Monsieur Gelder à Dundas

Weather

2011-10-12T07:33:00.001-04:00

My Library Matters to Me

2011-08-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

I submitted the following to an essay competition sponsored by the Toronto Public Library system. I'm not eligible, as I'm not a Toronto resident, but it was fun to write.

My Library Matters to Me

Literacy is evolving. I have the means to access almost any work of literature with the click of a mouse, a credit card number and an e-reader. But now, more than ever, my library matters to me.

I became a parent in my late thirties. I have two young sons who I feel often ill-equipped to raise at the best of times. I confess I need help; at least some of Hillary Clinton's village. Whether its excellent teachers, volunteer coaches and chipper camp counsellors, parenthood is not something to be undertaken alone, even in a stable couple.

Here is where my public library matters, in this case the Dundas Branch of the Hamilton Public Library system. Often, it is the end destination of 2km walk, mostly downhill, into downtown Dundas. Sometimes, that end destination is a bicycle-themed coffee shop on a side street. But everyone knows that caffeine isn't good for kids.

The ghastly pharmaceutically-infused 1970s architecture of the Dundas branch makes me grateful that libraries are more about bricks and mortar. Its what goes on the branch itself that matters to me and to my children. Sure, there are books and occasionally I sign them out. What isn't there can be easily ordered on-line and delivered to my local branch.

There is rarely a day that goes by that there isn't some form of children's programming at the library. Be it the summer reading club, movie afternoons or a visit by the local greyhound rescue group, dogs and all, there is something to capture the imagination and passion of children. There are even toys to play with for the younger ones.

Certainly, all of this available elsewhere that isn't supported by the public nickel. The same Thomas the Train table is available at the local Chapter's store up on the mountain in the giant boxscape that has become Ancaster. There's even books there, too. However, the presence of Thomas and other nods to the cause of literacy and enlightenment are more linked to the greater goal of Heather Reisman's bottom line. At the library, though they may be too young to resist the temptation of the toys in favour of a literary discovery, children begin to associate the fun of the library with the cause of ideas and literacy for their own sake. It isn't a cheap marketing ploy.

Even those who advocate for the "streamlining" of our library systems would agree that literacy for its own sake is good. History matters as much as do its opposites: fiction and imagination. There are multiple ways of accessing it, but the library experience cannot be replaced, particularly not for children. Do we abandon public playgrounds because of cheap Chinese plastic playground equipment in our own backyards? Do we stop visiting and going out with friends because of social networking? As much as any other public good, my library matters and I glad to part with my hard-earned property tax dollars in support of it.

Sweet Ride to Red Hill, back home, then to Mohawk Sports Park and Back Home

2011-07-16T11:43:00.000-04:00

Imported Garmin Route (07/14/2011) and more rides in Hamilton, Canada on MapMyRIDE. Find ride

2011-03-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

Listen to rgelders Playlist

2011-02-14T21:48:00.001-05:00

Here's a really cool site I just discovered. Its called "Google" and it will find practically anything for you on the internet. Cool, eh?

2011-02-08T21:38:00.002-05:00

A comic I made for French class using Bitstrips

2011-01-13T23:34:00.000-05:00

Hey, here's the rout I take when I bike home

2010-10-07T20:22:00.002-04:00

Untitled by rgelder@sympatico.ca at Garmin Connect - Details

This is the route I usually take when I bike home from work/school/SJAM. I've been doing it for over ten years, varying the route somewhat. I used to go to the top of the hill at York and Dundurn, until the advent of Google Earth, wherein I could see that, not only was I engaging an unnecessary and challenging uphill climb, but I was also going a much less direct route than the side streets.

I soon abandoned the side streets, as well in favour of the main arterial roads. Granted, they are more dangerous but they're much quicker. This is even factoring in that they, too, are less direct. There's nothing like hitting the green lights (as opposed to stop signs and pedestrian traffic) at 35km/hour! The turning lane at the corner of Main and Queen can be a bit harrowing to navigate but, so far so good.

West Harbour, or no stadium

2010-08-14T00:22:00.001-04:00

My friend Samantha asked, so here's my answer. The West Harbour is the best location for the proposed Pan-Am Stadium (if there's even one to be built at this point).

You asked why the location matters, because jobs will be created no matter where its put. Many of the nay-sayers would disagree with you, arguing that the stadium will have little economic impact. My take is that the stadium, combined with a few other things will create synergies that will greatly assist in reviving the downtown core. Chief among these is the arrival of LRT (light rail transit). Ten dates a year, plus whatever else will go on in the stadium may be enough for a few businesses to consider setting up shop in the downtown, (restaurants, hotels), and may serve to increase property values in the adjacent areas.

The City, Waterfront Trust, etc. are already doing an excellent job in managing and reviving the north end, particularly in the areas around Bayfront Park, Pier 4, Pier 8, etc. However, there is still the daunting task of the brownfields of abandoned industry, chiefly the Rheem property. The large amounts of cash that are coming in from all levels of government are just what the doctor ordered in getting these areas cleaned up. They are not only a hideous eyseore, but present a real environmental danger if not addressed.

Furthermore, the stadium will be adjacent to existing rail infrastructure. One of the great successes of Toronto's professional sports facilities, is their proximity to commuter rail. Anyone who actuallly drives to and Argos, Blue Jays, Leafs or Toronto FC game is an idiot, because of the ease, efficiency and cheapness of a GO train ticket - the same service that can be provided to the new stadium location. There's no signficant rail infrastructure anywhere near the East Mountain site.

Bob Young lauds the east mountain stadium location because of the convenience of the "driveway to driveway" experience. We talk about stadiums and the first question we ask is "How easy will it to be to get to by car"? This needs to become outdated thinking, as the now-seemingly visionary people though (likely by accident) when they decided to put both the Rogers Centre (né Skydome) and the ACC right downtown Toronto. Rather, we should be turning this question on its ear and ask, with the stadium where it is, what's the best way to get there? I would love to see the statistics as to the number of people taking public transit to pro sporting events in Toronto. I think we could match it here in Hamilton.

Bob Young argues that a stadium downtown will doom his business operation to failure in perpetuity, as if the first question people ask when considering whether to attend a game is "how easy is it to get to by car?". If there is a demand for the on-field product, then people will go, no matter which way is more convenient to get there. Its not "build it, and they will come", but "put a decent product on the field, and they will come". Not to put too fine a point on it, but Mr. Young has certainly had his challenges in that department since taking over the team.

As needed as the west harbour site is for the purposes of core revival, it pales in comparison to the disaster of building it at the east mountain. I respect Mr. Young's position in wanting the best location for his business but, in addition to subscribing to what I hope is becoming an outmoded car-centric paradigm, that location would be a further and egregious foray into suburban sprawl. Many have argued that there is plenty of space in the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) lands proposed in the Fenn "compromise". Granted, but just because their is empty green space, that is no reason to automatically develop it! We cannot continue to expand outwards while we let the core rot; it is simply bad urban planning. Servicing the stadium (sewers, hydro ) will be expensive enough. In addition, although not qualified to say, I am worried about the proximity of protected environmental lands, chiefly the Eramosa Karst. Karst, as you might be aware, is land that is eroded away underneath the surface by underground waters, resulting in caves etc. Is the proposed land for the east mountain site even stable enough? Perhaps it is, but when I'm on a nature hike with my family exploring the caves, the last thing I want is Stadium noise from the Labour Day classic!

This is not about building a stadium for the Tiger-Cats, its about the Pan-Am Games and the legacy it was supposed to leave. Locally, we have already been deprived of any track and field legacy, thanks in large part to this debate. The feds. and province are to kick in $54 million each, with the city adding $60 million from the Future Fund. The Tiger-Cat contribution? He proposed $15 million and that was from his east mountain pitch (with, admittedly, other not-necessarily out of pocket costs down the road). In this proportion, Bob Young has no right to be calling the shots on location.

As for the Grey Cup, no 25,000 seat stadium can host the game without temporary seating. I don't think either location has a greater advantage over the other in terms of hosting one of these; temporary seats are always brought in for games not played at either Olympic Stadium, Rogers Centre, Commonwealth Stadium or BC Place. Any time its on the prairies, you see temporary seating. Not really an issue.

At the end of the day, I fear we may lose the stadium altogether for two reasons. First, if the Tiger-Cats don't come back to the table, there is no anchor tenant and the city doesn't meet a key funding requirement from both the Pan-Am Games and the two levels of government. Secondly, and perhaps more immediately, the Pan-Am Host Committee may come to its senses and realize they are building one stadium too many. Once they made the unholy decision to move track out of Hamilton and to Toronto, they effectively committed themselves to building, at the very least, a 15,000 seat stadium for track and field there (a facility which, if my guess is correct, will soon be taken over by the Toronto Argonauts, track moved out, and you got us nowhere, Athletics Canada! But I digress). Why, with BMO field and the proposed new facility in Burlington, would they even need a third soccer venue? Were they merely placating local sensitivities by swapping track for soccer, without first thinking about the fiscal consequences? The way these oily people in suits operate, I would NOT be surprised to see an abrupt announcement in the coming months, nay weeks, that no stadium will be built in Hamilton, with the whole Ti-Cat situation cited as their flimsy excuse.

I just hope the velodrome doesn't follow.

The stupid stadium debate just got stupider, thanks to our friends at Athletics Canada

2010-07-29T10:52:00.001-04:00

For those of you who don't live in Hamilton (or don't otherwise care), the city is locked in a battle with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats over the location of the stadium which will not only host the track and field competition of the 2015 Pan-American Games, but will likely serve as the new home of the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats beyond. The city, as well as most people if the on-line polls are anything to go by, want the stadium located on a brownfield in the west harbour, directly adjacent to the downtown core. This will not only provide a picturesque setting for the new stadium, but many feel it will be a catalyst for the renewal of the downtown core.

At the 11^th hour, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats balked at the site, saying that they would not participate in the location of a stadium in the west harbour. This has led to a delay in the stadium construction as the city and the team are currently involved in protracted mediation process. One bewildering result of the this process is the recommendation that the stadium be located on some provincially-owned lands at the junction of the Red Hill Expressway and the Lincoln Alexander Parkway on the east mountain, light years away from the downtown. The debate is ongoing, but is expected to be resolved by mid August.

Today, matters got more complicated when one Joanne Mortimore, who passes herself off as the Chief Executive Officer of Athletics Canada, the national governing body of the sport of track and field, made a "discreet request" with the Pan-Am organizing committee that they scuttle the stadium in its entirety by moving the track and field competition to the centre of the universe, Toronto. Go here to see the Spectator's breaking of the story. It prompted this reply by me to Ms. Mortimore:

Dear Ms. Mortimore:

Although I do not have the authority to respond on behalf of the Hamilton Olympic Club, nor even on behalf of the track and field community in Hamilton, but I for one am VERY disappointed with the news today that Athletics Canada made a "discreet" request with the Pan-Am Games regarding moving the track and field competition from Hamilton, where it has been entrenched in the bid from the beginning, to Toronto.

What is particularly galling is that no one even bothered to consult the track and field community here in Hamilton. Perhaps you are aware (if not, you ought to be) that the Hamilton Olympic Club is the oldest continuously operating track and field club in all of North America and a member of Athletics Ontario and, by extension, Athletics Canada. Instead of "thinking out loud", perhaps it would have been wise to have consulted the club. There are a variety of lobbying efforts for the betterment of track and field going on every day, not all of which are directly related to the current difference of opinion as between the city and the Hamilton Tiger-Cat football club. In addition to the goals of perhaps keeping the track within the stadium, we very much desire to have at the very least a warmup track stay behind (preferably in the west harbour location) to serve as a facility for inner-city youth, who currently have nowhere to train in that part of the city. In addition, there are ongoing talks with the cycling community about including an indoor facility with the velodrome. A simple phone call to our club President, Monika DiCesare, would have apprised you of all of this.

Many of the big players in the stadium/velodrome debate are not attuned with the needs of track and field. Your letter demonstrates that Athletics Canada may not be attuned to the needs of the sport outside of Toronto.

Again, I don't speak for the club (although I am on the Board of Directors) – you will be receiving an official response at some point – however, suffice to say that your actions have seriously undercut our efforts in ensuring there is a legacy of track and field facilities in Hamilton. The last time I checked, Toronto already has a nice new track.

Respectfully,

Rich Gelder

Very quickly, I received this response from Ms. Moritmore, which was very impressive if for no other reason she is likely plunked down in the stands at the Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto for the National Senior Track and Field Championships. She must have a really cool Blackberry:

Dear Rich

I appreciate and understand your concern. All informal information we have points to the track being removed post games hence our position. The challenge for the athletes training and traveling from the ath (sic) residence to the venue also leaves us with serious concerns. I hope this gives you further insight for the reasons for our position.

This does not remove the possibility of continuing to work towards a track in Hamilton.

Regards,

Joanne Mortimore

So how does one become the Chief Executive Officer for a sports organization like Athletics Canada? Apparently not by being concerned about the long-term legacy opportunities that major international championships bring – at least those outside of the centre of the goddamned universe, Toronto.

In any event, I also cobbled together this letter to the editor of the Hamilton Spectator:

Editor,

Suffice to say that, in this instance, the national track and field federation (Athletics Canada) does not speak for the local track community.

That the track and field competition of the2015 Pan-Am Games will be staged in Hamilton has been part of the bid from day one. Whether the stadium is built in the preferred west harbor location or on the east mountain, the legacy of at least a warmup track outside the stadium, for community, club and school use, would be a boon to the sport in Hamilton. Currently, no such facility exists in the inner city. If Athletics Canada was attuned to the needs of the sport outside of Toronto, where they have just christened a brand new track and field stadium in the downtown area in the past two years, they would understand that the track and field competition in Hamilton presents an opportunity not only for the long-term fortunes of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats but for the sport of track and field at the grassroots level. And this doesn't even address the creative possibilities of having a track remaining inside the stadium.

Today, I am embarrassed to be affiliated with Athletics Canada. They have done a disservice not only to the local stadium debate, but to all of those working hard for the betterment of track and field in Hamilton.

Rich Gelder

Sunday morning run punctuated by the appearance of a wayward whippet

2010-06-06T13:03:00.001-04:00

This was a cool run on a cool day. Barely 13 degrees in June and damp, but perfect weather for a long run.

Didn't know where to go, so just went up York Road to the RBG trails. When I got near the Nature Centre, I was startled by a fast approaching animal which darted past me and back into the woods. The fleeting glimpse I caught of it suggested that it was a runaway greyhound. Knowing first-hand the propensity these animals have to bugger off for long periods of time from their owners, I stopped my run and tried to call him/her back. I then called out to see if the owner was nigh, perhaps frantically serching for its awol animal. Within a minute I saw that the dog had emerged from the woods and was careening around the adjacent meadow, like all sighthounds enjoy. I then caught up with the owner who was unconcerned, knowing that her dog would come back.

Sure enough the dog came to a screeching halt where we were standing and I soon corrected myself; we were dealing with a beautiful male whippet. We exchanged pleasantries and I was then back off on my run to York Boulevard and then back home.

The experience reminded me how much I still miss Dinsdale, even though he were a proper a greyhound which is a couple of cuts above the whippet on the socio-economic doggy stratum.

Untitled by rgelder@sympatico.ca at Garmin Connect - Details

Morning run - detour to McDonald's

2010-06-03T16:55:00.001-04:00

Ran my usual morning route to school. HOWEVER, instead of turning north up Caroline to SJAM, I continued straight to Jackson Square to procure myself a sausage n' egg McMuffin and a big-ass Powerade. Indeed, I live an exciting existence.

Untitled by rgelder@sympatico.ca at Garmin Connect - Details

Standard run to school (frigging hot!) by rgelder@sympatico.ca at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-06-01T17:26:00.000-04:00

Standard run to school (frigging hot!) by rgelder@sympatico.ca at Garmin Connect - Details

2010-05-24T17:54:00.001-04:00

http://www.jango.com/widgets/c36e09f835723cbe905b82874354f73c/edit#

Ranking R.E.M.s albums from 1 to 14...just for fun

2010-05-09T22:09:00.001-04:00

Here, in my humblest of estimations, are all 14 of R.E.M.'s albums of original material ranked in order from best to not best (because you can't use "worst" when describing a band the magnitude of R.E.M.).

1. Life's Rich Pageant

2. Automatic for the People

3. Accelerate

4. Green

5. Reckoning

6. Out of Time

7. Document

8. Murmur

9. Monster

10. Fables of the Reconstruction

11. Reveal

12. New Adventures in Hi-Fi

13. Up

14. Around the Sun

Something I received in an e-mail about Obama

2010-01-17T21:24:00.003-05:00

Don't know who the author is, but I found the following e-mail I received interesting,

If George Bush was an idiot. . . .GREAT READING!!!

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference,
would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of
inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given
him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod
containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this
embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia ,
would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference
to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed
it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of
advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income
taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to
refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was
the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried
again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would
you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to
go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a
hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One
flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown
Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they
actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood
victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless
than in New Orleans , would you want it made into a major ongoing
political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report
directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved.

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major
corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so,
would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had
taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have
approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10
years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant
and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this
in 5 months -- so you'll have three years and seven months to come up with an answer.

The Case for Sarah Palin (speaking at a Hamilton Charity fundraiser next April)

2009-12-24T16:05:00.001-05:00

Don't know if the Spec is going to publish it, at this point. But I submitted this earlier this week. I think they may be all "Palined out".

The Case for Sarah Palin

The irony appears to be lost on most critics. They object to Sarah Palin appearing at a fundraiser for a publicly-funded hospital, because she is opposed to Canadian-style socialized medicine. Shouldn't the very idea of a $200.00 per plate dinner in support of the original beneficiaries, St. Peter's Hospital and the Juravinski Cancer Centre, suggest that Ms. Palin might have some valid criticisms of an underfunded health care system?

This might have been the most bewildering criticism of Sarah Palin's pending visit, if it weren't that other arguments against are even more bizarre. First, there is the suggestion that her Hamilton event is inappropriate because the city boasts five "social-democratic" legislators, by which I am assuming is meant the five New Democrats representing Hamilton ridings in the House of Commons and at Queen's Park. Since when does the makeup of our local parliamentary delegations dictate who is welcome and not to speak in our city? If that's the case, do David Sweet, Tim Hudak, Dean Allison, Ted McMeekin and Sophia Aggelonitis , all apparently, "non social-democrats", get to huddle to select the next charity speaker?

Secondly, there is this idea that Ms. Palin's beliefs, be it on same sex marriage, abortion, public health care do not reflect core Canadian values. Is this to suggest that we stifle all opinion, to the point of not welcoming differing point of views, if that opinion is A: foreign, and B: not consistent with what a show of hands might suggest? This type of intolerance reminds me of the dark days of political correctness in my university undergraduate days of the early nineties. It's one of the basic tenets of free speech; one needs dissenting viewpoints to challenge if one is going to make the claim about the validity of one's own.

Telling also is the tone with which critics in these pages have attacked Ms. Palin. Seemingly unable to articulate any serious objection to her speaking in Hamilton, they have denigrated her personally, likening her to Paris Hilton or suggesting that her visit is an "early April Fool's joke". This type of invective suggests to me that the writers are more concerned about fulfilling a psychological need to feel smart by joining a the tired chorus of mainstream media ridicule of a conservative politician, rather than making a serious argument against her visit.

Having made a woefully inadequate case against Sarah Palin speaking at the now Charity of Hope fundraiser, critics might do well to consider the arguments in favour of her attending. She was a moderately successful Governor of the largest American state for three years. Her book, Going Rogue, is at or near the top of the New York Times Bestseller list. And, oh yes, she ran for Vice-President of the United States just over a year ago, only the second woman in the history of the country to seek that office. Palin may also be one of the front-runners to carry the Republican banner against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

Agree with her politics or not, but Sarah Palin is newsworthy for all the right reasons. There are no sex tapes, no allegations of infidelity and no criminal record. She is a woman who has made some noise in the arena of politics which, at the executive level in the United States, has heretofore been the almost exclusive domain of men. She has a story tell and it is one that is worth it for Hamiltonians to hear first hand on April 15th.

It will be a great evening for ticketholders to the event. Hopefully, it will be an even better evening for the Charity of Hope.

Gary Bettman is a big, frigging liar

2009-10-17T16:02:00.001-04:00

So Gary Bettman says he supports another NHL team in Canada, does he? He's not kidding anyone; he doesn't want another team north of the border any more than I want a scorching case of herpes for my 41st birthday. Bettman had the opportunity to demonstrate his "support" for another Canadian team by working with Jim Balsillie to bring the Coyotes out of the desert (both literally and figuratively) and to Hamilton. How much in legal fees did he and the other owners spend blocking that? How much more will they have to spend, in light of the fact that the Phoenix team is now giving away tickets, after having offered a top - top ticket price of 25 dollars for their home opener?

The only reason that Bettman is waxing sympathetic about another Canadian team is that, outside of southern Ontario and the money of the likes of Balsillie, it isn't going to happen. There are great hockey fans in Winnipeg. Enough to support an NHL team with its requirement for corporate subscription? How many private boxes can Great West Life buy? As for Quebec, the only person with a remote chance of bringing a team there wants the federal and provincial government to pay for half of a new arena. Half of the costs of a 400 million dollar arena coming the province and the feds? With that sense of entitlement, where does he think he think this team is going? Ottawa?

I would be sincerely tickled to see teams in Winnipeg and Quebec - especially the latter. However, this whole exercise by the NHL, Bettman in particular, is nothing more than smoke and mirrors in a pathetic attempt to placate those who were beginning to finally accept that he has an anti-Canada agenda. NHL Awards in Las Vegas? Give me a fucking break! If that isn't the precursor for League's next disastrous foray into a completely non-viable American market, then let's see where the Coyotes actually end up next year.

Bettman's chief henchman, Bill Daly, suggested that the City of Hamilton needs to "get its ducks in line" if wants to be considered for a future NHL franchise. With all due respect, you filthy little fart-catcher to Gary Bettman, the city has spent the last 25 years lining up its ducks, from building an arena, to bidding for two expansion franchises, to being there every time an existing league owner wanted to extort a better arena deal from its home city, to patiently working with people like Jim Balsillie who have a legitimate and realistic desire to see professional hockey fluorish where it is able; in Canada.

Hopefully, the likes of Bettman and Daly will cease being the "toast" of the League - particularly when the bills for Coyote sustaining come due - and we may be in the final months of his reign over the NHL. The sooner he is gone, the more likely places like Hamilton, Winnipeg and Quebec will actually be able to realistically envision NHL hockey in their cities.

The Biggest Loser and other Idiotic Reality Television

2009-09-26T13:01:00.001-04:00

I recently took part in a Facebook back-and-forth on something someone posted regarding "TheBiggest Loser" television program. Someone suggested, in a somewhat school-marmish tone that one can actually enjoy the show while availing oneself of the valuable health and fitness information contained therein. Here was my response:

Enjoy it....sure. Just like I enjoy watching those "Funniest Home Videos" where (usually) children get into those "cute" little mishaps/accidents, a majority of which likely result in considerable pain and injury. Family entertainment, indeed.

There is an unfortunate trend in mainstream media for the providers to offer up humiliation as source of entertainment. Look at the collective orgasm we're having over the whole Jon and Kate thing. Biggest Loser apologists may have their spin doctors lauding the "educational" benefit vis-a-vis health, fitness and diet, but let us not delude ourselves into believing that a vast majority of viewers are watching this tripe for any other reason than the opportunity to point and laugh at those whose lives may be only slightly less pathetic than their own.

You remember that, Ms. Abbott Smith.

Jim Balsillie is my hero, no matter what happens

2009-09-04T15:18:00.001-04:00

The NHL can say whatever it wants about Mr. Balsillie's "character and integrity". The reality is, though, that he has been up front about his intentions to own an NHL team and move it to souther Ontario (I won't use the dreaded "H" word, out of sensitivity to the squeamishness of the NHL regarding Hamilton...oops...I used the "H" word). He also has his own money, which he did not need to raise under false pretenses. He also has, at the very least, the "shell" of an arena to move the team into.

Would that other NHL owners be able to say the same thing - even those not currently doing time in prison. The fact is, NHL owners have made for a reliable and consistent parade of rogues, criminals, crooks (from Harold Ballard, to Peter Pocklington, to Bruce McNall, to Boots Del Baggio to Eugene Melnyk). The biggest knock against Balsillie? He's "arrogant"....arrogant. Like owning one of the most successful high-tech businesses in North America somehow renders his "character and integrity" unfit for NHL ownership. Well, if the aforementioned are the standard-bearers, then Gary Bettman is probably right; Balsillie has no place alongside them.

The NHL has tipped its hand by entering its own pathetic bid for the Phoenix Coyotes. They have this pathological obsession with keeping the game out of Hamilton (eeek! I said it again), that's going to cost the existing NHL owners, even the law-abiding ones, a boatload of money in the short and long term. Maybe if the current NHL Board of Governors weren't so beholden to Bettman for his handling of the 2004-2005 lockout, they would actually welcome the infusion of cash into the League that comes with Balsillie's bid and likely compensation fee to Buffalo and Tornoto (as if the latter really needed it!). Even if it means a team in stinky-smelly-non-deep-south-American Hamilton.

In the mean time, I am on the verge of telling the NHL to go to hell, Leafs and all. There are marriages that have ended after a longer period than I have been betrothed to the Toronto Maple Leafs. I may have to find something else to do on Saturday nights this winter. Like read. Like books like Leafs Abomination by Dave Feschuk and Michael Grange.

The Michael Bryant incident

2009-09-04T14:39:00.001-04:00

I find the on-street demonstrations by Toronto's "bicycle courier community" somewhat disconcerting. The attempt to portray Monday's tragedy on Bloor Street as a bicycle vs. automobile issue is disingenuous, at best. This is road rage, pure and simple, and the fault may lie a good deal more with the victim than it does with the accused. I am still waiting for any evidence suggesting that the accident was a case of a driver not respecting the rights of a cyclist on the road. I suspect I may be waiting a long time.

Go Sarah!

2008-10-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

Damnit, I need to be blogging more often. I haven't touched it since god knows when. Particularly in light of the two election campaigns going on.

I absolutely love what is going on south of the border, where the 08' presidential campaign has become all about the Rebublicans number two, Sarah Palin. Say what you want about her so-called inexperience, her conservative politics, her family turmoils, but the Alaska Governor has thrown the left for a loop and almost completely derailed the Democratic campaign.

All the celebrity "mithering" about Palin, Madonna being the latest today, suggests that the Hollywood left and its ideological brethern are decidedly unnerved by this nomination. Think about it. Its been five weeks since McCain announced Palin as his running mate and we've heard scarcely anything about the three other principals in this campaign - particularly Barack Obama. Its all about Palin's supposedly "crappy" interviews, or the daughter that was supposedly her granddaughter, or the "shotgun" wedding of her 17 year-old daughter, or the Tina Fey impersonations (which are actually quite funny), to the urban myths about her being a book banner (huh?). From the Obama campaign? Nada.

Does everyone remember the lavish coronation at Denver's Mile High Stadium at the end of August? It was an affair fit for royalty - nay a second coming: Roman columns, an adoring throng of 80,000 people. celebrities with diamond-embossed glasses spelling out O-b-a-m-a...everything but the theme from Jesus Christ Superstar. And then...nothing. The very next day, Sarah Palin enters the campaign and most people, myself included, haven't even heard of her.

Clearly the Obama campaign - and the left in general - was unprepared. And this is why all semblance of decency has gone out the window in some of the opinions expressed, including this tripe from Maureen Dowd (which I can't believe I'm even linking). A writer for CBC news' on-line edition suggested that Palin resembles a "porn star" in a piece that was subsequently pulled off of the net by the broadcaster. And we thought poor Hillary Clinton was a victim of sexist attacks?

The polls suggest that Obama may weather this storm and win the November election. However, I for one have been gleeful to see the Dems and the left in general squirm and turn into world-class hypocrites in their attacks the personality who has come to dominate the campaign.

Playing the Enemy

2008-08-30T08:32:00.000-04:00

Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation
John Carlin
The Penguin Press, 2008
274 pages

John Carlin's Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that made a Nation is a book about heroes, first of whom is Mandela himself. Mandela distinguished himself as a man of history not because he spent 27 years in prison as the leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, but more because of his efforts at national reconciliation following his release and election as President. The other heroes are the 15 some men, largely Afrikaaners; the people responsible for the subjugation of the black majority during the Apartheid era, who made up the national rugby squad, the "Springboks".

Carlin's is not a book strictly about rugby. Nor is it simply an historical account of the extraordinary period of South African history, spanning the period of 1985, where Mandela began secretly meeting members of the government to negotiate his release and the ultimate transformation of South African society, to 1995 and the triumph of the Springboks in the World Cup of Rugby tournament. Along the way, we are introduced to a cast of characters, both of the radical black nationalist set and the most conservative of Afrikaaner Apartheid apologists, all of whom were steered around to the extraordinary vision of national reconciliation as proffered by Mandela.

Certainly, Mandela had less difficulty enlisting the support of his African National Congress brethren. The challenge was to bring on board white South Africa, which was poised to relinquish much political and economic clout in the post-apartheid era. The solution? Rugby, and the chance to host its premier event, the World Cup. Until the nineties, South Africa had not been able to participate in international rugby, owing to the apartheid-inspired international boycott. Rugby is to white South Africa what hockey is to Canada, and soccer is to many South American nations - a national religion.

Mandela set about to use the game as a tool of national reconciliation. The problem? For black South Africans, rugby was as much a symbol of white oppression as was the old flag and racist national anthem Die Stem. Winning over the black population to supporting the game and its almost exclusively white participation in the national program would prove to be a formidable task.

Skeptical at first, Afrikaaners initially threw Mandela's gesture back in his face, using one of the first international rugby matches in South Africa in decades as an opportunity to engage in "counter-revolution", with the loud singing of racist Afrikaaner songs and the unfurling of the old South African flag. However, engaging the players on the national team themselves - they were inspired to sing rounding renditions of Nkose Sikele, the former anthem of black resistance and now half of the new South African anthem - Mandela's charm offensive continued. Soon, the whole country was poised to cheer on the Springboks to victory on the eve of their tournament final match against the heavily-favoured All-Blacks of New Zealand.

Mandela sealed the deal, and effectively united the country for good, when he appeared on the pitch to greet the players in a pre-match ceremony wearing the green and gold jersey of the Springboks. For a black leader, the donning of this oppressive symbol would have been unthinkable even in recent years. Many will recall this pivotal moment, beamed on television screens around the world, as that where Mandela was finally accepted by white South Africa, as their chanting of "Nel-son! Nel-son!" proved.

Playing the Enemy is an excellent and insightful account of the historical events surrounding the astonishing conversion of South Africa to a united country. It also demonstrates how the power of sport can be used as a force of good - even one as violent as rugby!

Trou de cul (Asshole, en anglais)

2008-01-27T13:42:00.000-05:00

Scanning the French-language press, I came across an editorial written by Alain Dubuc of La Presse, on of the writers I most respect, not only in the French press, but in all of journalism.

He had objected to an interview given by Jacques Lanctôt, a newly-annointed contributor to Le journal de Montréal and writer for the French-language equivalent of Canoe media, to Christane Charrette of Radio-Canada's, Première Chaine.

Mr. Lanctôt's other claim to fame? He was one of the kidnappers during the FLQ crisis of October 1970. Certainly, having done his time in prison, the man is entitled to earn a living, and even to be interviewed by the French-language national public broadcaster. However, Dubuc objected to the tone of the interview, wherein Mr. Lanctôt seemingly reminisces with fondness his days as a terrorist, serving shepherd's pie to his terrified captor as means of introducing him to a "people's meal". He ends the interview by nonchalantly observing that he "doesn't regret a thing", referring to his acts of terrorism.

What was even more disturbing about the interview was the astonishing flippancy with which the hostess seemed to treat the whole thing. Other guests on the show made at least token efforts to challenge his acts of almost 40 years ago, for which he seemed to show little remorse. However, Ms. Charrette seemed more concerned about being a gracious host.

The comment section on Radio-Canada's website containing the audio of the interview (linked below) is almost unanimous in its condemnation of both Mr. Lanctôt's cavalier attitude towards his victim - and Mr. Cross was certainly a victim, regardless of whatever sect of imperialism Mr. Lanctôt dreams that he represented - and towards Ms. Charrette and Radio-Canada itself for allowing such a low-life the air time he received. It was a slap in the face to James Cross, and and affront to all Canadians', whether federalist, Quebec separatist/sovereignist, sense of decency. Our public broadcaster should know better.

If you wish to hear the interview, here's the link (but plug your nose and check your gag reflex before you hear it. Below it is a link to the thoughtful article written by Mr. Dubuc.

http://www.radio-canada.ca/radio/christiane/modele-document.asp?docnumero=50560&numero=1880#

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080127/CPOPINIONS05/80127017/5034/CPOPINIONS

Goodbye, Don

2008-01-19T15:09:00.001-05:00

The following, I wrote to the "Track Canada" group in regards to the passing of Don Wittman:

Martin, thank you for posting.

I'm sure I'm not alone in recognizing Don Wittman as THE voice of track andfield in this country. The article
summarizes some of his most memorable moments covering the sport at the Olympic and Worlds level (Bailey, Johnson), but here's one of my vivid memories:

1984 Summer Olympics. We were in a London restaurant having dinner, as the OTFA Bantam-Midget-Juvenile championships were going on at the old stadium at Western. I had a bet with my coach regarding the outcome of the women's 3000 metres. I said Mary Slaney, my coach had Zola Budd. Well, we all know how that race turned out for the two of them! However, I cannot forget the indelible mark left by Wittman's cries of "LYNN WILLIAMS IS RUNNING THE RACE OF HER LIFE" as she rounded the final bend to finish with a bronze medal. This one I rank alongside "Donovan Bailey is pouring it on!" and "Donovan Bailey is tearing up the track" and "Oh, if you're Canadian, you gotta' love these Saturday nights in Georgia!".

And this doesn't even begin to cover what he contributed to other sports. I will miss Don Wittman. Track and field coverage will never be the same.

Another voice on Lister

2008-01-14T21:52:00.000-05:00

Need I say more? (from McKay, the Hamilton Spectator, Monday, January 14, 2008).

The Toronto Lister Leafs

2008-01-13T15:44:00.001-05:00

I am having difficulty deciding what I have been more annoyed by these recent weeks: the continuing saga over Hamilton's Lister Block or the poor play of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For those not in Hamilton, the Lister Block is a decrepit, old building that has blighted the landscape of downtown, having sat unoccpupied for more than a decade. The misty-eyed heritage crowd have decried any suggestion of removing the building, replacing it something more functional, or at least less of an eyesore. Apparently the Lister Block has some sort of historical, architectural merit. However, the type that loves to look at boarded up old buildings seem to only be prepared to see such buildings maintained (or rot, in this case), provided that it is on someone else's nickel, preferably that of the taxpayers of either the City of Hamilton and/or the Province of Ontario. Currently, the property is owned by an outfit known as LIUNA (Labourers' International Union of North America) who, in addition to being entitled to 7 million dollars of provincial tax money to restore the building, expect the City of pony up an outrageous amount to rent space in the building if and when it ever gets redone - 37 dollars a square foot at last count.

While LIUNA holds a knife to the throat of city and provincial officials, armed with the persisent moan of the inexplicably-influential architectural fetish crowd, all common sense appears to go out the window. Keep a stupid building standing at all costs, no matter how much it makes our decaying core resemble downtown Havana at an alarmingly increasing rate.

Which brings us to the current plight of the Toronto Maple Leafs. About two weeks before the mainstream media began writing articles about it, I noticed how the team was beginning to resemble the lowly lot of the Ballard years of the 1980s; a crappy team on the ice, an inept owner/group of owners, and an entirely dysfunctional staff of coaches and managers. The Chairman of the Board of Directors suggest publicly that it was "a mistake" to hire such an inexperienced general manager. The general manager tries to fire the coach, but is overruled by the Board of Directors. By all indications, the players have given up on all of the above as evidenced by their play of late. As this is written, they are second last in the Eastern Conference, and third last in the entire league.

Financially, however, business has never been better. In reality, this organization could field a pee-wee house legaue team and sell the same number of tickets and merchandise as ever. This was something Harold Ballard picked up on when he owned the team. He did sweet f-all to improve the team, traded the best players away as a function of petulance and still made a wad of cash. And the team seems to be basking in the new salary cap era where there is an added incentive to not improve the team. Either that, or John Ferguson Junior is just a really bad GM (probably the latter). To mix to metaphors, if Harold Ballard were alive today, he'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

So, here's my idea. The two situations above present the potential for a match made in heaven. And Hamilton gets an NHL team to boot! The Toronto Maple Leafs should move their operations to Hamilton and play their home games out of a refurbished Lister Block. They can use additional space in the building to rent to the City of Hamilton. The team is awash in cash. The building in Hamilton needs a wealthy suitor. In addition to an awful product on the ice, overpriced merchandise, and a crappy TV station that shows little else of quality other than...well...awful Leaf games, the team should be looking at other avenues to bilk people. And who better than the City of Hamilton?

Desperate for an NHL team and seemingly indifferent to the principals of fiscal responsibility, particularly when there are constituencies to placate, such as the hockey in Hamilton and the building preservationist lobbies, this would be an opportunity they should not, nay, must not pass up. They might even be persuaded to pay 47 or even 57 dollars a square foot for space, provided that season tickets for City Councillors are included. All of this provided, of course, that the facade of the building is preserved. Minus the broken windows, doesn't the Lister Block on its corner location bear a striking resemblance to the old Maple Leaf Gardens at the corner of Church and Carlton in Toronto? They could even wear old Hamilton Tiger throwback jerseys to mark the occasion.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Lister Block. A match made in heaven.....or was I thinking of the other place?

Presidential Primaries

2008-01-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

Its presidential primary season and looks to be interesting. There's no New England Patriots at this point in the process (John Edwards has just this second observed that only one half of of one percent of Americans have made their opinion known), in spite of the fact that the New Hampshire votes are currently being counted. John McCain won the Republican race big time, but the Democratic one remains too close to call...yet. Hillary Clinton has maintained a 2 to 4 point lead for most of the evening and will likely hold on to it. Iraq Osama, er......I mean Barack Obama, who won the first "caucus" in Iowa, will finish second.

So, never mind who's going to win, who do I want to win? Conventional wisdom holds that the Republicans have a snowball's chance in hell of taking the White House in 08', an opinion I am inclined to agree with. As such, much of the focus has been on the Democratic race and, in specific, the duel as between Clinton and Obama. Clinton, the establishment favourite and outright favourite for at least the past year, has lost a lot of ground to the upstart, Obama. And, indeed, she seemed shocked at her loss to him in the Iowa Caucuses earlier this month. I think she's been panicking; she's been more shrill than she's ever been the past few days and I'm certain she feigned tears earlier this week when she was being maudlin about why she is in the race. I'm sure fake tears come easy to Hillary; she need only remind herself that she's still married to Bill.

I don't like Hillary and never have. And I have had it with people who suggest, ad nauseum that she's a "smart" woman, as if that's the only criteria needed to be a President. You can be smart and evil at the same time (not that I'm suggesting that Hillary, herself, is evil). And I don't subscribe to the view that Hillary is the best candidate for the job, because its high time we had a woman. I think we could have a much better woman than Hillary. I sure hope so.

As much as I continue to lean towards the Republicans, in particular a moderate one like Rudy Giuliani, I think I could live with Obama. Short on policy though he may be, I like his message of inclusiveness and bi-partisanship. I don't see him as the arechetype liberal, pro-union, protectionist, a la Howard Dean or Richard Gephardt. Those types really scare me.

I would very much like to see a moderate Republican win the White House, but I guess Ronald Reagan is long gone. Don't laugh; Reagan may have been a military hawk, but he was NEVER beholden to the Christian right, unlike the incumbent. As such, my vote goes to Rudy Giuliani. John McCain, in my humble opinion, is just a little too old and bland. I appreciate his record of military service, but I don't think he's what is needed to inspire a war-weary country that's about to head into a recession. Everybody loves Rudy for the role he played as "lame duck" mayor during the aftermath of 9/11. However, he may hold just a little too much baggage in other areas, personal life included, to make a serious run at the White House. And he got absolutely trounced in New Hampshire.

As such, if it has to be a Democrat, and history and the current political climate suggests that this may be the inevitable, I guess I can live with Obama....

Unless Rudy can pull off a New York miracle!!! (oh...I guess the actual expression is "New York Minute").

Stéphane Dion or David Orchard. Who's the bigger boob?

2008-01-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

I'm reproducing the below article from the Saskatchewan StarPhoenix, but actually got it from the National Post's website.

So let me get this straight. Stephane Dion has rejected the candidacy of a former Conservative and Conservative leadership candidate, in favour of a former provinicial N.D.P. cabinet minister. Umm...aren't there enough good actual Liberals in Saskatchewan to be carrying the party's banner? In any event, look at the picture. Don't the two of them make a nice pair of boobs?

Just wondering.

Dion snubs supporter Orchard, appoints candidate
CanWest News Service Published: Friday, January 04, 2008

Richard Marjan/Saskatoon StarPhoenixStephane Dion with David Orchard in Saskatoon, Aug. 16, 2006.

REGINA -- Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion apparently has snubbed a man who was one of his most prominent supporters when he was running for the Liberal leadership: David Orchard.

Mr. Orchard, the former anti-free-trade activist, had been seeking the Liberal nomination for an upcoming federal byelection in Saskatchewan.

However on Friday, Mr. Dion appointed Saskatchewan NDP MLA Joan Beatty as the Liberal candidate for the sprawling, northern riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River.
The byelection is set for March 17.

Mr. Orchard had been campaigning hard for the nomination, but last month his supporters said Dion was contemplating appointing Beatty at the urging of Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale, the former finance minister.

Mr. Orchard was one of Dion's strongest supporters in his 2006 leadership campaign.
A former journalist, Ms. Beatty in 2003 became the first aboriginal woman elected to the provincial legislature and named to cabinet.

She was re-elected as an MLA in the Nov. 7 provincial election, taking the largest percentage of the vote of any NDP candidate in an election that pushed her party from power.
She served as culture, youth and recreation minister and northern affairs minister.
A provincial byelection will have to be held within six months of Ms. Beatty's resignation of her legislature seat.

Saskatchewan StarPhoenix

To keep the faith - or not

2008-01-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

John Tory and the Conservatives lost October's provincial election, but the debates remain - not only whether to publicly fund one, or any, faith-based school system, but the very place of "religion" within public education. Even if one believes that there ought to be one, and only one, publicly-funded system, it need not follow that the system be entirely secular.

Those who believe that the churches have no place in the schooling of our children will predictably repeat the mantra that "church and state are separate", opting for a laudable principle first enunciated in American constitutional discourse. However, they conveniently forget that "Judaeo-Christian morals" are to be inculcated under Ontario's own Education Act. They suggest that separation of church and state means no religion in schools at all. Period. Thus, Christian prayer groups proceed directly out of the building into the freezing cold to do their god-bothering across the street. As a teacher, I don't want to dissuade freedom of association. And, the current reality in our schools, and indeed in general society, mitigates against having public education exclusively secular.

When arguing against religion in public schools, proponents of secular education offer that our increasing cultural diversity means that we cannot favour any one religion, even a Judaeo-Christian one (despite the Education Act). Ergo, no religion in schools. Ergo, an entirely secular system. However, this fails to recognize that, in insisting on secularism, they are merely substituting one world view for another. The fact that secularism may not call upon supernatural deities or forces does not make it any more valid to be enforced on public education, than is any world view or religion that does. Secular humanism is just as capable (arguably more capable) of marginalizing competing world views as is any religion, be it fundamentalist Islam, orthodox Jewry or Catholicism.

What we should be insisting upon in our publicly-funded schools is religious pluralism. Where, rather than being banished from any form of recognition, faiths are not only tolerated and accommodated, but actually celebrated. I am fortunate to teach in a school (as opposed to a system) where, I firmly believe, we get it right. Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School is a high school in the core of Hamilton that copes with one of the highest rates of poverty and dependence on social assistance to be found anywhere in Canada. However, what our students lack in the usual socio-economic indicators is more than made up for in a thriving climate of spirituality. We have a significant Muslim population, whom are excused from classes every Friday to pray in a common area - within the school! We have the Nya-Weh (Mohawk for "welcome") program where aboriginal students are invited to celebrate their spirituality through programs such as the Drumming Circle, among others. And, yes, every December we gather the entire school community, some 1,000 staff, students and invited guests, in the gym for our annual CHRISTMAS luncheon.

Certainly, the critics may suggest that all such religion, be it Christian, deistic or secular humanism, be simply kept out of the schools and taught in the home. However, in a system that tackles everything from evolution and creationism in the science curriculum to the recent emphasis on "values" education, burying our heads in the sand against the faiths, or lack thereof, that our students are bringing to school on a daily basis is simply a non-starter. We can have it all. By changing our world view of education from one of secular publicly-funded education to one that supports religious pluralism, we can continue to enrich the lives of the students we are teaching. Just ask anyone at Sir John A. Macdonald.

Benazir Bhutto

2007-12-27T21:24:00.001-05:00

I guess it was only a matter of time. Benazir Bhutto, opposition politician in Pakistan, was assassinated earlier today, December 27, 2007 by a gunman who shot her in the the neck, and then exploded an IED, killing himself and about 2o people around him.

It sort of makes you thankful for the society you live in, not having to worry, for the most part, about such despicable acts of political violence, which have become an almost everyday thing in certain parts of the world, particularly central Asia. You almost expect that its going to happen, particularly in a country like Pakistan, with its unholy mix of Islamic extremism, military rule and general civil unrest.

Bhutto probably represented the best chance the country had for a turn towards stable democracy, but I guess that's too much to ask for in a region of the world that just doesn't seem to want to embrace democracy. I gather, with our "western bias", that our expectations are just too high for countries like Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is an argument frequently used to advance the position that our militaries have no business interfering in the region. They just aren't ready, willing or able to embrace democracy in its western form. Human rights? Who needs them, when you can advance your agenda at the butt-end of an AK-47 or at the lit fuse of an improvised explosive device?

The fact that Bhutto was a woman is also of note. Here was someone who had a chance to make history, not only in potentially bringing something remotely resembling democracy to a country that has historically been in a constant taffee-pull between the forces of Islamism and military dictatorship, but also to be a female in a leader in a culture that has subjugated women.

It is, indeed, a sad day for democracy worldwide. (Hey I just heard Gordon Brown use these exact words on the news!)

Why I can't support the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform report

2007-08-19T00:20:00.001-04:00

This October 15th, Ontarians will be asked in a referendum whether they wish to adopt a "Mixed Member Proportional System (MMP) as a means of electing our provincial legislature and government. Put simply, if adopted Ontarians would be asked to cast two ballots in every subsequent provincial election, which are now held at fixed dates; one vote for their local member and a second one for their political party of choice ("list" candidates). The Ontario Legislature would be made up of 90 local members and 39 list members, whose purpose would be to ensure that a party's popular vote in the election actually reflects their proportion of seats in the provincial parliament. Therefore if a party garners 25% of the popular vote, but only elects 15 members, that party would be allotted 17 of the list members to ensure their entitled 32 seat (25% of 129) composition in the Legislature.

However, there are two important caveats to this proposed restructuring of our electoral system. The first is that a party must garner at least 3% of the popular vote province-wide in order to be eligible for any list seats. The second is that, even if a party's local member composition exceeds their seat entitlement based on percentage of popular vote, they do not lose any seats. For example, if a party earns 45% of the popular vote and wins 70 of the 90 local seats, their overall entitlement including list seats would be 58 out of the 129 in total, based on percentage of popular vote. This party would not have 12 seats taken away; they would keep their 70 seats even though their percentage of seats in the legislature exceeds their percentage of popular vote. These two limitations contribute to many's belief that the proposed changes to our electoral system would be ineffective and perhaps cause more confusion than they are worth.

At the bottom are election data from the last four Ontario elections, taken from the Citizen's Assembly report itself, and which are applied to the proposed MMP scenario. The first three columns are the political parties who won seats, the percentage of vote and the percentage of seats actually won, based on the first past the post system of electing one member per riding. The fourth column represents how the seats would have broken down in a legislature with 90 local seats, as proposed under MMP. The fifth column indicates the number of list seats that would be allocated under MMP, while the sixth indicates the total number of seats in the proposed MMP. The final column suggests the number of seats to which each party would be entitled if the above two restrictions were not in place.

The first thing one notes is that it would be virtually impossible for a party to obtain majority standing in the Ontario Legislature, wherein a party would require a majority of the popular vote province wide. Indeed, the report itself points out that the last time this occurred in Ontario was 1937. The report suggests a bias against majority governments in that they are undemocratic. Unless the actual allocation of seats matches the percentage of popular vote, we somehow have a breach of democratic principles.

However, the application of MMP principles to actual election data shows that there are flaws with the proposed model. In the first place, the elections of 1990 and 2003 are telling, in that both the NDP and Liberals, respectively, benefitted from a gross over-representation of seats based on popular vote, to a point where, under an MMP model, they won more seats than their percentage of popular vote entitled them to (the Conservatives came close in 1995). In the earlier election, Bob Rae's government would have won 51 local seats when, as a function of proportion, they only ought to have had 49. In the latter, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals won 63 with an entitlement of only 59. MMP, in spite of its seemingly dogmatic adherence to the principles of proportionality, can still result in parties "stealing" seats to which they are not proportionally entitled.

What is also telling is the fact that in each of the elections, some of the list seats would not even be allocated! This is a result of the restriction on list seats to those parties who gain more than 3% of the popular vote. The number of unallocated seats ranges from 2 in the last two elections, where independents and other parties garnered 4 and 2 percent of the popular vote, to as many as 6 in 1995, where they earned 6 percent of the vote. In some cases, the winning parties are skimming seats to the detriment of the smaller parties, while in others seats are just being wasted. Overrepresentation of seats certainly occurs with the status quo. However, why would we want to embark upon a course of potential complication and confusion if we are not going to eliminate the unfairness of the allocation of "list" seats? Ultimately, what is the point?

There are those for whom an election at least every five years just isn't democratic enough. Unless every government is a minority one, critics assume that there is something insidious at work. All parties must have their part in the formulation of public policy and if one party has a majority, that is just not possible. It is for these people that MMP is designed to assuage. However, the scenarios foreseen by the don't lend themselves to much of anything different from the status quo.

On page 11 of their report, the Citizens' Assembly asserts that "coalition majority governments" (ostensibly a mixture of two of the main parties, neither of whom has an outright majority on their own) are common under MMP and are both stable and effective. What they don't point out is that such coalitions are possible and common in the current system. Not only that, the ones we have seen recently at the federal level, where Harper's Conservatives have danced alternatively with both the Bloc and the N.D.P., may even be more to the liking of MMP supporters, as they frequently change within the lifetime of a parliament. This is the opposite of what MMP supporters hate most; an unchanging, unflinching monolith of a majority government that can't be moved for at least four years.

What is more strange, and potentially disturbing, is the report's claim that MMP "may actually enhance stability by discouraging abrupt shifts in policy that can occur in the current system when the government changes from one party to another...". Huh? I thought one of the benefits of democracy was that if the public grew tired of a party in power too long, that they could throw the bums out?! It isn't the place of an electoral system to dictate the pace of policy change, but the voters themselves. Many would argue that after eight years of Conservative rule under Harris and Eves (or even five years under Rae and the N.D.P.), incremental change wasn't the order of the day, but a wholesale change in policy direction. That's democracy.

In terms of list seats, those allocated solely on the basis of "topping up" parties who are underrepresented following the allocation of the local seats, there is a potential for problems. As it is proposed, each party would nominate their list candidates and rank them in order of preference from 1 to 39. If, for example, the Conservatives were entitled to 24 of the list seats (as in the 2003 election scenario), then the top 24 on their list would find their way onto the floor of Queen's Park. The Ontario Citizens' Assembly Report seems naively optimistic that the process of selecting and ranking of these 39 candidates for each party will not be problematic, suggesting on page 8 that "voters will be able to assess whether parties created their lists in a fair and transparent way". Thirty-nine politicians. For each party. Recent history suggests that parties have difficulty with transparency in nominating a single candidate in some ridings, if the recent spate of direct party appointments (ie. those without a formal nomination process) is any indication. The often unsavoury business of the party nomination process has the possibility of multiplying exponentially if the 39 list seats are included in a revised electoral format.

All MMP really does is make us feel better about the results being more statistically fair.....to the three established parties. It does precious little for smaller parties, nor will it have much of an effect on how parties cooperate over and above the status quo. If the intention, coupled with the imposition of fixed election dates, is to move us towards a more Americanized system of gridlock and stalemate (what the architects of MMP really mean by "stability"), then perhaps one would consider voting for a system of MMP. For my part, I will stick with the devil I know.

2003 results	% of vote	% of seats	applied to 90 seat legislature of "local" members	allotment of "list" seats	Total number of seats in MMP legislature	Entitlement of seats in MMP legislature (based on % of party vote)

PC	35	23	21	24	45	45
Liberal	46	70	63	0	63	59
NDP	15	7	6	13	19	19
other parties	4	0	0	0	0	5
TOTALS	100	100	90	37	127	128

1999 results

PC	45	57	51	7	58	58
Liberal	40	34	31	21	52	52
NDP	13	9	8	9	17	17
other parties	2	0	0	0	0	3
TOTALS	100	100	90	37	127	130

1995 results

PC	45	63	57	1	58	58
Liberal	31	23	21	19	40	40
NDP	21	13	12	15	27	27
other parties	3	0	0	0	0	4
TOTALS	100	99	90	35	125	129

1990 results

PC	24	15	14	17	31	31
Liberal	32	28	25	16	41	41
NDP	38	57	51	0	51	49
other parties	6	0	0	0	0	8
TOTALS	100	100	90	33	123	129

Meet Blueberry

2007-07-22T16:05:00.001-04:00

If Dinsdale were alive today, he'd be rolling in his greyhound grave! He would be most displeased! Or, maybe not.

After several months of lobbying, I finally gave in and we have adopted "Blueberry", a lovely five year-old rescue Miniature Pinscher. She was rescued from a puppy mill somewhere in Ohio, where she had spent her entire life being bred up the wazoo. Her grossly elongated teets (sp?) are testimony to the number of puppies forced out of her. Apparently, and this may be the case in Canada, they give out kennel licenses in Ohio like they were cereal box toys.

After Blueberry outlived her "usefulness", she was mercifully handed over to a rescue operation, I.M.P.S. (Internet Miniatur Pinscher Society) and found her way to a nice lady in Ottawa, who fostered her. We had been warned that this particular breed was not the best to have around a young child (Liam is approaching his first birthday as I write this!), however we were assured that Blueberry had been exposed to children and seemed alright with them.

We have had Blueberry for about 24 hours, and what a fun full day it has been! Even as I write, he is baying in the background, likely because Cathy has gone out and hasn't returned for a couple of hours. He arrived yesterday with four other dogs who were travelling with the nice lady from Ottawa. Within ten minutes of their arrival, there were four "accidents" on our living room carpet, for which Blueberry was responsible for two! Both number one and number two! Good thing I talked Cathy out of getting a new rug for the living room!

Since then, not a single one! We were concerned, also, about how her first night would be with us. Again, no problems. We (and she) decided that she would sleep between Cathy and I the first night. We put her down between us at about 9:30 p.m. and she didn't make a sound the whole night.

She hasn't eaten too much since arriving, either. We hope that changes once she gets a little more used to her new surroundings. We have Eukanuba in a small dish for her. I swear by this product, as it kept Dinsdale the fit of health for his 11.5 years! Although, it didn't keep the cancer away (sniff!). She has a mildly disconcerting habit of taking bits of the food away from her dish and strewing it across the kitchen floor. We hope she can "unlearn" this habit.

Liam is thrilled. He was the reason I eventually bent and allowed Blueberry into our home. I am still feeling devastated at the loss of Dinsdale and said, initially, that I wanted another year before getting another dog - and another greyhound. However, Liam screeches with delight every time he sees a dog, so we figured now was a good time to get another one. He has tried to gently stroke her on a couple of occasions and Blueberry seems quite tolerant of him. If she isn't interested, she'll simply scurry away (like she does from me on most occasions!). She likes to hide from me under the dining room table. However, when I do manage to get my hands on her, she doesn't offer too much of a protest when I pick her up.

Its been a busy weekend! Between the Tour de France and the British Open on television (Rasmussen still leading, Padraig Harrington over Sergio Garcia in a playoff), and trying desperately to get through he new Harry Potter book before I find out who dies from an outside media source, I have been of somewhat limited help to Cathy in looking after Liam and now Blueberry. But we have the rest of the summer to get her used to her new home.

Just a bit of an editorial for those wanting to get a pet: never mind a puppy or a kitten. There are many, many adult animals that need rescuing just like Blueberry and Dinsdale all those years ago. Only today, there was an article in the Toronto Sun about the fact that the Toronto Humane Society has been overrun with over 1,000 unwanted animals. Contact your local SPCA or Humane Society, or find another rescue organization. They even have breed specific ones, such as the Internet Miniature Pinscher Service or the Greyhound Lovers of Hamilton Wentworth. You won't regret it!

Passage from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

2007-07-18T17:50:00.000-04:00

Not that I am rabidly anti-war or anything, but I found this passage from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five very interesting:

{Billy}....turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.

The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.

Indeed.

Testing the new video blog feature.

2007-06-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry, its been a while. But I just saw an item on the news, featuring Rosie O'Donnell's "video blog" and I thought to myself "Self, wouldn't it be cool if I could upload videos to my blog as well?"

So, whilst doing that, let me update for anyone who cares. Liam is now over ten months old and is massive. We just bought him (well.....us) a giant, inflatable 3-foot swimming pool for the backyard. We finished our patio out front - a nice, rustic flagstone patio (very "zen" as Cathy describes it), complete with a double Muskoka chair, which I painstakingly assembled and Cathy stained. We even dug up some of the grass and now have a nice garden in front of it. We now enjoy the view from the front of our home, now that the nice weather is here.

We took ten kids to OFSAA track and field this year and came back with a bronze medal (Lydia in the senior girls triple jump, again). Having said that, I am enjoying my hiatus as a club coach, but would like to return.

Anyhow, enjoy the video as I go mark exams!

Reflections on The Honourable Madam Justice Bertha Wilson

2007-05-01T18:12:00.000-04:00

The first woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Honourable Madam Justice Bertha Wilson, died this week at the age of 83. Madam Justice Wilson was perhaps best known for her contribution to the notorious (or famous) decision in the case of R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized abortion in Canada.

Wilson was able to play such a significant role in the development of this particular aspect of public policy thanks to the authority conferred upon her and her 8 unelected colleagues of the Supreme Court by virtue of the advent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the power of full judicial authority. There remains much debate as to whether the Charter confers too much power on the courts. Indeed, this was an issue in the last federal election when Stephen Harper found himself in hot water for suggesting that "Liberal-appointed" judges would keep his government in check.

I remember the Morgentaler decision. I recall being disappointed because, at the time, I had some strong pro-life views. However, the decision also aroused the political science - and future law - student in me. It cause me to think about the question of the Charter and judicial review and whether or not the courts ought to have such power. I felt at the time they should not and continue to hold this view.

I have been drawn, strangely enough, into the critical legal theory camp known as the "legal realists", or those who believe that our legal system does not operate some form of social and/or political vacuum. Even Supreme Court judges cannot be free from ideological biases, as high a pedestal that we place them upon. They are learned (two syallables, Homer Simpson), educated, wise and dispassionate, but as human beings they are no less capable of being affected by their life experiences and world views as am I. Here's an excerpt from Madam Justice Wilson's decision in the Morgentaler case which I always felt betrayed a certain world view bias on her part. It certainly, at least in my estimation, involved her taking great liberties with the legal notion of "security of the person", moreso than I think the framers of the Charter might have intended:

In my opinion, the respect for individual decision-making in matters of fundamental personal importance reflected in the American jurisprudence also informs the Canadian Charter. Indeed, as the Chief Justice pointed out in R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd., beliefs about human worth and dignity "are the sine qua non of the political tradition underlying the Charter". I would conclude, therefore, that the right to liberty contained in s. 7 guarantees to every individual a degree of personal autonomy over important decisions intimately affecting their private lives.

The question then becomes whether the decision of a woman to terminate her pregnancy falls within this class of protected decisions. I have no doubt that it does. This decision is one that will have profound psychological, economic and social consequences for the pregnant woman. The circumstances giving rise to it can be complex and varied and there may be, and usually are, powerful considerations militating in opposite directions. It is a decision that deeply reflects the way the woman thinks about herself and her relationship to others and to society at large. It is not just a medical decision; it is a profound social and ethical one as well. Her response to it will be the response of the whole person.

It is probably impossible for a man to respond, even imaginatively, to such a dilemma not just because it is outside the realm of his personal experience (although this is, of course, the case) but because he can relate to it only by objectifying it, thereby eliminating the subjective elements of the female psyche which are at the heart of the dilemma.

Do we want to trust the unelected and, thus, unaccountable with vague notions of "security of the person" and "fundamental justice" when issues as important as abortion are under scrutiny? Are these not the questions we want in the public realm, where a greater consensus might be found? I'm not suggesting that Madam Justice Wilson was wrong on the straight public policy question of abortion. However, I question whether or not it was Wilson's - or any other Judge's matter - place to have the final legal say on it.

I found myself asking these similar questions in recent years, this time with the debate on same sex marriage. Here, I was in agreement with the Liberals on one question but not with another, and in disagreement with the Conservatives on the first question, but on their side with the latter. The questions: should we, as a society, recognize and condone same sex marriage? To this, my answer is an emphatic yes. Secondly: should the Supreme Court of Canada have the final say on the matter. To this, my answer is an emphatic no. As such, I supported the Liberals in their attempt to enact legislation which recognized same sex marriage; the first ever legislative attempt to define marriage in our country's history. However, I was disappointed when they went running to the Supreme Court of Canada to get their stamp of approval, as much as I understand the necessity of such in the current legal environment of full judicial review.

In terms of the Tories, I was and remain opposed to any attempt to revert the definition of marriage to the tradtional one of "one man to one woman to the exclusion of all others". However, I support Harper in his belief that it ought to be Parliament, and not the Supreme Court of Canada, who have the final say.

Perhaps the balance we have struck in Canada is the existence of the Notwithstanding Clause which technically gives Parliament (and provincial legislatures, of course) the final say. Nevertheless, the political risks in invoking the clause render this course an unlikely one, leaving the courts to rule the roost on many questions of public policy, such as abortion.

We lost a great Canadian this week, who has made a significant contribution to public life. However, I wonder if the power vested in her and her peers ought to have been there to begin with. In doing so, have we not abdicated our obligations and our rights as a democratic society?

God's Slow Death

2007-04-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

Not much to blog about today. Except, I came across a really cool podcast from The Walrus magazine, which is a somewhat hoity-toity Canadian public affairs periodical along the lines of The Atlantic Monthly or Harper's.

Its a review of three books that challenge not only the existence of God, but also the various "design" theories purporting to support the presence of the almighty.

It almost makes me want to read all othree of them. Any road, here's the link to the podcast:

God's Slow Death podcast from The Walrus

The whole Don Imus thing

2007-04-25T21:59:00.000-04:00

I'm having a real problem with the whole Don Imus controversy. Yes, I know there are probably more important world issues to be blogging about than the firing of a shock-jock-talk radio host, however I can't help but be bothered by the hypocrisy of the whole thing.

For those of you living under a rock, Imus was fired recently over some comments he made on the air, referring to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's". It was a less than tasteful attempt to refer, I gather, to the toughness and/or the imposing physical stature of the women. Offensive as the lexicon might have been, I don't think it was Imus' express intent to insult or belittle the team. I honestly think he was making an attempt to give the team a backhanded compliment.

Apparently, "nappy-headed" refers to the natural, untreated hairstyle of black (I hate the term "African-American") women, and...well...everyone knows what the connotation and denotation of the expression "ho" (short form for "whore") are. As much as anyone else, I think Imus had been desensitized to the significance of the word, as it has become ubiquitous particularly in the so-called "rap and hip-hop culture". And here's where the hypocrisy comes in.

Few have been the people who have called for the firing/cancelling of recording contracts of rap artists who sling the term "ho" (also "bitch" and "nigger") around like snowballs in the playground. Occasionally, you get the Tipper Gore anti-rock lyric types who raise objections, but I don't see artists like JaRule and Tupac and Eminem losing their jobs, much less any sleep, over the issue. I would certainly be much more prepared to listen to the likes of Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, if they were to turn the spotlight on this segment of society who, to this point, have been immune to the collective hysterical disapprobation which did Don Imus in.

Why is it that rappers get off and Imus doesn't? Dare I suggest that the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world turn a blind eye to the rap community on the grounds of race? Do they look the other way because they don't want to be seen as bringing a fellow black man down? Is Imus a more convenient target because he is white?

Don't get me wrong. As someone who has coached female athletics for more than ten years, I feel very uncomfortable when women athletes are referred to as "ho's" as the most pointed way to describe their athletic prowess. I like to think that the English languages offers a lot more. However, I think an apology on the part of Mr. Imus would have sufficed. Unfortunately, Mr. Imus failed to realize that it is this sort of thing that becomes a make-work project for the blowhards, such as the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton. They seem to make a career in the spotlight of righteous indignation.

But until they become less selective, for the sake of politically correct convenience, in their targets of disapprobation, I prefer to ignore their shrill cries.....except insofar as they have inspired me to blog about the hypocrisy of it all.

Remembering Dinsdale

2007-04-05T13:59:00.003-04:00

Friends:

It is with great sadness that I inform you that Dinsdale was put to sleep earlier this week, after a brief battle with bone cancer.

As many of you know, Dinsdale has been my best friend for over eight years and a part of our family since Cathy and I got together three years ago and since Liam joined us last August. He was the kindest and most loving friend anyone could have asked for. After a brief and less-than-stellar racing career in West Virginia, Dinsdale and I first met at a truck stop in "Nowhere", Pennsylvania when I accompanied members of GLOHW (Greyhound Lovers of Hamilton-Wentworth) to a meeting place where half a dozen retired racing greyhounds were to be rescued. We even had issues getting across the Canadian border that day, as Customs Officials wanted us to pay duty on the dogs!

From the moment that Dinsdale and I took the first walk (the other dogs either didn't want anything to do with me, or insisted on using me as a jungle gym!), he became an inextricable part of my life. He saw me through a stressful career change from law to teaching, and welcomed both Cathy and Liam as his new "stepmom" and "baby skin brother respectively". For five years, it was just he and I at our old one-bedroom apartment at 40 McKay Road. Since then, he has been a part of our family. Throughout the many changes that have taken place over the past decade, Dinsdale was the one constant. He will be missed.

There were some wonderful times, and some not so good ones. The former vastly outnumber the latter fortunately. Yes, he did make a dinner out of one of my other pets - a cockatiel - as many of you will remember. There were the times where a nasty case of the runs destroyed more than one carpet and area rug; he never would do it on the tile or hardwood! And there was the camping trip from Hell to Killarney where, if the mosquitoes that swelled up his face didn't kill him, the rocky trails and fall from the 10 foot high suspension bridge nearly did! And - for those of you in my extended track and field family - who can forget the havoc he wrought during those brief times I brought him to the track for practices or meets? I was able to make him bark and go crazy for years with a simple command of "On your marks......set......". You can't fault a sight hound for a natural chase instinct though,now can you?

However, the times were mostly good. I don't think we ever had more fun than the summer of 2003 when we spent a weekend at Sandbanks Provincial Park. There weren't many mosquitoes that weekend and I can still picture the abject joy with which Dinsdale chased his beloved "Jolly Ball" into the waters of Lake Ontario. We were able to do this a lot at Van Wagners Beach as well, near the Skyway Bridge. For a while, Dinsdale was a so-so jogging companion. He would let me get about a quarter of a mile ahead of him on the Rail Trail, remaining behind to sniff and pee in the bushes and then bolt with all of his sprinter's speed to catch me up in less than 20 seconds. Some of you will remember Dinsdale as the dog who could walk himself, insisting on taking the handle of his leash in his jaws on every walk, that is if he wasn't carrying his Jolly Ball to the park. And I won't even get into the strange glove fetish that he harboured. Suffice to say that I spent many a winter's walk with a bare hand tucked up the sleeve of my Gore-Tex jacket.

Dinsdale's favourite food was, without a doubt, cheese. He could actually discern the sound of it being take out of the refrigerator in its plastic packaging. You will be comforted to know that Dinsdale went earlier today with a belly full of it. Although he was in much discomfort in recent days, his final hours were peaceful and, thanks to the assistance of the staff at Chedoke Animal Hospital in Hamilton, was able to pass quietly in his dad's arms.

Believe, like I do, that Dinsdale is now running pain-free with the greyhound angels.

Now I must really close my story. Good-bye to the boys and girls who may read it and if it is not wrong for a dog to say it, I should like to add, "God bless you all." If in my feeble way I have been able to impress you with the fact that dogs and many other animals love their masters and mistresses, and live only to please them, my little story will not have been written in vain. My last words are: "Boys and girls, be kind to dumb animals, not only because you will lose nothing by it, but because you ought to; for they were placed on the earth by the same Kind Hand that made all living creatures.

-from "Beautiful Joe", by Marshall (really Margaret) Saunders

Shalimar the Clown, by Salman Rushdie

2007-02-17T13:46:00.000-05:00

Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie

If you have ever had occasion to read a work of Salman Rushdie, you will know what a challenge that can be. Rushdie is not for the mentally lazy.

However, if you take the time to get into his work, you will be rewarded with stories that are rich, imagery that is breathtaking and characters who are multidimensional. All three of these are present in Shalimar the Clown.

Shalimar traces the life of an ordinary theatre performer who grew up in the dipsuted Kashmir province of India (or ...Pakistan) an area that is frequently described throughout the novel as a mountainous winter wonderland. All is good with Shalimar, the main character and his life seems perfect when the family of the beautiful Boonyi accept his marriage proposal.

However, life takes a turn for the worse for Shalimar at the same time as Kashmir is plunged into darkness through war end ethnic conflict. Boonyi is seduced by the American Ambassador to India, Max Ophuls, whose own life Rushdie describes in a historical context that keeps the reader rivetted. Boonyi would bear the Ambassador a daughter, with whom the novel both begins and ends. As his village is engulfed in the violence that was and is the India-Pakistan conflict - exacerbated by the newly-minted Indian general, Hammirdev Kachhaha, whose affections Boonyi had spurned years before, Shalimar swears his revenge.

The non-linear novel reads like a Quentin Tarantino film, jumping in parts from one historical period to the other; beginning with modern-day Los Angeles and Shalimar's ultimate vindication over his romantic rival, Max Ophuls, jumping back to Second World War Vichy France and the coming-of-age of the German-born Ambassador, to the interim decades in peaceful and then war-torn Kashmir, and then coming full-circle to modern-day Los Angeles and the realization of India/Kashmir Ophuls of the checkered history of her family.

As difficult as the story is sometimes to follow - again, the reader must be patient and attentive with Rushdie, it is a fantastic story for those who are interested in modern Asian (and European) history and for those who just like a good story of love, betrayal and revenge.

French immersion

2007-02-17T13:06:00.000-05:00

Recently, there was a successful lobby to establish French immersion programs in both Dundas and Waterdown. Classes are scheduled to begin this fall.

The decision by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board attracted modest media attention. Cathy, Liam and I got on Board after hearing about the efforts indirectly at the Dundas Cactus Festival this past summer. We signed up, attended some meetings and intend on enrolling Liam for September 2011 (he's only six months old at this point).

Discussion around French immersion has brought out the usual types who oppose anything French and believe it cripples kids' ability to function in English (please!). Have a look at this gem of a letter to the Hamilton Spectator from someone in Burlington (go figure) who feels that its good enough for people to "get by" with English, and who needs any other language:

Letter from Burlington man opposed to French immersion

Naturally, I was compelled to respond. I kept my comments brief, as I know they prefer it that way in the editorial room at the Spec. Its times like this I wish I was still writing for the Spec's Community Editorial Board:

Editor,

I beg to differ with the letter writer who decried the "abysmal lack of proper English usage" in his objection to the revival of interest in French immersion in Hamilton.

I would hope that we, as parents and teachers, aspire to more for our children than having them simply "get by quite well with just English". Granted, the international language of business and technology may becoming more and more anglicized, but the imminent linguistic genocide of other languages, like French, is a little further away than the letter-writer seems to have suggested.

Employment in the public service, even employment prospects themselves, need not be the primary motivator for enrolling one's son or daughter in French immersion. Becoming conversant in French is of unquantifiable advantage in a country like Canada, or in a world where it is the second most influential language. Promoting French is not only a matter of national unity, but a shot in the arm for global citizenship. Or am I in the wrong country? Or on the wrong planet?

Furthermore, the fact is literacy skills in a second or third language complement, and in even enhance those in the first language. The letter writer needn't worry about French sucking the life out of English language skills. It isn't a zero-sum proposition. So, call me a snob but my son starts immersion in September 2011. I'm sorry the letter writer's children (or grandchildren) may miss out.

I hope they print my letter, too.

iTunes. Why can I only buy Canadian?

2007-01-30T18:01:00.000-05:00

(The following I wrote in response to a piece that appeared in "Raise the Hammer", an on-line publication out of Hamilton, Ontario. The article juxtaposed the advent of the Apple Corporation's new "iPhone" with the development of the "Childrens Machine", a third world-directed product being made under the ausipices of the "one computer per child" movement. The article made me think of something else a little more, well, selfish in any event). If you want to read the original article go here:

Interesting piece. Not to stray to far from the topic at hand, but I have a comment/question about iTunes and digital rights.

I firmly believe in paying artists for their work by not using on-line services to share music files. As such, I purchase only from Napster and iTunes (and other artist official sites). Well....mostly iTunes because I like how music synchs seamlessly with my iPod, which I love, which I know is evil at some levels.

However, other iTunes users will know that each country has its own iTunes store. With a Canadian address on my credit card, I can buy only from the Canadian iTunes store. Why is that? The U.S. iTunes store has all sorts of stuff, like movies and TV shows which I cannot pay for legitimately. The U.K. store has all sorts of music I'd love to purchase, but can't because it isn't available in the Canadian store.

Can someone explain to me why, with the technology we have, I am not able to purchase these things? Doesn't iTunes U.K./U.S. want my money? What sort of "rights" things are going on here? I just don't get it.

Its Christmastime. Time to blog about the Leafs

2007-01-01T21:50:00.000-05:00

Let's leave the silly topic of politics behind and log about something equally as important - the Leafs.

They have had me banging my head against the wall for the better part of thirty years now. They still haven't won the Stanley Cup in my lifetime, and I'm starting to get grey hairs. This season seems a lot like the last; they came out of the gates really well but have fizzled of late and will be hard-pressed to make the playoffs.

I thought the Leafs were a much better team than last year's version for one simple equation: Lindros out, Peca in. However, the Leafs have been decimated by a recent rash of injuries, not least of which is Michael Peca himself, out likely until the playoffs (if the Leafs even make the playoffs).

I think the best Leaf currently is Chad Kilger (pictured above). He's the type of grinder I, for one, really like. Having said that, Sundin has been on a tear of late, scoring six goals in his last five games, including two this evening in a 5-1 rollicking of those nasty Boston Bruins. I like the type of player that is Kilger; multi-dimensional. He can score goals (usually in spurts), but also grinds away in the corner and finishes checks. He's a lesser version of Darcy Tucker, who just returned from an injury. Between Kilger, Tucker, Peca and, more recently, Boyd Devereaux, I think the Leafs have the makings of a team that could go deep into the playoffs - if they can get there.

As it stands, their blueline is vastly over-rated if not also overpaid. I really don't care what McCabe and Kaberle (whom I like to pronounce "kuh-BERL") do on the powerplay, they're not doing the meat and potatoes job they're supposed to on defence. And they get far too much ice time. Although Hal Gill and Ian White (aka "Fred and Barney") started the season well, their play has been, for the most part, inconsistent. Pavel Kubina just isn't the blue chip defencemen he was with Tampa Bay in 04'. Thankfully, Carlo Coliacovo (I never was able to spell it properly), is back from a long-term injury and I think he's really bolstered their defensive corps.

Goaltending: Andrew Raycroft just isn't Eddie Balfour, nor Curtis Joseph. End of story. The textbook on beating hims is quite brief: the words "HIGH, GLOVE SIDE" written in large font, upper case letters. JS Aubin had a nice run last spring, when Eddie went down, but he just isn't a goaltender that's going to get you very deep into the playoffs, and nor is Raycroft. Maybe they should trade both of them to the Sen-NOT-ors (God I hate the Ottawa Senators! Even more than I ever hated the Canadiens).

As for Captain Mats himself, I still remember where I was when I heard he had been traded to the Leafs. It was in my law school days and some classmates and I were in a movie theatre in Victoria in the summer when one of them broke the news to me that Sundin had been traded to the Leafs for....Wendel Clark!!!!! Aghhhhhh!!!!!!!!! was the only conceivable response at the time, as Wendel had been the heart and soul of the franchise for almost a decade. Now here he was, off to the Quebec Nordiques.

What's relevant about all of that is how long ago it was: 1994....June. In fact, Mats didn't even suit up for the Blue and White until the following January, as the first half of that season was lost to a lockout. 1994....almost thirteen years ago. Sundin has toiled that long for the boys in blue. This leads me to believe that, should the Leafs not have a decent shot at making the playoffs by the beginning of March, captain Mats will waive his no-trade clause and be shipped off to a Cup contender. Some observers have suggested the Disney Ducks (I don't care that their official names has been changed to the "Anaheim Ducks", they will always be the "Disney Ducks of Anaheim" to me).

They've been charting his scoring progress for the Leafs as of late, moving up the all-time lists for both goals and points. I think he's still number 2 all-time for the Leafers, still behind my boyhood idol, Darryl Sittler.

Hey speaking of Darryl Sittler, Cathy and I made a trip to St. Jacob's last summer just before baby Liam was born. She wanted to go to the big market there, and I thought it would be neat to go see the boyhood home of my hockey hero. We had a tourist map which showed where it was but, when we got there we weren't quite certain which house it was. It wasn't as if there was a big sign with the words "BOYHOOD HOME OF DARRYL SITTLER" emblazoned on it.

Wonder if I'll ever get to Sweden to see Mats Sudin's boyhood home? Or at least Chad Kilger's.

Stéphane Dion, Canada's next Prime Minister.....NOT!!!

2006-12-03T11:07:00.000-05:00

The Liberal Party of Canada seems to think they have elected Canada's next Prime Minister over the weekend. Not if I can help it.

What does it say about a party who's winning leadership candidate is the one a majority of convention delegates dislikes the least? An acceptable second-choice - the most inoffensive option - seems to be an appropriate way to go for a second-rate party. This doesn't bode terribly well for the next election; two uncharismatic policy wonks going to toe to (snore.....) toe in the leadership debates. Is it just me or is the idea of Jack Layton being the most likeable party leader just a tad scary? Reminiscent of the Ed Broadbent days, at the very least. For the love of god, somebody invite Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, to the show!

I didn't think Dion was going to win it. I, like many of the pundits, thought that Bob Rae was grabbing much of the momentum leading up to the vote (not that the endorsement of Joe Volpe amounts to anything even remotely resembling momenutm). I figured the winning candidate would have been between Rae and Michael Ignatieff (whose last name roughly translates into "damned Ukrianians and Jews" in English), with the ultimate winner being he who had the smaller anti-me movement. Turns out, both the anti-Rae and anti-Iggy votes were larger than expected, as they all seemed to flock, like lemmings, to Dion.

Perhaps that's too unkind. I think the story of the convention was Gerrard Kennedy. After having blown a huge fourth quarter (wait, this is Canada)...third period lead ten years ago in the Ontario Liberal leadership convention, he proved to be THE deciding force. Not only did he ultimately play kingmaker in a personal capacity, but he was able to deliver the goods, in the form of delegates. This has been less of a certainty in recent years.

You have to figure, however, that the Rae-Iggy friendship is over. "Friendship over delegates" my ass! Rae gave him the ultimate slap in the face, by not giving him - his former university roommate - at least a personal endorsement, if not that of his delegation. Having said that, the anti-Rae and anti-Iggy crowd tended to be a mutually exclusive lot, now didn't they?

Whatever Iggy did to court the gay vote, I don't know, but he did ultimately sway Scott Brison and George Smitherman to his camp. Or course, I think the latter was just the inadvertent result of the Ignatieff camp passing out free baggies of crystal meth. in an attempt to attract youth delegates, but who's to say? So, what's next for Scott Brison? A leadership run for the N.D.P. or the Greens? More fittingly, perhaps it should be the Monster, Raving Loony Party. Wait, you need U.K. citizenship for that.

On a final note, I couldn't help but be fixated on Belinda Stronach's dye job the whole weekend. I guess she got tired of the blond jokes. Either that or she's emulating the career of her favourite female role-model, Christina Aguilera. However, did anyone else notice how straight the do was Friday evening, and then how frizzy, JBF throughout Saturday? I guess Tie was in town that weekend for the Leafs-Canadiens tilt at the Bell Centre.

A New Christmas Poem

2006-11-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

The following poem was brought to my attention, through a couple of sources including Reg Whynott, the former Chairperson of the old Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth.

As much as I don't like wrapping up my support for military endeavours, including the current one in Afghanistan, in the Canadian flag I thought it was appropriate in light of the content of the poem. For me, the flag symbolizes not necessarily the country of Canada, but all the freedoms we enjoy, which are paid for in the sacrifices of our military.

I thought it appropriate to reproduce in this period between Remembrance Day and Christmas. I'm sure Reg wouldn't mind.

Peace.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So slumbered I, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then thesure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,

Perhaps a Ranger, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts…

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died in Europe on a day in December,

"Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers.

"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam',

And now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red and the white ... a Canadian flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother…

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,

"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

For being away from your wife and your son.

"Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

YouTube.com

2006-11-28T23:07:00.000-05:00

Recently, my employer, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, finally blocked access to the wildly-popular "YouTube.com". I guess they feel that, in spite of YouTube's efforts to keep porn off its site, there was too much inappropriate stuff being posted. Or, at least too much junk that was distracting students from using the internet for legitimate educational purposes.

They may have a point. There has been an unfortunate trend - and a lot of media - for students to post things like fights and idiotic stunts of the "Jackass" film persuasion. This isn't the type of stuff we want kids looking at. At least not during school hours.

Nevertheless, I found the blocking of the site unfortunate as it coincided with my first ever uploading to YouTube. There are now four videos of my greyhound, Dinsdale, available for viewing. Now, I can't share them with my students and teaching colleagues....at least not during school hours.

If you want to look at one, go to the link below. Its called "Dinsdale at the Dog Park" Once there, you can access the three others:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkVDgJc8AG4

Is Quebec a nation?

2006-11-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the House of Commons passed a motion recognizing the "Québécois" as a "nation". Not the territory of Quebec, but just the people therein. In advance of the resolution, the country had been engaging in hair-splitting as to what exactly constitutes a "nation". Since the resolution, the discussion has focussed on what or who actually makes up the "Québécois".

Many have a confused notion as to what, exactly, a nation is. People have pointed out the contrast in which the term is defined in English and in French. In English, we often use the term nation interchangably with "state", meaning an autonomous country with borders, an independant government and international recognition. In French, it is said that the term merely means a people with a common and distinct history, language, culture, customs, etc. I would sugges - and I have a degree in political science - that the French definition is also the English one, but English-speakers, particularly those blind unitary Canadian nationalists of the Pierre Trudeau ilk, don't distinguish between nation and state.

The government lost a Cabinet Minister over it. Michael Chong, who had held the post of Minister of Amateur Sport and Intergovernmental Affairs (hows that for a Cabinet Combo? Maybe we can settle those federal-provincial scuffles with a cross-country race, or something!). Chong, now merely the M.P. for Wellington-Halton Hills, believes that the notion of Canada as a nation is indivisible. Thus, he could not support Prime Minister Harper's motion and had to leave cabinet. He believes, like many others, that we cannot have a "nation within a nation", or, as Joe Clark used to call it, a "community of communities".

This is unfortunate, because I think the strength of Canada is that we can and do have nations within this nation of ours (although I often ask myself whether Canada is, in fact, a nation. Its certainly a state, but not every state is a nation, just the same as not every nation has its own state). In my view Quebec, or Quebeckers (I hate when they use the term "Québécois" when speaking English) at least certainly constitute a nation. I believe the Acadien people, although smaller in numbers, constitute a nation. Heck, for anyone following the whole Caledonia debacle, we've got six nations right up Hwy. 6 from Hamilton! You don't want to tell the various aboriginal sects, from the Six Nations, to the Cree to the Dene, that they don't constitute a nation.

Where I would agree with Trudeau - and I don't often admit to agreeing with that bastard, at least not when it can be traced back to me in writing - is where he dealt with the issue of national self-determination in his seminal essay "New Treason of the Intellectuals". In challenging the notion of "national self-determination", he argued that nationhood does not necessarily lead to an automatic claim to statehood. If so, we would have national groups claiming statehood on a daily basis. Once the Quebec nation achieved statehood, then certain "nations" within Quebec, chiefly the anglophone minority and aboriginal groups, such as the Cree, would have an equal claim to sub-statehood. Whether or not he would admit it himself, I think Trudeau was tacitly agreeing with the notion that nations can exist within nations...or states. Erego, he would have had to have supported Harper's motion this week.

In any event, many see this as a cynical ploy on the part of Harper and the Conservatives to shore up support in La belle province....or la belle nation...in advance of an impending election. They're currently getting killed there in the polls, thanks to Kyoto and Afghanistan. Others suggest it was a shot in the arm to the Liberal leadership campaign of Michael Ignatieff, whom Harper feels he can thump in an election. But when it comes down to it, because it lacks constitutional authority, this whole thing may be little more than a trumped up version of a similar debate following the 1995 referendum, where a weak-kneed Jean Chrétien had his government pass a similar motion recognizing Quebec as a "distinct society". This, after basing his whole leadership campaign on opposing the Meech Lake Accord.

Typical Liberal. F***ing hypocrites when it comes to national unity.

The Hamilton Spectator

2006-11-23T21:50:00.000-05:00

I recently wrote to Dana Robbins (picture), the outgoing Editor-in-chief of the Hamilton Spectator. Shortly after I wrote him, he announced he was leaving the Spec to take on the post of Publisher of both the Kitchener Record and the Guelph Mercury newspapers.

I wish him well. I think the Spec has become a marvellous paper under his leadership. Its too bad I'm cancelling my subscription. I explained why in my letter to him below:

Mr. Robbins:

I love the Hamilton Spectator. I always have. Its not only because I've written for the paper twice (a Spec Huddler in 1984 and a member of the Community Editorial Board 2000-2001), but I happen to think you run a high-quality operation.

My one hour in the morning with the Spec is the highlight of my day. I love sprawling on the couch with a cup of coffee while my partner and baby are still sleeping. This is a ritual I have been undertaking for ten years since I returned from studies out west. I used to read the paper on my stomach on the living room floor growing up. I consider those who write (and have written) for the Spec as close friends, if not family. My favourites over the years have included Don Lovegrove, Wade Hemsworth, Tami Paikin-Nolan, Mike Davison, Tony Fitzgerald (even back when he had the black fro'), Alge Borusas and many others whose names I can't even remember. Your current crop delight me every morning with their observations, insight and witticisms. These include Terry Cooke, Andrew Dreschel (even though he hates road runners), Lorraine Summerfeld and even that annoying Sheryl Nadler, pretentious head shot and all. Sometimes I wish she'd take her thinly-veiled husband search to your parent paper up the highway, where she wouldn't have to bemoan the absence of funky lofts and gay art culture. She seems to spend all her weekends there anyhow. But I digress.

I am having a crisis of conscience that I thought you may like to help me with. As much as I love - LOVE - my daily ritual of reading the Spec (I always start with the front section, cover to cover, and then the Go section, leaving the comics to the end. I won't tell you what I'm doing by the time I get to the Sports section), I am feeling increasingly uncomfortable as a home subscriber. Every Wednesday night when I put out the blue box I can't help but feel a twang of conscience at the amount of paper that has accumulated over the week. When I go to school on a daily basis and see the number of copies of the Spec that are consumed, or in many cases ignored in a pile in our main office, I get visions of clearcuts and greenhouse gasses and overflowing landfills.

I know, I and many others are recycling our newsprint and I'm certain the Spec makes every effort to use recycled paper in their massive daily circulation, as do hopefully most other broadsheets and tabloids on the planet. But is it really enough? Disgraced, and now ex, Conservative M.P., Garth Turner has recently commented about the age of "digital democracy". Can the same be said for news media? Every major news outlet on the planet, newspapers included, have websites. What you can access in your daily paper, you can get on-line. You can even purchase an unlimited amount of daily comics, delivered to your e-mail inbox, for about ten bucks a year!

Mr. Robbins, I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription. This would have seemed unthinkable to me even a year ago. However, I recenlty became a father and have been thinking more and more about the planet I want to leave for my son when I'm gone. I'm cycling to work every day, even in the winter. We've just purchased a new extremely high-efficiency furnace. We're slowly but surely replacing all lightbulbs in our home to those ridiculously low-wattage, yet oddly shaped ones. As much as it pains me, I think my daily Spectator may be the next thing to go.

There are obvious drawbacks for both you and me. For you, the business is all about circulation. You need to reassure advertisers that your paper is reaching however-many-hundreds of thousands of homes on a daily basis. If everyone else does what I am thinking of doing, you start having problems meeting your payroll. You may even have to lay Sheryl Nadler off from her photographer job! For me, I lose the luxury of my daily ritual of sprawling across the couch, hot cup of coffee in hand, with my paper copy of the well...er...newspaper. There's only so much sprawling you can do if you're reading the paper on a laptop.

Do you have any insights to offer me as to how I can reconcile the pleasure I receive of taking the Spectator out of my mailbox at 6:15-6:45 on a daily basis with my increasing desire to do more and more to save the planet? If not, I may be forced for the first time in my entire life (at least that spent in the Greater Hamilton area) of living in a home that does NOT have a Spectator subscription.

Mr. Robbins, talk me out of this!

Rich Gelder
Dundas

YouTube and Dinsdale

2006-11-23T15:45:00.000-05:00

This very day, my employer, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, has seen fit to block YouTube.com via its netsweeper. Oh well.

In the mean time, I have uploaded my first ever video to the notorious site (at least in the minds of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board). The video I have uploaded is called "Dinsdale at the Dog Park", but was originally entitled "Pesky Greyhound". Have a look and you'll see why.

I hope to be able to upload more greyhound videos, although Baby Liam is off limits (mom's orders).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkVDgJc8AG4

What I wrote to my teacher's union rep

2006-11-23T13:41:00.001-05:00

The following is a note I wrote to my OSSTF (Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation) representative regarding the "PAC (Political Action Committee) Files" publication they put out.

Basically the PAC Files is a mouthpiece for the small minority of N.D.P. and similar left-wing activist types in our union. They tend to "borrow" heavily from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, whatever the hell that is. Recently, our union circulated a survey regarding what we would like to see canvassed in the PAC Files. Below is my modest response:

Dear Joanne:
As our Branch President, I understand it is to you whom I am to address the PAC Files Member Input Survey. Thank you to you, to Mr. Uhrig, and to the Federation for the opportunity for so doing.

With respect, if I were to fill out the form provided, I would have to score ("-4") for all categories, as I feel that the publication ought to be discontinued in its entirety. It serves very little purpose other than a forum for the personal political views of a small minority of our membership and for the further dissemination of publications from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Periodically, our membership receive this publication in our school staff room mailboxes. Most routinely, after our Branch President and her delegates diligently slide one into each mail slot, they are even more quickly discarded into the recycling box placed below. Copies of the PAC Files accumulate in the recycling box as fast as snow during a raging blizzard. This is sad for two reasons. Firstly, people are not taking seriously the efforts of those who put together the PAC Files. Secondly, it is an affront to efforts to save our environment through the lessened use of paper.

However, I can scarcely blame those who see the publication, roll their eyes, and then toss it into the waiting blue box. The material that has usually been canvassed, at least in my seven years of teaching, has tended towards "global issues" (read "Bush-bashing") and not sufficiently close to those issues that affect teachers qua teachers. Interesting though these pieces may be, is it really appropriate for our federation to be expending resources on them, when we have bigger "political" battles to fight (eg. Bill 52)?

I must also object to the one-sided ideological bent that is routinely present in these pieces. The editors can claim that the publication is a "forum for discussion", but how much discussion is really taking place when only one side of these issues is ever really presented? Would the PAC files be open to submissions from pro-life groups, or those opposed to stem cell research, or those opposed to same sex marriage? Should a teachers' "political action committee" publication even be concerned with such?

Also, I have been bewildered with the PAC Files recent tendency, which in fairness has abated in the most recent issues, to merely reproduce opinion pieces from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. If we wish our membership to be subject to the editorial views of this organization, could we not just point them that way through the use of weblinks or subscription cards? What is the point of the political action committee spending federation resources to cut, paste, print and deliver something that is already available elsewhere? Do we really want our organization's political wing to consistently parrot the views of an outside organization that 90% of our membership have never heard of, let alone agree with?

Whatever the point of the PAC Files is, I submit that it is not an appropriate use of federation resources and ought to be discontinued forthwith. If the routine contributors to the PAC Files, other than the CCPA, desire a forum for sharing their personal political views I invite them to forego our limited federation resources and blog their thoughts, like the rest of the world.

If it is the will of the federation membership to have this publication continued, may I at least make one request in the name of the trees and the planet we are trying to save? The reality - and most of my colleagues at Sir John A. Macdonald would agree with me - is that a majority of copies of the PAC Files are ending up, unread, in the recycling bin. Can the PAC consider no longer printing the PAC Files, instead moving to an on-line version, or even one that can be saved in a .pdf format and deposited in a First Class conference? I understand that the federation also has issues with the Board's First Class platform, issues which I have yet to really understand. However, the fact of the matter is, like the First Class platform, the staff room, the mail boxes therein, the recycling bins and the buildings themselves are also Board-owned and controlled.

I make this submission with the greatest respect for those individuals who have given freely of their time to contribute to both District 21's Political Action Committee and to the PAC Files itself.

Rich Gelder
Sir John A. Macdonald branch
District 21

A really neat greyhound comic

2006-11-19T10:59:00.000-05:00

Here's a really cool comic strip that appeared in The Hamilton Spectator on Saturday, Novembrer 4th(November 5th for those American Sunday papers).

Its from the "Mutts" comic strip, and accurately chronicles the life - and after-life - of a racing greyhound. I post this is in dedication to our very own Dinsdale and hope I'm not breaking too many copyright laws.

In case you can't read the text (it shows up really small), here's what the greyhound says in each frame:

1. Shelter Stories: "Flash"

2. I'm a greyhound, a racing greyhound.

3. I spent the first three years of my life either in a cage or out racing. Racing, racing, racing.

4. I always lost.

5. I was determined "useless" and was to be "weeded out".

6. Then a greyhound rescue group saved me and found me a loving home and family.

7. I raced to their open arms.

8. I finally won.

Garth Turner

2006-11-15T10:44:00.000-05:00

Garth Turner has publicy disossociated himself from the Conservative Party and will likely have to contest the next federal election as an independant.

I really like Garth Turner. I really do. I first encountered him as an assistant to a Cabinet Minister in the Mulroney government back in the early 90s. I found him dynamic, full of ideas and different from others in public life. I harboured a secret desire to support him for the leadership during his 1993 run, but went with the flow and "drank the (Kim) Campbell Kool-Aid". I always hoped he would be back.

Well back he came, along with other former Tory M.P.s I admire, such as Rob Nicholson in Niagara Falls. It was rejuvenating to see this class come back; almost as rejuvenating as the Conservative victory itself, at the very least because it turfed the evil Liberals from office. However, much has changed since last January. Did it start when Garth Turner was passed over for a Cabinet post? As a free thinker, you would expect that Turner might become a thorn in the side of the government; being outside on the tent pissing in, rather than in the tent pissing out. And everything must be examined through the prism of the control the Prime Minister's inner circle seems to be trying to exert over "the message" being delivered to Canadians.

I don't think Garth Turner would ever have survived one week in Stephen Harper's Cabinet. I don't want to suggest that Ministers and Tory caucus members have become gagged eunechs, but how else do you explain the reasons for and the manner in which Turner was unceremoniously dumped from caucus? I can't imagine it was really unanimous, nor could I imagine, in the current climate, any other caucus members speaking up on his behalf.

Was the reason for his departure the issues he was raising outside the control of the so-called "inner circle", or was it because he has been blogging it? A la Marshall McLuhan, is it the message or the medium? Turner frequently asserts that "digital democracy" is the wave of the future. I wonder, however, if he's ahead of his time, as how many people actually read his blog (or mine, for that matter). Here in Hamilton, a minor buzz was stirred when mayoral candidate (and eventual winner) Fred Eisenberger ran an attack ad on "YouTube.com". Routinely criticized for running lacklustre campaigns, people are now wondering whether this act was a stroke of genius. How many people are surfing YouTube as routinely as they are their television sets? And are these people looking for campaign ads when they do? Late on election night, after Eisenberger had been declared the victor, I had a look at the ad, which kind of screamed U.S. Republican Party. Slightly over 2,000 people had viewed the video to that point. Eisenberger's margin of victory was 452 votes. Is Garth Turner on to something?

Many were disappointed either that Garth didn't join the Green Party, nor expose secrets on the Prime Minister /his government. With the type of control that PMO has, what kind of information did they expect Garth Turner to actually be in possesion of? For my part, I may be most disappointed that Garth Turner's return to the House of Commons may be short-lived. I don't think he's going back to the Conservatives and I hope he has enough scruples to stay the hell away from the Liberals. In fact, if you are to believe what he is saying on his blog these days, he's finished with party politics altogether.

Oh well. Maybe he can pull a Joe Lieberman (what I used to call a Chuck Cadman) and win it all in Halton as an independant. As a Conservative, I don't know if that would make me happy or upset! It would be worth it, though, to still have Garth Turner around, rambling MPTV rants and all!

Fred Eisenberger elected mayor

2006-11-14T10:34:00.000-05:00

Who knew? Just goes to show how accurate I am in picking winners. I had Mayor Larry (DiIanni) winning in a landslide - a two-to-one margin I suggested to someone. Perhaps I won't quit my day job and go into the oddsmaking business, at least where elections are concerned.

I had hoped that Mayor Larry would win re-election, but Mayor Fred I can live with. Not the most inspiring leader I have ever encountered, having first seen him in "action" in the early nineties, when some Beach Strip residents were up in arms over an emissions issue. Whereas his wardmate at the time, the late Dominic Agostino, took the lead in being vocal about an important local issue, Fred seemed to have this deer-in-the-headlights demeanour that suggested he either didn't know what was going on, or that there were about 1,00o other places he would rather have been than at the Beach Strip community centre that evening.

Every campaign he has ever been involved in, including that as a Conservative in the recent election, having placed third behind NDP winner Wayne Marston, and Liberal bagman, Tony Valeri, has been lacklustre.

Can it really be that a U.S.-style attack ad on YouTube.com, of all places, made the differnece? Or did Joanna Chapman's witch-hunt really bear fruit? I hope its neither of the above.

Here's baby Liam

2006-10-16T08:33:00.000-04:00

I know, I know it's October and I haven't been on since baby Liam was born back on August 14, 2006, weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. Here's a couple of pictures of him, including some really cool ones we took over the weekend, figuring out the digital camera we bought off Ebay for the specific purpose of taking baby pictures.

Mom and baby are doing fine. Breastfeeding's a grind, and we do supplement with a lot of bottles. He's got a set of lungs on him (takes after dad) and lets us know when he's hungry. He's starting to hold his head up on his own, smile and hold conversations with the respective grandmas.

Baby Liam is almost here.

2006-07-30T21:38:00.001-04:00

Geez, its been a while.

Won't be long now until we have little baby Liam. He could come any day.

What's new since I last wrote? Italy won the World Cup (doh!!!!), Israel and Hezbollah are bombing the shit out of each other. Everyone's whinging because Prime Minister Harper is taking a pro-Israel stance ("honest brokers" my arse!!!!).

I finished coaching with Hamilton Olympic Club for the time being (until I've had a year or two getting used to being a daddy!!!). It was tough to leave, but I think I've left a stable of athletes in reasonably good shape. I even had a school athlete (Sir John A. Macdonald in Hamilton) win an OFSAA medal (silver in the senior girls triple jump!!!!!). Yippee!!!!

Tee Hee! Tories Win!

2006-01-25T12:20:00.000-05:00

Well things went pretty well Monday (unless you count Toronto. Oh well, all the more reason to dislike the city). However, there are some eerie parallels to the 1979 election. Conservative minority, leader from Alberta, outgoing Liberal PM stepping down. The only thing missing are the Créditistes.

There has been some suggestion (okay, its my idea) that the Grits are attempting to recreate the 1979-80 scenario to pave the way for Martin's triumphant return. Perhaps the Liberals ensure that Harper's first budget gets defeated, and we go back to the polls. People then think, okay we gave the Tories a chance, they messed up, the Liberals have sat in the corner for the requisite 6 - 12 months, now we can go back to our debilitating addiction to voting Liberal and we can all get back to normal.Then Martin's next election night speech ends with "Well, welcome to the.......er.......2007??????"

I can't help but be reinforced in this irrational, paranoid fear by some of the numbers out of Toronto. Did anyone notice the margins of victory for the Liberals, particularly in Scarborough? They were huge! Belinda herself was never even in any danger. Its like there's some Stepford Wives thing going on Toronto where people march like zombies to the polls in a trance-like state ("MUST......VOTE......LIBERAL!!!!").

On another note, local Cabinet representation is going to be interesting. David Sweet will not be in Cabinet, period. There's no bloody way. Dean Allison, who's riding takes in all of upper Stoney Creek, Glanbrook and a sliver of the old city of Hamilton (so don't let anyone tell you the NDP won all of Hamilton's "three" seats), is a long shot, but would be a good representative. The general consensus is that the closest Cabinet Minister to Hamilton will be Diane Finley. I don't know if that will wash with the likes of Mayor Larry.

Personally, I hope that Rob Nicholson in Niagara Falls and Garth Turner from Halton make it in. But, then again, I am a holdover from the Mulroney glory days.

GO STEPHEN GO!!!!!!

2006-01-11T12:14:00.000-05:00

The Liberals are in panic mode! Guns and soldiers in the streets? What the f*** is that? Harper was looking decidedly Prime Ministerial in the English-language debate on Monday evening. And, I love how the Toronto Star's headline yesterday screamed "Tories Headed for Majority", in a thinly-disguised attempt to rally the Liberal troops, and in hopes of repeating the 2004 "gaffe", whereby Harper openly ruminated about a majority, and then lost the election. Are the Liberals and Star pathetic, or what?

The Leafs lost a tough one in Vancouver last night, but it was worth it to see Carlo Coliacovo absolutely lay out Todd Bertuzzi with a beautiful open-ice hipcheck!!!!!

The election (Go Tories Go!)

2006-01-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

Tee-hee!!!! The Conservatives have taken the lead in the most recent polls for the federal election. This is good news, particularly for anyone who believes that the time for a change is now! I, for one, am tired of the arrogance and corruptness with which the Liberals have been running the country, as if power in this country is some sort of birthright. Well screw them!

Here's how the campaign is shaping up locally, for those interested in the Hamilton area. The only really safe seat is an NDP one; David Christopherson's in Hamilton Centre. He'll win by about 10,000 votes. Everything else is up for grabs. Tony Valeri will either be helped or hurt by his high profile in the current regime in his race in Hamilton East- Stoney Creek. The NDP almost took it last time and have a fairly well-known candidate this time in Wayne Marston. The Conversatives? Probably not here.

On Hamilton Mountain, the dirty, rotten Liberals have local TV personality and municipal councillor, Bill Kelly. He'll be given a run for his money by NDPer Chris Charlton, who almost took the seat the last time out against a moribund Beth Phinney, who has since retired from politics. A Conservative win here would be nice but is, alas, probably wishful thinking. The candidate is a gentleman by the name of Don Graves.

My riding is interesting, and possibly ripe for the picking by the Tories. The candidate, David Sweet (pictured above), will be well-supported in the rural areas of the riding, but incumbent Liberal, Russ Powers, a big nobody in Ottawa by most accounts, will be tough to beat in his home base of Dundas. Currently, the sign war is being won by the New Democrat, Gordon Guyatt, whose claim to fame is that he once forgot his infant child in the backseat of his car for a period of more than twenty minutes during a shopping trip. The Westdale area of the riding may be the big difference here, with the race shaping up to be a two-horse one between Sweet and Powers.

The last election was close, with Powers beating out Sweet. What is interesting, however, are the results of the 2000 election, where the combined Canadian Allaiance and Progressive Conservative vote would have been enough to ouster Liberal incumbent, John Bryden who, incidentally, crossed the floor to join the Conservatives in 2004! I'm doing my bit, having snuck a David Sweet sign onto our lawn when Cathy wasn't looking!

A few other locals I would like to see elected, and who would make for a pretty sweet Conservative front-bench, should they form the government, are Garth Turner in Halton (every Conservative hopes he kicks Gary Carr's ass up and down the streets of Georgetown!!!! Carr jumped ship from provincial Conservatives to the federal Liberals, after serving a brief stint as the Speaker of the Ontario Legislature, taking a page out the Belinda Stronach book of political opportunism), as well as Rob Nicholson in Niagara Falls, who found his way into Kim Campbell's short-lived Cabinet in 1993. And, if Diane Finley and Dean Allison can hold their ridings in Haldimand and Niagara-West/Glanbrook, respectively, we'll have some great Conservative representation locally in what is hopefully a Conservative majority government.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for January 23!!!!!

John Casto was his name

2006-01-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

John Casto was the name of the gentleman I referred to below.

That was/This is Dinsdale, by the way.

2006-01-04T21:14:00.000-05:00

I guess I should have identified the young lad to the left of me in my previous entry. He's Dinsdale, the retired racing greyhound. He's been my (and our) companion for almost seven years.

I got him through a group called Greyhound Lovers of Hamilton-Wentworth. He's from West Virginia, where his less-than-stellar racing career lasted all of eight weeks. He was retired at the age of three and a half and then came to live with me (now us) in Dundas. Even as I blog, he's sat here on the carpet at my feet, scrounging for another handout from this evening's turkey dinner, that Cathy was so kind to make for her sister, brother-in-law, nephew and myself.

Speaking of West Virginia, sad news about those 12 miners who were killed in the explosion. And awful about the families believing they were alive and safe for more than three hours!!!! People are quite angry about that. I hope they can find it in themselves to forgive those responsible for giving them the false hope, so they can get on with grieving for their lost loved ones.

There was an interesting interview with a local man the morning after the confirmation of the miners' deaths. He spoke about the time where they believed that only one person died and that the other twelve were safe. When this news had broken, the Pastor in the Church had asked people to come forward and pray for the man who had died, who had been identified. Of the hundreds in the church, only about four people came forward, including the man being interviewed. The rest of the people there were too busy dancing and shouting in jubilation about their loved ones who had survived. The gentle soul who being intereviewed could not understand it. For, in his opinion, although he had no kin involved in the tragedy they were all his brothers, just like the interviewer was his brother, as was the cameraman.

And we continue to hold the so-called "Christian right" in such contempt.

Good morning and Good 2006

2006-01-03T11:50:00.000-05:00

Hello. Welcome to my "blog". Hope you enjoy my rants, meanderings and whatever else it is I see fit to write.

I hope to focus on the following themes, if any interest the reader: Canadian politics (Conservative I am, but I'd vote Green if I had a second choice, or if there were some convoluted form of proportional representation in Canada), sports (track mostly, if anyone still cares) and pending fatherhood. If anyone reading this knows me, my fiancé, Cathy, and I are expecting in August. Yipeee!!!!!

Just a short introduction for now. I shall be writing much more later but am on the way out now to pick up some groceries for an ailing Cathy (sinus infection), myself and our expected.

As I finish this, the Conservatives and Liberals are tied in the polls three weeks in advance of election day, the Leafs are on a six-day winning streak (take that, Sidney Crosby!!!!!) and Leeds United look well poised to make jump back to the Premiership next August. And you gotta' love England's group for the World Cup this summer!!!!!!