the facts don't count

watch this: ajax-pickering conservative candidate rondo thomas. it is PARTY TIME. he might win, and sit as a member of parliament! i'm naming my next dog RONDO.

i just read my john turner and bill vander zalm books. along with my joe clark book they've got me feeling down. i also read a book called parties, candidates, and constituency campaigns in canadian elections. i learned that the only real factor that matters in bc federal politics is the VOTE SPLIT. if we were smart, we'd be sending unmarked bills tokanman wong.

see, when i am old, i can look back and be proud for who i have voted for and worked on behalf of. find me one person who is proud to vote for paul martin today. everyone voted for mulroney in '88 and felt hungover for the next four years. godDAMMIT people: martin is one of the worst prime minister's we've ever had. he's risen to his level of incompetence. imagine if john turner had won a minority in '84 and gone to the polls 16 months later. that is the situation we are in today. turner v. mulroney. the ridiculousness of it all is emphasized by everone's reaction to peter newman's mulroney book last year. 'oh gosh, mulroney sucked!'. that's right, mulroney totally sucked! he was awful! in that context, this election is shaping up as very stupid indeed.

for the record, i was saying often in 2003, when all predictions had the liberals at 55% nationally and winning 250+ seats in the next election that paul martin was merely the second coming of john turner. i am being proven right on a daily basis, and am glad for the vindication. i hate paul martin, but even more, i hate the slash-and-burn method he used to win the leadership of the liberal party. do you know what will be left when he leaves? FRAT BOYS. plump frat boys, dazzled with power and international relations. oh, and lobbyists. a lot of unemployed lobbyists.

further, for the record, in the ndp leadership race of 2003 i voted for bill blaikie.

the stress of thinking about these things and being able to affect so little is trying on me. i know at least the top two, if not top three candidates in every BC constituency. i know what seats are relatively new, and which have existed for eons. i know who has held each seat, party and MP, since at least 1993, if not longer. one day i will find an outlet for this hobby.

in 1993, a huge proportion of rookie MPs were elected. i will find that statistic and commit it to memory within the next several days. a number are still in parliament. we speak so much of these people, these members of parliament. they are all individual people. each candidate is both a name on a ballot and an individual person. the translation from individual person to member of parliament fascinates me.

four categories of citizens are able to vote in ridings in which they do not reside:

• students
  
• military personnel
  
• inmates
  
• MPs and those that live with them.