who knew

people wear underwear in wetsuits?

The silliest part are these

The silliest part are these election campaigns, trying to warp people's already warped minds into certain directions.

Totally unnecessary. People who have to make their minds up during these few weeks of madness, or on their way to the polls, obviously have no idea what the issues and party policies are and their vote is wasted.

Usually on the wrong person, who was able to spend the most during the silly season of the campaign.

Ed Deak.

I cannot understand why

I cannot understand why Canadians still vote for the same 2 established political parties election after election. At the same time the voter turnout is getting less and less. Maybe the political parties behave the way they do, so more and more voters feel that their vote doesn't have any bearing, so why vote at all; thus it's easier for the politians to do whatever they want when they get elected. Democracy only happens on election day but the average voter is so swooned by the BS that they're numb when they cast their ballot. Democracy is propagated by politians and the mass-media. Democracy in Canada is a myth.

Undies not allowed. Wear your togs.

If the Imperial Order of the Lions Bay Kingdom won't let you expose your undies when changing into a wetsuit, wear a speedo--a teeny weeny speedo.

Good one Rafe!

Excellent piece Rafe. Makes me wonder what Maxim V will be.

Dog chauffeur?

I like your columns, Rafe, but I have a hard time accepting the sincerity of someone who describes himself as an environmentalist when he makes one car trip a day just to drive his dog to the beach.

Taliban supports Stephen Harper

"A top Taliban commander is applauding Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan by 2011, saying it will save the lives of soldiers and civilians, while vowing to continue their "domestic war."

This is excellent for the Conservatives, they've got the Kandahar vote, it should be majority gov't now.

Tyee columnist writes:

Terry Glavin

. . . .The Conservatives are afraid of the issue because the polls keep tilting against Canada’s Afghan engagement, especially in key Quebec ridings. The Liberals don’t want to talk about the issue either, because they’ve been split on Afghanistan — and, after all, it was their party that got us into Kandahar in the first place.

The Bloc Québécois, the New Democratic Party and the Greens each claim to be champions of multilateralism and humanitarianism in foreign policy. The mission in Afghanistan serves both principles — yet all three parties oppose an extended Canadian involvement in the country. And so they all risk being seen as hypocritical for making what UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has properly called a “misjudgment of historic proportions” in their troops-out position — a position also opposed by the vast majority of the Afghan people.

Time is on their side

While posters bemoan the fact that we have no democracy (and if you think that is true, go live in a dictatorship), Canada's pullout of Afghanistan is a direct result of the unpopularity of the war.

The Taliban are an ancient group of people. They have seen invaders come and go for centuries and they know that sooner or later they will leave.

Just like we are doing.

realisticman

In other words "Taliban Stephen" is "cutting and running" because the NDP and Greens are against the mission? Cool.

Its the stuff movies are made of

The commercials the parties have out are a hoot despite the obvious bore of the election which I attribute to our neighbors. The USA media charade of presidential hopefuls is the stuff movies are made of as a war traumatized old man and a small town mom of five who is suffering from downs baby blues are front runners. I am getting a kick out of laid back Layton and his attack on the Conservatives as could easily be about the Liberals as he goes for more seats. And Dion, who I like but believe his green shift will be devastating to the economy as energy prices take their tole on Canadians at the pumps and the food check outs. With the crash to the American market and gas prices escalating the green shift may just become more about the shift from the environment to the green in Canadian pockets rather than the air they breath given its the best the world has to offer. The Liberal's Dion has the best commercials so far but then aren't they the guys with the in, the in on advertising.

local politics

A really fun column Rafe. Maybe too much info about your skinny-dip swimming dog. Does Lion's Bay require wet suits for mutts?
Anyway, my local government isn`t even willing to admit that it is a government. Yeah, the Islands Trust. Good concept but overblown with regulations. When in doubt, create a bylaw.
Still, its a love hate relationship we have with those brave enough to represent the people locally. That`s why they need to serve for short periods of time; and then return to the role of ordinary person and recharge.

Realisticman

It's comments like "The mission in Afghanistan serves both principles" that have me shaking my head. We are going to improve human rights in Afganistan at the point of a gun. We'll force democracy on you whether you like it or not. We are there only becuse the U.S. wanted to use their resources for an oil adventure in Iraq and this is a noble quest for multilateralism and humanitarianism? How strange does it get? Harper is a lap dog for the U.S. oil interests. Him trying to come across as this nice fellow you could have a coffee with is as transparent as the famous Gordo in a working man's shirt.

The thought of giving Harper a majority is enough to make me a supporter of any system of government besides the first past the post.

Not exactly, Frank

Harper has pledged to leave Afghanistan because the deployment of troops there is not popular and serves no political end for him and it can certainly do him a lot of political damage.

I am not a big fan of Harper but I do believe he is a politically astute man. His real challenge will be to suppress the whack jobs in his own party, which he has done with better success than I thought he ever could.

Flogging a dead horse....

Steven Harper has made a series of mistakes during his Reign of Error:

1. Setting the date of the next election for 2009. This was wishful thinking. No minority government can set the date of the next election. One vote of no-confidence and you are gone. Harper finessed the opposition parties only because they were leader-disadvantaged or otherwise bankrupt. Tampering with democracy is a serious political offence.

2. Calling the election early. He just made his first flip-flop and proved he cannot be trusted. He is just as poll-driven as his predecessors.

3. Trying to deny the Green Party a place in the TV debate. That was chauvinistic, childish and counterproductive.

4. Changing his mind and agreeing to have Elizabeth May in on the TV event. This was his second flip-flop.

5. None of the above amount to a hill of beans, but the fifth error will cost lives. Announcing that the Canadian mission in Afganistan will end in 2011 makes every soldier over there a target. It deftly undermines their morale and puts the Canadian commitment to upholding democracy on a par with a 2% tax cut on Diesel fuel. Both are election issues, apparently. Good move, Steven!

At 59 years of age, and against my own better judgement, I joined a political party last week. Mr. Harper made me join The Greens. I am SO sick of watching the Four Stooges do their same-old deja-vu routine, something has got to change. We are on the brink of more social upheaval than we can possibly imagine. The arctic will soon be ice-free and the climate is most definitely changing, but not apparently, in Ottawa. The time is past due for meaningful policies that will curb our greenhouse gas emissions. We needed to get moving on this stuff ten years ago.

I only hope The Greens will rise above the muck in the mire and actually DO something. Having a fifth do-nothing party would be too much. The entertainment value plummetted with the stock market.

Fish counter

Joining the greens may make you 'feel' good, which is fine as far as it goes.

May definitely deserves to be heard - but as for her chances of:
1) electing any members, and;
2) having much influence after Oct 14...

Well, I hope that 'good' feeling has sticking power, cause it's gonna have to last you through 4 more years of pee wee rambo government.

is the law an ass?

Rafe, so democracy is what is manifested in Lions Bay?
The powers that be gives in to complaints and then everybody ignores the new regulations/laws?
On a larger scale we see the silly speedlimits that everybody breaks, because they are only there to satisfy a few who still drive 1950 vehicles and have no idea of what modern safety means.
Going even more up-to-date we have Harpo who now governs by the latest poll, happily going back on his own words!
My question is when is it OK to break a law? is it OK to walk on the grass in spite of the sign, but not OK to park in a disabled spot?
Would it not be smarter to have laws that make sense and then enforce them?