αndrew mcilwrαth

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cαnαhdidiαn | northern irish | clαrinetist |

my lαst nαme is pronounced mαckle-wrαth.

fuck cancer. 🌈

[αndrew mcilwrαth @amcil]

Headbanging my night away to Shostakovich

[αndrew mcilwrαth @amcil]

oncologist appointment today.

[🇺🇸 Bekah 🇺🇸 @bekahj]

My therapist once told me to do something strange.

He said, "Write everything down as if you're dying in 30 minutes."

I laughed and said, "What? That's not true..."
But before I could finish, he shouted, "Are you out of your mind? I said you're dying. Write it down!"

His tone changed everything. I wanted to ask questions, but he yelled again, "Why are you wasting time on me? You have 29 minutes and 30 seconds left."

So I picked up my pen and started writing.
At first, I didn't know what to say. Then I wrote to my parents, my friend, my siblings. I wrote everything I never said out loud.

It was like all feelings came out at once.
When the 30 minutes were over my therapist told me to stop.

"Rest for fifteen minutes and then I'll tell you something."

I sat there breathing hard, eyes wet and totally uncontrollable heart beat. mind racing.

He gave me a glass of water and said, "Now read what you wrote."

I read it slowly. Every word was full of love, regret, and things left unsaid.

He then asked, "Why didn't you write to your boss? Or your exes? Or the people you complain about?"
I said, "Why would I write to them?"
He smiled and said, "Exactly. If they don't matter in your last moments, why do they matter so much now?"

Author unknown (shared from Facebook group)

[uj @umeshjj7]

canada has a stretch of highway in toronto, ontario called the 401 that is the busiest highway in north america and on a friday afternoon it functions as the world’s largest parking lot.

[oneplusone🇨🇦 @oneplusone10]

Ontario needs the opposite of Doug Ford.

Marit for premier.

…

[cow @cowincrisis]

farmer said i need to “produce more”?? buddy i’m literally a cow not a startup

[αndrew mcilwrαth @amcil]

Sorry I've been quiet the last little bit. Just about to have another colonoscopy. Fun times

[cow @cowincrisis]

fucking annoying

[Scott Barber @thescottbarber]

Hudson’s Bay once owned 5% of the Earth’s land surface and now it’s a kiosk in a Canadian Tire

[Eric Lombardi (EricForOLP.ca) 🇨🇦🚀 @EricDLombardi]

Canada and Ontario are a democracy, but it often feels like we’ve lost *democratic culture*.

You can see it in the debates we’re having (and lack there of).

I’ll use the Toronto Island/Billy Bishop controversy as an example. 👇

First, what is the problem?

- The island airport lease was set to expire in 2033, but has been extended to 2045 to figure out next steps.

- The Q400 turboprop planes that fly out of the airport are no longer mass produced.

- While maintenance works for the next decade or two, the island airport really has 2 options: Extend the runway to allow jets or shut down the airport.

- - -

The democratic approach to solving this problem would look like the following.

1) Establish a working group to evaluate future options, should be governed by clear stakeholders from all participants (Feds, Province, City, TPA etc).

- Expand the airport
- Maintain the airport
- Shut the airport

It should also propose a transparent mechanism for determining a path forward. This doesn’t mean every stakeholder gets what they want, but people understand how the decision is made and accept it.

2) Present clear futures to the public for scrutiny and debate.

- Detailed proposals outlining cost/benefit/context/trade-offs/remediation.

- Context of other potential infrastructure investments and developments (eg, HSR, Ontario Place, Port Lands)

- Access and Local/regional transit upgrades to improve connections

- Impacts on airline competition in the region, and remedying options (eg, upgrading Hamilton Airport)

- The potential of working with De Havilland/Bombarier/Embraer on re-production of suitable planes for the existing or reduced runway expansion scope

- Business/investment potential

- Cultural and environmental impact

3) Period for public scrutiny. The reality is that reports and commissions get a lot wrong, because humans are fallible.

Public advocacy (not NIMBYism) often improves outcomes and clarifies preferences. The public and civil society have a role here.

4) Decision by arms-length mechanism suggested in (1) and a clear/written justification for the approach.

It should not be a partisan decision by the Ford government, which will be long gone before anything materializes. That’s how you ensure legitimacy going forward so a future gov doesn’t change course after spending billions of dollars.

Not everyone will be happy, but at least people will know that fair consideration actually occurred.

- - -

The problem with the ham-fisted approach being pursued by Ford, TPA and the Conservatives (and from the shameless silence of the Federal Government) is that the public has very little information to go by.

The city itself is completely in the dark.

And yet, there is a rush to use eminent domain over the entire islands.

It’s an authoritarian impulse to believe that opposition has no inherent legitimacy.

I love democracy, debate, and ideas.

Yet our leaders have been afraid to actually believe in it in their actions. Everyone is reacting pathologically.

So, do I support the island airport expansion? I can’t possibly know. We literally don’t have the information to judge. And that’s the core democratic failure.

All I can say is that we should demand better from @fordnation @PrabSarkaria @MarkJCarney cc @RunChiNguyenRun @WaterfrontAll @WaterfrontBIA @NoJetsTO

[cow @cowincrisis]

me avoiding you

[Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute @RonaldReagan]

👑 Here’s Queen Elizabeth II charming the room during her visit with President Reagan after being welcomed by torrential California rain.

[12,000 angry bees @WWaltuhh]

Come outside.

[lordmicky.base.eth 🇵🇹 @0xlordmicky]

A husband and wife are asleep when someone starts banging on the front door in the middle of the night.

The man checks the bedside clock. It is 3:00 a.m.

“No chance I’m getting up now,” he mutters, turning over.

A moment later, the knocking comes again, even louder.

His wife nudges him. “Are you seriously not going to see who it is?”

Grumbling, he climbs out of bed, stumbles downstairs, and opens the door. Outside stands a stranger, clearly very drunk.

The man at the door squints at him and says, “Sorry to bother you... could you give me a shove?”

“Absolutely not. It’s three in the morning,” the husband snaps, and shuts the door.

Back upstairs, he climbs into bed and tells his wife what happened.

She frowns. “That was unkind. Do you remember when our car died in the rain and you had to knock on someone’s door for help? Imagine if they had turned you away.”

“He was drunk,” the husband says.

“So what?” she replies. “He still needed help. Go help him.”

Feeling guilty, the husband gets dressed, heads back downstairs, and opens the front door. He cannot see anyone in the dark, so he calls out:

“Hey! Do you still need a push?”

From somewhere outside comes the answer:

“Yes, please!”

The husband looks around and shouts, “Where are you?”

A voice calls back:

“Over here... on your garden swing!”

[Lion @LionInCrisis]

Giraffes always peeking over everything. mind your own business. fucking skyscrapers.

[Dog @thefarmers_Dog]

i will never beef cow.

[cow @cowincrisis]

the fuck did i do ????

[Marit Stiles @MaritStiles]

#BREAKING: I've written to Prime Minister Mark Carney, urging him to intervene to stop Doug Ford's Toronto Islands land grab.

While emergency rooms close, grocery prices go up, and workers lose their jobs, Doug Ford’s obsession with Toronto is costing the province.

The federal government can end this today.

[Aviation @xAviation]

MD-11 fast take-off. The pilots were definitely having fun.
📹: kwp302

[Shazi @ShaziGoalie]

LAWRENCE PARK ISN’T IMMUNE...

This Toronto home sold for $2.8M in 2023 after the peak.

Now it sells for $2.3M.

$500,000 gone.

One of Toronto’s most established neighborhoods.

When even here starts resetting…
pay attention.

[Salty Bluenoser 🦞🦞🦞🦞 @long17_de]

However you feel about the King, his speeches, both in Congress and at the dinner, are worth a listen. He was giving them a vicious roasting. I doubt many of them understood some of the references, but Canada, Ukraine, France, and NATO did. Maybe this visit WAS worth it.