Back in Touch

I'm in New Brunswick for July. 

As I lay in bed I hunt a lone mosquito. I spy both a skunk and a raccoon as they eat cat food off the front deck. I gaze upon hawks, herons and hummingbirds. I hear the rain pelting the window. I feel the cool wet grass on my feet. I sense the wind rustling the leaves. I pick strawberries and cherries. I wait to rise as the morning birds greet me. I watch a nearly full moon shine on the river. I paddle against the tide and then drift with it back home. I eat supper in the open air. I pee in the field. I dodge slugs and worms as I run. I drink water from the well. I savour deep breaths.

Hide 'n Seek

My son's favorite game is hide 'n seek. Blaise's favorite part is finding the hiding spot, being found is secondary as he'll usually pop out before being found. "Clounting" is also a key feature as he enjoys doing this on a regular basis whether there is a game on or not. Acadia loves to tag along with either her brother or me, usually giving away the hiding spot if she is hiding or watching while she is supposed to be counting as the other hides.

We've recently expanded the territory to all three levels. I get left in my spot for long spells so I hide with a book now.

Winnebago, Cherokee, Acadia, Touareg, et al.

This has always bothered me: corporations who take existing proper names and trademark them. Today, I've chosen the transportation industry to be my whipping boy.

• More than 40 years ago a recreational vehicle was made that really defined RVs for years to come. It decided to take the name from the midwestern Ho-Chunk Native Americans who were at one time called the Winnebago (also where we get the name for Winnipeg).
• In 1974, Jeep decided to name their new SUV after another North American Tribe called the Cherokee.
• Two years ago, GMC rolled out their new SUV adopting the name of the oldest French Canadian colony: Acadia.
• Volkswagon used the same method in choosing the name for their 2003 SUV, this time going to the north African Tuareg people for the Touareg.

You may think that I'm being too sensitive. My reason for offense is that these corporations really have no right to copyright a people group's name and heritage. Names are important. If the first thing you think of when you hear the word "Cherokee" is a Jeep SUV, then the Cherokee have lost a part of their distinction as a culture. 

You may be in the minority in knowing who the Tuareg or Winnebago are and think I'm off my rocker. What if you were Tuareg and whenever someone asked you who you were they would say "Oh, like the VW?"

I, being of Acadian descent, feel wronged that GMC has taken a word that makes up a part of my identity and has no connection to the General Motors Corporation in order to make a familiar sounding product name that will forever be associated with Acadia. 

A search of "Acadia" in Google yields the following results today:

• Acadia University (an anglophone university in Nova Scotia)
• an entry in Wikipedia on the colony of Acadia
• GMC Acadia
• Association for Computer Aided Design In Architecture
  
• History of Champlain in Acadia
• an entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia
• an association of five First Nation reserves in Nova Scotia
• and finally Acadia Pharmaceuticals

My issues are these: How long before the original meaning of Acadia makes it to the bottom of the list and corporations dominate? Will it take very long for most identifying people groups' names to be incorporated as trademark names for multinational corporations? What say should people have over the use of their corporate proper name by corporations?*  How can minority cultures maintain their identity in this current climate dominated financially by large corporations (bailouts with tax money for big business, Wal*Marts swallowing local businesses, multinational oil companies (war), etc.) let alone maintain their name.

*we know that individuals' names are protected - Ford can't call their next vehicle the "Michael Jackson" or the "Barack Obama"

Free Music

I was just exploring some music that a friend exposed me to a few months back and came upon this website of the choir Scala. They are a girls choir from Belgium who have traditionally sung pop songs a cappella / just piano accompanied. Great sound and great arrangements. So the website offers their latest album as a free download. Sweet.

Then, right around the same time, I discovered k-os was coming to Calgary on his rapidfire cross-Canada Yes! Karma tour. Turns out they are free concerts. So I went. It was an optional donation deal. If you donated something, you'd get a free CD of his latest album remixed by fans. It was a great show and a friend even caught me on the road on the way for a ride.

Cheers! to FREE music!

Leonard Live

On April 26, I paid a lot of money to see a 74-year-old Leonard Cohen sing for 3 hours. I've seen some good concerts in my lifetime: U2, Barenaked Ladies, Bob Dylan, La Bottine Souriante, Audio Adrenaline, Switchfoot, dc Talk, Sam Roberts, Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings, Burlap to Cashmere, Habib Koité to note a few of the best. I am amazed to say it, but Leonard Cohen blew everyone out of the water.

My mom accompanied me to the concert at Jack Singer Hall. Everyone in our area was giddy with excitement and the entire hall gave Cohen a standing ovation when he bounded onto the stage at 8 pm.

He began nearly every song on his knees. His band and back up singers were stellar. His voice was the best I have ever heard it, even comparing it to all of his albums. A month later, I can scarcely find words to describe the experience other than it was a holy time.

1. Dance Me to the End Of Love
2. The Future
3. Ain't No Cure For Love
4. Bird on the Wire
5. Everybody Knows
6. In My Secret Life
7. Who By Fire
8. Chelsea Hotel No. 2
9. Waiting for the Miracle
10. Anthem
11. Tower of Song
12. Suzanne
13. The Gypsy's Wife
14. The Partisan
15. Boogie Street (sung by Sharon Robinson)
16. Hallelujah
17. I'm Your Man
18. A Thousand Kisses Deep (recitation)
19. Take This Waltz
20. So Long, Marianne
21. First We Take Manhattan
22. Famous Blue Raincoat
23. Sisters of Mercy
24. If It Be Your Will (sung by the Webb sisters)
25. Closing Time
26. I Tried to Leave You
27. Whither Thou Goest (unison)

The highlights for me were Take This Waltz (an hommage to Federico García Lorca), If It Be Your Will, and The Partisan.

Listen to some songs and catch some video of the London concert.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

I celebrate my 33rd year today with the help of dozens of people. Primarily those closest to me who seem to be more excited about making my day special than I am.

We had a little party at my mom's house on Saturday night with my sister's family and mine. Mom made curries. I got some pretty sweet movies too (and underwear and drinking glasses). Blaise gave me his first personally chosen gift: a coffee mug. I tell ya, it's gonna be a special mug for the rest of my life.

My kids made a Guinness Chocolate cake (my wife was the mastermind/supervisor).

I got 70 birthday wishes on Facebook and a cake at work today too.

Amber has made the day the best though. She's awesome - made me a tremendous breakfast and supper and even let me go see Che part 2 tonight as I'm busy the next 3 nights and it might not be in theatres after Thursday. I love her so.

Virtual Protestor

So, Bush II is coming to Calgary tomorrow and sadly I'm working during the event. Otherwise, I would love to attend a protest event downtown. I was thinking up some slogans on my way to work this morning that I could present on a placard:

Learn to Read

91,121+ dead civilians in Iraq

Great job! The wool is still over everyone's eyes!

Enjoy the banquet. The oil producers of Alberta

owe you a debt of gratitude for spiking the

price of oil while you were president.

Cheney, your monkey is in Calgary if you still need him

When Bush visited Guatemala in 2007, a bunch of Mayan priests performed a cleansing ritual to rid the country of the evil spirits after he left. That and the price of corn doubled.

Ginger Brew

I've always been a fan of ginger beer.* Even when I was little, I would pick out the Jamaican ginger beer as my treat if we were in town. It burns. And I like it.

Ginger root is on sale and so I buy some. I tell Amber how I would like to learn how to make ginger beer and she tells me I should look online. Of course! The world is at my fingertips. I find a recipe:

Ginger : Water : Sugar : Yeast : Lemon

Seal it in a bottle for 24-48 hours and voilá!

Notice how it deflated after I opened it. Some serious pressure built up in there.

The kids and Amber really liked it. I think it was too lemony and not gingery enough. I'll be making more batches in the future.

*Not to be confused with its wimpy cousin ginger ale.

Calgary ZOO

We finally went to the zoo last weekend. 4 1/2 hours of the zoo. It was awesome, though we were pretty exhausted at the end.

Acadia has been on a giraffe kick for the past couple months. She continually asks to see the giraffe video we have on an episode of the Rick Mercer Report when he visits the Toronto Zoo. The first destination was then to see the giraffes. They are quite noble/bizarre creatures up close. Those tongues are freakier than the long necks. Acadia seemed more confused than in awe of these beasts, but she liked them in the end.

Blaise was awesome! He picked up the little info phones all the time and listened carefully to the voice at the other end explaining all about the animals.

His favorite animal out of all was the fish. Even after seeing camels and elephants and anteaters and lions, the fish were the best. The pet store has fish.

I liked the lions...

and the giant anteaters... 

and the stork...

and the andean condor...

and the moose.

The kids really liked the ducks. There are ducks everywhere! Maybe I should go to the zoo alone next time.

Some other animals that were super wicked awesome cool were the feathertail glider, the alpine ibex, and the cotton-top tamarin (a real rockstar!).

The Weepies / Jon Foreman

Thought I would highlight two of the albums that have been dominating my playlists over the past couple months. The first is a quadruple e.p. set by Jon Foreman, the frontman for Switchfoot. The 24 song album is almost entirely acoustic and many of them emulate Old Testament prophetic verse. Truly some of the most beautiful music ever written. Thanks to Shine FM's Dean Jones (my bro-in-law) for forcefeeding it to me.

The weepies were introduced to me by Chris, a teacher in Regina I met in Guatemala and maintained close ties with. Again, just beautiful music. It's basically a couple who write and sing folk style music. I guess they hit it big a couple years ago and have been going strong. She has a very distinct voice.

Antarctica, my only living relative
Antarctica, I can't wait anymore

My New Hope Church

It's no secret to many of my friends that I have nursed a discontent with the institution of the Christian church in North America for several years now. There are a variety of reasons for my feelings: use of funds for the local body and their own comfort, lack of identity or vision, political alignment concerning certain issues, disinterest in the rest of the world, poor study and teaching of the Bible, a fundamentalist understanding of the Bible's role, and a general slacker attitude towards Christ's call on each of our lives.

It shouldn't surprise anyone then that it took some time for Amber and I to actually look for a church in our new city. I could always make the excuse that we were out of town every other week visiting family in Red Deer or Edmonton. But really, I wasn't in a hurry to be disappointed. The desire to be part of a church was there, but not any of the ones I have visited in the past (no offense intended).

Finally, at the end of January, after not leaving the city for a few weeks, we decided it was time to check out one of the emergent church listed on a website: New Hope Church. Amber found it online and told me that some recent sermons preached had taken a look at how God's messages could be found in Bob Dylan, Feist, and Coldplay's music.

New Hope has had a strange effect on me. Those weeks I can't attend, I am very disappointed that I have to miss the service. This has never been an issue for me, in fact taking a break from church has been great! Now, I can't wait for each service to come around and missing church is avoided if at all possible - even last weekend when Amber had the car on a sisters' weekend, I secured a ride with a friend from church. If they didn't work out, I was looking at taking a cab ($45 round trip) or public transit (just over 2.5 hours round trip).

So, what is it that's is so bewitching about this church? 

• They meet in a community centre which means they don't have a lot of the overhead costs or the preoccupation of having their own building. It also doesn't sit empty all week. 
• Teaching is a serious part of their purpose. I was invited after just a few weeks to attend a 7 week course outlining some of the core teachings of the church and how those teachings influence how church is done at New Hope specifically.
  
• The sermons are relevant, poetic, honest, and God seeking (meaning there is some mystery left to Him rather than pure explanation). John van Sloten is the senior pastor there and so far I've been transfixed by the messages on finding God in The Dark Knight (the first service we went to) and Photography (a three week series), on the Seven Deadly Relational Sins, and a service about the church's current mission project in Malawi. All the sermons are available to listen to or watch on their website.
• It's small. Just 200 or so attendees which makes it easier to get to know the people. A few students from my school attend too.
• Their focus on missions as a local church is palpable. They are community focused and now through initiatives in the congregation they are sending a group of four people to Malawi to establish a relationship with a village down there that we can cooperate with.
• The music worship is not overproduced, but it's also very focused on God and well rehearsed. There is also a strong emphasis on art and expression. Because the congregation was born out of a conservative and liturgical denomination, there isn't a lot of hand raising and dancing (very little in fact), let alone swaying to the music. I'm quite fine with that because I don't raise my hands much either. I sway though.
• The kids programs are great too. For Acadia's class(<3),>
• Coffee, tea, bagels, and tables at the back of the gym keep it all informal. They also have several efforts for basic environmental responsibility. There are film nights, little cafés where people can play tunes, and a general atmosphere of community and a love of beauty.

I was genuinely surprised that the church espoused a strong Calvinist theology, in fact the denomination (Christian Reformed Church) to which it is aligned is based almost entirely on John Calvin's theology. While I have a deep respect for all reformers, including Calvin, the Calvinist/Augustinian doctrine of predestination* is still very sour to me. What is refreshing however is that this church does not teach this aspect of Calvinism (from what I understand anyhow), but rather the aspect that because God is the creator of all things, goodness can be found in all things, even though they are mere shadows of what they once were intended to be.

Before, I was discontent with several aspects of each church I attended and consequently allowed myself a certain level of inactivity because I judged the church inadequate or misguided. Now that I don't have this excuse, I must accept full participation. I look forward to it.

*The doctrine of predestination teaches that God chooses some to be saved and some not to be saved. While the basis for it is beautiful - that it is the good that God created within us that responds to God's invitation to be saved and therefore all God's doing - the other side is quite ugly that God intends for many to be lost and that it isn't their choice but His. Bring on the comments.

Postulate: If TicketMaster, Then WereSlaves

A short while ago, Sam Roberts was in town and Amber and I decided it was high time for a date. Tickets were only $30.50 each and so we saw this as a great opportunity. I bought the tickets just a couple days in advance and so we got some of the last ones, way up top in the back row. As I paid for them on TicketMaster, I noticed that besides the GST there was a $10 per ticket charge for using TicketMaster. That's 33% more than what the ticket was worth. The Jubilee Auditorium where the concert was held has 2526 seats meaning TM could have grossed over $25,000 from this one concert. I know there are costs related to each event, but this is really quite excessive. I wonder if Sam Roberts himself, the reason for the concert, the writer of all the songs performed, earned as much as that.

What about the gross (or rather disgusting) earnings for a stadium event that can fit 30,000 people? $0.3 million just for selling the tickets? Brutal!

Concerts are just ridiculously priced as far as I'm concerned. Leonard Cohen is coming to Calgary. I've been a fan for almost 20 years. I own all of his albums. But $100 (plus GST and TM fees) for nosebleeders or $250+ for good seats just isn't worth it.

The artists deserve a little slap on the wrists too. Why do they use TicketMaster to begin with when they know their fans are being extorted in such a gruesome way?

Then there are the scalpers... ugh.

Sam rocked the house though. Great show.

Violence in Central Alberta

I heard this story on the radio coming home this afternoon. A woman was murdered in Delburne, east of Red Deer, allegedly by her estranged spouse last week. Not too long ago, the man is alleged to have sexually assaulted the same woman while holding a gun. An emergency protection order had been placed against the man for this charge, but it doesn't appear to have worked. I don't get it. Don't they imprison people when they are charged with a violent act and there is a chance of reoffending?

This follows another grisly murder in Red Deer a couple weeks back of a young single mom allegedly by her boyfriend. The woman's three year old son witnessed the crime.

Edmonton and Calgary have two of the top four murder rates in Canada.

I must adjust my thoughts on violence in Canada vs. Guatemala a little.

Facebook Forced Me

25 random things about me. If you've been tagged on FACEBOOK, then you're supposed to make a list too.

1. I miss having long hair.

2. I am currently in the middle of 10 books.

3. I am a very slow reader.

4. Since April 15, 2007, I have watched 299 movies and have blogged about them all (except the last 6 which I plan on doing this weekend).

5. Math was always my favorite subject in school and now I teach Pure Math 10.

6. I am a worst case scenario thinker. I discovered this on my first day cycling across Canada.

7. I have owned 3 different models of the iMac (G4, G5, Intel Duo Core)

8. Since the age of 12 I have kept longer fingernails on my right hand so that I could play classical guitar.

9. I get very worked up about politics because most people aren't aware of underlying issues that aren't discussed in the media.

10. I am a non-denominational Christian.

11. I was the yearbook co-editor of my school in grade 11.

12. I turned down a large scholarship at a prestigious Canadian university and went to Canadian University College instead.

13. My favorite food is fresh cherries. I've eaten them once in the last 3.5 years.

14. I've spent 4 years of my life living on foreign soil.

15. I've played tuba, trombone, and french horn in 5 different concert bands.

16. I want to live on a commune. I want this badly. That was even my goal stated in my grade 11 yearbook.

17. Making lists is enormously enjoyable.

18. I do my own taxes. And Amber's too. I learned how to do them while observing a low level high school math class when I was training to become a teacher.

19. This is my fourth year teaching in Canada and the only course I've taught twice is grade 10 math. I'm a pro at first year teaching.

20. My favorite composer is Jean Sibelius - an alcoholic Finn who wrote melancholy symphonies and tone poems.

21. Nehemiah is my favorite book of the Bible. My favorite verse is John 21:25

22. I manage money quite well.

23. My favorite contemporary author is Douglas Coupland.

24. I cry easily. Guatemala was tough.

25. I am the same height as my wife.

Zipped Up

About 3 weeks ago, I signed up for Zip.ca, an online DVD rental site. I pay $25/month and they mail me DVDs with prepaid envelopes to mail the DVDs back. I can have up to 3 films at a time and when I finish viewing one, I mail it back and they send me one the same day (I notify them on the website that I put it in the mail). 

It's been working great! I've watched 7 movies so far - several of which would not even be available at my local video store. Plus there are huge savings. I can easily watch 10 films in a month from zip.ca. That's $2.50 per movie whereas locally I would pay $5 (the same as the going cost to buy a previously viewed movie!). It's also tremendously convenient. I can keep the movies for as long as I like (they actually make more money if I take a long time to watch it). They come right to my door and then I drop them off in a local mail slot on my way to work in the mornings.

The selection is really what I celebrate. They have a multitude of old classics, foreign films, documentaries, and best of all the Criterion Collection. I simply pick the movies I want to watch - I've got 66 in the queue now - and put them in the order I'd like to receive them. They do their best to send them in that order (I usually get movies from my top 10). 

To see what I've been watching lately, check out Zaak Watches Movies (by himself).

Oklahoma Citizen's Test

(thanks to Ty for this one)

MR Ducks

MR Not Ducks

OSAR CM Wangs

O MR Ducks

Nice Touch, Life Touch

Notice anything?



Don't professional portraiteers have special gear for avoiding glare like this?

I passed on the portrait package.

Ministry Training on Christian Microfinance and Microenterprise Development

This past fall I took a second online course (first one) from the Chalmers Center in order to further my knowledge of international development. As the title spells out, the seven week course explained the principles of creating financing opportunities and enterprise training opportunities among the world's poor.

There are three main ways that this is done:

• Providing funds through micro loans, rotating funds, or savings opportunities
  
• Partnering with large scale microfinanciers and microenterprise developers
• Promoting either of the opportunities with existing organizations

These are a few points I thought I would share, and this is by no means a comprehensive overview of the course. In the research that I looked over, microfinance (MF) and microenterprise development (MED) endeavors were most successful in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa while in Central and South America there was not nearly the success. My very generalized reasoning for the cause of this disparaging difference is the sense of pride that individuals in the first three continents have for repaying loans as compared to the lack of trust among the Latin American communities.

Another point that really affected me is how MF and MED suddenly, in the past decade, became considered the cure all for missions and development in the two thirds world. There are many wrong ways to implement this and many organizations have done more harm than good as everyone rushed to get their programs in place to receive support from the first world - any organization that wasn't doing this was clearly knocking on the wrong door.

The target for MF and MED in almost all cases was women. Men felt more comfortable defaulting on loans or misusing the funds. Women felt more responsible for repayment and also took more advantage of the opportunities to feed their family and pay for other essentials.

In the end, I was certainly inspired by the success stories. The poor can be a fiercely determined and innovative strata of society, even when faced with nearly insurmountable odds.

Top 10 R.E.M. Songs

I've been a fan of the Athens, Georgia band since grade ten when a classmate I was tutoring in math made me a tape of Out of Time (thanks Jennifer!). Depending on the day, I might call them my favorite band. I managed to ruthlessly narrow my favorite songs down to 23 and now down to 10. The best of R.E.M. as far as I'm concerned:

1. So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) (Reckoning)
2. Fall on Me (Life's Rich Pageant)
3. Shaking Through (Murmur)
4. Man-Sized Wreath (Accelerate)
5. World Leader Pretend (Green)
6. Welcome to the Occupation (Document)
7. Bang and Blame (Monster)
8. Country Feedback (Out Of Time)
9. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (Automatic for the People)
10. Electrolite (New Adventures in Hi-Fi)

Yes, I think Apple should give me some kind of renumeration for so shamelessly promoting their store here.

Exciting Hockey

My brother-in-law Dean invited me to see the Oilers last night. It had been over 4 years since I had been to one and it was the same match up: Edmonton vs. Dallas. The game was awesome - plenty of scoring opportunities, some great fights, super goaltending, and the Oilers even won 4-1.

Oddly enough though, the most exciting thing happened just before the game started. We had been watching the Canadian National Junior team play the semi-final against Russia before we drove to Rexall Place. The score had been 3-3 when we left, and then it was 4-4 when we got to the arena. They had the game playing on the jumbotron as we were seated and then Russia scored with 2:20 left in the game. We figured it was over and the crowd was pretty subdued as we watched the puck go back and forth. Canada pulled their goalie with 1:20 left and Russia just missed and empty netter as the puck was iced; the face off ending up in the Russian zone. Then, Canada scored with 5.4 seconds left on the clock. The spectators in our coliseum went nuts!

The Oilers game started at that time and we just wanted to watch the overtime of the junior game. So, we craned our necks and watched the TV in the box behind our row of seats. 10 minutes of overtime passed quickly with no score, and then the shoot out. We watched the shots on the same small TVs and a small crowd cheered after Canada scored twice and Russia didn't score in the same number of opportunities. They made an announcement a little later at the coliseum and the crowd went nuts again. Great fun!

I'm going to a Flames vs. Blues game next week too.

Driving in on Queen Elizabeth II

I've driven Hwy 2 (Queen Elizabeth II highway between Edmonton & Calgary) dozens upon dozens of times. I drove it this afternoon after visiting my sister, bro-in-law, and niece. 

Today, our sunroof decided to start acting up and spontaneously opened about 10 times between Red Deer and Airdrie. Funny car. Ha ha. ha. 

Then, as we approached Airdrie, a shovel flew out of a small trailer behind a pickup truck. The shovel landed with some sparks ahead of us and bounced onto the shoulder on the left as I braked with plenty of room. Just a little bit further ahead and it would have sailed into our windshield.

Usually, the drive is uneventful and drab, especially in the winter. But...

In 5 days, it will be 9 years since I crashed my first car on this same highway. I was picking up a friend at the airport just before university classes reconvened at CUC. My car, which had summer tires on..., sailed off the second Leduc overpass heading north, across the median into oncoming traffic which were 2 tractor trailers. The first one flew by as I spun. Then my trunk connected with the second trailer's fuel tank. This sent me spinning counter clockwise and we (my friend Kris and I) finally halted in the middle of southbound Hwy 2. I put the car into reverse and backed on the the shoulder. My trunk was shaved right off and the cops were on scene within minutes, as were some other friends who were returning from the airport. 

My car was totaled. My insurance went up.

63 Hours with the Fishers

I don't watch much TV. When I get the chance, I'll watch Jeopardy or the news. I'm more of a movie guy. When we got back from Guatemala, we lived with my mom. She has the first season of Six Feet Under, an HBO series that ran from 2001-2005. Amber and I started watching it, along with Amber's sister April. Then my friend Kurt told me on the phone that I should try and watch all 5 seasons of the show. 

I was hooked from the get go. The Fisher family runs a funeral home. Faced with death on a daily basis doesn't prepare them for the death of the patriarch, nor with dealing with life. The five seasons span an in depth narrative on life, death, addictions, love, sex, marriage, family, parenthood, art, politics, culture, and religion. The interchange between characters is earthy and familiar generating a seriously sweet pathos.

I highly recommend the series. Rated R.

We finished the final episode on the evening of Amber's birthday last Friday.

Le Gouvernement

I haven't blogged in ages. This, I can't pass up.

I studied political science and government a bit in university when I got my B.A. in history. I understand the Canadian political system and how it works. Because of this, it is so painful for me to listen to Steven Harper speak about the his government's defeat because he is appealing to people's basest and most ignorant fears: "the country will fall apart! the separatists will cause Canada to split! a coalition government is not democratic! members of the opposition parties do not have a right to lead the country! run for your lives!!!" All the political scientists are saying that a coalition is fair and legal, but the PM doesn't think so.

In fact, P.M. Harper is absolutely wrong on all of these counts. Many other parliamentary governments all over the world operate successfully with coalition governments. It's really the first leader who presents a viable majority to the head of state (in our case it's the governor general) who gets to be P.M. Take this information from wikipedia:

Countries which often operate with coalition cabinets include: the Nordic countries [Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark], the Benelux [Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg] countries, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Israel, Pakistan and India. Switzerland has been ruled by a loose coalition of the four strongest parties in parliament since 1959, called the "Magic Formula".

Jeepers! Those countries must be falling apart!!! We just don't get it. We don't operate the same as our neighbours to the south.

The Bloc Québecois knows that they do not have enough support even within their own province to separate from Canada, so the separation fear is illegitimate.

Too many Canadians are simply not informed and they don't care when it matters (59% voter turnout). We are not a republic. We don't elect a president, we elect local representatives and it's their job to decide who gets to lead, not ours. We didn't elect Kim Campbell to be Prime Minister, she was chosen by party officials to take over for Mulroney when he stepped down (the same way Paul Martin got in after Chretien). So, was it "undemocratic" for Campbell to have been named the first woman Prime Minister without getting a mandate from the people to be the P.M? Nope. It's just how the system works. We either accept it or change it.

By the way, I don't like the current system. I'm pro-proportional representation. It forces parties to work together (cooperation has never been in the vocabulary of Parliamentarians) and gives a much more accurate representation of voters. Check out this snazzy *table I put together:

*I went with a slate of electors by province, not by the whole country as that might compromise local parties like the BQ and local representation. I also had to compensate for the two independent MPs as you can't have a slate of independent electors (you must either join or form a party in order to run).

As you can see, it represents the country much more accurately based on popular vote. Hey, and look! The Greens have 20 seats! The BQ has 20 fewer seats and the "coalition" together with the Greens (assuming they would join the coalition) have enough seats (161) to form a majority - without the support of the Bloc (for those afraid of those scary separatists).

Parties are forced to cooperate with other parties and it would be quite rare to pull off a majority government. Remember 1993? Conservatives got 16% of the popular vote, but only got 2 seats (should have been closer to 48) whereas the Bloc Québequois got 13.5% of the vote and got 54 seats. The Liberals got a huge majority government with only 41% of the vote. This system doesn't fairly represent the people, nor does it encourage parties to work together on policy.

A word on public funding of political parties. I like it. It's $1 per Canadian per election. It ensures that parties that are supported by poorer people are not left in the dust by parties supported by richer people or corporations. Plus, if people realize that they are paying for the election and that their dollar will go to one of the parties, they might as well go out and vote and send your money to the party of your choice!

Finally, a word on Dr. Stéphane Dion, leader of the proposed coalition. Those who do not like him, mock him. They mock his English accent (even though it's better than Harper's French one). They mock his athletic ineptitude. They call him schoolyard names whenever possible. I think this is extremely undemocratic. He is an elected member of Parliament in his riding. Dion was nominated to be the leader of the Liberal party by his peers. There is a reason for the tradition of titling the leaders of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition "Honourable." He represents a large portion of Canadians. So, please, let's ease up on the mocking. You may disagree with him, but he has earned the right to lead according to the rules and according to those who elected him.

Don't get me started on the whole economic meltdown...

Love in the Brisk November air

Amber and I got another date as working guests at our friend Shane's wedding. I filmed their nuptials. He and Chrystal were wed at Fort Edmonton Park (where she worked for the summer as one of those old fashioned characters who churns butter or shoes horses). We were outside for a good portion of the time filming them being photographed and our faces numbed as a result.

They were married in a lovely little Anglican church and the reception took place at the neighbouring Hotel Selkirk.

I squeezed into my own wedding suit for the event.

Got to visit with some old buddies too. 

Deathtrap

On October 31, Amber and I got to go on a date. But my mom was there too. But she wasn't really with us, she was on the stage. 

We attended Ignition Theatre's production of Deathtrap on the Matchbox stage. The Red Deer Express had this to say of my mom's performance:

Debby Allan brings her comedic strengths to Deathtrap as Sidney's nosy, psychic neighbour Helga Ten Dorp. Allen, who like Falk and Newton are well-known to Central Alberta Theatre audiences, doesn't miss a beat showcasing her engaging and energetic talents in a fresh theatrical setting.

Congrats mom! We enjoyed the show, even though we may have soiled ourselves.