Liberal Deathmatch, Day 2: One Member, One Vote?

Or maybe not.

It's really kind of odd that all of our passes have our pictures on them, yet votes on the constitution involve people holding cards up and little old ladies counting. It's all very grade school.

Liberal Deathmatch, Day 2: The Kids are alright

The one member, one vote motion is currently being discussed, with specific reference to whether there should be special consideration for youth vote.

Here, without comment (or, for that matter, specific permission to post this. Sorry ;)), is a conversation Josh and I had this morning:

Josh: I'd like to hear about them in your blog: more minutae!

because we'll all hear so much about leadership anyways ...

an: Yeah. I'll be going to the one member one vote thing for sure.

Josh: do you think that the Liberals woud lose something if they did away with such conventions?

an: They would lose the media bump, maybe, but thats about it.

It would be a change of sorts, but not a bad one I think.

And there would still be a convention, it would just be smaller.

Josh: yeah, the Conservatives have a good model, I suppose.

as long as the youth continue to get 1/4 of the votes under OMOV

an: I actually don't know if I like that.

Josh: youth get 1/3 right now, eh?

an: yeah.

Josh: I think that youth have different positions on policy than older people do. Generally they're more liberal. And with the state of Canadian politics today, the alternative is a party controlled by geriatrics.

Sent at 12:25 PM on Thursday

an: Perhaps, but that's not the reason why I think that the youth currently have so much suport.

I think it has more to do with them being keen and willing to work really hard for tshirts.

Josh: absolutely.

and it's a culture within the Liberal party that is working to groom the next generation of Cabinet Ministers

because this is a party that knows it's going to be in power in 60 years, and wants to be ready

Update: There was just a challenge to the chair, and a subsequent challenge to that challenge. I love rules of order.

Liberal Deathmatch, Day 2: Very Important Policy is Happening Here.

Kamp Krusty Moment: Apparently, Paul Martin was the keynote at the Young Liberals forum. He was announced, and the crowd got up to applaud- something they are doing a lot of this weekend. Anyway, apparently they cheered for a half minute or so, yet still there was no Martin. I guess he was late, and it somehow didn't get articulated to whoever was introducing him.

Next best story: In tribute to outgoing Liberal Party president Mike Eizenga, they had a reasonably decent folk band on the stage playing Stan Roger's Mary Ellen Carter, which is a fine song. But you really have to wonder about the logic behind playing a song about a ship that sinks because of poor leadership right after the (soon to be) Former President sinks.

On stage now: the constitutional debate. Much discussion will ensue over all sorts of things, one member-one-vote, omnibus vs not, and so on. We'll see what happens.

Liberal Deathmatch, Day 1:

Most shocking thing of the convention so far was that Atlas Hugged and I were able to get into Schwartz's without having to wait, which was good. The downside is that I didn't get to wax philosophical about whether or not it is worth waiting in line for a sandwich, no matter how good.


But the actual convention? God damn, there is a lot of chanting going on here. Just now, a legion of people in the lobby below started screaming "We don't know". Or maybe it was "we like pop". I'm not totally sure. Wayne says more over at Progressive Bloggers- but needless to say, it is all a bit annoying. Things are looking up though, as you can see off to the right, the Crystalline Entity has taken care of at least one of the rallies. Rumour is that iggy has a giant tuning fork, so who knows how long the rallies will abate.

Anyway, last night was the opening night celebration, which is accurate only in as much as people were there looking to celebrate. Sadly, it was mostly very lame. Dean was late, but spoke well, though apparently he has some sort of inside information as he was making allusions to "our spring elections".

Liberal Deathmatch Ho!

I've gotten myself a press pass via CKCU for this weekends convention in Montreal- so I'll be there and talking about what I see here. Stuff will be produced for next weeks Radio Show, and you can probably catch me in at least some stuff via Progressive Bloggers, as I'll be working with Wayne Chu.

Fun with Euphemisms

From the Guardian, emphasis mine:

The cabinet is willing to back the more expensive option of replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent with a new system, rather than prolonging its life, the Guardian understands. The decision, expected to be finalised in a fortnight, is backed by Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

It was a conservative Katimiviktim

My friend Josh and I had a discussion over a couple of different forms of media about this weeks allegations of financial impropriety at everybody's favourite non-constitutional Trudeau legacy, Katimivik. He writes, which bears plagiarizing because it is really smart:

Wow, the Katimavik 'irregularities' are such a transparent hatchet job:

The federal government ordered a sweeping audit of Katimavik after financial irregularities and questionable spending were flagged at the government-funded youth-service organization. Some of the "anomalies" discovered were excessive meal claims, expensed Christmas gifts to staff and costs for a conference trip for two to Ghana.

Executive director Jean-Guy Bigeau says a $270,000 bank-balance discrepancy between what the government calculated Katimavik should have on hand and the corporation's actual balance was due to a serious accounting error by a rookie officer who was fired two weeks after the mistake came to light.

We're talking about a $20-million programme.

To put that in perspective, the Auditor-General is criticizing National Defence for more than $65 million in overpayments for pilot training with the "National Defence—NATO Flying Training in Canada" Programme - DND is paying a private contractor to deliver this program, but doesn't have as many people enrolled as projected, so the private contractor pockets the difference.

I cite that program to show that the Conservative cuts are ideological: programs they don't like are cut on efficiency grounds, while programs they do like continue to waste money.

Now, it looked like Katimivik was going to get axed beforehand, now we see the "justification". Someone should keep a list.

Maybe they should also vote to revisit female suffrage

So, Vic Toews announced today that the government will fulfill its promise to have an awkwardly worded commons motion about gay marriage- before Christmas no, less. I'm sort of curious what other pieces of legislation that, having already been decided by both the courts and most provinces need to be revisited in the weeks before parliament's month long Christmas break.

It's nice to know that this government is getting the things that didn't need fixing done.

Radio Topics, November 21

As always, tuesday morning, 7-9 am on 93.1fm in Ottawa, CKCUfm.com for all the rest.

Looking for a new job? One is available at Carleton.

But, in Honour of Atkinson now joining the ranks of ex-presidents, what about Athletic scholarships?

Time for the draft?

US to change financial rules?

Banning stuff can be fun too:

Nicaragua bans all abortions, Coathangers.

Dutch ban Burqas.

EU ban on Cat and Dog fur?

Radio Topics, November 14th

It's Municipal Roundup Time! Do your own googling:

So, we have a new Mayor, but mostly the same council. What does this bode?

They must be getting desperate in London and Washington. They are going to talk with Syria and Iran

Garth Turner says he isn't angry...but then why the news conference?

Harper is talking constitutional change... and its not about Senate reform.

State funeral for our last WW1 vet?

Canada gets called an environmental fossil in Kenya.

Kasechewan gets a plan. Now, let's expand it.

Election Day Musings

<a href="http://toothpastefordinner.com/"><img src="http://toothpastefordinner.com/110706/disenfranchisement.gif " border=0></a><br /><a href="http://toothpastefordinner.com/">toothpastefordinner.com</a>

Radio Topics, November 7

We return to our normal format this week, after a very successful drive. Our show raised about 650 dollars as of sunday night, and the station raised a little more than $108,000. This is really awesome, and will mean that CKCU, as well as Adam and I, are around for another year. Pledge payment forms will go out in the coming weeks, so you'll have the chance to honour your pledges soon enough. Similarly, if you haven't pledged yet you can still do so as listed below.

Just after the BBC news we'll be continuing our Council Candidate series with a short talk with Ian Boyd, candidate for Capital ward.

Immediately following, we'll (finally!) have Padraic, as promised, scale Duntown Tower 1 floor for every $50 dollars that our show had donated during funding drive. That's a lucky 13 floors. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have him talk about the Saddam Hussein verdict at the same time.

In hour two, following Azmik's segment, we'll have a chat with John English, author of Citizen of the World, his biography of Pierre Trudeau.

We'll also look at some of the following:
 
Iggy: Getting Desperate.
Also: Dion a good second choice for many?

Midterm Election Day in the US! (Do your own googling):
-Will Karl Rove pull it off?
-Will The Democrats blow it, like they always do?
-What does this mean for the 2008 presidency?

The global fishery could be gone in our lifetime? There was a fishery? Loyola Hearn says we still do.
Also, Iceland goes back whaling!

End of the rope for Saddam.

Radio Topics, November 7

We return to our normal format this week, after a very successful drive. Our show raised about 650 dollars as of sunday night, and the station raised a little more than $108,000. This is really awesome, and will mean that CKCU, as well as Adam and I, are around for another year. Pledge payment forms will go out in the coming weeks, so you'll have the chance to honour your pledges soon enough. Similarly, if you haven't pledged yet you can still do so as listed below.

Just after the BBC news we'll be continuing our Council Candidate series with a short talk with Ian Boyd, candidate for Capital ward.

Immediately following, we'll (finally!) have Padraic, as promised, scale Duntown Tower 1 floor for every $50 dollars that our show had donated during funding drive. That's a lucky 13 floors. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have him talk about the Saddam Hussein verdict at the same time.

In hour two, following Azmik's segment, we'll have a chat with John English, author of Citizen of the World, his biography of Pierre Trudeau.

We'll also look at some of the following:

Iggy: Getting Desperate.
Also: Dion a good second choice for many?

Midterm Election Day in the US! (Do your own googling):
-Will Karl Rove pull it off?
-Will The Democrats blow it, like they always do?
-What does this mean for the 2008 presidency?

The global fishery could be gone in our lifetime? There was a fishery? Loyola Hearn says we still do.
Also, Iceland goes back whaling!

End of the rope for Saddam.

Carleton Takes it in the Teeth again! From Macleans!

Feelings in our Guts

From today's Citizen, concerning difficulties in getting around US arms export restrictions amongst Canadian manufactuters:

 

Greg Suchan, the senior State Department official leading the current negotiations, said he hoped a solution could be found, but stressed his government controls access to its military technology because "we have a feeling in our gut" about the link between nationality and possible threats.

"I understand there is concern here in Canada about the treatment of nationality," Mr. Suchan told a symposium on Canada-U.S. military co-operation. "If somebody is a citizen of a country that is very, very problematic for export-control purposes, we need to take that into account."

That policy worked so well with the Japanese-Americans during the second world war, didn't it?

 

Fair is Fair

This is the right move.