Daz's Daily Musings

Round 2

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:53:00 +0000

Alright, so we managed to fight our way through the quarter-finals and are now on to the semi's against the Anaheim Ducks (or as Alanah refers to them, Disney gone Bad). Game 1 is tomorrow night at 7pm tomorrow night, and yet again, I'm gonna live-blog this one. It's actually kinda fun, even when you're half-cut. Although, my 1st time was a wee bit rough.

If by any chance you need a reason to build up your hatred of Anaheim, be sure to check out Mike's reasons to hate Anaheim. And of course his live-blogs,(yeah he's a little angry but remember, he has to watch the games on Versus).

Take it easy until tomorrow night, when this heart attack inducing ride starts back up again.

Canucks v. Stars Game 4- Live Blogging Part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:34:00 +0000

Alrighty, so now for my second try at (drunken) live blogging. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a marathon like the last one. 'Cause I don't think my heart/liver can handle it.

Pre-Game Notes:
Off-topic, but on todays like this I love living in Vancouver. Nice temp, blue sky and nothing to do.

The Crazy Canucks crew is gonna be on CTV, awesome to them getting a little more exposure (well outside of Rebecca who's been getting a lot of press lately).

Anyways, time to go and get my food/beer ready for the game.

Was Don Cherry wearing a dark purple velvet suit? Or is it the pre-game beers playing tricks with my eyes?

Josh Green is back tonight! Lets hope he lasts more than a game.

Dallas has a crappy opening song for when the players come out onto the ice. You need a song that starts pulling at your gut and heart from the very first note. That and in the stands there seems to be more people in Texas A&M gear that Stars gear. What's up with that?

1st Period:
18:58 - Seriously, don't people know not to call me during a game?

17:27 - 4-0 for the Rangers?

16:something - Bad penalty there for Naslund. Puts the Stars on their first PP.

14:07 - Good kill and Sedin nearly scores the ensuing rush, good stop by Turco.

13:20 - Sopel makes me nervous, why the hell does he skate right at Luongo?

12:45 - Ok, think everybody except the refs thought that penalty was gonna be on Sedin for tripping.

11:17 - Now that passing play by our PK should be shown to kids learning how to kill penalties.

9:41 - Nice little rush by Bulis (yeah I know weird to say that) and in the resulting Stars panic, they take a penalty giving us our 1st PP. Now lets try and do something with it.

8:22 - Ok, we look like a bag of shite on the PP right now.

8:00 - Uhh ok. Don't really know what happened there with Hagman. But we've got a 4 on 3.

7:35 - Or maybe not, screw it I blame the beer.

6:59 - 2 Stars forwards down so far.

6:45 - Seriously this is bullshit penalty. I hate this stupid delay of game thing. You listening Bettman? Get rid of it!

5:47 - Nice block by Burrows!

4:56 - I love our PK unit. My blood pressure doesn't skyrocket anymore when a penalty gets called.

2:48 - Damn it Sopel! Stay in position.

1:36 - Nice little play there by the Linden line, buts lets try and get a shot form inside the faceoff dots.

1:31 - Ok, now we get another chance. Lets actually get setup this time.

0:05 - Now this is what I'm talking about. Great flurry of shots there. Love watching Salo load up that slap shot.

End of the 1st: Well, not a great 1st period but I'll take it. Need to go and get rid of some rented beer. Don't forget to check out Mike @ Yankee Canuck who is also live-blogging this game.

1st Intermission: Update on other games going on tonight. The Rangers are smacking the Thrashers around 5-0 with 18 minutes left in the 3rd. Ottawa and Pittsburgh are tied up at 1-1 in the 3rd. Anaheim and Minny are getting started momentarily and Detroit will return to the demolition of Calgary in about an hour.

2nd Period:
18:23 - Hansen, Bulis and Morrison(?) getting some good pressure to start the period off.

17:33 - 2-1 for Ottawa, just over 10 minutes to go.

17:04 - Ahh, just some broken glass, thought it was an injury there.

15:44 - Damn, Luongo with some nice stops there. Especially that last one with him 15 ft out of his net.

14:06 - Get Sopel off the ice and get the puck out of your damn zone!

12:something - Boucher and Smoke mixing it up a little. But of course CBC doesn't give any highlights just cuts to commerical. Never mind its Turco trying to stir shit up.

12:27 - Stupid penalty by Modano there to put us on the 4 on 3.

11:03 - Sopel get the fuck off the ice! Your on the damn powerplay, don't fuck up simple stuff.

10:27 - And we're on the PP again. Now just keep Sopes off the ice and we might have a chance.

9:26 - Never mind, we'll just take ourselves off the PP.

8:48 - Ice looks like crap. Pucks bouncing all over the place. Guess thats what happens when you have the NHL, NBA and Arena Football in the same place.

7:something - Nice play again by Bulis and his pass to Green just out of reach on the 2 on 1.

7:something - And we're on the PP again. Side note: WTF, CBC why does it take you so damn long to get your time ticker back up?

4:28 - And Hanssen with a nice shot. Kid looks good out there in only his 2nd NHL game.

2:24 - Henrik takes a penalty putting Dallas back on the PP. Not that it really make much of difference. Both teams PP have been pretty anemic so far.

0:15 - Jesus or Roberto Luongo, as he's otherwise known, makes a series of ridiculous saves to keep the score even.

End of the 2nd: I've got a bad feeling we're going to OT in this game. And with my luck these guys are gonna try and beat their own OT record. Hope I bought enough beer.

2nd Intermission: Another update on scores. Ottawa beats Pittsburgh 2-1 to go up 3-1 in their series. 7-0 Rangers over Atlanta to go up 3-0 in their series. And a 0-0 tie in Minny against Anaheim.

3rd Period:
20:00 - Over 19 minutes of penalties so far between the 2 teams. Too bad both teams powerplays have been completely useless.

17:34 - From Hughson, not a shot on net so far for Modano in this game.

15:33 - Dallas is starting to look a little desperate in this period. They've get the puck in our zone for most of the period but haven't really had a decent shot yet.

12:30 - Dallas is throwing everything but the kitchen sink into our zone trying to get something. Too bad (for them) that we've got Luongo in net (Thanks Mike Keenan, and yes this is probably the one and only time you'll hear me say that).

10:30 - Finally some decent pressure by the Canucks.

10:02 - OHLY!!!!! And the nucks go up 1-0.

8:22 - Pressure is on Turco now. The time to choke is all his now.

6:something - Damn it. Sydor scores off a screen from Morrow. 1-all

5:31 - And Linden scores to put us back up again. Turco gave a juicy rebound that went off a Stars D-man and right to him.

4:00 - Alright guys lets just hold on. Another goal would be nice though.

3:05 - How long until we see Turco out of his net?

2:something - Mitchell saves one for Luongo. And keeps the score 2-1. Christ that one was damn close.

2:00 - Turco's coming out any second now.

1:25 - Or maybe not, Dallas can't get any decent pressure in our zone.

1:07 - Turco's out.

0:28 - Bulis lays it out to block a nice shot.

0:21 - Luongo makes a great glove save.

0:13 - Daniel just misses the empty net for an icing call.

0:00 - Canucks win 2-1 and open up their lead in the series 3-1.

End of the Game: Alright so now we come back into Vancouver leading 3-1 in the series. Awesome. And the game didn't last 5 1/2 hours, almost as good as them winning.

Anyways, be sure to check out Alanah, JJ, the Crazy Canucks and everybody listed in my sidebar for some more commentary on this game.

Quick Note

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:07:00 +0000

Well, we're up 2-1 and Game 4 is tonight. So far, each game has had someone live blog it. Be it me for Game 1, Mike at Yankee Canuck(with his angry drunk-blogging) for Game 2 or Alanah with her semi-live blog for Game 3. Well to keep this up, I plan on live-blogging this game tonight again, although I'm praying for a couple of fewer overtimes. And if Mike hasn't floated away, he is also planning on live-blogging it as well. Bonus, double coverage, probably with me complain about the CBC and Mike about Versus. Anyways, need to prepare, see you later at 5 pm PST.

Canucks v. Stars Game 1- Live Blogging Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:56:00 +0000

Alrighty, so here we go. Remember, this is my first time at this so mistakes are bound to pop up.

Pre-game: Got my pizza, lots of Coke and some Gibsons. Should be good to go. Its Hughson(sp?) and Neale doing the call tonight on CBC. Wonder if Team 1040 have synced up the sound? Hope so.

Just waiting on the Anthem now. Better go mix myself a drink.

Love Mark Donnelly when he does the anthem. Gets the crowd into it even more (don't know how thats possible)

1st Period:
20:00 - Is it just me or does the first few bars of "Where the Streets have no name" send a tingle up your spine. Does every time. Christ I feel like a kid on christmas morning.

19:51 - Well that didn't take long, already a stoppage.

19:00 - Kesler's playing?

17:30 - Bieksa just took a puck of his foot and is grimacing on the bench. Lets hope he's ok.

16:46 - Bulis with our 1st big scoring chance.

15:40 - Daniel Sedin scores!!! Looked like it bounced off a Stars Dman.

14:54 - Bieksa takes the 1st penalty of the game.

14:32 - And the Stars convert, Morrow with a redirect past Luongod.

13:something - Now we get our 1st PP, lets hope they can do something with it. And a TV commerical break. Why don't they come out with new ones, kinda like they do for Superbowl.

13:19 - And now we've got a 2 man for 1:42

11:42 - Bieksa not playing very heads up and gets caught by Hagman coming out the penalty box and has to take a stupid hooking call. And Luongo makes a crazy stop with his head!

9:20 - Good kill

8:00 - Hopefully Alain Vigneault talks to the guys in the intermission and calms these guys down.

7:21 - Dallas gets a delay of game penalty after shooting the puck out of play. I hate this penalty.

5:28 - Ohlund nearly caught Turco wandering out of his net.

5:something - Dallas takes another penalty for slashing. Kinda looks like the Stars are trying to push us around.

4:26 - Wish our PP could score.

3:44 - Bieksa takes his 3rd straight penalty.

2:17 - Luongo grabs another one out of thin air. And the Canucks take another penalty (not Bieska this time) and 30 seconds of 2 man for the Stars.

1:02 - Didn't see who it was but one of the Nucks just robbed a Star. Walked up and just took the puck off his stick.

End of the 1st - Hate to echo the CBC guys, but WTF!! Wasn't this supposed to be tight checking, defensive series? Not that I'm complaining mind you. Right now I'm chalking it up to the excitement of the post-season. Oh well, time to take a little break here.

2nd Period:
20:00 - Starting to feel the pre-game drinking a little bit, god its gonna suck going to work tomorrow. At least my sup is a big 'nucks fan so he'll know why I'm so hung-over.

18:30 - Hope that Team 1040 decides to sync their audio to the TV soon.

17:14 - CBC stat: Turco is 0-4 in Game 1's.

15:26 - CBC feed keeps stuttering, rather annoying

14:27 - Looks like McReary was trying to pull off a triple axel or something there.

14:something - Nucks get the 1st PP of the 2nd.

13:32 - Ohly!! Scores a nice one with a one-timer. Might have been deflected by Pyatt

13:04 - Turco takes out Burrows and takes a penalty. Dumb move, silly Turco.

11:48 - Our PP may be a little anemic with the scoring but at least they make it look good with the setup.

10:46 - How the hell does Luongo make some of these saves, he looks like Gumby on some of 'em.

10:00 - Damn, Dallas ties it back up with a shot from Daley that I don't even think Luongo saw with a 2 man screen in front of him.

9:something - Commercial break thankfully. Man this is a lotta work. Don't know how Alanah does this on a regular basis. Don't forget to check out Mike who is also planning on live blogging a couple of games.

8:00 - Watching Turco coming out to play the puck brings back some scary Cloutier memories.

6:50 - What the hell, CBC guys are talking about the Swede's vs. the Fins in this match up

6:10 - Nazzy scores a beaut on Turco. Nice wrister thru the 5 hole. 3-2 Nucks!

5:40 - Cooke takes a tripping penalty to put the Stars up a man. Kinda nice having an awesome PK unit. My heart doesn't stop anymore when we take a penalty.

4:26 - Speaking of the PK unit, man is it great having Kesler back there again.

3:30 - Damn, nice hit by Bulis.

2:59 - Luongo makes another great stop with his toe. He uses every part of his body to make a stop.

1:46 - Further evidence of what J.J. was talking about in his "rant" on Nazzy. Markus makes a great defensive play with knocking the puck away from a Star and stops their rush dead.

0:04 - Another CBC stat: when leading after 2, the 'Nucks are 30-1-5 (doesn't sound quite right but who knows)

End of the 2nd - Well, we're heading into the 3rd with a 1 goal lead, who would have expected that? In this series, I'd be surprised to see either team get up by more than a goal, maaaybe by 2. Alright bathroom/smoke break before the 3rd.

2nd Intermission - I hate the CBC. Just listened to Hrudey talking about how Naslund had a "horrible" season. BS.

3rd Period:
19:18 - Cooke hasn't come back since coming off the ice late in 2nd with an injury after a knee on knee hit he made on a Dallas player.

18:17 - Barnes takes a tripping penalty to put the Canucks on a PP early in the 3rd.

16:17 - Another fruitless power play. 1 for 7 so far.

15:29 - Nazzy is skating like a fiend tonight.

14:14 - Luongo with a couple of great saves. He makes them look almost ordinary somehow.

13:29 - Morrow misfires on near point blank one-timer.

12:24 - Smoke scores!!! Off a rebound from the glass behind the net. 4-2 Nucks!

11:29 - Miettinen scores for the Stars to bring it to 4-3. Caught Luongo slightly out of position after he made a save. Rare rebound given up by Roberto.

9:08 - Crowds chanting "Turco" then "You suck". Wonder what its gonna be like if this goes to 7.

6:14 - Nagy squeaks one past Luongo to tie it up 4-4

5:05 - The "Brabarian" just misses on nice shot on Turco and breaks his stick. That reminds me, check this episode from the Crazy Canucks for little tidbit on how the legend began.

3:26 - Scary bit there, Nucks couldn't get the puck out their zone. Need a change pretty badly.

2:37 - Shots are 14-2 for Dallas in the 3rd (38-21 overall)

0:35 - Good lord, get the puck out your damn zone.

0:04 - Nazzy sends a puck off of Turco's head.

End of the 3rd - Good lord we're going to overtime. This game might just kill me, and as Mike said, it's only game 1.

Well I've been complaining about the CBC crew, maybe I should count myself lucky. Mike is ready to kill the entire Versus crew. That got me to thinking "Who is worse, the CBC or Versus?". Well I just checked out Versus and the panel they had up? Who the hell are those guys?

Update on some of the other games tonight. Ottawa took down Crosby and the Penguins 6-3. Minny and the Ducks are tied @ 1 in the 3rd. And San Jose beat the Predators 5-4 in the 2nd overtime period (god I hope this doesn't go that long).

1st Overtime:
19:39 - CBC is reporting Cooke has a groin sprain, no word on exactly how long he'll be out.

18:18 - Maybe I'm overstating the fact, but hell its my blog, it sure is nice to see Kesler back out there.

17:11 - Shots are 40-23 for Dallas right now. All of you should bow down and thank the hockey gods we have Luongo in net for us. (Its become a near nightly ritual for me)

16:19 - Nice hustle from Bieksa to cut off a scoring chance for the Stars.

14:49 - Anyone else getting tired of the relentless media info about how alike these 2 teams are?

13:49 - Where has this Bulis been all year?

13:01 - This game is gonna kill me. Another great save by Luongo.

11:17 - Bulis f#@'s up with a bad back pass, then makes up for by coming back and helping out Mitchell to clear it out of our zone.

9:16 - Beautiful hit by Cowan.

8:something - Robidas takes a slashing penalty and puts the Nucks on thePP

7:42 - Turco makes a nice save, drops it and manages to tap it out of their zone.

6:49 - Surprise, surprise, we didn't score on the PP.

6:14 - And Cowan with another great hit.

5:47 - Seriously, where has this Bulis been all season?

4:37 - Nice shot by Morrison and Turco makes the save, don't think he even knew where the puck was.

4:04 - Burrows got slammed into the boards, his head bounced pretty nastily there. Couldn't get to his feet that well either. CBC noted Bernstein walked him back to the training room but appeared to be walking a little better.

2:06 - And the linesman damn near scores for the Stars, before Lou flopped out to stop the puck.

0:55 - Pyatt with another nice shot on Turco, who gloves it down. Looks like we're going to a 2nd OT period here.

End of the 1st OT - Oh goody, another OT period.

Update on the other game tonight. Anaheim takes the 1st game of their series beating Minny 2-1.

2nd Overtime:
20:00 - Burrows isn't on the bench to start this period. Not good.

19:something - Luongo holds off a quick flurry of shots to keep us in this game.

18:09 - Great save, Luongo. Nothing against Shorty but that does sound nice from Hughson.

17:49 - Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a lot easier to score when the puck isn't in your end?

16:46 - Shots 51-30 for Dallas, and Bieksa gets another penalty for high-sticking.

15:46 - Couple of nice blocked shots there by Smoke.

15:21 - Krajicek takes a high-sticking penalty to put us down 2 men for 40 seconds.

14:43 - Killed the 2 man advantage

13:19 - Don't really know how, but we've killed the penalty and the fans are going nuts with the towels a spinnin'

12:22 - Henrik loses his helmet and stick and of course no penalty is called.

11:46 - Turco almost gets caught out of his net and a bit of a scramble in front of the Star's nets. Unfortunately nothing comes out of it.

8:55 - Luongo gloves it down to slow the game down a little. Would somebody please shut Neale up?

7:39 - Another snag by Roberto

7:12 - Turco stops a shot from Daniel Sedin, resulting in a faceoff with another shot from Morrison. Again a great stop by Turco.

5:49 - This is gonna be a long series.

3:04 - At this point you can start to tell how long the game has been going on. All the players are starting to look a little sluggish.

1:02 - Shots are 57-32 now.

0:24 - Barnes sends a shot sailing of the crossbar.

End of the 2nd Overtime - You know it, yet another overtime. I'm gonna run out of booze if this goes on much longer.

For anybody that lives in the GVRD, good luck in getting anything done tomorrow.

3rd Overtime:
19:24 - Why does it take CBC so long to get their time banner up? Seems to take a least a minute or 2 every period until it shows up.

17:56 - Somehow it seems that Cowan still has some energy. Not sure if anyone else does anymore.

15:27 - Pyatt has a great chance but can't pull the trigger to end it.

14:38 - Another nice shot by Cowan.

1301 - So who likes sloppy hockey? The longer this goes on, the worse both sides get.

12:08 - Krajicek with a nice shot on net that Turco stops.

11:33 - Turco grabs another one out of the air to stop play again.

9:11 - Sedin's get a good cycle going, unfortunately nothing comes out of it.

7:18 - Hughson note - "It's been nearly 2 and 1/2 hours since the last goal". Please don't remind me.

6:52 - Crowd looks to be thinning a bit. Guess somebody is actually planning on going to work tomorrow.

4:50 - Please, for the love of god, somebody please score (of coures, I'm only talking to the Canucks players)

2:11 - The ice looks like sh*t right now. Puck is bouncing all over the place. Although that could be coming from fatigue on the part of the players.

0:40 - Turco makes another stop. Looks like we're going to a 4th OT. Let me remind you. THIS IS ONLY GAME ONE!!!!!! Lord help us if this goes to 7.

End of the 3rd OT - Sweet Jesus. Why did I say I would live blog this game? I'm starting to have trouble focusing on the screen right now.

If this game goes much longer, we might see Cooke or Burrows back on the ice.

4th Overtime:
18:55 - I really don't know anymore, 3 Stars forwards with at least 38 minutes of ice time so far. CBC hasn't put up any stats for the Nucks yet.

14:47 - Nobody is really creating much of anything. If anything happens now, its gonna come from a mistake. And that mistake will be due solely to fatigue, nothing else.

12:49 - Well, we've made the top 10 in terms of longest playoff games ever.

10:26 - Are they even hitting anymore? Some of these hits look like they just don't have the energy to stop, so they just keep going.

8:26 - Another play just kinda fades out with a decent scoring chance developing.
6th longest game ever

7:33 - Shots are 75-53 (or something like that, I don't quite remember what was flashed up on the screen)

5:56 - Luongo makes another great save with a tip only about 5 ft in front of him.

4:03 - Another great cycle by the Sedins. And it seemed to be in slo-mo (just like the rest of the players) so you can actually see what they're doing.

1:54 - Its over, Henrik scores on a pass from his brother to end this marathon. 5-4 for the Nucks. One down, 3 to go (15 in total).

After game notes: Who the hell amI kidding? We f*&king won. I don't really care about anything else right now. Other than the fact that it took us 130 minutes to win. Damn right with CBC picking Roberto as the 1st star. Be sure to check out J.J., Zanstrom and Alanah for more post game reactions. And they'll probably be much more coherent than anything I could produce right now.

Now, if you'll excuse me, think I'm gonna go pass out now. Enjoy the rest of the series and I will hopefuly be able to live-blog another one of their games coming up. So keep an eye out for an announcement regarding the next torture session I'll be part of.

Coupla quick tidbits

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 05:40:00 +0000

Ahh, Glorious time of year. It has finally stopped raining everyday here in Vancouver (now its just every other day) and the NHL playoffs are about to begin. As I mentioned in my last post, I was planning on (drunken) live-blogging at least a few of the playoff games. Looks like Game 1 tomorrow of the Nucks-Stars series is gonna be my first. Feel free to stop and leave a comment (drunken or otherwise).

In other goings on in Canuck fandom:

The Yankee Canuck has a couple of great posts/ideas for the upcoming series. I especially like his Gettin' Ornery for Humanity ideas. Including the awesome idea he had to donate to a particular charity in the opposing teams city for every win the Nuck's get against them. Don't forget to check out his list of reasons to hate Texas to get your blood up before the game.

Zanstrom over at Waiting for Stanley, Alanah @ Canucks and Beyond, and JJ from Canucks Hockey Blog have a bunch of commentary on the upcoming series (read that as much more informed than my musings).

And last but not least, don't forget to check out the crew over at the Crazy Canucks podcast for some great discussions as well as a ton of laughs. I'm hoping to throw one of their button linkie things up on my sidebar but HTML coding makes absolutely no sense to me (give me a proper language like C++ or hell BASIC even) so it might be a while.

We're In !!!!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:24:00 +0000

Sweet, the Canucks have just clinched a playoff spot. And we did it over the goddamn Avalanche! After the pain that Colorado has caused us in the past, this is freaking great. Calgary did us a favour too, by beating Minnesota, putting us back into 1st in the North West.

To cap this off, it would be freaking great if the game on April 5th against the Av's ended up being a must win for Colorado. And then having us beat them, eliminating them from the playoffs. Ahh, one can dream can't they? :)

For some of my regular readers, posting will be a little light for the next week or two. I am, however, hoping to try one of these (drunken) live-blogging thingies, hopefully during one of the Canucks playoff games in the 1st round. Once I've figured out the date, I'll post further details.

UPDATE:
Didn''t know this:
From NHL.com - The win by Vigneault matched him with Pat Quinn (1992-93) for Vancouver's most coaching wins in a season with 46.

Rock 101's Luongo Song

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:50:00 +0000

Another one of their (mostly) great Twisted Tunes.

Your guess is as good as mine

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:49:00 +0000

No real theme to my post today.

I'm not gonna apologize again for the lack of posting. Suffice it to say, working 40 hours a week, watching hockey and trying to spend a minimum of 2 hours a day away from my computer makes it a little difficult to post.

Speaking of hockey, I've noticed that most of my visits in the last while have come from various searches for the Luongo Song. Well, I finally found a copy of it, you can find it here. Hat tip to Zanstrom over at Waiting for Stanley for posting it. It's actually the clip I heard as well, with Don Taylor and Dave Pratt offering their views of it while it's playing. In the post below this one, you can find Rock 101's Luongo Song as well.

Continuing in the hockey vein. Alanah has done some serious work on a project over at Kukla's Korner. The result, the World Wide Web of Hockey, is whole bunch of links to anything and (almost) everything related to hockey on the net. It's quite impressive, so go and check it out. Next thing that would be cool to see is a hockey blog aggregator.

That's about it for now. Hopefully I'll have a new post a little sooner next time.

One Fan's Opinion

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 05:02:00 +0000

For a bit of a change, I'm gonna talk about my beloved Canucks today. I'll warn you ahead of time, I'm not gonna offer anything about their play or personnel. For that, check out Alanah and the rest of The Crazy Canucks for some excellent (and usually pretty friggin' hilarious) commentary. Actually the idea for this post was triggered by one of J.J.'s comments on their podcasts and from some talk from the guys on Team 1040.

As many of you may already know, the NHL, in partnership with Reebok, launched new uniforms at the beginning of the All-Star break. This has started up talk amongst various commentators about some teams changing their uniforms, including logos. One of the big things I've been hearing lately is about the Canuck's going back to their old logo, ie. the "stick in a rink" design. And I've gotta say I'm for it, but with a few conditions. First off, just like Rebecca from the podcast, I don't want anything to happen to Fin, just 'cause he's a pretty cool mascot and what the hell would we replace him with? Pac Man (what else would look like the stick in rink logo?) And I wouldn't want them to get rid of the Orca C design entirely. I don't know, when they first came out with it, I wasn't so sure but its kinda grown on me and I'd be sorry to see it go. If they did something similar to the current uni's, with one logo on the shoulder and a different one on the chest. except obviously switching the logo positions I think I'd be pretty happy with that. Hell, who am I kidding, if the hockey god's were to guarantee perfect health for Luongo for the next 6 years I could live with the old flying V's sweaters.

Finally, speaking of Luongo, did anybody else hear the new "Luongo" song on the Team yesterday? I've been trying to find a copy but have been so far unsuccessful in my hunt and any tips would be appreciated.

PM or King?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:11:00 +0000

Well, as promised here is the first of (hopefully) many posts I'll be writing on the different issues/concerns I have with the federal government and the way it is run. An important note, both political parties,unless explicitly mentioned, are guilty of most of these things (IMHO,anyways). Another note, the problem I'm discussing here relates to majority governments, minorty governments have been so rare I don't have the time or enough information to discuss that situation with much confidence. Now to begin.

Perhaps the biggest problem I have with the Federal government lies with the power that our PM has. Or to be more specific, how much power the PM (& PMO) has managed to concentrate in one place. Perhaps the only other position that can claim a similar level of power is the Minister of Finance, and even then the PM wins out.

It starts with the control the PM exercises over his/her party. Being able to prevent candidates from running for your party or on the other hand "parachuting" candidates into different ridings is just the start. The different patronage powers allows one to reward those that helped you out or to offer as a prize for being loyal. With regards to the party MP's, the PM can promise Cabinet and Parliamentary Secretary positions to reward loyal MP's. And the you have the Cabinet, where most(if not all) the important policy is decided upon, and who is the head of the cabinet? Who decides what Cabinet consensus is?

And to control all of this it only takes 3 people, the PM and two deputies: the Minister of Finance and the party whip. The whip takes care of the back-benchers and makes sure they follow the party's (read the PM's) line. The Minister of Finance keeps the Cabinet in line just by being in control of the purse strings, he (or she) can either allow each minister's projects to go forward or to impede them by denying funding. Finally you have the PM (and the PMO) as the ringmaster, who with his two "lieutenants" becomes the "captain" of this little ship we like to call Canada, pretty much free to do as he wants (at least until the next election).

Guess this reason this bugs me so much is goes against the idea of responsible government in Canada, best defined in this quote from one of my old poli sci textbooks:

A regime in which legislative and executive power are fused together in a cabinet which is accountable to an assembly of the peoples elected representatives

In other words, our cabinet should ultimately have to answer to the House. But ultimately, who makes the final decision in Cabinet? The PM. And who can control the way the House votes (at least his party)? The PM.

We have a system that follows the letter but not the spirit of responsible government. And increasingly, we have one man (or woman) in a position to control all of the levers of power.

A New Year, and a new beginning (maybe)

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 00:09:00 +0000

Ahh man, its been a long time (sorry Carolynne ;) ). I have to admit, I've been so busy this last month that it has been impossible to keep up with all of the stories popping up in the news and blogosphere. It may not appear so, but I do a fair amount of research and (more importantly) fact checking on each one of my posts. Because of this, I haven't really felt like I could write and give you guys a decent post. That and I have to admit I've been distracted a little from the political world by other interests.

As such, I'm wondering about the direction I'm going to go with this blog in the new year. I started off this blog back in Nov. '05 and as you can see it was a bit of a mishmash of topics. During the last year, I drifted towards a format that was almost exclusive political. And now, I'm not sure where to go, should I stay with the politics (and possibly post only 3-4 times a month) or do I move to a more personal theme (ie. widen the scope to more of my interests but lower the quality (IMO) of the posts). Or, as Monty Python puts it, is "now time for something completely different"?

So far, I haven't made a decision but I will be sure to let you all know once I do. In the meantime, I don't really have anything else to say right now but I'm planning on doing a post (or possibly a series of posts) on the different issues I have with the way government is run and structured, so keep an eye out for that.

One last note, it appears that the spammers have discovered my blog, so I've turned on word verifaction.

Call off the search party

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 02:51:00 +0000

Alright, this is another post to explain my lack of posting.

Where do I start? Well, I finally got the spyware problem cleaned up 2 weekends back and was just about to get back to posting. Then the 'net died on me and that took a couple of days to clear up. Then we had that nice little snow dump out here and I lost power for a couple of days. During all of this, I also started a new job and have been in training. So its been a fun couple of weeks. Hopefully this is the end of everything and I can get back to posting a little more regularly (although the job might cut that down a little).

As an aside, the final Canadian Blog Award results have just come out (thanks to Robert for his work in organizing it). Congrats to both Andrew (@ Bound by Gravity) and Olaf (@ Prairie Wranglers) for going #1 and #2 in the Best Conservative category.

Can't these guys find anything better to do?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 00:57:00 +0000

Just a quick post today to explain my recent lack of posting.

I've been hit with a rather serious infestation of spyware and/or malware on my computer (damn teenagers with nothing better to do). So obviously my attention has been diverted away from the happenings on the Canadian political scene. Looks pretty hopeful that I'll have this cleared up sooner rather than later and I can get back to spouting off my opinion to those willing to listen.

What the Hell?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:38:00 +0000

So, I'm sitting around reading the Vancouver Province this afternoon and I come across this article, "Sims, BCTF sue Google over comments in blog about B.C. politics." (article is subscription only)

Seems Jinny Sims and the BCTF have decided to sue Google over some statements made on the BC Poly Blog. This was a blog set up back in April that pretty much solely criticized and/or made fun of the BCTF and BC NDP. It then pretty quickly petered out after the teachers union settled with the government.

This is probably the first I've heard of this, at least in a Canadian jurisdiction. Especially over the naming of Google as the defendant.

But I think the reason I had to share this was due to this paragraph reporting on the statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court(thank you so much Keith Fraser):

"And it says Sims did not kidnap beloved Sesame Street (original emphasis) character Big Bird and threaten to kill him/her in response to the Functional Skills assessment tests"

Now most of you are probably going: Uhh, wait a minute, WHAT?

Well if you're interested, here is the offending post.

Looks like Jinny and BCTF don't have a sense of humour. Anyways, if anyone would like to see the full text of the article, let me know and I will endeavor to track it down for you.

UPDATE:

Well, it appears this lawsuit has re-awakened the BC Poly Blog. And it appears the rest of the Sesame Street characters are coming to their defense.

Just a couple of tidbits

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:27:00 +0000

I was going to include these few notes at the end of my last post but I felt that one was getting pretty long. Anyways:

1. For those of you that use Firefox, the 2.0 update is coming out today (ht to Andrew), for those of you still using IE, why do punish yourselves? For details on what's new, check out what Andrew had to say.

2. I was a little slow to catch on to the whole podcast thing but I've found myself listening to them more and more. For those out there looking for some decent ones, try theses two:

- For fellow Canadian political junkies out there, check out the Bloggers Hotstove. Hosted by Greg Staples (of Political Staples), he gathers bloggers from across the spectrum to discuss issues that have come up during the week. The result is a reasoned and respectful debate of the ideas and policies in question.

- For my fellow Canuck fans, swing by thecrazycanucks.com and check out their weekly podcasts. Each week 4 or 5 canucks bloggers get together and discuss what's happened with our beloved team. Members include Alanah from vancouvercanucksoped.com (one of my favourite blogs, and in fact the first blog I can remember visiting) and JJ from the Canucks Hockey Blog, along with others.

3. Finally, as you may have noted in my last post, requests and/or ideas for posts are welcome. Heck, they're greatly appreciated. It lets me be kinda lazy in not having to decide what to post on.

Decorum in Politics, Hah!

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:36:00 +0000

Well, I wasn't planning on doing a post on this subject but I recently had a reader ask me to post about my thoughts on the Belinda Stronach / Peter MacKay kerfuffle. And since I pretty much do whatever my readers ask (within reason, unless the money's right), here we go.

My initial reaction to this when I first heard this was, oh man they're up to it again. What I mean by this is that our elected representatives have regressed again to level of schoolchildren in debate. Now, this in no way excuses MacKay's comment. I think Mr. MacKay is still smarting from the public break-up the two had and needs to get past it. And by no means should he have made that statement in the House (or in any sort of public setting). But seriously, I think all of us have probably said some nasty things about ex's that we've had, but 1) not in public and 2) more than likely to someone that is not going to repeat to the other party.

When the first reports came out on MacKay's words, the Liberal Party was pretty mute on the issue. Only after a day or so did the outrage begin to grow, giving the appearance that they had figured the political gains that could be made. Debate then descended to a "did not" / '"did too" level. And then we had a statement in the House from Ms. Stronach (ht to Olaf and CTV for the transcripts):

"'Mr. Speaker yesterday during question period the minister of foreign affairs used a very inappropriate word to describe me,' Stronach said, adding that those kinds of comments have a "chilling" effect on women who contemplate entering politics. 'For that Mr. Speaker, I simply ask that the minister of foreign affairs apologize to this House,' she said to a round of applause."

I agree with her on the first point. The second point, well I'm not so sure as I'm not a woman and can't really say what effect it might have. And she is right in asking for an apology. She then made this comment to reporters later:

"I am even more disappointed today as I reflect on the character of this government, we saw it during question period, no one is willing to take responsibility for this and I am worried for the women of Canada how this kind of attitude translates into policy development and the actions that this government is taking."

Ah ha, now to score some political points. Peter MacKay makes sexist comment, MacKay is Tory, therefore the Conservatives and their policies must be sexist. Nevermind that a Liberal (former Defense Minister Doug Young to Reform MP Deb Grey) had done much the same in the past.

Make no mistake, I think MacKay should have immediately apologized, even if he doesn't think it was that big of a deal. But the words "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong" seem to be anathema to politicians nowadays. Hence the need for this proposal from two NDP MP's Joe Comartin and Dawn Black to punish MP's that cannot act like adults in the House. Its a good idea (yes I said that, even though it is a NDP idea) but I think the fact we need it at all is a pretty sad commentary on the state of political discourse in Canada.

Garth and the Greens

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:09:00 +0000

Well all the kerfuffle around Garth Turner's expulsion from the Conservative party and speculation about what he's going to do has led me to take a closer look at the Green Party.

I'll admit, Elizabeth May had already piqued my interest in the party but I hadn't taken a really good look at the party and their policy platform. Well, I had a couple of hours to spare this morning and decided to take a read through it (you can Word or pdf copies here). In the past, I saw the Greens a single issue party and that was the way their platform was based. But I have to admit, they have done a pretty good job of applying their principles to develop a well-thought out and coherent policy platform. Of course I don't agree with all of it, but then again I've never seen a single party platform that I completely agreed with (although the BPofC platform comes pretty close).

However, there is one part of the platform I have some rather serious concerns with. That would be their proposal to shift more of our freight shipping from trucks and over to rail. I can see and agree with the argument against trucks but I don't know if it is economically feasible to switch. Guess it's the fiscal conservativeness in me coming out but the money that would be needed to improve our rail lines to handle this increase would have to be astronomical. Guess we'll have to wait and see what Canadians are willing to pay for.

What does this all have to do with Garth? Well, as many of you know, Elizabeth May extended an offer to him to join the Green Party. If he takes her up on the offer, that would then allow May to participate in the leader's debate before the next election. This would allow the Green's to finally be able to get their message to general public and introduce some fresh ideas into the political discussion occurring amongst the electorate. To quote Martha Stewart, "and that's a good thing".

UPDATE:

National Newswatch is reporting that Garth has decided to join the Greens (ht Dante). However, it was an anonymous tip and neither Garth nor Elizabteh May has confirmed the report so far.

UPDATE:

Garth Turner has announced he won't be joining the Green Party for now, but wouldn't rule out doing so in the future (ht to Robert).

Well, its here now

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:45:00 +0000

In my last post, I was talking about PM Harper's announcement on proposed changes to the dangerous offender legislation. Well today, the Justice Minister Vic Toews tabled the bill in the House (ht to David Akin). Halifax's Chronicle Herald and the Toronto Sun have articles on it. For those of you out there interested in reading the full text of the bill, I did some digging on the Parliament of Canada's website and found it for you here.

Not as much of blog response to the tabling yet, at least compared to when the announcement was made. Then again the Garth Hunter thing has kind of obliterated everything else out there. A few criticisms have come out though, check 'em out here and here.

Bit of a side note, work and school have slowed down my posting a bit. But if your looking for some good reads, I encourage you to check the guys (and girls) in my blogroll. Especially Andrew @ bound by gravity, Olaf @ Prairie Wranglers and Steve @ Far and Wide. Scott Feschuk does a pretty humorous news round up as well.

Third times a Charm

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:07:00 +0000

In Toronto today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the government will introduce legislation next regarding dangerous offenders (ht to Robert @ MyBlahg). The proposed bill would see someone deemed a dangerous offender after their 3rd time convicted of a violent and/or sexual crime. CBC has a report as well as the G & M.

Now, I think we still need to wait and see the legislation in full but so far, this sounds like a great idea. Anything that can be done to remove repeat violent offenders from the streets is a good thing in my opinion. So far the reaction in the blogosphere to the announcement has been mixed, mostly (and unsurprisingly) along strict partisan lines, but with some exceptions.

There seems to be two main criticisms against this plan, one that is typical of the Harper = Bush/ anti-american crowd, and then one which is actually well reasoned. The first is that this is simply a copy of the Three Strikes laws introduced in various states (most notably in California). This law differs from those in that it only applies to those that have committed 3 violent crimes, instead of any 3 crimes that many of the american laws cover. The second is that this may fail the "Oakes" test, or the "reverse onus" clause. This is where the burden is shifted to the individual to prove that they are innocent of the offence. Now, I'm no lawyer and I sure as hell won't claim to fully understand constitutional law, so I think we will need to wait and see how exactly the law is written to see if it'll pass the test rather than condemn it beforehand.

Well, why shouldn't she?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 22:30:00 +0000

The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that Auditor General Sheila Fraser has had informal discussions with staff on Parliament Hill with regards to an audit of the spending done by our MP's. (h/t to Joel at ProudtobeCanadian.ca)

The article indicates that some MP's aren't too happy with this idea however. It mentions quotes by two MP's opposed, Pat Martin (NDP) and Derek Lee (Liberal). As Martin put it:

"There are internal checks and balances that are subject to the scrutiny of the Canadian people at election time. That's their chance to comment,"

Or Mr. Lee's comment:

"I don't think the auditor general should want to do anything other than that which she is asked to do by statute or by Parliament," Mr. Lee said.
"There will be resistance, I think, among some members for diverse reasons to going through an audit of their individual budgets."

Not all MPs agree though, both Garth Turner (Conservative) and Peter Stoffer(NDP) agreed that "it should be open." And communications officer Isabelle Serrurier said the Fraser has the authority under the Auditor General's Act and the Financial Administration Act to conduct the audit of Parliament.

Now, I'm of the opinion that we Canadians should have every opportunity to see how our MP's are spending OUR money. But I have no doubt there will be great resistance to this audit by members of all of the parties. One can only hope that Sheila is successful in her fight and brings more accountability and openness to the way our money is being spent.

Technorati Tags: Sheila Fraser, Auditor General, Government Spending

When will it end?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:00:00 +0000

So, the Liberal party has had their "super" weekend and elected their delegates for their Leadership convention. Seems like the end is in sight. What are we at now, Month 82 of 86, in this incredibly long leadership campaign?

First thing I noticed was that somebody actually voted for Volpe. Heck, he even managed to beat out two other candidates (Scott Brison and Martha Hall-Findlay). And he's basically tied with Ken Dryden, who I thought would have had at least a couple of Hab's fans vote for him. For those interested in the unoffical results, check out the Liberal.ca page here. And for some great analysis of the results check out Greg Morrow's blog.

So far, it seems that all this weekend managed to do, was take this from a 8 man (oops, person) race down to a 4 man race. And each one of the different campaign's supporting blogs have been explaining why these results are good for their respective leaders campaign.

And we still have almost two months to go in this thing.

So far, my favourite is Michael Ignatieff and I do hope he wins. Think this comes from the fact that he doesn't come off as your typical politician. He has had some stumbles but many of those seem to stem from the MSM's obsession with 15-30 second sound bites, whereas his positions are more complex and can't be reduced to a one or two sentence answer. I have much more respect for a politician that can explain himself, even if I don't agree with his position, than with one that has so-called "media friendly" quips ready to go. Basically, I'd like to see a politician with a good head on his shoulders, not a goddamn parrot.

Think this all comes back to my pollyanna-ish idea that politics would actually come back to a true debate about ideas and policy, rather than simply attacking the other guy for votes.

An Increase in Western Political Clout?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 19:17:00 +0000

First off, just like to apologize for the lack of posts during the last week. Seems that every once in a while, life comes and gets in the way of blogging. But without further ado, here we go.

Saw this article on the CBC website a couple days ago. A recently released StatsCan report shows that for the first time ever, B.C.'s and Alberta's combined population have surpassed that of Quebec. The article then continues on to wonder if this will result in more political power for the West. It certain could, in one respect. And that is through increased representation in both Houses of Parliament that may occur. Currently, B.C. and Alberta currently have 64 seats in the lower House (as opposed to Quebec's 75), while the more glaring discrepancy is in the Senate where B.C. and Alberta have 12 and Quebec has 24 seats. Now the House discrepancy I believe will take of itself the redistribution and allocating of new seats over time. However the Senate may take a little longer, then again maybe not. One proposal out there to correct this is the Murray-Austin amendment.

However, this may not really increase the West's political clout. And the reason for that is due to who else, Ontario. Ontario, with its 106 seats, is still the main objective for any party trying to come to power under our "first past the post" system. And many in Ontario are much more concerned with (and closer to) those in Quebec and issues affecting Quebec. So sure, we might get a few more seats out here, but will anyone be listening?

And a few little tidbits I've found in my wanderings on the net:

I encourage you to check out the Praire Wrangler's "interesting" daily news round-ups. Just remember to take everything he says with a grain of salt (heck you'll need more than a grain, try a whole handful).

Looks like the Liberal Party has fined Joe Volpe $20,000 for signing up dead people. Werner Patels and Steve over at Far and Wide have some great commentary on the issue.

Finally DazzlinDino over at the Blogging Party of Canada has this hilarious clip of a little Irish girl's solution for her teachers giving her too much homework.

Technorati Tags: B.C., Alberta, Quebec

Give it up already

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:01:00 +0000

Looks like good ol' Joe could be up to something again (h/t Prairie Wrangler). The Liberal Party is currently investigating a complaint from Montreal's Papineau riding regarding new members signed up by Volpe. It appears a significant number of the new members had not paid their membership fees or filled out their membership forms themselves. The complaint is still under investigation, so its possible that there is nothing to this but given Volpe's previous track record it wouldn't suprise me. The Volpe campaign has denied this (of course) and says "[t]his is dirty political games being played by the other camps." Now the final paragraph states that only one other candidate managed to recruit a large number of members (Ignatieff) but there were "no anomalies" found. So it is possible that one campaign is trying to cause problems for Volpe. Guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

There is one thing above all else that bothers me about Volpe and his leadership campaign. And its the fact that he is using this purely for personal gain. He doesn't have a chance of winning (at least I hope not) but will play a huge role in the determination of who eventually wins. Many already see him as the "kingmaker" who will give his delegates to the highest bidder. And god only knows what he'll be promised to get those votes.

Finally, Jason Cherniak noticed an interesting similarity between Joe Volpe and Francis Griffin (Peter's dad on Family Guy).

UPDATE:
The Toronto Star has done some more digging into this issue. Appears a few of the new members the Volpe campaign signed up are no longer with us. One of them passed away nearly 17 years ago.

Also, this story is beginning to gain some traction in the blogosphere, check out these great posts on the issue:
Far and Wide
Nate Dawg
And CTV's Parliament correspondent David Akin

Technorati Tags: Joe Volpe, Liberals, Papineau

Swearing an oath to Canada?

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:27:00 +0000

Pat Martin, NDP MP for Winnipeg-Centre, has come out with a great idea. Yes I know, I've actually admitted the NDP had a good idea. Anyways, Martin has said he intends to table a private members bill in the House of Commons to require every sitting MP to swear an oath to Canada (ht to Praire Wrangler). Now as some of you may or may not be aware, currently an MP is required (by the Constitution) to swear an oath to the Queen but only to the Queen. His bill would amend the Parliament of Canada act requiring the following oath to be read:

"I, (name), do swear (or solemnly affirm) that I will be loyal to
Canada and that I will perform the duties of a member of the House of
Commons honestly and justly."

If a MP refused to take the oath, they would be prohibited from sitting in the House and would be stripped of their parliamentary budgets (including their salaries). Tom Brodbeck (who wrote the Winnipeg Sun article) notes that this type of legislation has been introduced before in 2003 and made it to a 2nd reading before Parliament was dissolved.

Now obviously this is meant to hurt the Bloc Quebecois, whose goal is the breakup of Canada. And this seems to be Martin's intent:

"If you won't swear an oath of absolute loyalty and allegiance to
Canada, then you have no business sitting in the Canadian House of
Commons," Martin, the MP for Winnipeg-Centre, told the Sun. "We'll fill
your chair with someone who loves this country instead."

Personally I see this as a no-brainer and hope it passes. But one must wonder if it will. The cynic in me observes that many of the bills the Conservatives have passed have only gotten through due to BQ support. If this bill passes, many in the BQ may be opposed to helping the Conservatives get anything else passed. Many accuse/praise Stephen Harper for being a very shrewd politician, would he see this bill as an obstacle? Although his western Canadian base would see this as a must pass issue. Then again, I think this bill would pass with support from all of the parties (minus the BQ obviously) w/o the Conservatives having to take much of a lead on it.

Another issue this brings up is: What happens to those seats? If a Bloc MP is elected and refuses to take the oath, does this seat remain unfilled? Or is another by-election called? And then what happens if the same MP is elected? And what happens in the case of large number of MP-elects refusing to take the oath, does this then affect majority/quorom status in the House?

If any one understands Parliamentary procedure better than I do (which isn't very well) some clarifaction would be greatly appreciated.

Technorati Tags: NDP, Pat Martin, Bloc Quebecois

Parkdale-High Park By-election

noreply@blogger.com (Daz) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:11:00 +0000

So today is the day when we find out if the Liberal smear machine was effective. Here's the Elections Ontario page, which states they'll have live results at 8 pm (guessing thats EST (or is it EDT?)). The G&M's Karen Howlett has a story today about the race along with this CBC article from yesterday. To hear both Sylvia Watson and Dalton McGuinty dismiss this nasty attack on another candidate makes on wonder about the fortunes of the Ontario Liberals. Could they be growing a little to close to the habits of their federal counterparts? When will politicians realize that this stuff disgusts the voting public?

And now, a few blogs with posts on the by-election:

James Bow has a great post on the attacks against Cheri DiNovo.
J Kelly at On the Fence has yet another (h/t James Bow)
Another from Steve at Nice Comfy Fur.
Mark at Ottawa Watch has a post criticizing Kinsella's role in this whole affair.
BigCityLib has one on Kinsella and another regarding McGuinty's role.
Canadian Cerberus has a post on another of her articles. (Here's the full article)
Toronto Mike has a great post on the Homolka sermon (including the sermon in its entirety).
Finally Lobster Thermidor has a great post on how this reflects on Sylvia Watson.

One notices, that after starting this whole thing with Cerberus and Kinsella, Jason Cherniak has been conspicously absent in recent days on this topic.

Well, I guess all we can do now is wait and see what the voters of Parkdale-High Park decide.

UPDATE:
Damn, knew I forgot someone. Greg at democraticSPACE has an interesting prediction on the results.

UPDATE:
Alright, just got home and checked the Elections Ontario page. Unoffically, Cheri DiNovo has won the riding with 41% of the vote (33% for Watson (Lib) and 17% for Hutcheon (Con)).

Technorati Tags: Cheri DiNovo, NDP, Liberals, Parkdale, High Park