stephane dion

A little over a week ago, Stephane Dion was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. I have not written about that yet because I do not know enough about him.

I have no affiliation to the Liberal Party, and have never voted Liberal. I never liked Chretien, and was ambivalent about Paul Martin. The whole sponsorship scandal was really quite boring to me, and I was never outraged by it. Cynically resigned would be a better measure of my feelings about that.

Although I never cared for the Liberals, I was hoping that they would beat the Conservatives because I detest Herr Harper, and most of his cabinet. I feel that they are divisive, and petulant, and I am quite a bit more progressive than they could ever be. I did take interest in the Libearal leadership race because I was hoping that they would elect someone that could beat the Conservatives, and get their own party back on track, and maybe even get Canada back on track.

I felt that Bob Rae might be a good choice because of his experience in the trenches. He was much vilified after his tenure as Premier of Ontario, but I felt that it was unfair. Rae took power just as recession set in, and he had not much to work with after the Liberal gov't of David Peterson. But Rae would have had a hard time sloughing off that baggage, and would have been hurt in the important jurisdictions of Ontario.

Gerard Kennedy caught my interest too - especially as the only one that spoke against the notion of Quebec as a nation. (that is a subject that deserves much more time than is afforded me at present) I did not think that he could beat Harper though, and I never had a good sense of what he was all about.

Ignatieff makes me physically ill (almost, anyhow) with his ego and insincerity. I prayed that he would not take the brass ring. I hope he runs back to his beloved Amurika, and leaves Canada to Canadians.

Dryden is smart and sincere, but lacks vision and experience - in my humble opinion.

Who else was there? Never mind, they probably left as little impression with you as they did with me.

Back to Dion. Largely unknown outside of Central Canada, and has some baggage in Quebec as a result of his activities as Minister of Inter-Governmental Affairs. Some pundits say that is a liability.

I saw a couple of interviews with Stephane Dion this past week, and have to say that I am impressed. Would I finally vote Liberal? I don't know about that, but I do think that Dion can clean the floor with Harper, and would feel a lot more comfortable with him as P.M. than I do with Harper.

He is smart, animated, and passionate. What I have heard from him so far makes me think that he can win the next election, and at least form a minority gov't. He could probably work well with the NDP (who will never form a gov't - in my view, and I wouldn't want to see that anyhow), and maybe even with the B.Q. I think that it would provide more stability in gov't than what we have had for a few years now.

So far, I like what I have seen. Dion needs to polish his English a bit, but because he seems so passionate, and erudite, I don't think that it will be a problem for him. He comes across as someone who doesn't listen well, but that is the hallmark of an intelligent mind. He seems to anticipate the crux of questions, and does not have the patience to bandy about platitudes and fluff.

I hope that the Liberals form a minority gov't, and maybe even form a loose coalition with the NDP. I hope that Layton stops trying to undermine others for a few extra votes, and is willing to work with the Dion Liberals for the good of Canada.

time to build an ark?

The rains continue, and still, 1 million people in the Lower Mainland are under a boil water advisory.

Things are better, but there are still thousands without power after 5 days. There were reports of fist fights over bottles of eater. Restaurants and cafes were advised today that it is "safe" to serve hot drinks, etc. as long as the water reaches 74 degrees Celsius.

The fact is that the media makes it sound much worse than it really is - as if we are a city under seige, or something. I have lived here for 20 years, and have seen this water after big rains before. No one got sick, and no one died. This is the first-ever water advisory, and I have seen worse.

Perhaps I just feel unaffected because we have been drinking spring water from 18 litre bottles for many years. I have absolutely no concerns about washing my dishes, or brushing my teeth with the pee-coloured water from the tap.

Hype. It's all hype.

The silver lining may be that people decide that Vancouver is not the best city in the world and stay away. Then, we may see some saner prices in our real estate.

third world class

This was originally published at my other blog, but I thought that I'd post it here for those of you who don't make it over there. That, and the thing about me liking to post every day, and I haven't been doing so. I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest...


Welcome to Vancouver! Home of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games (well, unless the snow doesn't show up in sufficient quantities).

Vancouver is a world class city! It fits in comfortably with Mexico City (though we don't have the weather that they have, and they had the Olympics 38 long years ago), Tegucigalpa (though their water is more potable), and Addis Abbaba (though their mountains are not as spectacularly snow-peaked), and Los Angeles (though they only had the piddlin' Summer Olympics, and their cops are tougher).

Yesterday there were 2 million people in the Lower Mainland who were warned to boil their water. Today, that number was halved to merely 1 million people. One million pregnant women, children, elderly, and the heavily mortgaged. The news spread far and wide very quickly. Last night I had three calls from other parts of Canada - concerned for our well-being. I also had an e-mail from the US with the same concerns. I didn't even know of the advisory before receiving these calls.

Hotels in Vancouver were quick to spread the advisory to all hotel rooms, and offered bottled water to their guests. Coffee shops and restaurants were hit where it hurts as they had to refuse their clients anything involving tap water. There were a lot of cranky, caffeine-deficient people in Vancouver the last couple of days.

I can just imagine visitors filling up their bathtubs with the murk that is on tap, and thinking that they might be better off to smell bad for their flights out of town. And what if any of them become sick with Giardia (classically known as Beaver Fever. How very Canadian...), Cryptosporidium, or such. And what if they sent their nice white shirts to the hotel laundry, and they came back looking as if someone had pissed all over them?

I was not personally affected - we have been drinking spring water for years, and have a good supply of 18 litre bottles stocked (because of the chlorine, we avoid tap water for drinking. At least there is no fluoride added.). I have also had amoebic dysentery, and Giardia, and have a pretty tough intestinal tract, but I had those infections in the Third World - where it can be expected. But Vancouver? That's some bad press man.

Third World Class. The city where people live on the streets. Where you can't even brush your flipping teeth unless you use bottled water (good luck finding any). The city where the middle class can't afford to buy the crappiest house.

Are we over ourselves yet?

nihilism, nukes and North Korea

So, North Korea purportedly did an underground test of a nuclear bomb yesterday. If the 4.3 Richter reading reported was a nuke test, it could not have been a plutonium bomb, and is thought to have been a dud.

We all knew that N. Korea was working towards possessing a nuke capability, and there has been much sabre-rattling, and posturing on the part of the United States administration, but over-whelmingly, I have sensed almost an ambivalence to the issue. China seems to have distanced itself somewhat, and has hinted at restricting energy aid to N.K., but ruled out food aid restrictions. Iran seems to be ambivalent as well, and is likely watching to see what happens as they pursue their own nuclear ambitions. North Korea has been thought to have the bomb for the last ten years, or so, but not the delivery system (missiles capable of carrying it). If they do have it, they are the 9th country (although Isreal has not admitted it yet).

So what to do about it? Cut off aid? Impose sanctions? That will accomplish little - as the North Korean people have been dealing with famine and such for years. It seems that the military (and bomb and missile making) have been higher priorities than the people for a long, long time. A naval blockade? That could trigger problems with China - who for sure has nukes, and delivery systems capable of reaching into North America. Send in ground forces? Umm, North Korea has a highly trained standing army of about a million soldiers. The U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, so unless they draft a huge segment of the population, where will the troops come from? Other options? Well, the U.S, or the U.K., or France could nuke 'em, but a) isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? and b) it could set off a nuclear conflict to destroy all life on this planet. Ignore it and hope for the best (as in India and Pakistan)? Diplomacy?

And why shouldn't N. Korea, or Iran, or Luxembourg, or Honduras, or Calgary have nukes? Because the U.S. and her allies don't want them to? If the bully in the school yard (and his coterie of wannabe thugs) have big sticks, and are constantly threatening to take (and are taking) your lunch money, and beating the crap out of the other weaklings, why wouldn't you arm yourself with your very own big stick? This is the so-called nuclear deterrent. Mutually assured destruction is a good reason not to pick on the weaker states of this world. N. Korea has never seemed to have any itchiness for empire, so what might they do if they do have a few bombs? Protect themselves from bullying is the first thing that comes to my mind. When you give the school yard bully an unexpected shot in the nose, he tends to gain respect for you, to lose interest in you, and sometimes even changes his ways.

Further, the U.S. has basically thrown out the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty by developing small-yield nukes, bunker-busters, working towards "Star Wars", and what about all that depleted uranium dumped in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq? That is poisoning all of us thanks to global air currents.

Nukes for everyone.

Don't hesitate to bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.

Edit: I failed to point out that Canada - who has been known as a fair-minded, peace-keeping country for a long, long time, has joined that coterie of wannabe thugs lock, stock and barrel (literally). Rather, our government (a minority with only about 32% of the vote) has made that move. Most Canadians do not want to be involved in aggression, just as, I'm sure, most Americans, or British do not want to be at war.

So why do governments act as they do? Do governments really represent the citizens of their respective countries? England's Blair has been lying to his countrymen. Bush and Co. have been lying to Americans. The Canadian government is doing the same. Voting is a sham - we still end up with governments that do all kinds of shiite that is diametrically opposed to the intent of the citizenry. What can be done about that? Over time, I will attempt to open up that discussion here.

Stay tuned.