The heart of federal Ottawa. An election offers an opportunity to make Ottawa a better place. Here are some of the things I'd like the new federal government to consider for the nation's capital: Let's confine the next few budgets to getting the federal deficit under control. I'd rather pay for things the country needs rather than pay interest. Some of the following initiatives should be moved on once the deficit is subdued; In Ottawa, I want a government that isn't going to slash the public service. The PS is a driving force in this economy. Sure waste should be trimmed, but let's not shock the Ottawa economy; Expedite construction of the east end bridge to get dangerous trucks out of Ottawa's downtown; Develop innovative plans for LeBreton Flats and the Rockcliffe lands; Begin planning for a high-speed train between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Hopefully, the planning would be completed when the federal government has its deficit under control. Sometimes you

This is a release from the National Capital Commission: The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to inform the public that the sidewalk on the east side of Colonel By Drive from Daly Avenue to the Laurier Bridge is now reopened. The Rideau Canal Recreational Pathway located on the west side of Colonel By Drive is also reopened except for the section between Daly Street and the Laurier Bridge. This last section should be completed by April 15, 2011. The NCC urges pedestrians and motorist to exercise caution and obey signage for their own safety. For more information, the public may contact the NCC at 613-239-5000 , 1-800-465-1867 , 613-239-5090 (TTY) or 1-866-661-3530 (toll-free TTY) or visit the NCC's website at www.canadascapital.gc.ca . ---- One of the most efficient ways of keeping current about what's on The Bulldog is by following it through Twitter and Facebook. Each day, short summaries of blog posts are distributed through these two social media networks. Attached to

This is a release from the City of Ottawa: The much anticipated reopening of the Splash Wave Pool at 2040 Ogilvie Road will take place on Monday, April 4. The newly renovated facility boasts a 25 metre lane pool with a fully accessible ramp and a spectacular 32 metre slide. On Monday, the facility is open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. but hours of operation vary each day. The full schedule and prices can be found at ottawa.ca/recreation or by calling the facility's automated number at: 613-748-4222. An official opening celebration will take place in the coming months. - 30 -

When I was tripping through YouTube to find an appropriate video for a blog post on House leader John Baird, I stumbled over another Mercer production on Baird. It's cute: ---- One of the most efficient ways of keeping current about what's on The Bulldog is by following it through Twitter and Facebook. Each day, short summaries of blog posts are distributed through these two social media networks. Attached to each summary is a link to the blog. It's the best way to discover what Ottawans are debating today on the city's most popular local affairs blog. If you like The Bulldog , you'll like it even better by following it through Twitter and Facebook. Click here to follow The Bulldog on Twitter. Click here to follow The Bulldog on Facebook. And don't forget you can subscribe to The Bulldog through your favourite RSS feed. Just look to the upper right for the feed that appeals to you. FOR MORE BULLDOG, CLICK HERE

Local and U.S. business interests are negotiating to bring a senior Toronto Blue Jays team to Ottawa Stadium. Senior city staff and politicians have agreed that any redevelopment of Ottawa Stadium on Coventry Road will not proceed until negotiations to bring minor professional baseball to the park have been exhausted. That's the word from College Councillor Rick Chiarelli who has been intimately involved with the negotiations over the past year. Chiarelli said he hopes to have an agreement in place that would put a Triple A or Double A club at the stadium within two years, undoubtedly a senior farm team of the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays and the ownership of the baseball team, Rogers Communications Inc., are believed to be interested in bringing their minor league farm teams to Canada to create synergy between the Jays (as Canada's only Major League Baseball club) and the rest of Canada. That benefits Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet One, the two cable outlets that carry Jays games

This is a release from Carleton University: Carleton student Bryan Luu is off to Vienna this summer for an amazing research opportunity. Luu beat out 375 other applicants to win one of 25 coveted places at the Vienna Biocenter Summer School. This is the first time a Carleton student has been selected for this program which typically accepts applicants from ivy league schools such as Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, Yale and MIT. The fourth-year neuroscience student will be researching in the Busslinger lab (IMP - Research Institute of Molecular Pathology) studying the genes that are involved in signalling stem cells to differentiate into more specific cells that play important roles in our immune system. Luu says the highlight of his Carleton University career has been working in Professor Ken Storey's lab on his own research project. "Dr. Storey allowed me to work at my own pace, try new things and mold my own project. Graduate students or Dr. Storey were always there to guide me

A smaller Frank Clair Stadium Just mention the word 'Lansdowne' in a blog post and ... BOOM ... The Bulldog is good for 80 comments in a flash. Citing sheer Lansdowne exhaustion on my part, I let the last debate fade into blog obscurity, but then, what do you know, a press release from the Friends of Lansdowne re-ignites the debate. So here we go again. Let's channel the Lansdowne comments into this post which I will move toward the top of the blog daily. Maybe we could resume the discussion with an explanation of why this issue is so contentious. ---- One of the most efficient ways of keeping current about what's on The Bulldog is by following it through Twitter and Facebook. Each day, short summaries of blog posts are distributed through these two social media networks. Attached to each summary is a link to the blog. It's the best way to discover what Ottawans are debating today on the city's most popular local affairs blog. If you like The Bulldog , you'll

This is a release from the Friends of Lansdowne: We now have a new date for the Friends of Lansdowne Legal Challenge. Our application will be heard by the Ontario Superior Court on June 21, 22 and 23, 2011. The media has been saying that this delay has been a tactic by the Friends of Lansdowne to postpone construction at Lansdowne Park. This is a myth. Here are the facts. Myth 1: The Friends of Lansdowne are using the legal challenge as a delay tactic and are doing everything they can to postpone the hearing date. Facts: 1. It is the City off Ottawa and the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group that have delayed the legal challenge by: refusing to produce documents requested (documents requested in late December were only provided in March) bringing forward motions that necessitated two hearings. In each case, the Master sided with the Friends of Lansdowne so the hearings (and subsequent delays) could have been avoided. 2. Drawn-out litigation increases costs and puts a tremendous strain

King Edward Avenue as it was in 1949. Here is a good summary of the issue surrounding the King Edward Avenue controversy from a well-informed Bulldog reader: FYI, passing on this information from the King Edward Avenue Task Force. The high level summary is: The community pressed long and hard to consider reducing King Edward from 6 lanes down to 4: - in late 2007 council agreed and directed staff to study the potential impacts of such a reduction - staff took no action for 1 year - council was upset and directed staff again 1 year later to conduct the study - a consultant was hired and the study was finished in early 2010 - the study concluded there would be minimal impact to traffic and transit flows - one year has passed with transportation planning staff stalling on reporting back to council - next week they are finally reporting back to transportation committee - the staff recommendation, despite the conclusion of the study is to continue with 6 lanes (at least until when (if?) a new

This is a release from the King Edward Avenue Task Force: With the release of the King Edward Avenue Lane Reductions study today, city staff members are once again in the spotlight being accused of trying to bury the true results of the study. In the staff report released today, staff members have indicated that a four-lane cross-section is the ultimate configuration for King Edward Avenue, but continue to defiantly defend their opinion that it should not be implemented before an east-end interprovincial bridge is built and other concessions are met. This is despite the fact that the study commissioned by the City indicates that 4 lanes would be possible with or without a bridge and could be implemented immediately. The King Edward Avenue Task Force has been involved and has carefully monitored the progress of the study throughout the past 4 years. For its part, it has serious concerns about the way in which city staff members have portrayed the results from the Dillon consulting study

This is a release from the office of Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli: Ontario is helping a medical equipment company add 100 new jobs and support 90 existing jobs in Ottawa. Best Theratronics Ltd. , with support from the province, is upgrading existing products and developing new technologies which will help the company to diversify its product line and enter into new markets. In the diagnostic medicine area, for example, it is in the process of manufacturing radioisotope production cyclotron systems that will provide health care options to a large population throughout the world. Best Theratronics develops and manufactures medical equipment used to treat cancer and make blood supplies safer. The company's technology uses high-energy gamma rays that deliver radiation treatment for cancer patients. The company also manufactures blood irradiators which are used to treat donated blood to help prevent the transmission of blood-borne illnesses. Partnering with local business is a key

Comedian Rick Mercer's take on House leader John Baird. What gets into some of our local elected representatives when they enter some of our most hallowed legislatures? Nepean-Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod was turfed from the room when Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan was giving his budget speech. The budget speech!? Come on. Give the minister a break ... that's about as exciting as reading the collected works of Robert Stanfield. MacLeod called somebody a "liar" during Duncan's eye-glazer, refused to apologize and was thrown out of the legislature by the speaker. Good for him. Duncan had to stop a number of times because he was interrupted by the opposition. It's time to show the legislature and the people MPPs represent some respect. I know Lisa very well. She was Barrhaven Councillor Jan Harder's assistant for a few years when I was covering Ottawa City Hall. MacLeod was invariably polite and helpful. I had a chat with her recently on the phone. Always

Thanks to Bulldog reader Mike for pointing this out to me ... The University of Ottawa student newspaper The Fulcrum is reporting a change of venue for the baseball Gee-Gees: Starting next season, the Gee-Gees are set to play their home games at the downtown Ottawa Baseball Stadium, located near the Ottawa train station. The stadium-formerly the home of the Ottawa Lynx-can seat up to 10,332 fans. The semi-pro Ottawa Fat Cats have a lease with the City of Ottawa for the stadium; the Gee-Gees will be renting from the Fat Cats as the Cats' season finishes in July, well before the start of the school year. To read the full story, click here . ---- One of the most efficient ways of keeping current about what's on The Bulldog is by following it through Twitter and Facebook. Each day, short summaries of blog posts are distributed through these two social media networks. Attached to each summary is a link to the blog. It's the best way to discover what Ottawans are debating today on

This is a release from the City of Ottawa; Starting Monday, April 4 City of Ottawa residents will have their green bins and leaf and yard waste collected every week. Organic food scraps, soiled paper products and other allowable waste from residential homes can now be placed at the curb for weekly collection. Weekly green bin and leaf and yard waste collection starts in April and continues during the spring, summer and fall. In December green bins will return to collection every other week. Residents are reminded to put their green bin and recycling out with their garbage by 7 a.m. for collection on their assigned pick-up day. Lock the lid to deter animals and prevent pests from getting into the bin. Leaf and yard waste can be used to top up the green bin. It can also be placed in a separate container such as an unused garbage container with the lid off so that collection workers can see it is leaf and yard waste. For more information about what goes in your green bin and collection dates

This is a release from the National Capital Commission: March 30, 2011 Canada's Capital Region - The National Capital Commission (NCC) invites residents and visitors of Canada's Capital Region to attend the public NCC Board of Directors meeting as well as its 10 th Annual General Meeting. The two events will be held on Wednesday , April 6, 2011 at the NCC Headquarters. NCC Public Board of Directors Meeting Time: 9 am to 2:50 pm Location: NCC Headquarters, Room 324 40 Elgin Street, Ottawa Discussions at this meeting will focus on the: Environmental Assessment Study on Future Interprovincial Crossings in the Canada's Capital Region - recommendation to award consultant services contract for Phase 2B; Greenbelt Master Plan Review - Strategic Statements and Land Use Concept Options; Greenbelt Sustainable Agriculture Strategy; Light Rail Transit - Alignment Approval. You will find the detailed Agenda of the NCC Board Meeting on the NCC's website at www.canadascapital.gc.ca . Annual