The Mayoral Debate Goes Green

If you’re like me, you’re inherently skeptical of any voting that can’t be done via text message.  So when you heard there was a civic election coming up you thought to yourself, if I may borrow a phrase from fellow blogger Ryan, “What’s in it for me?”

Well, I did some research: you know how those guys come every week and take your garbage away?  That’s totally the city!  They made that happen.  Notice how the streets aren’t lined with refuse and fecal matter?  Them again.  And when was the last time you saw giant apes running amok?  Just saying.

Taking off my tinfoil hat for a moment, I looked into some of the issues.  The main one, as pertains to the environment, is energy.  We use it.  A lot.

            Right now most of it comes from coal, and some from nuclear.  Mary Poppins chimney sweeps aside, coal is actually very nasty for the planet.  Coal power plants contribute significantly to greenhouse gases (the stuff of cow farts) and are the main driver of global warming.  Chim Chim Cheroo.  And to the best of my knowledge, nuclear energy has never given anyone super powers, just radioactive waste that takes hundreds of thousands of years (yes, you read that correctly) to become inert.  This is a big deal. 

With this in mind, some clever folks have suggested that the City of Ottawa introduce an initiative to run all its municipal buildings on green energy.  As it happens, almost 80% of Ottawa’s citizens support this idea.  Further, Ottawa Hydro brings in about $10 million in excess revenue for the city –most of which is spent on spying on us in the shower.  But you didn’t hear that from me.

 So, we have the money.  We have the popular support.  We need to make sure the city stays focused on the environment and not our shower activities.  Especially Thursdays between 7 and 9 –that’s my time.   

Lucky for us, there’s a debate coming up where candidates will   fight to the death   discuss civilly their policies on the environment.  It takes place on Sunday, September 26^th at St. Paul’s University, and I will be there.  In spirit pants. 

You should be there too.  There’s nothing good on TV.  I checked.