan writers. It’s so tedious I think I look at it once a week because, you know, I paid for it.
I fail to understand many Canadians detailed obsession with US politics. They’ll listen to Harris, Biden, Trump, pick one or any other speeches yet never bother with Canadian political leaders. US politics is important to us here in Canada, but only to the extent of what will affect Canada and the world. Invest had this conversation with ones so obsessed and invariably they’ll say something like, “it’s more interesting”. I ask, who has had more affect on Canadian lives in the past 4 years, Joe Biden or Justin Trudeau?
On one hand I feel the statistics put forward here regarding CBC’s coverage of the US versus its coverage of Canadian conventions is yet another reason to say good-bye to the CBC. On the other hand, maybe, just maybe they are striving to give Canadians what Canadians want.
Allen, you conclude with, ".... On the other hand, maybe, just maybe they are striving to give Canadians what Canadians want."
So, if Canadians want that particular thingy then let those same Canadians (not me!) either pay a subscription fee to CBC or simply pay that subscription fee to whichever "service" (presumably originating in the US) offers that information.
In whichever case, however, stop the annual bleed of 1.4 billion plus going to the CBC from the federal budget.
Allen, it is my best guess/inspiration(?!)/speculation that the Ceeb just "knows" that all Canadians "think the right way" and therefore need no further education [well, other than the hopeless drones/drudges/"...ists" who support other than LPC]. By contrast, the Ceeb also "knows" that "we" are all terrifically "worried" about US politics and "terrified" by the prospect of orange hair winning so they must reassure us.
As I said, guess/inspiration(?!)/speculation.
Oh, one other possible reason. Said bureaucrat isn't really thinking. Harsh but, maybe ....
I’m not one of those Canadians. I switch off as soon as I hear the word Trump or Biden or whoever it is. US coverage is over the top now it’s like a 15 minute piece every news hour. Ridiculous
Canada’s huge efforts for over a decade to broaden our international trade and become a “Pacific Rim” nation… have lowered our trade with the USA from 80% of all our trade, to 75%.
Biden probably HAS done more than Trudeau in many ways: his IRA practically forced Trudeau (and any other PM, and countries in Europe, too) to subsidize Green Transition projects, simply to keep up with Biden’s IRA.
This makes sense as far from being an outlet to Tell Our Canadian Stories, the main obsession of the CBC seems to be to import US culture war nonsense and apply it to Canada.
With the $1.27 B CBC got in government funding for 22/23 (The 23/24 financials aren't out yet even though CBC's year end is March. I guess timely financial reporting is not one of the factors used for bonus purposes) the government could pay for Netflix with ads ($84/year) for every one of the 15 million households in Canada. The cost would be $1.26B.
I’ll quote Mike Myers about USA/Canada for a second time this week. He points out that they are just the best at “Making shows”. Entertainment spectaculars.
That Myers said he went from Canada to Hollywood to learn how to make movies, the way everybody in the 15th century went to Italy to learn painting: all the best were congregating there.
Conventions are sales pitches, big shows, and yes, America does them the best. No surprise people who like to sell ads want their content.
Yes, but I think it's viewers - US politics is a popular topic, and US conventions are way more interesting and entertaining than ours. I certainly wouldn't want a scenario where the CBC is forced by legislation to change that balance.
The CBC was a problem when it was a small fish in a big pond 20 years ago. It’s an even bigger problem now that it’s the biggest fish in a small pond. The CBC has always been a left-wing, Liberal Party stenographer. That could be countered in the past by a healthy, right wing media ecosystem. This no longer exists and because of that, the CBC must be eliminated.
I retired from Calgary Water in 2016, having been the Sr. Infrastructure Engineer at the time of the first concrete main break (2004) and started the inspection program that would have reached the current problem by October.
I gave two interviews to Lily Dupuis of CBC, who did extremely good "explainer" pieces on the technical problem. Two interviews (and a new one yesterday) to Don Braid of The Herald; and talked for 15 minutes to Rob Breakenridge on QR77.
I told all three journalists of my contempt for the City of Calgary Communications Department, that grew from about 10 people to 300 in my last few years there. "Communications...doesn't" was my joke to other staff. That I was pleased that retirement allowed me to do what I was allowed to do on the job until about 2008.
Engineers LOVE to talk about their work; journalists have to shut them up, and edit heavily. The Communications people have set up a whole structure that prevents us from talking to the media any more, or every journalists in Calgary would be able to write a book on why that main failed, and why we didn't catch it.
As to the journalists just accepting that, for crissake don't blame them; they have to write four stories a day these days; and have no time for you, vastly prefer if you set it all up for them - and Communications KNOWS that, and panders to their overwhelmed needs.
Yesterday, I told Braid that a colleague was willing to explain why they cancelled the project that would have provided a relief/resilience second main by 2022, in great detail, was polishing a 13-page narrative on it. The document is ready today, but Braid ran a story based on my two sentences of summary of what my friend talked about(!) That's when I got how desperate the News is, these days: no story should take more than 2-3 hours of your time.
Sounds like a useful document
Just got off the phone with Don; he's calling the document author and will try to tell the hard-to-tell story of Calgary assuming stagnant population growth 10 years back, never correcting the assumption when it did not fall by 2017, even 2018, and falling behind. Best of luck with it.
The Cdn press can quit its whinging & wailing about loss of trust because OMG BOTS! are misleading Cdns! The leftie press ARE the damned bots. It richly deserves its loss of reputation.
I was hanging onto the G&M subscription but, that, too, is going into the bin. Whoever runs that show, fire the editors & retire your partisan writers. It’s so tedious I think I look at it once a week because, you know, I paid for it.
I fail to understand many Canadians detailed obsession with US politics. They’ll listen to Harris, Biden, Trump, pick one or any other speeches yet never bother with Canadian political leaders. US politics is important to us here in Canada, but only to the extent of what will affect Canada and the world. Invest had this conversation with ones so obsessed and invariably they’ll say something like, “it’s more interesting”. I ask, who has had more affect on Canadian lives in the past 4 years, Joe Biden or Justin Trudeau?
On one hand I feel the statistics put forward here regarding CBC’s coverage of the US versus its coverage of Canadian conventions is yet another reason to say good-bye to the CBC. On the other hand, maybe, just maybe they are striving to give Canadians what Canadians want.
Allen, you conclude with, ".... On the other hand, maybe, just maybe they are striving to give Canadians what Canadians want."
So, if Canadians want that particular thingy then let those same Canadians (not me!) either pay a subscription fee to CBC or simply pay that subscription fee to whichever "service" (presumably originating in the US) offers that information.
In whichever case, however, stop the annual bleed of 1.4 billion plus going to the CBC from the federal budget.
Ken, I totally agree with you. I was just trying to understand the thinking behind the CBC bureaucrat’s thinking.
Allen, it is my best guess/inspiration(?!)/speculation that the Ceeb just "knows" that all Canadians "think the right way" and therefore need no further education [well, other than the hopeless drones/drudges/"...ists" who support other than LPC]. By contrast, the Ceeb also "knows" that "we" are all terrifically "worried" about US politics and "terrified" by the prospect of orange hair winning so they must reassure us.
As I said, guess/inspiration(?!)/speculation.
Oh, one other possible reason. Said bureaucrat isn't really thinking. Harsh but, maybe ....
Working on their natural instinct?
What is that old expression? ........ "When you're right, you're right."
I’m not one of those Canadians. I switch off as soon as I hear the word Trump or Biden or whoever it is. US coverage is over the top now it’s like a 15 minute piece every news hour. Ridiculous
Canada’s huge efforts for over a decade to broaden our international trade and become a “Pacific Rim” nation… have lowered our trade with the USA from 80% of all our trade, to 75%.
Biden probably HAS done more than Trudeau in many ways: his IRA practically forced Trudeau (and any other PM, and countries in Europe, too) to subsidize Green Transition projects, simply to keep up with Biden’s IRA.
On point!
This makes sense as far from being an outlet to Tell Our Canadian Stories, the main obsession of the CBC seems to be to import US culture war nonsense and apply it to Canada.
I like what you do but I think you’re beating on this topic a bit much.
It’s an American election year, and fortunately CBC knows that matters to Canada.
With the $1.27 B CBC got in government funding for 22/23 (The 23/24 financials aren't out yet even though CBC's year end is March. I guess timely financial reporting is not one of the factors used for bonus purposes) the government could pay for Netflix with ads ($84/year) for every one of the 15 million households in Canada. The cost would be $1.26B.
https://rumble.com/v5dnhvd-open-letter-to-the-senate-parliament-of-canada..html
I’ll quote Mike Myers about USA/Canada for a second time this week. He points out that they are just the best at “Making shows”. Entertainment spectaculars.
That Myers said he went from Canada to Hollywood to learn how to make movies, the way everybody in the 15th century went to Italy to learn painting: all the best were congregating there.
Conventions are sales pitches, big shows, and yes, America does them the best. No surprise people who like to sell ads want their content.
Yes, but I think it's viewers - US politics is a popular topic, and US conventions are way more interesting and entertaining than ours. I certainly wouldn't want a scenario where the CBC is forced by legislation to change that balance.
The CBC was a problem when it was a small fish in a big pond 20 years ago. It’s an even bigger problem now that it’s the biggest fish in a small pond. The CBC has always been a left-wing, Liberal Party stenographer. That could be countered in the past by a healthy, right wing media ecosystem. This no longer exists and because of that, the CBC must be eliminated.