2025, A Year In Review
The 2020s keep on burning like a bad dumpster fire. It’s hard to find the highs when we saw the disturbing rise of fascism in the former home of democracy, authoritarianism rising in Alberta (with several uses of …
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Politics
47 posts tagged with this topic.
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
In a rare moment, I was talking with Duane face-to-face. We chat all the time over Signal, but actual person-to-person conversation is just so much better, when you can arrange it. Anyway, we were doing what we normally …
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World Leaders Must Remember
Today, more than perhaps in any year previous during my life, we need to encourage our political leaders (if indeed we can consider them to be leading) to remember the errors of the past. Lest We Forget. Not everywhere …
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Confirmation Bias Will Be Our End
Humanity, for millennia, survived by groupthink: we needed to have common thought to survive. Little changes here and there – a discovery of a new tool, a realization that permanent marks could be made with paint …
Google's Moral Responsibility
Earlier in the month, I attended (virtually) Ad World, a conference about advertising. Yeah, I know, not the most riveting sounding thing, but it had some topics (notably Web3) that I wanted to hear more about. And …
Voting with Blockchains - Equity and Representation
Last night, I was helping Choo Choo with her homework. She’s in Grade 6 and learning about the Iroquois Confederacy, which up until Monkey had run through it three years ago, I’d never heard of before. This …
The Challenge of Authentic Identity
This morning, I got into a bit of a debate with my friend Duane, the result of a comment about how we need to find a way to tone down the rhetoric and prominence of racist shitheads and state-sponsored lies that are …
Protection, Freedom, and Assimiliation
It’s really hard to keep quiet anymore. For over a month, Canadians have been terrorized by groups of “protesters” demanding their freedom. I’m using the word “terrorized” …
Abolish Political Parties
The modern political party, an assemblage of people who identify with an operate under a communal banner and policy, first emerged at the end of the 19th Century, starting in the United Kingdom. They emerged as a need to …
Society is Dead, Long Live Liberty
O 2020, thou harsh and cruel year. I won’t recap all the things that we’ve been trying to live through this year, those are matters for history books and YouTube videos. What we’ve all experienced is unlike anything the …
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How to fix the Calgary Board of Education
I’ve been wrestling with the Calgary Board of Education for a couple of years, now. And it’s not for anything complicated. To be honest, all I have is a simple hope: to have my children go to a school where they don’t …
What Canadian politicians have forgotten
It should go without saying that this is an opinion piece: my opinion. It may not be yours. Politically, I’ve been centre most of my life. Today? I genuinely don’t know. Alberta has entered another provincial election, …
Calgary Board of Education - we need a decision on Westgate Elementary
Hi, CBE? I’m a concerned parent. Yeah, I know you’ve heard from a lot of us in the last year regarding what you want to do with Westgate Elementary. You’ve heard so much, you’re not listening to us anymore, which I can …
Votes don't split, Justin Trudeau
Dear Mr. Trudeau, First off, thank you for putting yourself on the line for leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Names notwithstanding, the act is one that is necessarily of self-sacrifice, since the job of leading …
Royalties on Alberta Oil Sands
For those of you who haven’t caught wind of this, Alberta’s in an election again. It’s a fairly depressing event, as I’m realising that I’m actually having to consider the Less of Two Evils and lean towards the incumbent …
Canada, You're about to lose your freedom
I’ll keep this one short folks, I promise. Do you use the internet (even watching videos on YouTube and Facebook counts)? Do you use an iPod/iPhone/iWhatever? Do you watch downloaded movies? Are you a student (or …
Canada's Two Political Parties - Conservative, and Other
It’s Federal election time here in Canada. Which means it’s a fast-and-furious stream of incoherent messaging all tantamount to white noise as the various political figures attempt to sway Canadian passions (which are, …
An argument for wired city council
As little as a hundred years ago, North Americans lived (generally) in towns and (much smaller) cities, where it was possible to know your elected representatives personally, meet with them, and have a person-to-person …
Suggestions to our political "leaders"
We’re barely a week into the 2011 Canadian Federal election, and it already feels like a month. I suppose if there’s one good thing about elections up here, it’s that they’re short — none of this near-two year …
Dear Canada, grow a backbone!
Well, Canada, we’re in another pickle. The on-going “me, too!” power struggle that has dogged us for five years is now going into Round 3, thanks to a non-confidence (read: get enough people to whine the …
Greed kills innovation
I was sitting at my kitchen table, poring over recommendations I’m writing for my client (partially communicative, partially CYA), when I had one of those sudden thoughts: I need tea. While I was drinking my tea — a …
Copyrights are the new Colonialism
The late 16th Century was the dawn of the British Empire. England had triumphed on the seas, and had set its eyes on colonising the New World (before its enemies did). Patents were issued, companies were founded, and …
How to win the next Canadian federal election
Dear Honourable Michael Ignatieff MP, I recently read a CBC article where you made public a video of Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper in less than a positive light. The article, including references to the video and a few …
Is the world really dying to see results from the US election?
Maybe not the entire world, but certainly the wired world — the people online. All day, ever since I logged on, I’ve seen Tweets, blog posts, momentiles, and the like about people who are absolutely dying to see the …
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Canada, you can blame Calgary
Sigh. Well, thanks to the residents of Calgary Centre-North, Canada is now stuck with Jim Prentice again. And I’m just too darned tired to rant. Wasted effort at this point. But I reserve my right to call “I told …
Just say "no" to Prentice!
Okay Calgary, here’s your last reminder. It’s the big day. Make sure the Conservatives get the message: don’t ram bad laws on Canadians and expect that they won’t notice or remember. Don’t re-elect Prentice. Or I’ll be …
Calgary - Vote "no" for Prentice!
Hi folks, it’s your friendly (but still pissed-off) Ex-Pat reminding you that with tomorrow’s federal election, you can send the message to Ottawa that poor legislation that places handcuffs on all Canadians will not be …
Calgary, throw Jim Prentice out of office!
Dear Calgary, my former home, I have a reminder and a request for you. First, please remember that Jim Prentice, one of several MPs up for re-election in Calgary, will be running again in the October election. Second, …
Conservatives win the next Canadian federal election!
This isn’t a predictive headline, folks. This is truth. The Conservatives will win the election in October. I, as an Expat, can’t vote in it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t take at least a sense of interest in it. Or …
The IOC is living in a dream world
As I was skipping through my various feeds this morning, I came across the following quote from Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC: Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said the Games …
An open letter to Jim Prentice
Dear “Honourable” Jim Prentice, Allow me to express my sincerest feelings when I say you are responsible for fucking over the Canadian people. This bill you are introducing this morning — likely as I write …
Getting my Birth Certificate shouldn't be this hard
One part of moving to any other country is the act of applying for a work visa. It’s pretty much a requirement where treaties (e.g. the European Union) aren’t there to ease the situation. A necessary evil, if you will. …
Is America ready for Obama + Clinton?
I love American politics. It’s my form of WWE — all the cheers and jeers with all the spectacle to go along with it. One day, I think the American presidency will go the way of the President of the Galaxy from …
There was an election?
Yep, believe it or not, there was an election in Alberta yesterday. Provincial. New MLAs, new premier (in theory), all that jazz. In most provinces, it’s usually time of actual change — old regimes are voted out, new …
A bullet train in Calgary?
I just came across a rather … well, odd article on CBC.ca. It’s a blueprint for 2018. Apparently, the Calgary City council thinks that there should be a bullet train from here to Fort McMurray. Someone’s been …
Colbert no longer for President
Okay, yes, everyone’s heard about Stephen Colbert‘s run for the presidency. Those of you who watch his show regularly (sadly, I do not; though Alex is becoming a massive fan) know what Colbert is like. Perhaps not the …
Poor performing US President = strong Canadian dollar?
Oh, I’m gonna get in some hot water for this one… So the other day, I heard a comment that the Loonie was the highest it’s been since the early 1970s. About the time Tricky Dicky was in the Oval Office. That made …
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Movie and Music Piracy in Canada all wrong?
If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, you’ve probably come across a rant or two of mine about all the garbage surrounding things like DRM and the MPAA saying stupid things. Recently, Canada passed …
Why Prince Harry should be king
There are just some downright strange things that you can come across in the news sometimes. Like this, for example: Prince Harry visits Calgary cowboy bar I nearly fell off my chair when I read that. I mean, come on, …
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Disbelieving DRM and copy protection
I don’t believe in copy protection, like I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny or Jimmy Hoffa. It’s a myth that people cling to like a squirrel to a curtain, which is to say they have to because they are unable to see any …
Reform the US Patent Office!
The definition of “patent”, courtesy of the US Patent and Trademark Office: A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. …
Enter the Conservative Canadian government ... exit social open-mindedness
Canadians are strange. I know — I’m one of them. In some places in the world, such as our oft-maligned (deservably or not) neighbour to the south, people vote for a person and the position/platform that they take in the …
An early Christmas present from our beloved federal government opposition
Minority governments are always a touchy thing. This is something the Americans have trouble with — in a two-party system, you don’t get minority governments, just slim margins. In multiple party systems (three or more), …
The Canadian government has gone shady
Y’know, I used to believe that all the really shady governmental meddling always happened south of the border. Little did I know that our own government has been setting the stage to run things that we’d been taking for …
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Why Same-Sex Marriage is Wrong for Canada
Our world is changing. It changes every day. Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. Overall, the trend is “better”. Or so one would believe over the last few years. Let’s flip back to the …
The Shrub is back
The Shrub is back for another four years. Oh. Joy. Did no-one realize what kind of moron is at the head of the US Government? I can only guess not, as the United States again voted in one of the most dangerous men on the …
Start of the Iraq War
One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. Agatha Christie What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the …
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