crazed monkey

I’m siding with The G Spot against the US drug czar and his perception that Canadians are ashamed of Chrétien’s jokes about smoking pot once he retires. Sure, it was a bad joke, but so is the wisdom behind our current anti-drug legislation.

I am, however, ashamed of Canadians who post to right-wing American comment forums and beg Americans to invade and “liberate” Canada. In many other countries, such talk would land you behind bars on charges of treason. Me, I’ll be civil and offer some advice. If you people dislike Canada so much, perhaps it would be best for your cause if you coordinated the attack from outside its borders. The rest of us will even help you pack your bags. Hell, we’ll even hide some prime BC bud in your luggage as a surprise to share with your friends at the Immigration and Naturalization Service¹!

¹Now a subsidiary of Homeland Security.

Posted on October 12th, 2003 in canada, politics - No Comments »

Preliminary voter turnout numbers for last Thursday’s election are at a disappointing 57 per cent. By contrast, the recent election in PEI drew 83 per cent of eligible voters despite taking place in the aftermath of a hurricane in which half the province lost power.

Words fail me, fellow Ontarians, they really do.

Posted on October 5th, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »

Smuggy needs a new business partner:

My business partner has listened to several hours of news radio today and nobody is talking about the deaths of our defenders in Afghanistan.

Evidently Smuggy’s “business partner” wasn’t listening to the CBC this morning as they reported the story every hour on the hour in their international news segments. Furthermore, The Current spent its opening half-hour on the topic of the two Canadian soldiers killed in a land-mind accident.

Posted on October 3rd, 2003 in canada, politics - No Comments »

Andrew Sullivan has reviewed David Kay’s report on Iraqi WMDs. While I haven’t read the report, I fully recognise that the media is blowing it out of proportion. It is a preliminary report after all, albeit half a year in the making. As such, I cannot comment on Sullivan’s review. I can, however, take issue with the following:

That [Hussein posed an imminent threat to the world] is not what the administration claimed.

Oh, really? I suppose it wasn’t the President of the United States who said the following in a September 28th, 2002 address (emphasis mine):

The danger to our country is grave and it is growing. The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons, is rebuilding the facilities to make more and, according to the British government, could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes after the order is given.

If that doesn’t spell “imminent threat”, I don’t know what does.

Posted on October 3rd, 2003 in politics, world - No Comments »

The results are in for the 2003 Ontario election:

1. Liberal: 72 seats
2. PC: 24 seats
3. NDP: 7 seats

This is quite close to James Bow’s guesstimate of 70 seats, 24 seats and 9 seats for the Liberals, PCs and NDP, respectively. James’ guess was on par with the more scientific, albeit slightly more accurate, predictions which were touted in the news a few days ago. Good guess-work, James.

It’s no surprise that Michael Bryant won in my riding of St. Paul’s. Similarly, I am not really surprised that Liz Sandals of the Liberals won in Vic’s riding of Guelph-Wellington. I am somewhat surprised by the Liberal win in my parent’s riding of Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge, where Janet Ecker lost in a close race with Liberal candidate and ex-Pickering mayor Wayne Arthurs.

Naturally, my hopes for a Liberal minority have been quashed. It was a pipe dream anyway. What is going to happen to the NDP, however? They increased their popular support but decreased their numbers in the Legislature. This is Howard Hampton’s third go at the office of the Premier. Despite his excellent leadership qualities (personally, I thought he shone through the campaign while the Liberals and PCs took shots at each other), he has failed to garner more seats for his party. He hasn’t show any signs of stepping down tonight, but we’ll see what happens during the coming term.

It will also be interesting to see how the Liberals make out in the next four years. If the province has a large deficit as they claimed during the campaign, how will they balance the books? They promised not to increase taxes on individuals, but have left the door open for increased corporate taxes. Should the economy take a downturn, as it did during the years of Bob Rae and the NDP, the PCs will instantly lay the blame on the Liberals. Nothing less than stellar economic growth will appease the PCs, even though there are already signs the economy is slipping somewhat. Again, we’ll see.

I am of two minds tonight. On the one hand, I am glad the PC government is on the out, but on the other I am not exactly thrilled of the Liberal landslide. Nevertheless, it was an exciting campaign.

Posted on October 2nd, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »