Steve

Last night, CTV News reported that the International Space Station's closest analog to Red Green, Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, finally managed to get the second toilet back up and running. Alas, I can't find a link to confirm it.

-- Steve wonders how much of the Handyman's Secret Weapon was involved in the repair.

-- Steve's still pondering what to do with the rest of the day; well, at least the part between brunch and dinner that is.

Bob Rae withdraws from the Liberal leadership race, leaving only Michael Ignatieff standing for the position. In essence this is a coronation of the anointed by the party's notorious "mandarins", one I think will show short-term gains in the polls but may result in long-term damage to their traditional power base.

Over the past years (probably throughout the party's history, to be honest) the Liberal party has been a very fractious one full of backbiting and competing interests; the spread of values often helps them attain power in Parliament, but also means that any stretch out of power leads to bloody and fractious intra-party pit fights. The Liberals really don't seem to know how to be an effective opposition. They also got spoiled by the meltdown of the political right in Canada after (purely metaphorical) torch-bearing mobs, denied the privilege of running Brian Mulroney out on a rail, immolated his successor (Kim Campbell, our first and only woman Prime Minister to date) at the polls and destroyed the Progressive Conservative party itself.

The Liberals need to rebuild. I'm not certain that Ignatieff is the one to do the rebuilding, though Liberal insiders seem to think so.

-- Steve will be watching Liberal policy statements closely to see how this coronation augurs for Canada's future.

PS: I guess when faced with a choice between Rae, with his unpopular term as Premier of Ontario, and Ignatieff, with his long stint as an expatriate, the Grits picked the heathen instead of the heretic.

Well, the voting is done in our Canadian federal election and MAN is this going to be a close run. My riding had four candidates, and the top three are separated by less than 3000 votes in total out of about 40 000 counted so far. (The Greens got wiped out here. Too many SUV dealerships in the region...)

Nationally, the Conservatives are on track to gain a slim advantage in seats over the ruling Liberals and become the new governing party... but they'll need to court votes from either the New Democratic Party (think "Labour", for those who don't know) or the avowedly seperatist Bloc Quebecois in order to pass legislation. I doubt that the Liberals will be willing to lend much support after both parties' campaigns... but both parties have unruly back benches that may slip the leashes now and then to support pet causes.

Things are going to be interesting up here for the next little bit.

-- Steve's proud to say that he cast his ballot this afternoon, thus buying the privilege of griping about politics in this here blog. :)