The Canadian Rant

SHOPPING FOR A POLITICAL PARTY LIKE SHOPPING FOR A CAR? So I was sitting in my Canadian Political Parties class the other day when my prof just happened to mention something about how most people will not put as much effort into choosing a political party as they would into shopping for a new car. When people want to buy a new car they are going to look at all of the makes and models and packages and warranties and such. Do you think they go into that much detail when they vote or choose a political party? For most, the answer is no and for good reason but something about her comment got me thinking. What if choosing a political party was like buying a new car and what would that be like? So, after thinking about it for a little while here is what I came up with. I think that all of the political parties in Canada can be easily coverted into a car company. Now obviously there are more car companies in this world then there are major Canadian political parties but this is my best attemp...

24 HOURS: HOW MUCH COULD REALLY HAPPEN? How much can really happen in the period of 24 hours? I mean, seriously, since I ranted on yesterday about the "boneheadedness" of the Pope so much has happened that I've barely been able to keep up with it all. Right now I will attempt to portray all of this information to you as best I can with my own remarks of course. And after this rant is all done with a will share with you my new theory on political parties that i have temporarily entitled, "Shopping for a Political Party Like Shopping for a New Car?" I honestly don't know where to start, maybe the best way to go about it would be to work from the beginning in my attempt at some kind of chronological order. Yesterday was the first day of the Fall Session of Parliament in Ottawa. It started out with a moment of silence for the victims of the school shooting in Montreal and was followed by two main issues: gun registry and Afghanistan. Anyone who did not see that ...

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN ONE MAN PISS OFF? Jack Layton is no longer the Bonehead of the Day, as hard as that is for me to say. I'm not saying that he is no longer a bonehead but just that we have a new contender in the mix. And, for that matter, he isn't even a new contender. There have only ever been two BOTD's (Bonehead of the Days) and if Jack Layton is one of the then that means the other one is... that's right, you guessed it... Pope Benedict XVI. I feel much more confident in labelling him a bonehead now because he is making it too difficult not too. After the events of last week when he was coming down on Canada for being too progressive allowing things like same-sex marriage and abortion he decided to piss off a whole new group of people the other day. Let's say, oh just for the hell of it, EVERY MUSLIM IN THE WORLD!!! First he offends the 30+ million people in Canada but that wasn't enough for him so he chose a bigger target of about 21% of the entire world!...

MORE ON SCHOOL SHOOTINGS; LEADERSHIP RACE The shooting rampage in Montreal still seems to be the top story today but I think I will shy away from that topic for the moment for something a little lighter... say a Liberal leadership update. Since the election last January when Stephen Harper and the Conservatives moved into office and Paul Martin stepped down as federal Liberal leader there have been twelve people declare that they will be vying for the position for top dog in the Liberal party. Not an easy job because they will be responsible for trying to bring a new look to the Liberal party and restore its position it held before the last election. As the leadership race goes on the field will begin to thin out as it has already started to do where leadership contenders will bow out of the race and throw their support behind another leadership hopeful. There has already been the emergence of a few frontrunners such as Michael Ignatieff, Scott Brison, Ken Dryden, and Bob Rae. And ther...

TRAGEDY STRIKES MONTREAL'S DAWSON COLLEGE There are three specific issues that I wanted to address this morning. I'm sure that you've all heard about the shootings at Dawson College in Montreal. Even those of you south of the border should have heard of it by now because it has been all over CNN and the rest of the news sources down there. Kimveer Gill opened fire at the college in downtown Montreal killing one girl and wounding nineteen others including five still in critical condition. Gill had a live journal on www.vampirefreaks.com that he updated just hours before he began the shooting and it pictured him with semi-automatic assault rifle and the caption read: Ready for Action. This is very upsetting news to most of us and the thought going through everybody's mind this morning is why. The police had to kill him to stop the shooting so it will be hard to find out the answer to that very question. On the website he calls himself Trench and he said that you will come...

CONDI AND PETE VISIT HALIFAX Yesterday was the five year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. PM Stephen Harper made a speech last night to remember those attacks and the current Canadian war effort in Afghanistan. The transcript of Harper's speech is below. Meanwhile, here is Nova Scotia United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited with federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay. As I left school yesterday I was sitting in traffic for an unsual amount of time without moving and finally came to the realization that it was probably because Condoleezza Rice was on her way into the city and they have traffic all blcoked off... and I was right. I turned on the radio and heard the voice of a guy who was at the front of all this and he said that her motorcade was on Bayers Road heading for downtown. It's not too often you can use the US Secretary of State as the reason for you being late for work. While I was sitting in traffi...

SEPTEMBER 11th, 2006: 5 YEARS LATER Here is the transcript of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's speech yesterday: Good evening. Today is the 5th anniversary of the terrible events of September 11th, 2001. I am speaking to you from the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block of Parliament. With me are some Canadians whose lives have been touched by 9/11 in ways that most of us can't even begin to imagine. Men and women who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Tanja Tomasevic, who lost her husband, Vladimir; Danny Eisen who lost his cousin, Danny; and Maureen and Erica Basnicki, who lost their husband and father, Ken. I asked them to join me because words alone are not enough to express what needs to be said today. As we pay tribute to the 24 Canadians who lost their lives on that infamous day five years ago, their family members remind us that they were real people with real lives. Lives that were cut short - deliberately so - by a murderous act of terrorism. Like...

JACK LAYTON BONEHEAD OF THE DAY

Well the first full week of school has begun and those glorious "syllabus days" are over. You know, the part where the classes actually last more than twenty minutes and there are actual lectures and reading and such. Legal Thinking and Canadian Political Parties look promising to me and my other classes will suffice. I find it hilarious that it is only the third day of school and already there are people swarming around the computers in the DAL library. My favourite two movies out right now are still Invincible and The Illusionist and are what I continue to recommend to people who ask me, "Should I go see The Covenant or The Protector?" Anyways, on to more pressing matters. Over the weekend the NDP held a national party convention in Quebec where Jack Layton maintained a 92% approval rating from the party. I have two comments about this one little fact. It makes sense that his rating is so high just by the NDP's showing in the last election under his leadership...

I'm on a roll here today with my fourth rant of the day. For those of you keeping score out there that means I've had more posts today than in the last 6 months. Maybe I'm starting a new trend or something, for myself anyway. I just got out of my Comparative Politics class and I've now determined that I will have no shortage of material for my ranting. But my rant today has nothing to do with comparative politics because I just read an article that makes me less than happy. Almost to the point where I would want to rant about it, now if only I had something in which to share my rant... wait a minute. I don't know if any of who are aware but when Pope John Paul II died a little while back and the process of electing a new pope began I was in favour of Joseph Ratzinger and was happy when he was elected Pope Benedict XIV. Not that I'm Catholic or anything, I just have an opinion in these matters. Anyway, all praise I had for Benedict is now gone because of what he ...

The main focus of Stephen Harper right now is on the Senate. He has become the first prime minister in Canadian history to appear before a Senate committee as he tries to push forth a number of Senate-related bills to reform the Senate. The main focus of his appearance yesterday in front of the committee was to change the term limits of senators. Currently, once a senator is appointed they can stay in the Senate until they turn 75 which means if they are appointed when they're 50 they can serve a term of 25 years! Harper is looking to set a term limit where terms of 9 years for example are served which are not based on age or anything like that. Harper and the Conservatives are taking aim at the Senate and its reform is high on the agenda for them. Besides term limits Harper is looking for an elected Senate to make it more democratic. The Upper House was originally initiated to promote regional representation at the federal level, however, it has become redundant as senators are ju...

Just like me, the Parliament takes a break over the summer. Now I could use this as an excuse for, besides today, why I haven't posted since June but that doesn't mean that the world stops turning. Some very interesting things have happened over the summer of 06 so right now I will attempt to give you a Coles Notes version of it all. Stop me if I'm going too fast. The Liberal Leadership Race is still going on and won't be finished until Dec. 3rd. The deadline for entering the race hasn't even officially gone by yet until the end of this month (aka. my birthday). There have been many names you have declared and many big names who have said they won't seek the leadership of "Canada's governing party". The top contenders so far are a political newcomer and superstar (Michael Ignatieff), a former Conservative (Scott Brison), a former player in the NHL (Ken Dryden), a former NDP premier of Ontario and almost Governor General (Bob Rae), and a Kennedy (Ge...

I don't even know what to say. It has been another three months in between posts for me so if you average that out that means in the past 6 months I have posted 3 rants... including this one. I back in school, grudgingly, which means I will be following politics a lot closer, you know, with me being a poli sci major and all. So I plan to offer up lots of insight in to the goings on around this world and you can take that for what it is... pure brilliance. I don't plan on getting into too much with this here rant however I do plan another one for later on today which will touch up on all of the stuff I've been talking about since I started this thing. The Liberal leadership race is still on, there is all an NDP convention of some sort, Parliament will be coming back into session soon, Harper is still doing a great job, and many other interesting things. There is no lack of political events happening for me to take up pages of space and hours of reading for your eyes. You may...