2009
Oh, how original my title is. Yes, it’s 2009. I’m still not sure where 2008 went…
Over the holiday I bought myself a new toy - an Acer Aspire One
Acer Aspire One
I wanted something I could bring on my transit rides to and from work - this will work fine - it has about a 2.5hr battery life, and will do everything I need it to… I bought the linux-based model, and have proceeded to install all the things I want to. There’s a great user community already for these machines. My PC at home is for gaming, and this is for little things when travelling.
I’m also going to be starting a new project. I will follow with details in a bit. The lack of electioneering left a void, and I think I’ve found a way to fulfill it. Speaking of electioneering, I met someone else today who voted for me. :)
Still not sure what I’m doing with the weblog. Keep checking back every week or so…
Nearly the end of 2008
Ten years ago, I was in my grade eleven year, where I decided to take both my Social Studies 20 and 30 class to get them over with, since it was my most hated subject… Two months ago, I ran as an independent candidate, earning nearly 1,800 votes, and for about 12 hours, my name appeared on the front page of cbc.ca. Nationally.
2008 was a very eventful (albeit very stressful) year. There were 3 times where an election was possible, and so I went stir-crazy being ready for it, over and over again. Never mind the fact that Robyn and I sold our condo and moved into a new house (a week before the election call, no less).
2008 was also the most change I saw in myself over such a short period of time (or, at least since crossing the country from small-city Alberta to Southwestern Ontario for University). I’m a relatively emotionless person, choosing logic and critical thinking to be my beacons, and yet this last year saw a lot more emotion than I’m used to, which only clouded my thinking at times (leading me to ask a good friend of mine, “how do you deal with these things?”). To be quite frank, I still have no bloody clue what I’m doing with my political life - I didn’t even want to look at the campaign for a good month and half after it ended, and I paid only minimal attention to the so-called crisis in Ottawa. I know it continues to pique my interest to a degree, and I do believe I’m meant to be in the political world in some fashion. It just hasn’t shown itself to me, yet.
This year, after the election, I was able to return to a number of things that I had simply not done in recent years. I joined a quartet and sang (for money) for a few weekends. I picked up my guitar and started playing again. Both of these things I really had not done to any detail since high school (I have sung and played in the last few years, but never with any seriousness, until now).
So what does the ‘new year’ bring? Talk in Ottawa is of the possibility of another election. I received an invitation this morning about a conference being held in Toronto in mid-January about independent candidates (I will not be attending, but I can forward on info to anyone who’s interested).
Robyn and I have a number of house projects over the next year, which should keep us out of trouble. My life at work got busy when two of my friends went on maternity, and I should be nice and swamped there for the better part of the year as well.
The weblog, as it stands, hasn’t been updated much. I’ll stand by it for another month or so, and we’ll see if it warrants a shutdown, or if I’m back in action by then. Until then, happy holidays, merry Christmas, happy new year, and all the such.
Numbers
EC released their poll-by-polls today, and you can bet I was all over that like a mathematician on statistics… hmm, bad example. Ok. Like a former political candidate on poll results. No, wait. Crap. I seem to have lost the ability to do metaphors…
I’ve obviously got some data entry to do now, some analysis using my custom-made program, and you know, some pining. Nonetheless, here’s some nice quick, interesting stats on my Rookie Season as a candidate in a federal election…
In 7 out of around 300 polls, I happened to sit in third place, behind Anders and Pollock (Conservative and Liberal). In another 55 of those polls, I was in 4th, doing better than, or tied with, either Weeks (Green) or Phelps-Bondaroff (NDP), and still behind the other two.
I did well in the community of Strathcona, where three of the polls had me at 7%, 9%, and 8.7%. One poll south of there, in Christie Park, I also pulled off an 8.8%. In fact, I cleared 5% in 27 normal polls, and 4 of the 19 advance polls.
In one poll, where I had 8.3% of the vote, I was 4 votes off of being second to Anders.
As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of analysis to do. How do I do where I doorknocked? How did the areas that didn’t get flyers respond? What was voter percent in areas in proximity of houses with signs (boulevards don’t vote, remember)? And many, many more metrics to calculate. This should actually keep me busy for some time…
The ghosts of King-Byng
It’s not the same, and yet, the precedents set down during one of Canada’s most famous political scuffles will likely affect the decisions the Governor General has to make next week.
Despite the fact that the government may well be defeated, the likelihood of an election seems to be tapering due to a ‘uniting of the Left’.
Even if an election were to be called, I made the private decision not to run. I could probably give you a large list of reasons why, but it basically comes down to this: I’m watching some of the best political chess plays in Canadian history, and it doesn’t excite me the same way it did pre-40th Parliament. Even the evening where I realized I might have to make a decision about running, it didn’t keep me up pacing in my basement for hours on end. Granted, it wasn’t a moot point either, but normally it would have pervaded my thoughts until it was resolved - and yet, the next morning, I still had no decision, nor was I consumed by it.
So I watch the events in the House of Commons unfold, but I watch at a distance. My time is not yet here - and while politics continues to be my world, it has taken a reduced role. I’m not going away - I’m just not a candidate in the 41st General Election (or at least I’m not planning to be yet. Things change).
So there’s my complete non-commital look at how I have reduced by not eliminated my current interest in politics. Nonetheless, I encourage you all to take interest in what is happening in the House in the coming weeks. The ghosts of Commons Past are whispering.
Addendum: It occurs to me upon re-reading my post that if you don’t follow politics you might have been lost in exactly what has been transpiring on the Hill. Jason over at gauntlet.ca has a great point-form recap of “WTF” is going on over there in Ottawa