The Majority of Canadians Are About to Get What They Asked For

Here we have it. The long dreaded/anticipated Conservative majority. Canadians have gone to the polls and given Harper the mandate that he so desperately wanted. He did a lot of things right: great attack ads, hammered on the economy, and mined Toronto for seats. All of which helped push him passed the post.

I am not overly surprised (although very disappointed) that the Conservatives won.

I do a lot of talking about politics with friends and family. I find it very interesting to hear other people's points of view and their reasons for why they support different parties. I have a few really good friends who are really smart people who vote Conservative, and they do so normally for the following reasons: lower taxes, economic uncertainty and probably most often, lack of what they see as a strong leader in the other parties. Now, I know that people like Jack Layton, and they see him as a strong option but even with this huge gain in this election it's tough to believe that the NDP could ever win an election in Canada. And this makes me as a far lefty in Canada wonder what kind of country Canadians want. I've always assumed that Canadians were proud of their heritage, their universal healthcare and social programs. It seems that this is no longer the case; lots of Canadians would prefer to lean into the American style of healthcare and a militarization of the economy.

I joked with one of my colleagues over Facebook that we should transfer, and I was only half joking.

This brings me to an interesting documentary I watched recently about the political divide in the US and how in general the coasts are liberal and the centre is conservative. The director's conclusion was that there wasn't something about these places that make a person either conservative or liberal, but that people of these different world views tend to move into these areas - like attracts like. With this in mind, it makes me wonder if Canada is attracting more conservative (note the lack of capitalization) immigrants. I don't have any research, which I should look up but I'm too lethargic after watching the election, but it feels like in places that are heavy immigrant areas have skewed Conservative (Brampton, Scarborough etc.). Certainly Canadians of all stripes are voting for the Conservatives, as this majority proves, and I think that maybe this shows that Canadians, whether born here, or new Canadians really want a Conservative government. But what is a lefty to do?

Is moving to a country that is more inline with one's political view acceptable or is it giving up on your home? Can one use politics as a reason for emigrating? Can I claim political asylum in Sweden? These are questions that I half jokingly ask....but only HALF jokingly.

For now, there is a real change coming to Canada and I don't know if we will recognize the country by 2015, and I don't know if we (even those who voted for Harper) will be happy with the result.

Road trip

First off,i don't know whether it should be one word or two, but either way it raises a lot of thoughts and ambitions in any traveler.  I have participated in a road trip or two in my day, a couple of times across the country and a couple of times into America.  I was just out tonight with a good friend of mine with whom I've been on a couple of these trips and I have to say, it might be the purest form of travel.

So last summer we went to yellowstone park.  There were a few of us, and we decided to drive from toronto.  That basically took 35 hours of driving, fueled by redbull, snacks.and lots of coffee.  We loved the whole trip and the journey was definitely as important as the destination.

The thing about traveling by car is that you feel the distance between your origin and your destination.  When you hop into a plane and fall asleep and wake up in Italy, you don't get a sense of how far it is.   But when you sit behind the wheel and trade off with a good friend on driving shifts you get an idea of just how far you've come.

We went through the badlands of north dakota which was awesome.  We went through the grizzly bear, path which was snowcapped in july.  And we finally ended up on yellowstone.

Yellowstine is amazing, I dare say one of the best places I've been.  The geysers and the hot springs are astounding, and you can travel the world trying to see better but will likely come uo short.  The people were helpful, and hospitable , we were served burgers by a girl from prague jn s small town in montana where et stayed.  But what made it amazing and truly unforgettable was the 70 hour roundtrip with my wife and 2 of my good friends.  And the audio copy of catch 22 didn't hurt either.  It was a real feather in my cap.