Here you fill find things that irritate me & things that just plain piss me off!

Starting with..

People who don't use their turn signals.

    Why is it that so many people in Canada don't use their turn signals? I thought to start with, it was just the fact that I'm an immigrant & therefore don't possess the highly developed level of telepathy that the natives seem to have. But over the last few years I've realised that other immigrants don't use their turn signals! Not only that but I've also noticed that the Police don't always use theirs either..

    I thought that maybe as a cost saving measure that all cars (except mine) are no longer fitted with the little lever that makes the turn signals work installed to the left of the steering wheel, (easily within the reach of an outstretched finger). But I checked through a few car dealerships & was able to determine that the car makers still fit them, and yes, according to the salesman they work!

    I blame the Police fairly & square here, the fact that they don't always signal simply condones that to not signal is ok.

    I can only conclude therefore that North Americans are either lazy, dumb, or just plain forgetful, or maybe a combination of the three. Honestly people, just how much effort is it to lift your finger to flip the little lever up or down? After a while you will find you don't even need to remember to do it, it will become 2nd nature, just like speeding up to go through that red light.

Which brings me to:

 People who drive through red lights (and stop signs).

    It took me less than a couple of days driving here to realise that when your traffic light turns green you DO NOT MOVE! Instead what you do is have a really good look in all directions to ensure that the people who have the red light are actually making an attempt to stop. This is one of the most dangerous things you will encounter while driving in Canada, I have personally witnessed dozens of red light "heroes" who blaze through without any apparent concern for either their own life or for anyone else's. On one occasion while approaching a light at about 100 yards away it turned yellow, I slowed to a stop as it turned red & the guy in the truck 50 yards behind me moved out into the outside lane & drove straight through! Lazy & forgetful does not apply here Ok?

    Another thing that really bugs me are the people who use the right to turn right on a red light too literally. They don't even stop, several times I have had to brake, despite having the right of way to avoid colliding with one of these morons.

    Time for the Cops to install traffic light cameras I think, Ontario's budget deficit would disappear within a week.. Of course having cameras would also enable the law makers to look out for the road planning engineering geniuses who:

 Simply don't have a clue how to program traffic lights.

    As I mentioned above one of the really cool traffic laws in Ontario allows you to turn right on a red light, assuming there is not a sign posted which disallows it. However, there is of course a problem which exists because the people who dreamt it up ran out of good ideas. What they did was to program the computer which controls the traffic signals to switch on the green light for traffic and the pedestrian walk signal to green at the same time. GENIUS! What they have done is to create a very dangerous situation for pedestrians & at the same time slowed down traffic flow, this one must be at the very top of the road engineering & planning departments list of achievements. Guys, think about it for a moment, all you need to do is re-program the computer to stop all traffic, while pedestrians cross safely, then when traffic has the right of way you won't have to stop while turning right to allow pedestrians to get off the road. Which brings me to:

Pedestrians who have a death wish.

    Before moving to Canada I purchased a book, it was about living & working in the USA & Canada. In one of the sections about Canadian culture, it mentioned how Canadians value their rights as a pedestrian. I absolutely agree that while walking you have right of way over traffic BUT, having the right does not guarantee that you can just walk out to cross a road without looking to see if you are potentially going to be killed or injured..

    Again I have witnessed many times pedestrians walking with their back to the traffic walk across the side street you are about to turn into without breaking their stride or looking over their shoulder. Having seen a few accidents I know that Canadians are not indestructible therefore I have to conclude that lazy & forgetful does not apply. Apparently having the right is more important than being killed by that car or motorcycle.. Which brings me to:

Motorcyclists who want to be killed.

    As a motorcyclist of many years & now a car driver, I still look over either my right or left shoulder when making a lane change. This is something that was a requirement during training, & to be honest it just makes sense. If you rely on your mirrors alone, sooner or later you will be hit by the vehicle you couldn't see in the blind spot. Every time I see a motorcyclist make a lane switch without looking I cringe, because having had my fair share of falling off motorcycles I know it hurts, a lot.. Again, lazy & forgetful does not apply here.. On the other hand maybe the Bikers are relying on the noise of their Harleys to warn traffic of their presence. I know I'm probably a Philistine & it is probably heresy to say it but I just don't get the whole Harley Davidson thing. But enough of that, motorcycling is one of the great pleasures in life, that is of course on the assumption that you can afford to put gas in the tank, which brings me to:

Why are the Gas companies ripping us off?

    I have a almost anal interest in the price of a barrel of crude oil & its relationship to the price at the pumps. It goes without saying that there is no relationship in the minus direction, only the plus, To illustrate this if the crude price goes up a couple of bucks, then almost inevitably the price goes up by several cents the next day. However if the crude price goes down a couple of bucks, the pump price goes down by a cent or two over the course of the next two weeks. For their part the gas companies cite "market forces" as the reason for the price fluctuations, it sounds so much better than "gouging". I pass by three gas stations everyday, they represent three different gas companies, the pump price is within 0.5 of one cent of each other, why? Also the price changes by a few cents per litre depending on the time of day, always more expensive in the morning, why? In fact when there was a fire in a local refinery recently, Petro Can raised its pump prices along with the others the next day & it was not even a Petro Can refinery, why?

    Why is because they can, gasoline is a commodity that you have to have in a mobile society, therefore the gas giants can charge what they like. meanwhile the Government sits by & makes the statement that there is nothing they can do about it & even if they reduced the tax rate by a couple of percentage points (from the current 50%) it would not save you much.. In the meantime they are making out like thieves along with the gas giants & stashing Billions of dollars in windfall revenue. My question here is what exactly is the Government doing with this windfall? they still plead that they are broke when it gets around to budget time...

    The gas companies for their part put some faceless spokes person on TV to tell us that their vastly inflated profits are not the result of high gas prices. Just how gullible do they think we are? We have the fat cat assholes running these companies raking in millions of dollars in bonuses for doing what? Hey! I think I'll put in the suggestion to my company to triple the selling price for our products, then I'll get a big bonus. Oh, but wait, our customer won't pay that much for our product, they would just go elsewhere. But with the current collusion between the gas companies we don't have that option, do we? If I could save a few more cents on every litre of gas I buy I could put it towards paying more taxes. Which brings me to:

Why does every level of Government rip us off?

    To be honest, I do not have any regrets since moving to Canada (apart from not being able to see my family in the UK as often). However if I had to name something it would probably be why did we move to Ontario? To be fair Ontario does not have the highest level of provincial taxation but along with the federal slice of the pie you end up working 6 months of the year for free. The various levels of government have got all the bases covered then but the one that really ticks me off is the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation of Ontario (MPAC). This Government organization is responsible for setting the level of property tax that you pay annually to the City council (& Province) for the privilege of living in your own home.

    Here is how it works, it really is a stroke of pure genius from the bean counters.

    MPAC monitors the sale price of properties in your area during the course of the year, based on the value of these sales they then figure out that your property is now worth this much. Therefore because house prices have generally been on the rise for the past several years in south western Ontario your property tax increases every year. This is because your property is now worth more money, therefore you are richer!! See what I mean? grade school logic applies here, I wrote to them one year thanking them for the tax hike, after all I really didn't need the money. I told them that being richer on paper does not increase the size of my bank balance until I sell the property, & wouldn't it be a better system if the tax hike only applied when you buy or sell a property? At least that way you know what you are getting in to, needless to say they did not respond to my (admittedly sarcastic) letter. But I guess they had the last laugh, my property tax has almost doubled in the last 7 years, along with a reduction in local public services. Like I said pure genius...But at least they can't take away the fact I can still browse through the stores in the middle of the summer & check out all the new Winter products, which brings me on to :

Why do all the Stores push the season?

   Weeks before the kids went back to School after the summer holidays the stores were busy clearing the shelves of anything that resembled the summer. As a consequence by the middle of August all summer stock has either gone or is being rapidly sold off to been replaced by the winter merchandise. I even saw one store chain putting the Halloween merchandise on the shelves in the middle of July for Christ sakes! It is the same in Winter, by next March you won't be able to find gloves, scarves & other Winter stuff, no but how about that nice bright yellow tee shirt & matching pants? ideal for the 20 below weather.. Of course that assumes that you can get to the stores in the first place, because..

The moron in front or beside you is hogging the passing lane.

    Why is it when you are out on the 400 series highways that there is always someone who sits in the passing lane completely oblivious of anything that is going on around them? The worst example is the person (man or woman) who sits in the outside lane just behind you, too close for you to be able to move out thereby forcing you to brake in order to avoid running into the back of the vehicle in front of you. Hey! if I can see that I'm catching up with a vehicle in my lane why can't the person sitting in the car preventing me from moving out also see? Simple, they either are simply not paying attention or don't care, looks like we are back to lazy, dumb, & forgetful... Which brings me to

When did it become a God given right to cut the corner?

    Whenever I'm making a left turn at an intersection I position the car as far left in the lane as I can, stop on the stop line with my left turn signal flashing. All correct according to the drivers handbook. So why is it that Drivers who are turning into the road I'm waiting to drive out of always give me the killer hate look. Easy! my position on the road prevents them from cutting the corner off & forces them to slow down and drive 2 more yards. Even worse, they now have to turn the steering wheel an extra half turn to maneuver around me. I know it takes a huge effort to do this despite having power steering, but honestly, if you saw the look some drivers give me... I do it now just to watch their reaction & smile at them just to piss them off a bit more.. By the way, If it is a Truck turning in than I'll stop 20 yards away from the intersection because they can't help but cut the corner.. People even give me the evil eye when I do the same thing on my Motorcycle, hopefully I wont get hit which would be very bad news because..

My Insurance Company loves to rip me off.

    So when I got my restored Kawasaki 400 back on the road this year I of course needed to insure it. As you can read elsewhere on this site we're talking about a 33 year old relic that might see 1500 miles this year. I must admit I was not terribly surprised at their reaction when I started phoning around for quotes. Fair enough to consider me a new rider despite my 20 years experience in my misspent youth. But here is the conversation. "What bike is it"? "A 1976 Kawasaki 400, does it qualify under your vintage Motorcycle policy"? "It's over 30 years old". "What licence do you have"? "I have my M2". "Sorry, you need to have a class M licence to qualify for that insurance". WTF! I really don't know how that changes things. The other thing is and this really pissed me off, they told me they would not insure it without a full appraisal from a professional auto appraiser. 

    So I got it done at a cost of $140, called them back only to be told that they would not insure me for fire or theft, liability only... So let me get this right, I have to have a valuation done in case it gets wrecked, burnt, or stolen, BUT they won't insure it for those things because.. I'm a NEW rider....What a fucking rip off. So while I was bent over taking it up the butt, the final insults were delivered. EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE DOLLARS, And no, you can't cancel the policy in the fall otherwise you won't continue to build a good riders record. Sorry to keep banging on here but how many Motorcycles do you see on the road after October? Easy NONE, this is fucking Canada you morons, we call motorcycles Ski-Doo's in the winter..

     Just another sad example of the daily rip off's in our lives really, and the insurance companies claim to be losing money. Maybe that's true when you look at the generally poor standards of driving here. But somehow I don't believe it. I know a Guy in the US who can insure all 4 of his motorcycles for $75 a year on a classic policy. Ok, I had to get that off my chest, I feel better now, but my butt is still sore..

To be continued....