title: Rats in New York City

text: In 2013, it was announced that New York municipal authorities would implement a plan for mass sterilization of the city's rats, using a chemical to neutralize the reproductive systems of female rats. Bait stations loaded with the chemical were to be deployed. The chemical's effects were to gradually shrink the number of kittens a female rat can have in a litter, eventually rendering them infertile.


title: Rats in New York City

text: The Upper West Side and the Upper East Side logged the most rat complaints to the Health Department from 2010 to mid-2014. In 2014 the Health Department hired 9 new inspectors to augment its staff of 45. With $611,000 in funding, the new squad was tasked with targeting major infestations in the South Bronx and Manhattan.


title: Rats in New York City

text: New York City property owners and managing agents are legally responsible for keeping their properties rat-free through maintenance measures and the use of pest control professionals. Conditions both inside and outside of buildings, including on public property, that contribute to or allow the establishment of rat populations constitute violations of Article 151 of the Health Code.


title: Rats in New York City

text: Maintenance measures include proper storage of garbage, removal of water sources, and elimination of environments suitable for nesting. Garbage cans need to be rat-resistant and made out of metal rather than plastic. Because rats easily chew through plastic, the Health Department recommends placing plastic garbage bags inside rat-resistant metal garbage cans. Garbage should be placed out on the street close to the pickup time, rather than the night before. It also becomes important to keep garbage that are in parks inside litter cans, and not feeding birds or any of the surrounding wildlife that could potentially attract them.


title: Rats in New York City

text: New York City publishes a guide for property owners and tenants, entitled "Preventing Rats on Your Property: A Guide for Property Owners and Tenants", that discusses how the Health Department inspects for rats, and how to control rats, including looking for evidence, cleaning up, starving them, shutting them out, and wiping them out. The guide covers the use of traps, rat poison, and wire mesh at the base of trees, as well as the new rules for garbage pickup, with landlords bringing out garbage in the morning immediately prior to pickup rather than the night before. Rodent baiting is suggested as an effective approach to wiping out rats.


title: Rats in New York City

text: New York City property owners and residents are advised to watch for signs of infestation like gnawed wood and plastic and evidence of rat trails. Property should be inspected to look for entry points such as gaps around pipes.


title: Rats in New York City

text: An online map created by the New York City Department of Health enables people to search specific addresses for rat issues. "The Village Voice" asked readers to email them about incidents of rat sightings.


title: Rats in New York City

text: New York City rodent complaints can be made online, by filling out the New York City Rodent Complaint Form, or by dialing 3-1-1.


title: Rats in New York City

text: The New York City guide "Preventing Rats on Your Property" discusses how the NYC Health Department, through its Pest Control Services program, inspects private and public properties for rats. Property owners that fail an inspection receive a Health Department Commissioner's Order and have five days to correct the problem. If, after five days, the property fails a second inspection, the owner receives a Notice of Violation and can be fined. If the Health Department feels it must itself exterminate or clean up the property, the property owner is billed (about $1,000 a day in 2004). Unpaid charges become a priority lien against the building, preventing property owners from selling with a clean legal title. Failure to comply with an order of the Commissioner is a misdemeanor, and subjects the landlord to criminal prosecution, a fine and/or imprisonment, as well as additional civil penalties. The penalty for each rodent violation was as high as $2,000 in 2004.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In 2014, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer criticized the Health Department as "weak" in investigating and fixing residents' rat complaints. From fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2013, pest complaints, including rat problems, increased 10 percent in the city, and 24 percent of the time Health Department workers failed to inspect the complaints in the 10-day target period, an audit by the comptroller found. In 160 cases, the Health Department failed to carry out any field inspection. Caroline Bragdon at the Department of Health said: "The inspection is only as good as the inspector on that day and time. If you feel we're really missing the boat, which sometimes we do, let your community board and elected officials know."


title: Rats in New York City

text: In July 2017, the New York City government announced a $32 million rat reduction plan in which it initially aimed to reduce rat infestations by 70% by the end of 2018. The plan would alleviate rat infestations in East Village, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side in Lower Manhattan; Concourse in the Bronx; and Bedford–Stuyvesant and Bushwick in Brooklyn. These neighborhoods were chosen because they had high numbers of rat complaints in the past. The plan included installing padding or tiling on dirt floors in the basements of apartment buildings, installing solar-powered rat-proof trash cans, as well as increased trash management.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In February 2007, a morning news program featured a live report of a pack of rats overrunning a joint Taco Bell-KFC fast food restaurant in Greenwich Village. Inside the restaurant, numerous rats so severely infested the restaurant that they were visible in groups from the street, through the windows. Owners of the store reassured customers that the infestation was an isolated incident, but neighborhood residents interviewed stated that the franchise had exhibited a consistent presence of rats. Though the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene ordered both restaurants to stay closed, both storefronts gathered crowds, who came to observe the sheer quantity of rats inside the stores. While Health Department officials investigated the Taco Bell-KFC, it was uncovered that the restaurant had passed health inspections as recently as a week before the infestation. Following the infestation, the restaurant was officially closed by the Health Department, and it was reported that the restaurant had only previously passed health inspections by having rat droppings and not live rats, leading some to call for stricter measurements on health inspections.


title: Rats in New York City

text: Rats in New York City have been observed on multiple occasions entering dwellings through plumbing and emerging from the toilet. Pest control experts say that many rats have no problem climbing through pipes. Though the most memorable incidents involve rats entering the bowl of the toilet or even leaving the toilet, it is not uncommon for them to become trapped in the pipes and die. Plumbers in New York are allegedly so used to dealing with rats in toilets, that they appear completely unfazed and even make jokes. Rats prefer means of entry which give them close proximity to food, which plumbing pipes do not, however, the change of rat behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in toilet rats. Though most toilet rat infestations are facilitated by uncapped pipes, which are often not in the control of tenants, plumbers say the best way to hinder toilet rats is to leave the lid closed when not in use.


title: Rats in New York City

text: Babies are frequent victims, especially if left alone with food or a bottle. In 1860, "The New York Times" reported that a newborn infant had died subsequent to rats eating part of its face and one foot. The NYC Health Department undertook an anti-rat campaign in 1921 that involved rat-proofing as well as trapping and killing rats. Rats have been frequently known to have bitten infants and young children to get food off their faces.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In August 2003, a fire station in Queens was condemned and demolished after rats had taken over the building. After exterminators visited the building 26 times between March 2003 and August 2003, the building was eventually evacuated and stripped after the stench of dead rats built up in the walls and ceilings. The 60 staff members of the fire station were redistributed among nearby firehouses.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In 2014, New York City Councilman Mark D. Levine said at a public hearing that "We've had rats who are going into cars and eating out electrical cables. We have rats that are entering homes." He described the problem as "epidemic" on some streets in Manhattan.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In October 2020, a 33-year-old man in the Bronx fell through a sidewalk that collapsed under him into a nest of rats, an event colloquially referred to as the "New York City rat chasm". The victim was hospitalized for three weeks. Shortly following the accident, the victim filed a lawsuit for gross negligence against EH & HD 183rd Realty LLC and the city of New York. EH & HD 183rd Realty LLC was charged with gross negligence for not properly maintaining the vault, and the New York City Department of Buildings was charged with gross negligence for not properly inspecting the sidewalk.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In 2011, a video of a rat climbing on a sleeping man's face on the subway went viral. Rats are so common that ex-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer quipped in 2013, "The rats don't scurry. They walk right up to you and say, 'How are you, Mr. Borough President? That year, YouTube videos of rats on subway tracks and in a subway car in New York City went viral, as did videos of rats in a Dunkin' Donuts in Manhattan. In June 2014, residents at adjacent Upper West Side buildings started a rent strike, demanding an end to the rat problem. Also in 2014, Allerton Coops in Bronx Park East received three Notices of Violation from the Health Department and was fined for their inadequate response to a severe rat infestation.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In 2015, a YouTube video of a rat carrying a slice of pizza in the subway, dubbed "Pizza Rat", went viral. The video was trending worldwide on Twitter and Facebook within 15 hours of the YouTube upload, garnered 5 million views within two days, and spawned similar staged videos with trained rats such as "Selfie Rat".


title: Rats in New York City

text: In early 2016, another video of a rat climbing on a sleeping subway rider was uploaded to social media. The uploader was criticized for his choice to film the incident and post it online rather than intervene.


title: Rats in New York City

text: In late 2021, Tropical Storm Ida caused severe flooding in the New York City sewer system, which was then followed by multiple reports of dozens of rat corpses washing up on the banks of bodies of water in New York. There was no official count of the number of rats living in the sewers of New York, but experts hypothesize that the flooding from Ida may have caused one of the biggest rat depopulation events in New York in decades.


title: Bob Rae

text: Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1996, and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011 to 2013. Between 1978 and 2013, he was elected 11 times to federal (Broadview, Broadview-Greenwood, Toronto Centre) and provincial (York South) parliaments.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was a New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament from 1978 to 1982. He then moved to provincial politics, serving as leader of the Ontario NDP from February 7, 1982, to June 22, 1996. After leading his party to victory in the 1990 provincial election he served as the 21st Premier of Ontario from October 1, 1990, to June 26, 1995, and was the first person to have led a provincial NDP government in the province of Ontario. While in office, he brought forward a number of initiatives that were unpopular with many traditional NDP supporters, such as the Social Contract. Rae's subsequent disagreement with the leftward direction of the NDP led him to resign his membership. In 2006, he joined the Liberals; he had previously been a Liberal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2006, Rae was a candidate for the leadership of the Liberals, finishing in third place on the third ballot. He returned to the House of Commons of Canada on March 31, 2008, as a Liberal MP after winning a March 17, 2008 by-election, holding the riding that had previously been held by Liberal Bill Graham. He was re-elected in the 2008 general election. Rae ran again as a candidate for the party leadership but withdrew on December 12, 2008. He was re-elected in the Toronto Centre riding in the 2011 general election and was named interim leader of the Liberal Party weeks later, replacing Michael Ignatieff; he served in that position until Justin Trudeau's election as party leader in early 2013.


title: Bob Rae

text: On June 19, 2013, Rae announced that he would resign from parliament in order to become chief negotiator for James Bay area First Nations in their negotiations with the provincial government. His resignation from parliament became effective July 31, 2013. Rae joined Olthuis Kleer Townshend (OKT Law) LLP (a law firm specializing in representing Aboriginal clients) as a partner in February 2014. Rae sits as an advisor to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission. Rae was appointed Canada's special envoy to Myanmar in October 2017 and advised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the Rohingya crisis. He is also a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. On July 6, 2020, his appointment as Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents were Lois Esther (George) and Saul Rae, an eminent Canadian career diplomat who had postings in Washington, Geneva, New York, Mexico, and The Hague. Rae's paternal grandparents immigrated from Scotland, and his mother had English ancestry. Rae was raised as an Anglican. As an adult, he found out that his paternal grandfather was Jewish and was from a family of Lithuanian immigrants to Scotland.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae's elder brother John A. Rae (born 1945) was an executive vice-president and director of Power Corporation and a prominent member of the Liberal Party. He was also an adviser to Jean Chrétien when he was Indian Affairs Minister in 1968, and then again from 1993 until 2003 while Chrétien was prime minister. Rae's younger brother, David, was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1987. Despite a bone marrow transplant from his brother, he died of leukemia in 1989 at age 32.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae learned of his family's Jewish origins in 1968. The revelation had a strong impact on him: he sought to explore his Jewish culture, dated Jewish girls exclusively and ultimately married a Jewish woman. Upon his marriage to Arlene Perly Rae, Rae agreed to raise three daughters in his wife's Jewish faith. Rae is a member of Holy Blossom Temple, a Reform Jewish congregation in Toronto.


title: Bob Rae

text: His uncle, the late Jackie Rae, was an entertainer and former host of "The Jackie Rae Show" on CBC and also performed on British television.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae attended Crichton Street Public School in Ottawa, Horace Mann Public School and Gordon Junior High School in Washington, D.C. (1956–1961), and the International School of Geneva, Switzerland. His first job was a paper route delivering the Washington's "Evening Star" newspaper, which he later described as "one of the worst newspapers in the history of modern journalism". His customers included Richard Nixon and Estes Kefauver. Rae later joked that Kefauver gave him a $20 tip one Christmas, whereas Pat Nixon only gave him a quarter and made him more sympathetic to Democrats from that moment.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae graduated with honours from University College, University of Toronto, where he also later received his law degree. Michael Ignatieff, who later became Rae's rival for the Liberal Party leadership, was his roommate for a time. He first became involved in politics by volunteering on Trudeau's 1968 Liberal leadership campaign, and later worked on Liberal Charles Caccia's campaign in the 1968 federal election. Rae and Caccia have remained personal friends through their political careers. During his final year as an undergraduate, Rae was a student representative on the Bissell Commission on University Government.


title: Bob Rae

text: As a result of his strong student record, Rae was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he studied at Balliol College, Oxford under Isaiah Berlin. His Bachelor of Philosophy thesis criticized the cultural imperialism of early Fabian socialists in the United Kingdom, such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb. During his period in Britain he became involved with social work, helping squatters find rental accommodation in London. He attributes the experience with helping him develop a deepened commitment to social justice and, on his return to Canada in 1974 Rae joined the social democratic NDP. He worked in labour law during the mid-1970s.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a 1978 by-election, defeating Progressive Conservative Tom Clifford by 420 votes in the Toronto riding of Broadview. Rae won the NDP nomination over former MP John Paul Harney and activist Kay Macpherson.


title: Bob Rae

text: He won a full term in the 1979 federal election from the renamed riding of Broadview—Greenwood, and gained national prominence as the NDP's finance critic. In December 1979 he proposed a subamendment to the budget motion, stating that the House of Commons did not approve of Clark's budget. It was this motion's passage that toppled Clark's government after only eight months.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was elected to parliament for a third time in the 1980 federal election, and married Arlene Perly days later. In caucus, he sided with party leader Ed Broadbent in supporting patriation of the Canadian Constitution with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also articulated his party's policy on the Canadian Bank Act, and criticized the Bank of Canada's high interest rate policy.


title: Bob Rae

text: During the same period Rae was in Ottawa, the Ontario New Democratic Party was suffering from internal disunity under the leadership of Michael Cassidy. Cassidy resigned as leader after a poor performance in the 1981 provincial election, and a movement began to draft Rae as his replacement. Rae initially declined a request from a provincial delegation led by Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Dave Cooke, but reconsidered after further entreaties from former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis and many others.


title: Bob Rae

text: Eleven of the party's 21 MPPs endorsed his candidacy, as did much of the labour movement. Rae's supporters in caucus were Marion Bryden, Brian Charlton, Dave Cooke, Odoardo Di Santo, Tony Grande, Donald C. MacDonald, Robert Mackenzie, Elie Martel, Ed Philip, George Samis and Mel Swart. He was the most centrist candidate in the contest, and easily defeated Richard Johnston and Jim Foulds at a leadership convention in early 1982.


title: Bob Rae

text: When Rae won the NDP leadership, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party had governed Ontario since 1943 and was widely regarded as unbeatable. Rae was strongly critical of the Bill Davis government's approach to social issues, and used his acceptance speech to describe the PC Party's Ontario as "Toryland", "essentially a country club in which women and people of colour were not welcome". His comments were criticized by some in the media, though Rae himself would later write that his words seemed "particularly apt" in retrospect and "certainly aroused an angry response which often means a target has been hit".


title: Bob Rae

text: After Rae won the party leadership, there was a delay of several months before he was able to contest a by-election to enter the Ontario legislature. Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) Jim Renwick, Marion Bryden and Tony Grande all declined to relinquish their seats, before former party leader Donald C. MacDonald agreed to stand down in the York South constituency. Rae defeated Liberal candidate John Nunziata, a York councillor in a by-election on November 4, 1982. Counting the leadership contest, this was his fifth election in just over four years.


title: Bob Rae

text: The opposition Liberals were led by the inexperienced David Peterson. Many senior NDP strategists believed their party could surpass the Liberals for second place, and Rae and Peterson became frequent rivals for media attention and public support between 1982 and 1985. The NDP took two seats from the Liberals in late 1984 by-elections, and polling by Decima Research from this period put them slightly ahead of the Liberals, although still well behind the PCs.


title: Bob Rae

text: The NDP did not make the anticipated gains in the 1985 provincial election held on May 2, 1985. They won 25 seats out of 125, only a modest improvement from their 1981 showing. The Progressive Conservatives lost support after Davis retired and right-wing candidate Frank Miller was chosen as their new leader. However, it was the Liberals rather than the NDP who were able to reposition themselves in the political centre and reap the benefits of this change.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae nonetheless played a pivotal role in bringing the Progressive Conservative Party's 42-year dynasty to an end. The 1985 election resulted in a minority parliament, in which the Tories held four more seats than David Peterson's Liberals, but were eleven seats short of a majority. Rae entered into negotiations with both Premier Miller and Peterson, the latter begun by a phone call from Rae to Peterson shortly after election day. Rae and Peterson signed a "Liberal-NDP Accord" in which the NDP agreed to support a Liberal government in office for two years. The Liberals, in turn, agreed to implement some policies favoured by the NDP. Rae had personally supported a full coalition, but did not strongly argue this case with other members of his party. Peterson later indicated that he would not have accepted a coalition in any event.


title: Bob Rae

text: The Progressive Conservatives were defeated in a no-confidence motion on June 18, 1985, and Lieutenant-Governor John Black Aird asked Peterson to form a new government. Rae himself moved the motion of non-confidence, as he had done in the defeat of Joe Clark's government six years earlier. With support from Rae, Peterson's minority government implemented socially progressive legislation on matters such as pay equity, brought an end to extra-billing by doctors, and established campaign spending limits. Rae often criticized Peterson's approach to specific issues, but never moved to bring down the government.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae advocated pension reform in early 1986, following revelations that some corporate leaders in Ontario had been given permission to withdraw money from their employees' pension funds. He was especially critical of Conrad Black, who then held a controlling interest in Dominion Stores Ltd., for withdrawing $62 million at a time when many laid off company workers were unable to receive severance pay. During a legislative debate, Rae described Black as "that most symbolic representative of bloated capitalism at its worst". The Liberal government declined to act on the matter. Later in the same year, Rae argued that the Peterson government should reform the Ontario Human Rights Code to include provisions for group defamation and systematic discrimination.


title: Bob Rae

text: Some members of the NDP disapproved of the party's accord with the Liberals. Party activist Ian Orenstein challenged Rae for the provincial leadership in 1986 in a symbolic protest against the party's centrist tilt. Rae won without difficulty.


title: Bob Rae

text: Peterson's minority government was very popular during its two years in office, and the Liberal Party won a landslide majority government in the 1987 provincial election, called after the conclusion of the Liberal-NDP accord. The NDP was reduced to nineteen seats and Rae was nearly defeated in his own riding, defeating high-profile Liberal challenger Alan Tonks by only 333 votes. The Progressive Conservatives under Larry Grossman suffered an even more serious defeat, falling to only sixteen seats. As a result, Rae became Leader of the Opposition once the legislature resumed.


title: Bob Rae

text: In September 1989, Rae took part in a highly publicized protest in support of native land claims in the middle of the Temagami Forest in Northern Ontario. Following discussions with Chief Gary Potts, Rae agreed to participate in a road sit-in to protect a strand of old pine, a key aspect of the native claim. After the protest, Rae was escorted to a police wagon by members of the Ontario Provincial Police and driven to the nearby town of Elk Lake. He was not charged with an offense.


title: Bob Rae

text: There was considerable speculation that Rae would seek the federal NDP leadership in 1989, after the resignation of Ed Broadbent. High-profile party members such as former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, Allan Blakeney and Roy Romanow of Saskatchewan, Gary Doer of Manitoba and Alexa McDonough of Nova Scotia all encouraged him to run, as did several representatives of organized labour. Expecting Rae to resign, Bud Wildman, Ruth Grier and Richard Johnston began preparing campaigns to succeed him as leader of the Ontario NDP. On October 5, 1989, however, Rae announced that he would not return to federal politics and would remain as provincial leader. Several of Rae's associates, including Arlene Perly Rae, declared their support for Howard McCurdy, and later moved to Audrey McLaughlin after McCurdy was dropped from the ballot at the leadership convention. Rae declined to endorse a candidate.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was an international observer for Lithuania's first multi-party elections in early 1990. A lifelong opponent of communism, he later wrote that he was impressed by the spirit of the opposition Sąjūdis party, which won the election. He was also very critical of the Kremlin's harsh response to the opposition's victory.


title: Bob Rae

text: Peterson called a snap election for 1990. The NDP entered the campaign with low expectations, as the Liberals still held a significant lead in opinion polls and all signs indicated that they would win another majority government. Rae later acknowledged that he did not expect to win the election, and planned to leave electoral politics at some point in the next sitting of the legislature. A number of prominent MPPs, including Richard Johnston, Marion Bryden and David Reville, chose not to seek re-election. Floyd Laughren was also planning to retire, but had not finalized his plans when Peterson dropped the writ.


title: Bob Rae

text: Contrary to expectations, the Liberal Party's support base declined significantly in mid-campaign. The snap election was unpopular, and the Liberals suffered lingering effects from an earlier scandal involving Liberal fundraiser Patti Starr undermined public confidence in the government. Peterson's prominent role in drafting and supporting the troubled Meech Lake Accord for constitutional reform proved a particular liability. There were also signs of an economic downturn by this time and some believed that Peterson had called the snap election to avoid its full impact. The Progressive Conservatives were led by the inexperienced Mike Harris, who ran a narrow campaign focused on tax issues and was unable to capitalize on the Liberal slide. As such, Rae's NDP was the primary beneficiary. Rae himself was more confident than in the 1985 and 1987 campaigns, and took a more aggressive stance against the Peterson government. A poll taken late in the campaign showed the NDP holding a slight lead over the Liberals.


title: Bob Rae

text: The election results were nonetheless a surprise to political observers across the province, even to longtime NDP supporters. The NDP was elected to a strong majority government with 74 seats. The popular vote was very close, with the NDP outpolling the Liberals 37% to 34%. Several ridings were won by narrow margins. However, the NDP managed to take many seats from the Liberals in the Greater Toronto Area, and also did better than ever before (or in some cases, since) in many other cities and rural areas. Due to the nature of the first-past-the-post electoral system, which ignores the popular vote and only awards power based on the number of ridings won, this decimated the Liberal caucus. The Liberals lost 59 seats, the worst defeat in their history and the second-worst defeat for a governing party in Ontario. The NDP even managed to unseat Peterson in his own riding.


title: Bob Rae

text: On October 1, 1990, Rae was sworn in as the first, and to date the only, NDP Premier of Ontario. He also took the Intergovernmental Affairs portfolio, giving himself a direct voice in future constitutional negotiations.


title: Bob Rae

text: Bob Rae was in power for 1650 days, the longest term unique to an Ontario premier since the Second World War. He became one of the few Ontario premiers who could speak French.


title: Bob Rae

text: He was very popular for his first six months as Premier, with a poll from March 1991 showing the NDP at 52% support. The federal NDP also received 56% support in Ontario in a January 1991 poll.


title: Bob Rae

text: The government was unable to sustain its popularity, however, and by late 1992 had fallen to third place in public opinion polls. The party's popularity continued to ebb throughout 1993, followed by only a modest recovery in the next two years. This, among other factors, partially contributed to a significant decline in support for the federal NDP.


title: Bob Rae

text: There are many reasons for the Rae government's loss of popularity between 1991 and 1993. The NDP had never governed Ontario before, and Ontario was experiencing its worst recession since the Great Depression. The government backtracked on several campaign promises, most notably the introduction of public auto insurance, which caused disagreements among the party and supporters, especially from members of the progressive wing of the party such as cabinet ministers Howard Hampton and Shelley Martel. A number of scandals in cabinet and caucus due to the large number of rookie MPPs also cut into the government's popularity.


title: Bob Rae

text: In the 1993 federal election, the NDP fell to a historic low of 6% support in Ontario. All 10 New Democrat MPs from Ontario lost their seats to Liberal challengers as the Liberals won all but one seat in the province. Besides many NDP supporters nationwide voting Liberal to ensure that the Conservatives would be defeated (to avoid the vote-splitting of the 1988 election), the Rae government's unpopularity was a major factor in the federal NDP's losses. On the day after the election, defeated MP Steven Langdon called on Rae to resign. Langdon had openly campaigned against Rae's austerity measures. Although he lost by 13,000 votes to the Liberal candidate, he received a higher percentage of votes than any other NDP candidate in the province.


title: Bob Rae

text: Notwithstanding its setbacks, the Rae government achieved some positive accomplishments during its time in office. It saved many jobs in northern Ontario through its bailout of Algoma Steel, and negotiated a similar contract for paper mill workers in Kapuskasing. Other popular initiatives included the TTC Eglinton West subway line in Toronto (even though the official transit plan only recommended a busway for current needs), support for public housing, and the Jobs Ontario job creation program. Rae's decision to approve casino gambling for the province was also opposed by many in the party but it provided a steady source of revenue.


title: Bob Rae

text: Ontario's economic forecast was bleak when Rae took office in October 1990. The Liberal government had forecast a small surplus earlier in the year, but a worsening North American economy led to a $700 million deficit before Rae took office. In October, the NDP projected a $2.5 billion deficit for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 1991. Some economists projected soaring deficits for the upcoming years, even if the Rae government implemented austerity measures. Rae himself was critical of the Bank of Canada's high interest rate policy, arguing that it would lead to increased unemployment throughout the country. He also criticized the 1991 federal budget, arguing the Finance Minister Michael Wilson was shifting the federal debt to the provinces.


title: Bob Rae

text: The Rae government's first budget, introduced in 1991, increased social spending to mitigate the economic slowdown and projected a record deficit of $9.1 billion. Finance Minister Floyd Laughren argued that Ontario made a decision to target the effects of the recession rather than the deficit, and said that the budget would create or protect 70,000 jobs. It targeted more money to social assistance, social housing and child benefits, and raised taxes for high-income earners while lowering rates for 700,000 low-income Ontarians.


title: Bob Rae

text: In April 1991, the government introduced a one-year program to protect the pay of workers whose firms had shut down due to the recession. Labour Minister Bob Mackenzie estimated that the plan would help 56,000 workers.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae claims he faced a true emergency in the spring of 1993 a crisis of government on which he had to act. Upon returning from Davos, Rae gave a speech on 9 February describing international business leaders' despair over government deficits and inefficiencies in Europe, where they stressed "the worldwide trend to redesign organizations, downsizing possible and trying to make their organisations more responsive'. Rae left Davos convinced that major changes in Ontario public services were needed, where these changes were of the kind long-proposed by the more conservative and business leaders of Ontario.


title: Bob Rae

text: As a result, his government brought in the "Social Contract", austerity legislation which reopened collective bargaining agreements with the province's public sector unions. This legislation imposed a wage freeze and introduced what became known as "Rae days", requiring civil servants to take up to twelve days off without pay per year. These measures generated nearly 2 billion dollars in savings for Ontario, without laying off any public sector workers. These cutbacks led to a falling-out with both the public sector unions, most notably Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), and the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and its leader Buzz Hargrove. Sid Ryan, Ontario President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees stated that Rae's passing of the "Social Contract" was unforgivable.


title: Bob Rae

text: "Macleans" reported that Rae had been delivered "a secret ultimatum" "by Canadian and international bond dealers". If he didn't get the deficit under $10 billion, they would demand junk-bond interest rates in order to finance Ontario's debt. Richard Walkom suggested it was a sudden panic of an NDP party aware of the stereotype it could not manage a budget, using the crisis as an opportunity to demonstrate it would use extreme measures in the appropriate circumstances. Regardless of whether Davos visit provided an epiphany, pressure or panic, this event is agreed as the beginning of the Ontario government's concessions to international corporations.


title: Bob Rae

text: Indeed, no less than a year later at Davos, Rae arrived as a pro-business head of government. He approached the World Economic Forum as a unabashed champion of the international corporation working against the expansion of workers' wages and government services. He proposed giving a large majority of Ontario's investment planning to international banking and securities firms, meeting with Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Nomura Securities, all of whom sold Ontario bonds on the global market. Instead of selling more bonds, he was now asking them to "sell Ontario through their global networks", looking to "plug into" them instead of spending government money to control publicly-controlled avenues to investment.


title: Bob Rae

text: This breach between the NDP and the labour movement struck at the party's foundations. The NDP was founded as an alliance between the old Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the labour movement, and Rae's policy decisions alienated many traditional NDP voters. Thousands of members resigned from the party, and several unions turned against the NDP and vowed to defeat the government in the next election. The Rae government later attempted to regain labour support by passing Bill 40, a measure which (among other things) introduced anti-scab provisions to the province. This was not enough to bridge the gap with organized labour, however, and the party was unable to regain significant union support.


title: Bob Rae

text: As Premier, Rae placed a cap on enrollment into medical schools. The Rae government also delisted home care from OHIP coverage but introduced a new comprehensive program to deliver the service mostly on a non-profit basis by publicly run, regional multi-service agencies and passed the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994 to facilitate this. The Harris government subsequently rejected this model for a brokerage model in which Community Care Access Centres would hire a home care provider to service a region rather than provide the service directly and lifted the 10% limit on the use of for-profit service delivery that the Rae government had imposed.


title: Bob Rae

text: The New Democratic Party campaigned on a promise to introduce public auto insurance in the 1987 and 1990 campaigns. After assuming office, Rae appointed Peter Kormos, one of the most vocal proponents of public insurance, as the minister responsible for bringing forward the policy. With the onset of the recession, however, both business and labour groups expressed concern about layoffs and lost revenues. The government backtracked from the policy in 1991. Kormos, who had already been dropped from cabinet, became Rae's most vocal critic in the NDP caucus.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae's government attempted to introduce a variety of socially progressive measures during its time in office, though its success in this field was mixed. In 1994, the government introduced legislation, Bill 167, which would have provided for same-sex partnership benefits in the province. At the time, this legislation was seen as a revolutionary step forward for same-sex recognition. It was defeated, however, when twelve NDP MPPs (including two junior ministers) voted against it, while the opposition Liberals led by Lyn McLeod also withdrew their support.


title: Bob Rae

text: The Rae government established an employment equity commission in 1991, and two years later introduced affirmative action to improve the numbers of women, non-whites, aboriginals and disabled persons working across the private and public sectors. This policy was controversial, and it cost the NDP support among its unionized working-class base of support.


title: Bob Rae

text: In November 1990, the Rae government announced that it would restrict most rent increases to 4.6% for the present year and 5.4% for 1991. The provisions for 1990 were made retroactive. Tenants' groups supported these changes, while landlord representatives were generally opposed. Dave Cooke, the minister responsible for implementing the policy, later announced that he would work to factor in the costs of legitimate building renovations.


title: Bob Rae

text: When campaigning in 1990, Rae promised that he would eliminate food banks through anti-poverty initiatives. After taking office, however, his government committed a significant sum of money to support Ontario's existing food banks. Gerard Kennedy, leader of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto, criticized Rae for not targeting the money toward affordable housing and welfare reforms. In April 1991, Community and Social Services minister Zanana Akande announced that food banks would have to remain open in light of changed economic circumstances.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae increased the basic social assistance allowance by 7% in 1991, and increased the maximum payment for shelter allowances by 10%.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae supports abortion rights, saying "The rights of women to choose, to have control over their own bodies, is not a right which is going to be taken away by the Parliament of Canada, and it is not a right which should be subject to some private member's bill which is going to affect the rights of women to have choice, to have genuine equality and to have full and complete access to the medicare and the health care that they need."


title: Bob Rae

text: Soon after assuming office in 1990, Rae announced his support for native Canadians' "inherent right to self-government". He later worked to help six aboriginal bands in Northern Ontario gain reserve status, and called for self-government on the Akwesasne Indian Reserve, in part to help the reserve leaders combat smuggling. Rae also pushed for native rights to be included in future constitutional reforms.


title: Bob Rae

text: In November 1990, the Rae government announced an indefinite moratorium on the construction of new nuclear plants in Ontario. He consistently opposed plans to privatize Ontario Hydro.


title: Bob Rae

text: In March 1991, Rae announced that he would support a new round of constitutional negotiations between the federal government and the provinces, which ultimately proved to be unsuccessful. He indicated that Ontario was willing to recognize Quebec as a distinct society, and called for aboriginal and women's rights to be entrenched in the Canadian Constitution. Rae also supported the creation of a "social charter", to establish national standards for social programs such as medicare.


title: Bob Rae

text: Early in his term, Rae indicated that his government would continue a long-standing development freeze in Toronto's Harbourfront area, to ensure the survival of cultural programs in the area.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was initially one of the most prominent opponents of the North American Free Trade Agreement in Canada. During a meeting with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1991, he argued that any proposed North American free trade zone would have to incorporate common environmental and labour standards.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae endorsed Susan Eng's successful bid to chair the Metro Toronto Police Services Board in early 1991, over the opposition of several police officers. Rae later introduced policies requiring Ontario police services to hire more women, disabled people, native Canadians and members of visible minority groups.


title: Bob Rae

text: When Rae assumed office, the Retail Business Holidays Act of Ontario had recently been found unconstitutional


title: Bob Rae

text: by the Supreme Court of Ontario, meaning that many stores were allowed to open legally on Sundays for the first time. Rae announced that his government planned to introduce legislation for a "common pause day" across Ontario, "to help strengthen family and community life while protecting small business and the rights of workers". In practice, this initiative would have required many retail establishments to close on Sundays, with exemptions for religious minority communities. The province also appealed the court ruling to a higher court, the Ontario Court of Appeal, which restored the previous status quo.


title: Bob Rae

text: However, many retail owners as well as members of the general public preferred Sunday shopping to be legal,


title: Bob Rae

text: and in 1992 the Rae government yielded to the pressure and reversed its position, amending the Retail Business Holidays Act so that only statutory holidays, and not Sundays, would be common pause days.


title: Bob Rae

text: The Rae government created a Royal Commission on Learning – co-chaired by Gerald Caplan and Monique Bégin – which delivered its report and recommendations: "For the Love of Learning" in January 1995. Among the reports' more prominent recommendations were:


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae's popularity had recovered somewhat by 1995, but by the time the writs were dropped for that year's provincial election it was obvious that the NDP would not be re-elected.


title: Bob Rae

text: The official opposition Liberals were expected to be the primary benefactors of the NDP's unpopularity, having recovered from their severe defeat of five years earlier, and leading in opinion polls since 1992. However, several unpopular policy reversals and mistakes by Liberal leader Lyn McLeod allowed Mike Harris and the Tories to benefit from the swing in support away from the NDP. During the leaders' debates, while Rae and McLeod traded barbs, Harris used his camera time to speak directly to the camera about the PC's platform. Several working-class ridings which had long voted NDP became disgruntled with the party due to the Social Contract and affirmative action, so they were attracted by Harris' populism and shifted to the Tories. While the NDP polled considerably better in northern Ontario than it did in 1990, it lost much of its support in rest of the province, especially the 905 region where they had won many seats five years earlier. In the end the Tories shot from third place to a landslide majority government, sweeping the NDP from power. The Liberals lost six seats, but retained their status as the official opposition, while the NDP fell to only seventeen seats and third place in the Legislative Assembly.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae himself was reelected in his own riding by over 3,000 votes. However, on February 29, 1996; he resigned as NDP leader and MPP for York South and moved to positions in law, academia and the private sector. He joined the law firm of Goodmans LLP. He was eventually succeeded as party leader by Howard Hampton, who was formerly Natural Resources Minister in Rae's cabinet and a longtime left-wing rival. Liberal Gerard Kennedy succeeded Rae as MPP for York South.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae resigned from the New Democratic Party in 1998 due to his appointment to the Security Intelligence Review Committee. There was some speculation that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien would have him appointed Governor General in 1999, but he was passed over in favour of Adrienne Clarkson. There was further speculation that Rae would return to the federal Liberals and run under their banner in the 2000 election, though nothing came of this at the time.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2000, and in 2004 he was appointed to the Order of Ontario. He was appointed the sixth chancellor of Wilfrid Laurier University on July 2, 2003, and was installed at that school's fall convocation in October. Rae also became a partner at Goodmans LLP, a Toronto-based corporate law firm, an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Fellow of Massey College. He has written a number of books: "From Protest to Power: Personal Reflections on a Life in Politics" (1996), "Three Questions: Prosperity and the Public Good" (1998), "Canada in the Balance" (2006), "Exporting Democracy: The Risks and Rewards of Pursuing a Good Idea" (2010), and "What's Happened to Politics?" (2016). He was the national spokesperson for the Leukemia Research Foundation.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae helped the Toronto Symphony Orchestra restructure following an extended strike by its musicians at the beginning of the 1999–2000 season.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae returned to active politics on April 16, 2002, two days after Mike Harris announced his resignation as premier, with an opinion piece in the "National Post" newspaper. In an article entitled, "Parting Company with the NDP", Rae strongly criticized what he perceived as a bias against Israel in the federal party, and also criticized the NDP for rejecting Tony Blair's Third Way concept and for refusing to accept globalization and open markets. He suggested that the party's economic policies were insufficient for the 21st century, and that the party as a whole was no longer "worthy of support".


title: Bob Rae

text: The Ontario NDP distanced itself from Rae's policies under Hampton. During the 2003 provincial election, Hampton argued that Rae was wrong to reverse the NDP's commitment to public auto insurance. The party's relations with the labour movement have not completely healed, although the situation has improved since 1993. Relations with the CAW remain especially fraught, and memories of the social contract have hurt the NDP's credibility with a new generation of public sector workers, despite the party's efforts to distance itself from the measure. Nonetheless, the Ontario NDP remained in third place in the Legislative Assembly, and would not win more than 20 seats in the legislature until 2014 under Hampton's successor, Andrea Horwath. It would not come out of the political wilderness until 2018, when it won 40 seats–its most since 1990–and opposition status.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae worked on the Red Cross tainted blood issue and also worked towards a resolution of the fishing conflict in Burnt Church, New Brunswick.


title: Bob Rae

text: In 2005, Rae wrote a report for the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty on post-secondary education, commonly referred to as the Rae Report. His report called for increased government funding to colleges and universities, and enhanced student aid especially for low-income students. The report also suggested that individual institutions ought to be able to determine what rate of tuition fees to charge, free from government controls, which generated controversy. Student groups including the Canadian Federation of Students have objected, noting the significant recent increases in tuition fees in Ontario under the government of Mike Harris, and the 57 per cent increase in tuition fees during Rae's own tenure as premier. Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton also criticized the report. Rae defended his report, arguing that low income non-university individuals would not benefit from a tuition freeze/lowering, as well as being forced to bear the tax burden needed to enact it.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae has also become involved with international issues; in 2002 and 2003, as chair of the Forum of Federations he helped oversee constitutional discussions between the government of Sri Lanka and Tamil Tiger rebels. On April 26, 2005, he was appointed to advise Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan on whether or not there should be a government inquiry into the 1985 Air India disaster. On November 23, 2005, Rae recommended further inquiry into the investigation and prosecution.


title: Bob Rae

text: In July 2005, "The Globe and Mail" and the "National Post" both reported that Rae was again being considered for appointment to the position of Governor General. However, Rae was passed over again, this time in favour of Michaëlle Jean.


title: Bob Rae

text: In a July 2005 interview with Michael Valpy, Rae indicated that he was still committed to public life and public service. Valpy's feature on Rae included a comment by Arlene Perly Rae that he could return to politics if there was a national unity crisis.


title: Bob Rae

text: On November 23, 2005, Rae presented his recommendations that there should be a formal but focused inquiry into the "Air India" disaster. Two days later, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan announced Rae's appointment to conduct a limited inquiry into "Air India" under a government order-in-council. Rae produced a comprehensive report outlining the key issues that could be addressed, leaving Air India Victims' families spokeswoman Lata Pada "encouraged that demands for answers will be addressed".


title: Bob Rae

text: On August 24, 2005, the "Toronto Star" reported that Rae was under "mounting pressure" to run for the federal Liberals in the 2006 general election. Though it was unclear how long the Air India inquiry was to last, Rae's appointment precluded any possibility of his running as a candidate in the January 23 election. A poll by SES Research suggested that Rae was tied for second place behind Frank McKenna as a prospective candidate to lead the federal Liberals. McKenna decided afterwards not to contest the leadership.


title: Bob Rae

text: The new government of Stephen Harper appointed a judge to handle the Air India inquiry in March 2006 thus releasing Rae from his previous commitment and freeing him for a possible run for the Liberal Party leadership.


title: Bob Rae

text: In a speech to the Canadian Club of Winnipeg on March 13, 2006, Rae expressed his interest in uniting the "progressive" forces of Canada to regain a majority government in the House of Commons of Canada. "There's a progressive record that's shared by a majority of Canadians, but so far, we have not succeeded in becoming a majority in the House of Commons, so we must think a bit about how that can happen."


title: Bob Rae

text: On April 5, 2006, Rae applied for membership in the Liberal Party of Canada. His candidacy for the federal party leadership was supported by Greg Sorbara and George Smitherman, former Chrétien aides Eddie Goldenberg and Rae's brother John, as well as former top Martin advisor John Webster and others associated with the Martin camp.<ref name="CBC News Rae joins Liberal 2006/04/24"></ref> He announced his candidacy on April 24, 2006. At his campaign launch he responded to his critics by saying, "I made mistakes before I was in politics, I made mistakes when I was in politics, I made mistakes as premier ... I can only tell you I have learned from those mistakes and I am the wiser for them." Rae's predecessor as premier, David Peterson who was supporting Michael Ignatieff, criticized Rae's entry into the race due to his record as NDP provincial premier, though insisting that he did not hold a personal grudge against Rae.


title: Bob Rae

text: On May 12, 2006, Trudeau-era Deputy Prime Minister Allan MacEachen backed Rae's leadership bid becoming honorary campaign chair. On June 16, former Ontario Liberal Party leader and provincial treasurer Robert Nixon, who sat as leader of the opposition to Rae's Ontario government for a time, endorsed Rae. He was also endorsed by MPs Irwin Cotler, Ujjal Dosanjh, Lawrence MacAulay, Diane Marleau and Brian Murphy, as well as several Senators. Rival candidate Maurizio Bevilacqua withdrew from the contest on August 14 to endorse Rae, and Carolyn Bennett did the same on September 15, followed by Hedy Fry on September 25 and John Godfrey on October 20.


title: Bob Rae

text: On the night of December 1 at the Convention, Rae spoke freely without notes rather than make a formal speech. Rival candidate Joe Volpe announced his support for Rae after the speeches were concluded. On the morning of December 2, after finishing second on the first ballot, rival candidate Scott Brison, moved to Rae and yet another rival candidate, Ken Dryden, moved to him after the second ballot. However, Rae lost his bid for the leadership in the third round of Convention balloting, placing third behind both Michael Ignatieff and Stéphane Dion, who had leapfrogged into first after receiving the support of Gerard Kennedy. Rae then freed his delegates and did not indicate whom he supported on the final ballot; Dion won the leadership.


title: Bob Rae

text: Despite the loss of the Liberal leadership, Rae had indicated that he would like to run for a federal seat in the House of Commons in the next federal election. On March 7, 2007, Rae announced that he would seek the Liberal nomination in Toronto Centre. On March 26, 2007, he won the party's nomination, defeating Toronto lawyer and human rights advocate Meredith Cartwright with 532 votes to her 267.


title: Bob Rae

text: Several days following his defeat at the leadership convention it was reported that Rae's wife, Arlene Perly Rae was approached by a delegate who did not know who she was, and who told her that she should not vote for Rae because his wife is Jewish. A flyer was also sent electronically to convention delegates, stating that Rae's wife was a vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress and that he was a supporter of Israeli apartheid. The Canadian Press reported that the flyer was produced by Ron Saba, the editor of a small Montreal journal. Newly elected Liberal leader Stéphane Dion issued a press release condemning the "hateful comments" made against Rae and his wife, saying that they are "reprehensible and will not be tolerated within the Liberal Party of Canada", adding that "there is no room for abhorrent comments such as these within our Party".


title: Bob Rae

text: In the by-election held on March 17, 2008, Rae won handily. Toronto Centre had historically been one of the few ridings in the former Metro Toronto where the old Progressive Conservatives had a realistic chance of winning. However, since 1993, the Liberals have dominated the riding (as has been the case with most Toronto ridings), carrying it by 10,000 votes or more. Rae kept this tradition going; he finished almost 11,000 votes ahead of his closest opponent and with more than 4,400 votes than his five opponents combined (14,187 to 9,764). Rae's candidacy was endorsed by the former Conservative candidate Mark Warner, who was dropped due to disagreements with the party on social and urban issues. Rae had denounced the Tories' decision to drop Warner, calling it a "national disgrace."


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae returned to Parliament on March 31, 2008, after a 25-year absence. He was immediately promoted to the Liberal shadow cabinet as Foreign Affairs critic (shadow foreign minister). In that role he publicly supported Iraq War resisters seeking asylum in Canada before and during the 2008 election campaign. He was re-elected to his Commons' seat in the fall 2008 federal election. When Dion announced that he would resign the leadership in May 2009 after the party's poor results, Rae became a candidate in the ensuing Liberal leadership election.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae took part in negotiations for the Liberals to form a coalition with the NDP, with support from the Bloc Québécois. They planned to pass a motion of non-confidence in the Conservative government, not unlike what Rae had done in 1979 and 1985. After Prime Minister Harper convinced the Governor General to prorogue parliament on December 4, 2008, and with Dion pressured to resign immediately as party leader, Rae took on the role of coalition spokesman.


title: Bob Rae

text: Rae found it more difficult to garner support than he had in the last leadership contest, with his 2006 campaign co-chair now supporting Ignatieff. As it was obvious that Ignatieff had lined up enough support to become the party's leader, Rae withdrew on December 9, 2008. He has since criticized Ignatieff's decision to withdraw from the coalition with the NDP.


title: Bob Rae

text: He served as Foreign Affairs critic in the shadow cabinets of both Dion and Ignatieff. On June 9, 2009, Rae was denied entry by Sri Lankan Immigration officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo, Sri Lanka on grounds that he was "a threat to national security and sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers rebel group". Rae responded, "Sri Lanka is afraid of dialogue, afraid of discussion, afraid of engagement ... If this is how they treat me, imagine how they treat people who can't speak out." Rae has described Sri Lanka as 'a very dangerous place to be a journalist. "It's a very dangerous place to be any kind of Tamil right now and this is nuts."


title: Bob Rae

text: In November 2009, Rae sponsored a motion for Canada to recognize Black Ribbon Day to commemorate the victims of Nazi and Communist regimes.


title: Bob Rae

text: In the aftermath of the 2011 federal election in which the Liberals were reduced to third place behind the NDP, Rae speculated on national television about the possibility of future co-operation between the two parties. Following Ignatieff's announcement that he would be resigning as leader, Rae was touted as a possible successor. However, his advocacy of a possible Liberal-NDP merger caused consternation among some Liberals. Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien reportedly called senior Liberals urging Rae's selection as interim leader. However, the Liberal National Board announced that the interim leader position could only be held by an individual who agreed not to seek the permanent leadership and not to seek to change the party or merge it with another party during his tenure.


title: Bob Rae

text: On May 19, 2011, Rae declared that he would not be running for leadership for the Liberal Party, but would instead seek the interim leadership position. He was chosen over Quebec MP Marc Garneau for the interim leadership on May 25, 2011. While Rae had been widely expected to resign the post of interim leader and make a bid for the permanent leadership he announced on June 13, 2012, that he would not be a candidate in the Liberal leadership election.


title: Bob Rae

text: Earlier in 2011, Rae was voted "Maclean's" Parliamentarian of the Year by members of the 41st Parliament. Journalist Carol Goar viewed Rae as the de facto leader of the Opposition in the six months between the death of NDP leader Jack Layton in August 2011 and the election of Thomas Mulcair in March 2012. When Justin Trudeau was elected the new permanent leader in April 2013, Rae had become the longest serving interim leader, having served almost two years in this capacity. As new leader, Trudeau named Rae the Liberal party's foreign affairs critic.


title: Bob Rae

text: When Justin Trudeau won the 2015 elections and became Prime Minister, Rae was given considerable credit for laying the foundations for the turnaround in the fortunes of the Liberal Party.


title: Bob Rae

text: On June 19, 2013, Rae announced that he would be leaving parliament in order to serve as chief negotiator and counsel for the Matawa First Nations in Northern Ontario's Ring of Fire; his resignation took effect on July 31. Rae also joined the University of Toronto School of Public Policy and Governance as a distinguished senior fellow, effective July 1, 2013. On July 13, Rae joined the National Advisory Board for Fair Vote Canada, an organization promoting electoral reform for Canadian elections. Later in July, Rae became the chairman of the board for the FN (PTP) Group Limited Partnership (FNLP), which represents the 15 British Columbian First Nations that signed a $200 million commercial deal with the Pacific Trail Pipelines Limited Partnership, a part of the Kitimat LNG Project that plans to use a pipeline to move liquified natural gas to a terminal on the coast of British Columbia. In February 2014, Rae became a partner in the law firm Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, a law firm which specializes in representing Aboriginal communities across the country.


title: Bob Rae

text: After stepping down, Rae has also become a public speaker focusing on Canada's role in the world, Aboriginal issues, human rights, healthcare, and education.


title: Bob Rae

text: In August 2018, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador, and froze trade with Canada. Rae wrote on Twitter: "The Brits and the Trumpians run for cover and say 'we're friends with both the Saudis and the Canadians. Thanks for the support for human rights, guys, and we'll remember this one for sure."


title: Bob Rae

text: In late 2017, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Rae Canada's special envoy to Myanmar in response to the Rohingya human rights crisis and the suspected ethnic cleansing of the minority population by the Myanmar government. Rae will be advising the prime minister on the issue and was expected to attempt to obtain permission from Myanmar to visit Rakhine province. He also has a mandate "to promote accountability for alleged crimes perpetrated against vulnerable populations, including the Rohingya Muslim community, other religious and ethnic minorities, and women and girls".


title: Bob Rae

text: On March 10, 2020, Prime Minister Trudeau expanded Rae's role naming him as Canada’s Special Envoy on Humanitarian and Refugee Issues.


title: Bob Rae

text: In November 2020, Rae called on the UN to investigate evidence of genocide against the Uighur minority in China.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: The Romandisea Titanic is an unfinished full-scale replica of the RMS "Titanic", located in landlocked Sichuan province, China. The project was first reported in October 2013 and formally launched in January 2014. The ship was to be the same size as the original Olympic-class ocean liner "Titanic." The replica vessel was anticipated to be the centerpiece of the Romandisea resort and would have included overnight hotel accommodations. It was to be permanently docked in a reservoir on the Qijang River, a tributary of the Fu River, at coordinates in Sichuan's rural Daying County.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: In 1912, the original "Titanic" set out on its maiden and only voyage from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York City. Five days into the voyage, the ship hit an iceberg and sank, killing approximately 1,500 of the 2,224 aboard. "Titanic" was the largest ship of its time.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: South African businessman mogul Sarel Gous proposed building "Titanic II" in 1998. Gous said he had acquired the original drawings for the famous ship and now wanted to fulfill his dream. If the ship had been completed, it would have had a length of and a width of , which is longer and metres wider than the original. In 2006, the project was scrapped due to high costs and a low amount of support for the project. The last "Titanic" survivor to pass away, Millvina Dean, had expressed her opposition to the project.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Another replica ship based on the "Titanic" was announced and planned by Australian millionaire Clive Palmer, also named as the "Titanic II". The intended launch date was originally set in 2016, then delayed to 2018, and then to 2022.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: James Cameron's 1997 "Titanic" movie enjoys great and lasting popularity in China, and introduced the Chinese masses to the "Titanic" story. Actor Bernard Hill, who portrayed Captain Edward Smith in Cameron's film, was present at the launch of the project and was named the "honorary captain" of the vessel to be constructed. Hill later regretted having a role in the project. The investors behind the Sichuan replica sought to approach the sinking of the "Titanic" primarily as a story of heroic self-sacrifice. The CEO of the investment group involved elaborated on the ""Titanic" spirit", saying:


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: "People have never forgotten how at that time people sacrificed their lives to carry out their responsibilities, with men protecting the women and children and couples side by side in life and death. That is the "Titanic" spirit of responsibility and universal love...Romandisea will therefore become a world-class tourist destination with a noble soul and spiritual pursuit."


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co.,Ltd stated the replica "Titanic" would be a tourist attraction and that would cost approximately US$161 million to build. The ship was to include many features of the original, including dining rooms, first-class cabins, second and third class cabins, Turkish baths, gymnasium and a swimming pool, as well as a replica of the original ship's engine. New features included a ballroom and theatre. The original ship's Grand Staircase was also to be remade. The ship was expected to accommodate 2,400 passengers and 900 staff and was also to house an interactive museum.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: On December 23, 2017, the Facebook page of the project indicated that boiler room 1 would be replicated.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Using audiovisual technology, the ship was at one point intended to contain a simulation of the original's collision with an iceberg that led to the original ocean liner sinking. This caused some criticism. Hollywood production designer Curtis Schnell, who was hired in to work on the project, stated that the 1912 tragedy is approached in a “very respectful way”. The simulation was ultimately abandoned.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Regarding the replica ship's authenticity, Schnell stated:“We're trying to get as close as we can. We are not building every room in the [original] ship, by any means, but the shell of the ship and the exteriors will be quite accurate, [and] there will be interior rooms to be able to tour and see from the standpoint of historical accuracy.”Xinhua News Agency reported that it took two years to design the new vessel with cooperation from an American firm, and that the blueprints of the original ships were obtained for the purpose of designing the new ship.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Construction was based on the design of the original "Titanic", and assisted by designers and technicians from the United States and Britain.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Construction of the replica was being funded by Seven Star Energy Investment, a private company based in Sichuan province. Prior to the commencement of building this ship, none of the numerous proposed full-size replica ships of the "Titanic" ever made it to the beginning of construction. In May 2015, Wuchang started making parts for the vessel. A keel laying ceremony at the site of the planned resort occurred at the end of November 2016, with Lord Peter Mandelson attending. In December 2016 the developer signed a cooperation agreement with the "National Geographic Channel" to document the construction of the vessel.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: Su Shaojun, CEO of the investment group, initially indicated that the replica was expected to be completed around the end of 2017. However the start of on-site assembly was delayed over a year. In 2018 NPR reported that the project might be experiencing financial problems while aerial images captured between April and October of that year showed no visible changes in the ship's construction status.


title: Romandisea Titanic

text: On December 10, 2018, Romandisea stated that construction work had resumed. In March 2021, the project posted images of welding fabrication on the eighth deck. In August, a report emerged that construction had again halted. Another report described the ship as only about 25% complete. As of late 2022 the project's official website was offline. A web archive image captured in October 2021 shows that no updates had been made since July of that year. In September 2022 a London-based financial site attempted to contact Romandisea but received no response. As of 2022, the official Romandisea Titanic Twitter page "@RomandiseaT2", which occasionally posted updates and progress on the replica's construction has been suspended.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: The telephone number prefix 555 is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan, used as the leading part of a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, "555-XXXX", in each numbering plan area (NPA) (area code). It has traditionally been used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing (area code)-555-1212.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: The central office code is also used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, video games, and other media in order to prevent practical jokers and curious callers from bothering telephone subscribers and organizations by calling telephone numbers they see in works of fiction.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: Telephone companies began encouraging the producers of television shows and movies to use the 555 prefix for fictional telephone numbers by the 1960s. Two early examples include "The Second Time Around" (1961), which used 555-3485, and "Panic in Year Zero!" (1962), which used 555-2106. In television shows made or set in the mid-1970s or earlier, "KLondike 5" or "KLamath 5" reflects the old convention of using telephone exchange names. Before "555" or "KLondike-5" gained broad usage, scriptwriters would sometimes invent fake exchanges starting with words like "QUincy" or "ZEbra", as the letters "Q" and "Z" were not used on the old dial phones. Numbers in the format "Zenith" X-XXXX, while not directly dialable, were not fictional. These were an early form of regional tollfree number which required operator assistance.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: Only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use; the other numbers have been reserved for actual assignment.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: 555 use is restricted only in North America. In 1994, cartoonist Gary Larson's "The Far Side" included a panel with graffiti of a 555 number by which prank calls could be made to Satan. In Australia, 555 was at the time a standard exchange, and the Australian owner of the number became the subject of harassment, launching an unsuccessful lawsuit against Larson and his syndicate for defamation.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: The 555 exchange is not reserved in area codes used for toll-free phone numbers. This led to the video game "The Last of Us" accidentally including the number to a phone-sex operator in the game.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: The number "555-2368" (or 311-555-2368) is a carryover from the "EXchange 2368" ("Exchange CENTral") number common in telephone advertisements as early as the 1940s. "555-2368" is the phone number used by Jim Rockford in the TV series "The Rockford Files" (as seen during the opening credits), in the TV series "The Mod Squad" (episode: "And a Little Child Shall Bleed Them") and the Ghostbusters (as seen during their TV commercial within the film).


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: 555 numbers are mentioned directly in the 1993 action film "Last Action Hero", starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Danny Madigan (played by Austin O'Brien) tries to convince Schwarzenegger's character that he is inside a movie by pointing out the 555 exchange provides at most 9,999 available telephone numbers, insufficient for all the phone users in Los Angeles. Schwarzenegger's character replies, "That's why we have area codes", and O'Brien's character drops the subject.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: The use of 555 numbers helps to avoid use of valid numbers in works of fiction or entertainment, which can lead people to call those numbers and bother their holders. Tommy Tutone's song "867-5309/Jenny" and the cinematic release of "Bruce Almighty" displaying 776-2323 as a number to call God both led to misdialed calls in multiple area codes. God's number was changed to a 555 exchange prefix in the video release of the movie. In cities where it became popular, the 1966 song "634-5789" by Wilson Pickett and others caused many unwanted calls to actual subscribers who knew nothing about the song; many had to change their numbers. "777-9311" by The Time used Dez Dickerson's actual telephone number at the time the song was written, causing his phone to ring off the hook until he had his number changed. The Alicia Keys song "Diary" contains a real number in New York's area code 347, an overlay, but does not indicate an area code; the same number in some other area code is a common misdial.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: In 1994, the North American Numbering Plan Administration began accepting applications for nationwide 555 numbers (outside the fictitious 555-01XX range). A number could be reserved in a single area code, a region or nationwide. In theory, a consumer from any area code could be invited to dial a seven-digit number such as 555-TAXI and the owners of that number could connect the call to a local car service. According to a 2003 "New York Times" article, the desired functionality requires the cooperation of local phone authorities, and most phone companies have been reluctant to cooperate. In May 2016, the Industry Numbering Committee (INC) determined that the purpose for which this resource was intended had been accommodated by other information/communication technologies. As of September 2016, all 555 numbers have been returned to the NANPA inventory except 555-1212 (national use directory assistance) and 555-4334 (national use assigned).


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: In 1996, Canadian telephone companies began promoting 555-1313 as "name that number", a pay-per-use reverse lookup which would give a subscriber name if the user entered an area code and a listed telephone number. The fifty-cent information number was initially heavily advertised in area codes +1-604 (BCTel), +1-416 (Bell Canada), +1-506 (NBTel), +1-902 (Maritime T&T) and +1-709 (Newfoundland Tel), but was soon forgotten once Internet sites began providing free reverse lookup tools.


title: 555 (telephone number)

text: Use of 555- for anything other than 555-1212 style information numbers raises the problem that call cost is unclear to consumers; in theory, the numbers could be anything from toll-free to premium. This complicates the provision of toll restriction to local subscribers.


title: Normcore

text: Normcore is a unisex fashion trend characterized by unpretentious, average-looking clothing. Normcore fashion includes jeans, t-shirts, sweats, button-downs, and sneakers.


title: Normcore

text: The word "normcore" first appeared in a 2008 guest strip by Ryan Estrada for the webcomic "Templar, Arizona".


title: Normcore

text: In 2013, the word was employed by trend forecasting group K-HOLE in a report titled "Youth Mode: A Report on Freedom". As used by K-HOLE, the word referred to an attitude, not a code of dress. It was intended to mean "finding liberation in being nothing special".


title: Normcore

text: In 2014, an article in "New York" magazine by author Fiona Duncan conflated normcore with what K-HOLE referred to as "ActingBasic", a concept which involved dressing neutrally to avoid standing out. It was this misunderstanding of normcore that gained popular usage. That same year, "normcore" was named runner-up for neologism of the year by the Oxford University Press.


title: Normcore

text: Normcore wearers are people who do not wish to distinguish themselves from others by their clothing. This does not mean that they are unfashionable people who wear whatever is easiest, but rather that they consciously choose clothes that are functional and undistinguished. The "normcore" trend has been interpreted as a reaction to ever-changing fashion trends, as normcore clothes are generally seen as timeless and unaffected by trends. Normcore clothes are unisex and are usually casual items such as hoodies, t-shirts, polo shirts, short-sleeved buttoned shirts, sweatpants, chinos, jeans, shorts, and sneakers; items such as suit jackets, ties, blouses, boots, and dress shoes are avoided.


title: Normcore

text: The characters featured on the sitcom "Seinfeld" (1989–1998) are frequently cited as exemplifying the aesthetics and ethos of normcore fashion. Clothes that meet the "normcore" description are mainly sold by large fashion and retail chains such as The Gap, Jack & Jones, Superdry, Jigsaw, and Esprit. They are generally cheaply produced in East Asian countries. Many other retailers such as Marc O'Polo, Woolrich, Desigual, Closed, and Scotch & Soda produce normcore-like clothes combined with individual design ideas.


title: Normcore

text: A variation on this concept for women has been called "menocore" from menopause. It is loose and comfortable clothing, usually in light or neutral colors, that fits a variety of informal social situations. The style suggests that the wearer is mature, self-confident, and not seeking attention from men. Designer brands associated with this style of dress include Eileen Fisher, J. Jill, and Donna Karan.


title: Normcore

text: Columnist Sara Tatyana Bernstein has said that the style suggests that the wearer has leisure time and wealth, giving it class connotations, and that it can be stereotyped as the style of a woman who is middle-aged or older and already wealthy enough that she does not need the kind of job that would require more formal clothing. The style may also be adopted by women outside the stereotype as an aspirational style to suggest that they wish to eventually attain the financial security, leisure, and other lifestyle elements available to older and wealthier women.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Polyester is a 1981 American comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It satirizes the melodramatic genre of women's pictures, particularly those directed by Douglas Sirk, whose work directly influenced this film, as well as a satire of suburban life in the early 1980s involving divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, foot fetishism, and the religious right.


title: Polyester (film)

text: "Polyester" was filmed in Waters' native Baltimore, Maryland, as with many of his other films, and features a gimmick called Odorama, whereby viewers can smell what they see on screen using scratch and sniff cards, in a stylistic tribute to the work of William Castle, whose films typically featured attention-grabbing gimmicks.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Early 1980s housewife Francine Fishpaw watches her upper-middle-class family's life crumble in their suburban Baltimore home. Her husband Elmer is a polyester-clad lout who owns an adult movie theater, causing anti-pornography protesters to picket the Fishpaws' house. Francine's Christian beliefs are also offended by the behavior of her children—Lu-Lu, her spoiled, promiscuous daughter, and Dexter, her delinquent, glue-sniffing son who derives sexual pleasure from stomping on women's feet.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Francine's cocaine-snorting mother La Rue, a class-conscious snob, compounds her troubles by robbing her daughter blind, constantly deriding her obesity, and berating her for befriending her former housecleaner, Cuddles Kovinsky, a simple-minded woman who tries to console Francine with "seize-the-day" bromides and has inherited a large sum of money from a very wealthy former employer.


title: Polyester (film)

text: After Francine discovers Elmer having an affair with his secretary, Sandra Sullivan, she confronts them during a motel tryst and demands a divorce. Francine then falls into alcoholism and depression, exacerbated by her children's behavior: Lu-Lu becomes pregnant by her degenerate boyfriend Bo-Bo Belsinger (Stiv Bators) and announces she is getting an abortion, and after Dexter is arrested at a supermarket for stomping on a woman's foot, the media reveal that he is the Baltimore Foot Stomper who has been serially attacking and terrorizing local women.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Lu-Lu goes to a family planning clinic for an abortion, but anti-abortion picketers harass her. She returns home and tries to induce a miscarriage, causing Francine to call an unwed mothers' home. Two nuns arrive, force Lu-Lu into the trunk of their car, and take her to a Catholic home for unwed mothers. Bo-Bo and his friend, who have come to trash the Fishpaw house on Halloween night, shoot La Rue, but she retrieves the gun and shoots Bo-Bo dead. After Lu-Lu flees the unwed mothers' home, she returns home to find Bo-Bo's dead body and is so distraught that she attempts suicide. Francine comes home and faints after witnessing her daughter's suicide attempt—and the apparent suicide by hanging of the family dog, Bonkers, based on a suicide note left near the dog's dangling body.


title: Polyester (film)

text: However, Francine's life soon starts to change. Dexter is released from jail, having been rehabilitated. Lu-Lu suffers a miscarriage from her suicide attempt and is contrite about her past, becoming an artistic flower child who embraces macramé. Francine quits drinking, confronts and rebukes her mother, and finds new romance with Todd Tomorrow. Todd proposes marriage to an elated Francine, but she soon discovers that Todd and La Rue are romantically involved and conspiring to embezzle her divorce settlement, drive her insane and sell her children into prostitution.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Elmer and Sandra break into the house to murder Francine, but Dexter and Lu-Lu kill them: Dexter steps on Sandra's foot, causing her to accidentally shoot Elmer, and Lu-Lu uses her macramé to strangle Sandra. When Cuddles and her German chauffeur and fiancé Heintz arrive, their car runs over La Rue and Todd, killing them. The film concludes with a happy ending for Francine, her children, and newlyweds Cuddles and Heintz.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Waters' usual troupe of actors, the Dreamlanders, played minor roles in "Polyester" compared to Waters' previous films "Desperate Living", "Female Trouble", and "Pink Flamingos", which starred several Dreamlanders in major roles. Only two Dreamlanders, Divine and Edith Massey, received top billing in this film. This was also Massey's final collaboration with Waters before her death in 1984. Dreamlander perennials Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Cookie Mueller, Sharon Niesp, Marina Melin, Susan Lowe, and Jean Hill played small roles in "Polyester". While their parts are integral to the plot, they are much smaller compared to their earlier roles.


title: Polyester (film)

text: "Polyester" was the first Waters film to skirt the mainstream, even garnering an R rating (his previous films were all unrated or rated X—the equivalent of the Motion Picture Association of America's present-day NC-17 rating). The film was set in a middle-class suburb of Baltimore instead of its slums and bohemian neighborhoods, the setting of Waters' earlier films.


title: Polyester (film)

text: During an interview on The Ghost of Hollywood, cinematographer David Insley revealed that the helicopter used to shoot the opening scenes had to make an emergency landing on a nearby golf course while it was open. After the helicopter was cleared for safety, it was subsequently towed from the fairway using a flatbed.


title: Polyester (film)

text: This was David Insley's third film working for John Waters and his first as lead cinematographer. He would go on to shoot Hairspray and Cry-Baby as well.


title: Polyester (film)

text: "Polyester" was a send-up of women's pictures, an exploitative genre of film that was popular from the 1950–60s and typically featured bored, unfulfilled, or otherwise troubled women, usually middle-aged suburban housewives, finding release or escape through the arrival of a handsome younger man. Women's pictures were typically hackneyed B-movies, but Waters specifically styled "Polyester" after the work of the director Douglas Sirk, asking David Insley to make use of similar lighting and editing techniques, even using film equipment and movie-making techniques from Sirk's era. By chance, Insley was able to view some of Sirk's films at a local screening celebrating the Director. He would use this experience when developing the visuals for Polyester.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Odors, especially Francine's particularly keen sense of smell, play an important role in the film. To highlight this, Waters designed Odorama, a "scratch-and-sniff" gimmick inspired by the work of William Castle and the 1960 film "Scent of Mystery", which featured a device called Smell-O-Vision. Special cards with spots numbered 1 through 10 were distributed to audience members before the show, in the manner of 3D glasses. When a number flashed on the screen, viewers were to scratch and sniff the appropriate spot. Smells included the scent of flowers, pizza, glue, gas, grass, and feces. For the first DVD release of the film the smell of glue was changed due to, as Waters states, "political correctness". The gimmick was advertised with the tag "It'll blow your nose!"


title: Polyester (film)

text: After being prompted to scratch and sniff a bouquet of roses, viewers are subjected to a series of mostly foul-smelling odors, and thus fall victim to the director's prank.


title: Polyester (film)

text: A video release omits the numbers flashing onscreen as well as the opening introduction explaining Odorama. This version, created by Lorimar-Telepictures, was shown on cable TV in the United States.


title: Polyester (film)

text: The Independent Film Channel released reproduction Odorama cards for John Waters film festivals in 1999.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Waters expressed his delight at having the film's audiences actually "pay to smell shit" on the commentary track of the film's 2004 DVD release.


title: Polyester (film)

text: Producers of "Rugrats Go Wild" (Paramount) used the Odorama name and logo in 2003, somewhat upsetting Waters when he learned that New Line Cinema had let the copyright lapse.


title: Polyester (film)

text: The 2011 film "" uses a scratch and sniff card now called "Aromascope", which is advertised as providing the fourth dimension in its "4D" format.


title: Polyester (film)

text: The film was re-screened by Midnight Movies at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2011. The Odorama cards were recreated by Midnight Movies, Little Joe Magazine, and The Aroma Company to allow viewers to interact with the film as originally intended.


title: Polyester (film)

text: "Polyester" received some positive reviews from the mainstream press. Said Janet Maslin of "The New York Times":


title: Polyester (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 93% based on reviews from 30 critics, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The critics' consensus states, "As proudly tacky as its titular fabric, "Polyester" finds writer-director John Waters moving ever so slightly into the mainstream without losing any of his subversive charm.".


title: Polyester (film)

text: The 2000 single "Frontier Psychiatrist", by the Australian electronic music group The Avalanches, samples the film.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning philosophy. The field is related to many other branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The philosophy of religion differs from religious philosophy in that it seeks to discuss questions regarding the nature of religion as a whole, rather than examining the problems brought forth by a particular belief-system. It can be carried out dispassionately by those who identify as believers or non-believers.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Philosopher William L. Rowe characterized the philosophy of religion as: "the critical examination of basic religious beliefs and concepts." Philosophy of religion covers alternative beliefs about God or gods or both, the varieties of religious experience, the interplay between science and religion, the nature and scope of good and evil, and religious treatments of birth, history, and death. The field also includes the ethical implications of religious commitments, the relation between faith, reason, experience and tradition, concepts of the miraculous, the sacred revelation, mysticism, power, and salvation.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The term "philosophy of religion" did not come into general use in the West until the nineteenth century, and most pre-modern and early modern philosophical works included a mixture of religious themes and non-religious philosophical questions. In Asia, examples include texts such as the Hindu Upanishads, the works of Daoism and Confucianism and Buddhist texts. Greek philosophies like Pythagoreanism and Stoicism included religious elements and theories about deities, and Medieval philosophy was strongly influenced by the big three monotheistic Abrahamic religions. In the Western world, early modern philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley discussed religious topics alongside secular philosophical issues as well.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The philosophy of religion has been distinguished from theology by pointing out that, for theology, "its critical reflections are based on religious convictions". Also, "theology is responsible to an authority that initiates its thinking, speaking, and witnessing ... [while] philosophy bases its arguments on the ground of timeless evidence."


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Some aspects of philosophy of religion have classically been regarded as a part of metaphysics. In Aristotle's "Metaphysics", the necessarily prior cause of eternal motion was an unmoved mover, who, like the object of desire, or of thought, inspires motion without itself being moved. Today, however, philosophers have adopted the term "philosophy of religion" for the subject, and typically it is regarded as a separate field of specialization, although it is also still treated by some, particularly Catholic philosophers, as a part of metaphysics.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Different religions have different ideas about ultimate reality, its source or ground (or lack thereof) and also about what is the "Maximal Greatness". Paul Tillich's concept of 'Ultimate Concern' and Rudolf Otto's 'Idea of the Holy' are concepts which point to concerns about the ultimate or highest truth which most religious philosophies deal with in some way. One of the main differences among religions is whether the ultimate reality is a personal god or an impersonal reality.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: In Western religions, various forms of theism are the most common conceptions, while in Eastern religions, there are theistic and also various non-theistic conceptions of the Ultimate. Theistic vs non-theistic is a common way of sorting the different types of religions.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: There are also several philosophical positions with regard to the existence of God that one might take including various forms of theism (such as monotheism and polytheism), agnosticism and different forms of atheism.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Keith Yandell outlines roughly three kinds of historical monotheisms: Greek, Semitic and Hindu. Greek monotheism holds that the world has always existed and does not believe in creationism or divine providence, while Semitic monotheism believes the world was created by a God at a particular point in time and that this God acts in the world. Indian monotheism teaches that the world is beginningless, but that there is God's act of creation which sustains the world.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The attempt to provide proofs or arguments for the existence of God is one aspect of what is known as natural theology or the natural theistic project. This strand of natural theology attempts to justify belief in God by independent grounds. Perhaps most of the philosophy of religion is predicated on natural theology's assumption that the existence of God can be justified or warranted on rational grounds. There has been considerable philosophical and theological debate about the kinds of proofs, justifications and arguments that are appropriate for this discourse.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Eastern religions have included both theistic and other alternative positions about the ultimate nature of reality. One such view is Jainism, which holds a dualistic view that all that exists is matter and a multiplicity of souls ("jiva"), without depending on a supreme deity for their existence. There are also different Buddhist views, such as the Theravada Abhidharma view, which holds that the only ultimately existing things are transitory phenomenal events ("dharmas") and their interdependent relations. Madhyamaka Buddhists such as Nagarjuna hold that ultimate reality is emptiness ("shunyata") while the Yogacara holds that it is "vijñapti" (mental phenomena). In Indian philosophical discourses, monotheism was defended by Hindu philosophers (particularly the Nyaya school), while Buddhist thinkers argued against their conception of a creator god (Sanskrit: Ishvara).


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The Hindu view of Advaita Vedanta, as defended by Adi Shankara, is a total non-dualism. Although Advaitins do believe in the usual Hindu gods, their view of ultimate reality is a radically monistic oneness (Brahman without qualities) and anything which appears (like persons and gods) is illusory ("maya").


title: Philosophy of religion

text: The various philosophical positions of Taoism can also be viewed as non-theistic about the ultimate reality (Tao). Taoist philosophers have conceived of different ways of describing the ultimate nature of things. For example, while the Taoist Xuanxue thinker Wang Bi argued that everything is "rooted" in"Wu" (non-being, nothingness), Guo Xiang rejected "Wu" as the ultimate source of things, instead arguing that the ultimate nature of the Tao is "spontaneous self-production" ("zi sheng") and "spontaneous self-transformation" ("zi hua").


title: Philosophy of religion

text: Traditionally, Jains and Buddhists did not rule out the existence of limited deities or divine beings, they only rejected the idea of a single all-powerful creator God or First cause posited by monotheists.


title: Philosophy of religion

text: All religious traditions make knowledge claims which they argue are central to religious practice and to the ultimate solution to the main problem of human life. These include epistemic, metaphysical and ethical claims.