The Citizen, 2006-08-24, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2006. PAGE 5.
Other Views
The best electric car you never saw
Ever wondered why it's so hard to get
around towns and cities in North
America if you don't happen to have a
car?
My uncle Willard had a theory about that.
"General Motors," he'd growl. "Back in the
20's, lots of big towns and pretty well all cities
on this continent had electric street cars or
radial railways or both. You could get to
anywhere from anywhere, dirt cheap.
Then the big car makers come along and
bought up all the electrified municipal transit
systems and put 'em out of business. Made it
easier to sell gasoline-guzzlin' buses. That's
why today, Canada's got a handful of
streetcars, next to no passenger railway
service, and two, count'em, two, subway
systems — Toronto and Montreal — from coast
to coast to coast."
Well. That's Uncle Willard for you. A card-
carrying paranoid.
He also believes that Tommy Douglas was a
saint, Joe Hill never died and Diefenbaker was
a closet Doukhobor.
For years I consigned Uncle Willard's
rantings to the FreakePile. The same heap that
contained the folk legend about the guy who
invented a formula that could convert ordinary
tap water into fuel — only to bought out by
smooth-talking legal weasels for the Big Bad
Automakers, eager to • maintain their
stranglehold on our wallets.
Hysteria, I scoffed. Simple-minded, Leftoid
nutsism.
Then I heard about EV1.
EVI would be 10 years old this year — if she
had lived.
She was a beauty. Silvery-blue, sleek and
cheeky. Beautiful and lively, too.
The kind of encounter you always hoped a
premier Dalton McGuinty risks going
into an election next year accused of
being "Mr. Dithers" and he could have
difficulty shrugging this off.
The Liberal premier has announced he will
postpone decisions on two major issues he had
been expected to deal with now until after the
election and dawdled on others to the point
where he is 'seen as indecisive.
McGuinty has said he will not decide how to
help municipalities with their many problems
maintaining services until the province and
municipalities make a "fundamental review"
of the issue that will not be completed until
spring 2008.
The election is fixed for October 2007. The
municipalities, which have to rely mainly on
the inadequate property tax, had extra
responsibilities for programs including roads
and social services dumped on them by former
Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris
in the 1990s.
McGuinty said a lot of issues have to be
reviewed and he wants to avoid hasty,
piecemeal changes that may not fit an overall
plan.
But he has been promising to help
municipalities since before he became premier
in 2003 and, if he was unsure how to do it,
should have ordered such a review three years
ago.
To be of real help the province also will have
to assure the municipalities of more funds or "
take over some of their responsibilities, which
would cost it money.
McGuinty is short of cash and running a
deficit and would prefer not to get into such
sensitive issues before an election.
The premier has responded to another
widespread concern, rapidly rising property
assessments, by freezing them for two years,
hoping this similarly will make them less of an
blind date woulcIturn out to be.
Except EV I is — or was — a car.
EV1 was conceived and borne by, of all
begetters, General Motors. She came into the
world in 1996, a good-looking, whisper-quiet,
aerodynamic four-wheeled sedan that, wonder
of wonders, sprinted like a gazelle, handled
like a ballerina, stopped on the proverbial 10-
cent piece....and spewed exactly zero
emissions in the doing.
Downside? Well, the EV1 was electric. She
could only travel about 125 miles without
recharging her nickel metal hydride batteries.
On the other hand, how many trips do you
make in a week that exceed 125 miles?
The people who got to test drive EVI were
enthralled. Ralph Nader was a fan. Tom Hanks
loved it_
In the end, General Motors had to compile a
waiting list of enthusiastic potential buyers,
eager to lay their money down and get behind
the wheel of GM's latest brainchild. They
couldn't turn them out fast enough to satisfy
the demand.
So General Motors destroyed the EV1. In
2003 they suddenly and summarily recalled
every model, trucked them all out to the
Mesa Proving Grounds in Arizona, then
crushed and shredded each and every one of
them
This, after having spent over $1 billion and
issue in the election.
Assessments on which taxes are based have
climbed with house prices since Harris
introduced assessment by market value, re-
naming it "current value" because the notion
of being taxed at market value frightened
many and he had promised not to introduce it
anyway.
This was among many examples of all
parties playing games with market value,
including each refusing to implement it in
spells in government after a provincial study
recommended it in the 1960s.
It has its flaws, but fairer methods, such as
assessing a. property on the services it
consumes, are not as practical.
No government, including the Liberals, is
likely to scrap market value assessment. The
provincial Ombudsman has found the agency
that assesses erred by relying more on
computers than every sale price as a guide to
house values, but this is mere nuts and bolts
that can be corrected.
Caps on assessments often proposed are not
much help, because they allow owners who
make costly improvements periods in which
they can escape full taxes.
The biggest help the province could giye
homeowners on property tax would be to take
over much of the municipalities' costs of
providing services, but McGuinty does not
want to be pinned down on this before an
nine years developing the EV1.
Why would a major corporation behave in
such a seemingly suicidal manner? Simple
economics.
GM had originally created the EV1 in
response to California's strict zero-emissions
mandate.
But that was before Arnold Schwarzenegger
became governor. Under Arnie's leadership,
the zero-emissions standard was rescinded and
automakers were free to go back to the Good
Ole gas guzzling, emission-spewing models
that they (and their good buddies over at Big
Oil) know and love.
Did I mention that the governor keeps a half-
dozen Hummers in his garage?
GM mouthpieces tried to put a positive spin
on the massacre.
"The EV1 experience demonstrated...that
battery technology was not going to advance
any further," said GM spokesman Dave
Barthmuss. "It was only going to appeal to a
small number of people."
Mister Barthmuss neglects to mention that,
even with no advertising other than word of
mouth, GM had a waiting list of 5,000 people
eager to purchase an EV1.
Phil Karn, a San Diego executive, leased an
EV1 from GM and commuted to work in it for
two years. When GM took the car back, he
told The Washington Post, "it felt like losing a
family pet."
Still it's hard to believe that any responsible
government would allow a greedy corporation
to destroy a desirable, perfectly viable proven
product with a waiting market.
Unless of course, you're Canadian and as
old as my Uncle Willard.
He's so old his memory stretches all the way
back to the Avro Arrow.
election.
The premier also has deferred an issue that
began when developers wanted to build on
land at Caledonia to which they had legal title
and Natives occupied it claiming it had been
wrongfully taken from them.
His solution has been to have the province
buy the land, which may take some of the heat
out of the issue until after the election, but
does not get into the principle of who was
right.
While McGuinty is hoping his postponing of
decisions on these issues will remove them
from the election campaign and help him
avoid criticism, his opponents presumably will
remind voters he has not dealt with them.
They also will recall the premier has
dithered on other issues, including a promise
to close down Ontario's coal—fired generating
plants by 2007 to cut pollution, for which he
now has no timetable.
This could be a crucial debate, because the
last politician to be dubbed Mr. Dithers by a
respected British magazine was then Liberal
prime minister Paul Martin in an election early
this year and he lost it.
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Woods of wisdom
Can't exactly call myself a nature girl. I
love the sun, the sky and water; the
calm, the quiet and fresh air. But there
are two major factors that considerably limit
my enjoyment of the great outdoors.
I'm phobic about amphibians, and bugs bug
me. And they are both in great abundance
when one communes with nature.
Truth be told, really, the only creatures I
want to commune with are creature comforts.
Which then brings us to part two of the
problem. I hate dirt and discomfort, and abhor
any hassle when it comes to one's daily
toilette. Not for me is bathing in a stream or
treating great leafy spaces as an outhouse. I
like to preen a bit, groom, add a touch of
mascara. The only way to sleep in my world is
on fresh, clean sheets in a room where there is
no chance of snakes roaming free.
Yet, as mentioned before, I do have a strong
appreciation for much of nature's therapeutic
beauty and have found my ways of enjoying it.
I just don't dive into it.
Instead, when the opportunities present
themselves, I let the majesty of this amazing
existence seep into my tired spirit and soak
away all the worries and stresses.
I want to tell you about two experiences of
this 'nature' we've had the pleasure of seeing.
Our daughter, who is for the record, one of
those earthy, hiking, fishing, swimming, sleep
in the woods kind of gals, also is blessed to
live in an incredibly aesthetically-pleasing
area on the escarpment. During a visit last
summer she said she had a surprise for us, and
we set off up and over hilly streets to a
picturesque park. With its cushioning thick
grass, verdant trees and quaint stone bridge, it
in itself was worth the walk.
But then, we descended down a hundred
steps and entered into Eden. It stopped each of
us dead in our tracks while its beauty worked
its magic on us. Two waterfalls cascaded down
from the densely-treed area, over mossy rock
to the stones and flora below. Coming upon it
was a figurative sigh. The restorative powers
lingered for a long time.
Then this year, she had another treat for us,
albeit a little less relaxing one. • It began on a
narrow, winding path that led us up, up and up,
with no railing to stop a quick trip down,
down, down.
After a few minutes she led us out onto a
ledge where across the gorge was yet another
waterfall. Then on and up we continued until
we stepped onto an outcropping of rock, again
with no barriers, and watched the snake-like
progress of a train. It gave new meaning to
head in the clouds as blue sky wrapped around
us and we looked way down upon an urban
landscape of high rises and traffic.
Several times that day and in the time since
we have pronounced her a very lucky person to
be living in such close proximity to so many
awesome sights. While I may prefer a motel
room and swimming pool over camping in•the
woods by a stream full of trout I have never
discounted the power of nature.
And you don't have to immerse yourself in it
to reap the benefits. Whether it's a day at the
beach or a single moment in your own
backyard listening to Mother Nature's
soundtrack, it will recharge and revive.
If you let it. It's not enough to be with nature
— you have to take the time to acknowledge it.
See the perfection, take a deep breath and
every once in a while, in this busy life, just be.
McGuinty risks Mr. Dithers label