The burning question to be asked is `Does Canada want to develop further or is it satisfied with the present level of development. If the answer is a yes then there is a need for this article. If no then we can continue to write.
SPORTS
The reason Canada does not have a minister of sport is that Canada is wicked and evil and does not like to see black people prosper because of its racist, myopic and wicked leaders which do not want black people to make any money. That is the only reason why Canada is not more involved in sports.The white people are very delusional. One of their biggest delusion is that hockey is the favourite sports of Canada.My notice to them is that when those little boys and big men that glide around on the ice with the oversize stick is finished they put on their sneakers and get a ball and either play football or basketball. They also need to examine the number of immigrants they have and how many of them even know that their is a game called Hockey. The crux of the matter is that black people are natural athletes and would make a lot of money if Canada had a truly integrated sports programme.
The mentality of Canadian leaders is too poor, too poor. Let us examine the situation with Ben Johnson and how that was handled. Canada quickly had a Federal Minister of Sports to denounce the man and then the position has disappeared Ben Johnson. Ben Johnson is a product of the North American Society.In Jamaica our default reaction is never medication or visit the hospital. We first try the home remedy garlic tea, eucalyptus oil and honey for cold, coconut water for vomiting, sweet sugar and water for a hard blow etc. Merlene Ottey was denied many goals because she could not compete against those doped up runners from the USA. We in the Caribbean could not afford the expensive drug programs and had to perform based on raw talent. As Dr Myles Munroe would say ìt is `constipated potential`the fact that we have been denied so long, when we get the chance, we over-perform. Until Canada gets the vision they will continue to have a disjointed sports programme with the Private Sector and big imperial banks taking on a piece of their own deciding to sponsor what they like. Rogers Cup used to be TD Bank sponsoring Tennis, BMO Football field each doing as they like from Province to Province. Nations that are serious about sports drive it from the school through the physical Education programmes from Kindergarten right up to the professional leagues. That way any money that the private sector has people will have to compete for it and it is more widely distributed and money from the government will also be more equitably distributed. This has to be driven by the government because they are for the people. Private Sector is interested in branding and making profits not running wholistic sports programme. That is why you have situations like that in Brampton, the government sponsoring a hockey team from the council`s purse. How do you decide which teams to sponsor? Brampton Beast Bailout.
Community Centres are a fantastic idea, however these centres are for people with disposable income that is becoming a very difficult thing in Canada with the shift in the job market, more and more people on contracts, general labour and short term employment. Not to mention General labour which is so precarious and seasonal. The community parks are where the real sports take place in Canada. A lot of team sports especially in the summer.
In order to take shame out of its eyes in the area of basketball Canada should at least have a league that mirrors that of the USA for the simple reason that basketball was invented in Canada. Every Province should have a basketball programme with a NBA team with the local leagues being a feeder for the major teams. The performance of the Raptors fluctuate too widely, Chris Bosh the year after he left got a NBA ring with his new team. The Toronto Maple Leafs in my book has mastered the psychology of losing. They are well loved by Ontarians, they are the butt of every hockey joke in Canada. These athletes in Canada have serious psychological challenges. They have a lot of talent but their self concept needs to be worked on especially the NBA team.
TOURISM
Transportation
This area once again reflect the lack of cohesive thinking and solidarity in nation building that is lacking in Canada. There is a Minister of Tourism but the visibility is very low keyed. Right off the bat let us compare a nation which seems to understand the significance of this industry with Canada, the United States. What did you say? The US has load of experience over Canada. That is exactly it, one does not have to reinvent the wheel. One can learn from those who have trodden the way before us. At present most persons living in Canada does not even think of vacationing in Canada, automatically they think of going abroad. That is understandable taking the plane and flying out is much easier and less expensive than staying in Canada. Ease of movement is extremely important to a tourist because most of what we Jamaicans call `Pepsi-Cola`tourists want to get the most out of a country for the least possible cost. Everybody wants to maximize their dollar high level or low level. I went to Ottawa and enquired about a weekly pass and was told it was not available. I could get a daily or monthly pass. This is unacceptable which tourist stays anywhere for a month, you are automatically a resident if you are staying that long. Compare this to New Orleans, where you can get a one day, three day, five day, seven day, twenty-one day or one month pass. Now these people are serious about their tourism. I think their transit cards were also free. In Canada the Presto Card is six dollars which is a more permanent card. Most States in the US give you a number of options in terms of your Metro Travel. In New York the Metro Card is $1 (dated) and you can have a number of options also. Most cities the Metro Card or Transit Card is one dollar or less. The most I have paid for it is two Dollars in Atlanta, Georgia and it was stolen out of my pocket. In Boston, Massachusetts it is called a Charlie card and the first one is free. One also has to look at the cost of transportation which is extremely high in Canada compared to the US. It is cheaper to fly out of Canada for a foreign vacation than to traverse Canada Via Rail, Amtrak and Greyhound. In the US you have the competing Mega bus which has prised Greyhound`s hold on the Transportation Market. I paid US$48 from Phoenix, Arizona to Los Angeles, California a distance of approximately six hundred kilometres. I bought this ticket on the spur of the moment. Since, returning to Canada I have had to pay Sixty Canadian dollars from Toronto to Ottawa. This is within the same Province and there was no other bus service competing against Greyhound. The buses had split up the routes. The distance was four hundred and fifty kilometres. From where I am sitting there should have been a subway link from Toronto to Ottawa. I should just jump on a train from one city to the next with links in between. The little towns on the way are joined by a two lane road. Not much activities taking place. Toronto needs to implement the light rail system or subway systems moving out into towns such as Ajax, Sudbury and Sault Sainte Marie. These two lane roads across the provinces are inadequate. I will pick up this point in terms of development of the nation because it speaks to more than tourism. Toronto needs to be replicated to a greater or lesser degree all over the nation.
Promotion of Tourist Attractions
It was really a wonder to me at some of the attractions in the US (especially in Dallas, Texas every building seems to be a Plaza and the park on Wall Street) like calling a building a plaza and their definition of a park. Since travelling through Canada I am amazed at the number and variety of attractions that people are not aware of (let me not say people) I was not aware of. And I did study very hard for my citizenship examination. I observe that the major cities have a serious promotion programme. Toronto promotes Toronto and Ottawa promotes Ottawa. Montreal promotes Montreal and Quebec City promotes Quebec City. My question is who is promoting Ontario or Quebec or even Canada. In my estimation the Provinces need to have a comprehensive tourist attraction package for all seasons. If I need to know what are the attractions in Ontario i should not have to go and pull a brochure from each city to find out or buy someone`s book. The Tourism website of each province (by the way do you have tourism websites for each province?) should tell me. After researching this comprehensive guide then I can decide what I want to do and bring it down to the micro level by researching what each city has to offer. A very good way of promoting this concept is through what I see the US called Welcome Centres`they are at the major entrance of every state. If you are not Raphleta you get a choice of a cold or warm beverage (everywhere I went they only had coffee Je ne bois pas de café) and they also gave you a talk on the state and the free maps. I especially liked the latter. In Santa Barbara, California, the rich state the map cost US$4.95 plus tax. I paid them no mind. Canada also also needs to upgrade its rest areas in remote places those little wooden houses and benches al fresco that I am seeing are quite inadequate in this modern century especially if you have a serious trucking industry through the path. People also need shelter to rest just in case they do not want to stay in their vehicle. In addition, one has to be mindful of the weather.
Let us move on to air travel. I am perturbed at what I am witnessing at Pearson Airport. When I leave Pearson Airport I certainly leave there with an impression. I am wondering if it is the impression that Queens Park wants me to have. The impression is this the airport and the city are run by CIBC. CIBC has an arrival lounge with red chairs, CIBC is on the big screen in the Arrival Lounge and the carts in the airport are donated by CIBC. I don't recall ever seeing any tourism booth at the airport.
In contrast, my favourite airport to date in the world. In fact I will give you a list of my favourite airports based on ease of access and operations. I had to lean on international laws for my protection.
- Vancouver International Airport - Ease of access, the sky train and very well built. Has a lot of Art work very pretty.
- San Francisco - Ease of Access the train ends in the airport, they have a nice section where one can sit. A beautiful and well kept airport well managed.
- Seattle Tacoma - Ease of Access sound train goes through the Airport. They have a check in booth specifically for Amazon. Lovely staff and nice Starbucks.
- Los Angeles Airport - Ease of access unfortunately the trains do not go through the airport but there is a 24 hours shuttle service. Their international arrival and departures is new and pretty. I mark LA down because of the fact that the train does not go through the airport.
- Atlanta, Georgia - Fantastically beautiful airport, I think the city will soon outgrow it. The train terminates at the airport.
- JFK - New York - Ease of Access the Skytrain goes into the Airport it is a bit pricey. Very large, free drink by Delta and courtesy telephone call.
All these airports have some serious promotion material on the State or province and information on the train and transit system.
My favourite municipal airport is Santa Barbara clean from the outside in, it is very pretty. Regina needs to look at their airport not even a bus system. The same thing goes for Kamloops. If you have an Airport then you need to be able to run an almost 24 hours bus system. The cheap flights starts checking in at 3 a.m. I guess what I am saying is that when I enter Ontario i want to be greeted with the possibilities of the Province and the Country.
To take this to the macro level we now need someone that is promoting Canada with a tourism action plan and can speak to income being generated from from the Tourism Industry and ways to make the country more attractive to visitors. All the plans from the Provinces would feed into this Federal plan This plan would include Parks Canada which seems to be out there on a limb. Do they have a marketing plan? Where do they fall in the scheme of things? I can't believe they are not visible at the community centres and libraries promoting their programmes.`One of the first thing that any plan would have to tackle would be the high cost of transportation by air and sea. I see there is a new low budget airline being introduced to Canada. There needs to be regional bus systems over all the provinces. Transportation is not a private sector thing it is a public sector initiative.
I cannot believe there were so many camping grounds around Ontario. I have been to a number of churches black and white and I have never heard anyone promoting a camping trip for the young people. I mean no one. I spoke to a guide from one of the parks and he advised that their visitors were mostly from the US. They call it life on the lake. I can only assume it is a lack of knowledge regarding the facilities that are available in the country. The only organization I hear promoting camping is Tim Hortons.
Parks and recreation Canada needs to promote these things not only at the Recreation Centres (please remember that Recreation Centres are not free), at the Library, Churches in the schools and universities at sports gathering etc. There are a number of prominent festivals all over the country. One should be able to take up a document and just be able to see all of them. Coordinated effort between the Ministry of Tourism and parksérecreation Canada.
DEVELOPMENT
From where I am standing it would seem to me that the current generation is living off the glory of past generations Champlain, Laurier, MacDonald and Mackenzie King to name a few. Those fellows had a conqueror mentality.The current set of builders are myopic and lack imagination. Canada is vast with a population of only 37 million (last census 2016). It is also a country with its immigration industry being the number one income earner for the country. Since, that is so and there seems to be no let up in the number of displaced people in the world. The least Canada can do is prepare for the influx of people and realize that not all new arrivals can be placed in the G.T.A. or in Ontario.
So someone needs to sit down and take a strategic look at nation building for the future. How I see it instead of these little towns with five hundred and upward people you want to build urban centres where people can have modern conveniences of life You should also build more of these all weather stadiums so that people are not restricted in their sporting or extra curricular activities.
I tell you sometimes I cannot believe the nation of Canada people wants to reinvent the wheel when the wheel has already been invented. Quebec is a perfect example has been around for three hundred and seventy five years so as a province it has made its mistakes from which all can learn. To a great extent it has also done things well. The Province is more or less filled out. I have not encountered any remote districts in the Province people are perhaps not more than thirty Kilometres from the nearest plaza or civic centre. In terms of their development other Provinces can learn. I could have ridden the bus straight through Quebec if I was not been hampered by external forces. Most municipalities are not looking to expand outwards. I know in Brampton the businesses were complaining that the Municipality was converting commercial real estate to residential. The effect of this policy is that ninety nine percent of the municipality works in either Mississauga or Toronto. It also begs the question what was the Brampton City Council doing when Mississauga was expanding? The Region of Peel is still discussing light rail when there is an effective system in Vancouver. I noticed Winnipeg was projecting a growth of two hundred thousand people over the next twenty years. In their planning they were looking more inwards than expanding their boundaries and they have land on their outskirts.
In terms of infrastructural growth I think the federal government will have to become more proactive with the immigration policies dovetailing into this development growth policy. Toronto should have been connected to Sudbury and Ajax etc. We are still discussing about Scarborough. Please people let us get a move on. I will not even mention Regina and Saskatoon etc. The current policies I know benefit big businesses and the banks in terms of high concentration of people and high property values because of supply and demand, a large demand and low supply. We have to change the economics and get more commerce and more people involved in business and being self sufficient and less of these large urban centres and highways. Highway 138 and the Chemin Du Roy are fantastic. The United States to a lesser degree also faces the same dilemma. I expected Texas with all that oil money to have had more development but not so. I was shown a plan for light rail in the greater Houston area.
As I say au revoir, I wish this and every country the best. I wish Canada will tap into its potential and become a greater nation.
A bientot
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