Updates

Some updates to recent posts:

Autumn Beers drew a comment from Peter in Peachland about Pumpkineater, a strong, spiced beer from B.C. Check out his full comment at the bottom of the post.

And by one of those strange coincidences, Pumpkineater is just one of dozens of amazing beers on tap at this Sunday's Cask Days 7^th Annual Cask Beer Festival at Hart House on the U. of T. campus. For those of you in the Toronto area, all the details are here.

A visit to Guelph last weekend enabled me to visit the Wellington Brewery where I purchased Wellington Imperial Russian Stout. Imperial Russian Stout is an extra strong (in this case 8% abv.) beer style originally brewed for export to the Russian market to keep the czars warm on long winter nights. Wellington Imperial Russian Stout is black, with a brown head and tastes of coffee and dark chocolate. It has a nice balance between sweetness and roasted grain bitterness. A wonderful sipping beer for the cold evenings ahead.

And if you're interested in following up on some further aspects of the radical redistribution of income by the 1% that has blighted the lives of the 99%, check out a piece by U. of T. prof J. David Hulchanski that appeared in yesterday's Toronto Star. In it, he points out that in the 1970's, two-thirds (66%) of Toronto neighbourhoods were middle class. By 2005, even before the Great Recession that began in 2008, that number had fallen to less than a third (29%), while the proportion of poor and very poor neighbourhoods had skyrocketed from 19% to 53%. It's the realization by the middle class that many of them really aren't middle class anymore that is behind the growing movement for fundamental economic reform.

Yet another piece, appearing in today's Star, highlights the economic damage done to older workers, who now have to spend 3.5 more years working in order to afford retirement than they did 10 years ago. This, in turn, impacts young workers, who can't find employment or move up in their jobs because older workers are hanging in there into their late 60's.

The mess we're in is the result of decades of misguided economic policies that favoured the elites. We're beginning to understand the nature of the problem, and appreciate the dangers of economic inequality. We need to keep up the pressure on leaders to act quickly in order to head off social upheaval and political violence.

You can follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Occupy This!

The "Occupy" movement that began on Wall Street and that has spread around the world (I witnessed "Occupy Guelph" on the weekend) has already achieved at least one major victory. It has created a robust new meme – the 99% and the 1% – that distills the essence of what has gone wrong with our economic system over the last 35 years.

Since the late 1970's, through good times and bad, globalization and tax cutting, the incomes of the poor and middle classes have actually declined. The majority of the gains from several decades of economic growth have gone to the top 1%. The next 4% have done pretty well. And the next 5%? They managed to keep their heads above water. But the rest of us, the 90%? We've been slowly drowning.

That explains why our children graduate from university (if they can afford to go) with massive debt, can't find good jobs, and can't buy homes. It's why our pensions have vapourized and why seniors can't afford to retire. It's why we could build schools, hospitals, transit, roads, and bridges in the 60's, but despite 40 years of economic growth, "can't afford" to do so now. It's why all politicians seem to offer the same platform: tax cuts.

How did we get here? Some background:

Back in 1980, when Ronald Reagan proclaimed it was morning again in America, the con was called "trickle-down" economics. Governments would enact policies that would favour those who were already economically privileged. The rest of us, like the poor man in the parable, would be content with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table.

In the 90's it was free trade, deregulation, and resulting globalization. Removing the taxes from imported goods might cost you your job, but you'd be able (temporarily) to buy cheaper foreign products with your unemployment benefits. Eventually, you'd find another job in one of the new, lean and mean industries that would rise from the ashes of the old economy. And you could always get rich trading tech stocks, right? A rising tide would lift all boats.

It may have lifted the yachts, but it left most of us clinging to the wreckage. Free trade and deregulation really meant freedom for capital to range anywhere in the world looking for a fast buck. People, however, couldn't and so began a race to the bottom for wages.

But wait, there was a solution: tax cuts. Your wages might not be rising, but we'll lower your taxes so you'll have more money in your pocket. Only most of the tax cuts ended up going to the rich, while the middle class got hit with user fees and tuition increases, and cuts to social services hammered society's most vulnerable.

For the past several decades the rich and powerful and their right-wing talking heads in the media have been masters of the meme, and they have defined the terms of the economic, social, and political discussion. Just think of a meme like "Tax Freedom Day" and all it represents.

But a meme like "the 99% and the 1%" changes the channel. It has the power to alter the way we view the world. If we're lucky, it's merely crystallizing what we're already thinking but haven't been able to express 'til now. That's why the push back from the mainstream media and their masters in the economic and political elites has been so hysterical: the Occupiers may be only a ragtag band of a few hundred, but they're saying the emperor has no clothes. And people are listening.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Autumn Beers

I don't drink much beer in the summer. I prefer darker, fuller-flavoured beers, and those kinds of beers are more appealing to me in the cooler months. So, recently, when the skies turned grey and the temperatures dropped, I visited the LCBO looking for beers I hadn't tried before. I came up with four – all from small Ontario breweries.

Crazy Canuck Pale Ale (5.2%, $2.50 for a 473 ml can) from Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto was a real surprise. The packaging suggests a cheaply made "hockey" beer, but promises a "west coast pale ale", and it certainly delivers. Unlike, say Okanagan Springs Pale Ale, which you can find at your local pub, Crazy Canuck has a pronounced hop aroma backed up by plenty of citrusy hop flavour. The colour is amber with a dense white head. There's some sweet maltiness there in the middle, but the hop bitterness dominates the finish. This beer would go great with sausage or pepperoni pizza. A great price for a beer of this quality.

The second beer I tried was a disappointment. I really wanted to like Muskoka Harvest Ale (6.2%, $8.95 for a 750 ml bottle) from Muskoka Cottage Brewery in Bracebridge; their Muskoka Cream Ale is a long-time favourite. Harvest Ale comes in an attractively labelled, swing-top bottle. The brew is copper-coloured, with a beige, creamy head. It's very bitter, but there's little or no hop aroma and only a hint of caramel in the malty body. Not a bad beer, but not a great one, and not worth the price. I enjoy a bitter beer, but I look for balance with the sweetness of the malt. Harvest Ale is just too bitter and unbalanced for me.

The next two beers were very different from the first two. Here malt dominated, with little detectable hop aroma or bitterness, but that's characteristic of their styles. Black Creek Porter (5%, $3.55 for a 500 ml bottle) is brewed by Black Creek Historic Brewery, located in the famous Black Creek Pioneer Village in northwest Toronto. Porter is a dark ale, favoured by the porters of 18^th century London (hence its name), and the ancestor of the better known "stout porter", aka, stout. The use of some roasted, but unmalted, barley gives the beer its mild bitterness and coffee flavour, as well as its dark chestnut colour. The head is modest and beige-coloured. This is a very sippable and satisfying beer, and my favourite of the four I tried.

Like porter, stouts employ roasted barley to create a dark, nearly black beer with a tan-coloured head and coffee bitterness in the taste. But Trafalgar Smoked Oatmeal Stout (5%, $4.95 for a 650 ml bottle) from Trafalgar Ales and Meads in Oakville throws a double twist into the classic stout recipe. The addition of oatmeal creates a sweet stout with a silky mouthfeel, while the use of smoked malt provides a distinct smoky flavour. It's a little like taking a bite out of a campfire and it won't be to everyone's taste. I suspect though, that the combination of sweet and smoke would make this beer a great combination with barbequed ribs.

Not every LCBO stocks all these beers, but you can search the LCBO website for availability. Next month: boozy coffees to ward off winter's chill.

You can now follow me on Twitter @AeneasLane

Winners and Losers

The results of last night's Ontario election: Liberals: 53, Progressive Conservatives: 37, New Democrats: 17. So, who were the winners and losers?

Dalton McGuinty was a winner. He earned his third consecutive election victory, a rarity in politics. He came from far back in the polls just a few months ago, preaching a message of hope about the future that many Ontarians embraced in the midst of economic turbulence.

Dalton McGuinty was a loser. His Liberals lost 19 seats, several points in the popular vote, and majority status, barely.

Tim Hudak was a winner. In his first campaign as leader, he increased his party's share of the popular vote by 2.5% and its seat total by 12.

Tim Hudak was a loser. He blew a double-digit lead in the polls with a bizarrely negative campaign that went off message several times, attacking immigrants as "foreign workers" and supporting homophobic groups that accused schools of promoting cross-dressing. He was inexperienced, and it showed.

Andrea Horwath was a winner. She increased her party's popular vote by 8% and seat total by 7. In her first campaign, she earned recognition and respect and finally laid to rest the ghost of the Rae government.

Andrea Horwath was a loser. Her party's platform was eerily similar to that of Hudak's PC's, stressing tax cuts for "working families". Sure, there was a promise to roll back the most recent Liberal cuts to corporate tax rates, but under Horwath, the NDP adopted the rhetoric of anti-tax populists, hardly sounding like a progressive party.

So what does the future hold?

This was Dalton McGuinty's last campaign, and everyone knows it. Liberal cabinet ministers (those who survived last night) are already jockeying for the leadership. How will he retain his hold on his own caucus and cabinet, let alone the legislature? He's in for a tough time, but it would be a mistake to underestimate him. There's certainly some truth to the nice guy persona, but there's also steel under the Mr. Dad cardigan.

Hudak and Horwath have both earned the right to stick around and next time they will be the experienced campaigners facing a rookie Liberal leader.

In his "concession" speech, Hudak continued to raise the spectre of the bogeyman Dalton McGuinty, the "tax man". Two points: dude, the election's over. And if it didn't work then, why do you think it's going to work now? Get some new material, please. He came off as strident and petty. Significantly, he praised Horwath, no doubt knowing that every vote the NDP gains comes from the Liberals. It may be his only hope: in this campaign, Hudak branded himself as Mr. Negative. Unless he can shake that image, his growth prospects seem limited.

Horwath stressed her eagerness to get down to work as soon as possible, and her readiness to work with the other parties to address the urgent challenges facing Ontario. She came across as positive and energetic. She poses a real threat to the Liberals next election. And Tim Hudak's best chance to become premier. Unless Andrea Horwath beats him to it.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Points and Miles: October

All the major hotel chains have now launched their fourth quarter promotions. If you're planning a Thanksgiving getaway, or a cross-border shopping trip, you might also refer to Points and Miles: September for the chains that were first out of the gate with their offers last month.

Country Inn and Suites by Carlson offers a free night if you complete a two-night stay by December 1. Various terms and conditions apply, so read them carefully. And a car rental from Avis could get you 9K Club Carlson points. Here's the link with the code you'll need.

You're probably not familiar with Wyndham Rewards, but you may recognize many Wyndham Hotel brands: Ramada, Super 8, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Travelodge. Every stay through November 18 earns double points or miles, and every second stay gets you a $20 VISA gift card. Registration is required via this link.

Priority Club is the loyalty program of Intercontinental Hotels (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza). You earn 10 points for every dollar spent. To redeem for a free night at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express usually requires 15K points, but some hotels offer "Pointsbreaks" specials for only 5K points a night. Here's where to find hotels offering Pointsbreaks. Until December 31, Register to earn 500 bonus points per night. Your bonus will be doubled or tripled if you stay at more than one brand. There are lots of other bonuses available. Find them here. The bonuses can add up quickly: two paid nights at Holiday Inn can easily earn you a free night.

Unfortunately, there are few Hyatt Hotels in Canada. Until November 15, receive 5K bonus Hyatt Gold Passport points after every three nights you stay. Combined with the regular 5 points per dollar earned, that's enough for a free night at many Hyatt hotels.

The airline space presents a couple of interesting offers. If you're a Royal Bank customer and collect RBC Rewards points, until November 30, earn a 30% bonus when converting RBC Rewards points to American Airlines AAdvantage miles. And, only until November 15, RBC is offering up to $350 in WestJet dollars for signing up for its WestJet RBC MasterCard.

If you'd subscribe to the magazine anyway, and the price is right, Rogers magazine service is offering 250 Aeroplan miles when you add a magazine to your account. Gift subscriptions also qualify.

And finally, CIBC has taken over the Petro-Points MasterCard and is offering 15K as a sign-up bonus. Petro-Points aren't worth much: 15K points will get you a $10 gas card. You do save 2 cents a litre at the pump, earn points for your spending, and receive a monthly 5K ($3.33) bonus if you spend over $1,000.

The card is no-fee, and there is a calculator on the site to let figure out how you'd do. My own calculations show that I'd save about $4.00 a month on gas and earn a $10.00 gas card about every other month, giving the card a value of a about $120.00 per year, or a return of about 1%. That represents a lost opportunity of several hundred dollars compared to several other cards I know and use that offer a 2% return and whose points can sometimes be leveraged for even greater value.

If you spend a lot (over $25K per year), especially on gas, the 2 cent a litre discount could increase the card's value to the $250-$300 range. But there's still the lost opportunity cost to consider. If you're putting that much spending on a credit card, a travel rewards card that offers double points or miles for gas, grocery, drug store, and travel purchases could be worth your while, even if it comes with a fee.

It just goes to show that there's no one right rewards program for everyone. How much you spend, where you spend, and what kinds of rewards you're after all determine what's best for you.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane