Some last points about the Ontario election. Full results are here.
In the riding of Etobicoke Centre, Donna Cansfield won the race for the Liberals. Ms. Cansfield is the former head of the Toronto School Board, who was basically kicked out of her job by the Ernie Eves when she and her board defied provincial law and ran a deficit. The provincially appointed official, Paul Christie, then came on, criticized the board members in general and Cansfield in particular, and then proceeded to run a deficit of his own.
Dear Mr. McGuinty, my sense of irony asks that you please, please, please consider making Donna Cansfield the new Minister of Education!
The Greens only got 3-4% of the vote provincewide. That's lower than my predictions of 6%, but substantially better than their turnout in 1999. Not only is their total vote count up because they ran a full slate of candidates, looking at the final results, I see that in riding after riding, the Green Party candidate as much as doubled the party's vote. They can be justifiably proud over their performance, although realistically they are at least two elections away from being a real force. Even if we'd had proportional representation in place in Queen's Park, the Greens wouldn't have made the 5% threshold required to get a seat.
The only thing really disappointing was yet another drop in the voter turnout, to around 55%, down from 58% in the last election. People are just tuning out, and it's a shame. Maybe proportional representation will change that. Something radical has to be done to get the voters interested again. I have no idea what.
Now, let us turn away from politics and talk about something else, like baseball! I'm not a fan of major league sports, in general, but I will cheer if the Toronto teams do well, or if the Canadiens are in the playoffs. And, thanks to Erin, I'm now a Cubs fan ("any team can have a bad century!"). They're doing surprisingly well as I write this.
In my opinion, the Cubs are just warming up for the 2008 season, at which time the 100th anniversary of their last World Series victory will turn them into an unstoppable team of destiny. The Cubs will roar through the regular season, demolish their opponents through the playoffs, and win a nailbiter in extra innings of the seventh game.
And I further predict that the team they face in the 2008 World Series will be the Chicago White Sox, which last won the World Series themselves in 1917.
The damage resulting from this confluence of events would make Ms. O'Leary's cow proud.
Things will be interesting in Omaha if the Cubs make it to the series this year, and face the Yankees. Erin's a Cubs' fan because she's from Nebraska. Her whole family are Cubs' fans for that reason -- except for public defender Shannon O'Connor, who is a die-hard Yankees fan.
The damage resulting from that confluence of events would also make Ms. O'Leary's cow proud.
It's been a quiet Saturday at the end of a long week. The weather has been cool and rainy, perfect for staying indoors. I'm writing and watching baseball, and all is right with the world.