Not so happy old year!

2011 wasn't all bad personally.
I got a new right hip. I had a nice trip to St. Lucia. I got to see Houston while tagging along on my wife's business trip. I also got terminated. Oh well. Keep the cheques coming.
On a broader scale  2011 was darn close to amazing.
I consider the earthquake/Tsunami/nuclear meltdown in Japan to be the story of the year around the world, not just because of the suffering that took place but because of the very power of Mother Nature to wreak havoc on this planet. A second world story that changed the course of history was the rising up of people's everywhere toppling dictators and autocratic regimes. The change that is still going on in the Middle East is reminiscent of the fall of Communism in Europe two decades ago with the potential to be even more impactful especially if the Persian Gulf states go up in flames. The third most important story I thought was the rise of social media. Think of the pictures from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and now Syria. Without social media these history changing events might not have taken place. The same with Japan. Have you ever seen more stunning pictures taken by so called non professionals disseminated to the rest of us through social media as quickly as you did that day on March 11th? Not ever.

In Canada the Federal Election was gripping because of the rise of the NDP under Jack Layton and the vision Stephen Harper has been employing for the last decade which essentially has the Liberal party running in circles. I don't like it one bit but one does have to admire his ability to chip away at the traditional  base of support of the former so called ruling party. In the end although the majority victory for Harper was significant the death of Jack Layton within weeks of his party's success stunned the country making it the number one story of the year. After Layton and the election one would have to think Canada's withdrawal from combat in Kandahar would be the third most important story, although they won't be out of danger until we completely withdraw from Afghanistan.

Locally the stadium debate which dominated 2010 finally concluded in 2011. Was there anything more divisive in the community this past year? Well yes is the answer for by the end of the year we had angry taxpayers demanding the Mayor's head for giving his Executive Assistant a 30 thousand dollar pay raise or a 33 per cent pay hike. Folks we may be mad about this but the stadium issue and it's resolution will resonate down the decades, Bratina's folly notwithstanding.
For me although the settling of the labour dispute with Local 1005 was important and the job announcement from McCain's exciting the third most important story of the year was the renovation and rebirth of the Lister Block soon to be reopened. There is no greater sign of recovery in our downtown core than this reclamation project.

In the world of sports I think there really was only one story that dominated headlines. Concussions. Not only to Sidney Crosby but also a stunning array of top talent in hockey and from football. Heck my daughter received one in 2011 and so we know up close and personal how such an injury can impact a life. I don't really think anything else came close.

What do I think might happen in 2012? I lost my crystal ball some time ago so here is what I hope will happen in 2012. I hope the Mayor of the City of Hamilton begins to understand his role. Since he is only one vote he needs to lead through personal example instead of championing only what he believes in. In other words on big issues with broad implications whether he personally believes in them or not he must understand that if it is going to be good for Hamilton he must becomes Hamilton's champion. If council believes LRT is the way to go then Mayor Bratina must be the leader he was elected to be. If not he will be isolated by council and turn in to the longest running lame duck Mayor we've ever had.
I hope in 2012 that leading Hamilton citizens will put their heads together to come up with a sustainable use for "Auchmar". Not only should the home Sir Isaac Buchanan built be restored to its full glory but so should the 8 acres of land surrounding it. Vision, resources, funding, leadership and above all a lot of hard work are needed now to save Auchmar from the gleam in a developers eye. It can be done by this generation just as Dundurn Castle was saved by others.
In 2012 wouldn't it be nice to see the U.S.A rebound economically and actually trade fairly.
Wouldn't it be interesting to see the democracy movement invade the Arab peninsula?
Would you like to see every Canadian NHL franchise make the playoffs? I would.
Wouldn't it be nice if the Tiger Cats actually got consistent and travelled to the Grey Cup?
It will be interesting to watch which Republican out of a scraggly group emerges to take on the Democratic President. Who will emerge in Layton's shadow as the New Democratic Party leader and will anyone challenge Bob Rae's grip on the Liberals?
Finally and most importantly now that Tim's has left the corner can we get the lights at Aberdeen and Dundurn back to a more traditional sequence. We're idling away the ozone layer people!
Have a great New Year.

Save Auchmar sustainably.

The author of “Dusty Corners” in the Mountain News  has struck a chord. In his column of November 17^th mountain historian Colwyn Beynon has given us a vision of what could become of “Auchmar”, the city owned heritage home built by one of Hamilton’s great personages  and personalities, Sir Isaac Buchanan. In his vision Beynon sees a development at the corner of Fennel and West 5^th that would rival the gem that is Dundurn Castle. Please Google, “A new beginning for Auchmar”  and let your imagination run wild while reading. I think Colwyn is on to something and if I might I’d like to add more to that vision.

I’ve lived most of my life on the west mountain and yet have only been on the grounds of “Auchmar” officially once and that’s when the Hungarian Sisters of Social Services were selling off anything they didn’t want back in 1999 and on that day I did not enter the mansion itself. A couple of weeks ago, I walked the property boundary discovering what had always been hidden by that mass and mess of greenery along Fennel and West 5^th, an oasis of green and a gem of an economic opportunity never losing sight that the number one focus should be on the preservation and glorification of this heritage site. The Honourable Sir Isaac Buchanan who built “Auchmar” in 1855 not only was a leading figure in Hamilton but also in Upper Canada and Great Britain. One wonders, did he ever sit still. In brief Sir Isaac loved our mountain and wondered out loud why hadn’t the City of Hamilton developed above instead of below the escarpment? He was the force behind the first Board of Trade which evolved into our modern Chamber of Commerce. During the 1860’s with his own money he raised the 13^th Battalion which evolved into our venerated Royal Hamilton Light Infantry. He was in on the ground floor of railway development in Ontario with the Great Western Railway recognized as the first railway “system”. He promoted the Presbyterian Church in Canada with special attention paid to Knox and MacNab Presbyterian in Hamilton and others throughout Southern Ontario. He was to put it bluntly one of the most active entrepreneurial and political figures this city and this province has ever seen. So why endorse Colwyn’s vision of what could be? Because what might be is to painful to contemplate. An offer has been floated to fund a complete restoration of “Auchmar” in return for the acres of land you and I now can see rolling northwards from the dormitory. This development vision entails the construction of town houses. This can’t be allowed to happen. I would call upon leading political and economic figures in this city to come together with an action plan not only for the restoration of “Auchmar” but also for it’s continued sustainability. We have Dundurn. We have Whitehern. Now it is time to recognize the Mountain’s greatest heritage building by focusing resources and resourcefulness upon it. I’d love to see my son or daughter married there as Colwyn dreams. I’d love garden centres and florists to attach their names to the buildings and the acres of green space we will save. The RHLI museum could have a wonderful new home and archivists and genealogists could share space in the numerous outbuildings. Can the Chamber, the RHLI, LIUNA, the City and leading entrepreneurs be drawn into a financial discussion about possibilities for the future? I should hope so. We the citizens of Hamilton own this treasure and it is up to us to provide for it’s future, a future that should reflect the past and it’s preservation with the modern realities of sustainability. I think a panel of leading citizens could certainly come up with a better vision than mere town houses.

Doug Farraway

Bettman and the new NHL

Re-alignment came to the NHL and the hockey world on this past Monday. Do you like it?
For years this reporter has been pushing for a geographical re-organisation of the league. As a huge foe of the Bettman footprint of the 90's the geography movement was always going to be a challenge, but for the most part the tiny perfect commissioner has got this one right. How so Doug?
Gary Bettman last year recognised Atlanta was done like dinner and because certain Canadian interests had lobbied him the way he likes to be lobbied, politely, Winnipeg became a reasonable destination point for a floundering franchise. The Commissioner of all the hockey pucks got that one right but getting it right necessitated a review of the league structure.
What we get is four conferences, two with 8 teams and thus a lesser statistical chance of making the playoffs,  while two feature seven teams each.
In the west, the far west, we now have Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Phoenix and Colorado. Well, geographically most of this alignment makes sense although it would have been just as easy to move Colorado into this  Conference as well. The Mid Western Conference will now feature, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, Columbus, Nashville and Detroit. Could Detroit have shifted into the east? Yes is the answer because geographically it poses no problem, and maybe eventually it will since there will be more movement within the league sooner than later. We will talk about that in a paragraph or so.
The Eastern Conference  will now feature, the Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Penguins, Flyers, Capitals and Hurricanes. The North Eastern Conference will retain Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Buffalo and the two Florida based teams (a little weather shock in store for them for sure) Tampa Bay and Florida. It's a geographical leap from Montreal in the north to Miami in the south but at least it's the same time zone and what hockey player doesn't like taking his golf clubs in December on a Florida swing. All in all a lot of rivalries are saved although Colorado and Detroit will be muted as will Winnipeg and the rest of it's Canadian brethren, but all in all I'll take it for now, and here's why. It is inevitable that Phoenix will fail and thus be moved. The only place it can move to over night is Kansas City. There are no other NHL ready arenas and that includes  Hamilton capable right now of taking on this floundering franchise. Hamilton's Copps Coliseum needs an expensive make over and without a "sugary daddy" like Jim Balsillie to do it, it likely doesn't happen any time soon.Thus in a flash Kansas City lands a team whether long term it's a viable solution or not. Kansas City would then naturally move into the Mid Western Conference leaving the west with seven franchises and the Mid West needing to shift one. Do you think Mike Ilitch has built up enough credit with Gary Bettman to move the Red Wings from the Mid West to the North East? I think so.
Mr. Bettman sees the future and knows the Coyotes must move so he's made room for them to do it. Indeed with other fluky franchises out there like the Islanders he has built in opportunity to either keep his league at 30 if others are forced to move like Atlanta and soon Phoenix or expand to 32 even with some movement.

If Phoenix moves to Kansas City and Detroit shifts to the North East creating 8 franchises there,  Gary will still have the opportunity of expanding into Quebec City and Southern Ontario bringing in fresh monies and actual hockey mad markets to placate any disgruntled owners. Then by applying a little more geography we could see this within five years; a North East division comprising, Detroit, Buffalo, the Leafs, Toronto 2, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston and Quebec City. The East would line up with the Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Capitals, Flyers, Penguins, Hurricanes, Lightning and Panthers (that's 9 but bare with me). I would ask Winnipeg to shift to the West creating this Conference, the Jets, Flames, Oilers, Canucks, Sharks, Ducks, Kings and Avalanche. And finally the Midwest would feature, Kansas City, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville, Columbus, Minnesota and one from the East. I would nominate Carolina who have much more in common with Nashville and Columbus than they do with the New York and Pennsylvania based clubs. It's under this plan a league that papers over it's trouble spots, expanding into new markets, namely Kansas City, Quebec City and the under serviced Southern Ontario market while retaining a number of current rivalries and creating new ones. I think Bettman is gazing into a crystal ball and aligning his league for further expansion and movement down the road. In this picture I see no hope for Hamilton. Alas.

dkf December 8/2011 D

A small world indeed!

My wife and I are just returned from St. Lucia. If you sense my writing style has changed to reflect an English influence you might just be right. Ninety per cent of the people at our small resort were English which led to some interesting discussions. More on that in a moment but first some comments about the islanders. St. Lucian's are quite friendly for the most part which can't be said about some of the islands in the Caribbean we have visited previously. And the St. Lucian's I spoke with when they determined we were Canadian expressed their affection for our country. Indeed the head landscaper at our resort on our first day there approached us on the beach (we went to the beach every day rain or shine, and there was very little shine thanks for asking) and told us how he had lived in Toronto for five years, working and giving as much money and support as he could afford to his daughter who was attending George Brown college studying to be a nurse which she did successfully, returning to St. Lucia to work at the hospital in the capital city of Castries, dad returning with her, mission accomplished. Anthony loved Canada except for one thing, our winters. We agreed, naturally. When we went on excursions we usually ran into a Canadian couple from another resort and invariably they were from around Hamilton. There was the couple from Cambridge, another from Kitchener Waterloo and our topics of discussion would invariably end up revolving around RIM the NHL in Hamilton and what about those Maple Leafs. Invariably while chatting the Brits on the bus would tell us that as a nation we were very nice and get ready for it, they really liked the fact we weren't Americans. In fact several couples in tune with the daily news (we didn't have TV's at our resort, and I've got to tell you I didn't miss them one bit) suggested that one day and maybe soon we'd be bailing out their country. I was really struck more so on this trip than any other we have taken how much we are liked, admired and respected around the world. In Castries the kids of a certain primary school as a school uniform wear red and white. Why? The Canadian government made the school possible and for that act among others on the island we are it appears highly regarded. But back to that small world I mentioned in the title. One chap from greater London I was chatting with while we waited for the open tram car at the Rain Forest excursion (trust me the RAIN part of the excursion lived up to it's name) told me where he was born. Are you kidding was my rebuttal, you were born in the same town as my grandfather (who passed in Hamilton in 1949 so I never met him)? Yes this chap was born in Plaistow, now just a station on the London Subway system. While waiting for one of our restaurant dinners (we went all inclusive so you know how that works) we chatted briefly with a couple from Connecticut. But she was from Hamilton and did we know the Cohen's which brought my response "which ones" which made her laugh. You go all the way to St. Lucia to find someone from Hamilton who has a number of relatives living and working here and you meet someone else born in the same little village as your granddad? It is remarkable I think to know how inter related we are when we inter act with each other. Did I mention the rain? It didn't matter it was one of the most relaxing vacations Debbie and I have every taken but now it's time to formulate then complete the bucket list which at number one demands a visit to England to trace my ancestry. First stop, that little subway station in North East London, Plaistow. Or maybe a visit to White Hart Lane if the missus will let me. Cheers and viva St. Lucia.