It has been an atroceous three months since my last posting. I apologise for this and offer up no excuse for my absense from this place. I had final exams to worry about, and work of course but nothing that could have prevented me from posting a little more often then every three months. And now I'm two and a half months into a five month long summer with no reason not to do this so here I am.
So what has happened since March 23rd that deserves honourable mention on my beloved post. Well the World Cup is currently entering the 2nd round of competition and I know what you might be thinking: who cares about soccer? It's a funny thing the World Cup, it is like nothing else. Even people who never watch or follow soccer of any form seem to find themselves entangled in the World Cup whenever it comes around. While it is the most popular sport in the entire world it is not as popular in North America where we're more focused on hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and golf. And maybe if our the Canadian soccer team was a little more competitive to even make it to the actual World Cup tournament there would be more of a following.
The NHL playoffs are now over with the Carolina Hurricances winning the Stanley Cup and the Edmonton Oilers losing in the 7th game of the Stanley Cup Finals extending the drought of Canadian cities winning the Stanley Cup to 13 years since Montreal won it in 1993. Now its time to break out the putters and hit the golf course for the off-season.
Anyway, enough about sports, after all this is a primarily political posting so let's talk about just that. Despite the length of term that many naysayers expected Stephen Harper would have as Canadian Prime Minister he still remains at the helm with no evidence showing a loss of steam. Even if you're not a Harper supporter you must admit that after the initial stumbles out of the gate Harper has done a tremendous job since the election in January. So far his term is at 5 months which isn't very long but it is more than some were expecting. If you don't believe me in the good job he's been doing keep reading because I will talk about this a little later.
Now, while this post usually focuses on federal politics there is a lot to be said about NS's provincial politics these days. We're fresh out of an election which saw Rodney MacDonald continuing with another minority government. So at both the federal and provincial levels of government we have Conservative minority governments in place. Now Conservative minorities have been doing well in Nova Scotia for last few years so I see now change in this now. The only difference between the federal and provincial levels is that at the federal level the Liberals are the Official Opposition and at the provincial level the NDP is the Official Opposition. I would much rather Jack Layton and the NDP have Official Opposition status at the federal level like Darrell Dexter has in NS. The Liberals floundered in this past election and currently only hold about 6 seats is the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia. Their own leader, Francis MacKenzie, wasn't even able to get elected in his riding of Bedford... maybe because I voted for Len Goucher instead.
So to finish off today's post let's talk about everything Stephen Harper has done so far in a quick five months as leader of the country for all of you nay sayers out there who said he would do a horrible job if he was elected. Let's start of with the 2006-07 budget that was announced at the beginning of May that included many great things but more specifically the 1% cut in the GST which takes effect in 9 days... Canada Day, the better contribution to the Canadian military ($1.4 billion more), and instead of just paying off the interest of the massive federal debt an actual plan to paydown the debt by over $3 billion a year. From the Speech from the Throne we learned the Conservative Government's Five Priorities: the Federal Accountability Act (which has been passed), cutting taxes (Canada Day), a crackdown on crime (more on this in future posts), and a Patient Wait Times Guarantee.
Well that is enough for now but more from me soon, I promise.
- DM
So what has happened since March 23rd that deserves honourable mention on my beloved post. Well the World Cup is currently entering the 2nd round of competition and I know what you might be thinking: who cares about soccer? It's a funny thing the World Cup, it is like nothing else. Even people who never watch or follow soccer of any form seem to find themselves entangled in the World Cup whenever it comes around. While it is the most popular sport in the entire world it is not as popular in North America where we're more focused on hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and golf. And maybe if our the Canadian soccer team was a little more competitive to even make it to the actual World Cup tournament there would be more of a following.
The NHL playoffs are now over with the Carolina Hurricances winning the Stanley Cup and the Edmonton Oilers losing in the 7th game of the Stanley Cup Finals extending the drought of Canadian cities winning the Stanley Cup to 13 years since Montreal won it in 1993. Now its time to break out the putters and hit the golf course for the off-season.
Anyway, enough about sports, after all this is a primarily political posting so let's talk about just that. Despite the length of term that many naysayers expected Stephen Harper would have as Canadian Prime Minister he still remains at the helm with no evidence showing a loss of steam. Even if you're not a Harper supporter you must admit that after the initial stumbles out of the gate Harper has done a tremendous job since the election in January. So far his term is at 5 months which isn't very long but it is more than some were expecting. If you don't believe me in the good job he's been doing keep reading because I will talk about this a little later.
Now, while this post usually focuses on federal politics there is a lot to be said about NS's provincial politics these days. We're fresh out of an election which saw Rodney MacDonald continuing with another minority government. So at both the federal and provincial levels of government we have Conservative minority governments in place. Now Conservative minorities have been doing well in Nova Scotia for last few years so I see now change in this now. The only difference between the federal and provincial levels is that at the federal level the Liberals are the Official Opposition and at the provincial level the NDP is the Official Opposition. I would much rather Jack Layton and the NDP have Official Opposition status at the federal level like Darrell Dexter has in NS. The Liberals floundered in this past election and currently only hold about 6 seats is the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia. Their own leader, Francis MacKenzie, wasn't even able to get elected in his riding of Bedford... maybe because I voted for Len Goucher instead.
So to finish off today's post let's talk about everything Stephen Harper has done so far in a quick five months as leader of the country for all of you nay sayers out there who said he would do a horrible job if he was elected. Let's start of with the 2006-07 budget that was announced at the beginning of May that included many great things but more specifically the 1% cut in the GST which takes effect in 9 days... Canada Day, the better contribution to the Canadian military ($1.4 billion more), and instead of just paying off the interest of the massive federal debt an actual plan to paydown the debt by over $3 billion a year. From the Speech from the Throne we learned the Conservative Government's Five Priorities: the Federal Accountability Act (which has been passed), cutting taxes (Canada Day), a crackdown on crime (more on this in future posts), and a Patient Wait Times Guarantee.
Well that is enough for now but more from me soon, I promise.
- DM
Comments
… ahaha. Yes, Darcey. Because you, my friend, were the only person that voted in Bedford! … or, everyone knew you voted Conservative, and followed your lead.
I’d also like to throw out that I AM VERY PROUD of Rodney MacDonald and his choice to support the no Sunday Shopping, as a result of the plebiscite. He took a MAJOR stand against the greater Haligonians who, for the most part, supported Sunday shopping and paid attention to what Nova Scotia voted for. He won a lot of points in my book.
In a letter to the editor (Daily News) last week someone wrote in response to the Sunday Shopping uproar about how 54% of people in Halifax favoured Sunday shopping and Haligonians thought that meant that Sunday Shopping should be allowed in Halifax… and the person that wrote it said “And most of the provincial seats are filled by NDP… does this mean the NDP should take over the provincial government?” And I laughed out loud because how great would that be?!? Whatever HALIFAX says is what happens all over Nova Scotia.
Looking forward to your next post.
2)Len Goucher...gah!!! That guy. Terrible. Since I am writing from the future, I know of the embarassing end to his political life.
3) Thank God for Sunday shopping! (I hope you see the blasphemous irony of that statement)
4) My favourite sentence in this post is as follows: "Now Conservative minorities have been doing well in Nova Scotia for last few years so I see now change in this now.