Not again...

...there's a federal election coming. A side effect of having a minority government with no real opposition - they might as well call an election, with the best case scenario (for the government, not necessarily for Canada) being a majority victory, and the worst case scenario being another couple of years added on to the current term. It's not like anyone else is likely to win.

Sigh.

As I understand it, the parties can be described pretty much like this:

1) Conservative. Mostly blue. Used to be called Progressive Conservatives until they were slaughtered in a previous election, merged with the Reform Party (a bunch of ultra-conservatives from out west) and changed their name. Also, they weren't really fooling anyone with the "Progressive" tag anyway. Currently in power. Policy seems to be somewhat lacking. Led by a not-so-very-charismatic Prime Minister who is now best known for wearing a friendly, homey sweater vest in his TV commercial.

2) Liberal. A cheerful shade of red. Slightly less conservative than the Conservatives. Roundly slaughtered last time around by a combination of the Conservatives and the NDP (see below). Now led by some guy who a) is widely seen as an intellectual egghead, b) at the last leadership convention defeated another guy who is also widely seen as an intellectual egghead, and c) allegedly sounds like the Swedish Chef when he speaks English quickly. Absolutely no clear policy on anything, as far as I can tell.

3) New Democratic Party. Orange. Not new, not democratic. Occasionally described as pinko commies, by people just slightly less charitable than me. Led by a guy who is famous for living in community housing while in office as a highly-paid municipal politician. Platform based around a complex mix of carbon credits, expensive social programs, and national bankruptcy.

4) Bloc Quebecois. Kind of dark blue with white fleur-de-lis on it, or something. Nobody outside of La Belle Province cares, but that didn't stop them from getting enough seats in recent memory to form the official opposition. Led by some French-Canadian guy. Platform is based on separation from English Canada, determined defence of the French language and culture (France could probably learn something from this), and not a whole lot else.

5) Green Party. Green; somewhat fuzzy around the edges. Running in every single bloody riding in the country; unlikely to win any of them. Led by some person or other who talks a lot about the environment and rides around the country on a train, or a bicycle, or a hang-glider, or something.

And not to forget:

6) The usual grab-bag of independents, party dissenters, embezzling, criticizing and/or adultering ex-government ministers who've been booted out of caucus, street musicians, ex-hockey players (don't laugh, there are at least two in the Senate) and the like.

Now you know everything you need to. October 14th - go out and vote.*


*This public service announcement may not actually be very useful for anything. You've been warned.

2011 R.I.P.

Time for a little lazy blogging to get the year started.

Last year, I jumped on a little meme that Cath directed me to, namely the idea of listing the first sentence of the first post of each month. It failed a bit, since there were three months where (shock!) I didn't post a single thing. This year, surprisingly enough, isn't as bad, although June has gone AWOL and many of the entries aren't actually sentences at all.

January. About the hockey pool: "Yes, the holiday break is over, and all excuses about 'being away from the internet' or 'being too sleepy/full/hung over to make my picks' are now invalid."

February. Lazy cross-posting: "If anyone's interested, I've put up a new blog post at Life Science Tools of the Trade."

March. I re-designed the blog's template, and posted a photo of a fish: "Today's news - nothing much, just a template re-design."

April. It's not even a real sentence, but it's about LinkedIn's April Fool's Day joke: "...on visiting my LinkedIn profile today."

May. An exhortation to go and vote in the Canadian federal election. I've cheated here, by including both a fragment, and the real sentence that follows it: "May 2, 2011. Federal Election Day. Get out and vote... please."

June. I didn't blog a thing in June, apparently.

July. Not much here either, just a teaser about the 2011 Honda Indy Toronto race: "The 2011 Honda Indy Toronto."

August. A summary of the Indy race. I've cheated again, since the first bit of writing is actually a photo caption. Here's the first full sentence from the body text: "I'm a bit late, the race having taken place in mid-July, but here's the beginning of my synopsis of this year's Honda Indy Toronto weekend."

September. Another sentence fragment, about fish: "...to bring you two new arrivals at Château Ricardipus."

October. This isn't a full sentence either! "The 2011 edition of the annual pumpkin photo:"

November. Even more lazy cross-posting: "I'm cheating."

December. More photography, and yet another incomplete sentence: "An impromptu project to capture some of the energy of Toronto's streets, financial districts and commuter hubs."


All that cross-posting kind of makes you think I ought to concentrate my efforts on one blog, not three, doesn't it?

Vote, Canada.

May 2, 2011. Federal Election Day. Get out and vote... please.