February 03, 2004

• Hey, Patsee!
• Frickin' Globe and Mail - best news coverage with crappiest webpage! I should really care about this, but my eyes glazed over at all the platitudes. We need a Throne Speech drinking game. That said, any bombshells?
• I have to admit that I avoided Bush's State of the Union because I'm so disheartened by this administration, so I have no way to compare the two. I'm also completely embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what Canada's Prime Minister's name is - completely reprehensible of me. That said, I thought the speech was very interesting. The focus on internal matters seemed sincere. But, again, as a citizen of the US of A, I've become pretty cynical about my government fixing what's wrong here. The PM talked a lot about setting up various commissions to address problems - again, we've heard that here and the problems haven't been fixed, or even addressed in a rational manner, in spite of promises. Maybe you Canadians are just really better about this than we have been lately. I do hope so!
• you guys get a throne? cool! we don't got no throne down here.
• PM's name is Paul Martin (*yechh!* I want Uncle Jean back) - but he doesn't get to sit on the throne. Adrienne Clarkson, the governor-general, sits on the throne, pretending to be the Queen. She's not half bad at it - a little younger, and with a Canadian accent of course, but quite Queenly.
• The Canadians generally are better at solving their domestic problems than the Americans. That's not because of something inately better in the Canadian character, of course, but because the Candian political structure (polity) makes it much easier for the government to change things. Naturally this cuts both ways -- the province of Ontario just got rid of a frankly evil government who used their power to stomp on the province's poor, for example -- but overall it means that governments can bring in sensible policies in a timely way, solving problems before they push people into extremist political possitions. Sometimes I think that many of the sharply extremist possitions we see from the US political scene are born out of frustration at the sheer intractability of crime, domestic poverty, etc, in that country. If the government had the power to disarm the population, bring in a modern penal system and get the poor out of those horrible slums, people would be happier and support of the far right would evaporate.
• ladies and gentlemen, the canadian throne. spiffy!
• But who's that in Adrienne Clarkson's seat? Oh my god, she's been governor-napped!
• If the government had the power [...] people would be happier Must. Bite. Back. Unhelpful. Snarky. Comment.
• Actually, SideDish, that's the one for the province of Manitoba. It's an easy mistake to make, as they all look very similar. Here is a picture of of the throne in the federal parliament. It is, actually, margianlly less spiffy.