Civic obedience

So there's a Muslim as the new mayor of Calgary.  Why is this news?  Is Calgary all cosmo now because of this?  No.  It'll never be like yoghurt.

Edmonton's had a Jewish mayor for six years and no one is making any fuss.  At all.

So the brash and abrasive Rob Ford easily gets elected as the new mayor of Toronto.  What does this mean for conservatism in the liberal fortress?  It means that no matter who your candidate is, if the voters are upset and motivated enough, by running a disciplined campaign with a simple message,  you can win.  But you also need to GOTV.  Will this win convert into invigorated support for Tim Hudak's PCs come next Ontario election?  Not necessarily, but the potential is there.

And will that translate into growing support for Harper's Conservatives in T Dot?  This has been slowly growing for years.  Maybe a few seats to gain at most.  Liberals have no where else to go.  It's a war front, and the Liberals will have to throw much at it to defend it, leaving other areas, like BC and the West out to dry and fend for themselves.

It's tough for a politico or volunteer to be involved in so many consecutive elections.  While fun, it can be gruelling.  This Toronto mayoral race was relatively intense.  But it was nice to see conservatives united.

And when they are united, disciplined, and offer clear conservative policy messages, Conservatives rarely lose.

"The Toronto Song"

With today's Ontario civic election and the hotly contested Toronto mayoral election (I predict Rob Ford), and this past week I was recently in Toronto for a few days and Calgary for a couple of days, if you haven't seen it before, it gives me great pleasure to present to you the infamous "Toronto Song" by Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie.  (It gets going about 30 seconds in, so be patient..)

Link here.



Go Oilers!

'Narchy in Canada

Here's some pictures of the weapons seized by police. 

"The items, which were laid out on several tables in the lobby of Toronto Police headquarters, include gas masks, cans of spray paint, a replica gun, crowbars, saws, pocket knives, a staple gun, a drill, a baseball bat, a slingshot, chains, bear spray, dog repellent, handcuffs, chain-link body armour and bows and arrows. Some of the arrows had their pointy ends covered with fabric, which officers said were designed to be dipped in a flammable liquid and lit ablaze."

I'm all for peaceful protests, which the police certainly allowed.  But even peaceful protesters know they're going to be meddled in with "thugs" such as the 'Black Bloc' and other anarchists who only know how to destroy and not build. So I fail to see the logic in a person not wanting to get the h-e-double hockey stick out of there when the streets go awry and be associated and mixed up with this mess. And when things went out of whack, you'd certainly expect people to get arrested...because for many, THEY WANT TO BE ARRESTED to try and prove their so-called point that we apparently do not live in a democracy.  But we also live in a society with law and order and a pretty liberal justice system.

People are wondering why Toronto was picked. I believe the main reason for having the G20 in Toronto was due to an increase in international media attention, which was granted.  And if you can't hold a big international meeting in the centre of the universe, where can you have it? Are you going to let the big bad black bloc prevent you? Of course not.

People legitimately wonder why we have a G20/G8, when it's not a democratic body unto itself, but a gathering of leaders. That said, anything agreed upon is also non-binding. And the case in point is where Prime Minister Harper flat-out told European countries to nevermind about their global bank tax idea. You'd think that would make people happy in not having other countries breach our sovereignty?

But it's a contradiction for whiny pinko protesting socialists to on one-hand say that people do not have a voice at these international meetings and don't think they should happen yet when everyone's getting together in Copenhagen to come up with a global plan to fight global warming, oh then, it's okay.

But nevermind anarchy, let's look at another 'narchy'... the dignified and traditional monarchy of course...

HRH Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada is "home".  

I'm a big supporter of our constitutional monarchy. Why?  It's a simple understanding that our representative democracy can be very fragile at times. And knowing that if the democracy fails, there's a backup system always there if needed to get things back on track.

Don't think it can happen?  Have a look at what happened in the Turks and Caicos Islands as recently as last year.  The Premier and his crew were so corrupt and stole money from the government that the Queen ended up giving an order to appoint a temporary governor to stabilize the governance.  I was recently there on holidays and talked to a lot of people about it.  After reading and hearing what happened, most of the people there were glad the British government and Queen stepped in.   They will soon have a general election to restore their democratic institutions.