I've been hanging out in Toronto more in the last couple of months than I have in the last few years. I've been on the road a lot, so I haven't gotten in touch with the pulse of the city until lately.
Same-same. The city has a pulse, but it's the beat of an aging manic depressive on crack.
The latest installment in the "telling everybody what to do for their own good" way of Toronto life is the new suggestion for a smoking ban. The proposal says that anyone caught smoking in their car while a child under the age of sixteen is also in the car shall be fined a minimum of $200.
Laws are about power. I doubt highly that the anti-smoking politicians give too much of a damn about kids. If they did, they'd pay teachers more, put child molesters away for life without parole, and stop importing cheap lead-lined toys from China.
So no, politicians and busy bodies don't care about kids. But telling somebody what to do? They can't resist.
I'd love to see this law go into action. 17-year-old kids would be fined for bumming a light off their fifteen-year-old friends. Harried mothers trying to have a smoke before work (where they can't smoke within 20 feet of the door) would be fined while dropping off a kid at an underfunded school. Cops too lazy to do their job would be hanging out near the high schools, ready to humiliate parents in front of their children.
Ah, Toronto. I was listening to the radio today, while a dumb morning disc jockey (as if there's any other kind) told the city that Toronto would only be following in the footsteps of some parts of Australia, California, and a small town in Nova Scotia.
With company like that, what a party.
1 comment:
Recent studies are showing that quitting smoking has given rise to the obesity epidemic.
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