Fellow Canadians, when you vote today, I hope you step away from the edge.

Sensible Canadians, I hope you stand up.

Today’s election is a referendum on the fate of our country and your backbones are needed.

We can either agreed to the narrowing of Canada’s collective conversation or we can vote Liberal.

We can abandon the middleclass to big businesses, and the facts of action to self-righteous back-patting or we can vote Liberal.

We can submit the progressive and pragmatic centre of our great nation to madmen and their failed ideologies or we can vote Liberal.

We can support Steve Harper and the Conservative Regime of Canada.

A man whose political ideology rewards the rich at the expense of the poor.

A man who has such contempt for his hometown that he arrests its innocent citizens.

A man who doesn’t have dreams for Canada, but delusions of grandeur for himself.

Or we can vote Liberal.

We can support Jack Layton and the NDP.

A man whose moustache has more political experience that most of his party’s candidates.

A man whose political philosophy sounds achingly similar to the teenage angst of Justin Bieber when shared by most of his party’s candidates.

A man who preaches about good intentions instead of actually doing anything about them.

Or, we can vote Liberal.

A team that includes the very best of Canada – an astronaut, the goalie who defeated Russia’s historic ’72 attack on our country, a Harvard Professor and a Rhodes Scholar.

A team that has balanced our budgets, led us through war, and held our country together.

A team that makes decisions based in reality, not on wishful thinking.

You see, the ballot question is not answered by asking which potential Prime Minister we’d most like to have a beer with.

It is answered by asking which potential Prime Minister’s team we most want to get drunk with.

Will we choose a team that preys on our fears and governs with a Sharpie or will we vote Liberal?

Will we choose a team that promises us the moon but doesn’t have a fraction of the talent necessary to get us there or will we vote Liberal?

The team to choose is obvious – the only one that offers us strong, stable national government – the Liberals.

The team to choose is obvious – the only one that champions equality, delivers on universal health care and balances our budgets – the Liberals.

The team to choose is obvious – the only one that laid claim to the last century for Canada, and will lead us proudly through the 21st – the Liberals.

Will you sit silently by while the radical fringes of our society conduct an ideological pissing match with our country’s future – or will you vote Liberal?

Will you choose the assholes of Harper’s Regime and the amateur hour of Jack’s team – or will you vote Liberal?

Honestly, will you please vote Liberal?

I just participated in one of the biggest series of rallies ever to take place in the history of our nation in direct protest to a Prime Minister – yes, ever.

Yet, after reading and watching the mainstream media coverage of the anti-prorogation protest, Canadians might be left thinking that Saturday’s rallies amounted to little more than the airing of hypocritical and ill-informed grievances of unwashed radicals.

Hardly. Those marching through the cold, grey streets of Toronto came from every generation, every walk-of-life and every political stripe to voice a simple, yet important opinion – Canadian Prime Ministers must act responsibly with the power that they wield.

So, while our media have done us a disservice by not making this sentiment front-page news, it no longer matters.

As much as I’m loathe to say it, Vive le Facebook!

 

 

Friends,

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Until recently, my country was having an election too.  

In Canada, however, we elect a prime minister, not a president, and have a queen, not a president.  

Oddly enough, the Queen of Canada doesn’t actually live in Canada.  She makes her home in London, and is more commonly known as the Queen of England.

Embarrassing, I know.      

 

Conservative Party of Canada

• Facebook – 17,832 supporters; no wall; no discussion board
• Twitter – 1,123 following; 1,066 followers; 71 updates since the start of the election
• myCampaign – A virtual campaign office for Conservative supporters.  It’s an online action centre, helping spread the conservative message, raise money and recruit volunteers
• Interesting fact – Of the four photos of Stephen Harper on the Conservative Party of Canada’s homepage, the Prime Minister is only wearing a sweater in one

Green Party of Canada

• Facebook – 5,341 supporters; 905 wall posts; 47 discussion topics
• Twitter –  680 following; 691 followers; 117 updates since the start of the election
• Elizabeth May’s blog – May’s blog is front and centre on the Green Party’s website.  She’s written 129 posts since the election was called
• Interesting fact – The website has an upcoming events calendar that details where May will be each day of the campaign.  It isn’t interactive, but it is helpful

Liberal Party of Canada

• Facebook – 14,236 supporters; 4,369 wall posts; 61 discussion topics
• Twitter – 1,976 following; 942 followers; 87 updates
• Create a page – Write your own message of support, collect secure donations online, share your photos and videos.  Only 55 Liberals have participated.
• Interesting fact (thanks to Mary’s keen eye) – Right after the being nominated to lead the Liberal Party, Dion exceeded his number of Facebook friends

New Democratic Party of Canada

• Facebook – 24,736 supporters; 3,957 wall posts; 232 discussion topics
• Twitter – 1,322 following; 1,338 followers; 145 updates
• The Orange Room – The campaign’s most comprehensive social media endeavor, the Orange Room is “a one-stop shop for anyone looking to find – and share – media related to the New Democrat election 2008 campaign.”  It’s citizen-drive media, blending “the best of YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and blogs to keep you engaged.”
• Interesting fact – The NDP website has a page of blogging tools (banner ads, video, Twitter box, NDP themed blog template)

* Data recorded on election day – October 14, 2008

It’s a Saturday afternoon in the summer.  Paul’s in Toronto; looking to move to a place both bigger and cheaper.

Apartment hunting, he says, especially bargain apartment hunting in Toronto, is too often a fruitless endeavour.

In the search for one’s next home, Paul feels, one must wade through the crap speckling the intestines of the Toronto market.  And mark his word, there’s a lot of shit out there; he’s got his rubber boots on.

A Kafka accented one bedroom basement apartment with prison cell sized windows, anyone?  It’ll cost you a grand.

Interested in a two bedroom featuring thirty-year-old purple shag carpeting as it’s only upgrade in 100 years?  It’ll run you a cool $1,200 plus utilities.

By comparison, Paul’s lady and Paul, for example, could be paying for a mortgage in St. Thomas – his hometown, some 200 km southwest of Toronto – for what he pays in rent; or so his friends paying a mortgage and living in St. Thomas tell him.

Not only is Toronto’s rental market out of control, centrally located accommodations for purchase are similarly absurd.

Paul’s been to an open house where cellar ripened salami greased his back and more than three dozen Jesus, Mary and Joseph statues stared him down – an unrenovated house from the 1950s that would later sell for a half million dollars.

Of course, these prices are probably justified.

Why wouldn’t you pay a premium to live in a “trendy” neighbourhood where two people were shot this past week at a local pub and where a girl was shot in the adjacent subway stop last winter?

Paul responds, “you wouldn’t!”

He’s moving in a week.

* As you might have guessed this was written a while ago – as best Paul can remember, a summer Saturday.  He’s happy in his new home.

If Americans were a little more successful in manifesting their destiny I’d be living in the States right now – not the humble Dominion of Canada I instead call home.

And if I lived in the States right now, I’d take this year’s Toronto weather to Judge Judy’s court of justice and sue the damn bastard for all the sun it had.

You see, it’s raining – again.

Listen up weather, if I wanted to live in an overpriced city with relentless precipitation, I’d move to Vancouver; where at least, if the sky did clear, I’d get a pretty view.

And it hasn’t even been hot this summer, just humid.

I’ve never sweated so much in 20 degree weather – for my American readers, I believe that’s 2(5X-2Y) in your crazy Fahrenheit system.

Alas, the sky’s ceiling has sunk to my waist.

I’ve got smog dripping down my coin slot and it’s not very pleasant.

COMING SOON

CouchSurfing – (Currently Untitled) – Part II

Our Alma – Ass Backwards – Part VI

I am going to France this evening for the wedding of two of my university roommates – it’s being held in a small town in the Alps next Saturday.

Sandra, my lady friend, and I, are arriving in Paris a week before the celebration to travel our way through the country. Of course, we have no money, so we’re doing it on the cheap – renting a car and couch surfing from the capital to Orleans, Dijon, St. Etienne, Marseille and finally to Embrun – the latter a sleepy little alpine town with cheap wine and great cheese – the site of the wedding.

CouchSurfing is a social application that allows strangers to arrange accommodations with each other. It’s like Facebook, but with a more singular purpose – to bridge cultures, encourage dialogue and provide places to sleep.

It’s really quite a phenomenal social experiment. I hope our own experience will serve as testament to its idealism. Either way, I’ll let you know how it goes.

We are staying with an art teacher in Orleans because Sandra’s an art teacher and artist. We are visiting a man in Dijon whose couch surfing profile acclaims him as a good cook and connoisseur of wine. We then intend to visit a young family in Saint-Etienne before arriving in Marseille – where we’ll visit an English teacher and her boyfriend.

We’ll then retrieve my other university roommate from the airport on our way to Embrun for the wedding – where we’ve rented a home for the week. We conclude our trip with an overnight drive to Paris for our flight home.

Can knowing less be helpful?

As I start out in my career as a PR professional, I am trying to position myself as a credible authority on social media – a source of information to such questions as:
• What the hell is it?
• How can it be used?
• How has it been used?
• Is it measurable?

I’m not an authority yet, however. For one, I haven’t even broken into the profession. For two, I’m not convinced the technological proficiency of certain targeted audiences is sufficient to warrant such methods.

To truly claim the experience of a city as your own, you must first live through one of its winters. I moved to Toronto in September, 2007. I earned my T.O. patch this past winter – when the season’s old man put me in a half nelson and gave me a noogie.

In fact, it was the worst winter I’ve ever experienced. Worse than Edmonton, where it snowed near Labour Day; or Seoul, where acid would literally fall from the sky; or Sarajevo, where fog would persist in the valley city like a glacier for weeks on end.

* Two youths (15 & 16) have been arrested for the Alma College fire. Read this Globe and Mail article for details.

It’s a sad day for St. Thomas

A fire that started just after 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday quickly engulfed Alma College, reducing the former girls’ school to little more than an empty shell of its former glory. Smoke was visible as far north as downtown London and as far south as Port Stanley.

The timing of the fire came less than two weeks after the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) agreed to the combined City of St. Thomas and George Zubick (Alma’s owner) request to demolish Alma College. Early Thursday morning, Constable Anders Nielsen said “with the help of the Fire Marshal’s Office, we have determined that it is arson.” Alma College is now a crime scene.

Ironically, at the same time that fire fighters were battling the blaze in St. Thomas, petitions to save Alma College were being delivered to Ontario’s Legislative Assembly in Toronto.

Elgin-London-Middlesex MPP Steve Peters took time from the afternoon question period to lament the passing of this historical treasure.