Tootfinder

We are in the weirdest timeline... where provincial governments are competing for the most effective and welcoming but also defiant sign.
BC currently going for the “Kill-Them-With-Sentences” approach. 🤪
#BCPoli #CanPoli #CdnPoli #USA #TradeWar #TheAmericanFascist
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/david-eby-counter-tariffs-9.7336195?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Why do Transit planners in Canada make transit worse and then expect to be congratulated?
I’ve ridden buses, in whole or part, to work for most of the past 25 years. In that same period, the bus system has doubled the amount of time it takes to get to work.
Labour Day is when the new schedules come out, so I have tracked them all the way back to 2000.
I gave up on the bus from Qualicum after the pandemic. And this year the schedule is so bad and so long that I might give up completely on getting the bus from Parksville. I’ll probably still go to Woodgrove sometimes but I am tempted to cancel my bus pass.
I used to be able to get to Qualicum at 6:20 or Parksville at 6:45 and be at work by 7:35. Now I have to be in Qualicum by 6:00 or Parksville by 6:22 to get to work by 7:54.
It’s so frustrating. I hate driving all the way in but driving for 1 hour versus taking 3 hours by using a bus part way is just not a reasonable trade.
We need proper commuter transit on Vancouver Island.
#buslife #transit #bcpoli #vancouverIsland #railway

The German state election yesterday is a perfect demonstration of why Proportional Representation (PR) is far superior for democracy than First Past the Post (FPTP).
TLDR: Thanks to Proportionality, the AfD only won a minority, not majority parliament because the state parliament always reflects the popular vote.
The picture shows the state of Saxony-Anhalt divided into its electoral districts. It is almost all blue because the AfD won the most votes in all but three districts but with 42% of the popular vote overall.
Had this been a province in Canada, it would have produced a legislature with just 3 opposition members, and all the rest government members. Delivering absolute majority power with no meaningful voice for any other party (likely also losing official party status and key funding for political activities) despite a significant share of the popular vote. This has happened in Canada many times, including in BC in 2001 when the NDP won just 2 seats with all 77 others going to the B.C. Liberals… it led to a referendum on PR that won over 60% of the vote but was never implemented.
Had this German state used FPTP they would have a gigantic majority of exclusively far right members and just 3 opposition.
Thanks to PR, their legislature will actually reflect the vote of the people.
42% AfD (39 seats)
17% CDU (15)
9% SPD (8)
8% GRN (8)
8% LNK (8)
5% BSW (5)
83 seats: 42 needed for majority.
AfD: 39
Other parties: 44
In B.C., one of the tropes the status quo campaigners constantly bring up is that PR somehow enables extreme parties more than FPTP and is thus dangerous. This has been proven false over and over including right now,
Here we are, with another example as this German state breathes a sigh of relief that PR saved them from a whollly undemocratic and extreme outcome.
Meanwhile, back in B.C., our own now far right BC Conservatives have successfully splintered the “big tent” remnants of the old slightly more centrist B.C. Liberals leading to a mish mash of independents and new parties in the B.C. Legislature that have not been elected by the people and are unable to really function as a proper opposition to the majority government. FPTP doing a great job! *sarc
Why doesn’t Canada have *any* proportional elections?
Inertia, greed, and power.
Germany 2026 state election: #democracy #fptp #pr #germany #canada #bcpoli

RE: #bcpoli

Mother nature’s version of a double tap is a second wildfire at a town that was essentially burned off the map in 2021.
About the only good thing here is there are very few people impacted as most of the town has not been rebuilt yet despite all the initial hand ringing and nice words from BC politicians.
#climateEmeregency #bcwildfire #bcpoli
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lytton-saw-creek-wildfire-evacuations-9.7243091

i don't know who at BC Hydro* is in charge of their Web UX in their user account website, but man they have had this consumption data in one form or another for a long time and now that they have brought in the option for time-of-day based billing, they've improved the graphing even more!
It easily and simply shows, on a daily basis, what rate I am paying at what time and how much.
Beautiful!!
I can also add in the average temperature over that time, and also compare total daily consumption between this year and last. Tier 1 applies to the first 644kWh used of the billing month. Last month the Tier 1 applied to exactly half my consumption.
On my rate schedule (in CAD) the off-peak prices are:
Tier 1: 11.87 cents/kWh
Tier 2: 14.08 cents/kWh
On peak surcharge: 5 cents/kWh
Overnight discount: -5 cents/kWh
As an example, last month I was charged $10.40 for on-peak usage but got a discount of $25.90 for off peak time. After all is said and done, my overall average power cost for the month was 12.67 cents/kWh. The majority of that overnight usage is:
EV charging.
Overnight dishwasher/laundry/dryer/hot water use.
Pond pumps.
*the Crown Corporation that generates and delivers most of the electricity in British Columbia Canada)
#electricity #BCHydro #BCPoli #power #conservation #demanduse

I guarantee it is worse in Canada, especially in BC.
#AffordabilityCrisis #cdnpoli #bcpoli #canpoli

We in BC and in Canada have this on our conscience as the world burns. Carney and Eby plan on doubling this facility and adding others.
Our governments, and by extension we, are not only complicit, but directly responsible for allowing this.
We the people are the only ones who can make it stop.
#BCLNG #BCPoli #CanPoli #CdnPoli #ClimateEmergency #EndFossilFuels

I have a question about oil pipelines in Canada.
What happens in the event the Transmountain pipeline is overrun by a Rank 4 or 5 wildfire?
I know these pipelines carry different product at different times. I know they can be shut. But what would happen if it was a section transporting NGL-diluted bitumen?
#bcwildfire #bcpoli #canpoli #abpoli #climatechange #climateemergency
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/08/10/news/bc-first-nations-chiefs-ask-carney-smith-halt-pipeline-advancement

We were at the hospital again yesterday for @Tree. Another rough day. We made it home after a few hours in the ER and she is OK now, sleeping off the experience.
The hospital and ER were full so while we were there we had a range of people flow through the beds beside us. An older gentleman with heart problems, a drunk man with heart problems, and a young woman, quietly crying for hours, coming down after an opioid overdose, confused and scared and hopeless. Occasionally sharp and upset, but mostly just quietly crying, talking.
It is so sad the human suffering we have allowed our society to tolerate.
I am so grateful we have good people; doctors, nurses, care aids, clerks, attendants, paramedics, even kind security guards and police, taking care of people. And I am glad all this is done without concern for financial ability to pay.
I wish our system was better in so many ways, not least in the ways it could help Tree. But in other ways, it is very good, and doesn’t get credit for just how good it is. Most of that is down to the people within it.
Most people, especially detached from money or power, are good. This is reinforced for me everytime I go to the hospital and see the random strangers that are there for every conceivable reason.
They just want to be happy, be secure, be with family, be occupied, be healthy.
That’s what I see at the hospital. People wanting to be happier, and people trying to make that happen for them.
I hope one day that young lady finds the people she needs to help her stop crying.
#healthcare #hospitals #bcpoli #canada #opioids #drugs #fentanyl #canpoli

Corvus is a Norwegian company.
They do big marine batteries!
#BCFerries #bcferries #ev #electric #transportation #bcpoli #ferry #boats #ships #battery

One last thing!
The word on the water is that the first of the “Island” class small hybrid ferries will be going all-electric on the Gabriola route! There are two ships on that route, twins, they are rebuilding the docks now to get them ready for charging!
The ferries themselves are already VERY quiet. Will I take a trip to Gabriola Island just to ride the first fully electric, non-cable, ferries in B.C.! Absolutely!
Project updates for Gabriola/Nanaimo docks: #BCFerries #bcferries #ev #electric #transportation #bcpoli #ferry #boats #ships #battery

Here is the B.C. Ferries web page about the “New Major Vessels” project. (There was stupid controversy because “omg not China” but that has died down now thankfully)
They want up to 7 (which makes sense… to be able to retire all the Queens and add one for new capacity), they asked for 5, they got 4 approved to be built by 2031. The most interesting graphic is this age graphic showing the age of ships on the major routes. Eventually, these ships WILL have to be replaced, regardless of political footballs…
#BCFerries #bcferries #ev #electric #transportation #bcpoli #ferry #boats #ships #battery

Some really interesting electric power math here for #BCFerries upcoming large transitional hybrid-to-full electric ferries. They will be known as the “Summit” class. 2100 passengers and crew, almost 400 cars. These are big ships.
Equivalent to the biggest Spirit Class between Victoria and Tsawwassen. So would be replacing the last of the 1970s Queens and possibly one of the Spirit or Coastal ships? We’ll see.
Anyway: They will initially have 10Megawatt Hours (MWh) of battery capacity as hybrid diesel/electric which is interesting, not natural gas like some of the other recent hybrids. (Which always felt like a stupid political decision to show off LNG, not a sound engineering decision)
They will then, once docks are upgraded for electric charging, be refit with 60MWh of batteries (total 70MWh) to “enable 2 hours of emissions free sailing”. In distance terms, that’s the one-way sailing time between Duke Point Terminal in Nanaimo and Tsawwassen in Vancouver, about 40 nautical miles (74km).
For comparison, my Kona EV car has a 65kilowatt hour battery… 1000x less capacity!.. giving a range of 450km.
That’s a very heavy ship!!🛳️
It’s a pretty tight capacity window considering the major routes are all between 1.5hrs and 2hrs. But they could be being conservative in the press release, indicating they would comfortably fit those timelines, or they will be still using hybrid power and shore docking ports to augment and ensure they have adequate power. They will always need lots of reserve and backup for safety.
I also imagine in the 30-60 year lifetime of the ships, we could see the energy density of batteries in general increase, so a refit in 2040 or 2050 could replace 70MWh with 100 or 140MWh in the same physical space.
What seems sure though is that B.C. Ferries is going to have some, if not the, largest fully electric capable ferries in the world. That’s a good thing.
First ship of 4 will arrive from China in 2029. Last of the class arrives in 2031. So hopefully we get our first ride in 2030! Looking forward to it!
#bcferries #ev #electric #transportation #bcpoli #ferry #boats #ships #battery