Phoque! Our culture is under attack

Hat tip: Calgary Grit

Strategic Voting

See the Hack for an ongoing discussion on Strategic Voting and Proportional Representation. Exciting stuff.

Stuart McLean for PM

An excellent comment by Stuart McLean last week:

“The strangers our schools teach children to avoid are more apt to help than harm them. Here in Canada various politicians and police forces serving their own self interests have warned us about rising crimes rates when the reverse is true .. but we buy into the fear and hover around our children like secret service agents shielding them from dangers that don’t exist … and instead of sending them next door to call on someone, we arrange play dates as if we were social secretaries rather than moms and dads.

“We have bought this danger story, hook line and sinker, and in so doing we have robbed our children of childhood. I fell for it too. Which is probably why I feel so strongly about this. It is worth pointing out that it is not just the media who should be held to accounts. Political leaders have been equally adept at this game. It has served more than one leader to paint the world as a dangerous place . To point to the enemies hovering around us.
Any person who has traveled widely would tell you otherwise. Would tell you this world is full of men and women just like you -men and women who are anxious to look after themselves and provide for their families and muddle through to the end as best they can.”

And even better: “any political leader who tries to tell you it is time to circle the wagons is trying to sell you a bill of goods.”

Podcast available here.

An Inquiry is Needed

Bad move by Doer. This deal needs to be publicly examined. It may be that nothing irregular occured in the course of the dealings of Riverside Management – and Don Street would welcome such a finding. However, there is enough evidence to lead one to suspecting wrong-doing. Let’s clear the air on this matter and establish facts publicly.

Crazy Politics

In the US, we have McCain “suspending” his campaign due to a financial crisis. I wonder what Abe Lincoln would have thought about this level of poise. Lincoln, of course, insisted that the Federal Election proceed while the US Civil War was ongoing. Yet, a single senator must absent himself for a public debate due to a financial crisis – and insists on disrupting the discussion in Washington. And, he wants to control a nuclear arsenol? Letterman should keep going after him for this stunt.

But while McCain displays poor judgement, we in Canada have him beat!

A Winnipeg Liberal candidate has to resign for posting that 9-11 was some grand conspiracy. The CIA was in on it! And the Jews! Good move by Dion getting rid of her. I’ll only say this – if there is a good case for a conspiracy theory, I have not seen it. Perhaps, just maybe, the US was attacked in response to its foreign policies by those who opposed its actions. Just a wild guess.

Then, we have the Conservatives defending the most racist comments I’ve ever heard in Canadian federal politics – that

“Particularly in big cities, we’ve got people that have grown up in a different culture, [...] And they don’t have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities … and don’t have the same respect for authority or people’s person or property.”

Conservative Lee Richardson added: “Talk to the police. Look at who’s committing these crimes. They’re not the kid that grew up next door.“

They even claim that he is being misunderstood! What else could that quote in bold mean except that criminals don’t look this us white folks. Nuts. Explain to me how to interpret that quote so that it makes sense and contributes to a constructive dialogue on reducing crime.

This is on top of numerous other candidates being kicked out for such things as exposing themselves to 15-year-old girls, musing about killing natives, smoking pot while driving, and the blogging Tory who said that “What bothers me about these perpetually aggrieved people (aboriginals) is their obsession with wanting to stay victims so they can tell other people to fix their problems.” Perhaps he can explain at what point in history aboriginals ceased to be victimized by past and current policies and attitudes? Since he claims their desire for victimhood is perpetual, I invite him to examine the entire history of relations between Europeans and aboriginals and to find the moment at which equity was acheived.

How has Canada survived inspite our nutso politicians? How many more are out there?

Quick quiz: Which current member of parliament called Nelson Mandela a terrorist and then refused to take Mandella’s phone call? Is he going to be in a majority government?

Cycling Bridge Announced

The Plan Supports Two Older Neighborhoods

I’m excited to see the new cycling/pedestrian bridge unveiled today! This could significantly improve the Active Transportation network in Winnipeg and connects two older neighbourhoods in the heart of the city, in the heart of the continent.

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Pending the details, of course, I give this two thumbs up!

Sober 2nd Choices

The Ekos poll from September 19th is interesting because it tracks second choices. What strikes me is how tight the race is if you add the first and second choices.

Party	First Choice	Second Choice	Total
CPC	36%	10%	46%
LPC	25%	17%	42%
NDP	18%	19%	37%
Green	13%	15%	28%
Bloq	8%	4%	12%

What this table shows is that if the Conservatives have an amazing campaign from here on out, they can increase their vote total by about a quarter to a third. On the other hand, the NDP and Greens could both double their totals with a solid campaign, the Liberals could add two thirds, the BQ 50%. So, it seems like its the Conservatives’ Election to loose.

Will one of the parties finally step up and deliver a message that is going to move the polls?

Green Train Leaving Vancouver

European Model Shown

The Green Party Whistle Stop Tour is leaving Vancouver today to cross the country by train – making Elizabeth May the first party leader to do so since Dief the Chief.

 

The train will be here in Winnipeg on Tuesday, stopping from 11:20am to 12:25pm. Elizabeth May will make a speech and appear with all the Green Candidates from Winnipeg.

But, a word of caution. VIA is an accronym. It stands for Very Inaccurate Arrivals. We’ll just hope that it will work out, but if it doesn’t then this highlights the poor qulaity of our rail network in Canada. We’re miles behind Germany, Japan, France, and even China when it comes to high-speed, reliable rail networks. As they develop their high-speed systems continues, why are we not planning similar systems, particularly in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor?

Homerun for Frog

Something seems fishy about Goldeyes’ parking lot deal, I’d say.

First Canvassing! Results amazing

Four of us – including candidate Chris Hrynkow, and our new Youth Outreach Coordinator – went out and knocked on doors for two hours near Leighton and Henderson. The results were amazing. We’ve got 6 sign requests from the night, a couple of donations, and loads of interest in a new kind of politics based on ideas.

The results suggest that if we can just talk to everyone in the riding, we could have a major impact. I’m looking forward to more!