Dear Ministers Day, Van Loan and Prentice

Dear Ministers Day, Van Loan and Prentice:

I am writing to you today in your capacity as Ministers of her majesty's government who live in my building.

As you are probably aware, traffic in Ottawa is not really all that bad - as the system we have for the flow of vehicles is designed to handle the very heavy traffic that occurs between 7:30 and 8:30, and subsequently between 2:45 and 2:47 when all of the civil servants leave for the day. It is a miracle of infrastructure.

As Ministers in her majesty's government, you are afforded a special luxury and are provided a car and a driver. With this I take no issue, though I wonder why Minister Day needs a driver given than his Ministry is attached to our building, and maybe the six block walk to Minister Van Loan's office might do him some good. But I digress.

The purpose of my letter is to inquire as to the driving habits of your personal drivers. Habitually, I don't care about what goes on in front of our building in the mornings, but this morning, as I was trying to pull into our parking garage, I found it impossible because parked in front of our entrance were no less than three black sedans, idling, in a no parking zone.

The reason cars are not allowed to park there is simple - between 7:30 and 8:30 the street on which our building is located is a fairly major thoroughfare for accessing the downtown core. Far be it from me to lament the design of our fair city, but when her majesty's government is blocking two of the available four lanes, it can be a surprise to no one when traffic backs up behind them.

Not trying to simply be an alarmist, I have three possible solutions. The first is devilish in its simplicity - have your drivers wait a mere 24 steps away on an adjoining side street. Your driver's desire for civil disobedience for raging against the "no parking" sign machine can also be satiated by idling on said side street. Secondly, your drivers could access the parking spots on the first basement floor of the building. This adds a modicum of security when accessing your vehicles. Thirdly, and shockingly, perhaps you could just call your driver when you are ready to be picked up, and wait outside for them.

If Canada's new government is indeed looking to distinguish itself from its predecessors in the same building (Ministers Lapierre, Dosanj, and Efford) this would be the first in a long series of steps to ameliorate the relationship you have with your neighbours. It is bad enough that Minister Day had a dog shot in February.

Sincerely,

That guy who is polite to you in the elevator despite whatever idiocy you have recently uttered.