Jack-o-Lantern time

So because we finally live in an apartment that might be visited by Trick-or-Treaters we decided it would be appropriate if we had a jack-o-lantern. Because my family has a long tradition of having politically themed jack-o-lanterns I realized that I needed to come up with an appropriate and well-known figure on the Canadian political scene to morph into a jack-o-lantern.

Of course, it didn't take long to narrow the pack to Darryl Dexter and Stephen Harper. Given Dexter's more limited weight on the national stage Harper became the choice by default.

The next part of the project was to figure out how to get Harper's face on a pumpkin. At first I tried to find a stencil online. Much to my surprise I was almost immediately successful.

Harper

Not too long ago the Globe and Mail made the above stencil available to the public. Sadly, this wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I was less interested in caricature and more interested in just a standard rendering of Harper.

After we purchased our pumpkin last night I settled on making my own stencil, even though I had no idea how I would go about such a task.

This morning I started my stencil making project by looking for suitable photos of Harper. Almost immediately I came across the classic Harper and kitty shot.

I then chopped the head out and started to turn it into a stencil.

After just a few iterations I had something I thought I could work with.

With my stencil now in hand I was reading to start the carving process. To start I affixed the
stencil to the pumpkin and began tracing the black areas by jabbing the pumpkin with a pin. After maybe twenty minutes I had a largely useless partial outline of the stencil. Eventually I reattached the stencil and began re-tracing the black areas with a knife.

Eventually the face began to take shape from the mass of the pumpkin. And then almost immediately it was clearly a face, if not clearly Harper's face.

Now that I have had a chance to examine my work my guess is that my stencil wasn't quite as good as I thought it was. Maybe it was also a little too large? Anyway, I think I will need to work on my technique a little for next year's iteration.

At the moment I suspect that my pumpkin would really only be recognizable in the following context.

And that's hardly a context in which I can display the pumpkin.

The 'Unseasonable' Storm - 4

It turns out that the reading Jeannette and I planned on attending was not adversely effected by the stormy weather we were experiencing this afternoon. Amazingly enough, our drive from Wolfville to Windsor wasn't even much slower than expected as by the time we left most of the rain had stopped. (The reading/performance was great. I am hoping to see the performer doing a slightly different performance at the end of the week.)

When we went out to the car we did discover that we didn't manage to escape the storm unscathed. One of the rose bushes adjacent to our driveway was blown over into our driveway. And as the plant doesn't seem to have become uprooted I am not exactly sure what we are supposed to do with it. I am kind of hoping that once the wind dies down and the plant has a chance to recuperate that it will just right itself. Maybe this is overly wishful thinking.

The 'Unseasonable' Storm - 3

Much to my surprise, it seems that at least one of the closest power outages has been resolved. I am taking this to be good news in a number of ways. Firstly, the conditions are not so bad as to prevent power crews from working. Secondly, power crews are actively working to repair damage. Thirdly, and this may be a little presumptuous on my part, but I take this to mean that they don't think that things are going to get worse in this area.

The 'Unseasonable' Storm - 2

The power outages seem to be spreading across the provinces quickly. The effect has likely been intensified by the fact that for some period of time the NS Power Live Outage map was not adding new outages as they were occurring. As far as I know outages are now being added as they occur.

The other big development (to go along with the return to real-time of the Live Outage map) is that our region now has both a rain and a wind warning. A little while ago we just had a rain warning (even though it was pretty windy).

Hopefully the event that Jeannette and I are hoping to attend later this afternoon won't be adversely effected by the weather. As it is, I know of at least one local event that has been cancelled because of the weather.

The 'Unseasonable' Storm - 1

Well, it seems that we are actually in the midst of a storm, though not to the extent that some parts of the New England states are (I have seen photos of substantial snowfalls). At the moment all we have to complain about are high winds and rain.

Of course, now that this has been going on for the past few hours we are starting to see power outages in the province. And one of the three power outages is just a short ways away from us. Fun. At least we have gathered our 'emergency supplies' and are ready, at least as ready as we can be, for a possible power outage.

It seems that Neil and a few of the matheletes may have been more seriously impacted by the storm in that at least one of their flights was cancelled on their way back from a conference in the US. I still don't know the extent of their delays, though I imagine that today's developments haven't made things better.

I guess I should get back to storm watching (i.e. work).

A turn towards the absurd

A few days ago I heard about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's negative reaction to Mary Walsh's ambush-style interview at his Toronto home. It was also reported that shortly after the ambush took place he had called 911.

After seeing the relatively tame footage of the event I assumed that the suggestion that hadn't actually dialled 911 was probably true. Who would call the police when a prominent Canadian TV show, busily doing the thing for which they are most famous, was busy doing their thing (even if you might make a reasonable argument that their behaviour was inappropriate)? As one can see in the video, they don't have any interest in hiding who they are or what they are doing.

Well it seems that the suggestion that Rob Ford didn't call the police was completely wrong. Apparently he called the police not once, but twice. It is now being reported that the second call was laced with expletives. Apparently there have now been complaints filled by the dispatchers on the receiving end of these calls.

Mary Walsh, the 22 Minutes correspondent involved in the incident, spoke to a St. John's CBC show about the incident. If you are interested, you can listen to the interview here.

We shouldn't be getting this traffic bump

A sure sign that there hasn't been enough coverage of the Occupy Nova Scotia festivities is that this blog is getting a surprising number of visitors as a result of our discussion of the protest. Given the size of the regular readership and very limited impact of this blog this shouldn't be happening. We shouldn't be one of the first results in the Google blog search category when you search for 'Occupy Nova Scotia,' we just aren't that big or important.

Where's the rest of the Nova Scotia blogosphere on this issue?

Finally a story that deals with challenges to Occupy Nova Scotia

Much of the relatively sparse media attention devoted to the Occupy Nova Scotia/Halifax event has been relatively devoid of coverage of how non-occupiers feel about the Occupation. This struck me as quite noticeable.

Didn't Haligonians working in the downtown core have opinions on the Occupy protest? Didn't the city have an opinion on the appearance of a tent city in on of its parks? Or were they all in favour of the Occupy Nova Scotia encampment? These questions and many more went unanswered.

And even though the fact that the the municipal government has issued an 'eviction' notice to the protestors prompted another story from CBC, issues surrounding the community's response are completely absent.

It seems that another component that was absent from the CBC story, but that was included in Halifax Media Co-op coverage, is that while the city has requested that the protestors leave the Grand Parade they have suggested an alternate location for the protest to continue. So the city isn't really shutting the protest down, just suggesting a change of venue. Of course, it's possible that this less prominent location, if agreed to by the protestors, will have a negative impact on the visibility of the protestors.

Anyway, the notice to leave the Grand Parade will likely lead to another round of media attention, though I can't help but wonder how comprehensive the resulting coverage will be. Certainly what we have seen so far, at least as far as I am concerned, is lacking in depth and breadth and has left the public with a very incomplete sense of the encampment as it currently exists in downtown Halifax.

A big week for federal appointments

It seems that just a little while ago Harper announced the replacement for outgoing Auditor General Sheila Fraser. Michael Ferguson, Deputy Minister and former Auditor General in New Brunswick, will be the government's nominee.

What seems immediately notable about Mr. Ferguson is that he seems to have spent most, if not all, of his career in a variety of jobs in public service in New Brunswick. This is in contrast to Ms. Fraser who spent a years working in a number of capacities, including in the Office of the Auditor General, before she became the Auditor General. While I know next to nothing about Mr. Ferguson, it does seem at least noteworthy that an internal candidate was not the nominee.

The other big appointment news of the past few days were the two Supreme Court of Canada nominations from last week.

I found the following passage from Harper's press release on the subject particularly noteworthy.

Both candidates were highly recommended to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada following comprehensive consultations with the Attorney General of Ontario, senior members of the Canadian Judiciary, prominent legal organizations and members of the public.

Even if these appointments are 'Ontario appointments' it seems a little strange that Ontario was the only province consulted on the matter. Even if the appointees are to come from Ontario (a practice that might need review given than in more than 60 years Newfoundland has never had a judge on the court), their rulings will impact the entire country. Thus broader consultation seems justified if not essential.

The return of the Occupy Nova Scotia/Halifax media coverage

It seems that after about a week without coverage mainstream media has come back to the Occupy Halifax/Nova Scotia protests in the Grand Parade. I am now curious to see if the other media outlets in the city will provide an update now that at least one source has? Also, isn't just the fact that a tent city has sprung up in downtown Halifax something of a newsworthy story locally? I imagine that this is having at least some impact on the thousands of people who work in the surrounding area.

Interestingly, so far I haven't seen mention in the mainstream media of the occupation's associated publication, Occupy Magazine. An notable development since yesterday on the Occupy Magazine front is that the publication is now available online. Apparently the print only idea only lasted a day or two before cheaper distribution mechanisms were decided upon.

The upside of Occupy Magazine being available online is that I have now had a chance to see the type of material it contains without actually having a print copy in my hand. And at least for their first issue they seem to have gone with content relating to the Occupy movement first published in other venues. Only a small portion of the magazine was comprised of content written specifically for this publication. I guess we will have to wait for subsequent issues of the magazine to see if this model is continued or if they are able to source original content from international contributors, as seems to be their goal.

In related news, there seems to have been an 'Occupy'-themed "open the House of Assembly" protest at the confederation building in St. John's today.

At the moment it seems that Atlantic Canada is just full of excited Occupiers.

An unexpected development at Occupy Halifax

After my last post I continued to search the internet for signs of life at Occupy Halifax/Nova Scotia. I eventually found evidence that the protest has given life to a new print-only publication, a magazine called Occupy Magazine. It seems that the co-op responsible for publishing the magazine are interested in having their publication distributed internationally.

The first issue was released only yesterday and I gather that they are already thinking about subsequent issues. Of course, the magazine's Twitter feed suggests that the magazine is in the red. I guess given the current state of the print media this shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Because the magazine is new and because it is not available online I still don't have too much of a sense of exactly what it is or what it contains. Maybe in a few days more reports about its content and origin story will make their way to the web. I am also curious to see if the national and international distribution plans come to fruition.

Has Occupy Halifax fizzled?

Last week's news coverage of the Occupy Halifax event spoke of protestors who were dedicated to the cause and interested in spending days or weeks on the Grand Parade (at least they would be back this weekend). Interestingly, there seems to have been little to no mainstream media coverage of the protest since last weekend (or at least any coverage that I can find through Google News). I was starting to wonder if the protest even made it much past last weekend

I did just find a post that suggests that the protest lasted at least 6 days. Of course, as this was posted about two days ago I don't know if the protest is still ongoing or if they have packed up camp and moved on.

Twitter activity does suggest that as of last night there may have still been something happening Occupy Halifax-wise, though the extent of the occupation is completely unclear to me.

What seems a little clearer is that news outlets that were covering the event a week ago seemed less inclined to cover the event through the week. And can such an event continue without relatively widespread media coverage? Given media disinterest how long will the Occupy Halifax event be able to hold out?

A rather bold statement for a former Governor General?

Earlier today while skimming my Twitter feed I happened to see a Tweet from Canada's former Governor General Michaëlle Jean.

The content of the Tweet, while not inherently shocking or any more radical than the normal anti-status quo jargon, surprised me because of author's previous job atop the Canadian governmental hierarchy. Is there is a position in the Canadian governmental system that might be more associated with the maintenance of the status quo than that of Governor General? Not only is the Governor General representative of the Queen, a person whose financial stability can be attributed to nothing other than to have been born heir to the throne, but they also personally sign all government legislation.

I can't help but wonder if she could have been more complicit in the maintenance of the system about which she is now complaining?

In the vein of the Durham Report quotes

I am in the process of skimming through a book, The Least Examined Branch: The Role of Legislatures in the Constitutional State, on the roles of legislatures in constitutional democracies when I came across the following passage in the forward:

This distinction between judicial and legislative roles is not therefore between principle and policy, because both institutions can and should act in principled ways. It is rather between ruling narrowly and legislating broadly, whether the rulings are a matter of principle or policy. This distinction is fundamental to understanding the difference between how courts and legislatures are typically designed to work and how they work best in supporting a constitutional democracy. Legislatures most often make egregious mistakes when they try to rule on single, high-visibility cases for politically expedient purposes. Courts correspondingly most often make egregious mistakes when they rule in ways that go far beyond what can be confidently inferred from the merits of the actual case or cases at hand.

I think that this is probably a pretty good way of thinking about the respective roles of legislatures and the judiciary. I am a little embarrassed that I hadn't explicitly thought about such distinctions before now.

Edit: The more I think about it the more I realize that this perspective is a little ahistorical, at least in the Canadian/Westminister tradition. Private Bills, for quite a while, were a major component of the legislature's work. And I can't help but think that issues relating to the setting of precedents are reasonably somewhat relevant to the rulings passed down by the judiciary.

Maybe my early excitement was a bit hasty.

Apparently there was an Occupy Halifax event

I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn that there was, in fact, an Occupy Halifax event, and that it was conducted with the support of the Occupy Wolfville crowd (which explains the weak showing on the Occupy Wolfville front).

And while I would have guessed that such an event would take place in Cornwallis Park I guess it makes a little more sense that it took place on the Grand Parade.

What seems to set this protest apart from the original is that long-term occupation doesn't seem to be the goal. Instead of occupying the Grand Parade for close to a month the Occupiers seem to plan to head back again in a week.

I can't help but wonder if such a protest wouldn't have more of an impact both in actual and media terms if it were to be held on a business day?

A Few Quick Notes 551

-I guess I have to say that today is a pretty nice day, though it is a little cooler and not quite as bright as I might consider ideal.

-Though Jeannette and I have driven past the set of the HBO Canada show Call Me Fitz countless times we have still not yet had a Jason Priestly sighting. I guess I can't say that I am particularly surprised that I haven't had such a sighting because I really don't have much of a sense of what he looks like.

Maybe more than having a Beverly Hills 90210 alum in our midst, I like that New Minas is serving as a stand-in for Detroit.

-Assuming all goes as planned, Jeannette and I will be playing some pick-up Ultimate this afternoon. Assuming things keep getting colder, this could be one our last such events for the year.

-For some reason it has been about three weeks since I last posted an entry in this series. Sadly, a mass outcry relating to the paucity of these posts did not develop in the way I might have expected given the longevity of the series. It is almost as though we don't have a particularly active or large readership here at Montifax.

-Last night I heard that various Occupy X protests were being shut down or picking up. For some reason I haven't yet heard much follow up today. Maybe the situations are still unresolved? All I know is that even though the streets of Wolfville were teeming with people last night, by this morning things seemed to have cleared up. I guess there just isn't much of an Occupy spirit in Wolfville these days.

(Apparently there was supposed to be some kind of Occupy Halifax event yesterday. I wonder if it happened in Cornwallis Park?)

-Now that I have passed my comps I have to start working on my thesis. So far things haven't moved particularly quickly. Hopefully that will change in the very near future.

This is even more shocking

A few days ago I posted justifications Kathy Dunderdale gave for not opening the House of Assembly until the spring.

It seems that since that post she has given even more ridiculous statements about nature of the House that really indicate that she doesn't understand the role of the legislature.

CBC is reporting that Dunderdale suggested that:

If the house of assembly was just about question period, where most of the accountability takes place, then we could go and do that in a month's time

First of all, though it is probably already obvious, most of the 'accountability' does not take in question period. It's my opinion that question period could be completely eliminated with out having a significant impact on the ability of the members of the legislature to hold the government to account.

The members of the House have a much greater ability to hold the government to account through things like the Public Accounts Committee and the estimates committee. Of course, whether or not these mechanisms are used effectively or not is another matter altogether.

And maybe most importantly the legislature is the place where the government of the day has to introduce, defend, and justify its legislative and budgetary proposals. The members of the House, whether they are government or opposition, have the responsibility to examine these proposals and engage in a public discussion of their merits.

If anything, the existence of Question Period allows all parties to act as though it is the important function of the House, that it is where accountability takes place. And they can do this because the quotes and fast-paced exchanges that take place in Question Period are what make the news. Sadly, Question Period is nothing more than a facade of accountability that distracts from what most members, opposition and government, aren't doing, which is effectively holding the government of the day to account through the various means available to them.

The worst part of this is that most people probably don't know how unimportant question period is in the scheme of things. They also probably don't know that Ms. Dunderdale's comments betray a shocking lack of knowledge regarding the proper functioning of a parliamentary government. And comments like this won't help them have a better sense of how a legislature can best hold the government of the day to account.

Name two American presidents whose children have written Washington based mysteries?

If you said Roosevelt and Truman you would have been correct.

Margaret Truman, the daughter of Harry S Truman, wrote quite a number of books about murder in and around Washington. It seems that her first mystery was even turned into the classic Wesley Snipes file Murder at 1600.

Elliott Roosevelt, one of FDR's children, wrote mysteries in which a fictionalized version of his mother serves as the 'detective.' Oh, and at least one of these is set in the White House.

And y'all thought that the children of presidents never amounted to much of anything.

Let's hope she's alone on this one

As some of you may know, on Tuesday elections for the House of Assembly were held in Newfoundland. As you may also know, the House of Assembly is Newfoundland's provincial legislature. Another way of getting at the issue is that Tuesday's election dealt with selecting legislators, or people to sit in the House of Assembly and conduct the work of the legislature.

So, given this back story, I thought it was a little funny to see that newly re-elected MHA Kathy Dunderdale has been quoted by CBC when talking about the re-opening of the legislature as saying "I don't find it a place for a very healthy, open, constructive debate to start with." All of this was to justify her decision not to open the House again until the spring.

If she isn't interested in doing this part of her job can we expect her to be declining the approximately $100 000 pay cheque that accompanies the post?

Maybe my only celebrity obsession

For quite a while I have been taken with the melding-of-celebrity-first-names phenomenon that we have seen with Bennifer and Brangelina. While I don't really care one way about the individuals, these guys can't divorce and dissolve these wonderful names.

What has surprised me about this phenomenon is that it has remained relatively limited. Only a select few celebrity couples have such melded names. Why isn't this more common?

To help popularize the phenomenon I have decided to help the process along by coming up with a few possible melded names for your other favourite celebrity couples:

Russell Brand and Katy Perry = Rusty

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher = Demon

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes = Toe

Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds - ScarRy

Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett = Lylia

Unfortunately my limited knowledge of celebrity couples limits the number of these that I can create. Though I'm sure that with these as a starting point you can all go forth and create your own melded celebrity names that you can then try to slip into the vernacular of the day (with the eventual goal of seeing them on TMZ or Perez Hilton).