Tesla Comes To Canada

Mulder

March 3rd, 2009 is a very special day to me as it was this day that Tesla Motors announced their plans to enter Canada.

As many of you who read my blog know…

a) In December 2006, I asked Santa for a Tesla Roadster. You can read about it by clicking Here.

b) In January 2007, I commented about a letter I wrote the Prime Minister and (then) Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier, about providing some funding to open a Tesla Auto Plant in Canada. I still wonder if the money earmarked for the “greening” of the auto industry were a response to the letter I wrote. You can read a bit about my letter by clicking here.

c) In February 2007, I offered my own version of the carbon offset program by allowing people to donate to my “Get Mulder A Tesla” fund. i.e. you can offset your carbon credits by donating to a program that would get me out of my big Honda pickup truck and into an “all electric” Tesla Roadster. You can still do this or read the story by clicking here.

Needless to say, I LOVE this car so when I received the email below, I immediately went and asked my wife for permission to drop $60,000 US on the downpayment. And now I am writing this blog post from a hotel after she booted me out of the house. Well okay, that last part isn’t true, but I have a feeling I won’t be getting my Tesla anytime soon. I guess I’ll just have to dream and drool over the photos on their website at www.teslamotors.com

Letter from Tesla Motors.

I’m excited to announce that Tesla Motors will begin taking orders today from customers in Canada, and we’ll begin delivering Canadian cars later this year. This is great news for Canada’s many car enthusiasts, including scores of Tesla fans who have written passionate e-mails over the years about why Tesla should go north. We listened to you – and we look forward to delivering your cars starting in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Canada is uniquely positioned to become a premier showcase for Tesla, still the only production automaker selling highway-capable electric vehicles in North America. Canada is one of two countries in the world (the other is Norway) where the majority of electricity comes from renewable resources, including run-of-river small hydro, wind, biomass, ocean, geothermal and solar energy.

An EV recharged from the current Canadian grid, on average, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 85 percent compared to an equivalent gasoline-powered vehicle. In hydro-dominant British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba, the reduction would be an impressive 98 percent.

We are already busy considering retail opportunities in this vast country. In the short term, we are confident that we can serve a large percentage of our customers through retail stores in Seattle and New York, which we plan to open in the first half of this year. Eventually, we envision Tesla-owned retail and service centers in Ontario, British Columbia and possibly Quebec.

The base price for Roadsters in Canada will be set closer to the start of deliveries in the fourth quarter, and pricing will reflect exchange rates at that time. The CA$60,000 reservation fee is refundable, and the remainder of the balance is due upon the start of production, a few months prior to delivery. In the United States, the base price is $109,000.

These Roadsters will comply with all Canadian safety regulations for mass-produced, highway-capable vehicles. As they have for Americans and Europeans, we’re certain Roadsters will quickly become the automobile of choice for Canadians who refuse to compromise between performance and efficiency. You can order your Roadster today online, or call us directly at +1-650-413-6300. We look forward to hearing from you!

Doreen Allen
Director of Sales Operations

Turning 40 Has It's Lessons

Mulder

This last week of 2008 is the week I turned 40 years old. The big four oh. Middle aged. For those of you who have met me, I know I know, I don’t look a day over 50 and you thought I was well over 40. That’s what cheap drugs, boozing and carousing and going to dozens of Grateful Dead shows in your youth will get you!!

I wanted to post today about “What I learned in my first forty years” but it is simply impossible to write down that much useless trivia, so I am going to try to stick to the useful points.

From birth to age 10 I learned that I should laugh.
Laugh like you never laughed before. Laugh at jokes, laugh at TV shows, laugh at silly things, laugh at not so silly things. laugh off mistakes (but fix them), laugh with friends…heck laugh AT friends if it’s not in bad taste. Laughing makes you feel good, and seeing someone laugh makes others feel good. And we all need more of that in life.

From age 10 to age 20 I learned that I should live for the now.
I read a story once and can’t remember who wrote it but I will paraphrase. When I was a kid, I thought to myself that life will begin when I can drive. Then I got my driver’s license and thought that life would begin once I got out of high school. Then I graduated and thought that life will begin once I graduate from university and get a job that pays. Then I graduated and got a job that pays and thought life would really begin when I got married and moved out of my parents home. Then I got married and moved out of my parents home and thought life will really begin when I have bought my first home.. etc etc. So life for the now. Life will not start when you get to a certain place in your life. Life is NOW so live it NOW.

From age 20 to age 30 I learned that I should stay organized.
No one is perfect at keeping track of dates, but the best way you can do this is to get a PDA that synchs with your PC and enter every birthday, anniversary, child’s school recitals, plays, sporting events, etc. and use the repeating function where necessary. The tool is there so use it. When I first plugged in my anniversary to remind me 7 days before to buy my wife a gift it asked me for how many years should I repeat this reminder. I put in 100, because whoa is me the 21st year should I put in 20. Birthdays are important not only for family and close friends but for distant friends, customers, co-workers, etc. It only takes a moment to drop someone a note to say Happy Birthday. It will help ways too many to count but I will list a couple. a) you have a built in reason to stay in touch, b) you may just need that friend or their advice one day and depending on their profession, that may really be valuable, c) successs is measured by how many friends you have made, not how many dollars you have made.

From age 30 to age 40 I learned that I should pay attention.
It was in these years that I got married and discovered immediately that things that were not important to me were important to my wife. It was also in these years that I discovered that things that were not important to others (mostly politicians and corporations) were very important to me. If you don’t pay attention they raise your taxes on you. If you don’t pay attention you miss what your spouse is saying. If you don’t pay attention, you lose out on that funny comment your child might say that put’s a smile on your face. And finally, as per the OfficiallyScrewed.com slogan “You either pay attention or pay through the nose…I would rather pay attention.”

I’m sure I have learned many other things and I will think of them the second I submit this, but they will just have to wait.

May you all have a safe and prosperous 2009.

Ottawa Transit Strike – Mayor's Memo

Mulder

OS has acquired a copy of the memo from Mayor Larry O’Brien to the rest of City Council. And in reading this, it is quite clear that the Mayor is very much on the side of sanity. I have posted the whole memo below in pieces with commentary.

Earlier today I spoke to the media about the transit strike and I wanted to provide you with an update.

Scheduling is an important part of the discussions with the ATU and I wanted to clarify why we continue to stress how important management control of the schedule is for the future of OC Transpo.

The city’s offer includes wage increases of 3% for 2008 and 2% for 2009 and 2% for 2010. We also offered a productivity bonus of $2,000 per operator to share in the operating efficiencies that will come from changes to the scheduling.

So they have not only offered raises far in excess of the rate of inflation, but they have added $2000 bonus per operator. I was under the impression that the increase in wages amounted to about $2000. This means that the average driver earning $50,000 would be making $53,500 in his first year under the current offer. That’s no chump change!!!

Continuing…

Scheduling changes will also improve the operator’s quality of life; under the current union controlled scheduling system drivers could choose to work up to 22 hours in a 24 hour period without rest.

We do not fall under new federal hours of service legislation, which would prevent this from happening.

That’s why management wants the ability to set schedules that are safe for our drivers, our passengers and the general public.

In a 24-hour period, we want to see a minimum rest period of eight consecutive hours to ensure all drivers are well-rested and guarantee rest and recovery times at the end of each run.

That is why scheduling is so important and was the message that I communicated to the media today.

Unbelievable!! I don’t know about you, but the Mayor and others fighting the union clearly have our safety in mind. It is simply not acceptable that truck drivers have limitations on the number of hours they can drive in a 24 hour period when they are hauling cargo, yet Ottawa bus drivers are able to drive 22 hours in a 24 hour period carrying the most precious of cargo, human lives, and people are not as concerned. Bravo Mayor O’Brien for looking out after the citizens of Ottawa and the visitors who use our public transit to get around our great city.

Continuing…

We remain committed to achieving a negotiated settlement to the strike and our bargaining team is ready to listen to any proposals from the union leadership when they choose to return to the table

So there you have it. The embattled Mayor has it dead on correct with regards to this strike. We cannot let seniority supersede safety. Seniority has it’s place and will be respected under the offer from the city. It just should not be allowed to risk the safety of our ridership.

Shame On Ottawa City Council, Praise To Mayor Larry O'Brien

Mulder

I received this tonight in my email from two sources. It is that important to Ottawa residents to know which of their City Councilors care about reducing costs in an economic downturn, and which are supporting a tax increase to residents.

What happened last night?

In the morning we were able to identify an additional $1.211 Million in additional savings beyond those options proposed by staff. The Mayor had hoped that these options moved by council demonstrated a new movement to give appropriate scrutiny to the most important work that we as members of Council are charged to do all year.

Unfortunately some members around the table chose to take the easy way out and put forward an omnibus motion that raised taxes by 4.9% rather than give the options that were on the table a full debate.

Through the use of an omnibus motion that had the support of 15 Councillors the taxpayers of Ottawa will be burdened with a 4.9% tax increase regardless of the fact that there were millions of dollars available in spending options that they were not willing to debate.

What options were accepted to achieve the 4.9% increase?

Ironically the options that were approved were the bulk of options the Mayor spoke about on Friday.

They reduced the compensation budget to reflect changing trends in labour settlements. They adjusted fuel costs due to lower gas prices and they adopted the reductions proposed by the Police and Libraries.

Many of these options had been prepared through consultation with Bob Plamandon and staff. The options that were rejected were primarily those presented by staff and reductions in the capital budget for projects that could have been deferred.

We heard a lot about reductions to the arts, festivals and childcare were they touched?

This collation of Councillors protected arts and festival funding while agreeing to their 4.9% increase. Ottawa taxpayers will continue to subsidize the Provincial government share of childcare funding, completely letting them off the hook for short changing parents who need subsidized care.

What about rink grants and ice rentals?

The grants for rinks will go ahead with no changes to the accountability for ensuring that the money is spent in the rinks. The rental rates for sport fields, ice time, pools and community halls will increase as per staff’s recommendation but they rejected the increase to minor rentals.

Well some of this seems to be ok, didn’t the Mayor say he was against some of these cuts?

We never expected all of these options to be approved but we thought the taxpayers of Ottawa deserved to have them debated. During debate perhaps we could have found alternatives to lessen the impacts. Council had a duty to explore every option to reduce the impact on our taxpayers and they failed yesterday.

What can we do?

You need to contact you Councillor especially if they were one of those that chose to ignore the responsibility of office and take the easy way out.

Those Councillors who chose to burden the taxpayers with a 4.9% increase are:

Councillor Georges Bédard Ward 12 – Rideau-Vanier Tel: 613-580-2482 Fax: 613-580-2522 Georges.Bedard@ottawa.ca
Councillor Michel Bellemare Ward 11 – Beacon Hill-Cyrville Tel: 613-580-2481 Fax: 613-580-2521 Michel.Bellemare@ottawa.ca
Councillor Glenn Brooks Ward 21 Rideau-Goulbourn Tel: 613-580-2491 Fax: 613-580-2531 Glenn.Brooks@ottawa.ca
Councillor Rick Chiarelli Ward 8 – College Tel: 613-580-2478 Fax: 613-580-2518 Rick.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca
Councillor Alex Cullen Ward 7 – Bay Tel: 613-580-2477 Fax: 613-580-2517 Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca
Councillor Diane Deans Ward 10 – Gloucester-Southgate Tel: 613-580-2480 Fax: 613-580-2520 Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca
Councillor Clive Doucet Ward 17 – Capital Tel: 613-580-2487 Fax: 613-580-2527 Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca
Councillor Peggy Feltmate Ward 23 – Kanata South Tel: 613-580-2752 Fax: 613-580-2762 Peggy.Feltmate@ottawa.ca
Councillor Jan Harder Ward 3 – Barrhaven Tel: 613-580-2473 Fax: 613-580-2513 Jan.Harder@ottawa.ca
Councillor Diane Holmes Ward 14 – Somerset Tel: 613-580-2484 Fax: 613-580-2524 Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca
Councillor Peter Hume Ward 18 – Alta Vista Tel: 613-580-2488 Fax: 613-580-2528 Peter.Hume@ottawa.ca
Councillor Gord Hunter Ward 9 – Knoxdale-Merivale Tel: 613-580-2479 Fax: 613-580-2519 Gord.Hunter@ottawa.ca
Councillor Christine Leadman Ward 15 – Kitchissippi Tel: 613-580-2485 Fax: 613-580-2525 Kitchissippi@ottawa.ca
Councillor Jacques Legendre Ward 13 – Rideau-Rockcliffe Tel: 613-580-2483 Fax: 613-580-2523 Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca
Councillor Maria McRae Ward 16 – River Tel: 613-580-2486 Fax: 613-580-2526 Maria.Mcrae@ottawa.ca

Those councillors who chose to stand up for their constituents and debate the budget are:

Councillor Rainer Bloess Ward 2 – Innes Tel: 613-580-2472 Fax: 613-580-2512 Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca
Councillor Steve Desroches Ward 22 – Gloucester-South Nepean Tel: 613-580-2751 Fax: 613-580-2761 Steve.Desroches@ottawa.ca
Councillor Eli El-Chantiry Ward 5 – West Carleton-March Tel: 613-580-2475 Fax: 613-580-2515 Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca
Councillor Rob Jellett Ward 19 – Cumberland Tel: 613-580-2489 Fax: 613-580-2697 Rob.Jellett@ottawa.ca
Councillor Bob Monette Ward 1 – Orléans Tel: 613-580-2471 Fax: 613-580-2511 Bob.Monette@ottawa.ca
Councillor Shad QadriWard 6 Stittsville-Kanata West Tel: 613-580-2476 Fax: 613-580-2516 Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca
Councillor Doug Thompson Ward 20 – Osgoode Tel: 613-580-2490 Fax: 613-580-2530 Doug.Thompson@ottawa.ca
Councillor Marianne Wilkinson Ward 4 – Kanata North Tel: 613-580-2474 Fax: 613-580-2514 Marianne.Wilkinson@ottawa.ca

NEED A RIDE TO PARLIAMENT HILL and BACK FOR THE SATURDAY RALLY?

Mulder

If anyone is living in the west end of Ottawa and plans to attend the rally, but doesn’t want the hassle of driving downtown and finding and paying for a parking spot, there are up to 10 school buses going to Parliament Hill from Kanata on Saturday morning Dec 6. Just park your car for free at the Park N Ride, and take our Rally Shuttle, courtesy of the Carleton-Mississippi Mills Conservative Association.

Where: Eagleson Rd. Park N Ride (at Eagleson Rd. and the 417) in Kanata .

When: Buses leaving from 10:30 to 11:00 AM and returning to Kanata at approximately 2:00 PM

NOTE: Bus Capacity is limited to 480 and it is first come first served so arrive right at 10

Dion's Speech Had A Title

Mulder

I just thought I would point out that the title of Dion’s speech is in the top left corner of the screen on the top shelf behind him.

Dion Speech 1

In case that is too small for you, I zoomed in below.

Dion Speech 2

If it is STILL too hazy for you, it is a copy of the book titled Hot Air.

Someone in his image department needs to pay attention to these things.

Harper Playing Chess, Dion/Layton Playing Checkers

Mulder

A friend of mine told me he thinks while PM Stephen Harper is playing Chess, the opposition parties are playing Checkers.

Harper may have us all convinced he made a mistake to put the Political Party funding cut into the recent fall economic statement. But I am starting to think that the man knew that this would coalesce the opposition parties and that joining with separatists would destroy the Liberal and NDP support that comes from Canadians tired of giving in to Quebec.

I think while Harper is parrying and attacking and defending and thinking five moves ahead of everyone else, Dion is scrambling forward yelling “king me….king me”.

Say No To A Liberal/NDP Coalition And Tell the Governor General

Mulder

Now is the time to act.

Everyone needs to let the Governor General know they oppose the Liberal/NDP coalition government.

You can write the GG by emailing her at

info@gg.ca

You should address the email with the following

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A1

Reasons you can site are:

-The Liberals and NDP together have fewer seats than the Conservatives.
-Any coalition would need to be propped up by separatists
-Each and every confidence vote made under a coalition would only come with concessions to the Bloc further increasing the fiscal imbalance and angering non Quebecers.

I urge everyone to write her TODAY and ask your friends to do the same.

Flood her office.

Convention Blogging V – The Big Voting Day, National Council and My Trip Home

Mulder

Saturday started out with breakfast in the main ballroom. My friend running for National Council arrived at the ballroom 15 minutes early and asked if he could put some flyers out on the breakfast tables. He was told he could not. Yet when the doors opened at 8am, there were already advertisements for several of the other candidates on every table. So we split up and put 1 or 2 of his brochures out on each table as people rolled in for their repast.

After breakfast we were entertained with our financial situation by Irving and then got to watch the Maple Leaf awards get presented. Following that, 3 ridings were recognized for providing over $100,000 in financial assistance to other EDA’s. This gave me great pleasure as our Association made an effort and provided some assistance to three ridings as well. One of those was Egmont where Gale Shea won by 55 votes (which means we probably made a difference), and another was West Nova where we were glad to help throw Robert Thibeault out on his ear.

The late morning had us voting on all the constitutional changes which was televised on CPAC and is probably already out in the press should anyone want to know what changes were made.

Between 12 and 130 we were allowed to eat lunch and vote for national councillors. I arrived early and lined up to vote and the line up quickly formed and wound around and up the stairs back to the main ballroom level which had many of us thinking that some would surely not get in to vote in time or have time for lunch but the layout of the voting room was so well planned that the line outside the door was literally gone within 10 minutes. I must commend whomever planned the voting procedures because they were truly fantastic.

Lunch was lunch and it was off to the Policy Plenary session where we passed several apple pie resolutions. A few controversial ones came up, and there were a few linguistic challenges to overcome but they managed the situation very well. Having watched the NDP plenary a couple of years ago and seeing how they only got through a few motions, I was pleased to see that our party got through 30 in under 3 hours.

They then let us know who the national councillors were. The Ontario list was truly a great list. There were 9 people running and I can safely say that I was impressed with each and every one of them in some manner. The convention was then officially closed and it was off to dinner at Hy’s Steakhouse in the Richardson building where I was disappointed to see that they did not have any Fort Garry Dark!!

After dinner we made our way to the Campaign Research hospitality suite where I spoke to Richard Ciano and got to meet Nick Kouvalis. Blue Blogging Soapbox (blogger) told me Nick would be here and it was a pleasure to run into a fellow Greek conservative. At this suite I also got a chance to spend quite a bit of time to talk to Christian Conservative (blogger) and I also discovered another nice local beer called Two Rivers Lager. This was a really fresh tasting light lager that a non beer drinker would probably find quite nice.

After discovering I had lost my room key, I made my way downstairs where I got stuck in the hotel bar with my friends for a few more Fort Garry Darks. In the hotel bar, we ran into Tom Lukiwski. I congratulated him on his win and we found our seats. Gerry Ritz was nearby with a couple of friends so I went and congratulated him as well and let him know that several of our members watch him as we have a strong agricultural part of our riding and I let him know that I thought Mike Duffy was a bit over the edge with remarks in an interview with Mr. Ritz. Mike was talking about how U.S. protectionist measures albeit not taxes, were putting several small barriers up to trade and he said to Mr. Ritz: “It’s like a death of….” and then he caught himself and changed his wording. Apparently it was on the 5pm MDL, but edited out of the 8pm repeat.

Sunday was an early rise and our flight back was packed with people again. MP’s Stephen Fletcher, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenney were all on board, along with La Presse journalist Joel Denis Bellevance and numerous staffers.

Thus ends my journey to Winnipeg. The Convention experience was fantastic and with it being my first political one, I was quite impressed with how down to earth many of the MPs are and how approachable they are.

I did not mention all of them, but below is a list of MP’s/Senators whom I had the chance to meet while I was there.

Diane Ablonczy
Rona Ambrose
John Baird
Lois Brown
Patrick Brown
Rod Bruinooge
Lawrence Cannon
Michael Chong
Tony Clement
Dean Del Mastro
Barry Devolin
Jay Hill
Peter Kent
Tom Lukiwski
Rob Nicholson
Deepak Obhrai
Gordon O’Connor
Pierre Poilievre
Scott Reid
Chris Warkentin

Senator Marjory LeBreton
Senator Terry Stratton

Candidates (who lost)
Elie Salibi
Rob Zandee