Election Time

Just a quick bit about our current situation here in Canada. Our Prime Minister, in all his infinite wisdom, decided to break a law that he introduced and passed during the last session to plunge our country in yet another 300 million dollar election campaign. Unfortunately it may pay off for him as our alternatives are a party led by a man who barely speaks English, sovereigntists from Quebec, fiscal irresponsibles whose best strategy seems to be like Obama and a party which can't even get into the televised debate. In the first three days the Conservative polls have improved from a healthier minority to bordering on a majority. Now this is where the fun and games start. Our Harper knows that the thought of him winning a majority is scary to most Canadians outside of the prairies. So this man is actually downplaying the possibility of them winning a majority to avoid losing votes as he did in the last election when the polls reflected these type of numbers. He has also already gagged most of his MP's from speaking to the media in the fear that one of them may let loose with some far-right wing rhetoric. In the next few weeks I hope to be able to put in my few cents on the key issues during our election. As of right now I'm actually undecided as to how to vote. I guess it's apparent from the above that I've only so far decided whom not to vote for.

Impressions on my first visit to the U.S of A

I do not want to sound like I'm bragging on my first blog, however I do feel like I am well traveled considering my age (mid twenties). Most of my travels are really thanks to my parents. You see my father was a member of Canada's armed forces and it is a true testament to his adventuresome character (a trait he still exhibits into his 50's) that he spent most of his career outside of our country. It was during his first posting to Germany that he had the good fortune of meeting my mother. They did move back to Canada and manage to have two children, both of us born in the capital region of our country. My dad took the next opportunity to move us all back to Lahr Germany. Now I won't bore you with all the details, but my parents were a lot more concerned with seeing Europe than putting money in the bank. Thus I can brag that I have seen a lot of continental Europe. I've also been as far west as Alberta and spent a week in the Dominican Republic this spring. However, in all my travels, I had never been to the United States, our closest neighbour and biggest trading partner.
Now the reasons for this are two-fold. Number one is that I have never had the need to enter the United States. Number two is that I haven't agreed with many of our big cousins policies or attitudes which I felt I would be furthering by filling their wallets with my measley dollars. The reasons for the softening of my stance are that we were driving to Ottawa and wanted a different route than through Quebec and the appreciation of the Canadian Dollar vs. the U.S.
I must honestly say that we could not have been treated better by the people in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York State. People were very, very friendly and the restaurants and hotels were super. The scenery was lovely and I really appreciated the pride that American's have in their country (even if I believe it's misguided at times). I really feel like the U.S is worth visiting and I will do so again. If they could only now vote in a democrat.......but that's for another blog.