Syncrude alleges that ducks committed mass suicide?

It's with a sigh of relief that I've read today that the case against Syncrude in the murder of 1600 ducks at their tailings pond will stand. But, come to think of it, how does a brain work if it can even hypothetically suggest that it isn't the ducks that got killed, but the pond that got stained with the ducks that illegally landed on it?

Collective leadership

A constituent asked me a few days ago why none of the federal parties take a step towards real collective leadership, i.e. why each has a specific one person designated as the party leader. In the opinion of the constituent, collective leadership may be the way to go, as there is a greater chance that each of the members of the collective will appeal to some part of the demographic. Any ideas on this?

Door-knocking outside of an election

Dear readers,
I was wondering if you could provide your thoughts on the subject of canvassing and door-knocking outside of an actual election. The word I've been getting both while engaging in these activities and also in talks with politically savvy and non-savvy individuals is rather confusing. I would say it's about half and half for "If a candidate doesn't show up at my door at some point before the election, then I won't support them" and "I don't want to be bothered". The latter option, of course, also includes those that don't want to be bothered at their homes at all. I'm being torn by these two trends of thought. Any advice/comments?

Political friendship doesn't last forever?

Isn't it amazing how readily Conservative MPs and reps now join in accusations against their former colleagues? The readiness and vigor with which they do it makes one wonder how far (or how high) the string of similar (alleged) behavior really goes. Importantly, it can go both ways, of course - the energy can be a sign of complicity or a sign of sincere (?) shock at the wrongdoings of others. Which one is it?..

Volcano's Earth Day presents

The entire Icelandic volcano(s) situation really makes one wonder what our technological advances are worth when faced with the power of such magnitude and unpredictability. It seems that at some point in the (relatively near) future humans may learn to land on asteroids (for one reason or other), but it's doubtful that at the same time we will learn to accurately predict earthquakes and tornadoes or figure out a way for a single volcano not to disrupt worldwide travel and cost billions of dollars and billions of nerve cells.

A day without politics... not at all a bad one =)

Tried to make this day as free of politics as possible. Checked the news only once, went to my Facebook and website dashboards only once, and tried not to think about political events and figures more than a handful of times. Since becoming candidate almost half a year ago now, this is one of a very small number of such days (the other ones being New Year's Day and 4th wedding anniversary). I must say I enjoyed it a lot, and although I know that there will be many days ahead before I can allow myself such a break from campaigning or thinking about campaigning or reading about something related to social legislature and history, I don't regret it either, because I greatly enjoy those types of days as well.

Went for a walk from the Provincial Legislature grounds along the River Valley parks. Enjoyed the sun, as I hope you have too in the (finally) warm weather we are having now. Several people have let me know how good this weather is for canvassing, which is rather ironic when I compare it to the thoughts expressed above =)

The blog is picking up speed, and I'm grateful for the first comment and the first follower.
I hope your day went well and wish you best in the new week (yes, to me the week doesn't start on the second day of the weekend but starts on Monday).

Starting the blog and summing up events of the day

I won't bore you, my first readers, with the ubiquitous "I've decided to start a blog because..." bit. I doubt those are of any interest to anyone except, possibly, a scholar studying people's motivation in starting blogs. If you are such a scholar and need data, let me know.

Meanwhile, I had an unusual day today, as I went to a town hall meeting with our local Conservative MP James Rajotte. It was a good crowd, although the lecture part was not exactly inspiring. The best part of the meeting was a person who asked an entire series of sharp and emotionally-charged questions about Afghanistan, prorogation and Omar Khadr. From her voice and her remarks during and after Rajotte's anwers to those questions I gathered that the answers did not clarify the issues, nor was she expecting them to. It's nice to see such a level of interest in current issues as well as outright courage in asking a Tory MP why there was such a shameful campaign against Colvin, how much money was wasted on the annual Harper prorogation (wait, no, that sounds as if Harper was prorogued...), etc. I really hope that person keeps up the fire. Rajotte did not seem too pleased with this approach.

Had a chat with James Rajotte after the meeting (having asked him a few questions on EI, poverty, prorogation and crime earlier). It is with great conviction that he once again stressed the reasons neither he nor anyone else from the governing party should be attending public events outside of an electoral campaign if there are representatives of other parties present. It is as if we all pretend he isn't Conservative while he pretends to be a true representative of all the constituents, never mind the first-past-the-pole system.

Keep working away on the Twitter and Facebook. A few people have let me know before I set up the blog that the blog should not repeat other media as much as possible. I will try to stick to that, although, of course, there will be a link between the different online presences I have.

Will call it a day for this first post. If anyone is reading - thank you for your kind attention and I look forward to your comments.