I don’t pay attention to Ezra Levant; he’s simply not worth my time. But I do pay attention to Calgary Grit, whose commentaries are always well written, interesting, and speak with the principle of an open mind. In a recent column, Calgary Grit covers Ezra’s shrill lecturing of Ontarians to “do their duty”:
Here’s hoping that Ontario will throw Martin out — and hard. If it doesn’t, don’t be surprised if Alberta and Quebec throw Ontario out — or more accurately, try to leave themselves.
Nice to govern under threat, eh?
I’m as eager to throw the Liberals out as the next guy, but before Ezra tells me how to vote and acts all schoolyard bully on me if I don’t tow his line, let me remind him that Ontario hardly votes as a bloc on this government, and you should watch the width of your paintbrush before you start blaming every Ontario voter for what ails Canada.
But leaving aside all this outgroup homogeneity, I have to ask: has Ezra ever spoken out in favour of installing a system of proportional representation in this country, which would solve the problem of the Liberals gaining the overwhelming majority of seats in Ontario simply on the basis of having a plurality of votes in this province? And if not, why not?
Is it possible that he’s not so eager to break the Ontario bloc if it means acknowledging that the Albertan bloc behind him isn’t nearly as monolithic as he claims?
Appropriately named birds, aren’t they?
I’d like to say that this is the reason I’m not at work today: these two sentinels who positioned themselves in front of St. Jeromes’ door…
Though it would make a good story, I can’t say that. They just hissed at me as I passed close, but didn’t move from their perch. I’m here at the Library field testing The New Quarterly’s new powerbook, which looks neat and operates even better. I’m testing to see whether the magazine can continue to communicate, amongst itself and with the printer, while away. Thus far, mission accomplished, although WiFi isn’t nearly as reliable as its reputation suggests.
Back to the geese: these guys are angry, vicious little buggers, aren’t they? They’re like swans without the good PR. It’s ironic, I think, that the Canada goose may have gone from being an endangered species, to being as invasive and opportunistic as seagulls or pigeons or purple loustrife. As soon as we stopped shooting them, they took up residence in our parks and made our open spaces their personal toilets.
I have to think that they’re fouling up our water. With the amount of poop and other gunk on the ground, the first flush of rain that passes into the storm sewers is as polluted as untreated sewage, and storm water gets routed directly into our lakes and rivers, without treatment. I strongly suspect that goose poop is a big portion of the poop in that water.
I’m not sure what we can do to put the fear of man back into these birds and send them back to the wetlands and fields where they belong. Bird culls prompt strong reactions from bird loving residents. But it’s becoming clear that one of the things we should not be doing is feeding the birds.
They’re doing just fine without our help, thankyouverymuch.