u/ah-tow-wah

I live in one of the 3 non-rural wards who didn't have a single candidate respond to Bike Ottawa's questionnaire. https://bikeottawa.ca/2026/10/01/2026-municipal-elections-what-do-mayoral-candidates-have-to-say-about-biking-in-ottawa/

Since David Hill seems to like to give taxpayer dollars to developers (ie: Lansdowne 2.0), and he would rather that my neighbours spend their cash in Ward 14 rather than Ward 3 (ie: RTO5), I was really hoping that at least one candidate would come through with some thoughts on active transportation through Bike Ottawa's questionnaire, so that I can see that someone is at least TRYING to win the votes of young families. But I guess not a single one of the candidates cared enough to take 10 minutes to respond.

David Hill's signs state "safe communities" and "reliable roads", but also state "low taxes" (which is contradictory, because how are you going to provide services without taxes). For that reasons, and because he didn't bother to respond to Bike Ottawa's questionnaire, and his poor decisions in the past, I'm thinking of not voting for him.

Question... can I leave my ward councillor blank (because there's no candidates in my ward who have tried to win my vote) and still get my vote for mayor counted? I don't want to spoil my entire ballot because I do want my vote for mayor to count.

One of my gerbils accidentally got slightly stepped on by my approximately 70 lb daughter while she was trying to break up a fight.

His ear is bleeding and his eyes are going from being a bit squinty to being normal. He has a lot of energy and has been running on his wheel, exploring his playpen, eating and drinking just as normal. This happened 10 minutes ago.

The local exotic pet vet is only available at 8pm tonight or later (it's walk-in, so it might be several hours after that before they can see my gerbil). It's $300 just to be seen, which isn't really in my budget right now.

I would appreciate some input on whether I need to bring him to the vet, and whether there's something I can do to help him right now. I know that obviously the "right" answer is the vet, but that's expensive and it will be almost 12 hours away.

ETA: His ear stopped bleeding within 10 minutes I think.

This guy seems so reasonable... He's aware that flexibility is key AND he seems to even be aware that people actually have families! Mark should be more Jeromy.

Hey! We got our first gerbils yesterday- 2 males! I think we have a pretty good setup with a "deep end", and a "shallow end" which was intended for the wheel, water, sand bath, etc.

Both gerbils have been hanging out on both sides, but my more hide-y gerbil has decided to build their nest directly under the wheel, and has filled the sand bath with bedding. We've decided to remove the water dish completely, because he was just filling it with bedding (now they have a water bottle, at least for now).

The plan for today is to remove the wheel and build a little shelf for it to sit on, so they can't built their nest under it (i feel like that's a good idea? Correct me if I'm wrong please!) Is there any way to get them to build their nests in the deep end? There's cool hides and paper towel rolls in the deep end, but they haven't really burrowed there yet. Any other advice for how to improve our setup?