WHAT THE F—-?!!?
Fortunately I did not say that out loud.
Did not see that coming. Nosiree. And, frankly, though Paul Martin has shown his amazing survival skills, I’m not particularly happy.
This move is not good for the Liberal party as it only delays the inevitable and precludes the possibility of the real renewal they must have, and which would likely only come on the opposition benches.
It goes without saying that this move is not good for the Conservatives. They’ve had their internal divisions exposed more effectively than their policy convention could have done. Belinda has real support within the Conservative party — she was, I’d hoped, the likely successor to Stephen Harper and the means of bringing the Conservatives more firmly into the mainstream (with a libertarian taste). One wonders who else will follow her because I think people will.
MacKay? Though it’s hard to conceive of him sitting next to former colleague Scott Brison, he’ll either follow, or the relationship he’s rumoured to have had with Belinda is probably over.
Overall, I don’t think this arrangement is good for Canadians.
Gallifreyan Pheromones?
Don’t read this or this if you want to be spoiled about the upcoming episodes of the Doctor Who revival. Indeed, you probably want to skip this article outright as well. However, if you don’t mind spoilers and major speculation, read on. I think Rebecca builds a very convincing case, here, and if she turns out to be correct, we should get together to give her some prize.
My friend, Doctor Damage, expressed some concern over the Doctor’s actions in the recent episode Dalek. I responded that the Doctor’s uncharacteristically violent reaction to the Dalek was a plot thread and not an attempt to twist the Doctor’s character into a format Russell T. Davies believes the modern audience will go for. I believe Russell knows what he’s doing, that he has deliberately made some parts of the Doctor’s character play out wrong, so that we could wonder what was wrong, and have the answer come in later episodes of the season.
Rebecca questions another character element that seems different from Doctors of old: the suggestion that Eccleston’s Doctor is falling passionately — and physically — in love with Rose. She builds a credible case, and points out clues that could relate to the whole “Bad Wolf” element we see rising in previous episodes.
I think she may be onto something, especially when I strongly believe that we are going to see Eccleston’s Doctor regenerate at the very end of this season, that the actor’s departure was something mutually planned by Eccleston himself and Russell T. Davies (remember, the BBC apparently knew of Eccleston’s departure back in January). If this is the case, it would be a remarkable bit of storytelling, especially for Doctor Who. Eccleston’s Doctor may be the shortest lived Doctor by far, but never has any other Doctor been given an overarching storyline as carefully constructed or (I hope) satisfyingly resolved.
Either way, I have to really respect Davies for keeping the lid on the spoiler elements of this season. He may have been robbed of the shock regeneration of the ninth Doctor, but he’s building up a story that’s kept us guessing. That’s almost unthinkable in the age of the Internet. This bears watching.