For those of you who didn’t know, Toronto has been going through a public worker’s strike since June 22nd. Unfortunately, this affects some of the taken-for-granted services, such as garbage pickup, social services (welfare, building permit issuing, etc), some emergency services, and even some transportation services.

While waiting for the bus yesterday, I looked over and saw this advert on an overflowing garbage and recycling bin. With the strike going on, and possibly not ending soon, I found the slogan of “Half the fun is getting there!” somewhat amusing, as it would be fun trying to figure out HOW to get over to the Toronto Island. Water taxis must be making a killing.

All in all, this strike is somewhat embarrassing, as you have the unions wanting more and more (they’ve been given a sweet offer yet don’t want to give up bankable sick days; who ELSE has those!?), and the city is twiddling it’s thumbs and not doing everything it can to end this strike (how about getting the government to ORDER them back to work, or firing the lot and hiring new non-union workers? I’m sure there are plenty of people looking for work). Who ends up suffering the most? The citizens of Toronto, and the businesses they run. Ironically, we’re all still expected to pay our taxes… which go towards the services that are unavailable at the moment due to mutual greed on both sides.

Personally, I think we should get a tax-break at the end of the year. It’d be the least they could do as an apology for what they’re putting us through, and ruining our summer.