Last week it seemed that the pulp world was bouncing back, a story from the Vancouver Sun had the pulp and paper industry looking forward to the immediate future, with higher prices and better profits forecast for the short term. A situation that one would have though would bode well for a start up of the dormant Watson Island pulp mill.
However, optimism it seems isn’t the case locally, in a front page story in today’s Daily News; the word out of Terrace about the closure in June of the Terrace Lumber Company is causing some serious ripples in Prince Rupert. The prospect of the sawmill remaining shut down is putting the restart plans for Watson Island into question as the owners from Sun Wave ponder the logistics of running a pulp mill without a stable and reliable supply of timber for the operation.
With the latest rescue plan, hopes that Sun Wave would purchase the saw mill seemingly being dashed, the owners in Terrace have gone a long way from the optimism at the time of the re-opening, to the state of closure that the mill sits under today.
The owners have now begun the lobbying for governmental relief to make the cost of running a sawmill more manageable in the Northwest. Without that relief from the government, some suggest that there is some serious doubt as to the viability of running the sawmill, a situation that could have a domino effect felt all the way to Prince Rupert.
The entire story is provided below.
SHUTDOWN MAY HURT MILL CLOSER TO HOME
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Page One
Any closure of the Terrace Lumber Company could potentially be a problem for restart plans of Sun Wave Forest Products’ Watson Island pulp mill, said Bill Belsey of Points North Consulting.
Belsey, who has been hired by Sun Wave to oversee the day-to-day operations of the mill while Sun Wave seeks start up financing, explained that the Terrace sawmill and its associated forest licence were taken into account by Sun Wave in its fibre supply plan.
“The sources of fibre that can be found in the area are generally decadent,” said Belsey, pointing to the high content of pulp in the timber profile.
“Historically, you need both a sawmill and pulp mill to make both industries feasible. When you lose one, it makes the difficult to run the other.”
The Terrace Lumber Company sawmill and Sun Wave ‘s Watson Island pulp mill have historically been owned by the same company – Skeena Cellulose up until 2001, and following that New Skeena Forest Products, although the company was never able to find start-up financing and went bankrupt.
Since then, the assets have been split apart, with the pulp mill and Carnaby land and forest licence purchased by Sun Wave Forest Products earlier this year, the Terrace – based sawmill purchased by a group of Terrace based business people back with a loan from the City of Terrace in the summer of 2005, and Tree Farm Licence one, the largest fibre holding of the company, sold to Coast Tsmishian, a company owned by the Lax Kw’alaams band, also in the summer of 2005.
However, in June, the Terrace Lumber Company closed down because of low lumber prices, the high Canadian dollar, the cost of the softwood lumber tariffs and the high cost of operating in the region.
They are hoping to find and investor to provide them with the equity to hold on until lumber markets improve and they can restart operations.
The mill in Terrace was employing 70 directly, not including contractors working in the woods.
“It (the potential closure) could have an impact on the pulp mill because part of our fibre supply took account of the sawmill and forest licence. How we overcome that would depend on if someone buys it and restarts it or whether other sources of fibre can be found in the general area,” he said. Sun Wave was approached to buy the sawmill, however those talks have not gone anywhere.
In an interview with the Daily News, John Ryan, chair of the TLC board of directors, said that the high cost of logging in the Northwest is definitely part of the problem.
Members of the forest industry have been pushing for the province to declare a special economic zone, which would allow the province to lower the cost of logs purchased by companies and deal with the geographical challenges facing forestry companies.
A lengthy list of reports stretching back to the 1980’s have recommended the province address the higher costs of logging in the Northwest.
“It’s something we have been pushing for some time. A lot of our pricing is done based on a market that’s not reflective of the area’s profile and then there’s the added cost to get the fibre to market,’ said Belsey.
And the low stumpage around the pine beetle killed wood is also affecting the area, he added.
Ryan noted the province has given areas affected by the pine beetle a special economic zone, but has yet to make that move in the Northwest.
“A special economic zone would be a huge benefit to the entire region,” said Belsey.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Bayonne Bleeder finally gets his due!
If you ever wondered who was the inspiration behind the Rocky movies, wonder no more. Chuck Wepner, a New Jersey club fighter who once battled with Muhammad Ali in 1975 has settled his law suit with Sylvester Stallone.
Wepner launched legal proceedings in 2003, claiming that he had never been properly compensated for his “inspiration” to the Rocky Franchise. It was a claim that Stallone and his lawyers fought for three years, before throwing in the towel (cheesy boxing reference!) last week.
While Wepner counts whatever financial bounty he received in the settlement, Stallone is keeping busy putting together the sixth Rocky film. “Rocky Balboa, is set for release in December.
Perhaps there’s a movie in all of this legal wrangling for Stallone once Rocky Balboa wraps production. Something like the final battle of Rocky Balboa!
Stallone settles Rocky lawsuit with ex-boxer
Associated Press
via the Globe and Mail
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Newark, N.J. — Chuck Wepner has ended his bid to get compensation from Sylvester Stallone for using him as the inspiration for his “Rocky” movies.
Lawyers for Wepner and Stallone filed notice in U.S. District Court last week that they have settled the 2003 lawsuit for undisclosed terms.
Wepner had maintained that although he was the inspiration for Stallone's Rocky Balboa character, the actor never made good on promises that he would get payment.
The former heavyweight boxer claimed Stallone improperly used his name to promote the “Rocky” films, while Stallone countered that Wepner had already benefited by making public appearances as “the real Rocky.”
Stallone has said that he was working on a screenplay about a fighter when he watched Wepner nearly go the distance with heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in 1975.
“What I saw was pretty extraordinary,” Stallone said during a 2001 interview that became part of a “Rocky” anniversary DVD. “I saw a man they call ‘the Bayonne Bleeder' who didn't have a chance at all against the greatest fighting machine supposedly that ever lived.”
“Rocky,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 1977, is the story of a down-and-out club fighter from Philadelphia who gets a long-shot chance at the heavyweight title. Stallone played Balboa, who trained at a meat-cutting plant and nearly dethroned the champ.
Stallone, 60, is now working on “Rocky Balboa,” the sixth film in the franchise, which is set for release Dec. 22.
Wepner, now 67, was a New Jersey club fighter who got his nickname from the damage he was prone to receive even while winning.
He was plucked from obscurity by promoter Don King, who offered him a title shot against reigning heavyweight champion George Foreman. But when Ali defeated Foreman, Wepner got the match with Ali. He knocked Ali to the canvas in the ninth round before losing by technical knockout 19 seconds before the final bell.
Wepner launched legal proceedings in 2003, claiming that he had never been properly compensated for his “inspiration” to the Rocky Franchise. It was a claim that Stallone and his lawyers fought for three years, before throwing in the towel (cheesy boxing reference!) last week.
While Wepner counts whatever financial bounty he received in the settlement, Stallone is keeping busy putting together the sixth Rocky film. “Rocky Balboa, is set for release in December.
Perhaps there’s a movie in all of this legal wrangling for Stallone once Rocky Balboa wraps production. Something like the final battle of Rocky Balboa!
Stallone settles Rocky lawsuit with ex-boxer
Associated Press
via the Globe and Mail
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Newark, N.J. — Chuck Wepner has ended his bid to get compensation from Sylvester Stallone for using him as the inspiration for his “Rocky” movies.
Lawyers for Wepner and Stallone filed notice in U.S. District Court last week that they have settled the 2003 lawsuit for undisclosed terms.
Wepner had maintained that although he was the inspiration for Stallone's Rocky Balboa character, the actor never made good on promises that he would get payment.
The former heavyweight boxer claimed Stallone improperly used his name to promote the “Rocky” films, while Stallone countered that Wepner had already benefited by making public appearances as “the real Rocky.”
Stallone has said that he was working on a screenplay about a fighter when he watched Wepner nearly go the distance with heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in 1975.
“What I saw was pretty extraordinary,” Stallone said during a 2001 interview that became part of a “Rocky” anniversary DVD. “I saw a man they call ‘the Bayonne Bleeder' who didn't have a chance at all against the greatest fighting machine supposedly that ever lived.”
“Rocky,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 1977, is the story of a down-and-out club fighter from Philadelphia who gets a long-shot chance at the heavyweight title. Stallone played Balboa, who trained at a meat-cutting plant and nearly dethroned the champ.
Stallone, 60, is now working on “Rocky Balboa,” the sixth film in the franchise, which is set for release Dec. 22.
Wepner, now 67, was a New Jersey club fighter who got his nickname from the damage he was prone to receive even while winning.
He was plucked from obscurity by promoter Don King, who offered him a title shot against reigning heavyweight champion George Foreman. But when Ali defeated Foreman, Wepner got the match with Ali. He knocked Ali to the canvas in the ninth round before losing by technical knockout 19 seconds before the final bell.
"I mean no disrespect, but it's isolated, there's nothing there and you have to go a long way to get there"
Ouch, geez somebody doesn't think too highly of us, no dis-respect intended! The above quote comes from a fellow named Michael Haverty, a railroad man with the Kansas City Southern. It comes as part of that story in the Wall Street Journal that I blogged about yesterday. It seems that Mr. Haverty is backing a different container port project in Mexico, so he of course felt the need to weigh in with his geographical expertise.
Those comments and much, much more can now be presented to our loyal Podunk readership, thanks to one of our fellow travelers on hackingthemainframe.
From our famous precipitation, to our wildlife to questions of distance, interest from container lines and the ever possible legal issues, all bases seemed to be covered well. The author of the piece suggests that the folks at Maher Terminals are the saviors of the project, with their plans for turning the port into a giant of Asian trade, he deals quite a bit with the projects importance to the New Jersey marine shipping company.
With increased competition from Panama and Mexico, it's a fairly in depth look at our project. Featuring observations from both those who think we're on the right track and others who suggest it's a bit of a fanciful dream we are weaving here in the northwest. The article tackles all the issues and provides a bit of a history lesson as well about the port and the city's development.
It perhaps is the most comprehensive look thus far at our Port project and all of the obstacles and opportunities that come with it. Read it below and check out just where the project stands in the minds of those closest to the world of container transportation.
Tiny British Columbia Port Aims To
Be New Venue for China Trade
By Daniel Machalaba
Wall Street Journal
August 8, 2006
PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia This mist-shrouded port boasts scenic beauty and an abundance of wildlife but a human population of a mere 13,000.
Now, thanks to soaring U.S.-China trade, Prince Rupert may have a very different future: as an important link in the transport chain that supplies DVD players, toys, clothes and other goods to the U.S. heartland.
Large container-ship ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., have seen surging volumes as the Asian trade has boomed. This has meant chronic congestion and pushed some cargo to smaller West Coast ports such as Vancouver, British Columbia. Now tiny Prince Rupert 500 miles to the remote north of Vancouver is making a play for a piece of that international trade. And the entry of a well-established U.S. port operator has given the project credibility.
He is M. Brian Maher, whose family-owned company operates the largest container terminal in the port of New York and New Jersey. By October of next year, Mr. Maher expects his giant cranes to be moving Asian goods onto trains at an upgraded Prince Rupert terminal for a 2,600-mile rail ride to the Midwest. He is gambling that big-box retailers and large global shipping companies, frustrated by backups at Southern California ports, will flock to his alternative route.
The project faces plenty of obstacles. A tribal group has filed a lawsuit contending the container-terminal plan violates aboriginal land rights. The city's small population means there will be almost no local demand for the arriving goods, nor local products to put on the ships for their return voyage to Asia. Workers are having to adapt their schedules to environmental concerns, such as holding off blasting when whales, sea otters or porpoises are sighted. And there is no guarantee that either the shipping companies or the big retailers will want goods sent via Prince Rupert.
Situating a container-ship operation at such an out-of-the way spot turns conventional wisdom about port-building on its head. The usual plan is to build ports next to major cities that generate great demand for cargo, and then to compete for freight bound for elsewhere as well. But more than 98 percent of goods imported through Prince Rupert will leave the area immediately on long train rides.
The Prince Rupert project is part of a wave of port development that attempts an end run around the most historically important Asian gateways farther south. Los Angeles and Long Beach handled more than 60 percent of containers that passed through West Coast ports in the U.S. and Canada last year. They are a magnet for cargo because they have a huge local market and abundant rail lines. Manufacturers and retailers have fed the growth by building vast distribution centers about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
But traffic has been seriously snarled three times in the past decade, including a 10-day shutdown in 2002 resulting from a stalemate in labor negotiations. The Southern California ports recently expanded capacity by keeping truck gates open at night and on weekends, and by adding more tracks, terminals and dockworkers. But "shippers have already been burned, and they know they can't just rely on established West Coast ports," Mr. Maher maintains. "They have to find alternative gateways."
Prince Rupert has lots of competition in the bid to provide alternatives. Voters in Panama will decide this fall whether to back a $5.5 billion widening of the Panama Canal to handle bigger ships carrying Asian goods to the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports. Houston is building a container terminal to serve Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. distribution centers. The largest container-ship company in the world, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group of Copenhagen, is building a new terminal in Norfolk, Va. New facilities are under way or planned in smaller ports in Mobile, Ala., Wilmington, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.
Kansas City Southern is pushing a Mexican port as the answer. The railroad has spent 10 years assembling a rail line linking the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas with Kansas City, and recently launched direct cargo trains over part of the 2,200-mile route. Giant terminal operator Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. of Hong Kong plans to build a new container terminal in Lazaro Cardenas by the end of next year.
Describing the Prince Rupert project, Kansas City Southern Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Haverty says: "I mean no disrespect, but it's isolated, there's nothing there and you have to go a long way to get there."
As for the shippers and retailers who will decide how much use to make of Prince Rupert, they express interest but aren't ready for commitments. "We need options to the existing West Coast ports and Panama Canal," says Peter Keller, an executive vice president of NYK Line (North America) Inc., a container-ship company. He says Prince Rupert has the water and the rail capacity, but will have to show it can compete on rates and service.
With a deep natural harbor, Prince Rupert has long been a port but not one that could handle container ships. Local authorities such as Don Krusel, president of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, sought to add container capacity and finally won provincial and Canadian national aid for the project. But skepticism remained strong until the port signed up a major terminal operator, Maher Terminals Inc. A terminal operator leases port facilities and provides the cranes that transfer containers from ships for transport over land by truck and train.
The idea of exploiting this isolated natural harbor for major movement of cargo dates all the way back to 1906, when railroad builder Charles Melville Hays had a vision of making it part of a shortcut from Asia to Europe. He proposed to load trains at Prince Rupert with silk arriving from China, speed the freight to Montreal by rail and load it back on ships that would traverse the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic. But six years later Mr. Hays died on the Titanic.
Prince Rupert developed modestly as a small hub for exporting bulky goods that weren't being put in standard metal containers. The Fairview Terminal at the mouth of the inner harbor loaded lumber into ships bound for Asia, while other docks handled grain and coal. But coal volume suffered as some mines closed. The port's cargo dwindled to under five million tons last year from about 14 million in 1994.
Nestled among the coastal mountains and islands of northern British Columbia and drenched by about 10 feet of precipitation annually, Prince Rupert stays lush and green. Its harbor at the end of a narrow inlet extends to an unusual depth of more than 100 feet. Lining the waterfront are old wooden piers, a rail yard, ferry terminals, fish-processing plants, and a few seafood restaurants.
Mr. Maher got interested in the area a few years ago at the suggestion of one of his executives. Mr. Maher, 59 years old, is the son of a onetime longshoreman who got into terminal operation in New Jersey after World War II. The area boomed as trade grew and cargo began moving in containers instead of cartons and other loose items. Maher Terminals, owned by Mr. Maher and his brother Basil, 54, now operates a 450-acre terminal in Elizabeth, N.J., next to the New Jersey Turnpike and Newark airport. Home to 26 container-ship lines, the huge facility handles 5,000 trucks a day.
Convinced the flood of Asian cargo would bring new cargo growth to the Pacific Coast, Mr. Maher looked for ways to expand but missed out on a chance to operate a container terminal in Tacoma, Wash. When one of his executives brought up the idea of developing Prince Rupert, Mr. Maher liked the idea, partly because the deep harbor could accommodate the biggest ships without dredging.
The British Columbia port also appeared to offer the shortest, fastest route from China to the U.S. Midwest, and it had an upgraded rail line with capacity to spare. To move a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Chicago via the Los Angeles or Long Beach docks takes about 22 days and costs about $3,500. Prince Rupert is 1,100 miles closer to Shanghai than Southern California, equal to about two days of travel time.
In addition, in contrast to rail freight from Southern California, once a container is loaded on a train in Prince Rupert, there are few local stops to slow it during its 2,600-mile trek over mountains and prairies to Chicago. While that route is longer than the land route from Los Angeles to Chicago, the rail-transit time might be about the same. "The only thing trains have to worry about is hitting a moose," says Mr. Krusel of the local port authority. He calculates that Asian freight passing through Prince Rupert should arrive in Chicago nearly two days sooner than if it had gone through the Southern California ports.
When Prince Rupert authorities who were pushing the container-ship project solicited proposals from terminal operators, Mr. Maher jumped in. Maher Terminals won a 30-year lease with an option to develop a larger operation later.
While the losing bidders meant to use Prince Rupert just for overflow, Mr. Maher believed the port could become a major cargo gateway for North America despite its remoteness. He agreed to spend $60 million initially on new cranes and equipment as part of transforming the old docks into a container terminal. Port officials now are drawing up plans for a massive second phase that would expand the terminal far more.
That project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, meaning that Maher Terminals' investment could ultimately run as high as $500 million. Mr. Maher argues that continuing rapid growth in cargo from the Far East to the U.S. rising about 10 percent a year means that ship lines will flock to Prince Rupert and other new terminals elsewhere.
While most port terminals have sprawling lanes for thousands of trucks, Prince Rupert because so little cargo will be used locally will have only one truck gate. The vast majority of containers will be loaded onto rail cars waiting in a big rail yard. Prince Rupert's deep, funnel-shaped harbor has tides that rise and fall 25 feet every 12 hours, so it will need cranes especially designed to adjust to the huge tidal swings.
To help fill containers for the return trip to Asia, Canadian National Railway Co., which runs the rail lines leaving Prince Rupert, plans to build new depots along a route from Memphis, Tenn., that will collect soybeans, cotton, paper and other exports.
Workers now are demolishing the old Fairview Terminal in the shadow of towering Mount Hays to make way for the first phase of the new port. Steel pilings 120 feet long will extend the pier into deeper water. Workers are laying the foundation for the huge cranes, scheduled to arrive next spring. They, too, are coming from China.
Mr. Maher still must overcome opposition from the Coast Tsimshian First Nations tribal group, whose members have longstanding land-title issues in the region and say they weren't sufficiently consulted about the project. "They are determined that this port won't operate until their issues are resolved," says Greg McDade, lawyer for the tribe. Port officials are confident the project won't be slowed or derailed.Although the dock will have union labor, some officials of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union express skepticism about port projects such as Prince Rupert, concerned that they may lessen the union's leverage when the current contracts expire in 2008. Current dockworkers in Prince Rupert, who belong to the Canadian chapter of the ILWU, continued to work during the 2002 labor battle.
As far as competition is concerned, the Prince Rupert project has a big jump on the Panama Canal expansion plan, which some say could take 10 years if approved. The Lazaro Cardenas project in Mexico has suffered from labor strife, such as the fatal shooting by police in April of two strikers at a nearby steel mill. Parts of the railroad connecting the Mexican port to the U.S. are circuitous and slow, using mostly a single set of tracks that forces trains to pull into sidings and wait for other trains to pass on heavily trafficked portions of the route. Meanwhile, the giant established ports in Southern California face the possibility of work stoppages when dockworkers' contracts expire.
Among the obstacles to be faced in Prince Rupert are the reluctance of some shipping lines to add new ports because of extra costs such as for piloting the ships. But after years in the New Jersey docks, wrestling with the complexities of operating a terminal amid congestion, union wrangling and local politics, Mr. Maher figures he is ready for just about anything at Prince Rupert.
Those comments and much, much more can now be presented to our loyal Podunk readership, thanks to one of our fellow travelers on hackingthemainframe.
From our famous precipitation, to our wildlife to questions of distance, interest from container lines and the ever possible legal issues, all bases seemed to be covered well. The author of the piece suggests that the folks at Maher Terminals are the saviors of the project, with their plans for turning the port into a giant of Asian trade, he deals quite a bit with the projects importance to the New Jersey marine shipping company.
With increased competition from Panama and Mexico, it's a fairly in depth look at our project. Featuring observations from both those who think we're on the right track and others who suggest it's a bit of a fanciful dream we are weaving here in the northwest. The article tackles all the issues and provides a bit of a history lesson as well about the port and the city's development.
It perhaps is the most comprehensive look thus far at our Port project and all of the obstacles and opportunities that come with it. Read it below and check out just where the project stands in the minds of those closest to the world of container transportation.
Tiny British Columbia Port Aims To
Be New Venue for China Trade
By Daniel Machalaba
Wall Street Journal
August 8, 2006
PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia This mist-shrouded port boasts scenic beauty and an abundance of wildlife but a human population of a mere 13,000.
Now, thanks to soaring U.S.-China trade, Prince Rupert may have a very different future: as an important link in the transport chain that supplies DVD players, toys, clothes and other goods to the U.S. heartland.
Large container-ship ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., have seen surging volumes as the Asian trade has boomed. This has meant chronic congestion and pushed some cargo to smaller West Coast ports such as Vancouver, British Columbia. Now tiny Prince Rupert 500 miles to the remote north of Vancouver is making a play for a piece of that international trade. And the entry of a well-established U.S. port operator has given the project credibility.
He is M. Brian Maher, whose family-owned company operates the largest container terminal in the port of New York and New Jersey. By October of next year, Mr. Maher expects his giant cranes to be moving Asian goods onto trains at an upgraded Prince Rupert terminal for a 2,600-mile rail ride to the Midwest. He is gambling that big-box retailers and large global shipping companies, frustrated by backups at Southern California ports, will flock to his alternative route.
The project faces plenty of obstacles. A tribal group has filed a lawsuit contending the container-terminal plan violates aboriginal land rights. The city's small population means there will be almost no local demand for the arriving goods, nor local products to put on the ships for their return voyage to Asia. Workers are having to adapt their schedules to environmental concerns, such as holding off blasting when whales, sea otters or porpoises are sighted. And there is no guarantee that either the shipping companies or the big retailers will want goods sent via Prince Rupert.
Situating a container-ship operation at such an out-of-the way spot turns conventional wisdom about port-building on its head. The usual plan is to build ports next to major cities that generate great demand for cargo, and then to compete for freight bound for elsewhere as well. But more than 98 percent of goods imported through Prince Rupert will leave the area immediately on long train rides.
The Prince Rupert project is part of a wave of port development that attempts an end run around the most historically important Asian gateways farther south. Los Angeles and Long Beach handled more than 60 percent of containers that passed through West Coast ports in the U.S. and Canada last year. They are a magnet for cargo because they have a huge local market and abundant rail lines. Manufacturers and retailers have fed the growth by building vast distribution centers about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
But traffic has been seriously snarled three times in the past decade, including a 10-day shutdown in 2002 resulting from a stalemate in labor negotiations. The Southern California ports recently expanded capacity by keeping truck gates open at night and on weekends, and by adding more tracks, terminals and dockworkers. But "shippers have already been burned, and they know they can't just rely on established West Coast ports," Mr. Maher maintains. "They have to find alternative gateways."
Prince Rupert has lots of competition in the bid to provide alternatives. Voters in Panama will decide this fall whether to back a $5.5 billion widening of the Panama Canal to handle bigger ships carrying Asian goods to the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports. Houston is building a container terminal to serve Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. distribution centers. The largest container-ship company in the world, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group of Copenhagen, is building a new terminal in Norfolk, Va. New facilities are under way or planned in smaller ports in Mobile, Ala., Wilmington, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.
Kansas City Southern is pushing a Mexican port as the answer. The railroad has spent 10 years assembling a rail line linking the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas with Kansas City, and recently launched direct cargo trains over part of the 2,200-mile route. Giant terminal operator Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. of Hong Kong plans to build a new container terminal in Lazaro Cardenas by the end of next year.
Describing the Prince Rupert project, Kansas City Southern Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Haverty says: "I mean no disrespect, but it's isolated, there's nothing there and you have to go a long way to get there."
As for the shippers and retailers who will decide how much use to make of Prince Rupert, they express interest but aren't ready for commitments. "We need options to the existing West Coast ports and Panama Canal," says Peter Keller, an executive vice president of NYK Line (North America) Inc., a container-ship company. He says Prince Rupert has the water and the rail capacity, but will have to show it can compete on rates and service.
With a deep natural harbor, Prince Rupert has long been a port but not one that could handle container ships. Local authorities such as Don Krusel, president of the Prince Rupert Port Authority, sought to add container capacity and finally won provincial and Canadian national aid for the project. But skepticism remained strong until the port signed up a major terminal operator, Maher Terminals Inc. A terminal operator leases port facilities and provides the cranes that transfer containers from ships for transport over land by truck and train.
The idea of exploiting this isolated natural harbor for major movement of cargo dates all the way back to 1906, when railroad builder Charles Melville Hays had a vision of making it part of a shortcut from Asia to Europe. He proposed to load trains at Prince Rupert with silk arriving from China, speed the freight to Montreal by rail and load it back on ships that would traverse the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic. But six years later Mr. Hays died on the Titanic.
Prince Rupert developed modestly as a small hub for exporting bulky goods that weren't being put in standard metal containers. The Fairview Terminal at the mouth of the inner harbor loaded lumber into ships bound for Asia, while other docks handled grain and coal. But coal volume suffered as some mines closed. The port's cargo dwindled to under five million tons last year from about 14 million in 1994.
Nestled among the coastal mountains and islands of northern British Columbia and drenched by about 10 feet of precipitation annually, Prince Rupert stays lush and green. Its harbor at the end of a narrow inlet extends to an unusual depth of more than 100 feet. Lining the waterfront are old wooden piers, a rail yard, ferry terminals, fish-processing plants, and a few seafood restaurants.
Mr. Maher got interested in the area a few years ago at the suggestion of one of his executives. Mr. Maher, 59 years old, is the son of a onetime longshoreman who got into terminal operation in New Jersey after World War II. The area boomed as trade grew and cargo began moving in containers instead of cartons and other loose items. Maher Terminals, owned by Mr. Maher and his brother Basil, 54, now operates a 450-acre terminal in Elizabeth, N.J., next to the New Jersey Turnpike and Newark airport. Home to 26 container-ship lines, the huge facility handles 5,000 trucks a day.
Convinced the flood of Asian cargo would bring new cargo growth to the Pacific Coast, Mr. Maher looked for ways to expand but missed out on a chance to operate a container terminal in Tacoma, Wash. When one of his executives brought up the idea of developing Prince Rupert, Mr. Maher liked the idea, partly because the deep harbor could accommodate the biggest ships without dredging.
The British Columbia port also appeared to offer the shortest, fastest route from China to the U.S. Midwest, and it had an upgraded rail line with capacity to spare. To move a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Chicago via the Los Angeles or Long Beach docks takes about 22 days and costs about $3,500. Prince Rupert is 1,100 miles closer to Shanghai than Southern California, equal to about two days of travel time.
In addition, in contrast to rail freight from Southern California, once a container is loaded on a train in Prince Rupert, there are few local stops to slow it during its 2,600-mile trek over mountains and prairies to Chicago. While that route is longer than the land route from Los Angeles to Chicago, the rail-transit time might be about the same. "The only thing trains have to worry about is hitting a moose," says Mr. Krusel of the local port authority. He calculates that Asian freight passing through Prince Rupert should arrive in Chicago nearly two days sooner than if it had gone through the Southern California ports.
When Prince Rupert authorities who were pushing the container-ship project solicited proposals from terminal operators, Mr. Maher jumped in. Maher Terminals won a 30-year lease with an option to develop a larger operation later.
While the losing bidders meant to use Prince Rupert just for overflow, Mr. Maher believed the port could become a major cargo gateway for North America despite its remoteness. He agreed to spend $60 million initially on new cranes and equipment as part of transforming the old docks into a container terminal. Port officials now are drawing up plans for a massive second phase that would expand the terminal far more.
That project could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, meaning that Maher Terminals' investment could ultimately run as high as $500 million. Mr. Maher argues that continuing rapid growth in cargo from the Far East to the U.S. rising about 10 percent a year means that ship lines will flock to Prince Rupert and other new terminals elsewhere.
While most port terminals have sprawling lanes for thousands of trucks, Prince Rupert because so little cargo will be used locally will have only one truck gate. The vast majority of containers will be loaded onto rail cars waiting in a big rail yard. Prince Rupert's deep, funnel-shaped harbor has tides that rise and fall 25 feet every 12 hours, so it will need cranes especially designed to adjust to the huge tidal swings.
To help fill containers for the return trip to Asia, Canadian National Railway Co., which runs the rail lines leaving Prince Rupert, plans to build new depots along a route from Memphis, Tenn., that will collect soybeans, cotton, paper and other exports.
Workers now are demolishing the old Fairview Terminal in the shadow of towering Mount Hays to make way for the first phase of the new port. Steel pilings 120 feet long will extend the pier into deeper water. Workers are laying the foundation for the huge cranes, scheduled to arrive next spring. They, too, are coming from China.
Mr. Maher still must overcome opposition from the Coast Tsimshian First Nations tribal group, whose members have longstanding land-title issues in the region and say they weren't sufficiently consulted about the project. "They are determined that this port won't operate until their issues are resolved," says Greg McDade, lawyer for the tribe. Port officials are confident the project won't be slowed or derailed.Although the dock will have union labor, some officials of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union express skepticism about port projects such as Prince Rupert, concerned that they may lessen the union's leverage when the current contracts expire in 2008. Current dockworkers in Prince Rupert, who belong to the Canadian chapter of the ILWU, continued to work during the 2002 labor battle.
As far as competition is concerned, the Prince Rupert project has a big jump on the Panama Canal expansion plan, which some say could take 10 years if approved. The Lazaro Cardenas project in Mexico has suffered from labor strife, such as the fatal shooting by police in April of two strikers at a nearby steel mill. Parts of the railroad connecting the Mexican port to the U.S. are circuitous and slow, using mostly a single set of tracks that forces trains to pull into sidings and wait for other trains to pass on heavily trafficked portions of the route. Meanwhile, the giant established ports in Southern California face the possibility of work stoppages when dockworkers' contracts expire.
Among the obstacles to be faced in Prince Rupert are the reluctance of some shipping lines to add new ports because of extra costs such as for piloting the ships. But after years in the New Jersey docks, wrestling with the complexities of operating a terminal amid congestion, union wrangling and local politics, Mr. Maher figures he is ready for just about anything at Prince Rupert.
If we can make it there, we can make it anywhere!
Our little burg has been discovered by the Wall Street Journal!
My little Google news alert service tipped me to the news that the Financial paper of record in America had decided to do a little story on Prince Rupert and it's big plans for attracting Asian growth.
Of course, it being the Wall Street Journal it's all about capitalism, so we're supposed to pay to read the story. If anyone out there has a subscription to the Journal's on line service, then the story is waiting there for you, all 2,131 words of financial wisdom.
Those with time on their hands can try any number of search engines trying to find a back door entry to the Journal story. Sometimes you get lucky if you use Google, Alta Vista, Yahoo or some other service to seek out the story title. But so far, it's a story out of reach for your faithful Podunkian servant.
For those of us too poor to have a Journal subscription, it's down to Eddies or over to the Library to see what the big money players think of our port, our plans and our future.
My little Google news alert service tipped me to the news that the Financial paper of record in America had decided to do a little story on Prince Rupert and it's big plans for attracting Asian growth.
Of course, it being the Wall Street Journal it's all about capitalism, so we're supposed to pay to read the story. If anyone out there has a subscription to the Journal's on line service, then the story is waiting there for you, all 2,131 words of financial wisdom.
Those with time on their hands can try any number of search engines trying to find a back door entry to the Journal story. Sometimes you get lucky if you use Google, Alta Vista, Yahoo or some other service to seek out the story title. But so far, it's a story out of reach for your faithful Podunkian servant.
For those of us too poor to have a Journal subscription, it's down to Eddies or over to the Library to see what the big money players think of our port, our plans and our future.
The Raid is rescheduled
I'm still not too sure what this was going to be all about, but for now it doesn't matter I guess.
When it was first announced it was described as some kind of Surivivor thing coming to our part of the world to test the endurance of those foohardy enought to play with mother nature.
In the end, it seems it wasn't the ravages of nature that would slow them down, but that age old problem money. Reading between the lines of their press release it seems that they didn't have all their financial ducks in a row in time to put the show on for September 3rd as scheduled.
The Raid the North extravaganza, has been rescheduled until 2007.
Everybody hold their disappointment please! We can wonder anew what it was all about sometime next year!
When it was first announced it was described as some kind of Surivivor thing coming to our part of the world to test the endurance of those foohardy enought to play with mother nature.
In the end, it seems it wasn't the ravages of nature that would slow them down, but that age old problem money. Reading between the lines of their press release it seems that they didn't have all their financial ducks in a row in time to put the show on for September 3rd as scheduled.
The Raid the North extravaganza, has been rescheduled until 2007.
Everybody hold their disappointment please! We can wonder anew what it was all about sometime next year!
Monday, August 07, 2006
Google recommends....
Google is branching out, no longer just the search engine of all search engines, it has been busy working on ways of becoming your one stop gateway to the world wide web.
Now if you'll take their advice, they'll even tell you what neighbourhoods to stay out of while you wander through that world wide web.
Google has launched a service designed to keep you and your computer from visiting those bad, bad sites that might lead you down the road of computer ruin.
The on screen warnings pop up if you are searching out sites that may provide spy-ware or malicious codes. A pop up will appear telling you that Google recommends you not go down that path, but if you wish they shan't stop you from tempting the fates of the computer Gods.
Of course net observors will be watching Google carefully, just to be sure that they don't use their good intentions for evil purposes eh, surely it would be a nasty search engine provider that scared you away from another competing service!
In the past few years there have been some grumblings around the internet about the Google empire's plans for net domination, so no doubt they'll have more than a few eyes and filters keeping them on the straight and narrow.
For now though, they're like that good buddy of yours, always willing to offer you the advice that perhaps you have had one too many, or should think twice about doing something that just may not be in your best interests.
They're no doubt hoping that later on you'll remember that you owe them one!
Now if you'll take their advice, they'll even tell you what neighbourhoods to stay out of while you wander through that world wide web.
Google has launched a service designed to keep you and your computer from visiting those bad, bad sites that might lead you down the road of computer ruin.
The on screen warnings pop up if you are searching out sites that may provide spy-ware or malicious codes. A pop up will appear telling you that Google recommends you not go down that path, but if you wish they shan't stop you from tempting the fates of the computer Gods.
Of course net observors will be watching Google carefully, just to be sure that they don't use their good intentions for evil purposes eh, surely it would be a nasty search engine provider that scared you away from another competing service!
In the past few years there have been some grumblings around the internet about the Google empire's plans for net domination, so no doubt they'll have more than a few eyes and filters keeping them on the straight and narrow.
For now though, they're like that good buddy of yours, always willing to offer you the advice that perhaps you have had one too many, or should think twice about doing something that just may not be in your best interests.
They're no doubt hoping that later on you'll remember that you owe them one!
Miller's satirical cynicism to find a home again this time on Fox!
He's coming back! After an enforced absence from the cable and satellite airwaves, Dennis Miller is plotting his return to television. Miller who last entertained the less than multitudes on CNBC, is making another return to Cable News, this time as part of the Fox Family of neo-comms.
Reports have it that Miller will join up with the Hannity and Colmes program this September, to offer his thesauriastic view of the days events. Miller's last program on CNBC was terminated due to low ratings, perhaps an unfair fate since the ratings of CNBC aren't the thing of a juggernaut at the best of time. Then again, if I remember his CNBC days, the show was at times a rather painful thing to watch as Miller and his producers struggled to find the right tone and method to deliver his in your face style of political commentary.
Miller had arrived at CNBC after a strange two years cooped up in the Monday Night Football booth, where he dispensed his thinking man's observations to the football mad sports fanatics, a combination that didn't exactly work out as ABC had planned.
Since those days he's appeared on the occasional HBO special in the USA, but alas the appearances on Canadian cable or satellite providers have been few and far between.
It will be interesting to see how Miller works his shtick into the Fox stream of info, but it should be a pretty seamless marriage of styles considering the timbre of his comments over the last three or four years.
All that's left to know is if the much lamented CNBC monkey will follow him along to Fox. The caustic bombast will begin September 13.
Reports have it that Miller will join up with the Hannity and Colmes program this September, to offer his thesauriastic view of the days events. Miller's last program on CNBC was terminated due to low ratings, perhaps an unfair fate since the ratings of CNBC aren't the thing of a juggernaut at the best of time. Then again, if I remember his CNBC days, the show was at times a rather painful thing to watch as Miller and his producers struggled to find the right tone and method to deliver his in your face style of political commentary.
Miller had arrived at CNBC after a strange two years cooped up in the Monday Night Football booth, where he dispensed his thinking man's observations to the football mad sports fanatics, a combination that didn't exactly work out as ABC had planned.
Since those days he's appeared on the occasional HBO special in the USA, but alas the appearances on Canadian cable or satellite providers have been few and far between.
It will be interesting to see how Miller works his shtick into the Fox stream of info, but it should be a pretty seamless marriage of styles considering the timbre of his comments over the last three or four years.
All that's left to know is if the much lamented CNBC monkey will follow him along to Fox. The caustic bombast will begin September 13.
Time to fill up your tank?
Gasoline prices never seem to need much of a reason to spike upwards, long weekends, vacation traveling, a spin of that mighty Big Oil roulette wheel (red seven, jack it up sevens cent guys), it all seems to contribute to the mysterious nature of the up and down (well ok, mostly up) pricing of gas.
But that being said, this, is probably not a good omen for those looking for relief at the pumps.
But that being said, this, is probably not a good omen for those looking for relief at the pumps.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Highway 16 Shopping village, still more speculation than substance!
The Daily News provided something of a pulp version of a Seinfeld episode in its Friday edition, a story pretty well much about nothing.
The latest is that nothing is really happening yet at the proposed Shopping Mecca on the highway, well nothing in the form of a construction phase at any rate.
Instead the project is more akin to a game of Monopoly at the moment, as the developers at Royop have been busy buying up more and more land, ready to expand the shopping destination to come.
Buying land, working on a revision to their website and denying rumours, so far that’s the extent of things on the Highway. The denial phase came with a bit of mystery on their website regarding that always soon to come here chain Canadian Tire. The project developers felt the need to deny the participation of the chain in the project so far, the Daily following things up with an interview with a Canadian Tire official who said they haven’t any tangible plans to come to Rupert yet.
The project still apparently is on track, as far as development goes, just not anything of a visual nature to excite the locals about the soon to come bounty of shopping and eating options.
The article did however leave the reader with visions of a fast food bounty to come, dancing off the pages.
Full details are provided below, be sure to wipe your face after your meal!
SPECULATION RIFE AS MALL PROJECT GROWS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, August 4, 2006
Page One
Despite information posted on Royop’s web site, the development company cannot yet confirm that Canadian Tire will be one of the retailers in the new shopping village development on Highway 16.
“I really can’t say>” said Melvin Foht, vice president of development for the Royop Corporation. “That web page, sometimes marketing guys get a little enthusiastic and jump the gun so I really can’t comment on what’s on that web page.”
The Royop web page had posted information on the 16-acre development, including a 4.6 acre site for Canadian Tire.
However, Foht explained that information is no longer current because the company has acquired an additional nine acres of land and is in the process of redesigning the now 25 acre development.
“A lot of people are interested in what’s happening and not happening on the site,” he said.
”One of the reasons it’s not moving forward this summer is we originally acquired 16 acres and we are expanding that to the full 25 acres where B. C. Hydro’s building is now,” he said.
“By doing that, we have to apply for land use on the additional nine acres, we have to do a new traffic study which is underway and we have to look at the whole development in light of it being 25 acres, not 16 acres. That’s causing us to go through the process again.”
Royop will have to appear again before council for rezoning on the nine acres, something they hope to do before the end of the year.
“We are keeping the mayor and staff informed,” he said.
The development is expected to include large national retailers as well as smaller shops.
“Prince Rupert is a place we identified a few years ago as somewhere we’d like to do some business in or develop in and we still feel that way,” he said.
Despite having retailers in both Smithers and Terrace, Canadian Tire wouldn’t confirm its interest in the new development in Prince Rupert.
Were Canadian Tire to establish itself here, Canadian Tire corporate headquarters would likely buy the land and build the facility and then find a dealer to operate the store, said a Canadian Tire spokesperson.
“At this time, we have no confirmed plans to open a store,” said Maeve Burke. “It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t, but right now we aren’t. Until everything is final, we wouldn’t want to get people’s hopes up.”
Royop is marketing Prince Rupert as the location of B. C.’s second container port.
“This container port is set to bring in workers from all over Canada and add to Prince Rupert’s economy. This is a great opportunity for retailers and restaurants due to Prince Rupert’s forecast for high growth.” Read the company’s web site.
Since the announcement of the construction of the Fairview Container Terminal, a number of national chains have begun advertising for franchise opportunities in the community. These have included Quizno’s, A & W and Dairy Queen. Even KFC, when it ‘kicked the bucket’ locally in 2004, said it was looking at opening one of its combination franchises of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut in the future.
The latest is that nothing is really happening yet at the proposed Shopping Mecca on the highway, well nothing in the form of a construction phase at any rate.
Instead the project is more akin to a game of Monopoly at the moment, as the developers at Royop have been busy buying up more and more land, ready to expand the shopping destination to come.
Buying land, working on a revision to their website and denying rumours, so far that’s the extent of things on the Highway. The denial phase came with a bit of mystery on their website regarding that always soon to come here chain Canadian Tire. The project developers felt the need to deny the participation of the chain in the project so far, the Daily following things up with an interview with a Canadian Tire official who said they haven’t any tangible plans to come to Rupert yet.
The project still apparently is on track, as far as development goes, just not anything of a visual nature to excite the locals about the soon to come bounty of shopping and eating options.
The article did however leave the reader with visions of a fast food bounty to come, dancing off the pages.
Full details are provided below, be sure to wipe your face after your meal!
SPECULATION RIFE AS MALL PROJECT GROWS
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, August 4, 2006
Page One
Despite information posted on Royop’s web site, the development company cannot yet confirm that Canadian Tire will be one of the retailers in the new shopping village development on Highway 16.
“I really can’t say>” said Melvin Foht, vice president of development for the Royop Corporation. “That web page, sometimes marketing guys get a little enthusiastic and jump the gun so I really can’t comment on what’s on that web page.”
The Royop web page had posted information on the 16-acre development, including a 4.6 acre site for Canadian Tire.
However, Foht explained that information is no longer current because the company has acquired an additional nine acres of land and is in the process of redesigning the now 25 acre development.
“A lot of people are interested in what’s happening and not happening on the site,” he said.
”One of the reasons it’s not moving forward this summer is we originally acquired 16 acres and we are expanding that to the full 25 acres where B. C. Hydro’s building is now,” he said.
“By doing that, we have to apply for land use on the additional nine acres, we have to do a new traffic study which is underway and we have to look at the whole development in light of it being 25 acres, not 16 acres. That’s causing us to go through the process again.”
Royop will have to appear again before council for rezoning on the nine acres, something they hope to do before the end of the year.
“We are keeping the mayor and staff informed,” he said.
The development is expected to include large national retailers as well as smaller shops.
“Prince Rupert is a place we identified a few years ago as somewhere we’d like to do some business in or develop in and we still feel that way,” he said.
Despite having retailers in both Smithers and Terrace, Canadian Tire wouldn’t confirm its interest in the new development in Prince Rupert.
Were Canadian Tire to establish itself here, Canadian Tire corporate headquarters would likely buy the land and build the facility and then find a dealer to operate the store, said a Canadian Tire spokesperson.
“At this time, we have no confirmed plans to open a store,” said Maeve Burke. “It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t, but right now we aren’t. Until everything is final, we wouldn’t want to get people’s hopes up.”
Royop is marketing Prince Rupert as the location of B. C.’s second container port.
“This container port is set to bring in workers from all over Canada and add to Prince Rupert’s economy. This is a great opportunity for retailers and restaurants due to Prince Rupert’s forecast for high growth.” Read the company’s web site.
Since the announcement of the construction of the Fairview Container Terminal, a number of national chains have begun advertising for franchise opportunities in the community. These have included Quizno’s, A & W and Dairy Queen. Even KFC, when it ‘kicked the bucket’ locally in 2004, said it was looking at opening one of its combination franchises of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut in the future.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
"As long as Cheney doesn’t get him arrested, fine, let him have it.”
The above quote, is from John Dean's (yes he of Watergate fame) new book. A ghost from the past returning to haunt the walkers of the White House halls today.
Dean is interviewed as part of Eleanor Clift's contribution to MSNBC's website, an online segment from her politics column in Newsweek magazine.
The topic of the day; Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney's fingerprints.
The basic content of the article (which you can read here) is that the current Iraqi mess is basically the creation of the Vice-President, who has been noticeably absent these last few weeks as things take a much more violent turn in the Middle East, from Iraq, through Afghanistan and into Lebanon.
With the best that the administration is able to come up with being nothing but a holding pattern policy, Clift takes aim at the VP and lets Dean explain how "the Vice-Presidency has swallowed the President."
Dean has written a book, that is sure to be must get on many Democrat's book club lists this year (maybe a few nervous Republicans too!). "Conservatives Without Conscience" explores the Cheney influence on the war in Iraq and the sense of fear that seems to be colouring the spectrum of American politics these days.
Clifts' article is a barbed filled look at the declining years of the Bush administration, an interesting retrospective of mistakes made, changing dynamics at the White House and lack of focus at times to the details of governance.
It also ends with a rather pointed comparison between the former employer of Mr. Dean and the current subjects of his new book. Something that won't sit well with the President as he does some light summer vacation reading at the ranch in Crawford.
In the meantime, anyone seen Dick?
Dean is interviewed as part of Eleanor Clift's contribution to MSNBC's website, an online segment from her politics column in Newsweek magazine.
The topic of the day; Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney's fingerprints.
The basic content of the article (which you can read here) is that the current Iraqi mess is basically the creation of the Vice-President, who has been noticeably absent these last few weeks as things take a much more violent turn in the Middle East, from Iraq, through Afghanistan and into Lebanon.
With the best that the administration is able to come up with being nothing but a holding pattern policy, Clift takes aim at the VP and lets Dean explain how "the Vice-Presidency has swallowed the President."
Dean has written a book, that is sure to be must get on many Democrat's book club lists this year (maybe a few nervous Republicans too!). "Conservatives Without Conscience" explores the Cheney influence on the war in Iraq and the sense of fear that seems to be colouring the spectrum of American politics these days.
Clifts' article is a barbed filled look at the declining years of the Bush administration, an interesting retrospective of mistakes made, changing dynamics at the White House and lack of focus at times to the details of governance.
It also ends with a rather pointed comparison between the former employer of Mr. Dean and the current subjects of his new book. Something that won't sit well with the President as he does some light summer vacation reading at the ranch in Crawford.
In the meantime, anyone seen Dick?
Down east, it’s careful where you sit no more!
Here’s a trend one hopes catches on in the rest of the country, that of the sanitary roadside washroom. The folks in the Maritimes and New England are making your travel break a less worrisome adventure with some homey touches to the salle de bain dans la rue.
I’ve been in some pretty toxic dumps in my travels over the years, most recently in Alberta where things were so bad in one particular gas station washroom, that I did my best to hold off til I found another location. Trust me this was no easy feat, but none the less a decidedly necessary approach, such was the state of distress that this can had. This place had the aesthetic feel and toxicity of Three Mile Island at zero hour.
It’s nice to know that somewhere out there, somebody is thinking of us lonely travelers and our need to answer natures call from time to time.
So with a long weekend upon us once again, may you find safe trails and clean rest rooms, just like they have from the Miramachi to Cape Breton Island.
Gas stations deal their customers a royal flush
SHAWNA RICHER
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
SACKVILLE, N.B. — As Canadians hit the highways and byways this holiday weekend and over the dwindling days of summer, one unavoidable and unpleasant routine will inconvenience and unite all.
A stop at the gas-station restroom.
But for those travelling through the Maritimes and New England, going on the road is now a little more like going at home.
It has been two years since Irving Oil Ltd. of Saint John launched the Really, Really Clean Washrooms campaign that promised its restrooms would be scrubbed at an obsessive-compulsive pace “every 30 minutes.”
But something else is going on in those washrooms, something with a folksy East Coast feel. Irving gas-station operators are quietly getting their Martha Stewart on.
Most of the company's 800 gas-stop restrooms are individually decorated with fresh flowers, tasteful knick-knacks and country kitsch. There are houseplants and magazine racks, duck decoys and hand-painted stools, small tables and antique pieces. In the women's restrooms, the walls sport garden motifs of sunflowers and roses; the men's restrooms feature fish and ducks. Some feature original paintings by local artists.
None of these decorative touches would be out of place in a nice restaurant or hotel. But they surprise in a gas bar. Customer comment cards from restrooms in Miramichi, N.B., Oxford, N.S., and Bar Harbor, Me., to name just a few, tell the tale:
“You have such nice bathrooms! Pleasant, fragrant, clean and decorated!”
“The cleanest public washroom I have ever used. And the prettiest! 5 out of 5!”
“I've never seen a gas station restroom with antiques! Wow!”
“Who doesn't want a nice restroom?” asks Marlene Crossman, store manager of the Irving Mainway gas station in Sackville. “The added touches make it homey and comforting, an added bonus when you're travelling. Rather than feeling just ‘hospital clean,' they feel personal and relaxing. It's been fabulous for business. It's what we're known for now.”
Everyone who has ever made a car trip has reluctantly procured the grimy key on a wooden stick from a gas jockey, hovered carefully over the toilet seat and sighed with relief if there was paper on the roll. Everyone has seen a service-station washroom so filthy it made the ditch look inviting.
“Gas station bathrooms are the lowest of the low. Most of the ones I've seen are disgusting,” said Jon Thompson of Minneapolis, curator of a slick website devoted to the subject (www.restroomratings.com).
“But I give higher ratings to restrooms that take aesthetics into account. The ones that make you feel as if you were in your own home are more than just a system for going to the toilet. I've never been in an Irving bathroom, but they sound nice.”
Mike Crosby, head of marketing in the United States and Canada for Irving Oil, said the company has encouraged its store operators to do whatever it takes to make customers feel at home in the washroom.
“People need a nice place to stop,” he explained. “We want our people to put out fresh flowers and plants and pictures on the walls. We want you to feel like you're using the bathroom at home, not in a gas station that's gross and dirty.”
Years ago, when Mr. Crosby was starting out with the company, Arthur Irving, son of billionaire industrialist K. C. Irving, advised him to never underestimate the importance of the gas-station restroom. “Everyone has to go to the washroom,” Mr. Irving said wisely.
“It was great advice and I've never forgotten it,” Mr. Crosby said. “If I'm using the bathroom on the road, I'll pick up paper towels off the floor and wipe down the sink myself. I like seeing how the different stores decorate.”
It might make sense that Irving, which also produces toilet paper in its pulp-and-paper division, has a feel for bathrooms.
“If I bought a station tomorrow, the first thing I'd do is put up a huge sign saying: ‘Cleanest Bathrooms of Any Gas Station Anywhere,' ” wrote retail anthropologist Paco Underhill in Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. “Gas is gas, and prices are fairly uniform, too.
But clean bathrooms would draw female drivers, who make more use of facilities and so have more bitter complaints about horrible, filthy conditions.”
Kim Miers agrees. In the women's restroom at the Irving station she manages in Oxford, she has painted the walls a pretty blue and put up candle holders and flowered borders. In the men's, a duck decor prevails. Never satisfied, she plans to redecorate in the fall.
“I look forward to visiting other Irving bathrooms,” she added. “They're so homey and warm. I think this is really unique to Atlantic Canada.”
Some of the nicer pieces do go missing at times, said Ms. Crossman in Sackville. But it hasn't deterred her from making the effort.
“It's a university town, so the signs are particularly hot items,” she noted “But it doesn't stop us from putting out nicer decor. Customers always know we're thinking of them.”
Tell us about your favourite and least favourite roadside pitstops encountered while travelling.
I’ve been in some pretty toxic dumps in my travels over the years, most recently in Alberta where things were so bad in one particular gas station washroom, that I did my best to hold off til I found another location. Trust me this was no easy feat, but none the less a decidedly necessary approach, such was the state of distress that this can had. This place had the aesthetic feel and toxicity of Three Mile Island at zero hour.
It’s nice to know that somewhere out there, somebody is thinking of us lonely travelers and our need to answer natures call from time to time.
So with a long weekend upon us once again, may you find safe trails and clean rest rooms, just like they have from the Miramachi to Cape Breton Island.
Gas stations deal their customers a royal flush
SHAWNA RICHER
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
SACKVILLE, N.B. — As Canadians hit the highways and byways this holiday weekend and over the dwindling days of summer, one unavoidable and unpleasant routine will inconvenience and unite all.
A stop at the gas-station restroom.
But for those travelling through the Maritimes and New England, going on the road is now a little more like going at home.
It has been two years since Irving Oil Ltd. of Saint John launched the Really, Really Clean Washrooms campaign that promised its restrooms would be scrubbed at an obsessive-compulsive pace “every 30 minutes.”
But something else is going on in those washrooms, something with a folksy East Coast feel. Irving gas-station operators are quietly getting their Martha Stewart on.
Most of the company's 800 gas-stop restrooms are individually decorated with fresh flowers, tasteful knick-knacks and country kitsch. There are houseplants and magazine racks, duck decoys and hand-painted stools, small tables and antique pieces. In the women's restrooms, the walls sport garden motifs of sunflowers and roses; the men's restrooms feature fish and ducks. Some feature original paintings by local artists.
None of these decorative touches would be out of place in a nice restaurant or hotel. But they surprise in a gas bar. Customer comment cards from restrooms in Miramichi, N.B., Oxford, N.S., and Bar Harbor, Me., to name just a few, tell the tale:
“You have such nice bathrooms! Pleasant, fragrant, clean and decorated!”
“The cleanest public washroom I have ever used. And the prettiest! 5 out of 5!”
“I've never seen a gas station restroom with antiques! Wow!”
“Who doesn't want a nice restroom?” asks Marlene Crossman, store manager of the Irving Mainway gas station in Sackville. “The added touches make it homey and comforting, an added bonus when you're travelling. Rather than feeling just ‘hospital clean,' they feel personal and relaxing. It's been fabulous for business. It's what we're known for now.”
Everyone who has ever made a car trip has reluctantly procured the grimy key on a wooden stick from a gas jockey, hovered carefully over the toilet seat and sighed with relief if there was paper on the roll. Everyone has seen a service-station washroom so filthy it made the ditch look inviting.
“Gas station bathrooms are the lowest of the low. Most of the ones I've seen are disgusting,” said Jon Thompson of Minneapolis, curator of a slick website devoted to the subject (www.restroomratings.com).
“But I give higher ratings to restrooms that take aesthetics into account. The ones that make you feel as if you were in your own home are more than just a system for going to the toilet. I've never been in an Irving bathroom, but they sound nice.”
Mike Crosby, head of marketing in the United States and Canada for Irving Oil, said the company has encouraged its store operators to do whatever it takes to make customers feel at home in the washroom.
“People need a nice place to stop,” he explained. “We want our people to put out fresh flowers and plants and pictures on the walls. We want you to feel like you're using the bathroom at home, not in a gas station that's gross and dirty.”
Years ago, when Mr. Crosby was starting out with the company, Arthur Irving, son of billionaire industrialist K. C. Irving, advised him to never underestimate the importance of the gas-station restroom. “Everyone has to go to the washroom,” Mr. Irving said wisely.
“It was great advice and I've never forgotten it,” Mr. Crosby said. “If I'm using the bathroom on the road, I'll pick up paper towels off the floor and wipe down the sink myself. I like seeing how the different stores decorate.”
It might make sense that Irving, which also produces toilet paper in its pulp-and-paper division, has a feel for bathrooms.
“If I bought a station tomorrow, the first thing I'd do is put up a huge sign saying: ‘Cleanest Bathrooms of Any Gas Station Anywhere,' ” wrote retail anthropologist Paco Underhill in Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. “Gas is gas, and prices are fairly uniform, too.
But clean bathrooms would draw female drivers, who make more use of facilities and so have more bitter complaints about horrible, filthy conditions.”
Kim Miers agrees. In the women's restroom at the Irving station she manages in Oxford, she has painted the walls a pretty blue and put up candle holders and flowered borders. In the men's, a duck decor prevails. Never satisfied, she plans to redecorate in the fall.
“I look forward to visiting other Irving bathrooms,” she added. “They're so homey and warm. I think this is really unique to Atlantic Canada.”
Some of the nicer pieces do go missing at times, said Ms. Crossman in Sackville. But it hasn't deterred her from making the effort.
“It's a university town, so the signs are particularly hot items,” she noted “But it doesn't stop us from putting out nicer decor. Customers always know we're thinking of them.”
Tell us about your favourite and least favourite roadside pitstops encountered while travelling.
Friday, August 04, 2006
A long over due achievement and a most deserved honour
Warren Moon goes into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio this weekend. It’s an event anticipated by many for more than just its significance about his remarkable record as a quarterback in professional football.
It’s highlighted as proof that one of the last barriers is finally tumbling down in American society, a black man, is finally to get his due recognition as a member of that All American of sporting icons, the quarterback.
Moon becomes the first black quarterback to be so enshrined in that hall of recognition in Canton. More indicative of a mind set in the USA through the sixties, seventies and eighties (and maybe even the nineties) than in any lack of capable young men who may have possibly been there before him. Surely there were many more talented young black quarterbacks who were more than up to the challenge of an NFL offence, but gave up on their dream or got sidetracked along the way. Many chose a different path, that of the league above the 49th, going on to star and change our game over the last forty to fifty years.
Moon’s journey to Canton took him from the streets of Los Angeles, to a rather uncomfortable but necessary stay at the University of Washington. Through the CFL and some spectacular successes with Edmonton and then onto the big game itself, the NFL with many stops in Houston, Minnesota, Seattle and Kansas City.
He began his travels down the quarterback trail at the U of W, a school that many had warned him, that indicative of the times, might be a tad redneck and one that should be avoided.
However, it was the only school that was willing to let him play at the position he wanted to, quarterback, so Moon became a Huskie and started that long trek to Canton. His days at the University of Washington culminated in 1978 and a Rose Bowl appearance and victory. The championship capped by his being named MVP. A pretty spectacular ending to the University game and one that should have made the scouts sit up and take notice. Turns out they didn’t.
After his University days came to a close, that age old problem came back to haunt yet another talented quarterback, the NFL apparently not quite ready to accept change, tried to change Moon from a quarterback to a positional player. That wasn’t his dream, nor his plan so other arrangements would just have to be made.
Instead, he headed north to Edmonton, the third stringer on a team featuring the amazing Tom Wilkinson and the equally competitive Bruce Lemmerman. He sat at times, he watched, he learned and he waited. For his first two years he shared the duties with the dominant Eskie QB’s, learning the intricacies of the Canadian game. His chance to run his own show would come in 1980, seizing the reins of an Eskimo squad and making the position his for the next three years.
His name became that of legend in the CFL as his Eskimos became one of the leagues enduring dynasties during his time in the Alberta capital. By the time he moved on to the NFL in 1984, Moon had five consecutive Grey Cup rings (1978-82) to his name and was able to write his own ticket into that exclusive club of NFL QB’s.
Moon joined the troubled Houston Oilers and their new head coach Hugh Campbell (his former head coach in Edmonton) and immediately began to change that team’s football fortunes, his ten years in Oiler Blue brought post season games to Houston fans in all but three.
He continued his magic in Minnesota for three seasons, moving on back to the scene of college days with a two year tour with the Seahawks. He ended his career in Kansas City, where it seems a year away from the game in 1999, seemed to take its toll on his body, as he finished off his time in the NFL in 2000.
Moon was denied that one jewel of the NFL that all aspire to, that of a Super Bowl Championship (and accompanying ring), many talk of 1993 and the remarkable comeback of the Bills to deny the Oilers their shot at NFL glory. Perhaps it could be his biggest disappointment, but if so, he’s never wallowed in it, never used it as an excuse. Much like you never heard him complain about the talent he was surrounded with in some of his stops. Some of those Oilier, Viking and Seahawk teams weren’t very good, not very protective of a quarterback, nor sure of hand or fleet of foot.
Still Moon’s talent can’t be denied, check the CFL history pages or leaf through the pages of the NFL bible and you’ll find Warren Moon listed often and prominently.
Two numbers out of all of his remarkable statistics loom large for any aspiring Quarterback, they are 70,553 and 435. His combined yards from both the CFL and NFL total that 70,553, his touchdown passes from both leagues 435. They are numbers which will forever mark the true test of his talents and stand as a testimony to his impact on both leagues.
Saturday he joins Bud Grant as one of only two enshrined in the Canton Hall, that have had a similar honour bestowed upon them in Canada at our Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Moon joined the Canadian ranks in 2001, it’s nice to see the Americans catch up!
Canadians long ago realized what a competitor Moon was, how he could change a game with one pass, lead a team to victory by sheer will. Canton is lucky to have him join their hallowed halls this Saturday, much like Canada was lucky to have him prowl our fields in those amazing days of Eskimo football.
Moon by the numbers
Carrying the label of the first black QB to go to the Hall
The trail blazer
Reflections on a career
Moon looks back at his Canadian start
CFL recollections
The Class of 2006
The above post first appeared on my Twelve Men n the Field blog, for more items about the CFL check it out!
A Room or two with a view!
We tip our hat to those intrepid young investigators who browse the web pages at hackingthemainframe, their eagle eyes and fast clicking fingers have solved at least one conversation topic for Prince Rumour.
A good natured debate over an apparent development off of Prudhomme Lake has been going on for a few days now. With some folks claiming that the idea of a project there is pie in the sky stuff, while others suggest that it’s more developed than just yet another Podunk rumour.
Today, posted on the website portal, is the actual developer’s website for the new development called Prudhomme Lake Estates, just outside of both Prince Rupert and Port Edward.
There' a bit more fire than smoke now we guess, so join those of us looking for a quiet little get away from all that ails the world.
Just one click can let you explore the views, learn of our cities and international airport (guess we had best get an international flight in here soon one of these days eh!), be part of the excitement of our retail and recreational amenities currently under construction.
Prudhomme Lake Estates where you can fish for five different species of salmon (providing the Great Northern Fishing Classic doesn’t scoop them all up before you take title).
Don’t be left out of the chance to get in on the ground floor of the latest in waterfront estates.
Get Clicking!
A good natured debate over an apparent development off of Prudhomme Lake has been going on for a few days now. With some folks claiming that the idea of a project there is pie in the sky stuff, while others suggest that it’s more developed than just yet another Podunk rumour.
Today, posted on the website portal, is the actual developer’s website for the new development called Prudhomme Lake Estates, just outside of both Prince Rupert and Port Edward.
There' a bit more fire than smoke now we guess, so join those of us looking for a quiet little get away from all that ails the world.
Just one click can let you explore the views, learn of our cities and international airport (guess we had best get an international flight in here soon one of these days eh!), be part of the excitement of our retail and recreational amenities currently under construction.
Prudhomme Lake Estates where you can fish for five different species of salmon (providing the Great Northern Fishing Classic doesn’t scoop them all up before you take title).
Don’t be left out of the chance to get in on the ground floor of the latest in waterfront estates.
Get Clicking!
Point/Counter Point: The Daily Goes to War
Thursday’s edition of the Daily News featured two front page stories about the ongoing conflict in Lebanon. The first a Big Bold Headline feature stating that Canada was urged to continue its Israel support. The front page story featured an in depth article with the consul general of Israel, Ya’acov Brosh.
As every good reporter knows, there are always two and some times many more sides to every story , but with a seeming lack of Hezbollah representatives in the Northwest, the paper called up the MP for the riding Nathan Cullen to provide the counter point, we guess, to the days war reports.
Below, join us as the Daily pulls on its foreign correspondent trench coat and provides both articles from Thursday’s paper, for your comparative study.
CANADA URGED TO CONTINUE ITS ISRAEL SUPPORT
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Pages One and Three
Canada’s support of Israel in that country’s war against the Lebanon-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah coincides with Canadian values, says Ya’acov Brosh, Israel’s consul general.
“We are very much encouraged by the position of Canada… I honestly believe what they do is protect Canadian values and Canadian ideologies,” Brosh told the Daily News.
“Regrettably, and we aren’t mentioning names of states, some countries that have the same values and carry the same liberal ideologies – they speak about freedom and believe in human rights and fighting terrorists and dictatorships – those countries – sometimes forget their ideologies and criticize Israel.
“We are very grateful for the strong position of Canada for human rights, for democracy and for fighting terrorism and violence.”
Opposition members are currently trying to force the government to recall parliament and demand a ceasefire in the war, claiming that Canada has taken sides in the conflict and undermined the country’s capacity to act as a peace broker.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen has said the country should not support either side because “both sides usually have blood on their hands.”
“To speak in slogans is easy, I don’t understand what he means about blood on the Israeli hands,” said Brosh in response. ”I can ask him if supporting or saying a terrorist organization that believes in the total destruction of the other side … is really a Canadian value.
“But this is maybe something for the Canadian people and voters to answer to the NDP members. I don’t think that the Canadian people believe this is Canadian values.”
Even in the most tragic example of Qana, where 54 people including many women and children were killed, the blood was not on the hands of Israel, he said.
“The citizens were warned two days before the attack that Israel was going to retaliate because 150 rockets were launched in the last week from Qana against Israeli civilians,” said Brosh.
“After two days of spreading flyers and sending messages, Israel had to retaliate because we had to stop the launching of rockets from these villages against our neighbourhoods.
“But the Hezbollah deliberately attack civilians and hid themselves behind the skirts of women and the diapers of babies … this is a terrible tragedy, but the blood is on the hands and on the conscience of Hezbollah, if they have any conscience.”
Much of the opposition criticism directed toward the government position is centered on the idea that Canada should remain neutral, however the consul general stresses that Canada is neutral. The criticism also flies in the face of history as Canada spoke against Britain, France and Israel for moving against Egypt in the 1956 Suez crisis. Canada not only brokered the peace after that but foreign affairs minister Lester Pearson won the Nobel peace prize for it.
“In all due respect, Canada is neutral, Canada is on this side of the ocean and their soldiers are not involved in fighting,” said Brosh. “Canada is neutral, and they are expressing its opinions... according to Canadian values. I think Israeli values are very similar to Canadian values – respect for democracy, the value of human rights and human lives, rights of women … multiculturalism and respect for civil rights.
This is a direct contrast to the values of Hezbollah who commit the murder of civilians, advocate the creation of an absolutist Islamic state and pose not only a threat to Israel but to the entire Western World, he said.
“I think you just have to open your eyes and ears and listen to what the leaders of Hezbollah say,” he said.
“We don’t have to analyze here, just listen. The leaders of Hezbollah speak clearly and openly about the destruction of Israel to ashes. They speak openly and clearly about the fact that Israel has no right to exist.”
“I think most reasonable people understand what’s going on.”
And while Hezbollah is being financed – to the tune of $150 million a year – and trained by Syria and Iraq, they ultimately are operating in Lebanon. In fact, targets in Lebanon were chosen because it is through places like the Beirut airport and seaside ports that the terrorist group is picking up the weapons they use to kill Israeli civilians, said the consul general.
“The government of Lebanon for six years refused repeated demands from the UN security council, from many countries in the world, to dismantle Hezbollah,” said Brosh. “Some people claimed they were too weak, but there is a solution for a government that is too weak and has a terrorist organization operating in their land.
“They could have approached the international community ... but they didn’t do it, they just refused.”
After repeated attacks by militants and numerous kidnappings of Israeli citizens since the country withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, the offensive is a result of the July 12 Hezbollah attack that the consul general calls “the straw breaking the camel’s back.”
“We don’t want to live anymore, for our citizens to live, under the threat of Hezbollah terrorist missiles and rockets,’ he said. “We didn’t attack them, we don’t attack them, we don’t want to attack we don’t want to have a situation where we must defend ourselves. We want it stopped.
“We wish that this war will be over as soon as possible and that this will be over as soon as possible and that this will be the last one. That is genuinely what every Israeli will tell you.”
CULLEN AND NDP CALL FOR CEASEFIRE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Page One
Prime Minister Stephen Harper must call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East or recall Parliament for an emergency debate on the issue, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said.
“Harper can’t continue to follow the Bush administration and ignore how the majority of Canadians want their government to act,” he said.
A poll earlier this week by the Strategic Counsel showed nearly 50 per cent of all Canadians disagree with Harper’s support of Israel and close to 80 per cent said Canada should be neutral in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Harper came in and changed a long-standing position of Canadian neutrality in the Middle East and has now switched over to a pro-Israeli side to the point of insensitivity,” said Cullen.
“When a Canadian working at a United Nations (UN) observer station was killed, our Prime Minister criticized the UN for even being there at all, and said it was their fault for having been blown up bay an Israeli bomb.”
Cullen said the NDP wants to see a multi-national UN force step in and create a buffer between the two sides. How Canada could participate remains to be seen, he said, given that all the country’s military forces are tied up in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan until 2009.
“It seems like we have put all of our eggs into the basket in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, stretching our resources to such a point where many of our military officials are saying you don’t have the resources to go anywhere else,” he said. “It’s disabled Canada’s chance of responding to situations anywhere else in the world.”
And bringing about an end to the conflict is going to require the backing of the U. S., he said.
“One call from the White House is what causes a ceasefire to happen,” he said.
“Israel could not do what it’s doing without the permission of and support of the Bush administration.”
If Israel isn’t attack, Cullen said Hezbollah loses all of its public support for attacking back.
A United Nations force could then cut off Hezbollah’s supply for years,” he said.
“We know countries like Syria have been supplying Hezbollah for years,” he said.
He added that routing out Hezbollah cannot be done through bombing campaigns.
“Part of the problem is that Lebanon is not a normal country by country definitions. It is not all run by its federal government. Hezbollah runs the social and health and a lot of different things in the south. That has to be taken out toot and branch,” he said. “You can’t just drop a bomb on a house and take out Hezbollah. It has to be a much more complete action.
While the NDP have asked for the Conservatives to recall Parliament in order to debate the situation. Cullen said it’s unlikely to happen, given that the Conservatives ignored calls by the Liberals, Bloc and NDP for a recall over the softwood lumber agreement.
He said the Liberals have yet to take a firm position on the current conflict as they are too wrapped up in their leadership race.
As every good reporter knows, there are always two and some times many more sides to every story , but with a seeming lack of Hezbollah representatives in the Northwest, the paper called up the MP for the riding Nathan Cullen to provide the counter point, we guess, to the days war reports.
Below, join us as the Daily pulls on its foreign correspondent trench coat and provides both articles from Thursday’s paper, for your comparative study.
CANADA URGED TO CONTINUE ITS ISRAEL SUPPORT
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Pages One and Three
Canada’s support of Israel in that country’s war against the Lebanon-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah coincides with Canadian values, says Ya’acov Brosh, Israel’s consul general.
“We are very much encouraged by the position of Canada… I honestly believe what they do is protect Canadian values and Canadian ideologies,” Brosh told the Daily News.
“Regrettably, and we aren’t mentioning names of states, some countries that have the same values and carry the same liberal ideologies – they speak about freedom and believe in human rights and fighting terrorists and dictatorships – those countries – sometimes forget their ideologies and criticize Israel.
“We are very grateful for the strong position of Canada for human rights, for democracy and for fighting terrorism and violence.”
Opposition members are currently trying to force the government to recall parliament and demand a ceasefire in the war, claiming that Canada has taken sides in the conflict and undermined the country’s capacity to act as a peace broker.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen has said the country should not support either side because “both sides usually have blood on their hands.”
“To speak in slogans is easy, I don’t understand what he means about blood on the Israeli hands,” said Brosh in response. ”I can ask him if supporting or saying a terrorist organization that believes in the total destruction of the other side … is really a Canadian value.
“But this is maybe something for the Canadian people and voters to answer to the NDP members. I don’t think that the Canadian people believe this is Canadian values.”
Even in the most tragic example of Qana, where 54 people including many women and children were killed, the blood was not on the hands of Israel, he said.
“The citizens were warned two days before the attack that Israel was going to retaliate because 150 rockets were launched in the last week from Qana against Israeli civilians,” said Brosh.
“After two days of spreading flyers and sending messages, Israel had to retaliate because we had to stop the launching of rockets from these villages against our neighbourhoods.
“But the Hezbollah deliberately attack civilians and hid themselves behind the skirts of women and the diapers of babies … this is a terrible tragedy, but the blood is on the hands and on the conscience of Hezbollah, if they have any conscience.”
Much of the opposition criticism directed toward the government position is centered on the idea that Canada should remain neutral, however the consul general stresses that Canada is neutral. The criticism also flies in the face of history as Canada spoke against Britain, France and Israel for moving against Egypt in the 1956 Suez crisis. Canada not only brokered the peace after that but foreign affairs minister Lester Pearson won the Nobel peace prize for it.
“In all due respect, Canada is neutral, Canada is on this side of the ocean and their soldiers are not involved in fighting,” said Brosh. “Canada is neutral, and they are expressing its opinions... according to Canadian values. I think Israeli values are very similar to Canadian values – respect for democracy, the value of human rights and human lives, rights of women … multiculturalism and respect for civil rights.
This is a direct contrast to the values of Hezbollah who commit the murder of civilians, advocate the creation of an absolutist Islamic state and pose not only a threat to Israel but to the entire Western World, he said.
“I think you just have to open your eyes and ears and listen to what the leaders of Hezbollah say,” he said.
“We don’t have to analyze here, just listen. The leaders of Hezbollah speak clearly and openly about the destruction of Israel to ashes. They speak openly and clearly about the fact that Israel has no right to exist.”
“I think most reasonable people understand what’s going on.”
And while Hezbollah is being financed – to the tune of $150 million a year – and trained by Syria and Iraq, they ultimately are operating in Lebanon. In fact, targets in Lebanon were chosen because it is through places like the Beirut airport and seaside ports that the terrorist group is picking up the weapons they use to kill Israeli civilians, said the consul general.
“The government of Lebanon for six years refused repeated demands from the UN security council, from many countries in the world, to dismantle Hezbollah,” said Brosh. “Some people claimed they were too weak, but there is a solution for a government that is too weak and has a terrorist organization operating in their land.
“They could have approached the international community ... but they didn’t do it, they just refused.”
After repeated attacks by militants and numerous kidnappings of Israeli citizens since the country withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, the offensive is a result of the July 12 Hezbollah attack that the consul general calls “the straw breaking the camel’s back.”
“We don’t want to live anymore, for our citizens to live, under the threat of Hezbollah terrorist missiles and rockets,’ he said. “We didn’t attack them, we don’t attack them, we don’t want to attack we don’t want to have a situation where we must defend ourselves. We want it stopped.
“We wish that this war will be over as soon as possible and that this will be over as soon as possible and that this will be the last one. That is genuinely what every Israeli will tell you.”
CULLEN AND NDP CALL FOR CEASEFIRE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Page One
Prime Minister Stephen Harper must call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East or recall Parliament for an emergency debate on the issue, Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said.
“Harper can’t continue to follow the Bush administration and ignore how the majority of Canadians want their government to act,” he said.
A poll earlier this week by the Strategic Counsel showed nearly 50 per cent of all Canadians disagree with Harper’s support of Israel and close to 80 per cent said Canada should be neutral in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Harper came in and changed a long-standing position of Canadian neutrality in the Middle East and has now switched over to a pro-Israeli side to the point of insensitivity,” said Cullen.
“When a Canadian working at a United Nations (UN) observer station was killed, our Prime Minister criticized the UN for even being there at all, and said it was their fault for having been blown up bay an Israeli bomb.”
Cullen said the NDP wants to see a multi-national UN force step in and create a buffer between the two sides. How Canada could participate remains to be seen, he said, given that all the country’s military forces are tied up in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan until 2009.
“It seems like we have put all of our eggs into the basket in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, stretching our resources to such a point where many of our military officials are saying you don’t have the resources to go anywhere else,” he said. “It’s disabled Canada’s chance of responding to situations anywhere else in the world.”
And bringing about an end to the conflict is going to require the backing of the U. S., he said.
“One call from the White House is what causes a ceasefire to happen,” he said.
“Israel could not do what it’s doing without the permission of and support of the Bush administration.”
If Israel isn’t attack, Cullen said Hezbollah loses all of its public support for attacking back.
A United Nations force could then cut off Hezbollah’s supply for years,” he said.
“We know countries like Syria have been supplying Hezbollah for years,” he said.
He added that routing out Hezbollah cannot be done through bombing campaigns.
“Part of the problem is that Lebanon is not a normal country by country definitions. It is not all run by its federal government. Hezbollah runs the social and health and a lot of different things in the south. That has to be taken out toot and branch,” he said. “You can’t just drop a bomb on a house and take out Hezbollah. It has to be a much more complete action.
While the NDP have asked for the Conservatives to recall Parliament in order to debate the situation. Cullen said it’s unlikely to happen, given that the Conservatives ignored calls by the Liberals, Bloc and NDP for a recall over the softwood lumber agreement.
He said the Liberals have yet to take a firm position on the current conflict as they are too wrapped up in their leadership race.
Making the zebras, look more like, uh, zebras!
It's not an CFL story, but considering the sympatico between the two leagues at times, no doubt it may one day become a CFL issue.
At any rate, the NFL's referees are getting a fashion make over, the leagues officiating staff will be wearing new duds this NFL season, a style and design that certainly makes them look more like zebras than they already do.
Apparently stripes can change your visual image, so one wonders how many NFL referees will go home after the game and ask "do I look fat to you"?
The Globe and Mail had the AP story in today's edition.
The above story first appeared on my football blog Twelve Men on the Field, check it out for more items about the CFL.
Think you spend too much time on the net?
The survey a few days ago suggested that many Canadians, spend too much time tethered to their computers, avoiding relatives and friends in pursuit of their computerized passion. Household chores can go undone, relationships (if there was one) can suffer and we could have a tendency to wonder what the bright object in the sky every day might be.
But you know, most of us have a long way to go before we reach the passion for typing away at our computers that Simon Pulsifer has.
Below is a profile from the Globe and Mail (net version here) on Canada’s King of Wikipedia contributors.
Prolific Canadian is king of Wikipedia
With more than 80,000 articles under his belt, Ottawa man is the on-line resource's busiest contributor
ALEXANDRA SHIMO
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Simon Pulsifer has never really blended in with the crowd. In kindergarten, he began building elaborate, fantastical buildings out of Lego, already bored by the construction plans on the back of the box.
In Grade 8, he, attired as Stalin, and other friends re-enacted the Yalta conference on the balcony of a friend's house. In university, he became the Trivial Pursuit champion at his college, and even won when the whole residence took him on.
Today Mr. Pulsifer, 24, is known internationally as the world's most prolific author on the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, with 78,000 entries edited and 2,000 to 3,000 new articles to his name. He can't remember the exact number.
"I'm always doing something for Wikipedia, even when I'm not writing entries," he said from his home in Ottawa. "I'm always planning and thinking about how I can make the site better."
Simon Pulsifer, Wikipedia’s top author, displays in Ottawa this week an article he wrote on the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. (Bill Grimshaw/The Globe and Mail)
Mr. Pulsifer, who is considered a walking encyclopedia among friends and family, graduated with honours with a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Toronto in 2004. While studying for his degree, he found the time to devote up to six hours a day researching and writing Wikipedia articles.
Upon graduation, the Ottawa resident took a year off to devote eight to 10 hours a day adding new entries to the site.
Mr. Pulsifer has always been a very curious person and a voracious reader, said his mother, Diana Pepall, a librarian.
The self-professed nerd does not enjoy playing sports or have any other hobbies, he told The Globe with a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm not paid for the work I do for Wikipedia. It doesn't matter to me that I do it on a voluntary basis. I enjoy it. It's important that people around the world have access to free, accurate and unbiased information. Wikipedia tries to do that, and it's a very honourable and admirable goal."
Since February, he has been working full-time managing the computer systems for Ottawa mayoral candidate Alex Munter, but still spends three to four hours a day updating the site.
"It's an addiction," said Mr. Pulsifer, who describes himself as anything but self-indulgent in other aspects of his life. He lives at home and doesn't have a girlfriend.
"You write an article and you think you've made it as good as it can be and then you put it out there for everyone to see and edit. And within just a few minutes, you have started a dialogue over how best to represent a subject. It's very exciting because my reputation is on the line."
Among the Wikipedia community, who call themselves Wikipedians, Mr. Pulsifer is held up as the gold standard -- the international benchmark against which they measure themselves, said Wayne Saewyc, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation.
"Whenever someone starts bragging about what they have done on the site, someone will go, well, how do you compare to Simon? We tend to organize by languages, rather than by location, and the Wikipedia community stretches right across the English-speaking world.
"People know about Simon worldwide."
Mr. Pulsifer's thousands of articles cover a broad variety of topics, including Canadian and U.S. history, international and Canadian politics, economics and current affairs. He has written featured articles, those profiled on Wikipedia's opening page, on the military history of Canada, the Italian Renaissance, the Marshall Plan, the economy of Africa, the history of Central Asia, among others.
At present, he has devoted himself to widening the scope of the site to include more entries on Africa, a continent that is underrepresented on the site, he said.
His most prized article was on the African kingdom Makuria -- which existed in the Middle Ages in what is now Sudan -- that was extremely difficult to research because so few people know anything about the place. He did not write the entries on Wikipediholism and editcountitis, although he acknowledges he might be afflicted with both.
For their labours, Wikipedians do not receive much credit from the outside world.
Articles are not signed, although users can easily access the history of the entry and see who made which edits.
Some Wikipedians prefer to keep their identities hidden and do not use their real names on the site. Mr. Pulsifer, for example, goes by SimonP. This username is to protect his identity from the abuse that can come from editing the site.
"There are a number of crazy people who edit Wikipedia and become very angry if any entry disagrees with their point of view. There are horror stories about people getting death threats, and although I have been insulted, it has never happened to me. Some people call us Wikigeeks. But I wouldn't consider it an insult anyway, more of an apt description."
But you know, most of us have a long way to go before we reach the passion for typing away at our computers that Simon Pulsifer has.
Below is a profile from the Globe and Mail (net version here) on Canada’s King of Wikipedia contributors.
Prolific Canadian is king of Wikipedia
With more than 80,000 articles under his belt, Ottawa man is the on-line resource's busiest contributor
ALEXANDRA SHIMO
From Friday's Globe and Mail
Simon Pulsifer has never really blended in with the crowd. In kindergarten, he began building elaborate, fantastical buildings out of Lego, already bored by the construction plans on the back of the box.
In Grade 8, he, attired as Stalin, and other friends re-enacted the Yalta conference on the balcony of a friend's house. In university, he became the Trivial Pursuit champion at his college, and even won when the whole residence took him on.
Today Mr. Pulsifer, 24, is known internationally as the world's most prolific author on the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, with 78,000 entries edited and 2,000 to 3,000 new articles to his name. He can't remember the exact number.
"I'm always doing something for Wikipedia, even when I'm not writing entries," he said from his home in Ottawa. "I'm always planning and thinking about how I can make the site better."
Simon Pulsifer, Wikipedia’s top author, displays in Ottawa this week an article he wrote on the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. (Bill Grimshaw/The Globe and Mail)
Mr. Pulsifer, who is considered a walking encyclopedia among friends and family, graduated with honours with a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Toronto in 2004. While studying for his degree, he found the time to devote up to six hours a day researching and writing Wikipedia articles.
Upon graduation, the Ottawa resident took a year off to devote eight to 10 hours a day adding new entries to the site.
Mr. Pulsifer has always been a very curious person and a voracious reader, said his mother, Diana Pepall, a librarian.
The self-professed nerd does not enjoy playing sports or have any other hobbies, he told The Globe with a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm not paid for the work I do for Wikipedia. It doesn't matter to me that I do it on a voluntary basis. I enjoy it. It's important that people around the world have access to free, accurate and unbiased information. Wikipedia tries to do that, and it's a very honourable and admirable goal."
Since February, he has been working full-time managing the computer systems for Ottawa mayoral candidate Alex Munter, but still spends three to four hours a day updating the site.
"It's an addiction," said Mr. Pulsifer, who describes himself as anything but self-indulgent in other aspects of his life. He lives at home and doesn't have a girlfriend.
"You write an article and you think you've made it as good as it can be and then you put it out there for everyone to see and edit. And within just a few minutes, you have started a dialogue over how best to represent a subject. It's very exciting because my reputation is on the line."
Among the Wikipedia community, who call themselves Wikipedians, Mr. Pulsifer is held up as the gold standard -- the international benchmark against which they measure themselves, said Wayne Saewyc, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation.
"Whenever someone starts bragging about what they have done on the site, someone will go, well, how do you compare to Simon? We tend to organize by languages, rather than by location, and the Wikipedia community stretches right across the English-speaking world.
"People know about Simon worldwide."
Mr. Pulsifer's thousands of articles cover a broad variety of topics, including Canadian and U.S. history, international and Canadian politics, economics and current affairs. He has written featured articles, those profiled on Wikipedia's opening page, on the military history of Canada, the Italian Renaissance, the Marshall Plan, the economy of Africa, the history of Central Asia, among others.
At present, he has devoted himself to widening the scope of the site to include more entries on Africa, a continent that is underrepresented on the site, he said.
His most prized article was on the African kingdom Makuria -- which existed in the Middle Ages in what is now Sudan -- that was extremely difficult to research because so few people know anything about the place. He did not write the entries on Wikipediholism and editcountitis, although he acknowledges he might be afflicted with both.
For their labours, Wikipedians do not receive much credit from the outside world.
Articles are not signed, although users can easily access the history of the entry and see who made which edits.
Some Wikipedians prefer to keep their identities hidden and do not use their real names on the site. Mr. Pulsifer, for example, goes by SimonP. This username is to protect his identity from the abuse that can come from editing the site.
"There are a number of crazy people who edit Wikipedia and become very angry if any entry disagrees with their point of view. There are horror stories about people getting death threats, and although I have been insulted, it has never happened to me. Some people call us Wikigeeks. But I wouldn't consider it an insult anyway, more of an apt description."
Revenge is a dish best served cold
So how long do you think Hillary Clinton has been waiting to launch a Spanish Inquisition like session on one of George Bush’s neo-con Republicans?
Hillary vs Rummy, live on MSNBC
While she probably wasn’t thinking of hubby Bill while she put Donald Rumsfeld on the spit, he probably appreciated his wife’s efforts in reminding the Republicans of their past interrogations of his administration.
Will Rummy squirm, Will Rummy sweat? (see complete video above) In the end it didn’t seem like it was a safe bet.
Madam Clinton called for Rumsfeld to quit, he politely declined that option in his strange folksy little way. And everyone returned to their neutral corners.
It's an election year for the Senator and the war is quick becoming the main issue of the House and Senate campaigns. More than one career seems to be in trouble over the happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan, so one has to take all the outrage and calls for resignations with that bit of theatre in mind.
Regardless, it was interesting to see live on TV, the give and take between some big guns in the American political orbit.
Hillary vs Rummy, live on MSNBC
While she probably wasn’t thinking of hubby Bill while she put Donald Rumsfeld on the spit, he probably appreciated his wife’s efforts in reminding the Republicans of their past interrogations of his administration.
Will Rummy squirm, Will Rummy sweat? (see complete video above) In the end it didn’t seem like it was a safe bet.
Madam Clinton called for Rumsfeld to quit, he politely declined that option in his strange folksy little way. And everyone returned to their neutral corners.
It's an election year for the Senator and the war is quick becoming the main issue of the House and Senate campaigns. More than one career seems to be in trouble over the happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan, so one has to take all the outrage and calls for resignations with that bit of theatre in mind.
Regardless, it was interesting to see live on TV, the give and take between some big guns in the American political orbit.
Coal is King again for Ridley
Ridley Terminals is looking forward to a pretty busy and prosperous couple of years with the Wolverine Mine project now coming on line.
Coal from that North East BC mine will be arriving in Rupert in September for shipment, beginning a relationship that should bode well for the increasingly in demand terminal.
The Daily News had full details on the project and its impact for Prince Rupert in its Wednesday edition.
RIDLEY LOOKS SET FOR ITS BEST YEAR EVER
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Page One
Western Canada Coal has started up its Wolverine Mine and signed a long-term contract with Ridley Terminals that will increase the amount of coal moving through the facility by 20 per cent in the coming year.
“Start-up is proceeding well and the plant is processing hard coking coal,” said John Hogg chief operating officer of Western.
“Our operations staff and contractors have done a great job bringing the project into production on time, on budget, and with an excellent safety record.”
More than 300 people are currently active on the site at the Wolverine Mine. The mine is expected to produce 1.35 million of tonnes of hard coking coal in the company’s fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, and in excess of 2.5 million tones in the next fiscal year. Western will be loading the first train of Wolverine hard coking coal next month, followed by the first shipment from Ridley Terminals in September of 2006.
The port services agreement with Ridley Terminals is for an initial term of 10 years, expiring in March 2015. The agreement provides Western with the option to extend the contract for two additional five year terms.
The new agreement puts Ridley Terminals well on its way to exceeding its best historical year ever in terms of tonnage – seven million tonnes.
Western Canadian’s production alone is anticipated in the future to use up to 11 million tones of the terminals 24 million-tonne capacity.
“This is the second mine Western has brought into production on time and on budget in 20 months, said Gary Livingstone, president and CEO. “It is a credit to the outstanding performance of our management team and dedicated employees.”
Coal coming from the northeastern part of the province and moving offshore through Ridley Terminals is on the rebound following a downturn three years ago, when the Bullmoose coal mine closed, ending to decades of coal mining in the region. Two years before, the larger Quintette Coal Mine closed.
The result was the end of coal shipments through Ridley Terminals for about a year, while the company tried to expand into other areas.
Western Canadian Coal was the first company to start shipping PCI coal through the terminal again at the beginning of 2005, following the opening of its Dillon mine.
Livingstone said coking coal prices can range from about $102 to $116 per tonne, depending on the quality.
He added that longer-term forecasts predict prices will remain higher than $100 per tonne, “and at those prices, producers like us will do very well.”
Livingstone said Western Canadian rushed to get the Wolverine Mine, its core asset, into production to take advantage of solid prices and its employees did a good job of getting it on line on time and on budget.
He added that estimates are that world steel production will increase by six to seven per cent during the next couple of years, which should continue to support the demand for coal.
With files from CanWest News service.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
So he was out of prison because????
I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but one would think that with the shopping list of convictions that Peter Whitmore has accumulated in his 35 years on our planet, that somewhere along the line somebody might have said that perhaps he’s not a subject for rehabilitation.
The latest abductions by Whitmore captivated the nation this past week, as police and citizens searched through the Western provinces in search of his van and the two abducted children that he had taken with him.
The outrage over his latest activity grew louder and louder this week as we learned just how many times before that Whitmore had subjected young people to his brand of misery. What seems amazing to all is the fact that he seems to have been able to travel across the nation at will. Released time and time again, with no sense of wrong doing on his part, left to do what he wished without a warning to the innocents of our land.
In a bizarre somewhat sick display of celebrity, he even infamously appeared on Canada AM once in 2000, declaring he wasn't a threat at all. As events have played out since then he was obviously more than just a liar.
Now that he’s been captured once again and faces justice one more time, one hopes that the system has finally seen the light.
This is a guy that should never be in a position to endanger children again. Never again should Canadians pick up a newspaper, hear a radio report or see a television story featuring the latest grotesque crime of Peter Whitmore, or others of his bent.
If the justice system doesn’t realize this by now, then perhaps its time that Canadians began to question our system a bit more forcefully. The likes of Peter Whitmore need not be released to Canadian streets, it's a simple observation that even the most learned judge surely must realize.
The latest abductions by Whitmore captivated the nation this past week, as police and citizens searched through the Western provinces in search of his van and the two abducted children that he had taken with him.
The outrage over his latest activity grew louder and louder this week as we learned just how many times before that Whitmore had subjected young people to his brand of misery. What seems amazing to all is the fact that he seems to have been able to travel across the nation at will. Released time and time again, with no sense of wrong doing on his part, left to do what he wished without a warning to the innocents of our land.
In a bizarre somewhat sick display of celebrity, he even infamously appeared on Canada AM once in 2000, declaring he wasn't a threat at all. As events have played out since then he was obviously more than just a liar.
Now that he’s been captured once again and faces justice one more time, one hopes that the system has finally seen the light.
This is a guy that should never be in a position to endanger children again. Never again should Canadians pick up a newspaper, hear a radio report or see a television story featuring the latest grotesque crime of Peter Whitmore, or others of his bent.
If the justice system doesn’t realize this by now, then perhaps its time that Canadians began to question our system a bit more forcefully. The likes of Peter Whitmore need not be released to Canadian streets, it's a simple observation that even the most learned judge surely must realize.
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