As reported earlier, Premier MacLauchlan generously offered me a ride to Summerside last night for the Learning Partners Advisory Council meeting.

While I don’t believe there are any formal rules governing the reporting of such adventures, common sense would dictate that the discussions that took place during the ride are covered under a cone of silence.

And so if, say, the Premier accidentally revealed his plans to take PEI out of Confederation¹, discretion would suggest I not mention it here. 

So I will limit my colour commentary to this: the Premier drives a late model SUV that, as is custom these days, has a mid-console display screen. For most of our trip the radio was turned to CBC Prince Edward Island, 96.1 on the FM dial. And yet the station identifier appearing on the display was “Kicks96.”

I found this quite bothersome and wondered how such a thing might happen.

The most prominent radio station I could find using the “Kicks96” nom de plume is WQLK-FM which broadcasts from a transmitter in Richmond, Indiana, like CBC PEI, on FM 96.1.

I imagine there could be several ways that the Premier’s car stereo could come to think of FM 96.1 as Kicks96. Perhaps the vehicle was assembled in range of Richmond, and the radio station presets setup there? Perhaps the radio itself was manufactured in the area? Perhaps the stereo grabs its presets from some sort of web service that got confused during the update? Perhaps the Premier is also secretly the Governor of Indiana?

I called Kicks96 in Richmond, IN and spoke to a helpful receptionist who transferred me to an equally helpful production manager for the station. He confirmed there were no automobile assembly plants in the area, no formal arrangements with the Premier’s automobile manufacturer to pre-install Kicks96 on the stereo (although he wished there were). He mentioned that there were several other radio stations in the US that used the “Kicks96” tag, and the clues might be found there instead of in Richmond. His best guess, and it was a long shot he said, is that when the radio station presets were installed it may have been at night when, due to “skipping”, the Indiana signal reached all the way to PEI.

I tried to call CBC Prince Edward Island, but all branches on their telephone tree lead to voicemail, and there’s no “Press 7 to ask Kenny Adams questions about FM propagation” option.

At this hour, thus, the Kicks96 mystery remains a mystery.

Otherwise, the ride was pleasant; we were joined by the Learning Partners Advisory Council co-chair Bill Whelan, and had a good chat, there and back.

You will be happy to learn that we did have a chance to speak briefly about Gross Fixed Capital Formation and related issues, and my newfound ability to speak somewhat intelligently about the GDP stood me in good stead.

The Island will be well-positioned when we join our Icelandic cousins in a new Confederation. Oops, I wasn’t supposed to talk about that. was I.

I owe the Premier a solid for the ride; maybe next time I’ll drive.

So remember yesterday when I was chickening out of asking Premier MacLauchlan for a ride up to Summerside? Well my chickening out was genuine, but what I didn’t factor in, somewhat naively, is that the Premier would find out about my chickening out and offer me a ride anyway.

Which, of course, this being Prince Edward Island and all, he did.

Last night while Oliver and I were out at the John Cousins, Catherine answered the phone at home; the caller inquired as to whether I had a ride to Summerside or not, and when Catherine said she didn’t know, the caller left their name and number and asked her to have me to call them back when I got in. The caller was Premier MacLauchlan.

Which makes it doubly important that I have a deeper understanding of Prince Edward Island’s Gross Fixed Capital Formation because, you gotta know that, with the way things are going, the Premier is actually going to ask me about it.

I first became aware of the very notion of Gross Fixed Capital Formation only yesterday, while reading the province’s Annual Statistical Review (a document that should be on the bedside of every Islander). Here’s what it says in the economic overview for 2012-2013 (emphasis mine):

Growth between 2012 and 2013 was largely the result of a 4.5 per cent increase in exports. Final domestic demand increased 1.8 per cent, while household consumption expenditures increased 1.6 per cent. Government gross fixed capital formation increased by 3.7 per cent. Imports increased by 1.8 per cent. Real gross domestic product growth was revised up for 2011 to 1.6 per cent and revised down for 2012 to 1.0 per cent.

In regular peacetime reading, I would translate this, roughly, as “blah blah blah, blah blah, blah.”

But these are not regular times. I needed help.

Who better to ask about what all this means, and why we measure it, than the province’s Director of Economics, Statistics and Federal Fiscal Relations, Nigel Burns, an estimable man to whom I’ve addressed similar questions in the past and always received a thorough and helpful answer.

So I called Nigel up. And here’s what I learned.

The summary that appears in the overview I quote above (“increased by 3.7 per cent”) uses numbers from a Statistics Canada-provided table that appears on page 53 of the Annual Statistical Review titled “Real Provincial Gross Domestic Product, 2009-2013 (Millions of Chained (2007) Dollars) Prince Edward Island”. Here’s the table, with the “Government gross fixed capital formation” highlighted:

The “3.7 per cent increase” referenced in the overview is the increase of $242 million in 2012 to $251 million in 2013 in the last two columns of the highlighted row above.

Breaking this down, with Nigel’s help, here’s what this means.

This table reports on the Real Gross Domestic Product of the province (often referenced as “the GDP”); this, Statistics Canada says, is a report of the “total value of the goods and services produced” in the province. You calculate it by adding up everything spent on stuff (roads, laundry detergent, schools, olive oil) and adding this to the difference between exports and imports.

So in 2013, for example, we spent $6,285 million on stuff; add this to the difference between exports and imports of -$1,283 million and you get a GDP of $5,006 million.

In rougher numbers: $6.3 billion spent, minus $1.3 billion in import/export difference, equals $5 billion in GDP.

The Gross Fixed Capital Formation part of this is the portion of the “stuff” that is fixed: roads, houses, schools, buildings, bulldozers, photocopiers, hammers (as opposed to, say, cable TV, mayonnaise, and toothpicks).

And the Government Gross Fixed Capital Formation is the portion of that which is spent by governments (federal, provincial and municipal).

So, in other words, in 2013 the federal, provincial and municipal government on Prince Edward Island spend a combined $251 million on “fixed stuff.” They built schools. Bought snowplows. Built a wharf. Dug some ditches. Add it all up and it cost them a quarter billion dollars.

As it happens, the “Millions of Chained (2007) Dollars” part of the table means that governments didn’t actually spend $251 million on fixed stuff in 2013 on Prince Edward Island, they spent $251 million in 2007 dollars on fixed stuff in 2013. Converting the numbers to 2007 dollars removes inflation from the numbers, and allows apples-to-apples comparisons to be made.

I asked Nigel why we’d measure government gross fixed capital formation at all — what does it tell is, from a policy-making perspective? — and he told me that, in part, it gives us an indication of the involvement of governments in the economy. If, for example, there was a 20% decrease in government gross fixed capital formation from one year to the next, this would tell us, in essence, “wow, governments really pulled back on investments in infrastructure last year.”

And as a component of the GDP it allows us to see what role government spending on fixed stuff plays in the larger shape of the economy.

As it happens, most of the macroeconomic things you hear the Premier and his ministers talking about are packed into that table.

For example, last October the Premier gave an address to the Summerside Chamber of Commerce where he reported, in part:

My second observation on the trade front brings us close to home. Prince Edward Island has a balance-of-trade deficit that hobbles our economy. Simply put, we buy more than we sell. On an annual basis, we spend $1.3 billion more in purchases from outside the province than we generate in receipts from out-of-province sales. While we can be deservedly proud of our expanding export story, our province will not be geared for sustainable growth unless we can shrink that balance-of-trade deficit. It currently represents more than 20% of our total GDP.

The story he told in that paragraph is also told in the GDP table: the “exports of goods and services” number is $2.3 billion and the “imports of goods and services” number is $3.6 billion. So we’re importing $1.3 billion more than we’re exporting. 

Or when the Minister of Education, Early Learning and Culture said, in the Legislative Assembly, on April 14, 2016:

The next area of my responsibility, and something that I’m becoming very interested in and learning a tremendous amount, is the area of culture. The culture sector contributes $121 million to our local GDP. 

That’s $121 million that appears in various places in the “expenditures” section of the table — theatre tickets, musical instrument purchases, and so on.  It seems like a lot, but when you take $121 million as a proportion of the total provincial expenditures of $6,265 million, it turns out to be only 1%. An important 1%, of course – the soul of the province, you might say – but only 1% nonetheless. And if you’re trying to move the GDP, perhaps not where you’d put a huge amount of emphasis if you want to make big gains. Which is both important to understand, and also important, as a way of thinking, to confront.

Peter Bevan-Baker, Leader of the Third Party, released a briefing document when he introduced the Well-being Measurement Act in the Legislative Assembly last fall that nicely summed up the need to confront this:

• Traditional methods of determining progress such as Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product measure production and consumption.
• These systems do not measure the effects of production and consumption on society, the economy and the environment. They do not measure quality of life of a place, or the wellbeing of its people.
• By using only economic measurements like GDP, Prince Edward Island remains at risk of failing to meet the needs of its residents, struggling to develop a sustainable economy, and not being able to meet the environmental challenges that are ahead.

Which is to say, I think, that it’s all very well and good to increase the GDP, but what if increasing the GDP decreases the qualities of some of the things in our lives that we value? At the very least, shouldn’t we measure those things so that we can understand the rise and fall of the GDP in a more human, day to day context?

I’m intrigued by that notion.

And also embarrassed to find that, after hearing the term GDP batted about in the media for 50 years, it wasn’t until today that I opted to find out what it really means.

So, that’s a lot to talk about on the car ride to Summerside now, isn’t it.

One of my favourite passages in the biography of former Prince Edward Island Premier Alex B. Campbell written Hon. Wade MacLauchlan just before he became Premier himself:

Campbell went on to build good relationships with NFU leaders. Wayne Easter recalls one meeting “at which we had given the premier shit likely,” after which Campbell offered to drive him back to his truck which was parked several blocks away. Easter says, “I’ve never forgotten it to this day. I was twenty-two or twenty-three. Alex was driving the car and chatting away, not about the meeting. This was quite something, driving in the car with the premier.

Premier MacLauchlan co-chairs the Learning Partners Advisory Council of which I’m a member.

We have our second meeting tomorrow night, up in Summerside, about an hour’s drive to the west. I thought seriously about asking the Premier for a ride up to the meeting, but in the end I chickened out: I’m nowhere near as fast on my feet as Wayne Easter, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t hold my own. He’d say something like “how do you feel about our fixed capital formation for fiscal 2014¹” and my most considered response would be “um.”

Of course, we could just talk about seafood pie. And I’ve missed a great opportunity.

I had my own delightful encounter with Alex Campbell about 15 years ago. I was working as a new product developer for the Anne of Green Gables Store, and was sent to meet with Alex to see if he might consider selling his driftwood creations. He welcomed me to his Stanley Bridge cottage, served me a glass of lemonade or two, and we had a nice chat. No new products were secured, but it was otherwise a remarkable afternoon for a young pup like me.

Postscript: the Premier read this post, gave me a call, and offered me a ride. What a strange, wonderful world we live in.

It may not be an EGOT, but in Island terms surely it’s the closest one might come: I achieved tri-party recognition in the gallery of Legislative Assembly during a visit on April 8, 2016.

It started with Liberal Hon. Doug Currie, Minister of Education, Early Learning and Culture:

I’d also like to welcome Peter Rukavina who is in the gallery today and I’ll be acknowledging that in a statement. Peter is a very influential educational leader in the Province of Prince Edward Island and is very much part of the conversations about how we’re going to be moving our education system forward. 

Next was Brad Trivers, Conservative MLA for Rustico-Emerald:

I wanted to welcome Peter Rukavina from the PEI Home and School Federation. He is a fellow web developer and systems analyst and I know he has had a big play in the Prince Edward Island systems. I’m particularly interested in how he might help lead this government towards openness and transparency with open data initiatives. That’s an area I am very interested in as well. 

Next it was back to the Liberal Jordan Brown, Government Whip and MLA for  Charlottetown-Brighton:

Peter Rukavina, a great community member and somebody that has been very involved in numerous different community initiatives over the years. Great to see you here. 

One more Liberal, Hon. Hon. Allen F. Roach, Minister of Finance:

But I’d also like to make a note that it’s great to have Peter Rukavina here…

And then, to cap it all off, Peter Bevan-Baker, Leader of the Third Party and MLA for Kellys Cross-Cumberland:

I’d also like to welcome Peter Rukavina. His work on home and school, of course, is legendary. Also, he’s a great advocate of open data. A large portion of the throne speech was devoted to that. So I’m sure Peter is hoping that government will follow through on that. 

I should hasten to add at this point that this sort of recognition isn’t unusual for Islanders in the gallery: it’s a regular part of every sitting day, and almost anyone in the gallery will certainly be recognized. 

Beyond the hyperbolic suggestions that I’m a legendary influential involved community member, it was nice to be pointed out by members of all the parties; it allows me to maintain non-partisan street cred.

For the past four summers, starting in 2012, I’ve been operating a website that provides structured data – iCal, XML, JSON, RSS – about cruise ship visits to the Port of Charlottetown, a reaction to the lack of such data from the Port itself.

Now the Port is providing data itself – not in as many formats, and missing metadata like number of passengers, but from the horse’s mouth – and so I’ll suspend my own efforts.  More details here.

I’ve never known as much about the comings and goings of cruise ships as I have these past years; it’s been fun.

I was mesmerized by this building, on Lorne Street in Sackville near the Legion. Its doors and windows have been covered over in such an odd way, and shingled to match (but not). It’s like the building is holding itself hostage.

When you live on a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy as we do, it’s important to maximize time when on resupply missions.

So coffee at Smiling Goat and a new pair of Icelandic wool gloves — 25% off at Cintamani, which has a retail outlet on Spring Garden Road — and it’s off to the train home.

The Centennial Swimming Pool in downtown Halifax is a beautiful building that features a bold use of Optima.

It’s a typeface that’s generally too precious for my taste, but carved in stone here, it works well, especially the combination of upper and lower case.

I’m catching the train from Sackville to Halifax for a quick 24 hour jaunt into the city for a bunch of errands. I could drive, but I am no fan of the lonely highway, and trains that nobody takes don’t keep running. So here I am.

You can’t park overnight at the Sackville VIA station, so I called the Town Hall for advice and they connected me with Rod Allen, a car dealer up the street, who generously allowed me to park there.

I arrived at the station 30 minutes early, but the time passed quickly as shortly after I arrived a woman, also early, showed up to pick up someone arriving on the train from Quebec. She turned out to be the longtime cook from Cape Jourmain, and we had a good chat.

The train arrives, the VIA app claims, in just a moment; I’ll be in Halifax for supper.

We have been promiscuous in our appliances purchases over the last 20 years on Prince Edward Island, having purchased from a variety of sources, and never being completely satisfied. And so I dreaded the prospect of going back into the marketplace to replace our washing machine when it conked out for good on the weekend.

We bought the machines 7 years ago, a GE front-loading model, from MacArthur’s Appliances, a washer that itself replaced a dead one we’d purchased from Sears when we moved into the house in 2000 (whatever happened to washing machines that last 20 years?).

Last month the washer started making a horrible racket while the drum was spinning; Catherine called MacArthur’s and then sent a repair person. The diagnosis: the washer needed a new part, which would cost $1000, plus 3 hours labour to install.

As it didn’t make sense to sink $1000 into a 7 year old washer (despite the ecological concerns I have about junking it), we crossed our fingers and hoped, against logic, that we could continue to use the washer, putting up with the racket.

Of course we were wrong. And this weekend it finally died for good. And, with laundry in danger of overwhelming us if I didn’t act quickly, I set out yesterday morning to find a replacement washer.

I started the day at MacArthur’s: I thought it only just to allow them to atone for selling us a dud. Their friendly sales person acknowledged the issue, telling me that “GE had problems in the early days of its front loaders,” but was otherwise without contrition, and, beyond assuring me that GE had learned from its sins, offered no recompense or apology. I couldn’t conscience purchasing another GE washer from them – GE is the only brand they sell – especially given that they didn’t seem particularly interested in keeping our business.

So, MacArthur’s out.

Next stop was Leon’s. We bought a sofa from them a few months back and it was a thorough professional experience, and I held out high hopes.

Leon’s had a good selection of washers from several different brands, and two Samsung models were on sale and in our price range. The sales person and I got into the weeds trying to figure out the difference between the two models, but once that was resolved, I was close to considering purchasing one.

But then I asked about delivery and carting away of our old model: they were happy to offer delivery, but didn’t offer to remove our old washer (the explanation, oddly, involved bed bugs). Which would have left us in the position of having to pay someone else to come and remove the old washer and take it to be recycled. Why would I want to do that? 

So, Leon’s out.

Reasoning that I should be more prepared at this point and, truth be told, unwilling to subject myself to the retail sales experience for a third time, I paid the $6.95 monthly fee for access to Consumer Reports’s washing machine ratings and identified a particular model that was well-rated and in our price range, the LG WM3170CW.

This made the next steps simpler because I simply had to find a local dealer with one in stock that offered a good price, and both delivery and haul away.

I started with Sears. I would have preferred to email the local store, but they don’t publish email addresses for stores, so I resorted to calling. I followed through the telephone tree to the major appliances department and then waited for them to answer the phone. And waited. And waited. No answer. I called back. Same result. I called back and selected the option to talk to the main Sears call centre, explained my plight, and they offered to find someone for me; a few moments later someone from the Charlottetown store came on the line.

Sears does sell the model I was looking for. The price was right: $899. And they offered both pickup and haul away. 

But they couldn’t deliver until April 21, they charge $75 for delivery and $25 to haul the old washer away. 

So, Sears out.

The LG washer was also available from Best Buy, but they wanted $95 for delivery, would only tell me the delivery date after I purchased, and their haul away process was opaque.

So, Best Buy out.

At this point I was getting exhausted.

I turned to Twitter, and several people helpfully reminded me of M&M Furniture on the St. Peters Road.

M&M publishes their email address right on the front page of their website, so I sent an email:

Hello there,

Can you tell me if you sell the LG WM3170CW washing machine.

If so, can you tell me:

1. Your price (it’s on sale at Sears for $894.91).

2. If you have one in stock (and, if not, how long it would take one to bring in).

3. What your delivery charge to 100 Prince Street, Charlottetown would be (single family home, washer on second floor)

4. What your charge for removal of our old washing machine would be.

Thanks,
Peter

Just 15 minutes later came a helpful reply:

We do have it in stock. Our price is $849 and we deliver, set up and take the old away at no extra charge. We could deliver it as soon as tomorrow or Wed.

Frank Macdonald
M&M Furniture

After a frustrating morning, that was all I needed to hear. I replied:

Thanks for your quick reply. I’ll be out this afternoon to take a look, and likely to purchase.

And, an hour later, I was walking into M&M looking for Frank.

I didn’t find Frank, at least not right away. But I did find Frank’s father. And Frank’s father walked me over to the LG WM3170CW, extolled its virtues – he said everyone in the shop had one at home – and then showed me several important things about how to properly maintain it.

Sold.

Frank’s father walked me over to Frank. Who made out the bill. I paid, and 5 minutes later I was on my way, satisfied and feeling good about the world.

For those of you who are not M&M Furniture that want to win our business in the future (a tall order: we’ll be heading back to M&M to replace our dishwasher shortly, and don’t see a reason to go elsewhere), here’s a handy guide about what you need to do:

1. Answer your phone.
2. Publish your email in an easy-to-find place. And reply quickly.
3. Be competitive on price.
4. Offer free delivery and free haul away.
5. Have products in inventory, not in a distant warehouse.
6. Be human.

You’d think those would be entry-level baseline propositions for getting into the appliance business, but apparently they are not.

Thanks to Frank, and to Frank’s father, for, in the end, making it easy.