Post-Election Thoughts

This will be less ranty, I promise.

I got one of the three things I wanted this election. The biggest one, Harper and the Conservatives out, I got - and then some. Oh it wasn't the crushing defeat that The old Progressive Conservatives had, but that was never in the cards with the Reform party faction of the Conservatives. Still, they can't break shit anymore, so that's good.

Or can they? Can Harper do anything over the next two weeks before Trudeau is sworn in? Maybe make all of Mike Duffy's family into Senators, or sign the TPP with as many concessions as possible? I don't know, and it gives me something to worry about.

The two things I didn't get, I'm OK with not getting. Oh, I'd have preferred them, but if I had to choose between them, these are the two that would get thrown under the bus for the larger goal.

First, I wanted my MP to be the Liberal, Matt Grant. I don't know the man, but I wanted to deny the riding of Calgary Confederation to the Conservatives, and I figured mine was the best option. The Liberals did take Calgary Center and Calgary Skyview in some very close elections (I think the latter won by about 2000 votes, the former by less than 500). Still, the voter turnout for my riding was at least 75%. The national average was 68% (the highest I've ever seen it), so even though my guy lost, I can at least say the other side won fair and square (baring some evidence of vote tampering), without resorting to typical Alberta apathy. Maybe the Liberals will drop someone who's not a complete unknown into the mix next time.

The other thing I wanted was a minority government. The Liberals in charge are OK, but I wanted a situation where they had to listen to the New Democrats to get stuff done. The New Democrats would have dug their heels in on Proportional Representation, abolishing C-51 and C-24, and the environment. I still think the Liberals will do some of that, but I suspect we'll get

1. a study on PR, rather than real movement. I doubt we'll get more than that, since first-past-the-post just rewarded the Liberals in a big big way.
   
2. A modified C-51 that can pass the Charter (not ideal, but better than nothing).
   
3. I suspect they'll actually get rid of C-24.
   
4. Legislation that is more carrot than stick for the environment. I'd rather have some stick, since corporations respond to punishment more than they respond to polite requests.

So what else would I like to see? Higher taxes for rich people. Apparently they're adding a $200K/33% tax bracket. Great! Let's see more, like $500K/44%, $750K/55%, $1M/66%, $1.5M/77%, and $2M/88%.

Fix Canada Post and the CBC. Restore their finding and set them up so that they're at arm's length from the government, so it's harder for subsequent Conservative governments to fuck with them.

Restore funding to all those progressive things the Conservatives tried to strangle. Federal scientists, status of women, etc.

Oh hell, I could turn this whole thing into a laundry list of things-James-wants-because-he's-progressive. Just undo all the bad things the Conservatives have done, and I'll call it square. Make the country better and I'll be ecstatic!

The Conservatives did do two really good things though, the plastic money and getting rid of the penny. I just took a trip to the States, and the money was driving me nuts. We are doing so much better with those two changes. Keep them.

Anyway, this has been a long election (which reminds me, get rid of the fixed election date rule - the Westminster model doesn't need it and it allows for stupidly long campaigns). I think I'm done talking politics for awhile.

"I've had a lot of things done to the old wang..."

Followup to this entry talking about my wang.

After six months, I finally went in for treatment. Once again, the diagnosis took two seconds of feeling me up. After asking some follow up questions involving my love life ("does it interfere with sex?", "I wouldn't know.")

"All right," says the Doctor, "you have a minor case of Peyronie's disease. There are basically four treatment options. First, we can do nothing. 10% of the time, it gets better on its own."
"What else?"
"Option two. We continue treating it with the scar-removal cream. This could take six months before you see a difference."
"OK."
"Option three. We inject the pure form of the scar removal substance directly into the scar tissue. This will take 50 painful needle shots into your penis over the next 24 months."
"The cream is sounding a lot more attractive. And number four?"
"We operate on it, which will make your penis shorter."
"Nope."

So, six more months of treatment, then another followup. In the meantime, I need volunteers for checking to see if everything is as functional as I believe.