Vote

If you haven't already, go and

VOTE

Here's some info to help you:

The English language section of the Bloc Quebecois website
The Conservative Party website
The Green Party website
The Liberal Party website
The NDP website

Elections Canada website
CBC election coverage

Please don't leave it in the hands of others to decide who gets to run this country.  I guarantee that they will not vote the way you or I would.  If you are over 18 and live in Canada, get your butt to a polling station now. 

My vote didn't count (as usual)

The Conservatives won again. They even won in my riding. Again my faith in the intelligence of the average Canadian has been shattered. First a brief history of the Conservative Party:

Back when they were losing... they were called the Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party (or CCRAP). They changed their name to the villainous-sounding "The Alliance" to avoid the unfortunate innitials, and began touring the country promoting "family values" which is right-wing code for anti-gay, anti-feminist.

There was of course also the Progressive Conservative party, a more middleground conservative group. They won only 12 percent of the vote in the 2000, with the crappy Alliance winning 66. These two parties merged to form today's Conservative Party (they were forced to remove "progressive" from their name because the Alliance is anything but).

Now they've won their second minority government in a row. This last election called prematurely, breaking new laws that the Conservatives themselves came up with. Come on people!

If you voted Conservative, fine, not everyone has to have the same opinion as me. If you didn't vote at all (and this time that makes up nearly half of the population) shame on you! It's YOUR fault that we have crap running our country.

The Glucose Test

Well I went in for my glucose test today. This one of those things things they give to pregnant women to torture them. It begins and ends with a blood-sucking needle and involves sitting in the waiting room for an hour and a half (I was not allowed to leave), having skipped breakfast, and forbidden to ingest anything except a rather disgusting orange drink designed to test the limits of my sugar-tolerance. As she was sucking my blood, the nurse said "The things you have to go through to have your baby eh?" I didn't know what to say to that. After all, this bizarre custom was invented by the vampirous medical profession, and I'm sure my baby would eventually be born, happy and healthy, without a 50 ml bottle of medicinal orange Crush.

While I was in the waiting room, I was reading an issue of Chatelaine (my choice was that or Canadian Living) and I noticed that one of the features was written by my Ryerson writing prof, David Hayes. I immediately flipped to the article like the groupie I am. The story was about some women who were horribly tortured by their foster mother as children and, having sent the old woman to jail, were now going after the authorities who knew about the abuse but refused to do anything. It was kind of heavy reading for so early in the morning and left me searching the front of the magazine for a fluffier piece. I'm now remembering that David might actually be reading this blog entry, he used to be a fan, and I heard it through the grapevine that he's still recommending my blog to his class (perhaps as an example of how NOT to make money with ones writing). In that case, nice job on the article David, well-written and emotion-provoking.

Afterwards my husband and I went to the school near our house to vote against the Conservatives. I'm hoping Stéfane Dion will squeak by with a win.

Post-a-day Marathon Day 1

My husband tells me that I should be posting a blog entry every day. He says this will generate interest in my blog (though I'm not sure this was ever my goal). I think he just wants something to read when he gets bored at work and, this being the turkey-day long weekend, he probably won't even read my posts until Tuesday. At any rate, this is today's entry in my new one-post-a-day marathon.

Another thing my husband/critic showed me is this website he heard about on the news: www.voteforenvironment.ca The goal of the site is to keep Harper out of power because (they say) he's bad for the environment. I'm sure you can think of your own reasons not to vote Conservative, but this site prevents you from having to think (bonus!). Just type in your postal code and they'll tell you who to vote for based, for the most part, on which MP has a chance of beating Harper's lacky in your riding. The site is telling me to vote Liberal, which I probably would have done anyway, but in some ridings they'd rather you vote NDP. Or you could vote based on looks. Both strategies are equally likely to change anything.

Voting Based on Looks 2008

I just finished watching the English leadership debate (and, of course, like the keener I am, watched the French one yesterday). It seems like just three seconds ago that the last federal election was being held, but here we are again. This year the networks have chosen to give us a cosy, round table discussion format. Most likely because this year we've added Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and they only have four podiums in the store room. I think my commentary will be of special importance to voters, because while many news media outlets will no doubt comment at length on what these guys (and gal) have said, only I will focus on the important issue: who looks the most prime-ministerial-like.

So, in alphabetical order (for fairness):

Stéphane Dion, Liberal Party (first from the left in the pic above): Stéphane Dion looks like the kid who would get beat up a lot in school, maybe not that tough but very smart. This is because he's quite slender and wears glasses. As a former glasses-wearer I'm always mentally trying-on other people's glasses. I think Stéphane's would look good on me, but I don't they're doing anything for his tough guy image. I also noted how flawless his complexion is; either the make-up and lighting guys are brilliant (and Liberal) or Stéphane has the complexion of a twenty-year-old. So I looked it up: he just turned 53 on Sept 28th. Happy Belated Birthday SD!

Gilles Duceppe, Bloc Quebecois (fifth from the left, but who cares you can't vote for him): I've said it before and I'll say it again: vampire. With Halloween coming up, he might just be the candidate that people are drawn to. Again he wore his pinstripe suit but he looked much more Dracula than mafioso. This is probably because, with the round-table format, he leaned forward a lot like Nosferatu coming in for the kill.

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party (fourth from the left): I couldn't help but stare at the current PM's lips the whole time. Was he wearing lip gloss? Or perhaps he is made of plastic after all and he's starting to melt. He definitely has a joker-grin going on. During the French debate, Steve won hands down for best tie (shiny blue and stripey), but during the English debate the tie situation was more equal across the board. Oh, and he wore a tiny Canadian flag pin, which is good, because it's important for the prime minister to be patriotic.

Jack Layton, NDP (third from left): He still looks like a kindly uncle, even when he's yelling across the table at Steve. People with no hair and mustaches always look extra-friendly. He does agree with the PM on one point at least: fashion. His tie tonight is very similar to Steve's French debate tie.

Elizabeth May, Green Party (second from left): At the French debate, Liz dressed like a school librarian, complete with cardigan and ridiculously over-sized costume jewelry. For the English debate she wore a power suit so you could see she means business. She still looks like a school librarian from the neck up though, with glasses that aren't nearly as fashionable as Stéphane's and uncombed fly-away hair.

So based on both leaders debates, I have decided to vote for....drumroll...undecided. I will admit leftish leanings, so that means no shiny joker lips. Other than that, everyone wore very nice suits, so I'm just not sure.