election websites

Worried that the conservatives are going to win a majority government? (you really shouldn't be, because they won't) But in order to make sure your vote is maximized to its fullest, you can check out this website. It lets you know whos expected to win, the history of the riding, and the amount of votes a candidate needs to be even in the running.

So I reccomend checking out the site, find out which riding you are in, and then deciding your vote that way. If the NDP were within 15% of winning the riding during the previous election, then vote for them. If it is close between the Liberals and Conservatives, then pick your poison. (note one of these poisons hates that nice gay person you know, and loves to see more homeless people on the street). If it is an obvious Liberal win (like Westmount) then you can do whatever you want with your vote. I reccomend voting for one of those fringe parties because they will appreciate it the most. That or just stay in somewhere warm, and just watch the whole process from the comfort of your home.

I found this an interesting page on the CBC Canada Votes website. With the exception of a couple crappy news papers, everyone is endorsing the NDP.

I am a Romantic with a sense of irony

One of my favorite poets died the other day. Montreal's Irving Layton (no relation to the NDP's Jack Layton) was a friend of my other favorite poets: Al Purdy and Leonard Cohen. He was also a Political Science professor at my university Sir George Williams College (now Concordia University). I personally like alot of his poems because they are witty, easily accessible, political and very enjoyable.

A poem from his book of love poems.

FAREWELL

She's gone. The one I swore up and down
to give a Greek villa and six children
if she married me, a trip around the world
to the moon, Mars, Venus
anywhere so that I could be with her
so great was the fire in my head.
in the sleeved arms that ached to hold her.

She's gone. The one that made me turn
restlessly from side to side each
sleepless night, thinking of her cool naked limbs
curled up on the love stained sheets,
her red lips and long black lashes,
her smiles, her pouts, her sexy gestures,
the perfection of her small feet.

She's gone, whose laughter made me forget
the decorum of grey hairs,
children, friends, literary foes
the importance of being Trudeau, Pompidou, Spiro Agnew
or even the illustrious dust of Uncle Ho.
Let the whole world be dammed, I said
and let the dead marry off the dead.

She's gone in whose arms I rose
resurrected after the third lay;
peace and wild joy and laughter were mine
for awhile but she's gone, gone in a bus
that with a snort has taken her far away
while the grey dust that settles over me
swirls and twirls like the ghost of an empty day.

hello

well the holidays are over, christmas and new years were quite the good time, hopefully ill have some pictures to post in the future. A new semestar of school is upon us, and in a weeks time I should have my new computer.

in the news! The real campaigning begins now for the political parties of Canada, and recently a poll has placed the Conservatives ahead of the Liberals, this is a Toronto Star poll I might mention, a traditonally Liberal newspaper. Anyone who remembers the last election will recall that this happened, and resulted in a large quantity of female voters voting Liberal, out of fear of a Conservative government. It seems this time however the public response won't be very large, as the average Canadian understands that no matter whats happening, a minority government is going to be the outcome, so people are feeling less inclined to vote out of fear. For all of you in Toronto ridings the NDP support is incredibly high even in districts where support has been traditionally low. In my brother's riding of Parkdale/High Park Peggy Nash even has a great chance of winning, this is caused by a split in the Conservative Liberal vote, and that Liberal candidate Sam Bulte has been caught up in illgeal campaign finacing contraversy. This is caused by illegal campaign contributions from Canada's entertainment industry. It seems the Canadian Recoding Industry Association has been specfically donating money to her inorder to try and influence Canadian copywright laws. (aka adopting ones similar to Americas) Just another example of crooked liberal cronieism.

I find it interesting that when I mention the fact that Germany is the world's largest exporting country according to the WTO, even greater then China or America. This is in large part to German arms trade, a stellar example appears in the news today as Germany is selling more of its submarines to Israel. Germany has the 5th largest GDP in the world at $2.298 trillion dollars.

anyhow more posting in the future. Side note: The new NDP advertisment is fucking terrible.