Rockin' In The Free World
Imagine you lived in California, and voted 62%-38% in favor of Obama, and even though he won... as a result of some split amongst your elected officials in the Electoral College, you ended up with a government run by... Dick Cheney.
How would you feel?
About the same as 33 million Canadians felt after their October 14th election, where the Conservatives (and their deeply distrusted - detested-by-moi - leader, Stephen Harper) won power - but with just 38% support at the polls.
But then, hope lost, how would you feel if your elected officials (spread across 3 parties) pulled their heads out of their armpits, and decided to form a Coalition. Which meant, out of the blue, you got the opportunity to bring in what was, officially, the most progressive & most widely-inclusive government in your history?
Yup. That's how a lot of Canadians are feeling today. 'Cause it just happened, up North.
YEAH, BABY!
The Conservatives ran as the party of moderation, lots of "concern for people during tough times," non-ideological, willing to work with all parties... and their leader, the former Mr Nasty, showing up in ads wearing comfortable sweaters.
But, first chance they got - and only with a Minority of 143 seats in a 308 seat Parliament - announced a seriously nasty set of political reversals. First, he abandoned all pretense of the need for fiscal stimulus, and in fact, brought in major budget cuts. Even though he'd just lined up with the G20 on the other side. Then, he announced he was eliminating public funding of political parties, whereby every party gets $1.95 per vote received (Harper's means to bring back in full private funding.) And for good - vengeful - measure, announced he was banning the right to strike for public service unions for the next 3 years.
But in the last 72 hours, oh joy, oh bliss, the 3 opposition parties have found some backbone. Even in the face of internal leadership races, they've dropped their differences, and formed a governing coalition. The first government ever to bring the social democrats of the New Democratic Party into Federal Cabinet, and the first coalition between any two parties since WW I.
The Liberals & the NDP have signed an Accord to cooperate for the next 2 & 1/2 years, and gotten the separatist Bloc Quebecois to support it for the next 18 months. And even though the Conservative bullies are now panicked & abandoned their nastier stances (already dropping the party funding & strike ban pledges), the Center-Left Coalition appears to have found their gumption.
A Liberal (Dion) will be interim PM until May (when their leadership convention will select either Rae or Ignatieff); the NDP will get 6 seats of 24 in Cabinet; and the Bloc will support the Coalition on votes, but take no Ministerial seats. Giving them a 163-143 voting majority.
And the Accord? To give you a flavor, here's the first sentence of the Preamble to the Accord on a Cooperative Government to Address the Present Economic Crisis: "The new Government is supported by parties that share a commitment to fiscal responsibility and a progressive agenda...."
Gotta say, I am lovin' having "progressive" spelled right out, and an officially Left party actually at the table with the Centrist Liberals. The leaders coming into Cabinet from both parties, while far from perfect, at least have some intelligence, and some real progressive commitments. Dion studied in France & led the way on Kyoto; Layton also taught university & was a progressive, and very green, Toronto City Councillor; Rae took a Rhodes to Oxford & was then the NDP Premier of Ontario; (bloody) Ignatieff (cough cough) went to Harvard & Cambridge (and was/is a tosser); Duceppe of the Bloc was a trade unionist; and other Ministers likely to come from groups as varied as the steelworkers through NHL players like Ken Dryden of the Habs.
Policy-wise they've put forward their initial proposals, including running a fiscal stimulus; expanding infrastructure investment in public transit, clean energy and water; a major expansion of child care & early childhood education; boosting employment insurance; reforming bankruptcy; adding income support for older workers who lose their jobs; support for a cap & trade system within the Kyoto framework; cancellation of the cuts to the Arts budget; more affordable housing & home retrofits; Universal Health Care is now safer; the commitment to Kyoto will get a bigt boost; and protections & budget items for immigrants, gays & Aboriginals will all increase.
For Obama, this would mean a fierce supporter of helping the Big 3 and the Autoworkers, along with a major impetus to push them toward a green retooling; stronger support at the G20 and other international agreements; a continental partner to move with on Climate Change; a partner who agrees on getting out of Iraq, but who has a significant troop presence in Afghanistan & wants some a constructive solution; a neighbor who won't be working the backrooms with the GOP to undermine him; and which will hopefully continue to offer an example of how universal health care can work, while also testing other reforms.
Is it a done deal yet? No. First, Parliament has to have a non-confidence vote (which Harper will try & avoid), and then the 3 parties have to vote down the Conservatives. And then, the Head of State - Governor General Michaelle Jean - will have to ask the opposition coalition to form a working government. Jean, by the way, is a female Haitian immigrant, who speaks 6 languages, and is an award-winning reporter, filmmaker and broadcaster.
And yes, the spine could still fail. The Conservatives still pull their fat from the fire. But right now, tonight, is for celebration.
And now... it's over to Neil. On behalf of those of us who walk amongst you, invisible except for our hoods, our walking sticks, and... our periodic shows of spine.
Neil. Bring it.
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We're drama-deprived down here, so we'll enjoy watching the Molotov cocktails explode, or at least, listen to rousing speeches. Looks like things are getting interesting.
December 1, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
YOU guys are drama-deprived?? LOL. My God, you all just had an election for the ages, the economy's face-planting on broken glass, Hillary & Barack doin' the dance, Walmart carnage... while Canadians have had... ummm... yeah.
Granted, the Ice Weasels are pretty excited lately, and the NHL season's started. But come down to it, nothing like an unprecedented political crisis to get the blood pumping. Rallies, and rage, constitutional crises and craziness....
Why, it's almost.... American. ;-)
December 1, 2008 10:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm hoping things stay boring here, until Bush et al vacate most thoroughly. No-drama Obama in charge, smooth sailing for a little while, please.
December 2, 2008 8:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I just want to see the PM face-checked into plexiglass.
December 1, 2008 9:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd be happy to oblige.
Harper never did a day's work in his life... just went out to Alberta & threw in his lot with the oil-men up from Texas... ran a Think Tank that advocated building a "fire-wall" around oil-rich Alberta... his best friends & advisors drawn from the GOP... a man utterly without a human touch, the most famous scene being him formally shaking hands with his kids as they went off for their first day of school... a complete political bully, Cheney North, sneering at things like universal health care, climate change, the unemployed... ack.
So to see him go down... knowing that otherwise he's in control during a time of real crisis? And that we at least get some people with some heart? I have no idea if they can pull off the right Parliamentary maneuvers to take him out, but I'm praying.
And if not, we have to catch him on the ice......
December 1, 2008 9:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Expecting to fly, were you? They can't keep fuckin' up.
December 1, 2008 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
And as long as we're on refugees from Canuckland, here's another tossed in for free.
December 1, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Always loved Buffalo Springfield, used to tee up Bluebird to fall asleep to. Every time I saw the clip where they suck in the audience with "For What It's Worth," then Neil turns on them, bad temper showing through, and kicks into "Mr Soul," it always made me laugh. Plus, he's in my favourite jacket.
And ahhhh.... Joni. One of the lovely things about living here is that my house looks down across a little park, and then... onto the river. Saw a big deer running along its edge yesterday. It's already -20 C here, and the ice is thickening fast. Which means soon there'll be... skating on the river. It's the most amazing thing, Des. To be skating through the heart of a city of 700,000, but because it's a prairie river, it's cut down about 50', low enough that when you skate, you often feel as though you're alone, out in the country.
You strap on the skates, the iPod, fly through another world, and inside half an hour, pull over, take off your skates, and walk into the Legislature or the Office Towers downtown. And on weekends, thousands of people, old Mennonites in their 19th Century-style dresses, kids playing shinny, couples, old people. Even when it's -30 or -40.
Which can only go one place musically, Joni's River.
From Blue. Can't do better than that.
December 2, 2008 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
No you can't do better than Joni. I once won the heart of a young lovely as we sat at the bar near closing time and I started crooning Free Man in Paris in response to her wistful recollection of a vacation in France. I had no idea she was a huge Joni Mitchell fan. Both Sides Now, Joni's lushly orchestrated jazz album became the CD we played during our trysts at that little motel on the edge of town. And now whenever I hear River it reminds me of dear sweet Terry and the winter we broke up.
Its coming on christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
December 2, 2008 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm afraid that, being a child of the 70's, there's a whole stretch of my early romantic life less likely to be focussed on Joni, than on Joni covers. This still Makes Me Grin.
But that little girl, climbing over polio, out here on the Prairies (in both cases, just like Neil) my God, she still blows me away. I could listen to "Carey" every day & be happy. But just because she looks so beautiful in this one, Chelsea Morning.
And I'll wave to Terry for you, if I see her skate by someday....
December 2, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
quinn, first off, love your work
Second, I'm watching this all here in Canada (as an American Expat) and couldn't be more excited (well, save when Obama won on Nov 4th) But the stooges on CBC are rambling on about how all this is some sort of undignified partisan gong show. How they can even try to say such things shows that the Canadian MSM (whom previously I'd respected)is no better than the America MSM.
This may well be the second high moment for Democracy in the last month, the formation of a true government of the people in Canada.
-An American for the NDP
December 1, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Howdy, HolyHandGrenaid. (From Antioch, I presume?)
Just watched it myself. Nearly peed myself laughing as the CBC kept trying that "undignified" line. Canadians have gift-wrapped a lot of bad-smelling stuff to avoid "undignified" scenes. Like former-PM Mulroney being caught keeping large quantities of cash in a safe, and destroying all the receipts. Cash which happened to come from a convicted German bagman for Airbus. But it'd be "undignified" to stick Mulroney in the slammer. On & on, the actual moral heart of the country rotting out, but no one wanting to blow the whistle. Then PM Harper himself admitting to offering money to the key swing vote in Parliament, the guy terminally ill & wanting to take care of his family. Cash for votes. And Harper threatening to sue when it was raised INSIDE Parliament.
If nothing else, the grand drama now unfolding has the potential to permanently blow some of the carbon out of the tubes. The party system will never be the same after this... Nor will a lot of the false pretense around procedure & dignity.... And with luck it'll also kick Canadians out of their passivity, before it's too late.
December 1, 2008 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
A coalition.. What a novel concept as we here south of the 49th parallel end our great darkness at the hands of the Atwrovebush monster. Encouraging news. If it weren't for you and the BBC, we wouldn't get much world news analysis short of major catastrophes, (Mumbai, etc.). Gratuitous Canadien musik link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ism9itDvKTk&feature=related
December 1, 2008 11:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gotta love those boys, Robbie & Levon and now... missing Richard Manuel and Rick Danko.
Ahhhh well. Here's some slightly lesser-known CanCon. John Kay & Steppenwolf.
December 1, 2008 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah Quinn, I knew you'd beat me to taking up Josh's front-page challenge (in-joke for Canadian boomers).
There's so much that can still go wrong with the coalition scenario, but I too am hopeful.
With poetic justice, the very decent Stephane Dion gets to be prime minister for half a year, the hubristic Stephen Harper gets turfed, humiliated, and -- if I know my Tory backroom politics -- knifed several times in uncomfortable places as he's ushered out the door.
What's amazing is the unanimity among pundits, from left to right (including many at the conservative National Post), that Harper alone brought this disaster on himself and his party.
Sixty-two per cent of voters express a preference for some other party, and Harper's very first move (never hinted during the election campaign!)is to try to scrap their public funding.
The amount involved -- less than $30 million -- is so paltry there was no way it could be passed off as a belt-tightening move.
No, at a time when Obama is reaching out to rivals and across the partisan aisle, our vindictive prime minister's first instinct was to use the excuse of economic hard times to crush his opponents.
What this nasty man failed to realize is that he is barely tolerated, even by the minority of Canadians who voted for his party. I for one will be glad to see the back of him.
But the would-be coalition still has to show spinal fortitude. No defectors on the vote of no-confidence.
Governor-General Michaelle Jean needs to be reading up on her constitutional history, googling the King-Byng affair, etc.
But with a signed agreement in hand that should keep a coalition operating for 1.5 to 2.5 years, I can't see her opting to do anything else but offer Dion the chance to form a government.
Now that's regime change we can believe in.
December 1, 2008 11:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
And in the Can-Am musical spirit this post has inspired, here's the great border-jumping Jesse Winchester, who'll be performing in Vermont this week.
I'll be there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcUBMh4Q3oA&feature=related
December 2, 2008 12:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope people read your note, acanuck, it's worth a post in itself. Thanks for that.
And no, I didn't know Jesse had lived here for 30 years. Just looked it up. In order to further the long string of cross-border bands - The Band, CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, Mama's & Papa's, Steppenwolf, Lovin' Spoonful, et al, here's a more recent contribution. One I never saw coming. Texas meets Quebec.
December 2, 2008 12:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
So much Can-Am music, so little time.
A few weeks back, I heard Canadian-born Ray Bonneville, who describes himself as a North American, perform here in Montreal.
Here's his fine paean to his adopted home, New Orleans. From his new album, Goin' by Feel:
http://www.wikio.com/video/437225
December 2, 2008 2:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
A lot of Canadians have a thing for New Orleans, eh? Besides all the Acadians/Cajuns. Like Robbie Robertson & co., the Tragically Hip, and Daniel Lanois. Most of the greats Lanois has produced he's dragged through his place in New Orleans - Dylan, U2, Gabriel, Emmylou, Robbie, the Nevilles obviously, etc.
Danny & Bob's Man In The Long Black Coat.
December 2, 2008 2:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
No Heart? Probs with big hair?
December 2, 2008 4:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh there you are...
December 2, 2008 4:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Little pigs, little pigs, come out wherever you are...
December 2, 2008 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
And Bruce Berry's not the only one with an Econoline - I was out doing ice donuts and picking up a squaling critter or two on my front grill at the same time. Simply LUV winter sports.
December 2, 2008 8:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heart's fine with me, though Barracuda's kinda brand-damaged after Sarah. Wiki'ed the Wilson girls a while back. Seems Nancy married Cameron Crowe back in 1986 (which I knew), but had twins in 2000, age 46.
But since it was '77, High School and all, I'm gonna play it anyway. Nancy making some damn fine big crunchy guitar sounds.
December 2, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't forget Aaron and sibs uncle George and his pals... http://www.imeem.com/rnbmusic3/music/vtNpReGV/the_wild_tchoupitoulas_brother_john/
Des must be asleep. This is his turf, No?
December 2, 2008 4:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Michaelle Jean is a babe! Go Leafs!
Schadenfreude never felt so good...
December 2, 2008 12:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta agree. And part of me WANTS this thing to not be instantly, painlessly, resolved, but rather to become a public battle - so that people will stand up & say what they think, what they want. It's important that it not JUST be done by the politicians. Deep down, Harper's own personality embodies some stuff that most Canadians reject, and need to - after all these years - publicly reject. A certain smugness and, as acanuck says (above), a vindictiveness. And to explicitly replace that with the "very decent" Dion, allied to fervent Jack Layton... well, that'd do this country a world of good.
As for Michaelle, she's in a doubly interesting place. Walking straight into a full-blown Constitutional Crisis, with the decision likely dropping on the desk of this woman, a Haitian refugee, who's spent a decade starting & growing battered women's shelters, and her, based in Quebec. You could NOT find a more perfect poster-child for the multi-cultural approach that Michaelle Jean.
And now.. how will she rule? It'd be a bit like a Michelle Obama figure being the sole Supreme Court judge, and having to decide an election involving a GOP stooge vs the man who most straightforwardly did separatism in, but who was now himself allied to... those same separatists. And all in the context of a financial crisis, an energy crisis, Obama winning & a provincial election going on, right now, in Quebec.
Canadian Constitutional history tends to be pretty boring, but you gotta admit... that's a great moment. And yeah, like you say, she's absolutely gorgeous.
I'll shut up now, but GOOOOOO LEAFS! GOOOOO COALITION!
Oh yeah. From another one of those Forgettable Albums. ;-)
December 2, 2008 12:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
My only disappointment is that it looks like Dion caved on the carbon tax scheme.
Have a Tim Hortons' for me as a gesture for the new government!
December 2, 2008 1:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry Hugh. They've "officially" dropped it, but the document I saw today was chock full of green infrastructure, energy efficiency retrofits, you name it. So if they get in, well... Dion is passionate about climate change, to the point of naming his dog Kyoto.... And Layton, well, Jack worked as a Green Business Consultant for a decade. Those two are on a first-name friendship basis with damn near every green in the country. Even Duceppe, being from Quebec, absolutely has to pay attention to it.
So maybe not first budget. But if they get a 2-3 year run... you'll see the Green Shift, or something damn close.
December 2, 2008 1:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
So what's the timing on this thing? I know the Greens and Libs were upset when Harper appointed Michael Martin as the chief climate change negotiator.
Could someone new be in place by the end of the UN talks next week in Poznan?
December 2, 2008 1:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
It goes one of two ways, most likely. Either the vote happens on the 8th & we get a quick change in negotiators...
Or Harper prorogues, and tries to escape til the new year. Dangerous ground though, smells undemocratic, to shut down Parliament to save yer ass. Even the Conservative commentators on TV tonight were advising against that.
So... possible new blood from the 8th on, or in Jan/Feb.
December 2, 2008 2:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Michaelle Jean is not the head of state of Canada. She is the representative of the head of state in Canada. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II.
December 2, 2008 1:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, yer correct.
Interesting... it'd get even more fun if QE2'd come on over to sort this one out. But I don't think Liz'd really wanna force a choice between Michaelle & herself. 20 uears ago, I know which way the country'd go. Today..... not so sure. ;-)
December 2, 2008 2:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Technically true, but Jean is the "de-facto" head of state.
She'll make the call on who the next prime minister is without phoning the queen for advice.
And the queen has no say in who becomes her "representative" in Canada. The Canadian PM nominates someone and she rubber-stamps the choice.
Canada is virtually a republic with just the thinnest veneer of monarchy retained so as not to offend traditionalists.
The public is rather evenly split on the idea of formally abolishing the monarchy. And since it makes so little practical difference, no political party ever makes it an issue.
December 2, 2008 3:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
.
This is great news for the left . . .
Hey Quinn...
Ya' know, up to the age of nine my first dog was named Chew Fu ... A Chow he was ... A very, very close acquaintance I've know since birth wrote about him once, a'way back in the mid-sixties.
Oh and being a sailor's son of a sailor's son this has always haunted the hell of me on dark stormy nights on the sea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jxX2aZtVXQ
Things are getting real, real interesting on the continent of North America.
Thanks for the news . . .
~OGD~
*Sometimes quacking happily in the Café since June 2005*
December 2, 2008 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ok.... you got me intrigued. Because you DO know my favourite song of this past year is from a guy from Brooklyn.
Name of Chew Fu Phat.
Does amazing mash-up's. You gotta have serious gumption to take on the Stones & mash 'em up with Aretha, and come up something that... Well, listen fer yerself. It's knocking me on my ass still. Chew Fu Phat's Pride.
Give that thing a few spins, if you haven't heard it already. That'll wake you up in the morning, I can tell you.
Happy Quackings, OGD. and lemme know if it plays the full song for ya. There's a whole playlist there, for if'n ya get bored with my posts..... ;-)
December 2, 2008 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
.
Oh oh ... here floods the memories . . .
Quinn ...
About Chew Fu? I check closely those that display a bio. And it wasn't this post here that we are in that piqued my interest of who this Quinn person is. It was a comment in a thread where you had mentioned something about having your Creedence taken away. It was awhile back. And related to Creedence? You may find this alter ego, Al Lee Gador quite interesting over in the general discussion threads at the John Fogerty message board. There are over 150 comments at that post alone. Al's been kind of a long time thorn in the sides of the Bush supporting enablers who are becoming fewer and far between there. Our son worked on the road with Fogerty for almost four years after the release of the Déjà vu All Over Again CD.
Music is not only my love but it IS my business. Forty plus years. When you had mentioned cross border bands above and included the Lovin' Spoonful it sent me into the warm memory mode. Great memories of the dearly departed Zally Yanovsky, the crazy one, taxi driver and past proud co-owner of the Chez Piggy in Kingston, Ontario. Even through the 'dropping-a-dime incident' Zal will always be loved in our home. Oh what a wild an' wooly crowd it was back in the sixties. Working as a roadie/tour manager with these folks was like trying to herd cats. Actually, it still is.
Our life long friend and current Spoonful member Jerry Yester who was added to the Spoonful in Zally's place co-produced and arranged Zally's solo-album, Alive and Well in Argentina. Jerry resides in Harrison Arkansas now, tours with the Spoonful, and visits here quite often and stays here at our home when getting prepared to tour with the ol' original Modern Folk Quartet (MFQ).
Enough of this wanderin' I have the lettuce in the garden to tend and run Loozy-Anna the big black Lab (I know. I know... she's not a Newfoundland).
Thanks for jogging my memory.
~OGD~
ps: Thanks for the link... That singed the ol' gray beard.
December 2, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know "Piggy's" well. Kingston town was my playpen for 4 years. (Not to be confused with Kingston's other "Pen's," of which they have 7!) Keep the tunes comin'. We're not dead yet.
December 2, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post, quinn... and great news, too!
Too long a story to get into here, but my wife and I had occasion to spend a full weekend in Chicago with Neil Young & Crazy Horse a few years back. Magical time, and a great concert. I subsequently had a chance to catch up with them in Indianapolis, Atlanta, and Boston.
"Hate was just a legend
War was never known
people worked together
and lifted many stones"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnc4-yqB520
Sounds like a good lead-in for the course laid before us - both here and in Canada, eh?
BTW... my wife still holds her Canadian citizenship - from St. Cate's, ON
Thanks for the post!
December 2, 2008 5:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah yeah yeah, tell me Quinn l'Esquimeau was all peaceful before the French Trappers arrived - he was busy organizing his team of ice weasels to make Hudson Bay look like Swiss cheese in winter. Here a walrus, there a walrus, goo goo ga joob. Manual for building French outposts required moats deeper than the height of the tallest ice weasel (had to be modified when Wilt the Stilt Weasel came along, changed the game completely, but by that time they were into it full bore (sorry the pun) with those pesky upstarts south of the St. Lawrence - the "fair weather friends" they called them. (though once they stole Florida from the Spanish though the pitch changed to "like dude, just *how* far is it to Ft. Lauderdale anyway, and can we stock up on real Canadian beer on the way?")
December 2, 2008 8:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ahhhh, Florida. The 11th Province.
The Ice Weasels seem to like it too. Spring Break especially. Their kinda town, their kinda time. "Slaughterhouse South," in the vernacular. They get to drink like otters, party avec the walri, and if they find themselves running a bit low, they know there's always a few Canadian retirees handy that they can tap to keep the body fat levels above the 18% functioning minimum.
And when they really get excited, they like to road trip it down. They like to drive them old French cars, the ones that look like insects, just to guarantee they get pulled over by those Georgia State Troopers. If they find one that's wearing reflector shades, at night, well... that REALLY gets 'em pumped.
Chitter chitter, they say. Chitter CHITTER, le chitter. Then a bit of Latin, raucous laughter, et voila.... there's a detached ex-Trooper's face sitting in your lap, and one of the boys has a new pair of shades.
Though the mimicry can geta bit stale after a coupla hundred miles. "Hey boy. C'mere. Lemme see that hair. I wanna lookit you, hippie boy."
Chitter chitter.
December 2, 2008 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
John Waters used to claim Baltimore is littered with people who tried to make the drive from New York to Florida and broke down busted in between. Perhaps there're a few Canucks and angry young Ice Weasels in the mix. Perhaps that would explain Divine, perhaps not. But anything that can bring Debbie Harry, Pattie Hearst and Traci Lords into their on-screen best (well, Traci may have other prime career candidates) is pure friggin' genius. Hmmm, maybe that does kill the Canuck theory, except that's kinda what happened to Neil, just on the wrong coast, and well, a hearse wouldn've fit in just fine on the banks of the Chesapeake, or the Patapsco to be precise. God Bless America (and broke-down Canucks and Ice Weasels, your huddled teeming masses with discarded lumps of razor-stripped bone and sinew and suet strewn across the littered yards of blackened abandoned tenement houses). God Bless Baltimore.
Sorry, where were we?
December 2, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Hey. Hippie boy. C'mere."
Please continue.
December 2, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who knew Upper Canada politics (as opposed to lower Canada which is anything north of New Rochelle in NYS) was so interesting? I can't wait until the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting. Pass the popcorn!
December 2, 2008 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm still trying to sort out the geography. Ok, north of New Rochelle is lower canada, then there's us, but in-between, there's that whole upstate New York area..... ewwwwgh. Gives me the chills that does. Deliverance come North. We regard it a buffer zone to keep the American hordes out. Only about 20% are gonna get through that alive. Though I met a guy with 3-arms there once, pretty nice fella. Bad teeth though.
As for mocking our Committee & political structure, well, I tried to explain it in a previous post, but clearly you were snapping gum & talking with your friends at the time. So.... lesson repeated, and THIS time, let's try and pay attention to the intricacies of the Benarski, the beauty of the Schnarppy:
"Canadian politics is simple enough - it's just hockey. No kicking, spitting or spearing. If a guy wants to go, he drops his gloves - if you agree, you drop yours. Then you sit down for 5 minutes, feel shame, come back on and at the end of the game - shake hands.
It's the scoring that's messy. While your 3rd Benarski is worth 11 seats in Parliament, your 4th Bernarski (two R's for the 4th) actually cuts your caucus in half (for Historic reasons involving the Cree.) UNLESS, of course, you perform a Schnarppy from the Dispatch box. Which is damned hard with your fingers shoved down your Practimox.
My God. EVERY Canadian remembers the time Prime Minister Diefenbarker did his Practimox - he bled for weeks. Oh how we laughed."
December 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Diefenbaker! haven't heard that name in years....back when I was a kid (really when I was kid, like 12 years old or something), I found a box of books in the basement, including a Diefenbaker bio called rebel in power, or renegade in power, or something like that....probably the first political bio I ever read...or tried to read...don't recall if I ever got through it, after all I was 12....I was so much more clued in on Canadian politics when I lived in Michigan, and could watch Peter Mansbridge and the National at night...no cbc, no hnic, etc over here in Wisconsin....sniff...
December 2, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Dief the Chief," they called him. That man had perhaps the greatest set of jowls in political history. This, as a young man. ;-)))
They got better.
And EASILY the worst French accent. Ever. French-speakers nationwide asked that man, begged him, to please stop trying to speak to them. They appreciated it and all, but apparently, his attempts caused actual physical pain.
But in English, a great speaker, one of those old-time barn-burners from the Prairies.
December 2, 2008 3:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greetings from Canuckistan.
I'm a little bit concerned about the seeming 'slap-dash' nature of this proposed coalition, not to mention the complications that the ongoing Liberal leadership struggle bring to it. And Jack-porno-moustache-Layton's continued self-aggrandizement.
But at the moment, these concerns are trumped by the 3 little words, 'F--- Stephen Harper'!
Weird times up here in the Great White North, kids...
December 2, 2008 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
What percentage of the vote did the liberal, or whatever the name of the opposing party, receive?
December 2, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conservatives----------- 37.7% = 143 Seats
Liberals---------------- 26.3% = 77 Seats
Bloc Quebecois---------- 10.0% = 49 Seats
New Democratic Party-----18.2% = 37 Seats
Green Party-------------- 6.8% = 0 Seats
Independents------------ 0.7% = 2 Seats
The oddities of the vote-to-seat ratios are largely a result of the regional/local concentration of votes.
The Conservatives are a new party, a merger of the old Progressive Conservatives & the "Reform" or "Alliance" Party.
The new Accord Coalition members are the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and likely, the Greens (one of whom might be selected & appointed to the Senate, according to today's news.)
December 2, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
David Frum had an interesting take on this:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2008/12/01/david-frum-only-the-losers-will-survive-ottawa-s-game-of-competitive-suicide.aspx
December 2, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, if you mean "interesting" in the same way as his speeches for Bush were "interesting," then I'm right on-board for that. His ability to say things completely unrestrained by fact is truly an impressive skill. Such as, any Liberal Prime Minister "will have zero democratic legitimacy." I love it when people say stuff like that. Not "little" or "less than might be wished," but "zero." But Harper, running for the 3rd time, but never yet able to win a majority of seats, nor able to break 38% support... somehow has democratic legitimacy? It's just absurd on its face. But then again, The Post is a paper I only pick up with tongs, and even then, wish to dispose of promptly. Or how the Coalition will have almost no Western representation. Well, other than the fact that the Coalition won more of the vote than the Conservatives in 8 of the 10 provinces, and in all 3 of the Territories, and will have 23 seated members from West of the Ontario border... other than that, Frum's precisely correct. And I guess the Conservatives having 20 seats out of 107 in the 5 Eastern provinces doesn't trouble him.
As for his view on Constitutional precedent, the Tories are trying this line out, so I guess Frum figured he better hit it as well, but Harper himself said when HE was in a minority, in Parliament, in letters and in the media, that his reading of Constitutional matters was exactly the same as the Coalition's new proposal.
Like I said in an earlier post, "Sorry, but he's yours now. Please do try to find him someplace soft, where he can't hurt himself. And probably best to keep him away from sharp objects, such as pens." ;-)
December 2, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
David Frum invented W's "Axis of Evil" out of thin air. Take him with a big lump of salt.
Stephen Harper has taken out radio ads and called for public rallies to denounce the coalition agreement as "undemocratic." (I don't sense a groundswell of support for his stand.)
But his own fallback plan appears to be to prorogue Parliament -- end the current session less than three weeks after it started -- in order to stave off a no-confidence vote.
How "democratic" is a government that, knowing it faces certain defeat, prevents legislators from meeting for the next few months in order to cling to power?
Still, Harper might pull it off. There is precedent for a governor-general refusing to call a new election, but I can't recall a GG refusing a request for prorogation, which is normally within a PM's discretion.
December 2, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Continues to get more interesting. The Green Party has now joined the Coalition, and it looks like Elizabeth May, the Green leader, may get appointed to the Senate, and thence, perhaps, down into Cabinet.
Governor General Jean flies home from Prague, while dear Stephen prepares - as you suggest - to prorogue the whole game until next year. Could be an ugly Christmas... I can foresee bad-tempered Canuckistani mobs snowballing each other in the streets.
Eek.
December 2, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Snowballing each other, yes. But then quickly apologizing.
December 2, 2008 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink