Oh Canada!

Oh Canada!

How could you? I really don't want to overly proselytize, but this is the best we as a country could do? 59% voter turnout, yes ladies and gentlemen, stand and applaud democracy.

I said i wasn't going to vote and I didn't, sort of. How does this give me license to grumble? Well thanks to my dear wife and the EDGE 102, I was able be counted and not vote. Here is the dirty little secret Elections Canada does not want you to know. You can register to vote at a polling station then when they hand you the ballot, you hand it right back (blank of course) and say I refuse to vote, I am protesting. They then have to put the ballot in a separate pile and mark down the vote as "protest." Pretty cool eh? Now it seems that even the lovely people at Elections Canada have no clue about this. I called them yesterday to find out for sure if protest vote was a valid option. The gentleman on the other side of the phone said that I should mark an "X" beside all the candidates names as a protest vote. I proceeded to inform him that this was in fact illegal (yes ballot spoiling is a federal offense carrying a 500.00 fine and the small possibility of jail time), whereupon he proceeded to get flustered and went to talk to his manager. The manager eventually confirmed that to submit a protest vote, one must do exactly as previously mentioned, hand back the blank ballot and affirm the vote is a protest. Again, I find this very cool indeed.

Now why did i protest and not submit a vote for any party? There are a few key reasons which I will explain.

1. There was no candidate I wanted to vote for in full. I like Layton just fine, would be fine and actually happy with him as PM, but he had chances to bring the last government down and instead propped them up. In fact it was the NDP that supported a no confidence with the Tories to bring down the Paul Martin minority which led to our dear leader taking office. That to me is inexcusable and I could not with any heart or conscience vote NDP. The greens, well, they still have issues and are not solid enough to get my vote, the liberals are dysfunctional and pompous and don't get me started on the Tories who are pompous and dysfunctional. I have previously stated that if i lived in a BLOC riding, i would be a staunch BLOC supporter. Duceppe is the only leader I truly have faith in and he is the only leader who has his country's best interest at heart.

2. Until there is proportional representation, I don't think the vote is fair and therefore is flawed. Here is my example of this. I have a broken car. It still works, but is dangerous to drive and might just give up any moment. Just because i have a car does not mean i should drive it. It is not an inherent right to drive the car, it is a right by proxy. Similarly with the election, just because I have the "right" to vote does not mean I should exercise it. If the system is broken and refuses to be fixed or even looked at, then why vote? It is not an inherent right of citizenship, it is a right by proxy which should be exercised with care.

3. Most importantly this was an ILLEGAL election. Our Dear Leader broke the law in calling this election. Not only broke the law but broke his own law! By saying parliament was dysfunctional (read: no one is doing exactly as I tell them), Harper, riding support numbers near or at 40% nationally, called an election. This was a despotic move, one that was so arrogant, so hypocritical, so callous in the disregard of principle and loyalty to a man's word that anyone who voted for him should question why they voted for him in the first place. The only thing i could do was protest a vote that ate up over 400 million dollars during an economic panic and was called only to stroke ego and manipulate the citizenry and parliament. This vote should never have happened nor been allowed on these terms, terms our dear leader himself set and held up as a bastion of citizen focused consensus and integral to democracy. All in all, this old/new government has done nothing more than embolden the mock in democracy to absurd heights.

But now back to the political clime...oftentimes i feel like i am on an island with few peers. I wish to stress that this is not arrogance, I do not believe I am better than other people, but when I see such folly in the elections, it only strengthens this perception. I remember when the Martin government fell and the tory ads had the tagline "Stand up for Canada." During that campaign, our dear leader promised an elected senate, then went ahead and appointed a senator. He promised fixed election dates, every four years (unless the government fell by way of no confidence), then broke his own law. He bribed a dying member of parliament with a life insurance policy to rejoin the tory caucus, lied about doing so then admitted doing so. He said there would be no fixed pullout date for the Afghan war, then affixed a pullout date for the mission. So the question I pose to you, my fellow Canadians, who voted for Our Dear Leader in the previous election: Is this the Canada you stood up for? Our Dear Leader promised an accountable government, then reneged on the promise basically trampling all over the Gomery report which accused his sitting government of the same practices that led to the sponsorship scandal. He promised a government that was honest, that you could rely on to keep its promises, then time and again showed how little he valued your faith and how highly he valued his own reflection. He plagiarized speeches and adopted policies from the neo-cons of Australia and America saying they were his policies. He sent envoys to world summits that blocked bills and binding resolutions to GUARANTEE CLEAN WATER for the most impoverished of our earth. This was chicanery and thuggery on a level even Vegas isn't privy to.

You have to hand it to the man though, he ran an effective campaign and even though he blipped, managed to dupe people into believing he is honest and the best fit for the job. He focused on the Liberals knowing full well that most of this country sees only two parties as effective. He showed images of a stumbling Dion then yelled HIGHER TAXES! HIGHER FOOD! cajoling the public through false fear and borderline defamation.

I am really disappointed in Ontario though most of all. The west we concede, but our province here? He has a finance minister who told the global business community not to invest in Ontario, was a finance minister under the Harris regime which decimated Ontario and brought us to a recession earlier than the rest of Canada (we are seeing the effects now) and Ontarians forgot. We forgot what it was like during the Harris years when our teachers were laid off en masse, were treated like incurable infections and our public school system spat upon. They laid off nurses, took no initiatives in qualifying immigrants for degree required positions, left our province in shambles and racked up a massive deficit by MAKING CUTS! And we forgot, gave the cons a free pass to destroy Ontario with last night's election. I am not even angry, just ashamed that we allowed this to happen. It is a sad sad time when we allow the murderers of our province to be the pallbearers for its funeral.

All in all we have a few things to be thankful for. Perhaps this is strawgrasping or trying to find a silver lining in an ever greying sky, but here they are.

1. Thank God for cities. Except for Calgary, the major cities in Canada (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) sharply slapped the conservatives in the face and elected only Liberal, BLOC, or NDP. While Tory support grew in the suburb/metropolitan areas, city folk understand how detrimental a tory government is for cities that have wholly different and unique challenges to face. With increased populations, issues such as immigration, transportation, housing and environmental impact due to increased consumption are demanding attention and are pressing on municipal/provincial/federal governments to stand up for cities. We now have a government that thinks nothing of any city not named Calgary, but in small part the cities prevented a majority.

2. The NDP made gains. These gains, if the Liberals can gain back support over the next few years (here's a hint, bring in TRUDEAU for leadership), they may well lose those gains quickly. The NDP's, like the cons, encroached into liberal territory and are now, for the time being at least, acting as a legitimate buffer and viable third option. The best story of the night was an NDP candidate getting elected in Edmonton, beating out tory incumbent Rahim Jaffer. Nevermind that Jaffer is a sellout to his people, the NDP did what the liberals haven't been able to do, namely win a seat in Alberta. In fact the NDP made great strides through the prairies and west and it is now Jack's job to make sure that the seeds thus far planted, are watered and grown.

3. Thank God for the non-Canadians, they helped stop a Tory majority. We can thank the peoples of Quebec and Newfoundland for this. Both these provinces have historically been wary of Ottawa and it showed last night. The other night, at the in-laws we were relayed a story about Newfoundlanders. Em's aunt told us she once taught a girl from Newfoundland ho had a thick newfie accent. This girl would get teased quite a bit and, Em's aunt took her aside one day to reassure her that the students were jesting. The young girl replied back, that's ok, when I tell my parents what the kids say at school, we just have a good laugh at the Canadians." Speaks volumes on how these provinces view our confederation. Isn't it ironic that perhaps we Canada was just saved by people's who are half-heartedly Canadian?

4. This was Our Dear Leader's chance. he had a majority in the grasp of his claws and let it slip. The most astute observation of this election happened last night on CBC by a comedian. He said (i'm paraphrasing) that Our Dear Leader found himself in the spotlight during economic turmoil. Our Dear Leader is an economist and flirting with a majority, this was his big moment to make a tory majority, to distinguish himself as an economist amidst a storm. In all, he failed. He gained seats, made progress in Ontario, but in the end failed. he lost Quebec (the key to his wished for majority) by making controversial arts cuts which struck at the core of Québecois culture and mistrust of Ottawa censorship. Popular support for the Tories stayed relatively even, meaning that Canadians by and large do not trust Our Dear Leader with the keys to a majority. They showed last night a desire to weather the storm but not give the ruling party a carte blanche. This must dismay Our Dear Leader. The public showed it does not have full confidence in an economist during a possible economic crisis.

So now Our Dear Leader has taken Dion's idea of having a ministers meeting on the economy and has drafted a six step plan (Dion had a five step plan and during the debates and Our Dear Leader blasted Dion for panicking when he offered this plan and meeting). He was handed ideas by all parties on how to gain popular support during the second term and manage an economic crisis. Quite Savvy. This while campaign has been an exercise in obdurate and recalcitrant behaviour from Our Dear Leader. The best thing is we are less than 18 months away from the Olympics in our country and you can bet dollars to tarsands that Our Dear Leader will want to be the leader during that showcase of the West. So there will be no more elections for 18 months (the usual standard for a minority government) unless popular support crashes and the Liberals can mount a strong challenge. For better and most likely worse, we are stuck. Expect new hard drug laws and copyright bills to pass soon, expect the downtown eastside in Vancouver to lose their methadone and addictions support centres very soon and expect a jolly if not false face to be put upon our dear dear country as we approach 2010. The True North Strongly Shackled indeed.

I leave you now with the wisdom of Pete Townshend, a man much wiser than myself.

Come meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

peace,love,FREEDOM,JUSTICE

-s

"This has been a non paid political message from the Free City. Never more Free than it is today."

The Real Opening Night

Get out the chalk

Mark the streets from Bloor, east and west

Mark the streets from Yonge, north and south

Mark the beginning of a long awaited parade

Cover every inch of this teeming metropolis

Fly your flags, sound your horns, chant the old refrain

Wear your hats, your toques

Wear the jersey proud, defiant, loyal

Crack the champagne, sip from the cup of victory had and

victory to come

Show those ink hands how wonderful hope is

Show them all how hope rebels, how hope can be the margin of victory

Show them, you young men of our brigade how our hope is in their youth

Show them why it still matters for this city, this city of cities, of nations and men

Show us young man, just enlisted, now deploying, what it is to be a hero as a child

Speak soft for the moment, guard your exuberance, play like a storm that has fooled the earth

Take this place, this time, this town by its flaming devilled horns

Arrest its motion

Shine bright, shine long, shine forever, shine among these bright city lights, over these Babylon towers

This city, this city, is all yours, all for you to take,

Be princes be kings,

Become Gods,

Among these hallowed streets of people and places, you can

legend,

you can become ghosts and walk among the saints of our nation,

blue and white

Help us believe once more

We do nothing better, we want nothing more

Nice game last night, well played defensively for the most part. I'm hesitant to not give the leafs their due, but I wonder if the wings didn't take the leafs lightly, and perhaps not play to their potential while the leafs perhaps exceeded their. That being said, the leafs played really well, really hard. The threw the body, fought for pucks and position and played a solid solid defensive game. It was fun to watch. Toskala once again looked solid.

Ten minutes before Don Cherry tore into the Leafs Management, I was thinking the same thing he was about to say. In fact, in my head, I was thinking I hope Don goes off on MLSE and then BAM! it happens. Spot on Don. Ron Wilson is a good coach but the decision by management to team up drive a steamroller over its players is cringe worthy. Shameful. Like Don, I feel sorry for the young men who have to hear that replayed over and over in this city, that they suck and aren't worthy of playing junior.

On the other hand,this could be the sly-est manoeuvre they could make. Tell the kids they are going to talk ill of them in the media but let them play beyond expectations with everything to gain. Reverse media psychology might be the best thing to happen to this team.

Those cuff links Don was wearing...i want them. Sooooo nice.

Jim Hughson is still the best play-by-play we have in this country for any sport. The colour guy from last night was pretty awful, but Jim Hughson can take a gam on his shoulders with sock puppets doing the colour.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about our dear Bob Cole is that he has become so senile that he refers to players other than Leaf players by their numbers often because many players these days have names he can't pronounce. I think that for this Leaf season, he might just have to start referring to Leaf players by their numbers...names like Grabovski, Kulemin and Finger are sure to trip him up. Hilarity will ensue. Can't wait for Saturday night.

You know during the yankee VP debates everyone was waiting for Palin to lay an egg along the lines of saying "darn right immigrants need to be shot, it will provide American jobs, and Joe Pubilc, Russia is invading my backyard" before Joe biden mauled her and beat her over the head with a mike? Similar to last night's Leaf game. Everyone was waiting for the leafs to roll over or collapse, make some serious gaffe and for the Wings to exploit them without mercy. Funny thing is, like the Palin debates, the Leafs surprised, held their own and the other team was as flaccid as a nursing home.

Wait did i just compare a republican vice presidential candidate debate to the Leafs?

Did I just compare American politics to the Leafs? You now have permission to fire hockey pucks at my head. Someone save me.

This is such a great time of year in this city. We are buzzing with Leaf talk. The chatterbugs are out in full force on the radio. The air is crisp, the trees look pretty. Autumn has finally taken hold of this wonderful city and Hockey Night In Canada is one day away. Basketball season is less than three weeks away and the NFL is in full swing. A beautiful time if there ever was.

Oh, and the con/harper attack on Dion is just puerile, childish and speaks volumes on how the conservatives view anyone who cannot speak english as if it were their mother tongue. I am flabbergasted by how low some people can sink. Does our leader need to be able to speak English? Yes, there isn't a doubt about that. Is Dion's English perfect? No, that is obvious, it is not his primary language. He has done well enough so far in English, and if elected Prime Minister, his English will get better, he will be forced to learn the language better and probably get tutoring. He didn't understand the grammatical complexities of a question. This was bound to happen to someone who is primarily a French speaker or even a speaker of another language as primary when confronted with an inquiry in secondary language. Harper himself didn't know the french word for "trillion," (it's actually billion). If Harper had to conduct the greater part of his interviews in French it is logical to conclude that at some point he would make a grammatical error and/or grammatically misunderstood. However it stands to the character of others (except maybe Duceppe) that they would not stoop to petty parlour tricks a defame a man's character based on linguistic quirks and misunderstandings. They would show class, something the cons sorely lack, something i believe they long ago pissed away. That stunt by the cons was deplorable and shame on them.

peacelovefreedomjustice

-s

"this has been a moment of delirium from the Free City."

The Happenings

Looks like the cons are coming back down to earth...4 points up on the libs with one week to go...by calling the election, did harper just end up pulling a joe clark?

Still undecided if i'm voting, but if i do, it goes to the NDP...unless i were in québec, then i would be a fierce bloc supporter...

i noticed during the yankee debates last night that both mccain and obama are left-handed...this goes to show, that with the devil hand you too can rule the world.

leaf season starts tomorrow...very excited to either see a team growing and winning 25-35 games or as I will venture, a team with expectations so low they have everything to gain and will finish about 5-8 in the eastern conference...mark my delusional words, the leafs will make the playoffs.

The eagles are really pissing me off and it is about time donovan just shut up and play ball. Him opening his mouth, no matter how well intentioned is just not working...also as i keep lamenting, the eagles secondary plain sucks in pass coverage...

shouldn't those ceo's of the bailout companies, who for years lavished themselves with perks and obnoxious salaries be forced to pay that back? the merril Lynch ceo game himself 25 million AS A BONUS last year! The Lehman brothers ceo has amassed a salary/bonus fortune over 400 million! So then what is the plan? have the taxpayer subsidize the rich while they get poorer by the day...oh America, you are such a beacon to the world, a fine example of a shining light in dark times.

I don't think the celtics are going to repeat as atlantic division champs and being the homer that I am, I say the Raps take it within a margin of 4 games. IF JERMAINE STAYS HEALTHY! otherwise, raps finish 6th.

i often feel i am on a different planet then most people. This was most evident after the english federal debates where most respondents to a poll said they believed harper had won. Regardless of my own political affiliation, i wonder how this was remotely possible. He was hammered, and while he was his usual calm, cool, collected self (read arrogant, self-serving, autocratic) he couldn't defend his positions logically. Staying the course? that so far has turned out well for the yanks in terms of economic and military hasn't it??? For someone who is an economist, he really is putting his designation to shame. I guess we wait for the "undecideds" to decide the election on tuesday coming.

this is all i can think of right now...sllllllllllllllllllllow day and i'm getting sleepy.

peacelovefreedomjustice

-s

"this has been a collection of random thoughts from the Free City."

Amerida

Saw the french debates last night. Hate the new format of having the leaders sit at a round table instead of at a podium. Looks too comfortable and amiable and this is federal debate for the highest elected office in the country. You need to be standing to deliver a message, not sitting around like it's a coffee break.

I gained some respect for Dion last night. That isn't saying much since I had about zero to -10 respect for him before. He was feisty when he needed to be and showed some anger at points. In fact all leaders did except for stephen who was calm and cool as per his usual elitist self. Now Dion didn't do anything extraordinary, he did however show some fire in his responses and retorts. About damn time. There were moments when he stuttered in French and this won't help him in the Anglo debates tonight. He already comes off in the press as being flighty and scared and stumbles and stutters, no matter how passionate and sensible the ideas always plays like someone scared and a fool with no ground to stand on.

Stephen never looked at the camera. He just kept looking down at the table or at his lap, never really bothering to look at the camera which in effect represents the eyes of the Canadian public. As always there was an arrogance in his manner that is startling and his responses were so completely blasé. He knows he is going to win and he is approaching this whole election charade as so. From where he stands, good for him...bad for us but good for him. This is his election to lose and so far he has done enough to win and need not be concerned about anything until someone goes for his political throat and calls him out properly and soundly.

If you however want to know how stephen is trying his level best to americanize this country, you need look no further than his left suit coat lapel. On it was a nice Canadian flag pin. Eerily reminiscent of those american flag pins that have showed up after september 11th 2001. Remember how obama was roundly chastised by the american press and punditry for not wearing a flag pin and was eventually forced to wear one to confirm his loyalty and patriotism to the united states? So stephen is playing the same symbol card. He wears a flag on his person, therefore he is the most patriotic and best suited to lead the country.

My dear friends, it is one thing to wear a ornamental flag pin on your clothing. It is quite another to carry that flag in your heart. stephen, i fear has never had the honour or privilege of experiencing the latter.

peacelovefreedomjustice

-s

"This has been a non-paid political observation from within the Free City."

Tuesday

wa Aleykum As-Salaam Waljee 1 & 2.

I highly suspect you don't, but is there any precipitation in Kuwait? I know it is a desert, but is there ever any rain? After two years would you miss rain? Even a small shower? Would you remember well enough what a thunderstorm sounds like? I don't think I could personally live without rain, it possesses me far too deeply.

It is raining this morning in Toronto. Wet, gray, rainy day, slick city streets, the pitterpatter of raindrops humming against windows and earth. The sky is dark, it is the last day of september and after an especially wet summer, it looks to be a wet fall. The leaves have already started to turn, the DVP should soon look like an orchestra of seasonal colour and the city and its trees will soon enjoy the last gasps of 2008.

Would you miss autumn? You may never miss the cold, but will you miss the snow? Will you miss how the seasons shift both the earth and the mind? How thoughts in the winter reach corners inside you that no other season has license to explore?

How about hockey? How different will it be to hear the Leafs and step out into sunshine rather than a cool, sometimes bitter cold night with only the moon to guide your eyes?

Is wishing for a summer reprieve the if it is summer all the time? Is sunshine better understood, warmth better felt if you have felt the freeze in your bones and the loneliness of a winter night?

i wonder all the time

peacelovefreedomjustice

-s

"This has been an inquiry from within the Free City."