Karl Todd

High school teacher, flâneur. Montréalais/Ottavien, ex Londoner (ON) & 東京人 🇨🇦🇯🇵🇳🇿🇮🇪

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@RM_Transit What do you mean by "the way it's implemented"? Quebecers speak French (along with Acadians and Franco-Ontarians) and English-Canadians speak English. What's "implemented"?

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@MadelnCanada And stop signs in Puerto Rico say "Pare" and "Alto" in Mexico. What's your point? It's a big world out there and people have different ways of doing things. Appreciate. Don't criticize.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@RM_Transit The mayor wants a REM de l'est, at least one that connects to the metro. https://t.co/SsiEsf6at2

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@RM_Transit The decline in passengers is mostly because federal government workers are barely back in the office and most workers seem to be ignoring the 3-day at-office minimum. OC Transpo's (and the STO) was planned with these passengers in mind.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@JasonPtvn @RM_Transit Why wouldn't he be? Rapid transit that serves the metro region, not just the centre, with incredibly high frequencies. Not getting your lol.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@ctvottawa It is completely normal to expect a business operating in Quebec to serve their customers in French. How is this news? How does this lead to her not being able to serve clients in English if she wants? This situation shows why the law is necessary.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

Zijn oortelefoons duur in België? #fatsoen #savoirvivre #belgië #belgique

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@JdeMontreal @francishalin Il faut repenser le bilinguisme aux institutions fédérales. Au Québec : uniquement en français, dans les deux langues dans l'est/le nord ontariens et au NB, et en anglais ailleurs — comme en Belgique.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@DerrickSimpson_ Reenergizing downtown is a bonus +saving jobs that probably would be cut once the government realized they weren't necessary, but it's really saving bureaucrats from this very anti-urban, isolated lifestyle. People need to regularly engage in the public sphere in meaningful ways.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@apratte Le "Bonjour - HI" est tellement laid. Qui ne comprend pas "Bonjour"?

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@stats_feed North Americans: soccer

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@the_transit_guy I was on the Montreal-Quebec City train today. It's so comfortable. If they increased frequency to one per hour, it'd attract a lot of people who now clog autoroutes 20 and 40. This should be THE federal election issue.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@DerrickSimpson_ As a fare-paying rider since 2010, my confidence in the system is not higher because there are no inspectors. On the contrary, it's frustrating for me to see that most people don't pay and that OC thinks it's OK. More inspectors and more rules regarding all-door boarding needed.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@OC_Transpo Two 57 Crystal Bay buses not showing and a +40-minute wait at rush hour. How is it that in 2024, with all the tech at your fingertips, you aren't able to reposition a bus somewhere to avoid this?

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@HaydenM16 If I remember correctly, the frequency on this line was every 2 minutes pre-pandemic.

[Karl Todd @karl_todd]

@RM_Transit That is so wild, I was just searching your archives for anything on Brussels, thinking that Belgium in general, and its capital in particular, would be a great subject for you. Was even going to suggest it. Will be there in July for a month if looking for more info/footage.

[Adam Tranter @adamtranter]

If you want to understand how much, as a society, we’ve slowly normalised road danger, watch this clip from tonight’s BBC News at Six.

I personally don’t think horrific crashes like this should be in the light-hearted “and finally” section.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Mark Mulroney 🇨🇦 @markmulroney]

If you only read one thing today, read this please.

https://t.co/oTE4TilhRw

[alexandra szacka @szackaa]

Pour ceux qui lisent l'anglais...lisez ces paroles du grand écrivain israélien David Grossman...tellement tristes mais tellement justes...
https://t.co/lnAkDGGqvO