X Marks the Spot

Things appear to have ground to a typical summer halt.

So, we're going to take a trip around the world to see what other elections are going on.

THAILAND
The Bangkok Post is reporting that Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont plans to hold an election this year.

He has been the interim prime minister of Thailand since a coup last year.

JAPAN
The Japanese people will elect members to the House of Councillors, the Japanese upper house, on July 29.

Members serve six year terms in the HofC, but elections fall every three years, with half of them up for re-election each time.

They use a proportional representation model, with most of the members coming from ridings and the rest coming from lists made by the parties, ensuring equal representation. Very much like the proposed MMP model we'll have a referendum on in October.

ARGENTINA
The Telegraph is reporting that Nestor Kirchner, the president of Argentina, will not run for re-election in October, even though he is allowed to serve another term.

Instead, his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, will run.

According to the Telegraph article, "analysts have suggested that Mr Kirchner's move is to allow him to return to power for a further term in 2011. Under Argentine law, a president must stand down after two consecutive terms."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
It's entirely possible Canada's next federal election will precede the next U.S. election on November 4, 2008, but right now, no one actually has a clue.

The Democrats currently have eight people running to represent the party as presidential candidates. The Republicans have 21 people who have filed their intentions with the Federal Elections Commission. Four others have exploratory committees trying to figure out if there would be any reason to run.

In other words, don't bother following it until that field gets narrowed down a bit.

The Democrats will officially crown their presidential and vice-presidential candidates at their convention between August 25 and 28, 2008. Their first vote in the long road to the final convention is expected to take place on January 14, 2008.

The Republicans will choose their hopefuls at their convention between September 1 and September 4, 2008. The Republicans will also hold their first vote on January 14.

It's a very confusing system, but we'll look at it in more depth in the new year.

CANADA
The House of Commons is out for the summer. Even when they get back, it doesn't look like an election call will be coming.

The government has passed the Fixed Election Dates Bill, and, according to that, the next election will be October 19, 2009. Unless, of course, the government loses the confidence of the house.

That doesn't appear likely to happen since it would need to be in the interest of the other parties.

As Conservative MP Peter Van Loan told Simcoe.com last month, "What we’ve found so far is that in one month it may look good for the Bloc Quebecois and not so good for the Liberals and the NDP. The next month, the Liberals are on a roll, but the NDP’s in trouble, so they don’t want an election. It’s probably not going to happen unless we’re doing very badly in the polls, and we’re not."

Dalton has a new website on the Intertubes.

Dalton.ca. The Premier. Unplugged.

It opens with his scribbly signature, which appears to read Carlton McJavit.

When you go inside, it's his signature again. I'm not sure what the prominence of his signature implies. The page then fades to the menu, and an explanation.

"This site is simple. Dalton, in his own words."

The usage of his first name so casually is interesting. You may remember Bob Rae's Liberal leadership website, with the tagline, "Call me Bob."

Dalton's site isn't quite so patronizing, though the creator of the site does love incomplete sentences.

"Candid. Personal. Unplugged. It's all here. In black and white."

The actual content is fascinating, and the site, in general, is pretty and well-executed.

The menu gives you options on what videos you want to watch.

There's a Family Portrait video, in which his wife Terri and his brother David talk while onscreen Wonder Years-type footage from his youth plays.

"To know Dalton is, for example, to know discipline," his brother says.

He adds: "(Dalton) is an ordinary guy with a big job who is trying to make decisions everyday with these ordinary people in mind."

The video, of course, stresses that Dalton, himself, is an ordinary guy.

In fact, the video ends with Terri saying, "He's just an ordinary guy."

Another section: My Vision.

It's Dalton sitting on a stool, sans jacket and with his sleeves rolled up, giving a verbal family tree and proving that even if you come from a poor situation, you can work your way up. His grandparents were poorly educated and didn't have much money. With several mid-sentence pauses that Dalton loves (...the power (long pause) of opportunity), he tells us that in Ontario, it shouldn't matter where you start, with hard work you should be able to get where you want to be.

In the Black and White section, Dalton has a debate with a black screen that, using white letters, accuses him repeatedly of breaking promises.

You can click on different topics you want to see the screen accuse Dalton of not doing enough about. Then Dalton soothingly reassures the black screen that work is being done, targets will be met, and sometimes things are harder than one thinks and inherited deficits sometimes larger than they appear.

This is a strange strategy, since it reminds many voters of broken promises they may have forgotten. I assume the idea is that voters will be bashed over the head with these broken promises by the Tories for a couple of months, so best to have the official response available online at all times.

Finally, there are two Unplugged sections on the website, in which Dalton stands on his back porch and answers questions about the best parts and most difficult parts of being Premier, and about how he stays "normal." Then he sits on the steps of his house with his wife and answers questions about who made the first move. Which makes one queasy thinking about.

Check out the site. It's probably a good reference in the coming months so you can decide who to vote for on Oct. 10.

Good news for journalists across Canada today as another one of our breed was exalted to the prestigious and largely unknown office of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, making him the Queen's representative in province.

As far as I know, David Onley is the first journalist made Lieutenant Governor, but you will remember that Governor-General Michaelle Jean, the Queen's rep in Canada, is a former journalist, and that her predecessor Adrienne Clarkson was also a journalist, as was her predecessor Romeo LeBlanc.

All of this fills journalists with dreams of extravagant working vacations and copious gardening funds.

The true north, our anthem says, is strong and free.

In fact, it's neither, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that it will be a little bit stronger once it has six to eight Arctic patrol vessels and a deepwater refueling port.

The ships will cost in the region of $3 billion.

The Star reported that the region is becoming more accessible because of global warming, and the area, presumably the Northwest Passage, "may be readily navigable by 2015."

The U.S. have sent ships through there in the past, saying it's an international waterway. Harper wants to be clear that it's not.

Protecting our sovereignty in the north is important for several reasons, though protecting our right to natural resources in the region could be the most important.

It's expected that 25 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves are in the area. That's big money.

In defending his decision to defend the Arctic, Harper said, "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it."

I agree with him.

If we want to keep something, we must use it.

Which brings me to Hans Island (see photo of said Island above), a 1 sq. km. rock between Ellesmere Island and Greenland. The government of Denmark thinks its their rock, but we know it's our rock.

In 1984, Tom Hoyem, then-minister of Greenland (which is a Danish colony), took a helicopter trip to Hans Island, planted a bottle of cognac and erected the flag of Denmark.

In 2005, Bill Graham, then-Defence Minister here in Canada, erected a Canadian flag on the barren, useless rock that is surrounded by potentially useful water (and resources below that water).

Despite all the aggressive flag-erecting, the status of Hans Island is still in limbo.

Following Harper's logic, that if "we either use it or lose it," I am suggesting to the Prime Minister's Office that they build a house on the island, set up some Internet service, stock the house full of supplies for a year-long stay, and appoint me the journalist laureate of Hans Island.

For the cost of just $100,000, I will happily live on the island, use the island, and swing my hockey stick recklessly if the Danish try to invade the island.

I will even make an effort to dig up that bottle of cognac Hoyem buried there and dispose of its contents.

As if this city doesn't have enough Liberals, more are coming to town this month.

First on July 19, the "Liberal Dream Team" will be in town for a massive fundraiser at the Four Points Sheraton.

For just $250 ($62.50 after the tax credit), you can drink a cocktail for three hours in the same room as all the Liberal leadership losers at once.

Bob Rae will be there. Gerard Kennedy will be there. Even Maurizio Bevilacqua will be there (for a $1,000 donation to his leadership debt, he'll even teach you how to pronounce his last name).

While at the cocktail reception, the email invitation promises, you'll be able to learn from "these great Liberals...their plans for our country and how we can defeat Stephen Harper in the next election."

The plans, a source close to the event has told me, include exposing Harper's hair as an alien life form that is bent on destroying the maple syrup industry and bringing back that glowing trail that follows hockey pucks on TV so Americans can keep track of the game.

Two days later, on July 21, Mississauga-Brampton South MP Navdeep Bains is holding a barbecue at the Macedonia Picnic Grounds on Derry Rd.

This one doesn't cost money, though another confidential source has told me Bains will still teach you the proper way to pronounce Bevilacqua's name for a price.

Also, Liberal leader Stephane Dion is expected at Bains's BBQ.

The following weekend, Mississauga-Erindale MP Omar Alghabra and Mississauga Centre MPP Harinder Takhar are going to be holding a barbecue at Huron Park on Paisley Blvd. They're going to have Ken Dryden on hand for the event, and for a modest donation to his leadership debt he'll teach you how to lean on a goalie stick in such a way that it makes it appear you're unfazed by a losing score.

As far as I know, those are all the barbecues going on in the near future, though I'm sure more will pop up.

There are 86 days until the provincial election on October 10.

Today I wrote a rather lengthy piece about the Green Party's prospects in Mississauga. One assumes, by looking at their history in Mississauga and Ontario, that their prospects are blacker than bleak.

In 1990, the first year the Green Party had candidates running in Mississauga, the two candidates didn't make much of a dent.

Ken Moores received 2.8 per cent of the vote in Mississauga North.

In Mississauga South, Scott McWhinnie got four per cent of the vote.

Four per cent is the Green Party's best ever showing in the city.

Last election, in 2003, the best the Party did was in Bramlea-Gore-Malton-Springdale, where candidate Ernst Braendli got 2.8 per cent of the vote.

Even catching up to the NDP, which received double-digit support in only one riding last election, will be a challenge for the Greens.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science prof at the University of Toronto, put the Green Party's problem best: "Their support is spread like butter on bread."

It is highly unlikely the Green Party will win a seat in Mississauga, or even in Ontario, but it's impossible to say they haven't made an impact on politics across the country.

I remember interviewing then-federal Green leader Jim Harris when I was covering the 2004 federal election. He said even if the Green Party doesn't win any seats, if other parties steal their ideas, the whole thing would be worthwhile.

The main parties have stolen their ideas, and the mission of the Green Party is worthwhile, but it's hard to imagine them getting a foothold any time soon.

Unless, of course, more than 60 per cent of us vote in favour of a new electoral system on the referendum, which will be the same day as the election.

Ontario Finance Mininster Greg Sorbara was in town yesterday, and he took some time to call yours truly (originally he was to stop by the office, but that ended up not fitting his schedule).

He was here to attend a campaign fundraiser for Mississauga South Liberal candidate Charles Sousa, who's running against incumbent and former Liberal Tim Peterson, who is, as you remember, running as a Progressive Conservative this time around.

I spent most of my time asking Sorbara about education funding, because it's what I know most about, but I also asked him about the referendum on electoral reform that we'll all be taking part in on Election Day (Oct. 10).

After saying he was "certainly interested in a fulsome debate and getting the opinion of Ontarians," he said that, on a personal level, he prefers the the current first-past-the-post system.

He has four main worries about the proposed Mixed-member Proportional system.

First, because 39 of the MPPs (30 per cent of them) would be elected from lists created by the political parties, and because they wouldn't represent specific ridings, he fears there would be "two categories and two classes of members."

Second, he worries about the size of the legislature. There are currently 103 members. After the October election there will be 107 seats.

If the proposed MMP system is put in place, there will be 129 members, 22 more than there will be after October.

"The proposed system would create a larger parliament and at this stage I don't think a larger parliament would help Ontarians," said Sorbara.

As an MPP who started his career at Queen's Park in 1985, Sorbara knows that there were, in the 1990s, 130 seats in the Legislature. It took Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris to cut that back to 103 in 1999.

By no means does that prove Sorbara's wrong, though I do believe he is.

He is right that more MPPs for the sake of more MPPs would in no way help Ontarians. But if there are more MPPs because that's what is required to make the votes of all Ontarians count, and to make the Legislature reflect the true desires of the voters, then I think it would help Ontarians. It would help them regain confidence in the system. It would help them convince themselves that voting is worthwhile.

Sorbara's main worry regarding the size of the Legislature is money.

"I'm concerned with even modest expenditures where they're not necessary," he said.

Fair enough, but, again, if money's spent to improve democracy in our province, it is worthwhile.

He's also worried about the MMP system creating perpetual minority governments.

It is a valid concern, and one I share with Sorbara, but I feel that if everyone knew there would be perpetual minority governments, and there surely would be under the MMP system, the MPPs would simply have to be mature enough to sit through the full session.

Finally, Sorbara's worried about the proliferation of small parties in the Legislature.

The Green Party might get a seat. The anti-abortionist, anti-gay marriage, pro-Christian Family Coalition Party could take a seat. The Marxist-Leninists could rally their troops and get a seat. Who knows what other parties would spring up and get a seat.

I think this argument is simple fear-mongering.

Under the MMP system, to get a seat in the Legislature, a party must have three per cent of the popular vote.

It is not easy to get three per cent of the popular vote.

In the last election, with significant media coverage and an established party infrastructure that's been in place since 1990, the Green Party only received 2.8 per cent of the popular vote.

The next closest party, the Family Coalition Party, received just 0.8 per cent of the vote.

Sorbara's argument is that if you have a system that encourages small parties, and discourages strategic voting, you will have a proliferation of small parties.

The argument holds water. If people who wanted to vote for the Green Party could do so (instead of voting for the party they consider the lesser of two evils), the Green Party would surely break the three per cent barrier. (In fact, they'll likely break it this election anyway).

But could other parties get that much support, which equals roughly 140,000 votes?

I'm sure some could, but, if that's the case, do they not deserve a seat if 140,000 voters agree with their policies?

There's also the possibility, and Sorbara is worried about this too, that the main parties will split into smaller parties. The centre-left will become one Liberal Party and the centre right another Liberal Party. The right wing Progressive Conservatives could become a Reform-Alliance type party.

I think this is also fear-mongering, and an underestimation of the power of branding.

Liberal leader Stephane Dion stopped by Mississauga, and after his roundtable discussion at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters offices in Malton, he gave me ten minutes in his hotel room to ask him some questions.

If you've ever spoken to a politician in person, you know that 10 minutes isn't a lot of time. They ramble, they go on tangents that conveniently lead to their message, and they throw in jabs at their rivals. That happens with nearly every question you ask a politician. It's infuriating. So, in ten minutes, I asked three questions before the communications manager, waving crazily in my peripheral vision, cut me off.

Regardless, it was an experience, even if the softball question I threw to Dion about his local MPs couldn't be boiled down to an easily quotable 10 words or so.

As for Dion, he seems like a decent guy, but lacks the presence most leaders seem to naturally possess. Bob Rae possesses it, as does Michael Ignatieff. Gerard Kennedy, when I met him, did not. Dion comes across as a normal guy, but not a normal guy in the Stephen Harper normal guy way. Harper's like the guy who sits beside you at the bar to watch the hockey game and can recount, play by play, Rick Vaive's best-ever single-game performance as a Leaf. Dion's the guy who sits beside you at a lecture at the ROM who has some esoteric knowledge about Ghengis Khan and the possible reasons for his mysterious death in 1227.

Both are normal guys. They're not larger than life. They're just life size. In fact, Dion was noticeably small. He's roughly the same height as I am (5'11"), but he has a very thin build. Can an effective leader be life size? Why do I expect that party leaders should be taller than me?

How much does that matter?

Anyway, Dion was kind. He was welcoming. His English seemed worse in real life than it does on television (in his defence, my French is virtually non-existent), but he set aside some time for us, so we're grateful.

It's Friday afternoon. Less than one hour until the weekend, which will be spent at a friend's cottage on Lake Wahwashkesh in the Parry Sound area. I won't actually be fishing, because fishing is stupid, but I will be relaxing, and not working, and the phrase "gone fishin'" creates the mood perfectly.

While there, I promise to throw a baseball around, swim, play board games, drink beer, and generally have a merry time.

Will be back blogging Tuesday night.

Until then, some links:

What's with David Chernushenko?

Toronto Police officers reportedly pepper sprayed and detained Chilean U-20 World Cup soccer players. It seems like excessive force. I went to the Canada-Chile game earlier this month, and I'm pretty sure if the officers just ran in the general vicinity of the players, they likely would have collapsed to the ground, and at least one would've had to be taken off on a stretcher.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Haiti, which is, the Vancouver Sun tells me, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.

Warren Kinsella wrote in his National Post column this week about the duelling memoirs coming out this fall: one from Mulroney, one from Chretien. Fortunately, they come out a month apart, so there's time to read Mulroney (released Sept. 10) and have time to digest, before reading Chretien (Oct. 16).

And finally, an essay by George Orwell, written in 1946: Politics and the English Language.

A very smart man whose name I can't remember once said every who speaks or writes English should be forced to read this essay once a year. For me, today is that time of year.

Here's my favourite part: "Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

I didn't write today's editorial in The Mississauga News about Tory's plan to fund faith-based education, but I do support it.

The next step, of course, is a solution.

If not funding for faith-based education, then what?

We already fund Catholic education in Ontario. Do we continue with that, or do we find a way to opt out?

It is fairly complicated, since funding Catholic education is mandated in the British North America Act, a.k.a. the Constitution. To get rid of Catholic education, the Constitution would need to be amended. That's not necessarily an easy feat.

On the other hand, how do we continue to justify the state funding religious education for one group but not another?

I am working on an article about the state of faith-based education, based around Tory's promise, and will write more about it later.

Andrew Potter, a philosophy professor and co-author of Rebel Sell (buy it!), has written something that will make us all feel better about ourselves.

Potter has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. He writes for, among other publications, Macleans. He is super bright, but he hasn't read Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or all of Plato’s Republic.

And he wrote the following in his blog today: "The dirty but not-so-secret fact of academic life is that the great majority of us...are bluffers. Not always, but often enough."

That's good news for those of us who don't have a PhD. All we need to learn is how to fake it as well as academics. And maybe read the Coles Notes versions of the books we're supposed to read.

Hans Island sits between Canada's Ellesmere Island and Greenland, which is owned by Denmark.

We have been fighting with Denmark for ages about who actually owns the small rock.

It has always appeared to be in our territory.

No longer.

The Star reported this morning that new mapping technology has actually found that the line splitting Canadian and Danish territory runs down the middle of Hans Island.

In other words, half of it is ours and half of it is theirs.

The fight for the island is expected to continue, but I don't think it has to.

Why can't we be Canadian about it? Let them have their half and we'll take our half. We'll draw a line down the middle and keep to our own sides. It's no different really than sharing North America with the U.S. There's a piece of land, we'll split it up.

I just hope this doesn't hurt my bid to become the first-ever Journalist Laureate of Hans Island.

Here's a tip for the Liberal Party of Canada: make the legalization of pot part of your next platform.

A lot of people smoke it, and keeping it illegal helps organized crime.

If you try to go to a party populated with people under 30, pot is there. In fact, a number of people in their 40s and 50s smoke it these days, too. These are the people who have been smoking it since the 1960s. They haven't outgrown pot yet.

You can't walk through a park or down a major street in Toronto without smelling it. It's everywhere, and it's not hurting the smokers any more than booze is - in fact, it's probably hurting them considerably less.

Chretien and Martin both proposed to decriminalize marijuana, but that was the stupidest policy ever. The bill would have allowed people to get caught smoking pot and not have a criminal record. They would simply pay a ticket, as we do when we park illegally. Such a move may have slightly increased the use of marijuana. That would lead to one thing: increased crime. The people who grow the plants and sell the drugs are breaking the law. We're often told by politicians these people are members of organized crime groups.

Decriminalizing the drug will help those organized crime groups.

There appear to be two ways to solve the pot problem.

1. Get everyone to stop smoking pot.

2. Get members of organized crime groups to stop growing and selling pot.

The first solution is probably unachievable.

The second, on the other hand, could be achieved. Probably not completely, but mostly.

You legalize pot, then you regulate it and tax it.

You let the provinces deal with the rest. In Ontario, the LCBO could be the only place to sell it. In Quebec, where you can buy beer at the gas station, maybe they'd have looser rules. Make it illegal to sell it to people under 19, and illegal for people under 19 to smoke it. Make it illegal to smoke it while driving, and to drive while under its influence. Make it, in other words, exactly like alcohol, since it is, essentially, exactly like alcohol.

If it's easily purchased, and provided the product is as good and of a comparable price, people will let go of their traditional dealers and simply hit up the LCBO or convenience store. Of course, the problem will never be entirely solved, just as liquor and cigarettes are smuggled and sold illegally, but it will make an enormous dent in that problem, and it'll make a lot of people happy.

If the Liberals want to differentiate themselves as the smarter, groovier, more people-friendly party than the Conservative Party, this is something they'll need to seriously consider.

Dion has already gone after the artists, promising to restore funding Harper cut to promote Canadian art in other countries, so why not become a true, progressive alternative, with real, progressive ideas?

They don't return phone calls!

For three previous stories in the past year or so, I have called NDP Education Critic Rosario Marchese, hoping that he would share his thoughts about education policy.

He didn't once return a phone call.

Early today, I called the NDP headquarters and told them I wanted to speak to somebody about the party's take on John Tory's plan to fund faith-based schools.

The media people at the HQ told me they would find someone to speak to the issue.

Six hours later: nothing.

How does the NDP expect people to become comfortable with their policies if they never return phone calls to reporters. It would have been nice to have a third viewpoint. It would have been nice to have thoughts from people who have studied education policy but who are not from the Liberals or Progressive Conservatives.

Surely the media people at NDP HQ know how newspapers work. They must know we have deadlines. One would think if they could not track down Marchese, they would find someone who would be willing to speak to me. But they'd rather not speak to The Mississauga News.

It got me thinking about the last time I read anything about the Ontario NDP in the newspaper. I can't remember the last time. I don't think anyone even calls them anymore for comment on important issues. And why would anyone? The NDP is making themselves irrelevant, and not returning calls is adding to that.

It wouldn't be particularly surprising if they simply didn't release a platform this election, and tried to get a couple of more seats in the Legislature by picking up protest votes.

I can picture their new slogan now: "Ontario's NDP: None of the Above."

You know the worst part about the NDP, specifically Rosario Marchese, never returning my phone calls? Marchese is my MPP in Trinity-Spadina!

Guess who's not getting my vote this election.

(UPDATE: I have called back NDP HQ and the media guy has said he'll remind Marchese that I want to speak to him. We'll see how long a reply will take.)

(UPDATE #2: It's 5:50 p.m. Time to go home. Still no call.)

(UPDATE #3: It's 3 p.m. Tuesday. Just started my night shift. No messages from the NDP, 34 hours after asking for comment.)

He called. Finally, he called.

34.5 hours after I tried to first get a hold of Rosario Marchese, education critic for the NDP, he called.

He was apologetic, had a good, plausible excuse, and he gave me his cell phone number so I'll no longer need to go through a middle man to find him.

Marchese is back in my good - well, indifferent - books.