Occasionally Wright

Score One for Levant

I do believe that today marks the first time I have ever agreed with the bulk of an Ezra Levant column. "Principles Under Attack" takes a look at how it has become taboo in Canada to use the phrase "Merry Christmas", how politicians who express a religious belief are maligned for it and how the federal government is doing its best to remove anything that could be construed as having religious connotations from the public eye. Give it a read.

Canada at a Glance

In my travels to the US it's pretty common for people to ask me questions about Canada and if there are differences between Canada and the USA when it comes to _______. Today I came across this excellent post by Dave Pollard on what makes Canada tick. It's well worth the read for anyone that has 10 minutes or so to learn a bit about Canada's politics, geography, economy and a bit about our culture.

Rhetorica

For all you former rhetorical scholars out there there's a website you might find interesting. Rhetorica.net is run by Dr. Andrew R. Cline who teaches at Park University. Most of the site consists of rhetorical analysis of American politics and media coverage and he has some good short little primers on the Canon of Rhetoric, Kenneth Burke, and all that other stuff you've forgotten since you took Communication Theory. He even does a radio broadcast on Tuesdays from 11-1pm which you can listen to online. Today's entry- the concept of audience.

Juan Pictures

Lots of people have been coming here over the last week looking for pictures of the damage caused by hurrican Juan in Halifax and PEI. I have no pictures, but I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

For a list of sites with great pictures mostly from the Charlottetown area try Acts of Volition or newrecruit.org. newrecruit.org also has some of Halifax. Make sure you check the comments section too since there are more links provided there. For more pictures of Halifax, try this site, which I found over at genx40.com.

Politically Speaking

Do you know what I like about american politics? People care. While the American media tends ot make a circus out of things like the California gubernatorial (I've never understood the spelling of that word but rest assured it is right) race- as if they needed help- but at least people talk about it. I hear way more Canadians talking about that and the Democratic presidential candidate nominations than I hear talking about our politics. Granted Paul Martin's dominance has pretty much crushed all interest in federal leadership, but what about at the provincial level? Is anyone talking about the upcoming Ontario and/or PEI elections? Not really, although there's some chatter at Charlottetown City Filter. Maybe it's because we view politicians as beaucrats while in the US they're closer to being celebrities. Is that why we generally don't care? I can readily admit that I'm more interested in the Dean/Kerry/Gephardt race (does anyone else want to see Wesley Clark join the fight?) than I am in anything up here. I can't even name any opposition party leaders for Ontario provincial politics, and I can vote for them. So what would it take to get Canadians to be as interested in Canadian politics as we are in American politics? A better system? Better candidates? If so do you have anyone in mind? Who are your dream candidates if you have any? Let's talk people. Oh, and if you're American feel free to tell us why you do or don't care about your politics or throw in your 2 cents on whatever's going on.