Monday, April 30, 2007

Papineau Liberals show Justin Trudeau true Grit

Despite a possible Greek-Italian gangup on Justin in the lower middle class, northeast side of town, Trudeau's Papineau Liberals gave it their full true Grit, with more than half going to him on the first ballot at 54 per cent of the 1,266 ballots cast and giving Bloc Québécois MP Vivian Barbot a little younger Liberal opponent than the former foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew she defeated last election!

Ethnic voting blocs are tough to trump, but they are especially made tougher when done in the ethically diverse province of Québec, where French is the key, yet anything but is now the fashion and how so with Trudeau. He needs to be given credit where it is due for himself, he went full force into a political firefight, having no real political training behind him, having only his namesake and environmental friendly causes behind him to go and win a major party nomination as its candidate of record in the upcoming election all at a tender age of 35. As Entertainment Tonight declared earlier this week, 30 is the new 20 in Hollywood, yet up here in Canada, one can be forgiven to believe 50 is the new 25, as astrological age doesn't drastically change ones outlook on life and as this seems to be the going rule and current style for young Justin.

Even more interestingly, Trudeau's support of a left of centre, unilingual and English-bred Manitoban in Gerard Kennedy and original upscale riding of Outremont where he lives seems to have given him a boost amongst federalists in the riding, first, he's not Québécois, then he supports those who aren't Québécois and now it all seems okay by those who are Québécois - the natural governing Liberal Party of Canada has temporarily cracked its previously politically protected shell - but yet for how long?

Saturday, April 28, 2007

BQ goes ADQ: Oui Autonomie et Non Référendum

Christiane Gagnon BQ goes ADQ: Oui Autonomie et Non Référendum

Friday, April 27, 2007

Take Me Home Country Roads

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Last night out at ReDee

Dutch painter Rembrandt's The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands on TVO's Masterworks

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Brown, Fortier and a Sen-a-Tory poison pill

Brown.

Fortier.

and a Sen-a-Tory poison pill.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Charter a quarter of a century in Canada

The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, the 17th Chief Justice of Canada, first Canadian or Albertan woman to do so and served as well as the Administrator of the Government to (performing the duties of the Governor General, including giving royal assent to the Civil Marriage act, effectively legalizing same sex marriage in Canada), spoke out recently . This is after she had previously said. Knowing full well the new powers this court has gained since the inception of the Charter, .

English Charter Marriage. Chief Justice Rt. Hon. Bora Laskin, the Jewish born native of Fort William, University of Toronto-Osgoode Hall graudate and known for his superior academic record, presided over the most landmark case of all. That being Trudeau's 1981 attempt to unilaterally patriate the British North America act, without the consent of the provinces, by the powers that be in Ottawa within that reference to the court. He would rule that unilateral action maybe technically constitutional, it violated the convention that has emerged since Confederation and would not be accepted by Canadian society in general. This forced the Prime Minsiter to begin a new round of negotiations with all those provinces, which resulted in the 1982 Charter, being agreed to by all provinces with one exception (thanks to the 1981 Kitchen Accord between Jean Chrétien, Roy Romanow and Roy Mcmurtry, or the Night of the Long Knives, and the dealmaker Section 33 that led to its acceptance as the constitutional deal). English Marriage Charter, which ironically enough, would be brought back up later that same night and on the same topic I might just add.

Actually, this brings to point why the Charter needs additional written conventions to provide structure and guidance over those unwritten biased judgements given by the judiciary, as any and all judges, from the local justice of the peace to the national Chief Justice. After watching The Agenda in Studio 2 with Steve Paikin TVO last night, I was caught like a deer in headlights as my own and your Ontario Chief Justice Mcmurtry spoke frankly on his role in bringing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms into being, with such pride, swagger and bravado in believing "sincerely that [he's] done the right thing." But slowly I asked myself, did he not see the failings of this document he proudly acknowledged of which was partly his brainchild, then a soft jostle between Patrick Monahan, the dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and Grant Huscroft, associate dean academic with the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Ontario, explained it away (really too bad Wilfrid Laurier University didn't have a law school) as . A living tree in a ditch over a road, active in growing, never thinks to restrict itself if even there is a chance it will be cut back for reasons of public safety. One such tree may be cut back and down, for the safety of the public, to the point it now longer grows and starts dying rather, restricted from its previous active state so no accident or detrimental event can happen because of it. Without a literal intent within the letter of the law by its court, with its clear division and constitutional interpretation, any society goes from being conservatively specific to liberally broad in spirit and denies precisely the fullness of those rights and freedoms without their corresponding principles of responsibility and fairness.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Louis D. Riel's Babble Rabble Dabble

So, yeah, I voted for Louis D. Riel over Lester B. Pearson, in the final of an Ontario Tory sponsored Great Dominion Dust-Up game, where Riel is leading 66% to Pearson's 34%. Quite silly though, that a provincial political party which ran the great province of Ontario for 42 years under Premiers Drew, Kennedy, Frost, Robarts, Davis and Miller (sans les B3Machine), with its Big Bad Blue Machine, is now running a less than great internet game run by current Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Tim Hudak. Ironically, Riel had never officially been told personally that he had helped Canada grow as a Dominion and himself was a Father of Confederation for Manitoba before he died and Pearson was never officially been told personally that he had helped Canada slow as a Dominion and himself one of the biggest interventionist, continentalist and globalist in this nation before he died. Now, I voted for Agnes C. Macphail in the final as the Greatest Ontario Woman in a contest run by former Ontario New Democrat MPP Marilyn Churley in 2005, then before that, I voted for Tommy C. Douglas in the final as the Greatest Canadian in a contest run by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2004, but for the life of me, I don't think we can actually quantify or qualify individually ourselves or collectively as community any one Canadian, Ontarian or other different traits of classification (gender, race social, economic fiscal, etc.) and I don't think we should encourage it. So therefore, I think that this may have been my last cybervote in yet another cyberpoll, whose power may actually help to divide and polarize a people and their culture negatively than just positively uniting and celebrating it. Plus, aren't these duly elected politicians and public service bureaucrats supposed to be working on being active or restrictive on governmental legislation, serving its public citizenry equally, effectively and efficiently on the essential needs of it and maintaining the peace, order and greater good governance for the common wealth of those people rather than starting cyberpolls, promoting them and using valuable time to troll for your cybervotes on questions of egotism, narcissism and its psychological accomplice megalomania - get back to work for the working taxpayer!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

21st Century belongs to all Canadians

I was just watching Les Coulisses du Pouvoir avec Daniel Lessard on Radio-Canada SRC Ontario, the interview with Raymond Chrétien got me thinking, Québécois never wanted federalists traditionally. Any type of a Chrétien, whether Uncle Jean or Nephew Raymond, is not welcomed in la Province du Québec as the old style federalism of Pierre E. Trudeau and the 20th Century has died and perhaps not just in that lone province. Since 1887 as Leader and 1896 as Prime Minister, Wilfrid Laurier (of erroneous "The 20th Century will be the Century of Canada" quote fame) began the modern Grits on a winning combination by alternating between leaders of deux nations/two solitudes origin. But has the new century now changed this old tradition, made it null, the English with King, Pearson and Turner, the Francos with St. Laurent, Trudeau and Chrétien, especially with the change of guard in 2003 as Leader and 2004 as Prime Minister, like Laurier last, making Paul Martin the change to the convention. I figured then, but thought perhaps simply wrong, that Martin was neither English from the Eastern Townships nor Franco from Windsor and Ottawa, but rather both. So where does that leave Stéphane Dion, simply that he is a Franco Grit Federalist of the 20th Century, in a province where they don't need either federally as they already have one provincially. His best polticial bet here would be to take the inevitable loss to Stephen Harper's Conservatives, who are going to get another minority government, lose many seats in his own home province to both the Bloc and Tories (yet surprisingly win more elsewhere) and hope Justin Trudeau is willing to give him one more spin around town as the third time for Harper will not be the charm. Whoever that next Liberal to run after the next election, has the best chance to win, as this 21st Century is neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals - it's the Canadians!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Trying hard to arrive alive at 25 +

A former teammate of mine from the Windsor Alpha Kai Omega Fratmen wrote me tonight, gave me the horribly bad news that yet another former Fratmen footballer has died yesterday at home during the offseason, this one just barely turned a quarter of a century and now deceased from this world. This is a third such death in the AKO family in the last half a decade, first in 2000 when #4 Alex Stajic drowned, then in 2003 when #14 Glen Ivancic was stabbed to death and now #1 Mike Gillen. Such a shock to one's system, realizing we all will go and evetually we all do.

Pinball Mike Gillen was a quick kid as captain at Acadia at just only 5'7" and 179 pounds (as they said, only after Thanksgiving dinner and him standing on his tippytoes), believed that your "fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line, right, up the middle behind my guards that's where I like to be" like all of us scatback type returnmen, "his grit, determination and amazing competitive drive" really did indeed place him pound for pound on top with the very best and almost at the top as one big part of bringing home the championship in 2007. It seem after being switched also from corner/defensive back to tail/full back then eventually forced to backup the Axemen as a RB, he too was left with plans of looking forward to playing with the University of Windsor Lancers, with the word being a couple older AKO Fratbrothers we thinking of making a one year comeback Tour for the Vanier and it likely would have worked. Even rival St. F-X and former AKO Fratmen head coach stated he was the best in the Windsor-Essex region, which is a big competitive area and that says a lot as most good things come in small packages or as we Fratmen say, "Not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of fight in the dog."

For the past couple of years, since my own health mishap, I have been thinking about putting on the cleats for one more go at it. More and more of these stories make me much obliged and happy I am alive, although I am also very sad for each of those individuals, knowing Alex, Glen and now Mike worked hard to stay and play with us for one of the most premier football clubs in our nation in our time. Perhaps my time to bring back the game and its day is coming soon, but for now in the meantime let's not forget these Fratbros at the AKO and hope our fellow boys down in Windsor do rest in peace down in the Rose City for a restful eternity.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Sausagefest, Togamania and Equality

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Green-NDP-Liberal coalition to tag team Reform-Progressive Conservatives

race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Preston Manning declares his Tories back as natural governing party of Canada

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Is He Risen?

Indeed truly Lord Jesus Christ has risen! - Blessed holydays for all true believers of the Way!!!

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Citizens Assembly on Silly Walks in Ontario proposes Mixed Up Member Proportional Representation

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Sault Steelers to Storm to Steelers to Snow Storm

I remember making a suggestion to Barry and the boys, way back when we were the Storm, that perhaps going back to the old Steelers name of championships past would be a positive move. Though personally I liked Storm too, I just felt Sault Ste. Marie was like the Pittsburgh of the North (quite like the Steel City here in the Iron Triangle), so they should look like them too - especially as the logo Pitt uses is their brand also. But in light of the fact that the Soo has had one of the most massive snowfalls in its history this month, perhaps they need to change back their name with a slight change - the Sault Snow Storm (all white jerseys with the winter camo to go)! Well, they opted for the name change, but the uniforms changed after 911 to those Michigan Maize and Blue state colours, which is okay but I thought that they might as well have gone with the winged helmets too (with a S on the side just as we did with the Storm to keep those old traditions). Anyhow, a couple of the guys used the F-book and M-space to hit me up, great hearing from them all once more. Very interested in the offer to play for them, possibly this summer, on rush, receive and return down here for a Southern Ontario game like that one against the Imps of Sarnia (one the bad side of the French River divide - our own Mason Dixon up in the Great White North here in Canada) to fill in for the Nordique or Northmen who can't make the long trek. Nice to get back up with those guys from the zoo back in the Soo - keep in touch, boys!