Folkstone Design
Navigate
















Canadian Elections


Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed. :: Chinese proverb
By making process information public, people tend to act so that the information reflects favorably on them. :: Complexity proverb

Canadian 41th General Election - May 2, 2011

Elections come only once in a while but the dialog about what matters should be ongoing. One of the advantages that a democracy provides is that those who run, but may not win, have an advantage of position in bring up otherwise uncomfortable issues, new approaches and processes. The media, in recent years, have failed to bring these important ideas forward. There were fifteen parties in the last Canadian Federal election and I would like to have heard more from the other parties in the broadcast media.

Some of the best observations in the last election come from people calling-in and comedians who say it like it is. The party leaders turned up the rhetoric and did not let their members speak freely about what they understand as experts in their respective fields of endevor.

Ever the optimist I hope that in this election we might broaden our perspective and understand that we are part of a global community, add a little humor, and change the world for the better.

Jonathan Haidt: The real difference between liberals and conservatives
In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against.
The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.
:: Sent-ts'an, c. 700 C.E.

Note: Updates to this article will appear periodically.
Last Updated: March 26, 2011 6:50 AM


Content:


Policy: This is what you are voting for. Read Them!

A comprehensive policy document, not electon retoric. These are surprisingly difficult to find.

Election Ads


iTunes Podcasts

Please note that these links require that iTunes be install Mac/Windows

YouTube


Twitter


Face Book


My Space


Flickr


Education


Elected Members

Members of the House of Commons, Senators and Lobbyists
Selecting the name of any member will provide a brief description of the member which includes email address and web pages.


Election Results

Elections Canada: Elections Night Results 2008
"The independent agency responsible for running elections and referendums" Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley recently decided to allow unfettered broadcasting of election results across the country. This implications of this story have been given very little play in the media. Given the currently political climate the compounding effect of incremental decisions based on previous returns could have a profound impact on the creation of our new government.


Relevant Documents

Federal Election Results 2006
"This map shows the official results of the 39th Federal Election 2006, by party affiliation in each of the 308 electoral districts (ridings)."

Canadian Budget By Year

Canadian Legal Information Institute CanLII
This easily searchable database provides access to Legislation, Federal and Provincial, as well as Court Documents, Boards and Tribunals, Frequently Consulted Documents and useful external links such as the Criminal Code. Its mission is "To support the legal profession in the performance of its duties while providing the public with permanent open access to the legal heritage of all Canadian jurisdiction."

The Polite Revolution
"In this compelling, and ultimately hopeful book, John Ibbitson dismantles the old ways of thinking about Canada's immigration, free trade, social, and defence policies. His ideas for the future of this country are daring a devolution of power and dollars from the federal to the provincial level, a revamping of medicare, a refashioning of the electoral system. They amount to no less than a revolutionary plan for the creation and defence of a new national dream."


Polls & Strategic Voting

Vote For Climate: Choose Your Future Stategic Voting

Vote For Environment :: About Calculations :: Override Assumptions For Your Riding
"Vote Smart So the Majority Wins." Support for strategic voting. Current polling by riding from a variety of polling firms. Enter your postal code. "The method is simple and straight forward. The provincial average for any party on election day 2006 resulted in a certain number of votes for that party in any given riding -- and a defined ratio of provincial average support to votes in a riding. That ratio is applied to an average of polling results for this election to calculate the number of votes the current support level would result in for a given party. This allows you to see how the votes would split today and who would likely win each riding. Of course this assumes the quality of candidates and the overall situation in each riding is the same -- which is not always the case. In some ridings the situation changes dramatically, shifting that ridings relationship of votes compared to the provincial average. To account for this the site applies corrections where, for instance, one party is not running a candidate. These corrections are completely transparent and if you don't agree with them they are easy for you to reset for yourself."

Estimating Voter Migration in Canada Using Generalized Maximum Entropy Werner Antweiler, UBC
"Do the non-voters decide elections? Voters don't so much swing as bounce on a long elastic tether. They may abstain from voting when they're unhappy, but they don't necessarily switch parties. Studying patterns of voter migration in the three most recent federal elections in Canada and the three most recent provincial elections in B.C. provides significant evidence that voters maintain long-term political preferences, a kind of "tethered partisanship", and are less prone to float and drift between political preferences than often thought. Political strategists haven't yet taken this lesson to heart, as much political campaigning is still directed at the elusive "swing voter", and much less at getting the "affinity voter" sufficiently motivated and into the voting booth."

Tories losing coveted senior vote, polls find
October 9, 2008 Globe and Mail

CAW ( Canadian Auto Workers ) endorses Elizabeth May
October 8, 2008 Globe and Mail

Leadership Positive Feelings
Chart Oct 2-5 harris/decima

Battleground Ridings: Where the Election Will be Won democraticSPACE
"8 battleground ridings that will determine the election"

Who Will Form The Government: Canadian Federal Election 2008: Modified Single Transferable Vote | Results To Date
The leaders of the major parties Green: Elizabeth May, Liberal: Stéphane Dion, NDP: Jack Layton, Conservative: Stephen Harper and Bloc Québécois: Gilles Duceppe have been listed.
Simply order all of the parties that are running candidates in your riding for this election.
Do not vote strategically this process takes care of that problem. Please only vote once!
This Modified Single Transferable Vote poll is offered to improve understanding of the single transferable voting process. We assume no responsibility or liability for the security or accuracy of these polls. For the purposes of this example we have listed only the major parties and leaders.
Results will be available for a couple of weeks after this poll closes on October 13rd 2008.

UBC Voter Migration Matrix Election Forecaster 2008
"guess the probability with which a 2006 voter will vote for a particular party in 2008. "

Opinion polling in the Canadian federal election, 2008
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nodice.ca: Canadian federal election 2008: Public Opinion Polls

Public Optinion Polling In Canada
"Public opinion surveys assumed an immense importance in Canada in the 1980s; not only did they become a familiar and seemingly indispensable feature of political campaigns -- with various professional polling agencies being commissioned by different media outlets and political parties -- they became an important aspect of public policy-making.(1) Polling today is to the politician and policymaker what the stock market is to the financial analyst.(2) Although governments have other means of gauging public sentiment -- party activists, members of caucus, public servants and their numerous client groups, legislative debates, the print and electronic media -- polls are now acknowledged to be one of the most significant communication links between governments and the governed.(3)"


Media Coverage

Google Quotes - FAQ
Much of the published reporting about people is based on the interpretation of a journalist. Direct quotes, on the other hand, are concrete units of information that describe how newsmakers represent themselves. Google News compiles these quotations from online news stories and sorts them into browsable groups based on who is being quoted.

The Tyee: A Feisty One Online

The Walrus:

The Georgia Straight

Increasingly Blogs ( Web Logs ) provide an efficient and accessable mechanism to gather diverse and individual views.

reddit: Canadian Federal Election 2008
Search conventional news stories published on the web. This search will return the most recent postings at the top.

Google News Search: Canadian Federal Election 2008
Search conventional news stories published on the web. This search will return the most recent postings at the top. RSS

CBC Canada Votes:
Normally the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation provides reasonable journalism with fair coverage. It doesn't feel like that this time round. This site provides all the canadates in all the ridings, but provides ongoing coverage for only the "major parties". You can voice your opinions on this site in the Your View section.

  • CBC Vote Compass 2011: Whose views are most like yours? English
  • CBC: Leaders Debate English - French wmv video with English Translation. Mac users may want to install Perian Quicktime Plugin for easy viewing.
  • CBC: Leaders Debate English complete with interactive blog during the process.
  • Riding Talk Find your riding and join the discussion.

Canadian Independent Media Centres
"Post your news instantly, upload your audio, video, photo or text directly from your browser" Sometimes it is helpful to have an alternate view point. You would think that the mainstream media would mine this resource, but it does not currently appear to be the case. Check the articles listed down the right hand side to get a feel for the site. Note the geographically localized sites world wide on the left. Do not forget that unlike most media this is an interactive site. You can contribute.

Not all commentary comes in the form of text and sound bites. Sometimes the art of a Country can offer the emotional state of the land in a way no other medium can.

Rabble: News for the rest of us:
"rabble.ca is a more than an online, progressive news site; it's something new altogether that will surprise, inform and activate. (And we're not the only ones who think so.) Check it out, and enjoy."

Macleans:
"For the duration of the campaign, our bloggers provide daily commentary on the leaders and the issues "

Politics Canada:
"Politics Canada is not associated with any political party or movement, and receives no funding or contributions from any party, group or sector. It is an independent source of information and opinion, and invites you to participate by contributing articles (we pay no fees) or commenting in our public forum."

Politics Watch


Offical Party Sites

( Listed Alphabetically )
Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
Bloc Québécois
Canadian Action Party
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
Conservative Party Of Canada
First Peoples National Party of Canada
Green Party Of Canada
Liberal Party Of Canada
Libertarian Party of Canada
Marijuana Party
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
New Democratic Party Of Canada
Progressive Canadian Party
Western Block Party

Past Federal Election Results

Wikipedia: Canadian federal election 2008:
The parties ( all of them ), slogans, issues, timelines, polls results. Good neutral presentations. Good detail with appropriate, crosslinkages and web links.

Wikipedia: Canadian federal election 2006:
The parties ( all of them ), slogans, issues, timelines, polls results. Good neutral presentations. Good detail with appropriate, crosslinkages and web links.

Wikipedia: Canadian federal election 2004:
The parties ( all of them ), slogans, issues, timelines, polls results. Good neutral presentations. Good detail with appropriate, crosslinkages and web links.

Election Reference Site:
"Canadians are set to head to the polls on October 14, 2008. To help put events and issues in perspective, this site provides a range of material about Canadian federal election campaigns, the electoral system, polls, and results from past elections. "

The Way Back Machine:
Sometimes we forget how policies change or remain the same over time. Web sites are fleeting or are they? The Way Back Machine, while not perfect, archives web sites that no longer exist. This provides an opportunity to see what has been dropped, emphasised or added this time around. Keep in mind that sometimes party names and web site addresses change, so that you will have to use the ones that are current for the time period required.


Canadian Lobbyists and Think Tanks

Industry Canada: Office of the Regisstrar of Lobbyists

Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives:
"The CCPA is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. Our research and analysis show that there are workable solutions to the policy questions facing Canadians today"

The Council Of Canadians:
"Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada's largest citizens' organization, with members and chapters across the country. We work to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, safe food, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians."

The Pembina Institute: Election 2008:
"The Pembina Institute envisions a world in which our immediate and future needs are met in a manner that protects the earth's living systems; ensures clean air, land and water; prevents dangerous climate change, and provides for a safe and just global community."

LISPOP: Laurier Institue for the Sutdy of Public Opinion and Policy:
"studies issues pertaining to the creation, use and representation of public opinion in the policy process. "

The Fraser Institute:
"Established in 1974, The Fraser Institute is an independent public policy organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto."

David Suzuki Foundation:
"Since 1990, the David Suzuki Foundation has worked to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us. Focusing on four program areas: oceans and sustainable fishing, forests and wild lands, climate change and clean energy, and the web of life the Foundation uses science and education to promote solutions that help conserve nature."

Globe Foundation of Canada:
"Located in Vancouver, Canada, the GLOBE Foundation is a private, not-for-profit foundation created to help environmental firms, corporate environmental managers, and financial institutions capitalize on international opportunities in the business of the environment. "

Canadian Federation of Students:
"The New Democratic Party (NDP) comes out on the top with an "A." The Liberal Party posted a "C" largely due to research funding, and the Conservative Party gets a failing grade, with an "F"."


Other Approaches & Issues

There should be a rule...
The media are asking questions for which there are scripted answers. Perhaps we need a few questions that just might have broader implications. What if? ( turn the crank a few times on these issues ) These questions can be pushed to the side easily without thinking too hard, but if you suspend disbelief for a while and explore how the implications propagate you might be surprised where these approaches can take us. Wing of a butterfly ... small changes can have large and sometime unexpected systemic effects.
Examples:

  • Carbon Footprint of Organizations Include Travel and Portion of Commute
    What do you think would be the social impact for cities if the carbon foot print of any Canadian organization included business travel and 50% of the commute of its employee's. This would put real value on the proposition that employees should either be close, close on transit or perhaps make satellite offices or remote work from home possible.
  • Open Source Informed Consent To Reduce Pharmaceutical Costs
    We could reduce the price of pharmaceuticals if we changed a single form. In hospitals informed consent forms enable your data and biological samples to be used for research and commercial purposes. If these informed consent forms required that and data derived directly or indirectly from you was to be used only under a specific Open Source licence, that is available to everybody ( with the same privacy protections as exist now ) and any data aggregation that included your data would be held to the same terms. At first it seems bad for commercial interests. In the long term it is not. It reduces duplication of effort and stops one company from patenting your DNA and effectively blocking research into the very area you and your children would like developed.
  • Newest Technology Deployed in Most Remote Areas First
    Imagine what would happen if the newest technology had to be deployed in the most remote areas first. Very often technologies are deployed in dense urban areas to cream profits. Sometimes the incremental cost to make the same technologies deploy in rural or remote areas is small but ignored because you can get away with it.

Insite - Supervised Injection Site Vancouver Coastal Health ( Wikipedia Polical Context )
Insite has been subject to rigorous, independent third party research and evaluation by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, recognized as one of the world?s leading research organizations. The goal of the individuals and the community. The research focuses on Insite?s impact on overdoses, the health of injection drug users, their appropriate use of health and social services, and the health, social, legal and incarceration costs associated with injection drug use. The Centre?s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and The Lancet.

Time to Get Serious on Climate Change (Canadians for Climate Leadership Declaration)
Published: Sep 9, 2008 By: Pembina Institute et al. …we call on Canada's governments, businesses and citizens to take a new approach that gets serious about climate change. In addition, we commit ourselves and our organizations to working together to bring this new approach to reality. … Risk and uncertainty are part of life. Our greatest companies are not those paralyzed by risk, but those that manage it best. … Uncertainty compels us to act now, because delay risks both more serious climate change and less ability to choose our own path.

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
"There are very few books that really help us understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those books." John Gray, The Guardian "Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades" This book looks closely at the economics and consequences to date of globalization, neo-liberalism, neo-conservitivism, as proposed by Friedman originally in the Chicogo School of Economics.

Money as Debt (47:07)
Video describing the conceptual basis of money.
Reference:

If not for the cat, And the scarcity of cheese, I could be content. :: Jack Prelutsky

British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won: Oct 5, 2008 Reuters
"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said.
Join 30,900 Canadians as of Dec 20th 2007 and counting

Global Warming: How It All Ends
Virual video describing a risk management approach to understanding global warming by "just an ordinary guy".
Reference:

GNH: Gross National Happiness:
Perhaps, we need to look at other measures for success in addtion to GDP. Bhutan is unique among all the countries of the world in having a distinctive philosophy to guide its policy making. The four pillars of Gross National Happiness are equitable development, promotion of cultural and spiritual life, sustainable environment, good governance.
Reference:

  • The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness: "...Scant population has two implications: one is that the internal market is very small. Any economic development has to take place on the basis of the purchasing power of the populace, and because there are so few people the aggregate purchasing power is minimal. This makes it very difficult to develop any major industry or do anything on a significant scale. The other implication is that both skills and workers are in short supply. ... Principal finding is that these features can eventually be fully accommodated through an export-oriented economy specializing in low-volume, high-value goods and services, but achieving this requires an interim stage of dependence on exporting natural resources. Conclusion: scrupulous adherence to GNH in the near term vitiates prospects for comprehensive expression of GNH in the more distant future."
  • Bhutan Leads the Battle for Environment: The government of Bhutan has made environmental protection a centrepiece in its development agenda. Article 5 of the constitution "...emphasises the need for every citizen of the country to protect the environment, conserve its rich biodiversity and prevent ecological degradation including noise, visual and physical pollution through the adoption of environment friendly practices and ethos."
  • World Bank to globally replicate Bhutan's happiness model: "...A staggering 68 percent of the nearly 700,000 people in Bhutan were said to be happy in life with the country's wealth measured by the happiness of its citizens, showed a recent study conducted by the Centre for Bhutan Studies (CBS) and funded by the Japan Foundation, a group that undertakes international cultural exchange programmes."

Michael Geist's Blog: Issues For The Information Economy.
Dr. Michael Geist is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.
Join 30,900 Canadians as of Dec 20th 2007 and counting

Equal access to public information for all citizens in Norway
"The Norwegian Government has decided that all information on state-operated web sites should be accessible in the open document formats HTML, PDF or ODF. This means an end to the time when public documents are published in closed formats only. From 2009 on, Norwegian citizens will be able to freely choose which software to use to get access to information from public offices. More competition between suppliers of office programs will be another effect of the government's decision... " This is an open standards issue verses propriary standards. Open source is a complementary issue. It appears that Microsoft products allow OOXML-based products to read and save ODF-based documents. It does not allow ODF-based suites to open and save OOXML-formatted documents. The OOXML verses ODF, partly, is an example of vendor capture of an Open Standard.
References:

  • Swedish Court Rules Government Email Is Public Domain.
  • ODF (OpenDocument Format) Alliance.
  • Microsoft Office Open XML(OOXML): ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Canada did not approve Microsoft's OOXML at ISO. Thank you.
  • OpenISO starts their OOXML review. "There is already an international standard for XML-based file formats for office documents, known as the "OpenDocument Format" (ODF; standardized as ISO/IEC 29300). Nobody denies Microsoft's right to freely decide that the company does not want to support this international standard in their products, and nobody denies that computer users have the freedom to choose office software which supports this standard, such as e.g. OpenOffice, KOffice or Google Docs. However many people feel that Microsoft's initiative to get their file formats also recognized as an "international standard" is an abuse of the system of international standardization and should in fact be seen as an anti-competitive attack against the company's competitors, especially against Free Software like OpenOffice. In fact when Microsoft chose the name "Office Open XML" for their file formats, they must have been aware that choosing this name must necessarily create confusion with "OpenOffice", the name of the leading competing software package which has been using an open XML-based office documents format since long before Microsoft started pushing Office Open XML. "

The Big Lie: Limits to Privatization: How to Avoid Too Much of a Good Thing:
This letter was written by Corky Evans on November 4, 2007. It is meant to inspire thoughtful dialogue. It has. I have had more people on the street mention this letter to me than any other recent bit of news or information. While it deals with a BC issue in its specifics, it touches a nerve that resonates across the country and around the world. Perhaps it is something worth discussing.
References:

Free data sharing is here to stay: Cory Doctorow: CBC Radio | Search Engine:
"The information economy is here - but governments and business are still obsessed with 'protecting' information, rather than making it more productive"

The Mega-Lie Called the "War on Terror": A Masterpiece of Propaganda:
This commentary, while a US analysis, provides some doubt as to the genisis of the battles that we are fighting. "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie ... The truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state." --Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany, 1933-1945

Improving Democracy in BC: (Animations):
The Citizens' Assembly has proposed a new proportional electoral system for B.C. It's BC-STV, a version of the Single Transferable Vote system that's often called "as easy as 1, 2, 3." Wikipedia: Single Transferable Vote. pSTV Good Open Source software (Mac, Windows, Linux) for implementing elections using the Single Transferable Vote includes BC-STV.

Homeless Nation:
"... inequality and homelessness are rising in Canada - despite a sustained economic boom and repeated federal promises to cut poverty. Poverty is rising among children and new immigrants, the middle class is finding it increasingly difficult to afford education and housing, and there are 250,000 Canadians living on the streets, says the study by Social Watch, a coalition of 400 non-government organizations from 50 countries."

Fair Vote Canada (FVC):
"Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a multi-partisan citizens campaign for voting system reform. Canadians from all points on the political spectrum, all regions and all walks of life are joining FVC to demand a fair voting system a fundamental requirement for healthy representative democracy and government accountability."

Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic:
"The year 2006 promises to be a busy one for federal policy and law-makers, as Parliament and federal civil servants consider ways of dealing with many challenging issues arising from the use of the internet and new technologies. Old issues such as privacy, spam, identity theft, and copyright law reform remain unresolved, while newer issues such as spyware, digital rights management abuse, lawful access, and telecom policy reform are hitting the agenda. Canada's private sector data protection law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, is scheduled for Parliamentary review in 2006. Lawful Access and Copyright law reform were both subjects of government bills in the last Parliament, and are expected to reappear in 2006. The civil service has been hard at work on legislation to deal with spam, spyware, and identity theft. And big stakeholders in the telecom industry are pushing hard for significant changes to the Telecommunications Act.
While they may not make the headlines, these issues have immediate and significant impacts on ordinary Canadians as well as large corporate stakeholders. CIPPIC is posing a few targeted questions on these issues to each party running in the 2006 federal election, so that voters can find out where different parties stand on internet issues that matter to them. Party responses will be posted once we receive them.
We encourage individual voters to pose these questions to their candidates during the campaign."

PLoS Medicine: Open Source Pharmaceuticals:
"The idea behind asking sponsors to subsidize developing country purchases at a guaranteed price is that this will prop up drug prices and restore incentives for developing new drugs [2,3,4]. In other words, it is a way of fixing the patent problem. However, subsidies have an important weakness: it is almost impossible to determine correctly how large the subsidy should be. In principle, the most cost-effective solution is to set a subsidy that just covers expected R&D costs. But how large is that? R&D costs are very poorly known, with the published estimates quoting uncertainties exceeding $100 to $500 million per drug. If the subsidy is set too low, companies cannot cover their R&D costs and nothing will happen. Set the subsidy too high, and the sponsor's costs skyrocket. To date, no sponsor has tried to implement these proposals.
In the Virtual Pharma approach, governments and philanthropies fund organizations that identify and help support the most promising private and academic research. Examples include the Institute for One World Health (www.iowh.org), a not-for-profit pharmaceutical company funded mainly through private sources and the Gates Foundation, and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (www.dndi.org), a public sector not-for-profit organization designed to mobilize resources for R&D on new drugs for neglected diseases."

Canadian Geospatial Data Policy Stifles Productivity:
"Canada's policy of cost recovery has been in place for approximately 10 years. It was justified, in part, as a means to fund ongoing geospatial data collection and maintenance, and to ensure that Canada had the best geospatial data to support its economy. Reality has been the opposite. Many data programs have been abandoned. In other cases, funds allocated to create new geospatial data have expired, and additional funds are unavailable to maintain created data. Data that can't be supported through cost recovery have been abandoned, leaving to ruin tens of millions of dollars worth of data. Public and commercial access are hampered by high costs and a poor data infrastructure (e.g., standards and access mechanisms), constraining information-based economic activity.… The U.S. government is convinced that there are more economic benefits in making geospatial data freely available than in charging fees for them, and studies conducted in the United States and Australia support this view. In addition, the U.S. government, through the Federal Geographic Data Committee, has created standards to simplify access and geospatial data use. Other levels of government also are encouraged to follow these standards in distributing their data. "

The Work Less Party of British Columbia:
"The Work Less Party stands for the idea that a human being's worth is inherent and not dependent on a job. We believe that working less is indeed a positive contribution to society, and it's definitely more fun!" While not running in this election different perspectives have a way of changing things.

The Fraser Institute: Marijuana Growth in British Columbia:
"The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian economic and social research and educational organization. It has as its objective the redirection of public attention to the role of competitive markets in providing for the well-being of Canadians. … This paper raises several issues that have the cumulative effect of suggesting that in the long term, the prohibition on marijuana cannot be sustained with the present technology of production and enforcement.… Using conservative assumptions about Canadian consumption, this (government taxation) comes to revenue of over $2 billion. " This is an interesting paper because of the timing of the release and the source of the report. The Frazer Institute would not normally be associated with advocating legalization of marijuana. see also Canadian Government Debt 2004: A Guide to the Indebtedness of Canada and the Provinces

Table for Three, Please Looking beyond the two-person relationship:
"As the debate over gay marriage continues, coupling has become a hot topic for those on both sides of the issue. Whether asserting the right for a same-sex couple to wed or maintaining that marriage is between a man and woman, most agree on the fact that marriage is meant for two. In her article, "Table for Three, Please," Ellen Ann Lindsey looks to expand this premise for life-long love."

Intelligent Design:
Advocates of intelligent design, who hold that the universe is so complex it must have been created by a higher power. Proponents of the idea are seeking to get public schools in the United States to teach it as part of the science curriculum.
Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism -- a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation -- camouflaged in scientific language and does not belong in science curriculum.

NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness
"In interviews this week, more than a dozen public-affairs officials, along with half a dozen agency scientists, spoke of growing efforts by political appointees to control the flow of scientific information.… Starting early in 2004, directives, almost always transmitted verbally through a chain of midlevel workers, went out from NASA headquarters to the agency's far-flung research centers and institutes saying that all news releases on earth science developments had to allude to goals set out in Mr. Bush's "vision statement" for the agency… In October 2005, Mr. Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word "theory" needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang. The Big Bang is "not proven fact; it is opinion," Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, "It is not NASA's place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator." It continued: " This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most."

CAMBIA: Center for the Application of Molecular Biology to International Agriculture:
"Our institutional ethos is built around an awareness of the need and opportunity for local commitment to achieving lasting solutions to food security, agricultural and environmental problems. We envision a situation in which the broadest community of researchers and farmers are empowered with dramatic new technologies to become innovators in developing their own solutions to the challenges they face - solutions for which they feel ownership. A clear vision of what aspects of the status quo we wish to change and what positive outcomes we wish to see guides our activities. CAMBIA wishes to see a vibrant public and private sector contributing myriad solutions to the diverse challenges of food security worldwide. This vision requires the development and delivery of new enabling technologies and skills that can break the logjam that is stifling creative business and public initiatives. This in turn will allow diverse players to regain and appropriate measure of control over research, breeding, utilization of genetic diversity and management of agricultural systems."

Underground: The Green Emperor Gets Naked, Part V:
"The biggest problem with sustainable development and environmental justice is that since the most appropriate orientation of practitioners is on small- and intermediate-scale community levels, it has never been easy to amalgamate all the various groups into a recognizable movement per se. In fact, the strength of these groups is indeed their disunity and devotion to neighborhoods and community over broader policies and allegiances. This is where global warming comes in. In fact, this is where the entire global economy comes in. Those in the movement I am proposing, what for want of a better term I will call Global Community Development, understand that everything is integrated. They have chosen their fields because they took the idea of Think Globally, Act Locally to heart. They understand the butterfly effect. They have made it real."

Public Nudity:
Perhaps because of a sense of freedom, or because the media carries the embedded message the raise of public nudity as both celebration and protest has interesting implications. It begins from an economy of plenty, everybody has skin. It works perhaps because in the same way that we are hard wired to recognize faces and smile when we do, we also are hardwired to recognize a normal human form. Nothing salatious here. The recognition, that broken, fuels the fashion industry, intact becomes normal for most people in about ten minutes. Once discovered it is hard to forget. So politically clothing, or lack there of have historical implications for control of a popluation. Laws that exist in this regard are the few that remain where the concept of harm is entirely in the eye of the observer. While this may appear at first to be a religious issue, and there may be various religious views, from a christian perspective there appears to be augument on both sides of the issue. Not only a political issue it appears that there is increasing research that links moderate sun exposure to improved health outcomes in regard to a wide range of common health problems. Recently we have seen research which indicates localized effects in the body of sunlight exposure. Historical myths about sunlight requirments presist in the media.

Sunlight Robbery: Health benefits of sunlight are denied by current public health policy in the UK.
Health Research Forum, 2004

"I think the document is excellent. I like it and I believe it."
Dr Reinhold Vieth, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada

From The Summary:
"7. Casual exposure of the hands and face to the sun has in the past been thought to provide enough vitamin D for good health. But this exposure is now known to be insufficient in the UK climate. Active exposure of the skin to the sun by removing clothes and sunbathing is necessary to provide healthy levels of vitamin D that will provide a reserve for the autumn, winter and early spring (October to March or later) when the sun is not strong enough to induce synthesis of vitamin D. Vitamin D has a half life in the body of about six weeks and so high levels must be achieved in summer to provide levels in the body which remain sufficient at the end of winter."

The Green Party Of Canada Current Approved Policy 2004 :
"Resolved to work for repeal of the nudity section of the Criminal Code." page 38. While this policy appears to be missing from Vison Green 2007 perhaps because just doing this might enable a patchwork of legislation down to the municiple level regarding this issue.
Reference:

CBC Cinema Real Documentary: Naked:
"Naked is a thought-provoking and humorous one-hour documentary by Mary Bissell about people who use nudity to affirm their values and fight for their beliefs. From anti-war nude protestors in Marin County, to nudist bicyclists in North Carolina and breast cancer survivors in Calgary, this show reveals the political reasons beneath the very personal act of taking it all off."

World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR):
"Why is the world so afraid of naked people?" he asked. "There is nothing more peaceful than a naked person on a bicycle. We are more afraid of naked people than we are of cars and global warming and nuclear missiles. Nobody worries about these things, but people are worried about naked cyclists." Conrad Schmidt -- "Nudity is being used as a symbolic ploy to protest conformity on the one hand and suppressed as counter to established culture on the other." I have included this event because I think that Schmidt has a point. This event will get more coverage than many important issues in the election.

Nude Calendar Watch:
Since Calandar Girls there have been hundreds of similiar calandars created raising millions of dollars for various charaties. The single joke that makes these calandars work is that everyday mundain social nudity is normal. So much so, to it matters not how you look or how old you are. There appears to be a broad based appitite for this joke. The calandars without this joke do not appear to fly. Perhaps this succeeds because it deals with normal folks, a little humor and feelings of freedom to which everybody can relate. I love getting old!: Commentary from Winnipeg Free Press.

Drugs are big business, Sunlight is Free:
This page attempts to reconcile two opposite views of sunlight - sunlight causes cancer vs. sunlight prevents cancer. "Total-body sun exposure easily provides the equivalent of 250 ug (10000 IU) vitamin D/day" Am J Clinical Nutrition, Vol 69, No. 5, 842 May 1999

Sometimes fear drives legislation to avoid potential legal harm while missing the health benifits and the pre-conditions ( gradual exposure, no burns and diet ) that reduce potential harm. "Dr. Zane Kime, a brilliant medical doctor and researcher, points out in his excellent book, Sunlight, that sunlight is very healthy for the skin and whole body metabolism when the body is nourished by sufficient nutrients. However, when hydrogenated oils and other toxic nutrients are consumed, the skin becomes imbalanced and sunlight exposure can produce toxic skin reactions." "Sunlight on your skin also results in the production of inositol triphosphate, INSP-3, which regulates the extraction of calcium stored in cells. When not enough calcium is consumed, then INSP-3 is triggered to supply the cell with calcium from elsewhere in the body. If insufficient calcium is stored within cells, then the parathyroid hormone, stimulated by the deficiency of vitamin D, induces the extraction of calcium from the bones. Finally, if the calcium deficiency continues, over time the bones may become severely depleted by continual extraction of their calcium. Then, as a last resort, the body begins to extract calcium from proteins that regulate key cell functions. This, in turn, can lead to poor cell function. The real solution is to get enough high quality, natural vitamin D." ref

Wikipedia; Canadian Humor:
"Canadian humour is an integral part of the Canadian Identity. Canadians have excelled at comedy and humour in many domains. There are several traditions in Canadian humour in both English and French. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to Canadians' shared history and geopolitical situation in North America and the world."

You Have A Choice: A Song ( mp3 )
Avaaz.ca is the 300,000 strong Canadian community within Avaaz.org -- a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want. Avaaz.ca is a community of citizens who take action on the major issues facing Canada and the world today. The simple democratic aim of Avaaz (our name means "voice" in many languages) is to ensure that the views and values of the world?s people shape the decisions that govern them.

Rick Mercer:
"Perhaps an occasional rant or blather from Rick Mercer. Everyone is doing it right?"

Canadian Political Comedians:
"MCP Talent is your preferred source for quality entertainment for corporate, association, and social events! We have serviced The North American market since 1972 and we have the necessary experience that is essential to aid your group in the successful execution of your event. We pride ourselves in partnering with your group, being there every step of the way to handle all details from the initial booking to the completion of your engagement to follow up."


dmoz: Open Directory Project

dmoz: Open Directory Project:
Category: Top: Regional: North America: Canada: Society and Culture: Politics: Elections
Description: contains non-party websites dealing with Canadian election campaigns.


Folkstone Design does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Links will open in new window.

Folkstone Haron Photo


Updated: March 26, 2011 6:50 AM - V0N 1V1
Copyright © Folkstone Design Inc.. 1999-2019
Legal Notices | Content | Contact | Home