last week

We had a good Thanksgiving weekend with the Grandparents and Auntie Nicole visiting from Red Deer.  Grandpa got most of my fall yardwork done for me so I was especially thankful.  This week we attended our second homeroutes concert and heard Mary Murphy – a great evening of Irish music.  Her guitar player/spouse Paul can really play.

Oh ya – we voted, appears the country wants a minority, the question is how long our politicians will play nice together I guess – until we do it all over again.  Somewhere I read that in the 50′s & 60′s we had 4 minority governments in a row – so I guess all of this might not be as new as we might think.

Here’s an interesting quote from wikipedia

In the 1963 election, the Liberals, led by Lester B. Pearson, were also unable to win a majority. The next three years were productive ones, however, as a close working relationship between the Liberals and the New Democratic Party (NDP) resulted in the introduction of Canada’s health care system, the Canadian flag, and the Canada Pension Plan. In 1965, Pearson asked the Governnor General to dissolve Parliament in an attempt to win a majority, but the make up of parliament after the 1965 election remained almost exactly the same, leading to three more years of a productive alliance between the Liberals and NDP.

Grow Up Harper

I like Mr. Harper – and think he’s doing a fine job so far… some good ideas coming out and he’s at least as good as our last PM – but some of my friends are Liberal/Democrat/NDP/gun registry loving types (see blog here and here) and I thought they might like this.

More Tommy Douglas from Wikipedia

For those of you who haven’t yet experienced Wikipedia you need to check it out. Web savvy, cool somewhat geeky types reading this bear with me, but for the rest of us, basically it’s an online Encyclopedia that’s completely free to access… and here’s the crazy part – anyone can edit it – what a great concept.

Anyway – if you want to know more about Tommy Douglas, Wikipedia has a great summary here. I also spent some time reading on the Freemasons this afternoon, a group which, by the way, Tommy was a member of. Very interesting.

I have this book on the way to tell me a few more things about the guy – a steal of a deal from Ebay.

Tommy Douglas

Well likely everyone who lived/lives in Saskatchewan has heard the name, but I don’t know much about him. He was voted “Greatest Canadian” a while ago, and my thoughts were basically
1. Our greatest Canadian is from SK? How good is that?
2. I’ve heard his name but did he really do all that much?

Well I caught the last half of a “Life & Times” show the other night and learned a few neat things about Tommy. First, the guy seemed to be a man of integrity, even throughout decades of politics – something that earns my respect, especially compared to the politicians that I’ve watched through my adult life. Second, his grandson is Keifer Sutherland – very interesting. Third, he must have had a huge impact on my little province – not all good I think, but I’ve always thought the differences between Alberta and SK are very interesting – would it be fair to say he had a lot to do with that?

I’m going to buy a book about him and learn a bit more about his life I think.

Mad Cows/Mad Politics?

Well, spending the weekend with a rancher/farmer hit hard by BSE got me to thinking more about the whole Mad Cow thing… for a city dweller like myself, especially one in Yellowknife where the nearest cattle are likely 1000 km away – it’s easy to ignore the whole thing. I did some searching yesterday and was amazed at how little current news there is on the subject. Ranchers have seen their cattle prices drop by huge amounts (50-80%?)and are still waiting for the US border to open, Canada still imports beef from a variety of countries (mostly the US), and consumers like me are still paying basically the same price at the grocery store… someone is making a killing off this whole thing, both in the US and her in Canada, that is for sure. It’s also really annoying how it seems to be all political now…

I did find some interesting things in my search, and this morning there was a new article on CBC’s website… see the links below if you’re interested. One thing is for sure – I am enjoying my beef these days – straight from a ranch in Saskatchewan (thanks Elwood & Debbie!)… and think more people like me need to think about this issue, and imagine if what things would look like if we lost over 50% of our income… our Canadian beef tastes better anyway, so why are we eating US or Australian meat? Ok – my rant is over now, but here are those links. One more thing – if you’re interested in some really good beef… let me know – I might be able to hook you up for a good price! Best T-BONE steaks you ever had…

Cattleman’s Association Website – with daily BSE updates: www.cattle.ca
Today’s article from CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/08/19/cattleherd040819.html
Here’s a sampling from an interesting article at Stats Canada: Consumers
Retail prices didn’t match price declines for cattle: “Consumers did see a drop in the price of beef at the retail level. However, the decline amounted to less than half of the drop in cattle prices…. According to the Consumer Price Index, retail beef prices did decline 14% between May and September 2003, reaching their lowest levels since January 2001. But this decline was far short of the 50% drop in cattle prices. ” See the whole article at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11-621-MIE/11-621-MIE2004010.htm#3

Blog politics

Well CBC the other night said that the political parties are watching Canadian blogs to see how their policies and campaigning is going over, so maybe I’ll throw something out and get read by the big boys… I’m actually not much in to politics, I’m quite a cynic actually and kind of feel even though the party may change, the ethics and effectiveness might not so there’s not much use getting too excited. At the same time, I can’t really say I have much to complain about – my life is pretty good and I feel grateful that I live in such a great country, so I have a hard time being to passionate about my political complaints. I will say this – it does seem like some laws are being passed regarding homosexuals, abortion and some other issues that don’t seem to reflect the beliefs of many or most Canadians I know – and from my uneducated viewpoint, it seems these laws are being passed through the courts instead of being voted on by elected officials – doesn’t make much sense to me. Of course, I’m likely prone to feeling left out and not listened to – I am from the WEST, and Saskatchewan at that – we’re used to being disregarded and disrespected! Whine, whine, cry cry etc. etc.