There's no way around not paying parking tickets in Ontario, because they're all linked into a huge computerized system. If you don't pay them, no matter where you incur them, your driving license eventually gets suspended. This didn't used to be the case, and out of town people usually just ignored parkuing tickets they got in some different town to theirs, because they only applied to local residents. Not any more! ;-) The "happy time" is over for Ontarians who park illegally...or overtime on their meter.

I would give the Obama parking tickets thing about as much importance as the Gates thing. That is...just about none at all. That's because I'm not out to get Barack Obama and because I think he's probably grown up a little since he was a student.

If I was out to get him, though, I'd hang onto both those stories like a leech and I'd milk every last drop of scandal out of them that I possibly could.

You betcha. Party politics is the bread and butter of such leeches. They live to do harm and spread bad news.