Gifted Typist

The NeoCons won in Canada last night – but they only won a minority. More than anything, NeoCon Harper wanted his majority so he could let his NeoCon pit bulls out of the pen and push his NeoCon agenda down the throat of Canada. But he didn’t get his majority, did he? And he wanted [...]

Today is election day here. Polls have indicated that Canadians are seriously flirting with the idea of giving a majority to the NeoCons who take their inspiration from their US NeoCon brethren – Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Kristol, etc. The NeoCon leader Stephen Harper has done an admirable job of keeping a lid on the [...]

This is debate night. In Canada we have The Debates, Part II, in English with all five federal leaders. In the States, we have the VP debates: Palin vs Biden. Normally the media likes a tired, cliched boxing metaphor to describe these events In the US debate this may work: (think Rocky theme) “Ding! And [...]

See my Herald column here. The USA has Sarah Palin. They also have Obama. Rock and roll candidates, in other words. Canada on the other hand (yes there is a federal election here too!) has the Canadian charisma triplets – Curly Harper, Larry Dion and Moe Layton. Canadian elections are boring. Canadian politicians lack charisma. [...]

Elections are supposed to be an exercise in the will of the people. But in Canada, elections are apparently an exercise in the will of the politicians and Big Media. In poll after poll, the people of Canada have said that the environment is a top priority, yet the pro-environment Green Party has been refused [...]

Because that’s what I’m in at the moment. PTD. And I need meds. Living in this little finger stuck off the Eastern seaboard of the North American continent, we catch the remnants of these terrible hurricanes that are pummelling the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and southern USA. Since the beginning of August we’ve been in [...]

Oh! You caught me practising our new national anthem. I’m not actually American, but I quite like the American national anthem. And with our minority government about the pull the plug and call an election to try for their majority, all Canadians could soon be singing this anthem. That is because Prime Minister Stephen Harper [...]

There’s nothing like a holiday to kick off the summer. There’s beer, barbeques and fireworks, if the weather permits. People know how to do Canada Day when they’re in their own backyard, but when it comes to public celebrations, Canada Day always seems a little awkward to me.* The trouble is that Canadians aren’t flag-wavers [...]

CBC TV have let the iconic Hockey Night in Canada theme go. To their competitor CTV. If ever there was an institution that united this big country, it was the Hockey Night in Canada theme. For the past 40 years, it opened and closed CBC hockey games. Many of us grew up with it on [...]

… but Rogers is not. That was the situation this morning when I logged on to pay my bill. Because I’m on a personal campaign to slay the rip-off dragons of the Canadian cell phone industry, I take every opportunity to stick a needle in their eye. I signed onto their website this morning after [...]

OK, I admit it. I am no longer an American Idol virgin. I watched the show this year beginning-to-end. And I must say, I enjoyed it, thanks in no small part to the excellent and hilarious post-show deconstructions of BeckEye and Chancelucky. (And of course, Michael Johns who’s demise came far too soon.) But when [...]

Call me a miserable SOB, but I cannot stand the chirpy, cutesy little “Happy Monday!” greeting. Ditto Happy Tuesday-Sunday. I don’t mind Thank God It’s Friday, or (Tell me why) I Don’t Like Mondays. I don’t mind Good Day or Hello, either. I don’t even mind Eff Off, if it’s delivered with a modicum of [...]

That if you get your snow tires taken off on April 23rd, there will be snow in the forecast on April 24th. Sorry I forget the physics genius who worked out the Law of Springtime Road Rubber Change and Frozen Precipitation. But I do know that it is a cause-and-effect action. Change tires = snow. [...]

Why don’t you just make it easy on everyone and tell us the days you WILL be available to teach our kids. You could just say that schools will be open this day and that day and this day. It would be so much easier than splattering our schedules with closings and early dismissals. That’s [...]

This day marks the birth of the modern environmental movement which began in 1970. Back then, the issues were pollution, extinction of wildlife, construction of freeways and dumping raw sewage into the ocean. Today the issues are more focused on global warming and clean energy. Days like Earth Day do create awareness and momentum but [...]