Thursday, December 04, 2008

Extra extra!

So much news...

CBC PEI headline:

Canned beverage sales in P.E.I. well above expectations
Umm, great. No, not really, as I am quite confident that the bulk of this is soda. I have doubts any health professional encourages one to increase consumption of pop in order to maintain (or eventually achieve) a healthy lifestyle. I highly doubt that people are purchasing in bulk to stockpile in event of emergency. ("Earthquake!!! Quick, get the soda stockpile!")

CBC Canada headline:
GG agrees to suspend Parliament until January
Extra long Christmas holiday for MPs!! Sigh, why didn't I run? I haven't decided yet what I think of this, but I think it's wrong for the Conservatives to point fingers because I have this sneaking suspicion they would try to pull something similar if the election had resulted in a minority Liberal government. That being said, I don't know who the Conservatives would align with - NDP/Conservative love affair seems awkward. The Bloc?

I don't think suspending Parliament is the right reaction. A majority of MPs, the folk whom we chose to elect, are discontent with the PM. The majority is actually supposed to chose the PM, in theory, it's not automatically the party leader of the party with the most seats. Watching our democratic system "work" is interesting. Things are happening! It's half cooperation (the left) and half war fare (the right). The Bloc must be thrilled. They have the chance, in theory, to become a party that represents the country, not just one province.

I do find the possibility of Stephan Dion becoming prime minister... awkward. I know his party has the second highest number of seats, but it just seems wrong to give the 'second place winner' the first place prize. That being said, that is what would happen in an athletic competition if the athlete who won first place was suddenly disqualified.

Things that made me giggle from the above referenced article: "Harper was greeted by about 40 chanting supporters, including many Tory staffers, when he arrived at Rideau Hall, the Governor General's residence, at 9:30 a.m. ET. A single anti-Harper demonstrator stood waving a sign reading 'Harper Must Go.'"

At first I slightly laughed over the single anti-Harper demonstrator, but then I snickered and snorted at the 40 chanting supporters. His staff. I'm pretty sure they have a vested interest (job security) not directly to the overall well-being of our country. Nothing wrong with them being there, I would also go hang around outside chanting if my boss told me it would augment my job security.

Anyway, this is fueling my interest in politics again, which is nice.

It also means more Jack Layton and his mustache. I am happy.

The PEI Legislature is closed after 13 days. Thirteen days?!?! How can you even accomplish anything in 13 days? Right, you hide controversial items until the legislature closes, and hope they are tidied up before it opens again.

Government confuses and amazes me, both in positive and negative ways.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about your Hawaii news??????

Jen said...

Apparently it didn't make the headlines?!

Kathleen said...

Are you telling me that PEI is now selling cans instead of bottles?!?!? I feel like a little piece of heaven has died. So sad.

Shannon Courtney said...

Jen, you always make me laugh. My (very) personal opinion is that this is simply a sign of system failure, as is the economic downturn, environmental probs. etc. None of our systems are working properly, but instead of considering the need for a change in systems/cultural thinking we waste all our energy trying ot plug solutions into systems that are inherently faulty in design. Woohoo. It's like trying to fix the karaoke mike when the singer simply can't carry a tune. It's not going to do any good.

Jen said...

I thought more about the can sales, and do believe some would be related to sales that previously went off-Island as Islanders gleefully bought dozens of cans of Coke (or Diet Root Beer :) ) for novelty when in NB or NS for weekend breaks.

Especially of late I too have been thinking of massive errors that have been made, or are about to be made, particularly in regards to bailing out the auto industry. It`s seems like putting a tiny bandaid on an open wound from a bear attack. A short-term solution for what will become a long-term problem due to the faulty fix-up.