Too much snark, not enough cerebral

Mea culpa. While I'm tossing off cheap shots (well-deserved cheap shots, mind) at Toronto's mayoral candidates, someone else is actually taking the time to craft thoughtful and reflective stuff.

Another quiet, persuasive and on-the-money post from the indispensable Alex Himelfarb. What are we supposed to do when the government is bent on dividing us, on manipulating us, on exploiting our resentment, and on keeping us fearful and ignorant? A taste:

How will any of this make us safer, more prosperous, healthier?  How will any of this help us address the challenges of an aging population, deepening inequality and poverty, climate change and environmental degradation, a widening productivity gap?  Feeding and feeding off anger and distrust is easy but just where does it take us?

Go and read it now.

A little foam with your census form, sir?

Well-meaning piece in the Globe this morning talks about the many ways the data from the long-form census is important.

Only thing is, who's the first guy they cite?  A guy who crunches demographic numbers for, er ... Starbucks.

Wouldn't be surprising to see a revival of the phony Starbucks / Tim Hortons dichotomy.  Because, as everyone knows, only sneering, Volvo-driving, Birkenstock-wearing urban elitists drink Starbucks.  Authentic Real Canadians^(TM) don't have any truck with fancy-shmancy lattes and such; they head to Tim's for double-doubles.