I was kind of disappointed that there was no rhino candidate in my riding, since I thought they were running in outremont.

@Adrian: In general I am on Pollan’s side. I’ll tap him as a special advisor on food policy, though my pal Devlin will likely get the top spot:
http://www.btlbooks.com/New_Titles/good_crop_bad.htm

Michael Pollan just signed an open letter to the next “Farmer in Chief” in the US in order to leave the oil agriculture. Our next Prime Minister should actually read it and I thought you’d be happy to read it too. It fits 100% in the points you made on environment and on health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html

What do you think?

http://foo.ca/wp/2008/10/14/dont-vote-for-plaigarists/

These four not only miss-read the question in the same way, they used exactly the same answers, with very very subtle differences.

I always thought it was a bit of an odd situation where a company or organisation could see 100% funding from the taxpayer with one hand, and then charges the taxpayer who comes out to see the performance / watch the show / etc.

Last I looked, I was impressed with actions from the NFB to provide access to their archives. I’m not sure on the extent of that project, but I did get a chance to see a couple shorts that I wouldn’t otherwise have known about. The technology is nearly there; maybe we can convince them to seed torrents of the films we funded one day.

On the open government end, I’m a bit disturbed by the number of NDP candidates who are answering NO when asked to publish their work schedule. My local NDP candidate lost any chance of gaining my “at least she’s not a Harperoid” vote when she read that item as meaning she needs to be streaming to the internet 24/7 or something. Seriously.

@ian: i predict that if someone really came out and shook things up with a real vision of the future, we’d all scream with joy. recent canadian political discourse is pathetic… probably harper’s the only one with a real vision, but he doesn’t dare speak it out loud … since he’d get turfed right away. By the way, I’m on board with the IP reform. Maybe we can form a coalition? Let’s talk about it.

Infreemation wholeheartedly supports your copyright reform, transparency, environment, and innovation measures. We’d go further and suggest that wider intellectual property reform is required to stimulate innovation. We also agree that the financial and health systems need overhauls. And we support your resolution that “the CBC is not allowed to make any more TV series set in the 1800s in the Maritimes.”

But this is a lot to take on. Do Canadian politicians have the courage to step up? It seems they are afraid to engage in debates on the specifics. Does the Canadian public have the resolve to to start paying attention and engage in policy decisions, even if it takes time and effort and there are no easy answers.

I think its going to get a fair bit worse before it gets better, but in the getting worse we might get the necessary level of engagement from citizens to rejuvenate Canada’s attitude, work ethic, and leadership. And perhaps then we will also see a new, more rational and transparent generation of politicians and politics.

One things for sure, its the Canadian people who need to make the first move towards change.

Modulo a web-based “who would you vote for based on your opinion on major issues”, the exposure I received to the election has been nil… and I doubt it would have been much better if I watched TV or read local newspapers (or if I actually had the right to vote here). All I had were the (often defaced) smily faces.

Last night, coming home, one billboard caught my eye: instead of the usual mugshot, a list of issues and stances, and quite a few I could agree with. This seemed like the first time voters were not treated like idiotic cattle, and I’m not sure if I should be excited by it, or saddened by the dull rest of this campaign.