...off and running?

the crowd goes wild

i messed up my neck today through a vigourous afternoon of sitting in an office chair (i'm not joking) and had to take a wee time out upon returning home to stay flat on my back and hope that the discomfort passed once i had laid supine upon the magical tempur-like material of my living room sofa. unable to hold a book at that angle, i opted to turn on the television to the first all-news channel i could find, only to be assaulted by an image of michael ignatieff bouncing up and down, announcing his platform and waving his version of the little red book.

as sad as it looks to see the liberal leader going back to the sort of blandishments that got his party elected in 1993 and that continued to work until they were crow-barred from office in 2006 by stephen harper's conservatives, i at least had some glimmer of hope that, finally, someone was going to start talking about issues. as far as i can tell, ignatieff's red book is a pastiche of educational funding, support for seniors and closing tax loopholes, but it really doesn't matter, because at least it's something.

it beggars belief that in a modern country with decisions to make about its wealth of natural resources, an aging population, an entire territory beset by poverty, and a serious problem when it comes to affordable and equitable access to telecommunications that the main issue that has emerged in the first week of a national election campaign is whether or not the leaders of the liberal and conservative parties should debate each other mano-a-mano in addition to debating with all the other national party leaders (except the green party leader, who wasn't invited again).

personally, i don't see why the two of them need to meet to debate things without the other leaders around, but if it'll make people stop talking about the debate as if it's important to the future of the country, the two of them can jello wrestle in my lobby for all i care.

politicians, please note:: everyone would be a lot more engaged and more likely to vote if you stopped talking about yourselves as being the issue. get over yourselves, you're not all that.