Here's some good tools for the folks who are voting strategically:
How did your neighbourhood vote in 2008? - an overlay of 2008 election results not just by riding, but by polling station on a google map. Interesting to find out how your neighbourhood leans politically.
Project Democracy - It's all well and good to vote strategically based on the 2008 results, but what if the current polls mean that another candidate would be better to vote for? This site's your answer. Seat projections in every riding based on the available polls and the suggestion for which progressive candidate you should vote for in order to stop the Cons.
Happy voting everyone.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Go Jack, Vote for Nettie
I'm not an official member of any party, but all I can say is, Go Jack Go!
Also, if you're from the Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar riding, please consider voting for Nettie Wiebe. She is an amazing, intelligent woman and she lost in 2008 by less than 200 votes. So hey all you Green and Liberal voters, consider backing someone who can actually challenge the Cons. Remember your ABC's boys and girls.
Also, if you're from the Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar riding, please consider voting for Nettie Wiebe. She is an amazing, intelligent woman and she lost in 2008 by less than 200 votes. So hey all you Green and Liberal voters, consider backing someone who can actually challenge the Cons. Remember your ABC's boys and girls.
Stephen Harper Hates Women
Over the past couple of weeks I've been looking south of the border and shaking my head at those idiotic Republicans and their plan to cut funding to planned parenthood, because apparently all they do is abortions! All the time!! And I wondered how the American public could let them get away with the lying and the bullshit.
But it's happening here too. Brad Trost, the Conservative twit from Saskatoon-Humboldt let slip that the Cons are cutting funding to Planned Parenthood here in Canada. This was followed by fierce denials from the Cons, but I wonder how Brad got that idea? Maybe because the Harper Conservatives have shown their contempt for women's issues time and time again. I was surprised they would think of going this far, but I really shouldn't be anymore. The difference between the Conservatives up here and the Republicans down south is becoming less discernible by the minute.
So for anyone who thinks the Republicans/Teabaggers are crazy loons and then turns around and votes Conservative up here, I just want to know, how do you deal with the cognitive dissonance? Your brain must be doing some incredibly acrobatic self-justification in order for you to be able to sleep at night.
You know what else is a great pick-up line? "I would never vote for that twat Stephen Harper or any of his fellow bible-thumping, homophobic, misogynistic brethren." That's music to my ears.
But it's happening here too. Brad Trost, the Conservative twit from Saskatoon-Humboldt let slip that the Cons are cutting funding to Planned Parenthood here in Canada. This was followed by fierce denials from the Cons, but I wonder how Brad got that idea? Maybe because the Harper Conservatives have shown their contempt for women's issues time and time again. I was surprised they would think of going this far, but I really shouldn't be anymore. The difference between the Conservatives up here and the Republicans down south is becoming less discernible by the minute.
So for anyone who thinks the Republicans/Teabaggers are crazy loons and then turns around and votes Conservative up here, I just want to know, how do you deal with the cognitive dissonance? Your brain must be doing some incredibly acrobatic self-justification in order for you to be able to sleep at night.
You know what else is a great pick-up line? "I would never vote for that twat Stephen Harper or any of his fellow bible-thumping, homophobic, misogynistic brethren." That's music to my ears.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Stephen Harper and the Alliance Church
I was recently reminded of the links that Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party have with religious fundamentalism. Let me tell you a little story about the Alliance Church, the Church that Stephen Harper has belonged to for years.
I grew up in a very small town. There were only four churches: the Catholic, the Anglican, the United, and the Alliance. My family was first Anglican (Catholicism light) and then United (quite possibly one of the easiest going churches in Canada). When I was confirmed, our minister was a bubbly divorcee who was also a certified yoga instructor. Church was less about praying and more about meditating.
One of my very best friends belonged to the Alliance Church in town. When I was in Gr. 7, I started attending the church's youth group with her. It was a lot of fun. We did scavenger hunts, bowling nights, movie nights. The group was run by Pastor Jeff, who everyone called PJ, and he was a fun, easygoing guy. I was having a great time. Until one night, when PJ sat us all down before the evening's activities to have a discussion. And the discussion was about why gay people are bad. PJ said that we don't hate the people, we just hate the behaviour. And I looked around at everyone in the room, and saw all the nodding heads, and I realized that there was something very fundamentally different between me and the people in this room. I didn't say anything since I was shy and not really sure how to articulate my beliefs at that age anyway, but I knew I didn't agree with what they were saying. I went a few more times after that night, but then my friend moved away and I stopped going. And I never really felt 100% comfortable around those people after that.
My sister also had an Alliance Church friend. And on New Year's Eve, 1999, she declined to come to our New Year's Eve Party. Her family wanted her with them, just in case God decided to rapture them up to heaven on the Eve of the Millennium. That was when I realized that the people in this church were not just bigoted, but actually kind of nutty.
And the head of our government believes in this stuff. I don't want someone who thinks that the earth is only 6,000 years old in charge. I don't want someone who thinks gay people are evil in charge. I don't want someone who believes that hey, it doesn't matter what we do to the environment now, because we're all (at least the people who matter) going to be raptured up to heaven soon anyway. Harper's government is full of people who think this way. If you believe that government policy should be based on research and evidence, and not religious doctrine, then do not vote for these people.
I grew up in a very small town. There were only four churches: the Catholic, the Anglican, the United, and the Alliance. My family was first Anglican (Catholicism light) and then United (quite possibly one of the easiest going churches in Canada). When I was confirmed, our minister was a bubbly divorcee who was also a certified yoga instructor. Church was less about praying and more about meditating.
One of my very best friends belonged to the Alliance Church in town. When I was in Gr. 7, I started attending the church's youth group with her. It was a lot of fun. We did scavenger hunts, bowling nights, movie nights. The group was run by Pastor Jeff, who everyone called PJ, and he was a fun, easygoing guy. I was having a great time. Until one night, when PJ sat us all down before the evening's activities to have a discussion. And the discussion was about why gay people are bad. PJ said that we don't hate the people, we just hate the behaviour. And I looked around at everyone in the room, and saw all the nodding heads, and I realized that there was something very fundamentally different between me and the people in this room. I didn't say anything since I was shy and not really sure how to articulate my beliefs at that age anyway, but I knew I didn't agree with what they were saying. I went a few more times after that night, but then my friend moved away and I stopped going. And I never really felt 100% comfortable around those people after that.
My sister also had an Alliance Church friend. And on New Year's Eve, 1999, she declined to come to our New Year's Eve Party. Her family wanted her with them, just in case God decided to rapture them up to heaven on the Eve of the Millennium. That was when I realized that the people in this church were not just bigoted, but actually kind of nutty.
And the head of our government believes in this stuff. I don't want someone who thinks that the earth is only 6,000 years old in charge. I don't want someone who thinks gay people are evil in charge. I don't want someone who believes that hey, it doesn't matter what we do to the environment now, because we're all (at least the people who matter) going to be raptured up to heaven soon anyway. Harper's government is full of people who think this way. If you believe that government policy should be based on research and evidence, and not religious doctrine, then do not vote for these people.
Friday, April 08, 2011
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