The way around this, of course,...

(h/t Haitham Kharrat)...

I am concerned right now that the YFS election system has been undemocratic. There have been complaints of not getting all the ballots, ballot boxes not being properly secured and massive demerit points awarded for handing out Excalibur. All voters should be extremely concerned about this issue.

A rally was held at 10:30 today to voice these concerns. Here are some key quotes:

"[I'm] not a campaigner [and I] wasn't really involved other than voting. I am not happy with how things went down. I feel that handing out newspapers is not a reason to disqualify people. I feel this is common sense...Contaminating the voting process by putting the wrong type of tape is undemocratic. There are a lot of issues that should be addressed...

Well, at least the Eurasian section of the world. China is negotiating with the rest of Europe for a deal that would allow connections between Asia and Europe. Great. If this happens, it will signify a new era of massive building of rail. The benefits are just too large to ignore anymore. With an ever-growing network in Europe, Asia, and now the US it can only be so long until Canada plays catch-up.

Railway passengers will be able to travel from King's Cross to Beijing in just two days on a journey that would be almost as fast as by airplane under ambitious new plans from the Chinese.

China is in negotiations to build a high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains capable of running at more than 321 kph within the next 10 years.

I will get to my thoughts on the Ontario Throne Speech later this evening (most likely, maybe tomorrow) once I've reread it, but while it's on my mind I simply needed to write this blog. For the first time in my life while watching a Speech from the Throne I noticed a little background noise. What was this noise? Heckling Heckling the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The Honourable David Onley. This is just simply inappropriate. And whether this was Tim Hudak or other members of his party doesn't matter to me, as in my opinion this type of behaviour comes down to the leader, as they should be...

I will be blogging at the rally with up to the minute feedback on what is happening. Please stay tuned!

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty wants to sell off some of the Crown assets. These assets could include the CBC and Via Rail. It's obvious why the Conservatives would want privatize CBC. It's run by the government and they are against spending. However, the CBC runs a television and radio service with many great shows such as Dragons' Den. CBC news is trusted by many as a corporation that can be trusted. By selling off the CBC, the Tories will be selling off our heritage and a part of Canada. We cannot let this happen.
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AKA Tim Hudak. Obviously I wasn't at the Ontario "Progressive" Conservative AGM this weekend in Ottawa (I feel I may be chased out with torches and pitchforks if I were) but I've read enough about it through various news sources to be sufficiently bitter about it. First though, I will admit their iPhone app is an innovative idea. I haven't had the chance to use it, but the idea certainly does interest me. I will definitely be checking it out, although I assume it will do little more than spew the typical Hudak spin but unfortunately may now do this to a larger and younge...

So we all know that the election process has been undemocratic. We can see that here, here, and here .

And there is a new post on the New York discussion here .

I am going to quote some famous people that I happen to know.

Overheard while walking by a ballot box: "I just realized today that I didn...

No, I do not hate the troops. Neither does the Liberal Party, the NDP, or the Bloc. As a matter of fact, despite what the Harper Conservatives are trying to make you think, this is not really about the troops. This is about our government, their blatant cover up, and their neglecting to take responsibility for the cover up. A little history courtesy of Wikipedia: "On October 6, 2009, the lawyer for [Richard] Colvin (called to testify at a hearing into allegations of Afghan prison torture) said that the Conservative government was trying to keep her client silent. In a letter sent to the Canadian Department of...

A law professor from Ottawa says that the Government is censoring the Afghan detainee documents because the prisoners were intentionally tortured. This person says he has seen the uncensored version of the documents. However, this can't be taken as truth. What needs to be done is the release of the documents in If the allegation is true, such actions would constitute a war crime, said University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, who has been digging deep into the issue and told CBC News he has seen uncensored versions of government documents...

I was very proud to be a part of the team that helped send Bob Chiarelli back to Queen's Park.
Much has been made about the relative closeness of the race, but from my perspective, the end result was basically on track. While I must admit the PC's did a better job of GOTV then I thought they would do, us getting 43% of the vote is basically what we had on track, somewhere in the low to mid 40's. Considering the b...

Canada does not need a "stay-the-course" budget, like Minister Flaherty presented yesterday. The course we are on is a bad one. There are many problems facing Canadians that the Conservatives neglect to address. There are many innovative ideas on the table that the Conservatives refuse to look at. We have a tired and far too ideological government who refuse to accept the realities facing many Canadians, and thus do not attempt to fix the problems facing them. What was this budget missing? It has nothing about money for advancing green technologies, and it has nothing about fixing the major p...

The Sierra Club compares the tar sands to Pandora, the planet in the movie Avatar. It is all too true. We are destroying Earth with thoughts only to the profit we get out of it. There are better ways to reap profit which are environmentally friendly....

So, Steve… it takes you three months to come up with what I can say is one salient new point in your agenda… just one. And you back off of it three days later? Not that I necessarily agreed with it. But now you’re left with legitimately the same tired platform you had before Christmas. No changes whatsoever. Seriously, what do we pay you for? Recalibrate my ass… More like run away scared. Time for a new government folks. ...

So we've had 4 byelections in Ontario over the past few months. 3 previously held by the Liberals, on previously held by the PCs. The PCs, and specifically their spindoctor leader Tim Hudak, has been essentially treating these byelections as referendums on the HST. Now, personally I argue that the HST is a good thing. Check out the link there to understand why, but I wrote on this back in December, and I still vehemently agree with that blog post. But his is not the point of this blog. So, Hudak has treated these byelections as a referendum on the HST, denouncing it as a "tax grab" w...

In December 2010, all passengers flying to or even Parliament never adopted or even discussed the Se...

How do you distract the entire country from the fact that you took the last three months off to "recalibrate" and returned with the same old tired platform? Oh I know make a controversial proposal to make the lyrics of O Canada more gender neutral. Now, I still haven't decided if I'm for or against this, I see both sides, but that isn't even close to the point. Here is the thing what was dominating almost every news show last night? What is the top story in the National Post, Toronto Star, and Ottawa Citizen1 this morning? What story is dominating Canadian morning shows today?...

A study by WHO (world health organization) shows that 1.2 million people have died by car accidents. it is not just the people who drive will be in danger it is also the cyclist, motorcyclist and pedestrian. 50 million other people are injured. Think about that 16.2 million people died more than there are people in all of Canada. the amount of people that died is 1/3 of all of Montreal. WHO even predicts that if people do not do anything traffic accidents will be the Campaigners have said they hoped to cut the...

Yes Today the Harper government proved it truly needed three months off to recalibrate their agenda. The Speech from the Throne today was a complete 180 in direction for the Harper government. It was obviously 100% necessary for them to have taken off so much time to help change this direction. Wait No it wasn't. I think Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff put it best in his response to the Speech from the Throne this evening when he said that this speech was "not a recalibration, [but] a regurgitation." Because this is exactly what it was. Really, what was "new" about this speech? A...

From CTV Edmonton's Youtube account:

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http://communities.canada.com/OTTAWACITIZEN/blogs/greaterottawa/archive/2010/03/01/the-ottawa-west-nepean-candidates-bail-out.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

This is a bit of self promotion here, but I'm pleased to see this video, which shows that Beth Graham is just not up to the task of being MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean. The rest of the article gives some good examples of just how much in shambles the Graham's media campaign is. Here's a direct link to the YouTube video, for those interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

10:45:27 AM: Fee free to ignore this tweet as well. Still testing.

Clearly not Stephen Harper’s Conservative party… So in December Stephen Harper closed down Parliament to “recalibrate” his government’s priorities. I have been quite vocal about being angry about this, but I will try to not get into that too much here – because this isn’t the point. One of the main points cited my MP’s as a clear positive was the ability to spend more time working in their ridings for their constituents. This point was cited to me directly by my MP Lois Brown when we spoke on prorogation earlier this year. Fair, I guess… well, if they actuall...

I was criticized before and during the Olympics about my apparent “lack of faith” in Canadians, because of my theory that Harper’s appearances during the Olympics would lead to him getting a bump in the polls. People kept commenting on my posts or telling me to concentrate on the issues and policies, and to stop “whining” about Harper making appearances at the Olympics. The reality though is that in politics image is just as important as policies. It may sound vein and even somewhat belit...

Here are your rights in Canada… well except for those rights Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney finds detestable. According to the Toronto Star Kenney decided to remove the rights of gays from an immigration guide, not just by accident, but clearly on purpose as they were previously included in a draft of the same guide. Mr. Kenney – yes, you personally may disagree with gay marriage, but this is not up to you. These gay rights have been passed by Parliament, and are law. When making a comprehensive list of rights in our country for immigrants the onus is on you to include all of the...

A video on China's new high speed rail line. The trains are the fastest commercial trains in the world. I'd like to see these come to Canada.

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From what I have heard, the PC's are regretting somewhat booking the AGM to be in Ottawa this coming weekend, on the heels of a likely PC defeat in the swing riding of Ottawa West-Nepean. Beth Graham's campaign has been a policy free zone (her newest trick to try and distract voters from her lack of actual policy and platform has been to add "Toronto" in front of "Liberal" whenever possible, as heated as the Leafs-Sens rivalry is, I doubt Toronto-bashing can take the place of actual deliverable policies and platforms in the minds of the voters) and her local campaign has been lacking. Her "rally" on last weekend drew only 40 or so people, mostly bored staffers, and they only sent a single canvassing team out after, while the Chiarelli campaign hit 60+ polls last Saturday.

I aske...

Parliament is going to return on Wednesday with a throne speech, and on Thursday Jim Flarety puts down a budget that will later be voted on. The moral question is now: should the Liberals try to take down the goverment because they have prorogued Parliament so long and are irresponsible? Or should they not try to bring down goverment and attempt to stop an election because parliment has been out so long that can we afford to lose more time on a election. Now, although many of you believe that we should take down Harper it would send a bad message saying that we do not support proroguing parliment and stop MPs from working for a month and then stop MPs working for a month to do an election. Although I beleieve an election is a better use of a...

So the Olympics are over and I already feel like I'm entering withdrawal. Pretty much watching just the Olympics over the last 17 days puts you in a bit of a state of shock once it is all over. It was great to be able to put on the TV at any point in the day and have great entertainment. I loved it, and I already miss it. Surprisingly, one of the things I loved the most actually came out of the CTV coverage I was often critical of. This was the Olympic Morning coverage on CTV hosted by Jay Onrait and Bev Thomson, and had many other Canadian TV personalities involved as well. Simply put, this show was g...