maarsen

He did write a book a few years back about his vision for a more fair and equitable economic system. He has some strong opinions on what he does not like, rent seeking behaviour is one, so I do expect him to remake Canada. I have to say that his book is not an easy read without some knowledge of economics.

A 20% success rate and he thinks AI can't do any better? I think rolling a pair of dice has a better success rate than a VC. You can train an AI to do that.

I wonder what will happen if PP gets only 51% of the vote in Battle River-Crowfoot. Even if he gets 70% doesn't that say a lot about his electability? But then again this choice of riding does show the CPC really does worry about his electability.

Ford won because of a 45% voter turnout. He was lining up behind Poilevre to kiss Trump's ass before his election and before tariffs.

There is the instructive example of John Tory, the Ontario Conservative party leader who lost his bid for a seat at election. A fellow Con resigned and Tory ran in that riding only to lose again.

Whenever Mark Carney enters a summit with other heads of state, he can be assured that he is the smartest person in the room. That must really miss off Trump. If you want to see the future of Canada read Carney's book. It is not an easy read but well worth it.

As election workers we were told we can't wear coloured clothes in party colours. Every poll worker seemed to com with black jeans and tan coloured shirts. Voters can't wear a thing that advertises a political party if they want to enter the polling place. The only way to tell who they support is by their words.

Asa deputy returning officer I got that a lot at the advance poll. We supply a pencil with a fat lead to make an easy to read mark. If someone complains about erasures we suggest they use a pen and will even lend them one. The only no-no is using a marker as it can bleed through and make your secret vote visible to others. As for erasing votes, the rate of pay for election workers is just above minimum wage and I doubt you can find enough people to sit and erase votes for that money. I have to swear an oath before I can even begin and the ballot box has numerous seals on it, all with my signature on them, and only I am allowed to open the box and handle the ballots. The parties all have scrutineers and we cannot open the box until they are there to watch us do so. They then watch as we open and count the ballots. The people who complain about vote erasing are those who vote for fringe parties and wonder why their candidate gets 3 votes when the vote count is in the hundreds for the main party candidates.

Assuming PP stays as leader he needs a newly elected member to resign in a safe seat to trigger a byelection. The PM decides the date and if memory serves he has a year to do so. A year is a lifetime in politics. Losing your safe seat when the party's vote share goes up is not a good sign.

They were first. We started the count at 7:30 pm and I personally finished my ballot box at 9 :45 or so. After the results are checked and recorded and scrutineers have seen everything, the results are phoned in to the local elections office. I was done by 10:30 .

Considering that Trump's attention span is short, he seems to expect the same of others.

Even during the 60s when panspermia first came to my attention, I had a hard time taking it seriously. The argument then was that life was so rare and that there was no path for it to begin on our planet that it had to come from elsewhere, begging the question where it began in the first place.

Probably bad. Based on purely anecdotal evidence, blue voters are fairly consistent in coming out to vote every election. Liberal or red voters, I'm talking to you Ontario, come out in numbers when they see a chance to make a difference.

Well I got today's newspaper and on the front page is a story about the Tories worried Poilevre may lose his seat in the election A big gleeful look on my face now.

That makes me beam.

Anyone younger than Trump could be advised to hang in also. Even if he doesn't croak, his attention span is somewhat short.

Two fuckups in a couple of months on the job? As the sun rises and sets and can be counted on to do the same, we can expect more fuckups to come.

Very busy as I can attest. I was a DRO for a poll in my district and Monday was just as busy as the record setting Friday. 4 14 hour days in a row and now I get a rest.

The failure to deal with child abuse allegations within the church, the residential schools survivors in Canada amongst them, was certainly a failure also.

I am getting ready for my 3rd day as a deputy returning officer at an advance voting polling station. It has heen busier than you can imagine. We were told to expect larger numbers but no one expected the numbers we got. Two more days to do.

Today we had to put our little Puli down. She would have been 14 years old in June but her health problems were just too much in the last year. Fuck this hurts. She was the sweetest little dog. Before she passed I took off her collar. I don't believe in an afterlife but if there is one for dogs that give unconditional love, she will go there free.

Even the thought of a general strike has a strong effect on politicians. Doug Ford, here in Ontario was all in on forcing teacher's unions to have a contract forced on them by legislation. All the unions here, not just the teachers, but industrial and building trade unions too, said if the legislation is introduced there will be a general strike. Ford backed down really fast.

Wards and semiprivate rooms in any hospital being built/renovated in Ontario are a thing of the past for infection control reasons even before Covid. Sharing a toilet with a patient that has Norovirus or C. Difficile is sure to make a single case into an outbreak. My town, Aurora, in their new theatre space, has all the washrooms designated as for use by anyone without regard to sex.

I am working as a deputy returning officer for the advance poll in my electoral district. All 4 days. You can also go to your Elections Canada office and vote there before the advance pot. I did when doing my training.

Ted Kotcheff is dead at 94. I just got the news on CBC. I liked his movies such as First Blood, yes he started the Rambo franchise, Fun With Dick and Jane, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.