[All] The Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Association

Sat Oct 24 01:51:56 EDT 2009

Hi All,

The below pro-BRT group T4ST intends to try to have a referendum on  
LRT vs BRT as part of next year's municipal election. Perhaps we need  
to join with Transport 2000 and other groups in opposing this narrow- 
thinking group.

Robert

The Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Association
Blogging from the Golden Triangle and Beyond
Combating NIMBYism in the K-W LRT Debate
By James Bow on October 8, 2009 2:20 PM
Note: this piece reflects the personal opinion of the author, and does  
not necessarily reflect the opinions of other members of this  
community. Do you disagree? Do you agree? Say so! This post has been  
crossposted here.

Back in June, the Region of Waterloo voted in favour of an ambitious  
proposal to establish an LRT line running up the centre of Kitchener- 
Waterloo between Fairview Mall and Conestoga Mall. The line would be  
augmented by express buses running south from Fairview Mall into  
Cambridge. The total cost of this proposal is currently budgeted at  
over $790 million. The province has committed to covering a third of  
the cost, and the federal government practically tripped over itself  
in order to offer support for the line. In total, two-thirds of the  
cost would be covered by federal and provincial taxes, leaving the  
region on the hook for the remaining third.

The proposal appears to have widespread support. Despite the presence  
of a few residents expressing concerns, ordinary people turned out to  
encourage regional councillors to vote in favour of the proposal. And  
although the proposal has been approved, the conversation isn’t  
finished. We have work ahead in determining where exactly the line  
should run, where the stations should be located, how often the  
service should operate, and how fares should be collected. It will be  
important to pay attention to this process and lend our voice to  
ensure that this proposal, as adopted, serves the community to the  
best of its ability.

Unfortunately, a group of individuals who appear to be opposed to the  
concept of an LRT, are organizing to have yet another fight on whether  
we should build an LRT in the region. The thirty-member strong  
Taxpayers for Sensible Transit (T4ST) have set up a web site, and are  
speaking out in the local media. The community newspaper, the  
Kitchener Citizen ran an article on this debate, interviewing only  
Peter Gay, a representative of the group, rather than a wider  
selection of individuals.

As I said, it is important for the public to remain engaged in the  
process so that the details of the implementation of the LRT serve the  
community well. In this, T4ST has an opportunity to contribute to the  
good growth of the region. It is unfortunate that, in trying to drum  
up support, T4ST has resorted to series of talking points and  
contextless links which seem designed to create a climate of fear. By  
their approach, they appear to want to polarize the community, and  
rather than talk about how the LRT can best serve the region and how  
the design can be improved, they simply seek to oppose change,  
regardless of its merits.

The group is planning “an educational evening” this November where  
Andy Haydon, the former regional chair of Ottawa, will talk about his  
fight against an LRT plan in that city — a fight which culminated in  
the line’s cancellation. Oh, and a $36.7 million out-of-court  
settlement against Ottawa for breaking contracts with Siemens. Oh,  
and, best of all, a completely new LRT plan that operates over much  
the same route the old plan ran over in the first place. If T4ST want  
to talk about the mechanics of fighting a transportation proposal from  
the city, perhaps Mr. Haydon is a good expert to call. But in terms of  
working to ensure a smooth planning process, rather than jerking your  
knee and breaking your own nose by making costly decisions that you  
eventually have to go back on, there doesn’t seem to be as much  
forethought there.

The most disingenuous claim offered by T4ST is that the LRT operating  
down the middle of King Street will “essentially turn King Street into  
a one-way street”. So says Peter Gay, co-chair of the opposition  
group. This seems a silly argument, and he compounds it with such  
handwringing lines as “What will happen to the Oktoberfest Parade if  
King Street is made into a one way street?” Oh, yes, why won’t anybody  
think of the children.

Here’s the reality: the LRT plan calls for transit vehicles to operate  
north on King Street from Breithaupt to at least William along the  
centre of the street. To ensure that these vehicles can operate  
without being affected by traffic congestion, cars might be kept off  
these two lanes. One way to do this would be to build a centre  
reservation — essentially a raised curb — occupying the two centre  
lanes of King Street.

Essentially, the LRT might change this portion of King Street into a  
boulevard, no different from what exists on Queens Boulevard between  
Highland Road and St. Mary’s Hospital, and nobody sensible complains  
that Queens Boulevard here is a one-way street. People on one side of  
the street, hoping to turn turn left, simply turn right, until they  
get to the next intersection, at which point they do a U-turn. This is  
what happens already on centre reservation streetcar lines in Toronto,  
such as on Queen’s Quay and Spadina Avenue. It’s not a major  
inconvenience. So why is Peter Gay resorting to such a misleading  
term? The group also raises the old canard about the loss of parallel  
parking on this street, but King Street along this section has very  
little parallel parking. Most stores, like the Central Meat Market,  
have their own parking lot, which often stands mostly empty.

Moving on, Is Peter Gay worried about emergency vehicles being kept  
out of the centre reservation? Well, of course he is, as that’s the  
sort of attention-getting stuff NIMBY groups thrive on, but the centre  
reservation can actually improve emergency response times, since  
vehicles like fire trucks and ambulances can duck into it and dodge  
around stopped transit vehicles, without being blocked by competing  
automobile traffic. This is already in place on Spadina Avenue in  
Toronto. If you can hop a curb in a car, firetrucks can hop the curb  
leading onto the centre reservation.

And as for the Oktoberfest Parade, I too would hate to see it taken  
off of King Street, but there is no reason why it and the LRT have to  
conflict. Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade has operated for over a century  
and its big floats have had no trouble navigating the overhead wires  
of Toronto’s streetcar networks. I see no problem temporarily  
suspending service on the LRT while this civic institution takes place.

Gay goes on to get several facts wrong. He says, “the plan doesn’t  
even include stops at the major places people will want to go. It  
won’t stop at the airport, the high schools, the Centre in the Square,  
and it won’t go to either the Waterloo or Kitchener farmers’ markets  
or the Aud.” Well, the LRT plan does go past the high schools — two,  
in fact (Kitchener Collegiate and Cameron Heights). It most certainly  
passes the Kitchener Farmer’s Market and will include a stop there.

What the LRT does serve includes Fairview Mall, the Schneider Plant  
and nearby industries, Cameron Heights Collegiate, the Kitchener  
Farmer’s Market, downtown Kitchener, the UW School of Pharmacy,  
Kitchener Collegiate Institute, Grand River Hospital, Sunlife, Uptown  
Waterloo, Wilfred Laurier University (albeit, at some distance), the  
University of Waterloo, the RIM Tech Park, the residents of lower  
Lakeshore and Conestoga Mall. In short, some of the biggest employers  
and major trip generators across the Region.

It’s true that the LRT doesn’t stop at the airport, but no other  
transit service does: the airport is in the middle of nowhere. (And,  
unfortunately, it seems unlikely that any transit vehicle will have  
any reason to stop at the airport in the near future, given that the  
number of regular flights out each day can be counted on my hands.)  
It’s also true that the LRT doesn’t stop in front of the Centre in the  
Square, but other buses do, and the LRT is not designed to replace them.

Look, Mr. Gay: an LRT works best as a (pretty) short (pretty) straight  
line. LRT advocates would like to include the St. Jacob’s Farmer’s  
Market, Centre in the Square, the Aud, and Highland Hills Mall in the  
mix, but to do that, we’d have to add separate lines, and I’m sure you  
would agree that it’s best that we start small.

Finally, Peter Gay is quoted as saying “There is no other city of our  
size that supports an LRT,” but here he is wrong. While we would be  
the smallest city in Canada to operate an LRT when it opens, the city  
of Portland, Oregon today boasts a population of 575,930. Moreover,  
Portland opened its LRT back in 1986, it had a population of under  
437,000 (Note: it is the centre of a wider metropolitan area of around  
two million, but the LRT largely serves just Portland). The City of  
Calgary opened its LRT in 1981, when it had a population of 591,857.  
It currently has a population of roughly 988,000. The City of Edmonton  
started construction on its LRT in 1974, when it had a population of  
445,000. Today, 730,000 live in Edmonton.

Today, over 478,000 call the Region of Waterloo home, which if you’re  
looking for magic numbers, appears to be right in line. (Total  
population is not a great way to gauge transit need: the truly telling  
thing is that the iXpress bus the LRT will paralell is routinely  
jammed full.) More importantly, for the past ten years, the Region of  
Waterloo has been exceeding its growth projections. In 2031, the  
Region expects to house almost three quarters of a million people.

When that time comes, the people in the region will think one of two  
things: either they will thank us for having the foresight to build an  
LRT to serve the region’s needs, or they will curse us for being short- 
sighted, small-minded and fearful of change. Fortunately, I believe  
most residents in the region fall in the former category, not the  
latter, and I am confident that we will build an LRT, and that it will  
serve us well in the years to come. I hope that the members of T4ST  
will come forward with construction suggestions on how to improve the  
system, rather than simply standing firm and saying ‘not!’

(Update: Friday, 9:07 p.m.): Helen Hall publisher and editor of the  
West Edition of the Kitchener Citizen newspaper contacted me to let me  
know that the article I quoted was not the only piece they have done  
on the K-W LRT project. Indeed, they have been covering this issue  
since it went before council earlier this year, and have run a  
position paper by the Grand River Environmental Network endorsing the  
LRT. She was concerned that the wording of my article above implied  
that the Citizen was reporting only one side of the story with the  
article above.

My comments were related only to the article above, and did not take  
into consideration the other work the Kitchener Citizen has done  
covering the LRT issue. I apologize for giving that impression and  
would like to retract the insinuation.

Further Reading

Taxpayers For Sensible Transit
Facebook Page for Supporters of the K-W LRT. Current Membership?  
1,628. Current membership of the T4ST Facebook page? 39.
What is an LRT? Consult the citizen-produced Toronto LRT Information  
Page
Light Rail Now
MAX (Portland) Light Rail
Guelph Doctors Seek Patients
By Darcy Casselman on July 15, 2009 11:40 PM | No Comments
Guelph has too many doctors.

I just managed to find a doctor in Kitchener after several years of  
being doctorless. I find it hard to believe that there’s a patient  
shortage anywhere in the region. Guelph, however, has this enviable  
problem.

They managed to bring in 10 new doctors, but have been having a hard  
time getting enough patients to sign on.

If you’re interested, check out guelph.ca/doctor, or tweet  
@guelphchamber and they’ll match you up.

Waterloo Park Master Plan
By Darcy Casselman on July 4, 2009 6:08 PM | No Comments
The City of Waterloo has posted a preliminary concept plan for the new  
Waterloo Park Master Plan, meant to guide development over the next 20  
years.

Looking it over, there are some things I really like about the  
proposal. I like that there are more and more well defined entrances  
to the park. Having two stages in the Centennial Park area could make  
for some cool festivals if you can keep the folks in Luther Village  
from complaining about the noise. I like the perimeter walkway idea…

I’m a little nervous, though, that the park as it is now isn’t  
terribly recognizable in the plan. Trees take a long time to grow, and  
bulldozing a park doesn’t seem like a good way to start. Also, as  
Ellen points out, the document is mute on the impact of the LRT line.

The seem to be looking for feedback, though. I missed the chance to go  
to the June 25th meeting, but there’s a questionnaire they’d like  
people to fill out asking for darts and laurels.

Link via Strangeattractor

Community Building
By Darcy Casselman on July 1, 2009 4:57 PM | No Comments
At DevHouse Waterloo on Monday, Jesse Rodgers and Joseph Fung broke  
from the usual software demo format and opened up a round-table  
discussion about how to build an online identity, a community,  
visibility, engagement and excitement around Waterloo.

The longer I live here, the more I can sense the potential of this  
place. Particularly when you hang around with high tech folks all the  
time. But right now it’s mostly just potential. True, there are lots  
of exciting things going on that few people know anything about, but  
it feels like a lot of the energy here is being dissipated on the wires.

Jesse and Joseph are mostly talking about the local startup community,  
and there are particular needs there. Finding mentors and peers,  
getting funding, and promoting your idea are all fundamental to  
getting a startup off the ground, and nobody outside of Silicon Valley  
seems to know how to do those things well.

But more than that, we need to build spaces and groups for people to  
meet and co-mingle, online and offline.

Offline, there’s plenty of cool stuff going on. Meetups and Tweetups,  
camps and clubs. It was pointed out, though, that they all seem to  
exist in silos. It seems to be hard for people to find out about them  
and there’s very little cross-over between groups. There’s also a lack  
of decent meeting space. Waterloo casts an envious eye at Guelph’s  
eBar: a pub with decent atmosphere, free wifi, and a predisposition  
towards hosting meetups.

Online, as James pointed out there’s a lot of building to do to bring  
together a cohesive community. I signed on to the Waterloo Wellington  
Bloggers Association because I think it’s a step in the right  
direction. (If you haven’t already, get your blog in the aggregator  
there). People are piling on Twitter these days, and you can find out  
a lot of great stuff that’s going on locally there too. But there’s  
still a long way to go. We don’t have nearly the online resources of  
places like Toronto or San Francisco. There’s lots of stuff going on  
in town that I only find out about after the Record posts a review.  
For a town that’s supposedly tech savvy, we really ought to be able to  
do more.

So I’m going to redouble my efforts and do more. This is a great place  
to live and an exciting place to be, and people ought to know about  
that.

Cross-posted from the flying squirrel

On Building a Waterloo-Wellington Bloggers Identity
By James Bow on June 27, 2009 2:17 PM | No Comments
This group blog has been growing in fits and starts. I regret that I  
haven’t had as much time to devote to writing articles for this group  
blog as I have for my personal blog, but that hasn’t meant that the  
community of bloggers in County Wellington and the Region of Waterloo  
is quiet. Recently, bloggers have been debating the merits of the  
proposal to build a LRT line and a rapid bus branch through the spine  
of the region. Ruth at Yappa Ding Ding has been arguing passionately  
that we should be seriously considering whether this proposal will do  
more harm than good and, today, regional councillor Jane Mitchell  
joined this group, with a blog that, among other things, talks up the  
merits of the LRT proposal.

I’ve said privately that, thanks to the onslaught of the media, I know  
far more about the goings on at Toronto City Council than I do  
Kitchener City Council or even Regional Council. That’s a shame,  
really. Because as you can see, this region can have passionate  
political debates of their own.

I’m about to head out to a bloggers gathering at the Huether Hotel,  
which starts today at 4 p.m. I know that a number of bloggers will be  
there. We have a strong regional identity. We may not have as large a  
blogging community as, say, Toronto, but like Stuart McLean says in  
the Vinyl Café: we may not be big, but we’re small.

On Waterloo Region's Car-Dependency
Part 3: The Bad News
By James Bow on June 1, 2009 9:29 AM | No Comments

This photograph is entitled Last Bus and is by Jeremy Ladan. It is  
used in accordance with his Creative Commons license. This article has  
also been crossposted to Bow. James Bow.

In the first part of this series, I talked about the desire on the  
part of certain citizens of this region to live car free, and in the  
second part I discussed the positive steps the region had taken in  
improving its public transit access in the past twenty or so years. In  
this part, I’ll highlight some of the challenges that remain and, more  
frustratingly, areas where the region has taken a backwards step.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been privileged to give a  
presentation on transportation to the grade eight students of The York  
School in Toronto. As the editor of Transit Toronto, I’m one of a list  
of speakers providing their take on the issue for the benefit of a  
project the students are working on.

In my presentation, I point out to them that, though I am an advocate  
for improved public transportation, I still own a car. I have nothing  
against car ownership. I think the automobile is a wonderful luxury  
that everybody should enjoy. I just wish it would remain a luxury  
only, and not become a necessity of life.

Think about your neighbourhoods, I tell the students, many of whom  
come from suburban climes with inadequate public transportation. Think  
of where you live and how it relates to where you shop, where you go  
to school, where your libraries are, your pools, your friends’ houses,  
your video stores, et cetera. And then think of what would happen if  
you or your family no longer had access to an automobile to get them.

And this is not some vague notion, I tell them. I tell them about how  
my wife, who until a couple of years ago suffered from a debilitating  
condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia, had her license taken away from  
the government, because as soon as any doctor or other official within  
spitting distance of the government hears the phrases “debilitating  
bouts of pain causing one to black out” and “without warning” in the  
same breath, it practically becomes their obligation to do so.

It is now two years after Erin has been cured of TN, and she still  
doesn’t have her driver’s license back. You do need to have gone  
through a year with no incidents in order to get your license back;  
the other year is either Dr. Vlad’s mad-scientist attitude to  
paperwork (“paperwork? what’s that? now where’s that new equipment I  
get to play with?”) or bureaucratic sticky-tape applied to the feet of  
civil servants at the Ministry of Transportation. Erin’s going to give  
them a call today to see what’s what.

But the point is, for the time that Erin was sick and lost her  
license, to today, she has been dependent on me to drive her anywhere.  
And this has made her feel sometimes like a prisoner in her own home.  
This phrase is commonly used in any household where two people can  
afford one car and one of the two tends to use it for his or her day- 
to-day work. In situations where we have chidren or younger teenagers  
in the home, the phrase becomes “a chauffeur mom (or dad)”. Recently,  
Erin picked up a bike at a garage sale, and used it to ride out to a  
library to get some time to herself so she could write. The hills were  
hard, but the burst of independence that this gave her was more than  
worth it.

(And I should point out that the loss of Erin’s driver’s license is no  
picnic to me either. I like to drive, and I do like the challenge of  
long drives, but it is nice to be able to spell each other off. As we  
are planning to drive to Des Moines this summer, it would be great if  
Erin could get her license back before then).

So, why doesn’t Erin take the Grand River Transit bus more often?  
Well, actually, she does. We are not in the situation that some people  
find themselves in where we’d be terribly isolated if we lost access  
to our automobile. We’re a thirty-minute walk from downtown Kitchener.  
We’ve a five minute walk from a bus stop featuring fifteen minute  
service during rush hour. Erin often picks up Vivian from pre-school  
and takes her on a bus ride home; it takes about forty minutes, and  
delivers us close to our door. And before we had the kids, we made do  
for two years without an automobile. We car pooled with friends, and  
we took groceries home on transit.

But the forty-minute trip back from Vivian’s school by bus takes only  
six minutes by car. The bus requires one transfer while the car  
requires none. Kitchener’s route 8 picks up students from the  
University and heads down Westmount, only to divert onto Belmont  
Avenue on the way downtown. Route 12 also travels on part of Westmount  
Road, but diverts over to Fischer Hallmann and runs up to the Keats  
Way, lengthening the trip. There is no through service on Westmount  
Avenue, providing a service to the University that would practically  
be door-to-door for some. although there are vague plans to get some.  
To get anywhere in the region, you will likely have to take a bus that  
will take you out of your way, and then transfer.

This wouldn’t be so bad, were it not for the biggest design flaw of  
Grand River Transit; that being the location of Kitchener’s Downtown  
Terminal. Although I can see why planners chose to locate the terminal  
where they did — in the middle of Kitchener’s long and thin downtown,  
rather than at either end — it does make for some frustrating commutes.

Consider a trip that I might take from my house to Uptown Waterloo or  
the University of Waterloo. At first glance, it might seem  
straightforward: take the Victoria Street bus (either route 19 or 20)  
towards the downtown, transfer at King Street to the 7 Mainline bus,  
and head north. And plenty of people make this transfer. However, the  
official transfer between 7 Mainline and the Victoria Street buses is  
at the downtown terminal, and Victoria Street buses must turn right  
onto King, travel south three blocks to Gaukel, then turn right again  
to make the one block jaunt to the terminal. Taking this full trip  
means doubling back over an eight block stretch.

If you are transfering from the Victoria Street bus to the King Street  
bus, this isn’t much of a problem; you can get off at Victoria and  
King, cross the street to the King Street bus stop, and be assured  
that a 7 Mainline bus will be along within five or ten minutes. Going  
the other way, however, is more problematic, since buses on Victoria  
Street travel at thirty minute intervals throughout the day (and  
fifteen minute intervals at rush hour). So, what do you do? Do you get  
off the 7 Mainline at Victoria and wait as long as 30 minutes for  
Victoria Street bus? Or do you continue on to the terminal, and run  
the risk that you’ll arrive just as the Victoria Street bus is pulling  
out? And what about transferring to the iXpress for trips north?  
Again, you are forced into doubling back.

Similar problems occur at the east end of Kitchener’s downtown, by  
Market Square. If you’re arriving from Fairview Mall, do you transfer  
from the 7 Mainline to 8 University via Weber, 15 Frederick, 1 Stanley  
Park or 23 Idlewood at Market Square? Or do you brave the three block  
jaunt to the downtown terminal? This is made all the more frustrating  
given that King Street between Frederick and Francis compresses to  
just two lanes, and buses crawl along this stretch.

It is a shame that we can’t have two separate terminals at either end  
of the downtown core, with some frequent, rapid connection between the  
two.

As frustrating as the location of the Kitchener Downtown Terminal was,  
at least it used to offer smooth connections between local transit and  
inter-city buses. Emphasis on “used” to offer. In the fall of 2008,  
Greyhound Canada made the boneheaded decision to suspend ticket sales  
at the downtown terminal, forcing riders to trek a new terminal that  
being set up at Sportsworld. This makes catching the bus to Toronto a  
lot less convenient for those of us who don’t have a car, or don’t  
wish to drive to Sportsworld. At least with the Downtown Terminal, you  
could be sure of using, on average, one city bus to complete your trip  
from the transit centre to your home. Not so with Sportsworld, which  
can only be accessed by buses from Fairview Mall. And just what are  
people travelling to Guelph (which doesn’t access Sportsworld)  
supposed to do?

It seems Greyhound has acknowledged the foolhardiness of this  
arrangement by stationing someone with a wireless credit card machine  
to issue tickets, but if they’re going to do that, why not just  
reinstate downtown ticket sales?

Mind you, there is some blame to be laid at Grand River Transit’s door  
as well. GO Transit has announced that bus service between Milton and  
Kitchener will start this October, and it will likely serve park ‘n’  
ride stops along Highway 401. It seems to me very likely that this  
service will terminate at the Sportsworld complex rather than continue  
on into downtown Kitchener. If this is the case, perhaps it’s time for  
the region to add a stop on the iXpress at Sportsworld, so that  
anybody who has to transfer at the downtown terminal need only take  
one express bus to get to the Greyhound ticket office, instead of  
transferring to yet another bus at Fairview Mall.

Connections are also a problem between Grand River Transit and VIA  
Rail, which runs a popular commuter service into Toronto’s Union  
Station. Accessed only by the half-hourly Route 18 bus from the  
downtown terminal, passengers from other services again have to double  
back. I either travel to the corner of King and Victoria and walk the  
remaining blocks, or take a taxi.

These little inconveniences are what keeps cars in the driveways of  
most people who would otherwise happily do without them. I have lived  
in this region for eighteen years and have lived relatively car-free  
for almost ten of them, so I know that one can live in the region  
without one. The region still has a long way to go, however, before it  
offers mobility approaching a level of what people enjoy in larger,  
more transit and pedestrian friendly centres like Toronto, Montreal or  
Vancouver. Fortunately, steps do appear to be being taken. More on  
this later.

The Wanderers of Ontario?
By James Bow on May 7, 2009 8:47 AM | No Comments
This post has been crossposted to Bow. James Bow.

I do hope that billionaire Jim Balsillie is successful in purchasing  
the Phoenix Coyotes and moving the hockey team to an arena in southern  
Ontario. A lot of people are really rather excited about the prospect  
of having a new team to cheer, and the enthusiasm they’ve shown  
suggests to me that they deserve a team. If Balsillie has the money,  
and can make the move with a minimum of taxpayer investment, then this  
would be a boon for the local economy. And, given the short  
sightedness of the NHL board of directors, I have to say that I am  
motivated to get behind this move out of spite.

I’m sorry, but the level of disdain the NHL directors have shown to  
Balsillie and, by extension, the very committed Canadian hockey fans  
who are behind him, not only shows poor business sense, but it’s an  
insult to my national pride. I mean, here is a man who wants to buy  
in, and is investing a lot of his own money to buy in, only to be  
thwarted by these nitwits because they think that Canadian markets  
don’t matter. He tried to buy the Nashville Predators for over $200  
million, only to have the owner sell to an American interest who was  
offering almost $50 million less. He’s had the NHL directors directly  
step in to thwart his attempt to purchase and move the Pittsburgh  
Penguins, and now the idiots at the NHL are threatening to fight the  
move out of Phoenix in the courts. Since the courts have previously  
ruled that the NFL had no power in keeping the Rams out of St. Louis,  
I hope that Balsillie and the judge gives these guys what for.

Indeed, why stop there? “Make it seven”? How about we make it ten or  
eleven, by doing what we can, if anything, to encourage or cajole the  
NHL to pull teams away from where no natural ice exists at any time of  
the year, and relocate them to places where the fans actually give a  
damn. It’s not like any of these teams down south is making a lot of  
money, so let’s lose the Predators of Nashville and restore the  
Winnipeg Jets. Let’s ditch the Florida Panthers and bring back the  
Quebec Nordiques. Let’s give the Atlanta Thrashers a decent home in  
Halifax, and for good measure, let’s add a team for Regina and third  
team to the GTA; a GTA East to complement Balsillie’s GTA West offering.

And if the NHL directors don’t like it, let’s get Governor General  
Michaelle Jean to ask for her silverware back. She does technically  
still own it, doesn’t she?

Okay, probably not.

And, yeah, I’m probably taking this too seriously. I don’t even follow  
hockey.

Well, as much a I appreciate the enthusiasm of some area bloggers, and  
despite Balsillie’s obvious connections with the area, I think it  
unlikely that any of us will be cheering for the Waterloo Coyotes  
anytime soon. The Region of Waterloo just does not have the population  
on its own. The City of Hamilton boasts half a million people and  
Copps Colliseum. They’re also well located in a centre of a circle  
that includes such cities as St. Catharines, Oakville, Mississauga,  
London, Brantford as well as Kitchener-Waterloo. Not only would  
Balsillie have to invest in a new rink here, a Waterloo team would  
likely sacrifice support from St. Catharines and the Niagara Region,  
with no comparable centre to the north or northwest of us to take  
their place. Really, only Hamilton’s proximity to Buffalo and the  
territory of the Buffalo Sabres keeps a move to Hamilton from being a  
slam dunk. This is why they’re talking about building a new rink in  
Vaughan or Mississauga.

However, since there is strong support for a new team throughout  
southern Ontario, maybe Balsillie doesn’t have to put all his marbles  
in Hamilton’s Copps Colliseum. Perhaps there are rinks around the area  
which can host a few home games. The Ricoh Centre in Toronto’s  
Exhibition grounds, already the host of IHL (correction: AHL) games,  
can offer an outlet to those thousands of Torontonians unwilling to  
mortgage their homes and sell their first borns into slavery for Leaf  
tickets. Maybe the Aud in Kitchener could sell out a few times for a  
few special games around mid-season. Does London have a good rink?  
Does Oshawa?

We can call them the Wanderers, likening them to the Montreal  
Wanderers of yore, that won five Stanley Cups in the early part of the  
twentieth century.

Might work.