May 10, 2013

• Report # 1000

  Finally I’ve made it to # 1000 ! It only took eight years, two months and about 17 days, but I’ve done it ! I really can’t see myself making it to 2000, but who knows, anything is possible. It’s just been a lovely week here and definitely one of the best starts to May that I can ever remember. Everyday has been super warm and sunny and around 23 C (73 F) so it’s just been great. I’ve been going out with Parker and Molly each day as well as sun tanning and swimming in the pool so it’s been really nice. On Wednesday I walked to a community hall down the street and voted during one of the advance polling days, so I have done my duty for another time. The next time I would have to vote would probably be the civic elections in November 2014.

  Afterwards I took the bus to Cloverdale and got my first haircut since January 19. My hair was incredibly long, probably longer than it’s been at any point in my life as I can never remember going almost four months without getting a haircut before. I went to the place I always have gone for the last 10 years and it’s still just five dollars ! The guy cut it kind of short, but that’s ok, it will grow back again so it’s really not a big deal. On Wednesday I applied for more jobs than I had applied for on any other day, as I applied for 14 jobs. They were all positions I would be interested in, so it was a good day to be applying. I applied for two more yesterday, and I’ll probably apply for some more today as well. I got a call this morning and I’ve set up an interview for Monday at 9:00 am, so that’s something, though it’s a bit disappointing that I’ve only got one call out of 16 jobs… maybe some more places will call next week.

  The lady from Teleperformance didn’t send me an email yet, so maybe she hasn’t had time to go to the migration offices to find out what is going on with my paperwork yet, but she said she would do it, so I just have to wait. I definitely hope that she can find out at least something. Yesterday I vacuumed the house, which was the ninth consecutive Thursday that I have vacuumed the house since coming back from Mexico. I don’t think I’ve ever had a streak of vacuuming the house on the same day for that many weeks before. Seeing as I’ve had so much spare time and my life has been super boring, I suppose I keep track of these not so fascinating facts a little more often. I did change the colours of my Xanga page and my profile picture as well yesterday. There was a time I had done that once a year, but this was probably the first time I changed anything for at least four years !

  Just like before I never seem to like the changes at first, so it will take a while for me to get used to the layout again. If I knew more about website design I’m sure I could come up with something a little more interesting, but sometimes super simple is good enough. It’s not like I have a product and I’m trying to get people to come to my site and buy stuff, so it shouldn’t matter too much. I might do some lawn mowing today, and of course I’ll run with the dogs, and afterwards I’ll enjoy some time by the pool as I think after today it will cool down and maybe rain.

  So it will be a super boring topic that most people won’t care anything about, but seeing as the 2013 British Columbia Provincial Election is on Tuesday and I’ve never really talked about it in previous years, this year I’ll do a quick update on that, at least to say I’ve done something. And while a lot of people have zero interest in politics I definitely think it is somewhat important to at least know what is going on. People who knowing nothing and just don’t care are being incredibly ignorant and they are doing their countries, provinces, states and cities no favours by showing their ignorance. Not only that, but they are practically slapping in the face the veterans and those who have passed away and or been killed during military duty. It’s because of those efforts of those brave people who fought for democracy that we enjoy living in freedom today. To think that some people value this freedom so little and can’t be bothered to spend a few minutes and vote is just not cool and no one should be proud of that !

  I do understand that what I write about today will not interest many of the people who read this, because they don’t live in British Columbia and would have no idea what I’m talking about, so you can all feel free to skip the following if you like and go straight to the question.

  So for today I will do a quick write-up on the four parties and their leaders running in this election here. I’ll start with current British Columbia Premier Christy Clark of the BC Liberal Party.

  

  BC Premier Christy Clark (BC Liberal Party)

  sources: storage.canoe.ca

  She has been premier of this province since March 2011, and while I think she’s done a decent job, she will unfortunately be paying the price for a lot of the political baggage left by her predecessor, Gordon Campbell, who was in charge from 2001-2011. While I think she’s a good person and has good intentions, she made some clear mistakes with her handling of the HST, which she should have just spoken out against, and with her handling of some scandal involving using government funds to convince ethnic voters to vote for her party. While she still has a chance to win this election, it would be a huge upset win for her, so she could very well be in her last days as British Columbia premier.

  Next up is Adrian Dix of the BC New Democratic Party

  

  BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix

  sources: timescolonist.ca

  This is the opportunity for the NDP to finally win an election in British Columbia. After being defeated in 2001, 2005 and 2009, if they can’t win this year, they are extremely incompetent. I’ve read of them having leads in the polls up to 20 %, though some other polls have suggested that it will be a lot closer of a race. The BC NDP was in power for almost all of the 1990′s, and the memories of those days are very dark for anyone here, but the truth is it’s 2013 now, not 1999. Times are different, and people learn from past experiences, and if all the BC Liberal Party can come up with is that the NDP of the 1990′s was horrible, don’t vote for them, then they have nothing good to say about themselves.

  While I certainly don’t agree with everything in their platform, I personally voted for the NDP this time, as I think it’s time for change and they would certainly bring change. Whether it’s positive change or negative change that remains to be seen, but of course if they are eleced and fail to deliver, they would be kicked out again in 2017 !

  Next up is the Green Party and their leader Jane Sterk

  

  BC Green Pary Leader Jane Sterk

  sources: theglobeandmail.com

  In the 2011 Canadian election, British Columbians on Vancouver Island elected the first green party member of parliament in history, and now the provincial Green Party is hoping to be able to do the same. From what I read, Ms. Sterk has run a very good campaign and she impressed a lot of people with her debate performance. While the Green Party has often been criticized as only caring about the environment and nothing else, this is certainly far from the truth. They manage to get a lot of support, and if they can get enough support in certain ridings, they could elect some MLA’s this time around. (Members of the Legislative Assembly)

  So while they certainly have a 0 % chance of becoming the next government here, I think their future is bright and they will continue to grow over the coming elections. I definitely think this party has a lot to look forward to in the future, and who knows, one day they might very well be a super competitive party with a change of forming government.

  And lastly, the BC Conservative Party and their leader John Cummins

  

  BC Conservative Party Leader John Cummins

  sources: cbc.ca

  Now Canada has been led by the Conservative Party of Canada since early 2006, but this provincial party is entirely separate from that party. Here in British Columbia, the BC Liberal Party is basically a mixture of liberals and conservatives working together to keep the more socialist NDP out of power… though as I said above, those NDPers look to really have a shot to win this time around. The Conservative Party of BC has had a rough campaign. They didn’t get candidates signed up in all 85 ridings, and a few of them have either had to resign or been fired based on some stupid things they’ve said and posted on blogs… I guess my chances of ever running for office are already over, as I’m sure someone can find out stupid things I’ve said !

  I would be surprised to see the BC Conservative Party win a seat, though it’s certainly a possibility. If the BC Liberal Party collapses, and the Conservatives ever get their act together, maybe they’ll have an opportunity to actually grow in the future, but for the time being, they are what I would call a fringe party. It will be interesting to see if they can manage to pull out a win this time around !

  So with the election on Tuesday, I will predict an NDP victory, though I think it will be close. My prediction will be 50 seats for the NDP 33 for the BC liberals and one seat each for the conservative party and the green party. It will be interesting to see how close I am ! Anyways I’m done with my political posting and hopefully I won’t have to write about politics for a while. For the next question:

  Who is governing the state or province where you live ? Did you vote for this person ? Are you happy with their leadership, why or why not ? If you didn’t vote, why did you choose to not vote ?

  I stuffed like four questions into one, but that’s ok ! I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.

  • 3:54 pm
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