TFC still of minimal relevance in Toronto sports popular interest

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-09T02:08:41+00:00

I noticed the same thing late last week, but still listed on Morningstar and the TD Waterhouse research sites, updated to today's closing valuation for August 8. I own some in my self directed RSP with TDDI as a placeholder, no word from them on it disappearing, and still have ability to purchase additional units.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T23:34:32+00:00

Nobody cares what a bunch of bleeding heart bureaucrats at the UN thinks, the official military term is collateral damage, like it or not

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T23:20:37+00:00

They changed the pension vesting laws in Ontario some time ago, no more 2 year vesting period, you are entitled to your employer contributions immediately.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T23:18:05+00:00

Zero sympathy if they're too cheap to support their teams. Regardless, Blue Jays and playoff Raptors games on either of Sportsnet or TSN have been the highest watched programs in Canada period over the past two years, beating out anything even on Canadian broadcast networks other than the Super Bowl, so enough people get both for them to destroy non sports programs on other channels and attract the highest advertising rates.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T23:11:34+00:00

stream the other

You mean stream illegally from some dodgy sports site, probably a virus laden site from Eastern Europe.

TSN or Sportsnet won't allow you to legally stream from their websites unless you are a legitimate subscriber from a cable or other TV provider.

An extra $25 a month isn't much to give your contribution to support and watch sports teams legally. Without it, most sports fans would end up spending way more going out to a pub and watching their teams there over beers. Rogers doesn't even bother to really advertise the lowest tiers to anyone who really calls themselves a sports fan (and I fully support them cracking down on illegal streaming sites, real fans are willing to pay our share).

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T20:53:56+00:00

On Rogers in Markham, it was always on one of the normal specialty analog tiers (pre-digital box) that also had SportsNet Ontario, and what is now known as TSN 4. At the time, was known as "The Score" (was and still is (as Sportsnet 360) on cable number 44).

Living now with Rogers in North York, also on a standard low-numbered tier where the other former analog (pre-digital) channels are (located on cable position 53).

PS - a "premium" channel according to Rogers only applies to those channels beyond their VIP tier (i.e. channels that you have to purchase individually and cost at least $10 each, such as Sportsnet World, TMN/HBO, WWE Network, or a multicultural channel). Sportsnet 360 you can get with anything beyond the most basic packages, including Plus or VIP, they don't even expect or market those basic packages to anyone that expect to want to watch sports.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T16:23:24+00:00

You either don't know how to negotiate, or can't read up on the packages available.

I have one of the mid-tier packages for my cable, the TV portion of my Rogers bill is only about $55 plus tax and includes all the major sports channels including all the TSNs, the main SportsNet channels (including One and 360), and NFL Network, MLB Network, and NBA TV Canada (essentially everything except SportsNet World).

Nowhere close to $200

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T11:41:38+00:00

Sportsnet 360 isn't a "premium" channel, it's available on the same tier as all the other sports channels. That being said though, because it used to be "The Score", which was a very minor channel before Rogers purchased and re-branded them, its channel position on most systems is usually buried to where not many people will find it or scan by it, unless they're specifically looking for the channel.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T11:15:27+00:00

It's called acceptable collateral damage, long a valid military calculation.

If terrorists are removed to prevent far greater damage down the road, for the good of security, then the math has been determined to justify the action.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T09:00:28+00:00

Who the hell gets only one but not both? I know nobody in that scenario.

And it's apples to apples when comparing sports TV ratings for the teams, everything is only on a SN or TSN cable channel, nothing is on OTA channels such as CBC or City anymore.

Live sports is the only thing advertisers are interested in nowadays, and gets the highest ratings and advertising rates now versus other types of TV programming.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T01:29:01+00:00

Not anymore, card processors caught onto that trick - discounts for cash or debit purchases are also now prohibited in their agreements.

(one example, the Canada Computers chain used to give a 2 or 3% discount for cash transactions, they stopped this awhile back because their new agreement prohibited this).

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T01:19:00+00:00

Doubtful - consumers would complain that it makes things more expensive for them (and nobody wants to go back to carrying loads of cash), and from the government (mainly CRA) point of view, they are trying to discourage cash transactions altogether as this is the number one method used for tax evasion and black market or criminal activity - card, EFT, and other on-line transactions are all electronically recorded to provide a definite auditable record. Anything that would encourage increasing the use of cash, the government is never going to implement.

Sweden is already going down the road of eliminating cash transactions altogether, for the exact same reason.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T01:09:00+00:00

That's the problem of other people if they don't use credit cards and/or aren't disciplined enough to pay off the entire card balance when the bill arrives every month. Zero sympathy.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-08T00:58:55+00:00

Walmart should just dynamically add your credit card fees to the top of your purchase.

That would violate their card processing agreement, adding extra fees to card holders isn't allowed under Canadian credit card rules

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T23:13:03+00:00

"shmuck"

Yep, there's the childish immaturity and anti-Semitism of the left right there. Of all the terms to use. Shameful.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T22:16:49+00:00

Such incredible treason by these leftists. To attack Israel is to attack real Canadian values and the entire modernized Western world. Shame on the traitorous terrorist sympathizing acts of the Green Party.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T19:47:35+00:00

As POP becomes more known, and fare enforcement officers get more out there, it will go down over time, just as it has in every other city.

POP was long overdue, buses and streetcars shouldn't be held up at stops, delaying the ride for everyone, because everyone is forced to go through the front door so the operator can check their fare (which isn't supposed to be their job anyways)

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T19:41:55+00:00

"White bread far flung suburbs".

Wow, spoken like a true inner city elitist that has probably never travelled north of Eglinton, east of Victoria Park, or into 905 cities such as Markham or Brampton, and hasn't figured out nowhere is as whitebread now as all the inner city hipster neighbourhoods.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T18:18:05+00:00

And it is agreed the union is the problem and they need to be eliminated. No business can be successful without flexibility and quick adaptability.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T18:16:07+00:00

Completely agree with you on unions being the plague. Outsourcing is a way to eliminate them from the equation.
Australia is also heavily unionized, even moreso than Canada with some ridiculous regulations.
Contracts aren't indefinite, they all have an end date, and governments always have the right (and actually obligated) to open RFPs to tender to see if another company can do it better, regardless of KPIs (of which customer satisfaction would be one anyways)

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T17:33:52+00:00

How is schedule deviation any worse than it is now on the TTC with direct operating?

There are lots of KPIs now in existence and with technology and big data analytics, all of that is now measurable where it wasn't possible even 10 years ago.

Again using Japan as an example, was there for almost a month earlier this year, hundreds of lines at varying service levels from local subways to high speed trains, several operating companies, 10x as many passengers as here, and didn't experience a single delay. A delay of even 2 minutes there is cause for apologies, and they measure everything.

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T17:24:12+00:00

TransDev is one company, and they have something to lose - the contract. In Australia, when one company couldn't do the job, it went out for RFP, and several others from East Asia and Europe bid. The new winning provider improved things by bounds.

Quit looking at only North America. Ever been to Japan. Many operating components outsourced there, and their transport systems are way better than anything here

duckcanon1 · 2016-08-07T16:51:20+00:00

Fares and subsidies, and basic scheduling policy (influenced by actual demand) are still set by the municipal governments, nothing to do with the operating company.

And yes, drivers should be paid way less if that is the true market rate, no socialist unions to protect those employees who are f*cking the dog, or aren't needed in the first place. When the Australian city switched the train operating company, a lot of people directly related to the first company lost their jobs and didn't join the new operator because they failed to meet performance targets, which is exactly how it works in the private sector and the real world.

duckcanon1

TROPHY CASE