UPDATE 2:

It’s official now. The new TTC subway extension has been given a go-ahead. As expected, high-brow car-driving suburbanites are already calling it a “huge expenditure” – as if everything else the government spends on is not a huge expense. Read my related “green transport joke” rant here.

If anyone doubted me for mentioning it again and again during conversations, or if someone thought I was justifying my being there, or if someone had a snarky retort like “of course you’d find it nice in the beginning”…

To all of the above: Here’s an informal poll by Readers’ Digest which places Toronto as the Third Most Courteous City in the world. I’m sure the Greater Toronto Area also qualifies.

Here’s a retail annoyance for a newcomer like me. Nobody displays retail prices WITH taxes!

Now I never claimed to be a master arithmetician. In fact I am a horrible, horrible calculator. But I am sure there must be at least few other people out there like me. Think you’re a master, eh? What’s 15% of 3.48 dollars, quick, and don’t fumble with your change because it’s a long line behind you!

If you’re a U.S. citizen, do visit this and make your voices heard before it is too late. If you’re among the rest of us, support it because what happens in the US may very well spill over the entire world – for US business models are the bibles for the rest of corporate-wanna-bes everywhere.

Having had the opportunity to work with and around Asia and Europe, I am surprised to discover how intensely ‘by the book’ and ‘to the letter’ Canadian society really is. Nowhere is this more visible and stark than in employment sector, which of course, I am experiencing first here.

Everything which is written on a list of ‘requirements’ and ‘pre-requisites’ is taken as a divine law. Even if you get the requirements ‘done’ in whichever way, as long as they’re met and approved. This is a great example of a great society of law abiding citizens. But, this is also a somewhat strange example of mass conformity, without having to do any individual judgment or initiative.

Long blissfully unoccupied with racial, religious tensions, Canadian blogosphere and popular mainstream media is teeming with bitter, contemptuous posts and articles since the terrust arrests.

Conservatives and supremacists are shouting “told you so/wake up!”. Liberals and pacifists retort that it happened because of Canada’s new interventionist foreign policy.

Edit: Spoken too soon, it is hot and sunny today.

It is 4th of June (sweltering hot in some parts of the world). And following is the weather forecast for the coming week here in Toronto and areas.