Where's Walt(o) now? Notes from Ed.

Ed. here. Walt has left me to shovel out our cabin in the pines while he is at an undisclosed location in the Great No-longer-white North. Tomorrow night he and Poor Len Canayen and two of Walt's trusted agents will sit in the middle of a large room, surrounded by TVs and computers, tracking and discussing the returns from the Canadian federal election. Many a good time will be had by all. Or not, as the case may be.

Walt has predicted the result of said election. He thinks Trudeaumania II will produce a Liberal minority. (Lifetime pct .976.) The Liberal minority, he says, will have been elected by the visible minorities of Canada's three big metropolitan areas: Vancouver, Montréal and, above all, Toronto.

The Canadian press -- not to be confused with Canadian Press -- labour under the delusion that their endorsements matter. The Toronto Star endorsed Justin Trudeau's Liberals. No surprise there, the Red Star being so liberal, so PC as to make any other endorsement impossible. La Presse, of Montréal, also chooses le Parti Libéral, for reasons which make sense in that city.

The oddest endorsement of this election -- perhaps of this century, so far -- comes from the good grey Globe and Mail. The Glob's editor, David Walmsley, is an Ulsterman, who could hardly be expected to plump for either M Trudeau or Mr Mulcair, both Cafeteria Catholics. But he couldn't bring himself to stand up for the dictatorial Steve Harper, so penned a leader calling on Canadians to vote for the Conservatives, on condition that Mr. Harpoon resign immediately after winning!

No, dear reader, Ed. kids you not. See "Globe and Mail mocked on Twitter after endorsing Tories but not Harper". Mr. Walmsley evidently thinks it possible to suck and blow at the same time. Best Tweet: "I endorse the Globe but not the Mail." Poor Len's comment: "It's like calling the Montréal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup, providing they trade Carey Price for Jonathan Bernier." (Canuck readers will doubtless understand that one.)

Speaking of les Glorieux, with last night's victory over Detroit, they have now won the first six games of the new season, the best start in the history of the club. Sadly, the very fine game was once again not available to Francophone (= French-speaking) fans residing west of Québec who don't subscribe to Robbers ridiculously expensive NHL Centre Ice package.

The game was telecast, in English, on Hockey Night in Canada on the CBC, with the Toronto game relegated to CITY. But the TVA coverage, which should have been on "Le forfait en français", was not. Channels 423 and 424 were dark, once again. See "Canada's team MIA from 'Hockey Night in Canada'" (WWW 11/10/15). If you're a Bell customer and subscribe to the "NHL French package", complain!

That's it from this corner of the woods. Walt will return on Tuesday, or possibly Wednesday depending on how long it takes him to dry out.

Walt's Canadian agents disclose their voting intentions

Walt is hearing a lot of moaning from north of the world's longest undefended border. Many Canadians, including at least two of Walt's agents, are genuinely distressed by the prospect of having to vote for: a) another four years of corrupt Harper dictatorship; b) the Hair Apparent (not Donald Trump but Justin Trudeau; c) Angry Tom Mulcair, the socialist wolf in cheap clothing.

This editorial cartoon by the estimable Brian Gable, in today's Globe and Mail, pretty much sums up their sentiments.

Note from Ed.: We are not unaware of (c) copyright law, and hope Mr. G and the G&M won't mind. Hey, we don't make any money on WWW!

Canucks! Trust in Justin! (VIDEO)

This post is for Canadians who are fretting about who to vote for in the federal election on October 19th. There must be a great temptation to adopt the stance of Mark Twain [or was it H.L. Mencken? Ed.] who wrote "Don't vote. It only encourages them."

The counter-argument is that all that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. So Walt recommends voting in every election, if you live in a country where elections are free, fair and meaningful. Ah, but we risk going around the Horn here. Let's not. The question for Canucks is, which party and/or which leader is the least of the three evils.

The prospect of Steve Harper's quasi-Conservatives being returned to power for a fourth term fills most of Walt's Canadian agents with fear and loathing. It's one thing to have a dictatorship forced on you at the point of a gun, but to go out and vote for the Dear Leader -- on the better-the-devil-you-know theory -- is beyond contemplation.

That leaves the quasi-socialist New [sic] Democratic Party, led by Angry Tom Mulcair, and the decidedly liberal Gliberals, Canada's former Natural Governing Party. The same old Toronto-centric elite have a shiny new front man, Justin "Nice Hair" Trudeau, son of Himself.

As Walt sees it, there are two ballot issues. Canadians are rightly worried about their economy, which has sunk into a recession from which it can only recover if there is a miraculous increase in the price of oil. [Is there a patron saint of oil? Ed.] Mr. Harpoon claims he (and he alone) can pilot Canada through the rough waters. At the same time, he says the country's economic and financial crisis is due to global conditions, not to any failure of management on his part.

The NDP and Liberals claim to have plans to revive the economy by throwing money at Canada's middle class, which neither Mr. Mulcair or Mr. Trudeau can really define. In fact, the Liberal economic policy begins with "Oremus", and the NDP version with "Let us pray."

The other issue is nothing less than the future of democracy in Canada. More than ever before, political power in Ottawa resides with and in the Prime Minister's Office. The House of Commons, where Mr. Harper commanded a majority in the last parliament, has no power. The Senate, packed with Tory hacks and bagmen [and bagwomen. Ed.] marches to the beat of the PMO's drum. When the Supreme Court of Canada rules against Mr. Harpoon's legislation, the Dear Leader ignores the ruling.

Stephen Harper has more power, in "his" country, than the Prez of the Excited States of America, perhaps even more than Vlad the Impaler in Russia. The ongoing trial (for bribery and fraud) of Senator Mike Puffy -- Harper's appointee -- reminds us of Lord Acton's dictum: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In Walt's opinion, Canadians must end the corrupt Harper dictatorship. Throw them out!

But who to vote for? Ed. won't give me any more space today to explain why I can't recommend either the NDP or the Liberals. Good arguments can be made for and against both parties. But, for today, I'll leave you with a little ditty by "Canada's Favorite [sic] Musical Comedy Duo", Bowser and Blue. Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.



Note from Ed.: I have no idea why the screen is split like that. Reminds me of an old stereopticon. (Look it up.)

Further listening: Click here to check out the Bowser and Blue YouTube Library.