http://www.straight.com/article-164300/musicians-mourn-mike-gurr
Tragedy has struck a wonderful group of musicians, so I learned over my morning cup of joe. James, on the left with the hat and beard, was a classmate of mine at UBC. A brilliant teacher, gifted musician, and all around big-hearted wonderful guy, James is the kind of person we need more of, not less. Not less. I'm prayin' for you to pull through James. The world needs you yet.

...other than breaking your own law to call an election that does nothing but maintain the status quo:

1. three words: fund social housing
2. help party leaders find something more appropriate to wear than old navy sweaters
3. finally start that project to make sure every Canadian has access to clean drinking water
4. fund research on how to attract politicians who aren't necessarily white, middle class, and pathologically dull
5. go for burgers with the 41% of Canadians who called bullshit on this whole mess
6. English classes for Dion, French classes for Harper, and ear plugs for the rest of us?
7. I'm just saying, maybe there's a little something we could do for those millions of Sudanese refugees...
8. add your own. This list literally goes on forever... or at least until Bob Rae is PM.
   

I never thought I'd find myself cheering on Danny Williams, but in this case, Danny boy said it best. What do Canadians need from this election? To learn our A-B-Cs: Anything But Conservative.

As we sat on the couch last night, C and I discussed hypothetical election outcomes, of which we identified 8 (given four parties with sufficient candidates to possibly form government and a minority/majority option for each). We concluded that there is only really one that worries us, the conservative majority. Any of the other 7 would be survivable at worst, because none of the other leaders demonstrate the same kind of extreme ideological approach to governance that Harper does. When ever I hear anyone suggest that Canadians don't need to worry about Harper based on his actions since the 06 election, I remind then that that pony has been carefully corralled by having to function as a minority government, and we all stand to lose (think essential Canadian policies like universal health care) if that pony gets loose in the pasture.

The election is the day after my birthday, so I'm asking Canada for a present. This year, all I really want is a new PM.