Why I’m Voting Green This Election

So I had this plan all week to write a dense, point-by-point argument for voting for the Parti Vert du Quebec. But then I remembered that my ability to write long, intellectually rigourous blog posts began to wane, oh, about four years ago. Did I mention my kid’s fourth birthday in a week?

But, for what it’s worth, I’m voting Green this time. Here’s why:

Have You Noticed How Freakishly Hot It’s Been?

Yeah, we as a species did that. And I don’t believe exploiting shale gas or pulling more oil out of the north is going to help matters. The Parti Vert du Quebec proposes the most serious and ambitious environmental platform of all the parties.

And I’d like to live in a society where our stewardship of the environment takes priority above all else because, well, I’d like to leave a smaller mess for my own child to clean up.

The Liberal Government’s Record

The Quebec Liberal Party is liberal in name only. A liberal party does not throw money at an asbestos mine to export a substance known to cause cancer. A liberal government doesn’t legislate things like Loi 78.

I used to like Jean Charest. Or, rather, I liked the guy who stood before a massive Montreal crowd in October of 1995 and gave a spirited defence of Canada. They used to think he was going to be prime minister of Canada. Whatever happened to that guy?

But the fact is, I’m a centre-left progressive kind of guy and the Liberal Party of Quebec has never really fit that bill.

There is More Than One Federalist Option

Let this be the election where we can forever bury the idea that federalist anglophones vote as a block for the Liberals for lack of any clear alternatives.

I have considered Quebec Solidaire. While Quebec Solidaire may have much in their platform that I like, the fact remains that they’re an explicitly pro-sovereignty party and I’m not pro-sovereignty. It’s not just that I’m a federalist. It’s that I’m Canadian. In Nova Scotia, I feel at home. In Toronto, I feel at home. In British Columbia, I feel at home. In Montreal, while, yes, it’s different, I still feel at home. And all of that is something I want to continue. My conception of my country is that Canada includes Quebec and Quebec includes Canada. Now, I do like Quebec Solidaire’s more inclusive approach to sovereignty than that of the Parti Québecois. But that doesn’t change the fact that they’re sovereignist. I’m not.

The PQ, QS, and ON all see Canada as something they want to opt out of. It doesn’t matter how relevant or possible a sovereignty referendum is in the next four years, I will always vote for the party that wants to stay in Canada. To change that would fundamentally change the way I view my own citizenship.

All that to say: we have choices. And they’re not between order and chaos, as Jean Charest would have us believe. All we have to do is choose to make them.

When Your Kid Isn’t Into Narrative Fiction

The thing about parenting is that your efforts to mold and guide their tastes isn’t always going to take. As much as I’d love an (almost) four year old Star Trek loving, comics reading nerd in training, he’s going to be his own person.

As much as he likes stories in books and movies, he likes things that represent every day life: trains, trucks, construction equipment, firetrucks. He asks us to make up a story about things that actually happened. It’s like he actually resists narrative fiction or something. There are exceptions, of course. He likes the movie Up. But then, the heartbreaking montage of Karl and Ellie Fredericksen is followed by a sequence involving the construction of condo towers. Maybe that’s the hook for him.

Having, you know, never raised a kid from birth, I’m not sure if this is normal. It probably is. I don’t remember what I was into when I was three. It may have involved Fisher-Price cars. At his age, perhaps complex imaginary play (a phrase I just stole from here) is just a thing that happens later. Right now, he just has little interest in the fantastic.

Although he has started to recreate train crashes on his train table. So … milestone? Or warning sign?

[tag= parenting]

Are You Sitting Comfortably? Then We'll Begin Again.

Reblogged from An Upper Class Twit in the Colonies:

Oh, dear. Look at the time. Has it really been ... oh, Heavens. Five years? Oh, that is a long time between posts. Time flies when one is moving, getting married, producing progeny, and experimenting with meth.

Well, to be honest with you, it's not that I haven't felt the urge to write. It's rather that I couldn't as I was serving as a guest of the American correctional system.

Read more… 618 more words

So I know this guy. He's a bit posh. Rather full of himself. Lives nearby. He used to have a blog until about five years and now he's back with a few words on the Quebec election. He's also a little bit obsessed with Conrad Black. He asked if my immense readership might care to take a peak at his writings so, well, I can do that for him at least but frankly, I can't stand the guy.

Some Thoughts on the Quebec Election

It has been an excellent summer for nerds: They made a movie starring The Avengers, Alien got its prequel Prometheus, the Batman trilogy came to a very loud conclusion, and they even managed to make a fourth Spider-Man movie in ten years.

This morning a Wil Wheaton quoting robot landed on Mars.

I'm safely on the surface of Mars. GALE CRATER I AM IN YOU!!! #MSL—
Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 06, 2012

And for political nerds we are going to the polls in my adopted province of Quebec. I love a good election, me. Well, how were we to know that Jean Charest would dissolve the National Assembly in the middle of a construction holiday?

Still, M. Charest wasted no time at all in casting his chief rival, Parti Québecois leader Madame Pauline Marois, as a bit of riff-raff who engages in street politics. To take a woman who sold her palatial home on Ile Bizard for $7 million and redefine her as a heroine of the working classes is a masterstroke in a brilliant chess game that, clearly, only Jean Charest can see.

But today’s Québec is different place from that of our ancestors. Instead of the Liberal/PQ – Federalist/Sovereignist split of yore, we have that plus the welcome addition of the “Possibly-Sovereignist” Coalition Avenir Québec (with their delightfully livid campaign slogan) and “Sovereignist-But-Not-In-That-Way” Québec Solidaire who are so left-wing that they reject the concept of a “party leader” and just go with spokespeople. Also they abuse beavers.

I’m not entirely sure who thought abusing the symbol of Canada in a cute YouTube video was a good idea but there it is.

But I have to say I like the cut of M. Legault’s jib. Not only does every Quebecker get a doctor with a CAQ government, but rumour has it, we all get super-powers.

@EthanCoxMtl "But Legault promised me the ability to shoot lightning from my fingertips! HE PROMISED!" #qc2012—
John Hansen (@jduncanhansen) August 06, 2012

It’s difficult to read the tea leaves to see who shall sit on the Aluminium Throne* in Quebec City. In the old days, the winning party was the one that offered the most drives and bottles of rum to the electorate.

Such dirty tricks would never do in today’s open and transparent government.

In reality, I think Charest should have resigned sometime during the lest mandate as I just don’t see the Liberals forming the next government. But who knows, maybe they have some internal polling that we just don’t see. Or they’re counting on both a low voter turnout and a split vote among the other options to win. I may stick my vote with the Greens this time but I’m not sure. I wish there was a provincial NDP to vote for but obviously that’s not going to happen in this election.

My gut feeling is that we’re in for some kind of minority government but then, last year I didn’t think Stephen Harper would get a majority with an NDP-led Official Opposition so my gut is never really to be trusted.

*Shoehorned Game of Thrones reference

On Migraines

They started shortly after I moved to Montreal. I never had them before and I’m not sure what triggered the first. At the time, I didn’t know what was happening. I couldn’t see for about 30 minutes and then spent the rest of the day in agony. Maybe it was simply a fact of getting older. Maybe it was the increased stress of a new job. Maybe it was the diet.

The problem with migraines is there has never been a satisfactory explanation as to their cause or what triggers them. Everything from light sensitivity to caffeine to sugar to bananas are considered triggers but nobody really knows.

But it seems to me that they occur when we’ve had a stretch of sunny, hot weather, when I’ve had more than two cups of coffee and when I’ve eaten a lot of sugar-laden treats. I should really stop ignoring the warning signs. Yesterday, I had all three and I had to pass off a bit of work to a colleague so I could go home. I felt pretty bad about this. The thing with some migraines is that, even with the prescription for Relpax that I use when I get them, they’re so debilitating that I miss work and time with my family.

So because it’s just healthier overall anyway, I’m going to cut the coffee down to one cup per day with an eventual goal of eliminating it completely. I also want cut way back on the refined sugar which is tough. I’m a sweets guy. I love chocolate bars, cakes, chocolate milk. But I need to remember that this stuff is making me feel awful. I can’t stop them entirely but hopefully with an improved diet, I can reduce their frequency.

Probably wouldn’t hurt to get my ass off the couch once in a while either.