Goin' nowhere fast - taxpayers' $$$ going up in flames

Saw this one on Blazing Cat Fur. You might want to remember this before getting on any bus which self-identifies as "electric".

Canada's "new" WEF-backed Prime Minister

Walt was in Canada over the weekend for the coronation of Mark Canada as successor to Blackie McBlackface as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and therefore as Prime Minister of Canada. 

That's the way the parliamentary system works. If you lead the government party, you're the Prime Minister, regardless of the fact that you've never been elected to anything. A safe seat in the House of Commons can be opened up for you later. Worked (twice!) for William Lyon Mackenzie King, who "loved his mother like anything / kept her tied up with a piece of string" (very old skipping rhyme).

The Canadian Broadcorping Castration, the state-owned broadcaster, wasted nearly three hours of listeners' (Sid & Doris Bonkers, of Dildo NL) time with a series of talking heads trying unsuccessfully to create an air of suspense, followed by a 45-minute history of Canada recited by former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who was there for most of it. 

Then the final result of the leadership "contest" was announced. Mr Carney garnered a mere 85% of the votes cast by the party faithful. He promised to do better next time, his goal being to get 99%, as they do in socialist democracies. It wasn't a surprise. Everyone knew that the former Governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England (successively) had the puck nailed to his stick by his friends in the global elite.

Mr Carney then attempted to deliver a "fighting speech", without revealing when the fight would start. His oration, part of which was delivered in halting French, consisted of platitudes and hockey metaphors -- "Elbows up!" -- but was devoid of any substance, such as a plan to get Canada out of the trade war.

There was no indication that Mr Carney intends to do anything other than stay the course with the globalist-environmentalist agenda outlined in his (?) book, Value(s) [sic], published in 2021, which has been praised by liberal, one-world eco-wienies across Canada and the European Disunion. One of them is seen here driving Mr Carney (in an EV, no doubt) to a meeting of the rulers of the New World Order.

One contrarian is terrified, not thrilled, by Mr Carney's agenda for Canada. That would be Dr Jordan Peterson, who, the day before the coronation, wrote "Mark Carney doesn't value a prosperous Canada", National Post, 8/3/25. Subtitle: "This would-be planetary saviour has no respect for free markets." It's a long article, worth reading in its entirety, but these excerpts will give you the gist of it. Dr Peterson's words are in purple, and those of Mr Carney (quotes from his book) are in bright Democrat blue. Any emphasis is Walt's.

It is most definitely the case — and this is a fundamental conservative or even classic liberal conviction — that free societies and markets operate within a broader framework of values. In the West, for better or worse (and certainly for comparative better) that framework is Judeo-Christian, religious and cultural in its essence — a framework that has established the principles of "self-evidence" referred to so famously by the authors and signatories of the American Declaration of Independence.

These include the propositions that all people have intrinsic worth, made as they are in the image of God; that each person owes all others the due that such worth necessitates, including the responsibility to trade in goods, ideas, cooperation and competition, honestly and fairly, and with an eye to mutual success; and that all of us, our leaders included (and perhaps first and foremost) must pay obeisance to what is truly transcendent and divine.

This is the framework that Carney purports to replace, even though it is not clear that he understands this, or that he has developed any understanding whatsoever of the culture he wants to reshape from first principles.

What are his suggestions, regarding such replacement? This is where the rubber hits the road or, more accurately, where the train flies off the track ... Carney betrays his alliance with the worst particularized ideas of the last twenty or thirty years, and the even worse generally radical intellectual presumptions of the last century.

“Our goal has been to put in place the information, tools and markets so that every financial decision takes climate change into account — to create a financial system in which a company’s contributions to climate change and climate solution are fundamental determinants of its value. So that value reflects values. 

"At COP26 in Glasgow, we delivered twenty-four major reforms to transform the information, tools and markets at the heart of finance. These include climate stress testing, net-zero transition plans and clear, comparable and decision-useful climate disclosure so that financial markets can manage risks and seize opportunities in the climate transition."

The consortium has stated that there "must be an average 28 per cent reduction in the number of flights across C40 cities." How might that be enforced? No more flights for the ordinary person (an overstatement: the C40 nature-worshippers will allow the peasants one short-haul flight every three years). They also mention "reducing and eventually nearly eliminating the need for car ownership." 

Ever wonder where the electricity for your soon-to-be mandatory electric car will come from, given the woeful inadequacy in that regard of the current grid, and the impossibility of rectifying that, before gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles are banned? No matter! There is no reason to presume, as you have so far, that you are entitled to a vehicle of your very own. Problem solved! 

And even if you are one of the fortunate few with a car — serious limitations will be imposed on the number of miles your peasant hide is allowed to travel, with equally serious restraints on velocity and road access.

Make no mistake about it, people. Those who promise, like Carney, to save the planet, while waving evidence of its forthcoming demise over your heads like the sword of Damocles, will use the purported seriousness of the crisis to rule over every conceivable aspect of your life — for the moral reasons of “value” that cannot be properly computed, in Carney’s estimation, by the flawed free market system. 

 A radical decrease in the availability of meat and dairy — preferably a complete turn to a plant and even perhaps insect-based diet, as mused by the WEF. Three new articles of clothing a year, maximum.

There is virtually no bad idea recently promoted by the top-down globalists (as alluded to earlier) that Carney has not championed — worse; not merely championed, as an acolyte or ally, as in the case of the hapless narcissist he is attempting to replace, our very own Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau was little more than a globalist shill, shiny and attractive though he may have been. Carney is no such mean thing; no mere WEF infiltrator. He is instead a veritable globalist author, master-planner and leader, as he says (insists upon) himself:

Value(s) is, in truth, one of the shallowest books I have ever read, and I have read many, both shallow and deep. It contains no original ideas whatsoever, while the ideas it does contain, however few in number they may admittedly be, are literally the worst that have been formulated by the worst of thinkers in the last few generations; even in the last century or two.

Mark Carney has failed, therefore — and dismally; spectacularly — in his attempts as a thinker, as well as an international leader. His practical multinational ventures have been recently revealed as the empty vessels they most truly are. 

In closing, a warning to Canadians, hoodwinked into believing that Carney’s much-vaunted international experience makes him capable; makes him someone able, even less convincingly, to stand up to our erratic American compatriots to the south. Mark Carney, formerly of the Bank of England, has the patina of foreign-bestowed competence. In truth, however, he is a man with all the flaws of Trudeau, and that’s saying something. 

However, in his admitted networking, managerial and administrative prowess he presents far more danger. Our hapless previous Dear Leader was at least hamstrung in his pretension by his incompetence. Carney is as addled in his values as his predecessor, but much more efficient and unwavering in his implementation.

If you don’t want Canada to be a self-immolating martyr-state, subject to the whims of an economic order increasingly dominated by the coal-burning titans of India, China and the rest of the BRICS; if you don’t want your every move and every decision evaluated by the top-down tyrants of the new global order — then you bloody well better think twice about who you are going to vote for when push comes to shove for Canadians in the next six months. 

Whatever Canada’s values might be, they best not be the shibboleths of false virtue, intellectual pretension, and well-camouflaged oh-so-virtuous totalizing tyranny put forth by the newly coronated dear leader of the appalling Liberal party.

4 dead, 1 injured - Yes, it was a Tesla

Four people are dead and another is in hospital after a car driving through downtown Toronto at a high rate of speed crashed into a guardrail and struck a concrete pillar on Lake Shore Boulevard, just after midnight today.

Of course any vehicle that hits a guardrail at 70 or 80 mph is likely to be written off, but it may not have been the impact alone that resulted in the casualties. A Toronto FD inspector said "the vehicle lost control, struck a guardrail and then struck a concrete pillar. Upon impact, the vehicle then caught fire." And yes, it was a Tesla.

When firefighters arrived on scene, they discover a "significant fire", said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop. "Our crews worked to quickly extinguish the fire and then, once the fire was extinguished, our crews noted a number of persons inside the vehicle. Under the direction of the coroner's office and the Toronto Police Service, Toronto firefighters carefully extricated the bodies, and they are now in the care of the Office of the Chief Coroner."

Images like the one above showed the charred and crumpled vehicle being hauled away from the site of the crash. Chief Jessop went on to say that the intensity of the fire was "directly linked" to the battery cells in the Tesla, and noted that "thermal runaway" has been a growing concern with lithium-ion-powered devices.

He explained that lithium-ion battery packs have been known to reignite, even weeks after an initial fire, so "we had to take extra care this morning in reopening the Lakeshore...and removing and transporting one of the battery packs that was ejected during the collision. We worked with Transportation Services, Solid Waste and Parks and Recreation to arrange for a dumpster to arrive where the Toronto Fire Service placed the ejected cell into the dumpster, covered it with sand, and we have escorted that that dumpster up to a yard to make sure that it is safely disposed of."

Walt is happy to see Elon Musk working assiduously for the re-election of President Trump [Good on yer, sir! Ed.] but that doesn't mean you should go out and buy one of his (or anybody's) sparky cars.

Don't be fueled by the hype about EVs

Here's a fact of automotive history to think about before you rush out to buy a Tesla. 

Thanks and a tip of the motoring cap to Agent 6, who's driven `em all... well, maybe not the old Stanley Steamer.

Going electric requires electricity. Who knew?

The headline is that of an article by Lionel Shriver, which appeared today in The Spectator. The cartoon, however, appeared on one of Walt's favourite blogs, Blazing Cat Fur, who we thank for the lead.

The lede quotes the leftist rag which is the New York Times: "'Something unusual is happening in America. Demand for electricity, which has stayed largely flat for two decades, has begun to surge.' Personally, I’d have headlined that article 'Well, duh!"

Walt's choice for the subhead would be, "Imagine that!" You can click on the link to read the article for yourself. It's amazing to me that none of the geniuses who made up the greenscam ever asked (or thought the public would ask), "But where is the electricity going to come from?" Amazing.

A quarter of a million dollars later...

Further reading (in case you're new to WWW of missed these the first time:

"'The Bolt Adventure' - a true tale from the world of EVs" (WWW 4/11/23)

"Another EV horror story" (WWW 23/12/23), and

"Nature fights back against EVs" (WWW 25/10/23).

That's right, folks. Walt is on the anti-EV bandwagon. And that's looking simply at cost efficience and practicality. Not included is the hyuge amount of supposedly polluting hydrocarbons used in the production of electric vehicles and in the generation of the electricity stored in the batteries.

Final comment: Even Brian Griffin is smart enough not to go full electric. He drives a Prius!

Another EV horror story

In November Walt shared the less-than-positive experience of one of our assiduous readers driving a Chevy Bolt through south central Ontario. See "'The Bolt Adventure' - a true tale from the world of EVs", WWW 4/11/23. 

Now, thanks to a lead from Agent 6, we present a a horror story from the US side of the World's Longest Open Border, featuring the Ford F150 Lightning.

"Our Last Ford F-150 Lightning EV Pickup Road Trip Was a Nightmare" appeared in MotorTrend just yesterday. Ed. hasn't had time to request permission to repost the entire article, so (spoiler alert!) we'll just quote the conclusion. 

"There are undoubtedly some inherent limitations in EVs when it comes to getting places with urgency, and neither Electrify America nor Ford made things any better. The former's abhorrent reputation has chased nearly every automaker into the arms of the rival Tesla Supercharger network. The latter could've done much to mitigate Electrify America's issues with smarter software programing, but it's a year into our electric pickup's stay, and Ford hasn't yet. 

"We'll eventually get to the point where traveling with an EV is as easy as it is with a gas-powered vehicle, but trips like this are reminders that huge growing pains remain, largely with the state of the infrastructure still incapable of supporting the growing EV marketplace."

Walt will take that bet. As long as country folks like us, living in an area where working charging stations are few and far between... very far... we'll stick with our ICEs and a jerry can of gas, just in case.

The perfect Christmas gift for the EV owner's kids

Recommended reading (if you think this is funny): "'The Bolt Adventure' - a true tale from the world of EVs", WWW 4/11/23.

"The Bolt Adventure" - a true tale from the world of EVs

For those who are considering getting an EV (electric vehicle), we presents a report from one of Walt's assiduous readers north of the World's longest undefended border, who recounts his experiences driving a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt from (about) Toronto to Ottawa. Warning: The details may be disturbing to anyone on the green bandwagon. 

Notes from Ed.: We've deleted the name of the dealers and other information as to specific locations. For our US readers, "K" = kilometer. 100 km = about 62 miles. 

Picked up the 2023 Chevy Bolt EV from [a Toronto dealer], Tuesday afternoon October 31, 2023, at 3:15pm. Odometer showing 4 K’s, the indicated range was 413 K’s. Here's what the dashboard looks like. 

The picture on the right shows the actual size of the humungous battery that powers this little car.

Google indicates the distance to our destination in downtown Ottawa, as being 464K’s. On the road at 6:00am, November 1. Invited my buddy Bruce to accompany me. He has a curiosity about electric vehicles, and I thought he might be an asset if the vehicle needed to be pushed!

On Hwy 401 eastbound by 6:30am. Kept the speed at 100 K’s to conserve power. The Bolt is the only EV I've driven with a "power consumption gauge", measured in kilowatts. (And this is the third Bolt EV!)  

At 120 K’s consumption is around/over 24 kilowatts; at 100 K’s power drops down to 14 kilowatts; but at 60 K’s power is only 8 kilowatts. Anyway, the speed was kept at 100K’s on cruise control. 

The cabin area was kept at a comfortable 23 degrees C [73.4 F]. Was a strange sensation having everyone pass us, including trucks. The Bolt was very comfortable to drive, holds the road very well, and is extremely quiet! 

Had a ten-minute stop from 7:50am to 8:00am,at the first On-Route eastbound at Port Hope for washrooms, and grabbed a couple of Starbucks. (The line was too long at Tim’s!)  Arrived Trenton On-Route by 9:00am. Vehicle’s remaining range has dropped to 130K’s, from the initial range of 413 K’s even though we have travelled only 212 K’s. 

Connected to “IVY-0184 Charger,” the only one of four chargers that was working. Went through the hookup procedure using the IVY app on my phone. Unfortunately, the sole remaining IVY-0184 charger was also not working very well as it shut off after only eight minutes. Went through the hookup process again. This time it turned off, after only three minutes. 

Called the 800 number on the IVY machine to ask why? The young man answered promptly, but had no explanation. Blamed it possibly on the vehicle. Made one more connection which lasted seven minutes, and finally a fourth connection which lasted two minutes. The charge did give an additional 50K’s, for $7.22, bringing the vehicle’s range up to 187 K’s. 

In desperation phoned [a GM dealer] in Kingston to ask about charging a Bolt. They said no problem, bring it in and get it charged. Arrived there at 11:24am with 58 K’s remaining, having logged 318 K’s. Was expecting to charge for free at [the dealer], and could have, except the free charger was only a trickle charger…..would have taken hours. 

The fast charger turned out to be a “Flo Charger, AAL-00545.” This required another App to be installed on my phone. After downloading the App, phoned the 800 number on the FLO charger to find out what to do. A young lady with a soft voice, and a pretty French-Canadian accent walked me through the process! The gist of it was: “must transfer $25.00 from my Mastercard to the FLO account which was just created with the App.” These folks don’t take any chances regarding their payment. 

After this process, charging started at 12:25pm. The App on the phone controls everything. A button to start charging, and a big red bar to stop charging, located at the base of the program on the phone. Out of fear of accidentally turning the charger off, let the phone remain on the dash of the Bolt while we went for lunch at Tim Horton’s. Of course, this is the time everyone starts calling, wondering where I am. Since I didn’t answer, their assumption “missing in action!” 

Returned from lunch, charger still charging. However, it automatically shuts off within a few minutes when the charge reached 80% of capacity. This brought the vehicle’s range up to 289 K’s This charge cost $15.93, leaving a credit balance in my FLO account of $9.07, which will likely remain until another FLO charger is used. 

Google calculates the distance to our destination in Ottawa as being 201K’s. Back on Hwy 401 eastbound by 1:45pm; again, speed limited to 100 K’s. Change to Hwy 416 north. Around MP-57 started having remaining range reservations. Consequently, reduce the speed to 80k’s. Range immediately starts decreasing at a noticeably slower rate. Probably some formula where power consumption increases with the square of the speed. 

Arrive [at the dealership in Ottawa] at 3:55pm, having travelled 512 K’s, with 63 K’s remaining. By 4:30pm, started our return trip in a tired dog, a 2004 Toyota Yaris with 104,787 K’s. The Yaris had obvious battle scars; still, a calming tranquillity came over us being back in comfortable familiarity. Cruise control worked, the power mirrors worked, and the heater produced lots of heat. Range anxiety disappeared! 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! ... And this is Walt's comment.

Nature fights back against EVs

"They use too much energy!" Swiss to ban electric cars?

Switzerland has often seemed to me to be an oasis of sanity in the middle of the European desert of common sense. [You're torturing that metaphor! Ed.] They wisely stayed out of the European Union, and have tight border controls to ensure that the migrant hordes go around them to Germany and France. Very sensible.

The Swiss are likewise sensible about "going green" to save the Earth from the climate "crisis". They don't have a lot of flat land for sprawling solar power arrays, and they don't want to see their lovely mountain landscapes disfigured by forests of windmills. So they're not about to jump on the battery-powered bandwagon. 

Instead, they plan to hold in check the demand for electricity generated by thermal (coal, oil, natural gas) stations. First to feel the power pinch will be the owners of Teslas, Volts and other EVs, as Switzerland considers a ban on the use of electric cars for non-essential purposes.

According to a report by Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten, the country's government has drawn up a raft of emergency measures aimed at reducing strain on the power grid for use in emergency scenarios. Besides the prohibition of the use of electric cars for non-essential purposes, measures such as limiting the total speed of cars, reducing the opening hours of shops as well as the amount of heating permitted at nightclubs are also planned.

What, then, is an "essential purpose"? The paper reports that necessary journeys include "professional practice, shopping, visiting the doctor, attending religious events, [and] attending court appointments." Walt wonders what "professions" will be exempted from the ban. Race-car drivers? Escorts doing out-calls? Welfare queens going to collect their cheques? [That only happens in America. Ed.]

The Swiss government appears to be hoping that such measures will allow it to avoid what Zimbabweans call  "load shedding: -- cutting off the power to certain customers or geographic areas for hours or even days when electricity becomes scarce. In the Philippines such periods of no electricity were called "brown-outs".

I don't know how to say "load shedding" in German ["Lastabwurf". Ed.] but the Germans had better get used to it, for the Fatherland appears to be in a very rough spot when it comes to the availability of both gas and electricity. German authorities [There's a loaded phrase! Ed.] are said to be actively preparing stages for potential blackouts should things deteriorate.

France too may be facing a hard winter. Its energy network tsar, Xavier Piechaczyk, [There's a real French name for you. Ed.] recently warned that there was a very real threat that blackouts could hit the country. Another government spokesthingy disagreed, saying there should not be a problem so long as the general public heed requests to save energy. However, the official reportedly said he could not rule out load shedding should savings not be made.

The only country where a dearth of electric power may not be a problem is Belgium, where people are expected to be able to warm themselves by bonfires of EVs started by Muslim soccer fans. Walt wonders how long a Tesla would burn.

What if everyone in Florida had had electric vehicles?

Agent 6, a sometime resident of Florida, e-mailed us to say that his residence on the Gulf side was not severely damaged by Hurricane Ian. A fence around the swimming pool was blown down, and some palm trees were damaged. After a hurricane (he writes) palm trees can look like someone took a torch to the leaves. The high wind actually burns the leaves turning them brown. I didn't know that.

6 sends along some food for thought, from an article by Thomas Lifson in American Thinker, 29/9/22. We trust they won't mind our reposting it, with verb tenses (only) changed as necessary.    

Large swaths of Florida’s heavily populated Gulf Coast were ordered evacuated. At least 300,000 people from the Tampa Bay area had to leave.

It is fortunate that as of the current moment, electric vehicles constitute only about 100,000, out of nearly 8 million vehicles registered to drive on Florida’s roads. What if they all were electric, the (impractical) dream dream of greenies?

Depending on how heavily loaded they were, even assuming everyone had a full battery charge, cars from southern Florida would start running out of juice after 100 – 250 miles. They would then have to spend hours at recharging stations, which would rapidly be clogged with other cars and trucks waiting their turn, since an electricity “fill up” can easily take an hour or more, as compared to a couple of minutes for gasoline. Cars waiting to be charged would spill onto the highways, potentially blocking traffic.

Those cars that ran out of juice on the highway would block traffic. Even assuming that emergency service vehicles could get to them (unlikely if the entire fleet were electric cars), towing a portable generator (powered by fossil fuels, of course) and recharging the stalled vehicles would take plenty of time, as well, further blocking traffic. The stranded cars would, of course, have no air conditioning, no wipers, no GPS.

In all likelihood, the highways would become vast parking lots, trapping their passengers wherever they happened to be stalled, waiting for the storm and flood waters to reach them, unable to get to safety.

It is a nightmare scenario, and it is perfectly predictable. California and other states have already mandated a conversion to an all-electric vehicle fleet. When natural disaster strikes and the fleet is electric vehicles, the disaster will be compounded if this mad scheme is carried through.

Footnote: Breitbart News reports that Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has warned looters that Florida is a 2nd Amendment state!

UPDATED: Electric vehicles: not so green after all!

Breitbart News has been covering the Globalist American Empire summer camp, in progress [Geddit? Ed.] this week in Sun Valley ID. Those attending are the right-thinking progressive liberals who plan our future in such a way that they always manage to come out on top.

One of the things they have in mind for us, part of Sleepy Joe's Green New Deal, is forced conversion from vehicles which run on fossil fuels to the greener cleaner ones that run on electricity. Pretty soon, they tell us, everyone will be driving a Tesla or Chevy Volt [Didn't GM cancel those? Ed.], because gas-powered vehicles will no longer be manufactured in North America. Elon Musk will be so pleased!

We should be pleased too (they tell us) what with gas having risen last weekend to their highest prices since 2014, and further increases expected as the Biden-Harris cancellation of Keystone XL and other pipelines leads, as surely as day follows night, to shortages of the lifeblood of American transportation.

"Where am I gonna get the juice?" is a question motorists should be asking as they contemplate making the big switcheroo to a car that runs on batteries. "Range reluctance" is one of the two biggest reasons people have for wanting to stick with their old gas-guzzlers. (Sticker shock is the other. Have you priced a Tesla lately?)

Walt wonders if forced electrification is part of the Democratic (in Canada, read: Liberal) conspiracy against those of us who live in rural areas. The billions of dollars that are to be spent on "building a modern and sustainable infrastructure" [direct quote from Joe's website. Ed.] will be spent in places like New York and San Francisco, not Fort Mudge! Charging stations will be readily accessible to liberal city dwellers, but what will we do for fuel, out here in the boonies?

The liberal elites have an answer for that. It looks like this.

Yes, campers, it's an electric charging station that runs on diesel. They’re popping up everywhere! This one appears to be somewhere in the Nullarbor Plain, an almost trackless waste which stretches across the southern edge of Australia between the goldfields of Western Australia and the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

You'd think there would be solar power aplenty in such a place, but apparently they have the same problem -- how to store the eneregy until someone comes along to recharge his Holden Volt. Better to use a reliable (if politically incorrect) generator like this 350kw beauty. It uses 12 gallons of diesel fuel per hour, and it takes 3 hours to charge a car enough to go another 200 miles. That's 36 gallons for 200 miles -- 5.6 mpg! How “green” is that?!

Thanks and a tip of the Aussie outback hat (the one with the corks dangling from the brim) to Agent 6, who often drives 100s of miles a day in gas- and diesel-powered vehicles.

Note from Ed.: "Nullarbor" is derived from the Latin words for "no" + "trees". You already knew that, eh.

UPDATE ADDED 18/7/21: Further reading: "It's Time to Unplug the Hype Over Electric Vehicles", by Robert Bryce, on Real Clear Energy, 11/7/21.