If You Don't Believe Your Country...

...Should come before yourself, you can better serve your country by living somewhere else!

How punk rock is that?

In attitude, 100%!

It is a song by Canadian music legend/icon/rebel Stompin' Tom Connors, that you can check out by clicking anywhere on this sentence.

Stompin' Tom passed away yesterday at the age of 77.

He was born Thomas Charles Connors in Saint John New Brunswick on February 9th 1936 and raised by foster parents in Skinners Pond,  P.E.I.

Years ago, my family and I visited his school house in Skinners Pond and I still remember the pair of black boots on the monument outside this simple, one-room white school house in the middle of about nowhere; humble beginnings to say the least.

I also had the opportunity to see him twice in concert - a true entertainer until the very end... It's hard to go anywhere in Canada without a song or two coming into your head.

In fact, I think the Capitals Song is the reason I passed grade 3 geography.

He was a great teacher, but his upbringing definitely fostered a rebel and a great punk attitude... The best example going back to 1979 whe he returned all 6 of his Juno awards out of protest against the Americanization of the Canadian Music Industry.

So who better to get into the Order of Canada and the Governor General's Award?

I could go on and on about what his music and attitude has done for this country, but in short: Mr. Connors, Canada is better for having you and your music will live on for generations!

Drug testing at TTC

Bring up the TTC to any resident in Toronto, and everyone has a story about a bad experience; it's a big organization that deals with hundreds and thousands of people everyday - it's gonna happen.

Ask a group of HR folks their thoughts on random drug and alcohol testing, and I think you'll be met first with silence before a variety of opinions an experiences.

So what happens when you combine the two?

Well first check out this video from HR Reporter by clicking anywhere in this sentence.

The discussion around it typically comes up in industrial settings like mining or manufacturing; to compare us to the US is like night and day, they apparently test all the time (yes, I know the employment laws are different).

But laws aside for a second, doesn't it make sense ethically for the TTC to do this?

I mean ask anyone who has kids if they are against it, do you really want a 10,000 pound (not verified) steel tube barreling through the suburbs?

I think they should, it would add to their accountability  - especially after that issue around that group who recently got caught issuing false tickets.

But this is my opinion, what do you think? Should public transit workers (anywhere) be subject to random drug/alcohol testing?