m@adie

The Election is Over

adie — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:39:11 +0000

The election is over and now we are faced with a Harper majority and 4 years for him to chip away at all the things I love about Canada! I’m not going to say too much about this because it’s all pretty obvious: relaxed gun control, privatization of health care, a possible erosion of abortion rights, the promotion of “traditional” family structures, taking away the funding of political parties based on votes (which I think should be the only funding source for political parties), the erosion of the CBC, relaxed environmental laws, a focus on Oil Sands production, corporate tax cuts, and an autocratic disdain for democracy… pretty much everything you would expect from a very right of center party who are no better than the Republicans in the US. It really is a shameful that 40% of the voting public could and would give him the majority of seats…

Things I’m happy about:

I’m very happy about the NDP sweeping Quebec! It’s true that some pretty strange people won a couple of the ridings (I’m thinking of the students), but if they don’t mess things up it will give the NDP a chance to build a strong Quebec presence with strong candidates in the future.
I’m happy about the demise of the Bloc, but I’ve always kind of liked Gilles Duceppe and feel bad about the blow to his ego.
I’m very happy the Elizabeth May won her seat for the Green Party and that we will be able to hear her in the House of Commons (it’s a shame that Harper never listens to anybody else).

Things I’m worried about:

I’m worried about the Liberal Party! We badly need a strong centrist party in Canada. I think that having a 2 party system is probably the worst thing that could happen to us politically. If the Liberals don’t rebuild then we will have a right wing party and a left wing party and nothing in between. I support the NDP and not the Liberals (unless I’m doing so strategically) because I have left wing beliefs, but I think we need a political system that can support people who are neither left nor right. I would love to see a multi-party system (as in more than 3-4 major players) in Canada that rules by an honest majority vote (screw the party whips) and reflects the beliefs of its population. A majority government held by either the Conservatives or the NDP does not have the ability to reflect the constituents of this country.
I’m worried about Quebec Independence: Contrary to popular belief I don’t think that the defeat of the Bloc represents a defeat of the sovereignty movement, and I think that this election may do a lot to highlight the differences between the values of Quebec and the values of most of the rest of Canada. I’m scared that this will give the separatists fodder beyond language politics.

I’m kind of tired of this political stuff now, so I probably won’t write much about it for a while.

Jeanne-Le Ber on Election Morning

matthew — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:58:05 +0000

So it’s election day and here are the latest poll results for Jeanne-Le Ber! Looks like the NDP are going to take it, and from the looks of it they might take several other Quebec ridings as well! It’s even looks like a close race in Gilles Duceppe’s riding of Laurier–Sainte-Marie.

Jeanne-Le Ber as of Today

matthew — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:47:01 +0000

As of today it looks like I live in a riding where I might be able to vote according to my preferences and not strategically. I really hope the NDP take Jeanne-Le Ber! And I hope this is a trend and not a once off… I’m really tired of voting for the Liberals in order to try to keep the Bloc at bay. I am grateful that the Conservatives don’t stand a chance here, but I really do get sick of Quebec politics.

Anti Stephen Harper Ads (put out by the Liberals)

matthew — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:42:22 +0000

Stephen Harper really should be considered a criminal

matthew — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:48:01 +0000

Check out this excellent summary of why nobody in their right mind should ever consider voting for Stephen Harper:

Which Canada will You Vote for?

Also a good argument for why anyone with a conscience should go vote for anyone other than Stephen Harper…

Canadian Elections

matthew — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:21:58 +0000

I would hate to see Canada suffer through a Harper majority, in fact I would love nothing more than to see the Harper Conservatives lose (to anybody), in fact I would love to see them lose and disappear completely as a party… but since that’s not likely to happen here’s how to track the ridings where your vote is most likely to keep the Conservatives at bay:

UBB?

matthew — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:01:18 +0000

Still waiting to see what will happen… I haven’t payed much attention since it went back to the CRTC, but Bell have appeared to have backed off pushing UBB down the throats of resellers. Of course they will probably come … Continue reading →

The Wait and Debate

adie — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:50:23 +0000

So the CRTC have put UBB on hold for 60 days… Actually the gov’t told them to go back to the drawing board with it… I hope that something better comes out of them this time… Actually I hope that they ditch UBB altogether!

In the mean time here’s a couple of interesting posts by Michael Geist:

The Boycott of Bell Begins

matthew — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:09:36 +0000

Today I cancelled my Bell home phone… it will officially be disconnected on March 2, and from then on out I’ll have a dry loop with TekSavvy. I know they’re a Bell reseller, and that they in turn will be paying bell, but at least I’m not giving Bell any of my money directly. Plus I’ve been very happy thus far with their DSL service, and they continue to earn my trust by not trying to mark up the UBB rates that they’re being forced to contend with.

So the money I was spending on my basic home phone will now cover the the $7.25 Band A dry loop rate, the $14.25 – 120GB extra usage insurance, and it should even cover most of the extra daytime minutes I might use on my cell phone.

Usage Based Billing (and again with the UBB)

adie — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:32:30 +0000

digital Home has posted an article about what they think you can do about Usage Based Billing. They believe that online petitions and blog rants will have little effect. They suggest that you file a complaint with the CRTC, and more importantly that you write to your MP about it (A list of MPs can be found here).

For example my MP is Thierry St-Cyr for the Constituency of Jean-Le Ber.

If you address your mail (snail mail is better than email) to their Parliament Hill address the postage is free.

Your MP’s Name
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0A6

Also signing the petition definitely won’t hurt so if you haven’t signed OpenMedia.ca‘s “Stop the Meter” petition please consider doing so:

Loading…