Canadian politics

[Brad Reddekopp]

From http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/n ... 2010+games

Headline: BC Hydro asking customers to conserve to power up 2010 Games

First two paragraphs:

VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Crown-owned utilities company is looking for customers to cut their energy consumption to power up the 2010 Winter Games.

BC Hydro is looking for 210,000 British Columbians who will agree to conserve electricity usage by 10 per cent, or about 92 gigawatt hours, to make up for the electricity needed to power next year's Olympics.

Fuck you. I never asked for this shit. I'm going to use more electricity just to make up for some of the saps who cut back.

[tism]

"In the past, in a typical Olympic and Paralympic Games of this size, they would use about 600 diesel generators, they'd be on most of the time, and obviously a lot of greenhouse gas is consumed," said Bob Elton, president and chief executive officer of BC Hydro.

Diesel generators consume greenhouse gas?? Holy fuck, the global warming problem is solved! We need more diesel generators right now!

[tism]

VANOC has said it wants to make the 2010 Games the greenest in Olympic history.

Think about it for a second... Good fucking luck!

Do these guys even listen to what they are saying?

[tism]

Earlier this week, VANOC announced a sponsorship deal with B.C.-based Offsetters Green Technology Inc., which said it will invest in clean energy projects such as hydrogen fuel cells to offset 110,000 tonnes of carbon emissions generated from the Games.

Organizers say the Vancouver Olympics will be the first to have an official carbon offset supplier.

So when they say "greenest" they meant Green with capital G. I'm not buying it for a second.

[Brad Reddekopp]

"In the past, in a typical Olympic and Paralympic Games of this size, they would use about 600 diesel generators, they'd be on most of the time, and obviously a lot of greenhouse gas is consumed," said Bob Elton, president and chief executive officer of BC Hydro.

Diesel generators consume greenhouse gas?? Holy fuck, the global warming problem is solved! We need more diesel generators right now!

ROFL! That one slipped right by me.

[Brad Reddekopp]

VANOC has said it wants to make the 2010 Games the greenest in Olympic history.

Think about it for a second... Good fucking luck!

Do these guys even listen to what they are saying?

Good luck being greener than the ancient greeks with their relatively non-technological soceity.

[Brad Reddekopp]

According to the Globe and Mail, the Dominion Institute (what a horrible name -- it describes itself as "a national charitable organization dedicated to creating active and informed citizens through greater knowledge and appreciation of the Canadian story." - http://www.dominion.ca/about.htm ) issued a complaint about how they don't think secondary schools in Canada are teaching Canadian history adequately. I offered my thoughts in the comments section of the G&M article. I expect to get some hate mail from it, which of course I will take as an indication that I'm on the right track. I wrote the following there:

"Yes, teach the history, but don't sugar coat it. Teach the treachery, lies, and silence that enabled European traders and settlers to wrest control of these lands from the aboriginal peoples. Teach Canadian history honestly, if you dare, so that students have the opportunity to understand how the fraud that is Canada came to exist."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opi ... le1184615/

[Brad Reddekopp]

Here's an example of what qualifies as front page news in Canadian politics lately:

from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le1210809/

PM didn't pocket communion wafer, spokesman says
‘He accepted it and consumed it,' official says in wake of video from Leblanc's funeral

Tu Thanh Ha
The Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009 07:35PM EDT

Stephen Harper committed no etiquette blunder at the funeral mass of former governor-general Roméo Leblanc, his spokesman said, denying speculation that the Prime Minister pocketed a communion wafer offered to him by a priest.

The Prime Minister's Office was reacting after a high-ranking New Brunswick Catholic church official asked that Mr. Harper clarify what happened. Catholics consider that the host is the body of the Christ once it is consecrated by the priest and is supposed to be consumed after it is received.

Footage of the service, shown on Cable Public Affairs Channel, shows Mr. Harper receiving the wafer but the camera cuts away before the Prime Minister can be seen putting it in his mouth.

The two people who received wafers before and after Mr. Harper – Jean-Daniel Lafond, the spouse of the Governor-General, and New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson – can be seen putting the host in their mouths right away.

“He accepted it and consumed it,” Mr. Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said from Italy where the Prime Minister is meeting G8 leaders.

“The camera was on for two or three seconds. One cannot assume that because the camera was not on him that he did not consume communion.”

The Speaker of the Senate, Noël Kinsella, said he personally saw Mr. Harper consume the host.

“Sitting only a few seats behind him I had a full view of the proceedings,” Mr. Kinsella, a Catholic and Conservative senator from New Brunswick, said in a statement released this afternoon.

Excerpts from the video have been posted on YouTube, where some viewers speculated that Mr. Harper looked like he wanted to shake hands with the priest and wasn't expecting to get the wafer instead.

“It's not the first time that he's attended a service,” Mr. Soudas said however.

The issue was initially raised by Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John.

“It's worse than a faux pas, it's a scandal from the Catholic point of view,” he told the Saint John Telegraph-Journal.

Father Henneberry, who spoke up after receiving a call from a concerned Catholic, was not available for comment today, the diocese said.

The other matter is whether Mr. Harper should have declined the wafer since he is as an evangelical Protestant, a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church.

“Who is the Prime Minister to question a priest offering him communion?” Mr. Soudas said.

Following the G8 summit, Mr. Harper is to have an audience with the Pope on Saturday.

[Brad Reddekopp]

The news is buzzing this week about the possibility of a federal election this autumn in Canada. Aw shit. We had one of those three million dollar shitfests less than a year ago. I am not pleased.

[Hierophant]

Canadian General Election 2008- according to the Political Compass Quiz
http://www.politicalcompass.org/canada2008

[Brad Reddekopp]

I'm surprised to see the NDP below the centre on the Authoritarian/Libertarian axis.

[Hierophant]

Well, the labels they use are somewhat unfortunate. What we call libertarian is only probably a small section of the lower end.

[Brad Reddekopp]

That sounds about right.

[Hierophant]

Although to be fair, Ron Paul is shown as being close to the midline, so maybe libertarian IS the whole two bottom quadrants.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008

[Brad Reddekopp]

The Canadian government is banning television ads that depict unsafe driving practices.

"Please, Mr. Prime Minister, may I please go to the bathroom now, sir?"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... 4/#article