General election, private ignorance

A few days ago, Claire and I took part in one of those 'Test the Nation' quizzes on tv. It was all about Canada, so we figured we would have a go to see how much we really new about our adopted homeland. After all, we figured, the least we could do was fail miserably. As it happened we got 50%, so not bad really. We were pretty good on the generic stuff such as 'how many time zones does Canada have?' (6 if you are interested) and we guessed a lot, but what we were truly terrible on, maybe unsurprisingly, was Canadian politics. Of course, traditionally, politics is something that registers on most people's radar at an interest level only marginally higher than the tenth season of Big Brother, but I always found it interesting and stimulating, particularly at election time. At least I did in the UK. In Canada, I realised that I knew virtually nothing about the political landscape; the parties, the personalities and the policies of this nation.
This was all brought into focus recently by the announcement that there will be a general election on the 14th October. I felt duty bound to find out exactly what makes this nation's political heart tick. Now, I'm not going to go into too much detail, after all I do want anyone reading this blog to come back again, but I felt that this was as good a place as any to organise my thoughts on the subject.

So, here we go, Canadian politics in a nutshell. There are 308 seats in the parliament and four main parties. The outgoing prime minister is Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative party who are very similar to the current Tory party in the UK. They held 127 seats and are expected to return to power. Trying to stop them are the Liberals (equivalent to the SDP, but with more seats than them - 95, pre-dissolution). They are headed up by Stephane Dion, a Québécois, whose main disadvantage is that he speaks English with such a broad French accent that no-one can understand a word that he is saying. Talking of French speakers, the third party are the Bloc Québécois who held 48 seats, all of them in Quebec, natch, and whose only policy seems to be a desire for independence for Quebec. The final party of significance are the New Democrats, who had 30 seats and are the Canadian equivalent to the UK Labour party. So basically Canada is just right of centre, with little chance of becoming anything more than liberal and who find the Bloc Québécois an irritating impedance to running the country generally. There is one other party which held a single seat, the Greens, who are hoping to pull in more support this time around. Then again, we have heard that before....

In terms of who stands for what, well that is a bit foggy at the moment. I can honestly say that I have little idea of each party's manifesto and any attempt to read further on the subject, or watch a political programme, soon results in a mild headache and a desire to drink beer. One of the problems is that events here are rather overshadowed by what is happening south of the border. I get the impression that people are more interested (or should that be concerned?) in what is going to happen in the US than their own country and that the election here is distinctly of lesser significance. Of course, many of the issues involved in the election are pretty much universal. There are the two areas where Canadians are at their most piqued, the economy and the environment. Nothing is more crucial to their psyche than having money to spend on their most treasured pursuit, the outdoors, so the amount of that money and an outdoors to spend it on is of paramount importance. Also on the agenda are the city infrastructures and Afghanistan. Canada is not involved in Iraq (they had the sense to stay the hell away) but they are involved in what is, aguably, the more noble motives of defeating the Taliban.
Perhaps though, the more interesting issues are the ones that are absent from the political arena. Two issues that are big in the UK, are often controversial and which normally take up a sizable chunk of the budget. They are health, and law and order. It isn't so much that Canadians don't care about these areas, they do, like any society, it is just that they are just not issues. The Health Service here is not perfect, but it works and it is better than the US system. Also most employees are in a health care plan at work and are content with that. Law and order is the same, people here generally trust the RCMP, serious crime is limited to a few crazies and a few areas and the vast majority of people live in secure and safe neighbourhoods. You don't have that paranoia that is inveigling it's way into British society either, where every single white male is a suspected terrorist or paedophile and groups of teenagers are viewed as potential threats and not as harmlessly going about their business.

Maybe my self-confessed ignorance of the political landscape here has meant that there is more out there than meets the eye, I'm sure there is. That however, is part of the experience of being a relative newcomer to a country, discovering the important issues and uncovering the facts behind the fog. I'm looking forward to it.
As a footnote, because we are not yet Canadian citizens, Claire and I cannot vote, so we could argue that everything here is academic. The point though is that one day, we will be eligible and we owe it to Canada to vote from an informed standpoint. Claire and I are both avid believers in the democratic system and believe everyone's vote should count. So better to learn the ropes now so that we take an effective part later.

Fall guy

I've always enjoyed Autumn, or, as we are in Canada, Fall. This is just as well as the weather here has decided that summer is over and we are in need of some reminding of things to come. Therefore the temperatures have dropped, the wind has picked up and people are quick to ask you if you 'are ready for winter yet'. That doesn't mean that it is unpleasant outside, it isn't, but it is noticeable how different the weather is now as the nights draw in and the trees begin their colourful transformation. For most Canadians, this means one thing - yard work. Preparing their garden for the months of snow to come and making the most of the remaining fair weather to prune, clip, tether and secure their most precious plants. For me, this time of year means staring at the yard and willing some helpful yard fairy will appear and do the work for me.

Fall also means other things of course. The most prominent being the return to school/college. This is a big year for Charlotte, our no. 1 daughter, as she starts grade 1 and therefore will soon know the meaning of one of the most hated words in the schooling dictionary - homework. She has been very keen to start and hopped off to her first day with great enthusiasm. Pleasingly, she also came home with great enthusiasm and announced that 'it was really good'. Unlike the UK, during the summer recess, every child's parents are presented with a long list of items that are required to be purchased and presented on the first day. For instance, 12 coloured crayons, 6 erasers, 6 glue sticks, one painting shirt, 12 sharpened HB pencils etc. Also on the list was one cauldron, medium and their choice of a cat, owl or rat. OK I made that bit up. However, there was one item - 3 no. duotangs, assorted colours, which baffled the heck out of Claire and I. What the hell were they? I thought they may be a type of chewy sweet, Claire thought that was just wishful thinking. After a panic phone call to one of her soccer-mom friends, it was revealed that a duotang was a type of document folder with metal fasteners. Yeah, right, of course you knew that.

Another Fall type problem is when to purchase the winter tyres for the car. Over here, one type of tyre will not get you through the year, not safely anyway. So we must embark on the tedious best-price searching task to get new tyres in time before the roads magically transform themselves into skating rinks. The problem is, everyone will be doing much the same thing and probably finding that everywhere will be selling them at much the same price anyway. The best place apparently, is Canadian Tire (the clue is probably in the name), which is one of the biggest stores in St. Albert and despite it's name, sells everything from fishing rods and light bulbs to, well er tyres. (Please note the refusal to spell the word tyre incorrectly, thank you America). Canadian Tire isn't so much a store as a Canadian institution and it is one of those places that if you cannot find what you are looking for there, it probably doesn't exist. This is unlike the Evil Empire (aka WalMart), where if you cannot find what you are looking for there, they probably just haven't bothered to stock up the shelves...Canadian Tire also has the distinction of founding Canada's second currency, Canadian Tire Money. It looks just like Monopoly money and you get it when you spend any amount in the store. After saving up your Canadian Tire dollars, you can spend it in any store you like- as long as that store is Canadian Tire. Of course.

Finally for now: Last Friday the nominated provider on the Donut List at Stantec failed to provide their quota of doughnuts (I'm not being inconsistent here, Donut is a proper noun in this context and doughnuts isn't- for the nit-picky amongst you). Mumblings of discontent were heard in the corridors as were rumblings of likely consequences, as well as stomachs. I await the offender's punishment with great interest.....