The Flip Side

Well there you have it, the night is almost over and the conservatives have the government. Mark my words right now, and I only say this because I want it down that I HAVE said it, but there WILL be an election by the end of 2007. Minority governments don't last long. As a matter of fact they average at lasting 1 year 5 months and 27 days give or take a day or two. Now what does this mean for Canada? Who really knows? The conservatives don't have the majority they need for a run-away government, the liberals are too strong to be ignored. They WILL have to act in the best interest of the people rather than corporations. Chances are we can say good-bye to the Kyoto Protocol, well...Maybe not the Bloc supports Kyoto as does NDP and Liberal, thus the Tories would have that to consider before backing out of it. But we get to throw even more of our environment to the crapper because it costs companies money to not pollute as much and clean up their act. But it's ok! Harper is implementing a new plan, one that will cut down on emissions by giving a tax credit to those that use public transportation...Because you know...Large companies aren't NEARLY the problem that the few cars are that won't be used quite as often because transit is a little cheaper.

On the plus side to the minority is that I don't see any way that Harper could win the free vote on gay marriage. The Liberals support same-sex marriage, as do the NDP, and probably one of the strongest supporters for same sex marriage would be the Bloc, Quebec has had legislation in effect since 1977 that prohibits discrimination of people based on sexual orientation.

I think the only peace of mind I have right now is that it wasn't a majority and that this government won't last long. This election has caused me to want to become more active, I've decided to join the NDP party. Woe to the person that praises Harper anywhere in my range of hearing, I'm giving you fair warning people, just don't do it.

-Matt

The Power of One

This is sort of a continuation of my last post and more to drive home the importance of voting. I dislike the mentality that someone would think their vote doesn't matter. Every vote counts, every single ballot that has a checkmark on it matters. 40% of Canada didn't vote in 2004, that's almost 12.8 million Canadians didn't vote someone to represent them in Ottawa. Think how different things could have been if those millions of people had voted, it could have completely flipped the government around and things could have been completely different from what they are today. To those of you that think one vote doesn't matter think about this. In 2004 Anne McLellan won by just one vote, of course a recount later on showed she won by 12 votes. But think about that...12 more people could have changed results in that riding. Some votes come entirely way closer than anyone would possibly think. That one vote could have way more of an effect than one would think, it could be the difference between a conservative majority or actually keeping them in check. It could mean a chink in the Conservative bastion that is Western Canada, showing that not all Albertans are money hungry power mongers. And if that's not enough there's always the fact that for every vote a party gets, it recieves $1.75 in federal funding. Sure it may not seem like much but multiply that by say...the 500,000 votes Green got in 2004 and that's about $875000 to further their efforts in the next election. So if your vote doesn't matter now it may help make a difference to better establish the party for the next election. Gods people just get out there and vote!

-Matt

Speak out Canada

I know I siad the exact same thing in my last post but people really need to get out and vote. Voter apathy is a terrible thing, I don't get how people can care so little about something so huge. I mean this is all of our future in the making here and people are too lazy to even get off their lazy asses to go put a check mark down on a piece of freaking paper...actually that's not true. An uninformed voter is almost as bad as someone that doesn't vote at all. People really should care, people should make a little time and put in a little effort to become informed enough to make a competent choice about who they want to vote for. It's really not hard, google a party and read into them a little. Read the platform or something! ANYTHING! but most of all just get out and vote people!

-Matt

Poly-Ticking

Well well well, the Canadian federal election is coming up VERY soon and surprise surprise...Matt is doing a post about that very thing. This election has in all honesty disgusted me (Yes I know I've said that before but I felt it warranted me to say it again) both the Conservatives and Liberals are engaged in negative ad campaigning which I see to have no point what-so-ever. The fact that the conservatives wanted this election just goes to show how power hungry they are and that they just want a bigger piece of the pie. I look at the parties that so many people say are great, but only see flaws in what they are and what they want. I know I've always been a strong supporter for the NDP but this comes from researching them and what they've done and plan to do, what they stand for and what's realistic. Also that their more social ideology in more in agreeance to my beliefs than any other party. But the main point of this is just for me to rant about the parties I don't like and exactly why it is I don't like them and won't vote for them.

Now while there are many parties I could talk about here there are only 3 I'm really going to mention, because I feel that any of the others either aren't well known enough that people would care or just aren't important enough that I want to write about them.

Conservative
Obviously, because of my left wing views, this is my least favorite party. Steven Harper wants to pour more money into our military, this really is something that is unnecessary. I mean really...why would you do that unless you anticipate war? We have the ability to defend ourselves if it's needed we don't need a bigger army, war is NOT something that we need in society today and there are alternatives to fighting. Then there's the cut to the GST, I see this as merely a way of buying votes that's it. This is something that people can see but in the end doesn't do that much for them. Woo I'm going to save a couple cents on a can of pop! Fine it seems like more when you have to buy something like a house or car, but proportionally it's still that same penny for that same can of pop. While they're promising a 2% total, they doing one right away and the next percent by 2010, which surprise surprise, would be right before the next election if the government lasted 4 years. If you want a tax cut that will do some good why not slash taxes for the low income families instead of giving breaks to people that inherit large assets (who by the way would most probably come from higher income families, think about it. who inherits more? The poor or the rich?). My biggest beef is mainly the fact that they want to bring up same sex marriage again. Why are they wasting more time and money debating this issue? What right do they have to deny two people that care about each other to get married simply because they're of the same sex? Also Harper wants to turn his back on the Kyoto Accord, hmm yes lets throw away our environment for the sake of making more money. All in all though the numbers just don't add up for the conservatives, they want to spend more on military and cut the GST, these are only a couple of changes they want to make, now with less money coming in, and more going out...Think. How are they going to achieve this? Where is the money for all this extra spending going to come from? They can't just magically find money somewhere without other programs being slashed. There are going to be massive cuts to something, social programs WILL suffer for it. Oh one last thing, do I need to remind everyone that the last time a right wing party was in power that Canada went into a nice big horrid recession.

Liberal
This Party is rotting from the inside, it's stench is that of the scandals that have plagued the Canadian public for the past year. While I believe the Liberals have done a good job to make our economy strong. Look at it, low inflation, low unemployment rate nationwide, Canada's economy IS doing rather well. But despite this I think they don't deserve to be the government and they need to earn back our trust. I'm also appalled by their campaign tactics, basically they're flinging mud at anyone they possibly can to try to get people to vote for them. And I refuse to vote for a party that does this.

Green
Green is the newcomer to Canadian politics, and they have some fresh new ideas. Some of these ideas are really good and are seriously worth considering, but when you look at it they just aren't feasible. I mean, yes alternative energy sources is definitely something we should be looking into, but cutting funding to oil exploration to fund this just doesn't make sense. With cut spending to find new sources for oil and nothing to immediately replace it we would essentially sky rocket gas prices and have nothing to turn to, this in turn would raise the price of everything else. The party primarily addresses environmental issues (read their platform, it IS true), and while this is a great thing to do, it's not something a government could really go anywhere with. Essentially they're idealists that are more like a special interest group than anything else. They have potential in the future, but at the moment we need to vote for a strong political body that can lead this country. The greens aren't the only party concerned for the environment, and other parties are a lot more prepared for a leadership role than they are. Given more time the greens could be a very strong voice in our government, but right now they're just too new and inexperienced.

All that being said, I still will hold nothing against people who vote differently than me. Everyone IS entitled to their opinion about who they vote for and why. Please keep in mind that also for the sake of keeping this post short I cut out A lot of stuff that I could say about the parties so I DO have more against them than just what's above. Although one thing I do think is that if you don't vote then you have no right to complain. Last election we had just over 60% voter turnout. It's terrible to think that 2 out of every 5 people didn't vote in Canada, that 2 of every five people would rather let someone else pick their future. Get involved people, get out and vote. This is your future too you know.

-Matt

I'm sorry, it's just the law

Funny thing I overheard the other day was just that "I'm sorry, it's just the law". One of my co-workers said that to a couple of younger girls that came in to our store. Apperently since they've been 18 for a few months now, they think that they shouldn't get ID'ed anymore. It makes me laugh when these just-18-year-olds come in and get mad because they're still getting ID'ed. get used to it buddy, it'll happen for the next few years.

Speaking of IDing, i had this one young kid come up to my til and of course i asked for some ID...
me-*glances at ID* are you sure this is you buddy?
kid- yea it says 1987
me- oh yea...so you're sure this ID is yours?
kid- well...yes?
me- well then would you mind telling me what your postal code is?
kid- I can't remember, it's an old adress
me- *looks at ID* this was issued last year...how could you not remember?
kid- Um...i didn't change the adress on it
me- Yea ok budyy you can leave

yea...i don't really understand how these younger kids think they're being smart. I mean, I'M still young, and definately NOT stupid. and the least he could have done was gotten an ID that at least looked a little like him...

-Matt

Fridays of the 13th type

It's funny (and I use funny here to mean odd rather than humorous. It bugs me when people forget that it has more than one meaning...) how some things turn out. There I was dreading today because of several reasons, and when I finally got through the day all in all it really wasn't that bad. Actually when I really think about it, it was a pretty all round decent day. I mean...I DID have to go back to one of my classes to get my book that I forgot, the unfortunate part of this is that there was already another class that had started and there my book was smack bad in the middle of the room. Yep sure did have to interupt the entire class to get it and i sure did feel like an idiot. Still...really good friday the 13th.

-Matt

Back to the beat

Mmmmm...So today was the first day back. Of course Monday's are now my favorite day of the week. I mean what's not to look forward to other than having all 6 of my lovely courses all in a row? Today was just long, I had next to no sleep last night and six classes in 7 hours was a bit of an overload for information. On the plus side, my instructor for stats and econ. is freaking hilarious...Actually so is my marketing instructor...And my new accounting instructor as well. I'm really looking forward to this new semester...Just not Mondays. Despite the longer days, the heavier course load, and less money with more expenses, this semester seems like it will be a good one.

On another note, with the elections coming up I'm kind of disgusted by the conservatives. All they're really doing is attacking the liberals, all I see on TV from them is sponsorship scandal this and that. Granted, I don't believe the liberals deserve to form the government because they DID show that they were incompetent to say the least, but I also think it would be a horribly stupid idea to let the conservatives have power...Two evils, neither of which is very appealing but one of which will be our government. But I have no intention to vote for either of them, just sad that one of them will win.

-Matt

Resolution Revolution

Well...Perhaps it's time I unveil my new year resolutions. I've made a few, and with every new year I've figured this one is one where I will try something new (yes I wanted to say it that way). My first one is to finally start and finish putting my mom's cook book onto the computer, granted this may not SEEM like a big task but she's collected hundreds of recipes in the 20-25+ years she's been writing in it and I've decided I'm going to add some other things to it as well, what those are are for only me to know until I'm done though. Fine that's not one for self betterment or some such but I figured it was good for one of them. And my other one is going to be a little more difficult I think. Possibly offensive to some, but I've decided to get a better understanding of religion. Not any particular one mind you, just as many as I can. I'm not looking for faith, that I have already, in myself in what I can do, and what others can do as well, not a deity or some other invisible "magic" force that guides us. But in each individual person and their place. I'm not actually going to try to explain what I believe, it's a little complicated and at the moment not worth the time to even try. But regardless, what I'm looking for is just an understanding, who knows what I'll find but I rather like the prospect of this challenge. And yes I know that possibly MANY people have done it before me but i don't really care about that, I'm doing this for me and me alone.

-Matt

Judgement Day

You know...I find it odd when people say they hate it when they and their actions are judged by other people. now when did "judge" become such a bad word? It really isn't, all judging is is forming an opinion about something...actually the exact definition is:

judge (verb)
opinion [intransitive and transitive] to form or give an opinion about someone or something after thinking carefully about all the information you know about them

now really...how unrealistic is it to think that someone wouldn't form an opinion on something they've seen or heard. It's impossible, no matter how hard one tries you cannot NOT form an opinion about something. But if you just look at the exact definition, you're taking into consideration ALL the information you have about it at that point in time. Look at Judges for example, they have to listen to and see all sorts of evidence about situations and are expected to "judge" them, or come to a fair or just conclusion based on what they have. Is that so bad? Judges at sports events are supposed to say how well the performance was based on their expert opinion, again there's a positive form of judgement. Hell when people say "use your best judgement" they're not saying "discriminate against all those people" they're telling you to come to the best conclusion.

So what about judging someone's actions? If you don't judge actions then how are you supposed to know how you think about them? I mean every little thing you do is unconsciously controled by your values and beliefs, so by "judging" your actions a person is really forming an opinion of what they think of you. Besides, if people don't base their opinion of you on the things YOU do what the heck else are they supposed to base it on? Like i said, judging isn't a bad thing, it's just taking the facts and forming an opinion. Perhaps it's "pressuming" that would be the negative thing to do, but not judging.

-Matt

The unmentionable

So I realized that my previous post had absolutely nothing to do with the lack of snow we're having, even though I had fully intended to put something about that and the title even sorta suggested it as well. See I don't really think most people understand what no snow really means. There isn't a day that goes by where someone either says they're glad there's no snow or that it didn't feel like Christmas without snow or just something like that...And trust me I get a lot of people that talk about the weather, about 90% of the people who talk to me at work talk about the weather. But really...My biggest concern about not having snow isn't that it didn't seem like the holidays, it's not that it makes the roads easier to drive on or anything like that. My concern is that we're heading right into another HUGE drought this summer, and with gas prices already as high as they are farmers are going to have an even harder time making ends meet. They can't raise the prices of their crops to cover extra costs, they have to sell at the market price that they have no say in at all. So as costs keep going up for them their total revenue stays the same which equals even more losses. Fine I can see how most people wouldn't really think of this or be concerned about it, but I have farmers in my family so of course I care. For others I guess it's out of sight out of mind though.

Went home to my parent's house yesterday for dinner and I helped my mom make Na-ching-ka, I'm pretty sure that's not how you spell it but it's how you would say it. Although I don't expect any of you to actually know what that is unless you're Ukrainian or have heard me get all excited and drooling about this stuff that I've only been able to get once in a while since I was very young. I've come to the conclusion that I've developed an unhealthy addiction to it, and now that I know how to make the stuff...Well...Yea I'll be getting a lot of it now. You know, I've always said the easiest way to bribe me is with food, and I think people are finally catching on to this. Seriously, you give me food and I'm complete putty. New years eve, one of the people I work with brought in chili for me, and I was almost jumping off the walls in total bliss when I found out. And this was wicked awesome chili too, just enough garlic to make your mouth water. Mmmmmmmm.

Speaking of food...Ukrainian Christmas is this Friday and we're draggin our roommate along for the ride. He's kinda been adopted in to our family although he doesn't know what he's getting into. But it'll be great...Lots of food...Watching my roommate be tortured by Ukrainian Christmas carols...So much fun I tell you. That is all though.

-Matt