First, I’d like a Prime Minister that levels with his people. One that explains a trade deal instead of secretly negotiating it. One that defends Canadian sovereignty, rather than allowing foreign firms to challenge our laws in banking and our practices in local purchasing. One that tells us why we have a trade deal with Columbia. One that does not take environmental protections away with wording in the middle of a huge, omnibus, budget bill.

Second, I’d like to watch a news program that doesn’t look as if it was made as cheaply as possible. I’d like not to see the same clip more than once in an hour (record is five times, so far). I’d like every speech not to end up with wasted air time: This has been MyName, MyLocation, ThisProgramName. (We already know all of this, eh?) I’d like to get news rather than social studies. (Who cares what a child thinks about a new park? What happened in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere?)

Third, I’d like to see progress on public transport in Toronto. All we have to date is talk, plus the stupidity of a three-stop subway to Scarborough when a seven-stop LRT would be faster, cheaper, better service, and completely adequate. Olivia Chow would put a few older buses back in service – at least that could make a difference, today. Meanwhile the money is always coming from some magical partnership with governments. Let’s be brutally honest here: Toronto hasn’t the guts to raise taxes much; Queen’s Park doesn’t seem to be listening much (Kathleen Wynne, do you read blogs?) and the Federal Government is micro-managed by an ex-Torontonian who hates us.

Fourth, I’d like to see all pharmaceutical companies inspection failures carefully investigated. Apparently, product banned in the USA by the FDA was allowed and sold here. Apparently Health Canada keeps inspection results secret. The Toronto Star of today’s date (Sept 11, 2014) has a front-page story on this. Health Canada apparently said, drugs made in unacceptable conditions were allowed to be sold because they were ‘important.’ I suspect that the drug lobby is simply too powerful for our regulators to handle.

Finally, I’d like to see a plan, any plan, for peace on earth. We’re being dragged into Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, ? Ukraine ? in insurrections that seem unstoppable. Does anybody know how these non-state actors come into being? Do they really believe a caliphate can be created? (There is an exceptional Wikipedia article on the Caliphate and its history; it was religiously tolerant, and improved living standards – at least at the beginning.)

Enough already. Clearly, I’m smoking cheap dope if I expect to see any of the above in the real world.