James Shearer

I am pretty wiped out after a fun filled weekend in Whistler where I witnessed France loose the World Cup. Our stay in a retro 70’s log cabin in the forest north of Whistler was a great way to spend a weekend, socialise with friends and relax.

Vanessa and I took a drive around Whistler’s neighbourhoods to check out the huge houses and varied mountain architecture. Most of the building designs were straight out of the Swiss Alps.

This one caught our eye - perched on a rocky crag the entrance to this Whistler home is via a glass elevator up the side of the cliff (on the left) then across an enclosed bridge.

Here are a couple other images from our Whistler Weekend…

�1.1m for ‘cheap’ domain names, see here

It is quite amazing that the USA claims to be the land of the free yet have so many restrictive laws they could be construed as totalitarian!

Recently, Washington State has made it illegal to gamble online. It is even illegal to run a website which mentions online gambling! It is so serious that offenders are likely to be treated the same as if they commited a violent assault or robbery. One guy who lives in Bellingham set up a guide to online casinos and although you can’t play on his website, because it mentions online gambling the Great State of Washington, in all their wisdom, decided to take criminal action against the poor guy!

Amazing!

The Internet may be a lawless land and could do with some tightening of laws and enforcement of others but this type of law does nothing to help anyone. I really fail to see the logic behind it.

So much for free speech, and all those other freedoms American’s ‘have’…

At the weekend I finally went canoeing in Canada!!! I’ve been here all this time and it is one thing I have never done.

In Scotland I went canoeing and kayaking fairly regularly but never in Canada, the home of the boat you can carry.

Vanessa and I took some sea kayaks out on English Bay and around the edge of Stanley Park. The water was fairly calm and the trip was a nice way to cool down from the heat of the sun. Wake from one boat nearly sent us to the bottom. Vanessa (who was at the front of our double kayak) took the brunt of the three waves which then filled out boat. Fortunately we had a pump so spent the next 15 minutes bailing ourselves out.

Other than that it was relaxing, uneventful and just what was needed. It was a great way to see the city, Stanley Park the beaches around English Bay and also the wildlife (harbour seals in the water).

I’m looking forward to a more activity filled summer this year!

Yesterday Stephen Harper lowered GST (The Canada-wide goods and services tax) from 7% to 6%. Because I am not yet a Canadian resident, this is about the only thing in a budget tax adjustment which would have any effect on me. Although, I can’t really see it saving me more than $100 in a year.

Lower income tax has been increased from 15% to 15.5% for the first income bracket. If you combine that with the GST reduction it seems that someone with low earnings wouldn’t see any change because their savings on GST would be absorbed into a higher income tax bill. People in the highest tax bracket stand to save the most (if they spend the most - which they probably do)…

Once immigration is sorted it is going to be interesting seeing the huge differences between the Canadian tax system and the UK one. The Canadian tax and benefits system is incredibly conservative in its design, especially compared with the UK. Anyway, we shall see!

Canada Day kicked off with a tense match between England and Portugal. After extra time and penalties England failed to make it through to the semi-finals. oh well….

I’m off to Granville Island where a lot of Canada Day festivities are happening.

Happy Canada Day.