Tag: Canadian Politics 2008

Friday Bullets For The 4,000th Post At Gen X At 40

Four thousand posts. Why do I do this? It’s just a cup of coffee in the morning. A way to get things going. I’ve met a lot of interesting ideas as well as a lot of tedious egos along the way but the best thing’s the incredible strength I have developed in my fingers. My God they are huge. More like sausages than hot dogs. I’d take any of you on in a finger fight. Piece of cake.

  • Update: should there be an election over the Afghan mission? I know I am at odds with my party of choice and have no home on the point when other policies or key player character is factored in. But isn’t that true for everyone these days?
  • When it comes to strategic alliances in a time of war, no two words give more confidence that “France” and “hinting”.
  • The problem with this study is it compares boomers to Gen Y’s:

    According to new research, teens and young adults are no more narcissistic or self-aggrandizing today than they were three decades ago. Instead, all those overconfident, egotistical kids demanding instant jobs and fame may be a figment of aging imaginations.

    Two sides of the same coin if you ask me. But you wouldn’t. Because I’m Gen X and you don’t care. No one cares.

  • Who knew wikipedia was a pack of cultist lies?
  • Good for Mitt for quitting some time after it was clear he would never win – despite all the money. He did his cause one favour, crystallize one thought that sums up the lack of political tolerance and savvy that is marking this demise of conservatism in America:

    …And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror…

    Because that is what Democrats want, right? A surrender to terror. They want to embrace their own terrorization and would feed the children of conservatives to the dogs. That is what Democrats want. You are warned.

    Nice to have that assurance, though, that he was in his heart utterly unfit for the job. That and his conservatism of convenience. Not that I am one but not that there is anything wrong with it either. If you know what I mean.

  • Seeing as this is the 4,000th post, let me tell you some things you don’t know about Gen X at 40:

    – I never post a post with an even number in the minute column. I have no idea why that is important but it is.
    – There are actually twelve people with authoring rights and I actually play more of an editorial role for all posts labeled “alan”.
    – I don’t own a shot put.
    – English is not the language I grew up with as I am really a Finn.
    – I played a small but important role in the development of hip-hop.
    – If it weren’t for Hans, I would have packed this thing in years ago.

    These, of course, are the least of my secrets.

That is enough for today – probably more than you can handle.

PM Harper Does The Unexpected – Appoints On Merit

I don’t know if Justice David Jenkins was a Grit or a Tory in his pre-bench life but he is a fine judge. He sat on the hearing I was involved with which led to the recognition that political discrimination had to end in Canada’s last hold out for Victorian values, Prince Edward Island. I think my favorite question was something like “so if the other side is right and this is not discrimination, the Government could then set up a Provincial Park and say ‘No NDP supporters allowed?'” My answer was, of course, yes. He also asked, because political belief had never before been proven to be protected by The Charter, how it was that no other government had had it proven against them? I said that no other had the gall and he nodded in agreement.

So good for Stephen Harper in doing the right thing in this case – not a habit he has gotten into when it comes to appointments. And a happy retirement to Justice Mitchell, whose portfolio as Chief Justice of The Appeals Division in Canada’s tiniest province included handling adoptions, including the one in our family. He presided over the event with great pleasure which made the day an ever greater one for our family.

And Now Gomery’s Being Mean to Harper

Now even I am starting to feel bad for the PM. First, Ben says our Prime Minister “doesn’t have enough confidence in himself, sadly.” Now Gomery says Harper has bailed on accountability:

John Gomery, in a wide-ranging interview marking the second anniversary of his final report, expressed dismay that the federal Conservatives have ignored his key recommendations for reform. “I have to tell you, I’m very disappointed,” Mr. Gomery said from the farm in Havelock, Que., where he now lives in retirement. “I worked so hard, and I got other people to work hard, and we gave very serious thought to what we were recommending. I thought it deserved a debate.”
Instead, said the former judge, most of the political and bureaucratic changes he proposed fell into a “black hole” of indifference or were rejected out of hand.

I’m worried. I’m worried that leadership has collapsed to the level that I can’t think of a single leader of any party before Martin became PM who would not now smoke the present Government in an election yet there is no one who can step up and do that now.

I never thought I would miss Deb Grey so much. Or Eugene Whalen.