O•S•C•A•R© - Old Ottawa South

Page 30 The th OSCAR - OUR 40 YEAR
MAY 2012
M.P.P. OTTAWA CENTRE
For nearly eight years, from
February 2000 to August 2008, OSCAR
carried a monthly column, The Windsor
Chronicles, written by Zoscha the
Wonder Dog. Zoscha became something
of a celebrity in our neighbourhood, and
her observations on the passing scene,
from a canine perspective, attracted her
share of loyal readers as well as critics.
OSCAR is reprinting some of
Zoscha’s musings from eight years ago.
The editors have annotated where we
feel that today’s readers may need to
be informed of references that may no
longer be remembered by readers today,
or where recent scholarship has shed
further light on the world described in
the Windsor Chronicles..
April 2003
Dear Boomer,
2012 Ontario Budget: Strong Action for Ontario
By Yasir Naqvi,
MPP Ottawa Centre
Building a stronger Ontario
requires strong action and the
right choices.
The 2012 Ontario Budget lays out
the government’s five-year plan to keep
Ontario on track to balance the budget
by 2017-18, while protecting education
and health care in Ottawa.
The single most important step
we can take to grow our economy is to
balance the budget. A balanced budget
will make the economy stronger and
better able to create jobs, while keeping
education and health care strong.
We will keep full day kindergarten
for our early learners and protect small
class sizes. By making these choices,
we will protect 20,000 education jobs.
We remain committed to the 30% Off
Ontario Tuition grant for eligible fulltime
undergraduate university and
college students, and we will continue
to move forward with building new
libraries at Carleton University and
the University of Ottawa. A strong
education system will keep Ontario
competitive in a demanding global
economy.
We will keep wait times short for
key surgeries and reform our health
care system to provide the right care,
at the right time and in the right place.
The government remains committed to
health care in Ottawa and will move
forward with the planned redevelopment
of the Ottawa Heart Institute, expanding
Queensway Carleton Hospital and the
Hawksbury Hospital and building the
Orleans Health Hub. A strong health
care system will ensure our workforce
in Ontario is healthy and productive.
To help create jobs and spur
economic growth in Ottawa, the
government is moving forward with
planned infrastructure projects including
fixing “the Split” on the Queensway and
completing the Hunt Club interchange.
THE WINDSOR CHRONICLE PART 33
Construction
The weather gets warmer. The Pup
has his bicycle out -- still with
the training wheels on. Maybe
this summer your pup will get a bicycle
as well, so you’ll learn there are certain
advantages, and one disadvantage.
One advantage is that we spend
more time in Windsor Park. The
Pup wants to practice riding his bike
several times a day. This means taking
a few runs along the pathways before
gravitating toward the swings and the
play structures. Taken all together, it
adds up to more quantity of Windsor
Park moments.
And it improves the quality of
Windsor Park moments as well. When
the Pup’s cycling around the river path,
Alpha leaves me to sniff around at my
leisure. When we get to the swings,
there’s lots of opportunities for ball
tossing -- and lots of other humanoids
who, I know, want nothing more than to
throw a ball for an eager doggie.
So lots of advantages. But the
disadvantage is a certain shortness of
temper in Alpha when he tries to herd
the Pup, his bicycle, and me across
Riverdale Avenue to get to the park.
It’s bad enough most years. This
year, Alpha is testier than usual – and
the traffic is enough to give even a
dog of fortitude and ambition pause to
reconsider whether it’s worth trying to
cross Riverdale Avenue.
What’s gotten into this crazy world?
The stream of traffic is unrelenting. The
humanoids seem very grumpy indeed.
The only things that cheers them up is
to see one of those cars with the flashing
lights chase another car down the street.
(1)
Our friend Jacob the German
Shepherd tells me that he and his Fem-
Alpha were almost hit the other day
while they crossed the street. It didn’t
Our $600 million commitment to Ottawa
light rail transit is firm. Additionally, the
Eastern Ontario Development Fund will
continue to provide essential support to
entrepreneurs in our region, spurring
economic development.
The status quo is not an option.
We all have a role to play to meet our
goals. Our government is making the
right choices that speak to the needs of
all Ontario families. These choices will
achieve the highest value for their hardearned
tax dollars.
To meet the goal of a balanced
budget, our plan includes maintaining
a low rate of growth in spending.
The government will achieve this by
transforming the way it delivers the
vital public services that Ontarians
have come to rely on by making
service delivery more efficient and cost
effective.
The plan includes $17.7 billion in
savings and actions to contain costs over
three years while increasing revenues
seem to matter that they were at the
cross walk and there was a stop sign.
A car ploughed through nonetheless,
passing the car that had stopped for
the pedestrians, and nearly clipped the
pedestrians as it rushed by. I’m hearing
more of these stories in the afternoon
romps in the Park.
Bank Street has become
transformed in recent weeks as well.
Lots of new smells. Lots of big holes
where the humanoids try to bury these
huge blue bones. You gotta hand it to
humanoids: when they decide to bury a
bone, they don’t go for half measures.
(2)
I’m able to keep a close eye on the
developments on Bank Street because
Alpha brings me along when he meets
with the neighbours to complain about
what is happening on Riverdale. These
meetings take place nearly every day,
which is a good thing for a dog who
wants to go out into the world and be
seen.
Alpha and the neighbours meet at
different coffee shops. I’m becoming
quite a connoisseur of which ones I like
best. Some let you sit and wait at the
front door. Others don’t. Some give
you overhead protection against April
showers; at others, you sit and look
miserable as your fur grows more wet.
At some, you end up tied to trees and
can sniff the tidings of doggies who
have been there before you; at others,
you’re tied to a parking meter with no
scent but the dust of street construction.
(3)
So when I hear Alpha talking
with the neighbours about how they
want these streets to look when the
construction is all finished, I’m all for it.
I think we should submit our wish list
as well. A fire hydrant on every corner.
More trees so that the concrete will be
by $4.4 billion without raising taxes.
That means the accumulated deficit will
be $22.1 billion lower in 2014-15 than
if no action were taken.
Our government’s five-year
plan will keep Ontario on track. The
McGuinty government has beaten its
deficit forecasts for a third year in a row
and will continue its strong record of
beating fiscal targets.
The choices we are making are the
right choices for today’s challenges.
They are fair, balanced and reasonable.
Success will take time and an
unwavering commitment – but we will
get there, together.
For more information about
the 2012 Ontario Budget, please
visit www.ontario.ca/budget or
www.yasirnaqvimpp.ca, or call my
Community Office at 613-722-6414.
Yasir Naqvi, MPP
Ottawa Centre
cooler in the summer, and there’ll be
enough squirrels to keep us entertained.
Grassy strips between the sidewalks
and the curbs, so that when we piddle,
it soaks into the earth and doesn’t run
across the sidewalk. And how about
doggie-treat dispensers at every crosswalk?(4)
“Take back control of our
neighbourhood streets,” I keep hearing
Alpha say. I couldn’t agree more. Let
the motto be: “This neighbourhood is
going to the dogs!”
Watching the cars and the world
go by,
Zoscha
(1) Calista McCaffrey, “A Dog’s
Eye View; Zoscha and the world of Old
Ottawa South,” Carleton University
Review, Summer, 2009, notes that
Ottawa traffic police sometimes wait at
the corner of Riverdale and Cameron to
catch motorists who run the stop signs.
(2) In her unpublished Master’s
thesis, A Dog’s Eye View, Zoscha and
Windsor, (Carleton University, 2010),
Monica Tardif reveals that Bank Street
was under construction during spring
and summer of 2003. She concludes
that the “huge blue bones” were, in fact,
water mains.
(3) Tardif, op. cit., lists the possible
Bank Street coffee shops referred
to at that time as the Second Cup at
Sunnyside, Starbucks at Hopewell,
and Tim Horton’s near Riverdale. At
the time of her thesis she observed that
dogs continued to wait patiently outside
Starbucks.
(4) Zoscha wrote this article before
doggie boutique stores such as “Wag”
and “Global Pet Foods” opened on
Bank Street. No doubt she would have
approved.