Like A Teapot

I nearly did not vote today. I was dead tired in early evening and thought that things were set (the Liberal would win) and my one vote would not matter. But I managed to get out there and vote. I am certain that I was the last person to show up, just before closing time. Last year, I was the second last. Hehe.

There was a surprise. I did not pay attention to the news and related discussions in the media before hand, since provincial election to me is a small piece of cake and my interest is usually elections at the federal level. So I had forgotten that this election was accompanied with a referendum and was puzzled when I was handed two small pieces of strange looking folded papers. My facial expression caused an observant man behind the desk to point out that one of those was for the referendum. I quickly recalled what that was about when the man pointed to a post on the wall a few feet behind him and said that I could go read up about it. But I was not that ill-informed. I casted both ballots.

To get there in time , I had to use the car, rather than a stroll or bike ride, as previously planned. Too bad, because the next thing I did was to check out the closest community access point to the around-the-city bike trail. Anyway, I discovered that there is no parking space on the street leading to the trail, but it is possible to use the parking lot of the nearby church. It was tempting for me to step out my car and check out a passage of the trial, but it was getting too dark.

I have just turned on the TV. Sure enough, the Liberal won again. Result of the referendum also corresponds to my preference. I got the news from CBC National. It was very brief, the dominating news being an investigative hearing concerning a former Prime Minister. So I still do not know if the guy I voted for won his seat or not. But I am confident that he did. Frankly, I have never been wrong once with major US and Canadian elections in the past eighteen years. I even got it right with the European elections that interested me.

Was ill for a few days. Starting in the wee hours of Saturday night. Have been uncomfortable until now.

All this time while I was running between bed, bathroom, and kitchen, there was a major political crisis unfolding in our national capital. It escalated yesterday when tempers flied and bodies shook on the floor of Parliament. It will reach a climax later today, when the Prime Minister in distraught meets with the Governor General, the Queen's representative in Canada, who had cut her four-day European trip short and returned to Ottawa yesterday. She would make a weighted decision on the fate of his government.

What happens is that three opposition parties, the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, often referred to as the socialists), and the Bloc Québécois, a national party representing the interest of Quebec at the federal level (referred to by some as the separatists) have conspired to overthrow the conservative government. They surprisingly formed a coalition over the weekend, with the intention to vote down the government, using the ongoing economic crisis as a springboard. They have accused the conservatives of inaction, allowing critical industries (auto and forestry) to suffer without timely governmental support.

The current government, led by conservative leader Steven Harper, a very unlikeable figure, is a minority government. They cannot put forth policies without gathering votes from the oppositions. In the present crisis, what the Prime Minister can do and is going to do today is to ask the Governor General for a pirogue, which means suspending parliament for a period of time, so that an upcoming confidence vote in parliament will not materialize and they can stay in power longer.

What decision the Governor General is going to make is most intriguing. Such a thing is very rare. The last time a pirogue was asked was back in the 1970s. All eyes and ears are on Governor General today.

With her approval, the Prime Minister could suspend parliament until late January. She could also choose to do the opposite - acceding to the coalition's request and granting them an interim leadership role.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce has issued a statement expressing dismay at the behaviours of all four political parties, accusing them of creating a political crisis admit an economic one.

So tomorrow is election day and I just found out where to vote. Took me about half an hour on the Internet, because I did not want to move my ass to where my purse was to check my zip code.

Last time I cast a ballot, I resided in a neighbouring town. The zip code, however, is the same! No wonder I got confused and doubted my memory for a moment. After I obtained the address of the polling station, which is a church, I located it on Yahoo map. Luckily it is not far from where I live.

As to who to vote for, what a headache! I have been trying to make a decision for weeks and am still undecided! Such thing never happened to me before; I always knew who I was going to vote for, because I normally vote for the right party. But this time around the leaders of the major political parties are all weird one way or another. The only non-weird one is a newcomer, leader of the Green Party, who is never going to win anything but a strenghened image of her party.

The incumbent MP in my riding is an effective MP but serves in the wrong party. His party may be the most effective in dealing with the economy but is wrong in many other ways. More importantly, the leader of his party is bad for Canada. He is leading the country down a dangerous path destroying Canada's international image along the way. He is also untrustworthy and I want him down.

His biggest contestant, a decent man, gets many of the important things right but is doubtable in his ability to handle the economy. He, moreover, carries a poor image of leadership, which is not going to improve any time soon. Poor guy does not even speak English well. He keeps speaking too fast, even though his speech specialist has advised him to go slower. When he gets excited, he speaks fast. When he speaks fast, he looks like a monkey under siege.

I know many Canadians think the same although they may not have made the monkey connection.

Wow, tonight's French language debate among Canada's five political leaders was really boring!

Each leader had a designated interpreter to provide simultaneous English translation for TV viewers. The moderator had one as well. It is obvious that all but one interpreters are natural French speakers. As they all carry an eccent, the thing became really dull after a while. Remember the debate format was more like a round table discussion. The least dull voice was that of the female interpreter who provided voice for the female Green Party leader; her tone managed to match the leader's fiestiness.

I was watching in bed. In spite of my deep interest, I soon felt asleep.

When the whole world is focusing on the US presidential election, Canada is quietly having another federal election. Incumbent Prime Minister Steven Harper's decision to call for an election now instead of a year from now (breaching a legal statue that he self-righteously instigated when he first came to power which aims at preventing opportunism of the governing party) and his unwillingness to have public debates that include the Green Party leader is despicable, disgusting, and self-damaging.