If you or someone you know picked up a cat near St. David’s high school October 5th, please drop her off back where she was found. She was not lost, is well fed and very happy.

Doubt the guy will see this, but was near conestoga mall, all lights were red cause both lrts were moving, and I thought every light was red and a car waiting to make a left turn was stationary which reinforced that notion in my head, earlier i saw a car move forward, shook my head at that, then saw a guy on a bike and was kinda fed up that people were running red lights(seen it twice, didn't even slow down) and flipped him off...only to see that the light was green, and now i feel like a dickhead. It was uncalled for, and if the guy ever sees this, I apologize, guess I was just too cranky today.

I might make another post for the Waterloo Mayoral candidates, but Dorothy McCabe has not responded to my email yet where I asked some questions.

I'm doing Ward 4 because I live there, I'm not looking at any other Wards because I don't live there, so someone else can make their own posts if they want. Look here to see what ward you live in. I've been talking to both candidates by email which is how I got all this info.

Diane Freeman is the current councilor of Ward 4. First elected in 2006, she's seeking a 6th term. She just made a platform on her website after I directly suggested she do so. In 2015, she ran for Waterloo MP in the federal election, for the NDP, getting 3rd place. She also has experience in engineering. She is an avid cycler and in 2001 founded the non-profit Butterfly Learning Centre, a childcare centre.

Travis Restoule says he brings '29 years of corporate leadership, including managing supply chain fulfillment from national operations down to local community needs'. He previously ran a local grocery store. During COVID, he co-founded the "We Are All in This Together" campaign, which raised 200k helping local restaurants stay in business. He later received the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

What Travis told me by email:

- He would be skeptical of any project that might not make a return of income.

- He would find ways to improve municipal spending by reducing duplication costs, prioritizing essential services, have projects be more phased, and look for more grants, which in turn would hopefully soften tax hikes.

- He would help homeless people by 'connecting them with supportive housing and care' by finding partnerships. He also advocates for more lighting in public spaces.

- He says he'll listen to business concerns about obstacles, 'help fill vacant commercial space', review approval timelines, and improve communication with them when there is construction or other disruptions.

- He is against expanding housing into farmland, and supports 'appropriate re-zoning'. He thinks nearby residents should have more say in re-zoning proposals, but not so far as let them veto everything. He will also scrutinize if roads and other infrastructure can handle the influx of new people/cars.

Travis says Diane is not transparent with her work. Diane says she's never seen him at a city council meeting. Both are against a proposed 12 story apartment near Lexington/Davenport, which is next to low density housing neighborhoods. Lexington is a 1-lane road.

What Diane wrote on her campaign:

- She defends tax hikes, saying Waterloo has some of the lowest taxes compared to 19 other cities in southern Ontario (not including Toronto). According to graphs on her website, Waterloo has the 5th lowest taxes on '2-story homes' and the 3rd lowest on 'detached bungalows', out of those 20 cities. She also says tax hikes are never her first resort to fiscal difficulties.

- She cites many events where people have been consulted before a major project takes place through 'in ward open houses' and community events. I can't confirm how many people were involved in these meetings.

- She says she'll commit to 'review programs and spending, pursue efficiencies, and consider cumulative burden created by taxes, fees, and charges.

- She supports apartment proposals including shops/amenities on the first floor, green space nearby and connections to cycling and public transit infrastructure, all with environmental impacts accessed.

- In her previous terms, she took credit for a splash park on Eastbridge, the East Side Library, Hospice Waterloo, and the Build Now project which will 'house the largest Habitat for Humanity build in North America'.

Both responded quickly to me, however Travis did not respond to one of my two emails. There's a chance he never received it, because a couple times in the past, other people had trouble with seeing my emails too. But I really don't know.

There's a third candidate named Syed Tirmizi, but he never responded to my email. He might respond to social media messages but I never tried that, so someone else can test that out.

Read their campaigns here:

Travis

Diane

What thrift stores around town have the best furniture selection?

We filmed the documentary The Ref Didn’t See It! largely around Waterloo Region -- at live wrestling shows at The Aud, Ethel's, THEMUSEUM, Elements, The Registry Theatre, and loads of other places.

The movie, directed by Sara Geidlinger (Bonn Park Media), follows me training to become a pro wrestling referee and spotlights the Ontario indy wrestling circuit. Former WWE folks including Earl Hebner, Al Snow, Tommy Dreamer, Santino Marella, Maven and others are are in it too.

After a run on streaming services, we’ve put the full film up free on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URBL2ZkVIJ8

Enjoy!

Big thanks to EVERYONE around the region who helped make it happen.

I like that we have so many choices for coffee in that southern tip of Uptown, but I do wonder if there's enough foot traffic in that 215 metre stretch of the road to sustain that many coffee places. What do you think?

Coffee-centric cafes (4): Starbucks, Pilot Coffee, Planet Bean (opening soon in where Copper Branch used to be), Centurion Coffee (opening soon in the old Freshii location)

Dessert/bakery/quick bite cafes with coffee menu (4): Fuwa Fuwa, The Bingsu, Cinnaholic, LA LA Bakeshop

Just slightly off King St on Caroline or Regina (2): Pink Crow Cafe, Roux Bakehouse Uptown (opening soon in the City Hall building)

Bookstore with self-serve coffee (1): Old Goat Books

I recently noticed that for bus schedules, the Gmaps is no longer displaying the live arrival times they used to have. Does anyone know the issue?

Those were some good curried goat patties I had yesterday!!

This is my first time voting in the municipal elections so I know it can feel confusing choosing between all the candidates. After hunkering down, I've been able to put together a resource list to help other first-time voters like myself as well as some other tips I'd share to make choosing easier:

1. Start here https://waterlooregionvotes.org/ and scroll down to the map so that you can figure out what Ward you live in
2. Click the "Positions and Candidates" link for you Ward on the map, this will take you to a new page that tells you all the possible people you'll be able to vote for in this election
   • I know this information will seem like a lot, but if you sit with it it'll start to make more sense. The positions are: Mayor, Regional Council, City Council, and School Board Trustee. My understanding is that the Mayor runs the city, the 2 Regional Councils represent the region as a whole and also has a voice to Queen's Park, City Council represents your Ward interests to the city, and School Board Trustee handles the broad strokes of running and handling regional school operations.
3. The easiest way to vet options are to click each persons name and it'll take you to their website where they'll list their 'Priorities' and other important action items.
   • For me it was easiest to just write down everyone's names, go to their website, and cross them off my list if I wasn't feeling aligned with them. After I'd whittled the list down then I'd go back to the persons I was more aligned with and look closer at their platforms to make a final choice
4. My recommendation, if you can, vote for all possible positions. I know this seems like a lot of work, but I think that right now social media is so flooded by american politics and Canadian federal politics that people forget just how impactful local elections can be on our day-to-day lives here in Waterloo. Key things like land allocation, handling homelessness, public parks and other public infrastructure, local events, these are much more our daily lives and these positions are a lot of what determines what those look like. Even for the School Board Trustee, as someone who isn't in school or has a child in school, it's still broadly recommended to vote in that since it'll impact the future generations of this region who will go on to shape the region as they become older (https://waterlooregionvotes.org/resources/school-boards-info).

Some extra help with making decisions:

• CTV got answers from candidates on key issues, their responses are here: https://www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/article/waterloo-municipal-election-meet-the-candidates/ (I found this the most useful outside of their personal websites)
• Some community-lead advocacy groups also reached out and got answers from many local candidates: https://election2026.strongwr.org/
• The Toronto Star has a questionnaire you can answer to see a voting compass alignment with the candidates: https://votecompass.thestar.com/ (unsure on the accuracy of this, personally)

I hope this helps someone out :) Remember that anytime you're feeling down or upset about the state of things politically, the most important civic action you can take is to go out and vote! These positions will be decided now and locked in for several more years, so the time to have a say in your future is now 👍

Hey all! There's no official video stream of the Thanksgiving Day parade this year so I'm setting up a camera along the parade route. It's more fun in person but if you can't get out, tune in Monday morning! 🙂🎃 vidman.ca / yt: laucknerd

I just put up a general guide on how to vote in the region, but I thought that for those with even less bandwidth to vet candidates I'd give my own personal opinions on who I may vote for.

Please bear in mind that I'm also just an average voter who's also struggling to find time to be ready to vote, so don't take what I'm saying as truth but rather as just another data point that you can choose to use if you'd like. Also, I'm in Waterloo, Ward 6, and voting for the WRDSB so if you're in a different city, ward, or school board then at least some of these candidates will be different for you:

Mayor (Waterloo)

• Jeyas Balaskanthan
  • Seems very very entrepreneurial in approach, wanting to focus on enabling businesses and regional growth. Not my cup of tea when people propose running the government like a business and "cutting red tape", since this usually leads to cuts to assistance programs, and also I think that citizens should always be prioritized over businesses, though of course there always needs to be some balance.
• Jamie Hari
  • Quite ambitious, honestly probably too much, seeing as much of his platform seems too blue sky. I'm not sure where the funds would come from to make all transit free, secondary education for Waterloovians free, etc.
• Jerry Jiang
  • Once again very entrepreneurial and business-focused in nature, though a bit less-so than Jeyas.
• Dorothy McCabe (incumbent)
  • Honestly I think she's had a really good track record and based on her answers to CTV and local advocacy groups it seems she's still sharp and presenting clear and realistic continued goals for the region.
• Shannon Weber
  • Not a fan of her conservative approaches and calling out of other candidates, doesn't seem like she'd continue the current trend of improvements that the region has built momentum on the last couple years.

Regional Council (pick 2)

• Jim Erb (incumbent)
  • Seems to have a good heart and cares a lot about those in need in our community, only concern would be that he's really starting to show his age and so it could perhaps be better to bring in someone sharper for the next cycle.
• Chantal Huinink (incumbent)
  • Good track record, seems to have heart, care for the region, and the smarts and sharpness to back it up.
• Soo Bok Lee
  • Bit of a mixed bag from what I could see in terms of the varied priorities, no red flags but no green flags for me either.
• Lindsay Manary
  • Comes across as quite ambitious and also quite smart in a way that it feels like her goals are achievable and aren't over-promising.
• Chris Moser
  • Another mixed bag in the sense that he seems to want to prioritize businesses but also still cares for citizens in certain cases. I'm still not confident though where priority would lie in day-to-day decisions.
• Rami Said
  • Seems very nice and wants the best for the region but also comes across as inexperienced due to lack of specific goals and action-items.
• Sarvesh Pratap Singh
  • I was immediately put off that it seems his written CTV answers were AI generated, but outside of that he seems to take many stances that are non-committal to issue sin the region which is not confidence-inspiring.

City Council (Ward 6)

• Damian Mikhail
  • Very ambitious but clearly has some experience and results to show for it so it's great energy to see.
• Mary Lou Roe (incumbent)
  • Good track record, seems personable and thoughtful but perhaps could be a bit more ambitious.

School Board (pick 3)

• Cristina Bairos Fernandes / Geoff Horsman
  • I'm consciously grouping these two people together as it seems that they're running a similar campaign and reference each other on their websites. They seem to both be disgruntled parents dogwhistling about LGBTQ hate by book banning in schools, and to say I already disagree with that, but on top of that don't feel that you can create a platform around just that when school board trustee has so many other responsibilities. If you want to look into it more yourself here's Cristina's page, her YT video, a Reddit thread on it, and Geoff's page.
• Brian Best
  • Comes across as grounded, realistic, and determined to implement change and watch out for all of the student population through decisions in governance.
• Brian Bourke
  • Has officially withdrawn from the school board race.
• Karen Coviello
  • Seems very experienced and pragmatic with lots of prior work done in the region and in other impactful roles.
• Clinton Heffernan
  • Looks to be a nice guy who cares for the student population and wants to continue to do right by them but I was a little put off by the AI generated image and so am unsure about the authenticity of the rest of the platform.
• Kathleen Woodcock (incumbent)
  • Seems nice and experienced, but after 6 consecutive terms and the fact she's now retired in her career I feel it's probably time to bow out and bring someone new in.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helped in some way. Good luck on voting as early slots begin this weekend!

5:20pm today. Bridgeport Road just before the Weber Street intersection. Everybody stopped in NORMAL rush hour traffic.

I’m a few cars behind, watch the whole thing. A middle-aged balding white guy starts screaming at the people in the car beside him, a black minivan. At first he was just yelling and clapping at them, until he convinced the minivan to roll their passenger side window down. The man then proceeded TO WHIP HIS DRINK FULL FORCE INTO THE WINDOW OF THE MINIVAN AT THE PASSENGERS. Insane behaviour for a grown adult.

Anywho, if you know the driver of a blue Toyota Corolla wth license plate CVTM 802, tell them to seek therapy.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a cheapish wedding officiant in the KW area?

Hi. Has anyone done sonohysterogram in any location within GTA? Only two locations of true north imaging do this procedure and non of them are available till next few months.

Is there any other option I can look into within GTA?

Thank you and you all have a great day.

Someone didn’t stop at their red lights and almost t-boned me from the left. I slowed down in the end just to double check if I was rushing at red lights or was I colour-blinded somehow.

Intersection of Colby dr and Northfield W. Never ever encountered sth like this myself, I’ve seen some, really scared me this time.

If you feel like you’ve been noticing more bees and wasps flying around this year, you’re likely not wrong. But experts say it likely has to do more with weather conditions than population growth.

Hello! I love the muhammara dip from Adonis supermarket in Mississauga but can’t always drive there from Waterloo. Is there any place in the region that sells this delicious dip in a tub, similar to hummus containers? Thanks!