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High temp today, here: 8. Dewpoint then: 6. High dewpoint: 6.
High temp today in TO: 9. Dewpoint then: 6. High dewpoint: 6.
Low today on the balcony: 0.1. High: 7.3. Current: 2.2.
Well, you know, since the Rheostatics had Winter Nationals instead of Fall Nationals this year, it only stands to reason we'd have winter monsoons instead of fall monsoons. Looks like seasonable cold returning for a cameo on the weekend before we're back into slush next week. I've been waiting for this, so I could tell L.'s sister that the last two weeks of January are, in fact, not necessarily the coldest two weeks of the winter, as she insists they are. The trouble is, of course, they might very well happen to be the coldest two weeks of the winter. Not looking that way right now, though. And then again, as far as technical winter goes, this is looking suspiciously like another winter without a winter. (Although in our real winter without a winter, three or four ago, it never got seasonably cold.)
The Conservatives may have been trying to lose, but the Liberals are doing a much better job of it. This has that same sickly this-can't-really-be-happening feeling to it as 1995. Harris, I mean, though the referendum had that quality about it, too. It feels like something has snapped--a week or two ago, Paul Martin was right when he said that Liberal values were Canadian values, and now he's not anymore. (The Conservatives ahead in Quebec ... just goes to show that, in politics, some things may be for a long time, but nothing's ever certain.) Someday, maybe tomorrow (maybe tomorrow--it's a mug's game, maybe this is all bird flu), maybe in ten years, it'll snap back.
Who knows what damage will be done in the meantime. It's not like the federal government actually does much in Canada, anyway. There's a regular talking head on TVOntario who used to cover provincial politics, and then went to Ottawa, and remarked, a few times, how boring it was--nothing ever happens there; all the real action is in the provinces. Well, all the more so shall it be, if Harper wins. But all the more so has it been under Martin, anyway.
What I was saying there a few days ago about how Canadian elections used to be about managerial competence rather than ideology--I don't think there's much doubt that it's a matter of managerial competence that is swinging this election. The ideology is snapping in behind it: since we're going to vote for the Conservatives anyway, we might as well agree with them. (Same damn thing happened with Harris. The Common Sense Revolution (TM) didn't win that election; David Peterson lost it--but then, since we were there anyway, we went along for the ride.) Goes to show a certain advantage to something like the American primary system: it'd be nice to be able to throw the bums out without ripping the fabric of the country to do it.
High temp today in TO: 9. Dewpoint then: 6. High dewpoint: 6.
Low today on the balcony: 0.1. High: 7.3. Current: 2.2.
Well, you know, since the Rheostatics had Winter Nationals instead of Fall Nationals this year, it only stands to reason we'd have winter monsoons instead of fall monsoons. Looks like seasonable cold returning for a cameo on the weekend before we're back into slush next week. I've been waiting for this, so I could tell L.'s sister that the last two weeks of January are, in fact, not necessarily the coldest two weeks of the winter, as she insists they are. The trouble is, of course, they might very well happen to be the coldest two weeks of the winter. Not looking that way right now, though. And then again, as far as technical winter goes, this is looking suspiciously like another winter without a winter. (Although in our real winter without a winter, three or four ago, it never got seasonably cold.)
The Conservatives may have been trying to lose, but the Liberals are doing a much better job of it. This has that same sickly this-can't-really-be-happening feeling to it as 1995. Harris, I mean, though the referendum had that quality about it, too. It feels like something has snapped--a week or two ago, Paul Martin was right when he said that Liberal values were Canadian values, and now he's not anymore. (The Conservatives ahead in Quebec ... just goes to show that, in politics, some things may be for a long time, but nothing's ever certain.) Someday, maybe tomorrow (maybe tomorrow--it's a mug's game, maybe this is all bird flu), maybe in ten years, it'll snap back.
Who knows what damage will be done in the meantime. It's not like the federal government actually does much in Canada, anyway. There's a regular talking head on TVOntario who used to cover provincial politics, and then went to Ottawa, and remarked, a few times, how boring it was--nothing ever happens there; all the real action is in the provinces. Well, all the more so shall it be, if Harper wins. But all the more so has it been under Martin, anyway.
What I was saying there a few days ago about how Canadian elections used to be about managerial competence rather than ideology--I don't think there's much doubt that it's a matter of managerial competence that is swinging this election. The ideology is snapping in behind it: since we're going to vote for the Conservatives anyway, we might as well agree with them. (Same damn thing happened with Harris. The Common Sense Revolution (TM) didn't win that election; David Peterson lost it--but then, since we were there anyway, we went along for the ride.) Goes to show a certain advantage to something like the American primary system: it'd be nice to be able to throw the bums out without ripping the fabric of the country to do it.
