A good start Mark, but you know that you just scratched the surface here.
Here are several more for your consideration:
1. Instead of everyone looking at Mark like he's an idiot, why won't someone help coach him at the Costco gas pump? Mark, if everyone is watching you like you're an idiot, you might very well be one.
2. I couldn't agree more with Mark's #5 grievance - that the phrase 'We're in this together' with respect to Covid is irritating and a fairy tale. I can't go to Shoppers Drug Mart without hearing it at least once and when I do, I want to throw all the potato chips on the floor and yell 'scramble'.
3. I'm not here to argue with you about your grievance about pants and belts, but while we're on that topic, can we stop calling one pant a pair of pants. And don't tell me it's because there are two legs because I have two sleeves in my t-shirt and I don't call it a pair of t-shirts.
4. China: Why can't we be less like China and stop treating minorities, especially indigenous people like crap? Pay out the lawsuit and fire the lawyers.
5. China-2: Why can't we be more like China and acknowledge that too many parents are lazy and stupid and can't limit their kids time on useless social media and games.
6. Isn't it time to consolidate the public and separate school boards? If education is about the kids, the savings could be redirected into things to enhance the quality of the education. Best practices (assuming the public board has any) would cut right across all kids. And isn't separating people into groups based on religion less than a winning strategy?
7. We could fill a book of grievances when it comes to Toronto city councillors/mayor. Why can't they speak the truth and start every announcement, speech, update, communication with, 'Because we are hypocritical, politically correct donkeys...' Mark's got much of this nailed down nicely but could we add (a) if they really cared about cyclists, why wouldn't they whine out loud about the province needing to make it mandatory for all cyclists to wear helmets and have lights (if riding at night). And isn't Bicycle Brad and his friends complicit in this disregard for cyclist's safety by increasing access to share bikes without so much as a peep about helmets?
8. Sticking with the city being disingenuous about public safety, you would think that with the horsepower and stability of car, it could climb up a 3 or 4" curb and give pedestrians a fighting chance on by making (icy) sidewalks level. Seriously. I mean it.
9. I would be completely OK if other world leaders pointed at Justin and broke out in laughter whenever he opens his mouth. Heck, they can say his clown socks were too much to ignore.
10. Rather than allow banks and other service companies with lots of inbound call traffic answer the phone with a disingenuous 'we're getting more calls than we expected', mandate they to tell the truth - that they don't want you to call them and leaving people on hold discourages calls. These companies should be required to be transparent about customer service. The homepage of their website (desktop and mobile) should display current wait time for callers and what it normally is for that hour of the day.
11. Why does Loblaws have so many store brands? They are a bit like GM in that the brand name of the store is pretty much meaningless. My favourite is the ValuMart. I guess it's suppose to indicate that they provide good value even though they have the same products as No Frills but with much higher prices. Cripes, even the plastic bags at No Frills are much better than ValuMart and they're the same price.
12. Large companies love to pedal their brand with incredibly useful things like sponsoring golf tournaments for millionaires and putting their name on arenas. I'm going on a limb here, but I'm going to guess it's us the consumer that pays for this ego-brand-building. Why doesn't the city council make it a requirement to sponsor useful thinks like parks and playgrounds for kids? This isn't such a big deal in towns like Oakville, where the streets are paved with gold. But here in Toronto where stairs going down into ravines are broken and have only one handrail, wouldn't it be a brand builder to have the TD staircase down into Taylor Creek?
13. I hope I don't get arrested for this, but wouldn't it be smart to train the parking police to play on their phones while making sure traffic and pedestrians were safe at construction sites? This would be less expensive and we could hire more police to do - police work!
14. Has anyone seen a minority riding on a TFD truck? What is the fire department saying here? Are minorities afraid of heights? Firefighters (at least those in Toronto) look anything but inclusionary. What's up?
15. Quebec seems ready to ramp up the language police (thanks a lot Mike Rousseau) - despite the reality that more than 20% having a primary language that's other than French. Having language police feels like something they do in China. Back here in Ontario, each of the following languages are more widely spoken than French - Chinese, Italian, Punjabi, and Spanish - and the province 'force-fits' French into everything they publish. When Kathleen Wynn beat her chest and claimed that the money-losing 407 East would not fall into private industry's hands, she had to pay the operators of privately owned portion thousand of dollars to produce a handful of customer billing statements in.... French! I think it's time for Ontario to revisit their approach to French. Maybe don't take Quebec's lead, but something sensible would be nice.
16. Back to Toronto schools, the TDSB proudly plasters signs on their property saying DOGS aren't allowed. You can bring your cat, horse, cow on the property but no dogs. They make no distinction between the half of the year when the school is closed (weekends, holidays, summer) - I guess they don't like dogs. If a teacher falls out of bed early and your dog is there an hour before any kids arrive, the teacher will act like a dog and chase you off 'their' property. They point to the sign and tell me in a teacher-like voice, 'no dogs allowed, ever'. I think teacher's should be required to work weekends, summers and after school hours to patrol their property. Either that or lighten up and have a sign that says no animals during school hours and if you don't pick up your poop, you get fined.
17. As a taxpayer, I would like to know more who pays for what. Take the TTC for instance. On that back of busses each level of government has their logo to proudly show they fund the TTC. Since they all get my money, I don't really care how it ends up being split between them. I would like to know how much is funded by government vs. users of the service. That would be interesting and informative.
18. This is my last one. I could go on, but I have to take the dog for a walk now. I'm tired of politicians and their unwillingness to do things differently when it makes sense. Take the Senate for example - we don't elect Senators and they sure as heck cost more than any value they contribute. If this was America (note that I'm glad it's not), there would be an insurrection at the Senate. Sometimes I wish we were more like the Americans. Sometimes.
A good start Mark, but you know that you just scratched the surface here.
Here are several more for your consideration:
1. Instead of everyone looking at Mark like he's an idiot, why won't someone help coach him at the Costco gas pump? Mark, if everyone is watching you like you're an idiot, you might very well be one.
2. I couldn't agree more with Mark's #5 grievance - that the phrase 'We're in this together' with respect to Covid is irritating and a fairy tale. I can't go to Shoppers Drug Mart without hearing it at least once and when I do, I want to throw all the potato chips on the floor and yell 'scramble'.
3. I'm not here to argue with you about your grievance about pants and belts, but while we're on that topic, can we stop calling one pant a pair of pants. And don't tell me it's because there are two legs because I have two sleeves in my t-shirt and I don't call it a pair of t-shirts.
4. China: Why can't we be less like China and stop treating minorities, especially indigenous people like crap? Pay out the lawsuit and fire the lawyers.
5. China-2: Why can't we be more like China and acknowledge that too many parents are lazy and stupid and can't limit their kids time on useless social media and games.
6. Isn't it time to consolidate the public and separate school boards? If education is about the kids, the savings could be redirected into things to enhance the quality of the education. Best practices (assuming the public board has any) would cut right across all kids. And isn't separating people into groups based on religion less than a winning strategy?
7. We could fill a book of grievances when it comes to Toronto city councillors/mayor. Why can't they speak the truth and start every announcement, speech, update, communication with, 'Because we are hypocritical, politically correct donkeys...' Mark's got much of this nailed down nicely but could we add (a) if they really cared about cyclists, why wouldn't they whine out loud about the province needing to make it mandatory for all cyclists to wear helmets and have lights (if riding at night). And isn't Bicycle Brad and his friends complicit in this disregard for cyclist's safety by increasing access to share bikes without so much as a peep about helmets?
8. Sticking with the city being disingenuous about public safety, you would think that with the horsepower and stability of car, it could climb up a 3 or 4" curb and give pedestrians a fighting chance on by making (icy) sidewalks level. Seriously. I mean it.
9. I would be completely OK if other world leaders pointed at Justin and broke out in laughter whenever he opens his mouth. Heck, they can say his clown socks were too much to ignore.
10. Rather than allow banks and other service companies with lots of inbound call traffic answer the phone with a disingenuous 'we're getting more calls than we expected', mandate they to tell the truth - that they don't want you to call them and leaving people on hold discourages calls. These companies should be required to be transparent about customer service. The homepage of their website (desktop and mobile) should display current wait time for callers and what it normally is for that hour of the day.
11. Why does Loblaws have so many store brands? They are a bit like GM in that the brand name of the store is pretty much meaningless. My favourite is the ValuMart. I guess it's suppose to indicate that they provide good value even though they have the same products as No Frills but with much higher prices. Cripes, even the plastic bags at No Frills are much better than ValuMart and they're the same price.
12. Large companies love to pedal their brand with incredibly useful things like sponsoring golf tournaments for millionaires and putting their name on arenas. I'm going on a limb here, but I'm going to guess it's us the consumer that pays for this ego-brand-building. Why doesn't the city council make it a requirement to sponsor useful thinks like parks and playgrounds for kids? This isn't such a big deal in towns like Oakville, where the streets are paved with gold. But here in Toronto where stairs going down into ravines are broken and have only one handrail, wouldn't it be a brand builder to have the TD staircase down into Taylor Creek?
13. I hope I don't get arrested for this, but wouldn't it be smart to train the parking police to play on their phones while making sure traffic and pedestrians were safe at construction sites? This would be less expensive and we could hire more police to do - police work!
14. Has anyone seen a minority riding on a TFD truck? What is the fire department saying here? Are minorities afraid of heights? Firefighters (at least those in Toronto) look anything but inclusionary. What's up?
15. Quebec seems ready to ramp up the language police (thanks a lot Mike Rousseau) - despite the reality that more than 20% having a primary language that's other than French. Having language police feels like something they do in China. Back here in Ontario, each of the following languages are more widely spoken than French - Chinese, Italian, Punjabi, and Spanish - and the province 'force-fits' French into everything they publish. When Kathleen Wynn beat her chest and claimed that the money-losing 407 East would not fall into private industry's hands, she had to pay the operators of privately owned portion thousand of dollars to produce a handful of customer billing statements in.... French! I think it's time for Ontario to revisit their approach to French. Maybe don't take Quebec's lead, but something sensible would be nice.
16. Back to Toronto schools, the TDSB proudly plasters signs on their property saying DOGS aren't allowed. You can bring your cat, horse, cow on the property but no dogs. They make no distinction between the half of the year when the school is closed (weekends, holidays, summer) - I guess they don't like dogs. If a teacher falls out of bed early and your dog is there an hour before any kids arrive, the teacher will act like a dog and chase you off 'their' property. They point to the sign and tell me in a teacher-like voice, 'no dogs allowed, ever'. I think teacher's should be required to work weekends, summers and after school hours to patrol their property. Either that or lighten up and have a sign that says no animals during school hours and if you don't pick up your poop, you get fined.
17. As a taxpayer, I would like to know more who pays for what. Take the TTC for instance. On that back of busses each level of government has their logo to proudly show they fund the TTC. Since they all get my money, I don't really care how it ends up being split between them. I would like to know how much is funded by government vs. users of the service. That would be interesting and informative.
18. This is my last one. I could go on, but I have to take the dog for a walk now. I'm tired of politicians and their unwillingness to do things differently when it makes sense. Take the Senate for example - we don't elect Senators and they sure as heck cost more than any value they contribute. If this was America (note that I'm glad it's not), there would be an insurrection at the Senate. Sometimes I wish we were more like the Americans. Sometimes.