All inaccuracies aside, it is getting a little scary in the land of Haldimand. I will in no way claim that I was the savior of this slice of Ontario, but at least I wanted to be. The story of the arrogant McHale asking Trainer to step aside and let him rule (assuming winning is as easy as ordering a meal) is surprising for a guy whose claim to fame is in trying to uphold democracy.

I am not sure who I will vote for. At this point the one I know least about it Ken Hewitt (which is probably a good thing).

The girl is incredibly strong and the husband who watches her pass away from her bed side, is continuing to honor her memory by living the list of things she wanted to accomplish in life.

She had a blog with a large following and I am sure has provided relief to some people when they need it the most. Ironically its the story of her journey to death that has today injected me with some life.

On a personal note I found the process to become taxing and could see the potential for it to take a toll on my relationship with my wife and 2 young children. I also have some personal health issues that I do not want exacerbated.

I want to thank everyone who supported and believed in me; even if it was simply because I was “the other guy”. I will never close the door to anything in the future but conditions would have to be different for me to run for any office here. If council at least puts a transit system together I will be happy and feel that my time campaigning was worthwhile.

I doubt this is the last time you will here from me, but I am now a private citizen and will go back to earning a living and keeping busy with my hands. I wish everyone the best in the future and I am happy to call many of you neighbors.

God Bless.
Ryan J. Geddes

My neighbor has donated blood over 50 times - I wish I had that discipline.  This is a simple test where the inside of the cheek is swabbed and they keep your DNA on file for matching with someone who may need you one day.  You may never get a call, but it would be a blessing to be able ot save someones life by giving a little bit of yourself.  Who knows, maybe one day you will need someone to be your DNA match and make a donation for you.

You can sign up at http://www.onematch.ca

I asked the librarian about the video games and she explained it was a bit of a draw to get kids off the street (or their butt) and into the library.  I went home and packaged probably 20 Wii and Xbox 360 games as well as the two machines and the hardware.  I also included really good DVDs that we no longer watch (or very rarely).  I would recommend  that everyone donates their DVD collection they aren't using and their video games.  I ended up in Caledonia because Jarvis has wonky hours, but I contributed to the same system.

The prefix word of community is com which means "together". Public is a word that can be loosely translated as "the people".  We are responsible for the quality of our  library through contributions.  Whether its video games or novels and whether they shelve or sell them - together, we the people can help build a strong library system.

The system already has some really cutting edge partnerships including online access to audio books and online access to language learning software.  As with most organizations, if nobody helps out we can never expect improvement.

This bus I found used for less than 20k ( I could probably negotiate even lower).  It seats about 30.

The next one is a true mini bus; most of these are Ford E350 or E450 converts.  They hold about 15 to 20 people and cost around 20k ( could probably find some even cheaper).

The final bus holds about 50 people.  It is what we would use during rush hour or on peak bus lines.  They cost anywhere from about 10k ( the african one below) to 150k for a new mercedes.

I think used it good in our situation and we can easily put something together and create a few jobs along the was for less than a couple hundred thousand.  When Mississauga Transit first started, it was blue school busses running in a continuous loop.  I remember waiting an hour for a bus sometimes;  though it did become a big and successful transit.  It is essential that we get a transit system set up for the sake of the commuters, the low income and the environment.

According to this book put out by the city (sponsered by Ontario) we should: lower our thermostat, Hang dry clothes, turn your lights off when you leave, switch to compact flourescent bulbs, unplug mobile phone charger, caulk windoes and the two shockers "take your bike insead of your car" and the big one "use public transportation.   We have no bike lanes and we have no public transportation - I think the book is telling us something.

I feel that small business is the backbone of society and putting any impediment in the way of progress is scary.  I think its more logical to pay after the assessment if its approved (maybe have a small deposit).  I understand the need for permits and the city to do its due diligence on every project, but cash grabs I am totally against, especially when it is potentially prohibitive to a future business operator or a farmer.

Ive been spending the last while looking at real estate in the area as well as doing my solar project that I wanted to expand (now wait lists are as high as a year for big installs).  I still think its one of the best deals going but make sure you do your due dilligence and factor in HST, income tax, insurance increases, etc.  Most accountants I speak to always say the same thing - real estate, equity, cash and either debt, universal life or both (I will talk about debt later).  A balanced approach is important but it seems like most people get stuck at the equity part and end up losing money.  I will show you one thing you can do to stop losing money Monday morning and have something to talk about at cocktail parties. Most people own mutual funds which can in theory be a good thing; in practice however it has seemed to only be good for the managers.  They charge 1-2% in "MER" or management fees regardless of if they made or lost money; theoretically they could lose half of your money and charge you 2% of your investment to do it.  That type of gross incompetence is not my cup of tea. Many will blame the market or bad intel or "thats life" but its not life - it is sheer incompetence.  I started to look at my stock list and go over the fundamentals to make sure I am not it anything too risky or anything too boring and saw things were good.  Stocks havent been much better than cash lately (GICs) - I have some of those at amazing rates, but again you want a balance.  GIC is taxed as income (up to 50%), Capital Gain is taxed in such a way that it usually works out being very low (A capital gain is when you buy something for 10 and sell is for 12, $2 would be your gain), the final is dividend which is when a company declares a profit and distributes it to shareholder (the best tax situation around).

So I only buy stocks that are dividend stocks unless I am gambling (my fathers view of stocks).  Dividend stock are fantastic because you get very little movement in terms of the capital price and you get dividends typically at regular intervals.  The two stocks I will tell you about are BNS and RY.  That is Bank of Nova Scotia and Royal Bank, $48 and $52 respectively.  They consistently pay their dividends on the same 4 days of the year, the amount of the dividend is predictable and usually only changes with inflation (if you look at their history).  Right now Scotia is paying 49 cents a share and Royal is paying 50 cents..  I can see the better buy can you?  In a real world example lets say you bought 100k worth of Royal Bank at $50; you would have 2000 shares which means you would get $1000 every 3 months which works out to 4% on your money paid in cash (or reinvested) that also does not take into account the fact that there will be movement in the stock with time just like anything else - depending on your age you may want to just reinvest half and some of you might want to take the cash and dump it into a GIC or a little business you have been dreaming of.  50 cents is really good quarterly per share.. If you look at WMT (WalMart) you will see a $50 stock with a 30 cent dividend (at least they have them).  There could be a lot of upside in a WalMart or one of the other few hundred dividend stocks.  BCE (Bell Canada) is another stable good one - its $30 and they have been paying out a 40 cent dividend.  So your 100k would net you $5332.80 which of course would be 5.3%.  There is lots of opportunity out there if one looks - my personal feeling is if you are going to invest your money do it in something you know and think  will be there tomorrow and seek the dividend paying stocks  only.

Things have been quiet on the campaign trail other than the normal chatte - summer is upon us and I have a feeling it is going to be pretty dry until September hits.   I will of course keep posting and hopefully getting email from all of you to answer.