I feel like everyone’s forgotten what it means to be Canadian. Ever since the Olympics, and our Prime Minister’s call to be more patriotic, it seems like Canada wants to be something that we’re not - at least not in my experience.
The first part of this is that everyone seems to think that Canada should be defined as hockey and beer. But I don’t think that those should be the ultimate defining things when we think about our culture. Sure, they play a part. For one thing, hockey is Canada’s national winter sport. But the key thing to note in that last phrase is the word “winter.” Because some Canadians don’t seem to know this, but hockey isn’t our only national sport. Lacrosse is also a national sport in Canada (the summer national sport if you didn’t guess).
But let’s even put that aside - why should we be defined by sports? There is so much more to this country than that, and it just seems shameful that so many people have simplified it to just hockey and beer. But instead of going on about what Canada should be defined by, which I don’t think I could even do justice to, since I’ve only seen bits of only three provinces, I ask that you watch this video. It NBC’s explanation of Canada to Americans. You’ll see that there’s a lot more to this country than a single sport and a single beverage. There’s a large focus on our trade partnership with the US and military/war, but I still think it’s a good start to what I’m trying to get at.
Now the ending to that video brings me to my next point. Tim Brokaw talked about how Prime Minister Harper had to stand in front of Parliament and ask Canadians to have an “uncharacteristic outburst of patriotism.” Now, I agree that we’re not the most outwardly patriotic country in the world. But at the same time I think people are misinterpreting being humble as not being patriotic. I know so many Canadians with maple leaf tattoos. I also know that most Canadians I know wouldn’t want to live in the US if they were given the chance. I mean no offense to any Americans reading this - we still like you guys, we just don’t want to BE you guys.
A lot of people took Harper’s call to action to say “have pride like an American does.” And it’s true, a lot of Americans have a very outwardly patriotic attitude. But a lot of countries that aren’t the US see that as arrogance. Again, I’m not saying this as anything against Americans. But the fact of the matter is, the stereotypical American is loud, obnoxious, rude and arrogant. True or not, that’s the perception a lot of people have about the country when generalizing. (I know tons of nice Americans - “an” American is great, Americans.. well I already said the stereotype). Do we really want the world to perceive Canada in this same way?
I don’t think the problem is that we’re not patriotic. It’s just that we’re humble. And I’m okay with that - why can’t we be proud that we won the most golds without having to shove it in peoples’ faces and pull a “neener neener neeeeener, I’m better than you are!” There’s a difference between being patriotic and being a jerk. And I’ve noticed since Harper’s call to be more patriotic, a lot of people have taken that as a cue to follow the American example of patriotism. And that’s just not Canadian.
As of June 1, 2009, the City of Toronto has imposed a five cent charge for plastic bags at any retail location. In theory, this is great. I already use reusable bags for my grocery shopping, and often decline bags when shopping at clothing stores, drug stores, electronics stores etc, depending on what the item is (i.e. I might feel weird putting a brand new light-coloured t-shirt in my purse with all the pens and god knows what else is in there).
I think discouraging people from using plastic bags is a great way to help them from ending up in the landfills. And I even felt that way before I saw this:
So, if I think this is such a good idea, then why do I say I support it “in theory”? My beef is that that five cents that’s being charged isn’t required to be paid to anything.
Retailers are entitled to keep the money received from the plastic bag charge, the money is not remitted to the City of Toronto. While the City does not stipulate what retailers should do with this money, it does support reinvesting the funds in local environmental or community-based initiatives. Source
Meaning that not only are retailers saving money because people will inevitably start bringing reusable bags with them everywhere, so that will be less bags that the retailers have to pay for (plus the money they make off selling their own branded reusable bags), but they get to keep the money that we’re paying for the bags. And I’d assume that 5 cents per bag is a considerable profit, considering places like grocery stores use very thin bags and buy very large quantities. (And the five cents is a minimum - I’ve heard of people having fast food delivered only to be charged 10 cents per bag when they weren’t given the option to not have the food delivered in plastic.)
I cannot believe that the City of Toronto let that happen. Why not have the money go back to the city to fund more green initiatives? Or be donated directly to some kind of “green” group that researches greener technologies or helps to clean the environment in some way? Or even to fund a cleanup of the plastic bags that are out there right now? Why do the retailers get to profit from every aspect of this initiative - having to dispense less bags alone will reduce costs for them, which should be enough of an incentive to get them on board to participate. I’d prefer the five cents be a environmental tax. Otherwise, it’s really just a cash grab for the retailers.
Just goes to show how much influence big business has on our mayor - seems he’s looking out for the retailers and not the tax payers or the environment.
I dance like an idiot, I know. But I have fun! Here are three videos of me dancing. The first two were at a stag & doe, the third is in a parking lot. I may post more if I make more…
Explodingdog is artwork by Sam Brown (aka Adam Culbert), drawn based on titles his fans send in. A while ago I sent him “I didn’t sleep well last night” and he drew this:
Awesome!
So a few days this week on the explodingdog twitter, Sam has asked his followers to draw “with” him. Because I love drawing in MS Paint so much, I was game. Here are the three drawings I did this week with Sam Brown of explodingdog:
So this blog has just been sitting here again and I’ve decided that something that might motivate me to write posts would be to start reviewing things. It will probably mostly be customer service related because I think it’s a big problem in this city that most places don’t have any. But who knows, I may stray from that.
I’ll try to do make sure I do some positive reviews too, but who are we kidding; they’ll mostly be negative ones. Not only because I seem to experience more bad customer service than good these days, but also bad service stands out more.. and I like to bitch
So since my posts will be mostly customer service related, I figure I’ll let you know where I’m coming from. I’ve worked a bunch of customer service jobs. My first job was at Kernels Popcorn, a deluxe popcorn kiosk. Then I worked at a Second Cup coffee shop for a few years, then at a Sunrise Records, then a West 49, which had goals and commission structure, which I steadily achieved - maybe not always #1 (that was a different person every week, i.e. not steady), but I was a consistent #2. I also worked at the clubhouse (serving food and drinks), the drink cart, and the halfway house at a golf course.
I always did the best job I could. I was always pleasant and always showed respect to the customers, even if they didn’t deserve it. I helped them as best I could, and when I couldn’t help them, I’d find someone who could. Even if I didn’t like the job. Even if I was having a bad day. It didn’t matter. I still did my job and I did it the best I could. I took pride in my work.
So that’s where I get off criticizing other peoples’ work ethic - I’ve been in their position, I’ve had the bad days, and I still did a good job. So I’m entitled to. And because I feel like it.
Note: I’ve decided to make a dedicated blog for customer service reviews and will continue to use this as a personal blog for my own ramblings! Visit the customer service blog for more reviews: The Back Wall.
Matt and I try to always bring our own bags when we go to the grocery store (although I’ll admit we forget sometimes), and we feel good about “doing our part”. Plus at Loblaws they give you a penny off your grocery bill for every bag you bring in - not a huge deal, but like they say, every penny counts!
Here’s my only problem with it: when you don’t bring your own bags, the cashier (or some other employee depending on how busy it is) will kindly bag your groceries for you. When you bring your own bags, not only do you have to bag them yourself (which is a bit annoying if you’re there on your own), but they scan everything and throw it down to the “bagging area” as fast as they can, with no consideration for the fact that you need time to bag stuff - they basically act like want you to just stuff your groceries in your bags with complete disregard for trying to make them all fit and to try to not crush things.
Grocery stores seem to act like they want you to bring your own bags (it saves them money in not having to use as many bags, plus the PR value of cutting down on bags in the landfill etc), but they should realize that if they want me to bring them in, it shouldn’t create an inconvenience for me!
The other day, Matt, Kristen and I went down to the Harbour Front to waste some time. While we were sitting on a bench resting, this seagull (who we later named “Tom”) saw a fry in a clear plastic garbage bag.
Being a seagull, Tom didn’t understand that just because he could see the fry, didn’t mean he could get at it. So he went for it through the bag. It moved, but obviously he didn’t get the fry out. Kristen and I saw this happen, and Tom was really embarrassed.
After this, Tom walked (very suavely) around a bit and ate a few other things he saw around, but he was pretty tame in what he went for. It was obviously because he knew we were watching him, and didn’t want to embarrass himself again!
RSS Entries