Kevin O'Donnell's blog

A quick thanks to Michael Powell for inviting me to CKCU to talk about beer. We end the clip with a my reaction to McGuinty's exit from politics. (Well, provincial politics anyway).

Full details of our policy are available here.

Obama did it. Kady did it. Now that they're out of the way I thought I'd open an Ask Me Anything thread. Read more »

I've held back doing video blogs for fear that the production value wouldn't be high enough to be respectable. Today I'm getting past that and will just get on with it. So without further ado, here's me in my kitchen. Links to the mentioned events are below.

Ottawa Centre Nomination Meeting Read more »

Synchronicity that I took this photo on Friday. Lines up nicely with this quote about city cycling:

The first time you ride your bike somewhere and lock it to a parking meter right outside where you're going is such a gift.

The actual public info session on the Churchill Avenue rebuild will probably have more details than this, but here's a few illustrations as well as the (very large) PDF design showing the intersection designs, bike lanes, sidewalks, etc. The bike lane designs at Carling have improved significantly since the previous draft. Curious that only three of the four pedestrian crossings get zebra stripes (I suppose that'll be my question on Tuesday) Read more »

There are many problems with our current municipal tax system and resulting MPAC assessments. Moving Ontario to Land Value Taxation (LVT) would be a step in the right direction by removing some of the distortions in our current property tax regime. I'm about to get a ~9% tax increase as a penalty for living in a neighbourhood that other people want to move into, though I'm not consuming 10% more water, roads, or garbage collection as I do it. Read more »

Twice in the last seven days I've been contacted by the media via Twitter direct message. It's worked well considering in both cases I responded immediately. This indicates I either spend too much time close to a mobile phone or Twitter is rapidly becoming the lowest resistance method for getting a hold of someone. Or both.

If you have comments on this topic (wait for it), DM me!

My October electricy bill has arrived and this issue's 10% pollution subsidy (or "Clean Energy Benefit" as it's called on the bill) is $6.96. This will be the smallest amount for the year but, across Ontario, the 10% discount adds up to $950 million in new debt. This is money down the drain today and more money down the drain forever to pay the interest charges. Read more »

I got an email in response to an Ottawa Sun article where I made comments on the separate school system. The email started weird by mentioning gender neutral bathrooms in elementary schools (?) but solidified quickly to a good discussion from an opposing point of view. Unfortunately it ended poorly with some racial innuendo. Read more »

On Sunday I did a phone interview with a Centretown News reporter who wanted to know my thoughts about Mayor Watson's performance to date, mid-way through his term. I was more openly critical than I expected - apparently my circumspect filter was off. But after reading today's Joanne Chianello's article on the casino proposal I wish I'd gone further. Read more »