Canada Speaks/Le Canada Parle

Yesterday October 14^th Canada went to the election booth and voted for another Conservative minority government. Stephen Harper will lead another slightly stronger minority cabinet into the coming year and will put Canada's economy at the forefront of this new government. Some gains were made by both the Conservative party and the New Democrat Party. The New Democrats broke ground in Quebec with their first ever seat in a Quebec riding.

Hier le 14 octobre Canada est allé aux cabines d'élection et a voté pour un autre gouvernement de conservateur minorité. Stephen Harper mènera un autre coffret légèrement plus fort de minorité dans l'année à venir et mettra l'économie du Canada au rang de ce nouveau gouvernement. Quelques gains ont été faits par la partie conservatrice et Les Neveaux Democrats. Plus de gains ont été faits par la partie conservatrice dans Ontario mais pas au Québec. Les nouveaux Democrats ont cassé la terre au Québec avec leur premier siège dans une équitation du Québec.

In Quebec the majority was for the bloc de Quebecois. The Bloc held onto their 50 seats in Parliament. There were really no big surprises which disappointed many voters. Although there was not much change in the political landscape of the House of Commons, a larger contingent of New Democrats will put more focus on Canadian Industry. For full election results please visit CBC's webpage.

Au Québec la majorité était pour le bloc de Quebecois. Le bloc s'est tenu sur leurs 50 sièges au parlement. Il n'y avait vraiment aucune grande surprise qui a déçu beaucoup d'électeurs. Bien qu'il n'y ait pas eu beaucoup de changement du paysage politique de la Chambre des communes, un plus grand contingent de nouveaux Democrats mettra plus d'accent sur l'industrie Canadienne. Pour de pleins résultats d'élection veuillez visitent le site Web du Canada d'élections.

Thursday Thought: U.S. & Canadian Elections

With both Canadian and American elections right around the corner I could not help myself from drawing the conclusion that the North American Union (N.A.U.) is clearly on the horizon. I have no idea as to what the flag of the N.A.U. might look like but what you see here is my opinion on what it should look like if political leaders were to push for it.

The current elections in Canada were called not that long ago and we will be going to the polls before the U.S.; but if we elect a majority government we will again be going to the polls a month before the next U.S. election four years from now. Right now the polls seem to be fluctuating quite a bit and the last few days of attack ads will be running. Liberals, New Democrats and Greens do not want a Conservative majority or minority saying that the changes that Stephen Harper has made with a minority government are bad for the economy and that we should all panic over the economic mess south of the border and assume the worst for our own economy.

I hear a lot of talk about change coming from the U.S. media and a lot of talk about how Stephen Harper is killing the economy from Canadian media. U.S. politics are more partisan than Canadian considering the left and the right have more than one party running. It can be difficult to decide which party to support when you have to choose the lesser of four evils (I say four because there are four major parties I can vote for, Bloc Quebecois only runs for seats in Quebec).

Anyway, with both elections relatively close in terms of dates within the election year one could draw the conclusion that the Canadian electoral system is being reformed. The possibility of a Harper majority government does not seem likely from the polls I saw today but there still are a few days before the election where that could change. With a majority government Canadians would not be going to the polls again for another four years; coinciding with the 2012 U.S. election...makes me think that the N.A.U. would do more than reform the currency across the three nations.

I can only speculate about the N.A.U. but there are treaties in place that are precursors to the N.A.U. right now. The Security & Prosperity Partnership (S.P.P.) is just one of the precursors that I am aware of. I am sure there are more, and more will come to light in the coming years ahead. Only the coming days and months ahead will be able to reveal what will happen.

What's your take on the North American Union?
Are you for uniting the three separate currencies into the Amero?
What's your say?

What Poor Workmanship Looks like

Okay, this is what happened...three years ago I called in a roofing company to strip all of the shingles off the roof and fix the leak that I had that was minor. The roofing company came in shingled over the existing shingles and did not put any flashing where water might pool. I noticed the leak earlier in the year as the drywall on the ceiling was bulging down. May I remind you that I am only one person and trying to get a hold of friends for longer than half an hour has been difficult for the past four years.

One of my really good friends moved back from British Columbia this year and when he came by to visit and catch up on what has been happening since he left pointed out a musty smell. Well the smell was coming from the mold that was growing on the ceiling behind the drywall and insulation. We pulled the moldy ceiling down about a week ago and found a hole about the size of a tennis ball in the roof decking. The picture above was taken after we had started to replace the damaged roof decking and found that there was nothing to attach it to.

I called the number from my paperwork for the roof to see if they would come in to fix it. You'll never guess what comes next... They went bankrupt! With such poor workmanship it really was not much of a surprise. At least the bankruptcy trustee said they would send me some paperwork to file a claim against the defunct company. Now what am I going to do? So I have been trying to get some quotes to get the wall fixed so I can fix the roof as soon as possible. It is getting cold and I certainly do not want to get the problem fixed in January.

Have you ever had a similar problem?

Thursday Thought

When I woke up today, I had completely forgot about the English debates tonight; but I did get a chance to watch some of the French debate last night. My French is not the greatest but I was glad that the network airing the debate translated for me. Anyway, I just remembered about the debate just in time to catch a few questions from reports after the debate.

Maybe I needed a break from politics for today. I was watching some television earlier today; specifically on the History channel and I just was engrossed by a program that was uncovering buildings from the time of Henry VIII. It was quite interesting and took my mind off of politics for the time being.

I will have to get back to the political folly that is the up coming election on October 14^th. I am definitely going to vote that day. I haven't seen any good commercials encouraging voting this time around, maybe we'll get a better turn out this time...who knows? Anyway, I'll catch up with campaigns and have some more in the coming days.