Chick Corea was supposed to play Calgary this Friday night, followed by Ben E. King on Saturday night. But that won’t happen now because C-Jazz, the local organizers of the Calgary Jazz Festival, have abruptly pulled the plug on the annual event.

Is it possible the shows will still go on? Likely not. The last time a Calgary jazz festival was forced to fold — in 2006 — an angel was waiting in the wings. The angel was the now troubled C-Jazz, which had been formed six years earlier when Jazz Festival Calgary became too big for its boots. Jazz Festival Calgary had been launched in 1980 with some 75th anniversary grant money from the provincial government. As Jazz Festival Calgary expanded, with more and more focus on international acts, C-Jazz emerged as a local organization dedicated to promoting Calgary jazz artists. With a grassroots rallying of citizens and performers, C-Jazz was able to save the 2006 jazz festival and keep it going until now.

Much the same thing happened in Edmonton. When that city’s famous Jazz City crashed in 2005, after running successfully for 25 years, jazz fans across the country were shocked. Jazz City was one of the longest-running international jazz festivals in Canada. If it could fail, who would be next? The answer, of course, was Calgary.

The Edmonton Jazz Society was the saviour that resurrected Edmonton’s jazz festival. It had been running the Yardbird Suite jazz club for several years, and it was ready and waiting to launch the new Edmonton International Jazz Festival when Jazz City went down. The new festival started modestly, with a focus on Edmonton and other Canadian talent, and built slowly with the help of Jazz Festivals Canada. Its headliners this year include Chick Corea — who will thus be able to salvage something from his now-shortened Canadian tour — Nikki Yanofsky and John Pizzarelli.

 
Jazz City and Jazz Festival Calgary both died because of money woes. The C-Jazz folks now find themselves in the same boat. They don’t have the cash flow to cover the day-to-day expenses of the festival, and there’s no angel in the wings ready to bail them out. Has their festival, like its predecessor, gotten into trouble because it became too big for its boots? Perhaps. It has come a long way from its Calgary-oriented roots over the past four years, regularly featuring such big names as Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, and Allen Toussaint. Great for Calgary jazz fans, but not so great for C-Jazz’s bottom line. Last year’s festival left C-Jazz with what the Calgary Herald describes as a “significant deficit.” A scaled-down version of the festival for this year would seem to have been the right way to go. But when the board members looked at the books this past weekend, even that option became impossible. Too bad.

First published on http://brianbrenn.wordpress.com/

So, Lindsay Blackett was just performing a public service when, at the Banff World Television Festival, he called Canadian TV “shit”? Apparently so. As the Alberta Minister of Culture and Community Spirit told the Calgary Herald earlier this week, his intention was to create “a national discussion” about Canadian TV’s crapitude. But I have a better idea: let’s have a national discussion about Lindsay Blackett instead.

Blackett seems like a smart guy — at least that’s the impression I got when he was about the only bright light among a number of dimbulbs at a forum in Calgary back in February. But, like almost all politicians, he knows not a lot about the arts. And why would he? As his official bio tells us, before being elected to the Alberta Legislature in 2008, he was “Technical Sales Representative for Arrow Electronics, Calgary, 2000 to 2008, General Sales Manager for Future Electronics, Seattle, 1994 to 2000, and Product Specialist for Future Electronics, Montreal, 1994 to 1995.” He did attend Carleton University in the bachelor of arts program but, perhaps significantly, his bio doesn’t say if he graduated.

But fine, we don’t expect our politicians to be Pablo Picassos, not even the ones responsible for the arts. But does Blackett really think he kicked off a serious discussion about Canadian television with his remarks? Of course some Canadian shows are shit; I mentioned a few right here. And some are terrific; so what? That’s the way it always is in creative industries. Uncertainty is certain. A good script is poorly produced. A mediocre one somehow clicks in production. There are a million ways that things can go wrong — or right. Artists accept that as a professional hazard. Why can’t politicians?

Mind you, the fact that Blackett wants to throw money at the problem is a refreshing variation on the usual theme of conservative distaste for the arts. Under fire for his remarks, he announced that Alberta would soon announce guidelines for a new $20 million Media Fund, including $880,000 to get more “quality scripts” written. And I say, you spend that money, Mr. Minister; for the sake of my buddies in Alberta, you spend away. But don’t expect it to make creativity any more solid state. Crap TV shows will still get made; great TV shows will still get made. There will simply be more of both.

By the way, Liberal MLA and Culture Critic Laurie Blakeman’s response was superb. “If the minister of health said our doctors and nurses were crap, that minister would be fired,” she said. “If the minister of education said our teachers were crap, that minister would be fired. If the minister of energy said that the oilsands were crap, you can bet that minister would be sitting on the backbenches faster than the minister of culture and community spirit can think of something stupid to say. And that’s pretty fast.” I once acted in a play with Blakeman, back when both of us were students in the theatre department at the U of A. But I have to say, fine actress though she is, I’m really glad she ended up in the Legislature.

But don’t expect Blackett to be going anywhere anytime soon. Remarks like his still play well in many of Calgary’s living rooms, despite the fact that it has one of the liveliest arts scenes in the country. He’s just proven he’s one of the boys. And that’s gold for the Conservatives in Alberta — and votes in the ballot box.

Follow-up: Video of Blackett’s remarks and the ensuing discussion has now appeared on youtube:

I don’t claim to be any kind of authority on Wiebo Ludwig — for that you can read Andrew Nikiforuk’s Saboteurs — but in all the considerable coverage of Ludwig’s arrest in connection with six cases of explosions on EnCana’s gas pipelines, I notice the media’s accompanying history of Ludwig makes no mention of the RCMP blowing up a well site last time they were building their case against him. So here’s a reminder.

Ludwig’s war on Big Oil began with his belief that sour gas and industrial pollution was endangering the health of his family and livestock. This was confirmed for him when his grand-daughter was born dead. Unable to achieve satisfaction in the courts, Ludwig was convicted in 2001 on five charges related to vandalism of oil industry equipment and served two years of a 28-month sentence.

Okay, Operation Kabriole . . .

CBC, Nov 10, 2000 : RCMP bombed oil site in ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

The Mounties bombed an oil installation as part of a dirty tricks campaign in their investigation into sabotage in the Alberta’s oil patch.

The revelation came at the bail hearing Thursday of two farmers who the Crown says have turned their complaints that oil industry pollution is making their families ill into acts of vandalism and mischief.

CBC , Nov 10, 2000 : More details of RCMP ‘dirty tricks’ revealed

Dubbed “Operation Kabriole”, the RCMP’s intention was to help an informant get closer to the two men police suspected were behind vandalism against the oil and gas industry.

Wiebo Ludwig and Richard Boonstra were arrested and charged earlier this month.

“Operation Kabriole” was planned and executed with the direct involvement of a Calgary based oil and gas business. Alberta Energy Company has a big operation in the Peace River country.

The RCMP’s original plan was to blow up one of AEC’s trucks. The company convinced the police to change the operation even though AEC had already given its approval, offered up a truck to be bombed and said it would pay for any major damages. Company officials were having second thoughts.

According to the RCMP’s own files, the head of AEC’s northern operations met with the police to say his bosses were concerned that bombing a vehicle would cause ‘undue stress and fear’ for employees driving company trucks.

So the company offered an alternative, a shed covering one of its “out of service” well sites not far from the suspects’ property.

The bomb was set off Oct. 14, one week before AEC hosted two tense and emotional town hall meetings. Worried residents who turned out, were told by an expert, who was flown in by AEC, that they were the victims of ‘eco-terrorists’.

Tory MP Peter MacKay, the opposition’s RCMP critic at the time:

“If, in fact, the RCMP engaged in this type of activity, regardless of their motives, and regardless of the public interest here, it would be potentially fatal to the Crown’s case.”

Except it wasn’t.

This time his lawyer says he will be charged with extortion.

Extortion. Description in the Criminal Code: 346(1):

“Every one commits extortion who, without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or attempts to induce any person, whether or not he is the person threatened, accused or menaced or to whom violence is shown, to do anything or cause anything to be done.”

To do anything or cause anything to be done. That’s pretty broad.

Maybe this time he wrote a letter.

Still, an RCMP fishing expedition is better than blowing up a shed.

From the very beginning of the H1N1/Swine Flu drama, I’ve had zero intention of getting a flu shot. Nevertheless, even I am infuriated by the preferential treatment given to the Calgary Flames players and their families.

I don’t blame the Flames’ medical team for requesting special treatment (it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?) and no doubt they have grown accustomed to it (as many sports teams have), but I’m stunned that the request for a private clinic and access to the H1N1 vaccine — while pregnant women, children under six, and others with compromised immune systems or chronic health conditions waited in line for hours, often outside in the cold — was approved.

Approximately 150 people received the top-secret shots, held at Father David Bauer Arena on October 30th. Next day, clinics all across Alberta were temporarily shut down due to a national shortage of the vaccine. But, hey, who matters more in this country: hockey players or children?

When the clinics reopened, Tim Page stood in one of those slower moving lines with his wife and two kids, aged four and two. They arrived at the Olympic Oval vaccine clinic around 5:30 p.m. and “after an hour my kids had enough so I sent them home with my wife to get bathed and ready for bed,” Tim says. When it got close to their turn, Tim called his wife and she returned with the kids. Well past bedtime, they waited another 40 minutes. Standing in line with two small children was not Tim’s idea of a good Thursday night, especially given that his daughter “knew what was at the end of the lineup.”

“I think the Flames should [have] waited like the rest of us,” he says. “They could [use] a lesson in consideration from the Stampeders’ health staff. They were interviewed on Global and said that they were just like anybody else and would wait. Pregnant moms, elders, and young children deserve it more.”

This isn’t to say that the Flames weren’t in need of the vaccine. It’s safe to assume none of them are pregnant, elderly, or below the age of six, but some have children, which places them in the high-risk category to be vaccinated. Still, they should have waited in line with Tim and his family, just like everyone else. Since there is no documented approval for the private clinic, and zero paper trail regarding the 150 inoculations, it’s pretty clear that the health services employees knew they were violating protocol and that the Flames should have stepped to the back of the line. (Two unnamed Alberta Health Services employees have been fired and the investigation closed.)

A Canoe.ca article suggests we cut the Flames some slack because of their contributions to the community over the years. But using charity to justify special treatment goes against the nature of charity . . . it’s not charity if you ask for something in return. While it is generous of the Flames and other athletic teams to give back to the community, the City of Calgary and its taxpayers forked out $100 million in 1983 to construct the Saddledome, so who owes whom here?

Despite the long wait time, Tim had few complaints about his flu shot experience. “The nurse we received was great. She took her time, made sure everybody was comfortable, and was really sympathetic with my daughter when the tears started coming.” By the time they left, it was 10:30 p.m. “Our nurse had been there all day before the lineups opened. She was tired but not once complained to us about the hours she had put in.”

Now that’s the sort of heroic effort we should be celebrating and privileging in this country, rather than the overpaid exploits of hockey players. The real epidemic in Canada is NHLphilia, which causes ordinary people to lose their heads when it comes to our national game. Where’s the shot for that?

I just wanted to go to the doctor.

Alberta has been suffering from a physician shortage for several years, but it’s become especially keen lately. With Calgary’s population just over 1,070,000 and growing, an estimated 200,000 Calgarians are currently without a family doctor. It’s a complex issue – fewer doctors are going into family practice and foreign doctors have been shut out for a variety of reasons (that’s a whole separate issue), while the constantly expanding population has placed extraordinary stress on established physicians.

I’ve lived in Lethbrige, Nanaimo, and Victoria and had a doctor in all three cities. In Victoria I simply called a clinic and asked if any doctor was taking new patients and, ta da, I had a doctor.

Not so with my first attempt to acquire a Calgary doctor – which consisted of an afternoon spent getting cozy with the yellow pages, racking up a major cellphone bill, and speaking with staff members who were too busy to answer my questions. Eventually I was referred to the Health Link website.

Managed by Alberta Health Services, Health Link provides a list of doctors taking new patients, plus 1-800 access to nurses who can provide medical information and advice on minor health issues. I checked it out, only to find my chances of securing a female doctor anywhere near my home were slim-to-none. There is currently one female doctor in my area, sort of, who is taking new patients – but “neck and back pain only.” And the other female doctors are maternity specialists. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so picky, but I think we all have a right to be selective when it comes to allowing someone access to our bodies.

Instead of despairing, I decided to accept the reality of the situation and learn to deal. I began to trek down to my friendly neighbourhood medical clinic as necessary . . . and bring a book, of course. Typically the wait is two or three hours, but, given how much I love to read in cramped spaces surrounded by sick people, there’s no problem. Twice I have insisted on seeing a female doctor and taken my chances that I’ll get in to see her before the shift changes and a male doctor takes her place. Twice I have waited all afternoon and then gone home when the male doctor arrived.

But as I say, I accepted the situation. Rather than get upset or rant at the clinic staff (there’s a sign . . . no abuse, raised voices, or profanity may be used toward clinic staff . . . that’ll get you barred), I simply gave up and planned to return the next afternoon. The alternative would be to drive all over the city from walk-in to walk-in, which I’ve heard many people do, but I prefer sitting for a few hours in the clinic waiting room to spending those same few hours in the cockpit of my car.

My last visit to the doctor, however, may have marked the end of my role as the patient patient. There was nothing majorly wrong with me . . . I had an inkling that I might have tendonitis (which would render me unable to work), had some unresolved issues with my ability to breathe properly at night, and had two smaller, more private issues, all of which I planned to address with the attending physician, male or female.

A nurse came into the examination room and asked me what I was seeing the doctor for that day. I explained that I had a number of issues to address. Instead of writing said issues down on my chart and leaving the room, the nurse informed me, “The doctor does not have that kind of time. He can deal with your most pressing concern.”

I’m not known for being a pushover, and so I replied, “All my concerns are pressing.”

Not amused, the nurse reminded me that the doctor did not have time to deal with a laundry list of problems and I would have to pick one for him to examine.

“I just sat in the waiting room for three and a half hours,” I said. “I don’t have time for that.”

She did not budge.

Despite my desire to demand compensation for my prolonged wait (compensation being 15 uninterrupted minutes of the doctor’s undivided attention to deal with what I wanted to deal with), I decided to focus on the tendonitis, as it was causing me the most pain, and hope the remaining issues would rectify themselves in time. (They haven’t.) After three or four minutes with the doctor (or was it two?), he assured me I did not have tendonitis and that I was a smidge paranoid. Probably just overexerted myself. Take some ibuprofen. Everything will be fine.

And away he went. So much for that.

For the sake of curiosity, I called the 1-800 number provided on Health Link. I was connected with a nurse who addressed my concerns – all of them. I appreciated the time she took to listen to me describe my symptoms. She asked me questions and explained in moderate detail how the knee joint works, how the nasal passage functions, and so on. Finally, I was getting somewhere.

And then she delivered her advice. It was simple, yet problematic: in regard to all four of my health concerns, she suggested I go see a doctor.

I’ll go see a doctor, all right. But given the mood Alberta’s sickly health care system has left me in, I’m not so sure that doctor will be happy to see me.

Michael Ignatieff was once again out west this weekend, telling the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce all sorts of things he thought they wanted to hear: that they were prescient and progressive, having been the first CoC to admit women as members; that they were right to label Stephen Harper’s response to the economic crisis as “weak” and creating “a false sense of hope”; and that “Alberta has so much to offer — world-class universities, groundbreaking research, centres of excellence that attract talent from around the world, a true gateway to the North.”

Mr. Ignatieff sounded like a young suitor addressing his girlfriend’s father: “Gosh, Mr. Edmonton, I really respect your daughter and admire you for raising such a fine human being.” I can confidently suggest that the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce took him about as seriously as that young woman’s father would.

Mostly, he spoke about oil — about how important the oil sands are, and how all Alberta and he needed to do was find a way to harvest them that’s environmentally sound. But, as he did a few weeks ago in Regina, Mr. Ignatieff misses the point. He is so intent on proving that he’s not Pierre Trudeau that he hasn’t yet figured out Albertans aren’t all that worried about the oil sands. They know the world needs oil, and will need more of it tomorrow, and one way or another the oil sands are going continue to supply it. It doesn’t really have anything to do with whether Mr. Ignatieff says it’s okay or not.

Meanwhile, in BC, oil is something they put in their cars; BCers would rather hear what he intends to do about all the ex-timberworkers now twiddling their thumbs in various pubs around the province. But really, if Mr. Ignatieff wishes to connect with westerners, he is eventually going to have to address our real concerns: That the Senate should be either reformed or jettisoned; that Alberta and BC are seriously under-represented in parliament (Ontario is too, but we’ll leave that to them to take up); and that even when we manage to get one of our guys into the PM’s office, he’s subject to eviction at any moment by a coalition of Central Canadian politicos. None of which has anything to do with oil. It’s lovely of Mr. Ignatieff to drop by. But until he gets a bigger idea of us, it might be better if he just stayed home.

Dr Dawg relates that Gerry Chipeur “the Alberta lawyer who drafted a power-sharing proposal between Stockwell Day, Gilles Duceppe and Joe Clark in 2000 is now suggesting that the Conservatives should defy the Governor-General if she were to ask the Liberal-NDP coalition to form a new government if the Conservative administration falls on January 27.”

CanWest : “Chipeur’s argument foreshadows a possibly drastic response from the Conservatives should they be turfed from power. He suggests that Conservatives may not readily accept the governor-general’s decision should she refuse the prime minister’s request for an election.”

Chipeur, an anti-SSM ReformaTory Alliance lawyer and activist with ties to Republicans and the evangelical and anti-Kyoto movements on both sides of the border, is laying groundwork for the Cons again here, something he excels at.

New York Observer : (bracketed info mine) “From: Paul Weyrich[co-founder of the Moral Majority and the Heritage Foundation]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:38 AM
To: Bob Thompson [a staffer at Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation]
Subject: Message from Canada
Importance: High
Please get this message to the Stanton, Family Forum and Wednesday lunch groups:

I received a call last night from Gerald Chipeur, an important figure in Canada’s Conservative Party. He told me that Conservatives are with-in striking distance of electing an outright majority in Parliamentary elections Monday.

He said the Canadian media, which is trying to save the current Liberal government, has a strategy of calling conservatives in the USA in the hopes that someone will inadvertently say something that can be hung around the Conservatives.

Canadian voters have been led to believe that American conservatives are scary and if the Conservative party can be linked with us, they perhaps can diminish a Conservative victory. Chipeur asks that if Canadian media calls, please do not be interviewed until Monday evening at which point hopefully there will be reason to celebrate.

Many thanks.”

When contacted by Canadian Press about the email, Weyrich denied any personal involvement but later on his website, he bragged about his “small victory” in the Canadian elections.

This August, Chipeur, a dual Canada-US citizen, teamed up with the American Chamber of Commerce to hold a $1000-a-plate fund-raising campaign for John McCain for the 80,000 Americans who live and work in Calgary. Canadian citizens’ proceeds went to Friends of Science, Tim Ball’s oil industry-funded anti-Kyoto “charity”, whose funding was laundered through the University of Calgary by Harper’s buddy, Prof. Barry Cooper, before the U of C put a stop to it.

Friends of Science used the money to pay for ads which attacked the previous Liberal government’s support for the Kyoto Protocol, pledging “to have a major impact on the next election.” Chipeur acted as their lawyer in the investigation by Elections Canada.

Chipeur is also credited with introducing Republican Frank Sensenbrenner to Canadian embassy officials at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, attended by Stockwell Day, Chipeur’s choice for coalition PM in 2000. Sensenbrenner had attended Reform party conventions and Stockwell Day insisted he be hired by the Canadian Embassy. Sensenbrenner was subsequently accused of the Naftagate leak. to damage Barack Obama’s credibility during the Democratic primaries but an internal investigation by Harper’s deputy minister failed to provide conclusive evidence.

The Star : “In failing to plumb the leak, the report effectively protects the ruling party from awkward questions. With an election not far in the future, voters might reasonably ask if Conservatives put this country’s seminal relationship [with Obama] at risk to give Republicans a helping hand.”

The RepubliCons — just one big happy family.

One thing of which you can be certain: if you’re a western Canadian prime minister, they will eventually try to get rid of you. They, of course, being the central Canadian political operatives and parties who regard it as their congenital right to run the country.

It happened to Diefenbaker, it happened to Joe Clark, and now it’s happening to Stephen Harper. One could also argue that it happened to Kim Campbell, but that was more a matter of a compliant national media doing a Sarah-Palin on her, even before there was such a thing.

I didn’t vote for the Tories six weeks ago, mind. I don’t like most of their policies, and the ones I do like, like fairer representation by population, are liable to happen over time regardless. I also thought the Liberal Party divine right of rule had, for the foreseeable future, been interrupted. Boy, was I naive.

Then again, so too is anyone who thinks the current imbroglio has anything to do with the opposition parties’ concern for the country’s economic well-being, or rights of women, or welfare of the public service sector. What it did have to do with, last week, was Harper’s stupid feint at removing public financing of political parties. Great idea, Steve: now that you have a slightly stronger mandate than before, really go for the jugular. Ignore the fact that you’re still a minority government. The opposition couldn’t possibly get it together to . . . Oh wait. They could.

Since then, of course, Harper has withdrawn the public funding grab, leaving the opposition parties having to pretend they’ve been defending higher principles all along. Right; and sharks eat fish because of their ethical concern for preservation of the food chain.

The current situation may have something to do with the clash of right-wing and left-wing values, but so what? Just because I prefer the latter to the former doesn’t mean my team gets to form the government at any opportunity. The Conservatives represent the values of a lot of people in this country, especially where I live (BC) and where I came from (Alberta). They managed to collect a lot more seats than the next guys during the election, and that means, for the time being, their values prevail, whether I, or the sun court around Dion, Layton, and Duceppe, like it or not.

So if this mess does lead to another federal election, I will vote for the Tories, just to make the point that even people who don’t live in the 416 and 613 area codes and select left-wing ridings get to exercise their franchise too. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past Harper to have that very idea in mind; yet another bun-fight in which a fed-up electorate gives him the majority he blew last time.

In which case, nice work, Mr. Harper. You finally got me, when just about nothing else would have.

On the Fair Vote website, here are the facts:

The 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party sent no one to Parliament, setting a new record for the most votes cast for any party that gained no parliamentary representation. By comparison, 813,000 Conservative voters in Alberta alone were able to elect 27 MPs.

In the prairie provinces, Conservatives received roughly twice the vote of the Liberals and NDP, but took seven times as many seats.

Similar to the last election, a quarter-million Conservative voters in Toronto elected no one and neither did Conservative voters in Montreal.

The NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the voting system gave the Bloc 50 seats, the NDP 37.

Had the votes on October 14 been cast under a fair and proportional voting system, Fair Vote Canada projects that the seat allocation would be approximately as follows:

Conservatives – 38% of the popular vote: 117 seats (not 143)
Liberals – 26% of the popular vote: 81 seats (not 76)
NDP – 18% of the popular vote: 57 seats (not 37)
Bloc – 10% of the popular vote: 28 seats (not 50)
Greens – 7% of the popular vote: 23 seats (not 0)

Folks, this is crap. No wonder nobody turned out to vote.

- Eleanor Claire

I have been very interested in listening to Green Party candidates and I believe that they ought to have a voice in parliament. So if I lived in a riding with a very strong Green Party candidate, I would vote Green.

I might also vote NDP if the local candidate was strong. That is because I know Jack Layton will never become Prime Minister. To tell the truth, even as I adopt more and more socialist tools, I remain a staunch liberal. This is a small “l” liberal because I believe that the Liberal Party of Canada is still in disarray. I prefer Liberal polices over other policies but Dion hasn’t come out swinging enough to win me over.

But I am a liberal. As much as I believe in democracy with all my heart, I believe in inalienable human rights even more. I know this because democracies make huge mistakes all the time. Sometimes self-government flips into mob rule — governed by ignorance, stupidity, or plain old depravity — particularly when the electorate is threatened, or simply feels threatened. If I had to choose between living in a democracy where my inalienable human rights were not respected and an autocracy where they were, I’d take the autocracy every time because I absolutely believe in the liberal idea of inalienable human rights limiting the power of mob rule. George Bush was elected (at least once and maybe twice). Hitler was also elected. And, while this is probably a lesser disaster, the morons in my riding are going to vote Conservative. Oh, that someone could save me from the mob rule of my neighbours.

Incidentally, that’s why I am not completely socialist. The last thing I want is for a bunch of addled-brained zealots tromping all over my rights because they have an idea. Some socialists can talk themselves into some pretty heinous behaviour. I am particularly frightened by people who seek to improve me, or do me good.

Anyway, nobody in my Alberta riding has a hope of beating the Conservative incumbent but, if I lived in a riding where somebody (dear god anybody) had a chance, I’d vote for them. Generally, I don’t like to vote strategically. I like to vote for the party and the person who most closely embodies my values and preferences. But let’s face it: the only reason Harper is in office today is because the Progressive Conservative and Alliance parties got over themselves and merged. I think we’re in rough enough shape financially and environmentally that we can’t take the chance of a Conservative majority.

I found out how my neighbours are likely to vote at a nifty page that allowed me to search by postal code (www.voteforenvironment.ca). If you’re interested in how they arrived at their prediction, check out their “advanced prediction model” at http://advanced.voteforenvironment.ca/poll_list.php.

I’ll be voting Liberal, without hope. And I will be joining the Liberal Party and the NDP and start advocating for a merge. Frankly, both parties could do each other a lot of good.

Happy thanksgiving.

- Eleanor Claire