Hey, hockey is a more positive spin on Canada than the current election - minority governments and Quebec sovereignty raising its head again indeed - very scary. Most of Canada (OK, so maybe not Alberta or British Columbia) bends over backwards to accommodate la belle province, so how can a one issue party keep winning so many seats, and have such a corrosive effect on federal politics? It's as if every election Scotland, California, Canterbury or Western Australia said it would secede from the country.
'The growing prospect of a Conservative minority, or majority, suggests that Quebec will be totally shut out of the governing party since the second-largest province isn't expected to elect a single Conservative.
This means sovereigntists will have even less reason to look to Ottawa: why bother when they have their own government in Quebec City? Even federalists will be queasy when they regard the Harper government and see no reflection of Quebec's more tolerant, liberal social climate. Support for Kyoto, for instance, is higher in Quebec than anywhere; Harper would scrap the accord. The Libs are running newspaper ads underscoring the dangers of a Conservative win, but ads aren't leadership. Martin should be raising the alarm himself — because the last thing this country wants, or needs, is another unity crisis.'
- Susan Riley, Ottawa Citizen journalist weblog - emphasis my own
Hmm, the Bloc's leader, Duceppe, says that the Tories and Libs have nothing to offer Quebec - yes, let's all have a one party dictatorship instead LOL. Eh, had enough of the election campaign as I can stand - onwards and upwards, other international stories please!
Venus is transitting - yay. LOL tape it for me and I will watch it on the net afterwards most probably. It's a black dot against the Sun, woo freaking hoo LOL. No, I'm being unfair I guess, these scientists spend years waiting for something like this, and put so much research into giving us, Joe Public, the information about it, that it is kind of like art, I would love to do it, but hmm tertiary education yeah, change subject subtly LOL. Actually, on the TV at the moment, there is a scientist talking about it - I love the enthusiasm of scientists talking about their favourite obscure thing...
Hmm, this one is interesting - about the myths that some kids have about the internet. Gives you HIV, abducted by aliens, that hackers are paedophiles, and umm blindness? That last one especially kids, nothing causes it that isn't already in your system (ie genetics) or by someone physically attacking your eye. LOL the internet, the new masturbation blindness story. Hmm something more serious is getting bullied by text messaging, and the kids being quiet about it rather than lose phone privileges.
Hmm, one in five couples gets into debt after taking out loans to pay for weddings. In the UK, at least. Jennifer Lopez better get those pre-nups up to date LOL. Average wedding costs fifteen thousand POUNDS? What the hell is average about that??
Twenty three years ago today, Israel bombed that Iraqi nuclear reactor. Back in the days of Reagan sending Rumsfeld over to shake hands with Saddam, fighting against Axis of Evil Infidel Iran. More from the History archive, here is an account of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Back when Communism looked like a natural counterpoint to the West - I remember watching the news reports from China back then. Didn't really horrify me or anything, thought it was a shame but didn't horrify me (from memory at least). When China does go belly up, it will go belly up in a big way.
That's it for the first diary swing of the day. Nothing much in the New York Times that I would think of posting.
Spot ya again soon
Go Flames Go
Paul
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