Al B Here For YouAl B Here For YouOne anglophone's journey through the weird and wonderful city of Montreal Articles
Bye Izabelle!!
2007-04-28 17:24:00 The landscape of Musique Plus changed last night as the folks at Plus Sur Commande bid a fond farewell to longtime VJ, Izabelle Desjardins. When I first learned she was leaving via MySpace (she had sent out a bulletin to everyone on her friendlist), I was a bit puzzled. After all, this girl had pretty much become the face of the station over the last couple of years. She was the first VJ I ever remember seeing when I tuned into the station in the summer of 2004. From what she?s written, she has other things that she wanted to explore, so I wish her the best of luck.It?ll be interesting to see what will happen with this new VJ Recherchée contest that they?re running to replace Iza. I had seriously frowned on Muchmusic?s American Idol meets the Real World reality show concept a couple of years back, so I?ve got my doubts about what they?ll come up with here. But that being said, Musique Plus has always had a way of conveying its own unique character over the airwaves so I?m optimistic... More About: Bell , Belle , Abel
Maddy's on the Office!
2007-04-18 14:44:00 One of my faithful readers, who identifies herself as Lina in the comments section from time to time, has dropped the not-so-subtle hint that my blog has been on a bit of a downward turn with the various bumps I’ve been enduring in the last month between work and school. So I decided I would try and be a bit more upbeat this time and let people in on what I consider to be good news. Granted, it’s not good news for me, specifically, but I’ll live vicariously through this one anyway.A certain number of you out there know that, over the past few months, I’ve made friends via e-mail with a lovely actress named Maddy Curley. Admittedly, she’s not a household name at this point, so don’t be too distressed if you haven’t heard of her. Her most prominent role was as a supporting actress in the film Stick It (one of my guilty pleasures) as the up-and-coming gymnast, Mina. But what has she done lately?The answer, dear readers, is that she has been keeping herself busy with indep... More About: Office , The Office , The O
the long weekend
2007-04-11 15:45:00 Well, it’s all over except for the crying. I finished the second of my night courses last evening and, though I’m not nearly as confident of the outcome as I was about the French to English class, I’m thinking I should finish with a reasonably solid B. Of course anything could happen, so I may well finish with something ghastly like a C. There isn’t an A in the running, though, as I believe that was mathematically impossible. Oh well. Onwards and upwards, right?Today is important as I’ve got an interview down the hill. I’ve been spending the last 20 minutes or so browsing the unit’s website to see what sort of knowledge I can glean from what they’ve chosen to post. It’s interesting, to be sure. I’m actually somewhat surprised that, in total, the female population of this particular institution is roughly twice the size of the male contingent, with the notable exception of the Faculty of Management, that seems to be an even split. I’m sure there are othe... More About: Weekend , Week , Long
Updates from Al
2007-03-29 14:51:00 Well, well, well… the last couple of weeks have been quite an adventure, to say the least. To begin, I would like to formally announce that I’m looking for work in and around Montreal. I got the news last week that there just isn’t any money in the budget to maintain my position, so at the end of the fiscal year (May 31) I’ll be handing in my keys and bidding a fond farewell to my little office space. While this is hardly the sort of news I wanted to hear, I was only ever promised a year here so getting an extra 2 and a half months is actually pretty decent. So if any of my readers know of any jobs for Anglophones out there (and though I shouldn’t NEED to emphasize this, I will anyway: NO CALL CENTRES), please feel free to drop me a line.The next blow to the ol’ ego came last night in the form of a rather thin envelope from McGill’s Department of History. Contained therein was notice that I had been rejected from the Masters program and that my interest in the “... More About: Updates , Update
Avril Lavigne, Supporter of Core French Currculum Reform
2007-03-26 18:56:00 As I was reading through an article on Avril Lavigne ’s new multilingual single “Girlfriend†and I couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently the folks in marketing thought it would be a brilliant move for her to record the chorus in 7 different languages in an attempt to further break through overseas. Not a bad idea. But that’s not the thing that made me laugh.Y’see, one of the languages chosen for the song’s reworked chorus is French and, despite her VERY French name, Avril doesn’t speak a word of it. This led the journalist (Karen Bliss) into a line of questions that prompted Lavigne to lament the fact that her parents never put her in French immersion classes when she was younger. Considering she’s a high school dropout, I’m not really sure how much good any immersion program would have done for her.Bliss then takes a timeout during the article to indict the current core French program, saying,“Considering how Canadian students are required to take French classes ... More About: Reform , Support , Core
My Mind is Blank
2007-03-15 16:48:00 We’ve hit March 15 and my mind is still a blank. My parents decided to take advantage of March Break this past week and drove up from London to see little ol’ me. As much as I hate to admit it, I do miss my family occasionally. Sure, it was pretty tight quarters, but it’s the price one pays to have visitors in a one bedroom apartment in Montreal. They were able to entertain themselves while I was at work, so I didn’t need to play tour guide.I also got back the results of my English-to-French midterm and, while hardly spectacular, was well within the low ‘B’ range, which is fine by me at this point. This course was a good litmus test for me and my fluency in French. It showed me that, though I’ve got a reasonable grasp of the language, it’s going to take longer than the duration of this course for me to approach my own demanding performance standards with respect to mastery.I also recently got the chance to attend a lecture by Sherry Simon, who wrote a book call... More About: Mind , Blank
Loose Ends
2007-03-07 14:45:00 Consider this post as Al’s way of tying up some loose ends. The last couple of weeks I’ve been more self-absorbed than usual and, to be honest, haven’t had much to say au sujet du Québec. But for those who are interested in the daily happenings of my routine, I wanted to let you know that, yes, the bank did manage to correct my balance and return to me the money that had been scammed by those evil card skimmers. And no, there were no bounced cheques in the meantime, so all is well in that respect.I continue scratch and claw my way through my English-to-French translation course with varied results. I had thought that I was finally turning a corner last week when I received back my first ‘A’, only to be smacked back to reality this week when I got back a ‘C’ right before the midterm. Nothing like a confidence booster right before the midterm to get your mind in the right place, eh? My French-to-English class has been far more consistent, in terms of performance. ... More About: Ends , Loose Ends
Justin Trudeau's Aspirations
2007-02-27 15:35:00 I was thinking about the recent announcement Justin Trudeau’s intention to run under the Liberal banner in the Papineau riding of Montreal. I don’t know about the political landscape of Montreal, but from what I’ve been reading, the seat is currently held by the Bloc Quebecois. I wonder how much his last name will help or hinder him in a campaign.What I really wanted to talk about is the reaction I’ve read from English Canadians. The ones that have particularly caught my attention are the ones that say things like, “Who does this guy think he is?†or “God help us! Not another Trudeau!†or even “What has THIS guy ever done to deserve to run?†Such mindsets are absolutely asinine.Am I biased towards Trudeau because of his late father? Yes. Regardless of how Pierre Trudeau is remembered by history, I know that without his policies and vision of Canada, I wouldn’t exist right now. Just think of the hours you folks have spent reading this blog! Thanks ol’ P... More About: Rude
Ripped off- the cloned bank card fiasco
2007-02-23 19:50:00 Well, how about that? ol? Al has had a bit of a rough week, to say the least. It started off innocently enough, but it?s turned into an exercise in frustration. I was checking my account balances yesterday to make sure that my pay had gone in, and it did, but I also got another fun surprise. Someone had cloned my bank card! Apparently some yahoo made a deposit of $2222.22 (obviously an empty envelope) and then took out whatever he could from my account. Thankfully, I have limits on my access card otherwise I would have been more screwed than I ended up being. As it stands, the thief made off with half of my pay cheque.I?ll admit that I?m surprised at how quickly the ScotiaBank ?s card security team noticed the activity, and am equally happy that they blocked my card from further use pending a visit from me down at the branch. That being said, I think our friends at my local branch in Montreal need to brush up on their procedures. I went in and spoke with a teller, who then bro... More About: Card , Cloned , Lone , Asco
An Underwhelming Response
2007-02-19 15:25:00 Last week, I issued a formal invitation to supporters of a Free and Independent Quebec, asking them to send me something to post on my humble blog here, but the response has been underwhelming to say the least. This should come as no surprise, really, since my francophone audience is quite tiny and I believe they may be uncomfortable subjecting their beliefs to the (occasionally) scathing commentaries of some of my regular readers. One of my old sovereignist friends has agreed to send me something, but I?m not sure when he?ll get around to sending it in.I?ve approached Loco Locass, as well, but Biz told me that they?re working on the new album at the moment and don?t have the time to spare right now. Anyone familiar with their work knows that they?re meticulous with their choice of words and never do a half-ass job at anything, so I can see why they wouldn?t want to send something that was just thrown together. It?s unfortunate that they won?t be participating in this little discuss... More About: Under , Ming , Helm , Response
Genie Awards!
2007-02-14 15:28:00 For those expecting some sort of Valentine?s Day posting, you?ll be collectively disappointed. Much like last year, I?m opting to not do much more than casually acknowledge this ?holiday.? Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the Genie Awards , held last night in Toronto. The Genie Awards are essentially the Canadian version of the Academy Awards, but unlike their cousins to the South, are barely even noticed by the general viewing public in Canada.Anyway, I was looking at the list of winners and something rather obvious jumped out at me: almost ALL the winners come from Quebec! Now I?m not sure if the Quebecois just produce more films per year than English Canada, thus leading to a larger talent pool from which to draw, but it does strike me as odd that the awards were so lopsided. It would be nice to see a bit of competition in both languages one of these years.In terms of the winners, it seems that the Rocket suffered from a Prince of Tides sort of effect. For those t... More About: Ward
An Open Invitation to Quebec Sovereignists
2007-02-12 15:08:00 I spent the better part of this weekend (and by better part, I mean pretty much every waking hour) doing a combination of translation homework and watching the first two seasons of Veronica Mars on dvd. Yes, I?m a wild man. No doubt about it. Anyway, when I checked my e-mail this morning, I found a rather interesting letter in my Inbox. It seems that my little ol? blog has caught the attention of a couple of sovereignists and one decided to drop me a line with some links to some English language resources about the topic of an independent Quebec .As luck would have it, I was already familiar with the earlier versions of the sites mentioned, but that got me to thinking. While this is not a politically oriented website, nor do I intend to make it one, I do believe very strongly in open communication and the promotion of understanding between people of differing viewpoints. So keeping that in mind, I?ve decided to open up the floor for discussion. I would like to take this opportunity t... More About: Open , Invitation , Reign , Sovereign
Backwoods Quebecois village by-laws
2007-02-06 15:58:00 Alright, this is just ridiculous. I was flipping channels during the Super Bowl (blasphemy, I know!) and decided to check out a bit of Tout le Monde en Parle. It?s a French talk show on Radio Canada on Sunday nights where (occasionally) controversial guests are invited to discuss whatever issues have gotten their shorts in a bunch. It?s hosted and moderated by Guy A Lepage, a fairly well-recognized Quebecois comedian, who is joined by le fou du roi, Dany Turcotte. The role of le fou du roi is essentially comic relief?particularly useful when you?ve got some crackpots on the program. Well, this time around they decided to invite André Drouin, a town councillor of Hérouxville. It seems that this town is (or at least its municipal representatives are) fed up with accommodating immigrants. Get this?they passed a by-law that specifically forbids the stoning of women?!? Um, isn?t this already covered under, oh I don?t know, MURDER?!?! Was this law really necessary? Who are these ... More About: Laws , Village , Woods , Villa
La Paryse
2007-02-05 15:59:00 (Somewhat) fresh off of the submission of my MA application on Thursday, I needed to blow off a bit of steam and relax before throwing myself headlong into translation assignments for my classes. As luck would have it, Zahra was free and suggested that we check out her favourite hamburger place in Montreal: La Paryse. Since I?ve always been a burger and fries sort of guy, I thought, why not? Truth be told, I was far more interested in my companion than any hamburger, but that?s neither here nor there.She had told me that the place was pretty popular and that whenever she had gone in the past, the place was always packed. Given the small size of the restaurant, I can see why that would be the case. Fortunately for us, there was a table in the back of the quaint little eatery. I would have to say that it redefined the term ?intimate? for me, as they crammed somewhere in the neighbourhood of 15-20 tables into a place that could barely support that. I could probably have snagged ...
Deadlines, deadlines!
2007-01-31 16:49:00 The next 24-48 hours will be particularly stressful for ol' Al. Not only do I have an assignment for my French-to-English translation course, but the deadline for my MA application is tomorrow. I've been polishing up my submissions as best I can, but I'm still missing one of my reference letters. I sent an e-mail yesterday to the professor in question, but as of right now, I haven't received a reply. With any luck, it'll magically appear in my mailbox before the deadline. After all, the Department Checklist clearly states that "only complete application packages will be processed." So, yeah. A wee bit worried. Sorry for the brevity of this entry, but I think I'll pace back and forth for a bit. Til next time... More About: Line , Lines
Church, Balance and the Subtlety of Language
2007-01-25 17:44:00 After my chance meeting of Martin?s uncle at la paroisse de Saint-Ambroise a few weeks ago, I?ve been attending mass every Sunday. I?d been thinking back on my Kin 021 class from several years back and the concept of the Wellness Wheel. A quick websearch turns up a bunch of sites related to the Wheel, so if you?re interested in a more thorough discussion of the topic, I encourage you to check them out.Anyway, I?ve accepted that I lack balance in my life. In fact, I may have mentioned that in a previous entry? well, maybe not explicitly, but I had at least resolved to make some efforts towards self-improvement. The Spiritual segment of the Wellness Wheel has been non-existent for me for the past 15-20 years, at least, so I thought that it was a good place to start. Also, since the services are conducted in French, it?s a good opportunity for me to look at the language in a different context.I won?t pretend to be a highly skilled grammarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I did... More About: Church , God , Language , Catholic Church , Balance
Têtes à claques
2007-01-18 15:57:00 I was talking with my distant cousin, Sylvain, recently and he pointed me in the direction of a site called Têtes à claques. According to my handy dictionary, that translates to ?unpleasant faces,? which would pretty much sum up the look of the rather bizarre looking characters in these direct-to-web short comedic films. I kept forgetting to look up the site until this morning when I read an article online that announced that the folks at Juste Pour Rire had purchased the rights to these shorts and planned on selling them to various broadcasters all over the world. The creator of the shorts, Michel Beaudet, has maintained the rights for the internet, mobile phones and the Canadian and Quebecois television markets.I took a look at the site and, to be quite honest, I?m not sure what I think about it. Part of the humour must come from the look of the characters, which are pretty much plastic figurines with Beaudet?s mouth and eyes spliced overtop to do the dialogue and the reactions, b...
Racism in Quebec
2007-01-15 15:11:00 Well, how about this little tidbit? After I spent a considerable amount of time defending les Quebec ois against accusations of being racist and intolerant, they go ahead and admit it in a survey conducted by Le Journal de Montreal, TVA and 98.5 FM! Needless to say, I?m disheartened by this new information, especially since the same survey indicated that, collectively, the Quebecois are more racist than the rest of Canada.According to the survey, 59% of those surveyed indicated that they were strongly, moderately or marginally racist. That?s a pretty significant number. Apparently the Arab community bears the brunt of these negative feelings, followed by the Jewish and Black communities. Surprisingly, the Asian community is barely mentioned. Now before we go tarring and feathering the ethnic Quebecois, it merits mentioning that half of the respondents who come from ethnic communities also consider themselves racist.Apparently the respondents indicated that news coverage of the ... More About: Racism
Tag
2007-01-12 20:45:00 I noticed a spike in my traffic today and since I didn?t post any links to gratuitous nudity recently, I found this to be a bit puzzling. So off I went to check my handy sitemeter and found the source of this new activity. It seems I?ve been ?tagged? in some sort of game of blog tag by a columnist for Le Journal de Montréal named Jean-François Codère. You?re right, J-F, I had absolutely no idea that you stopped by to read my little blog, but I welcome visitors from the Francophone community. I expect your readers were a wee bit surprised to find largely English language content on my site when they followed the link. Anyway, perhaps you can point me in the direction of other aspects of Montreal that I?ve yet to discover.Alright, out of respect for J-F?s link, I?ll play along, as well. From what I?ve gathered, I need to come up with 5 things to post about myself that aren?t exactly common knowledge. Hmmm. That may be tougher than I?d have thought as I?ve been pretty open about most t...
Just Rambling
2007-01-10 21:35:00 Things have been rather slow chez Al B Here. The semester has begun and I?ve been to my first two classes. I think it?ll be nice to have a regular routine, once I get accustomed to the consecutive 13 hour days on campus. I?m still working away on the MA application package. I managed to secure my references and even dig up some old, graded papers while I was home. THAT was a genuine surprise, let me tell you!I dug through some plastic storage bins in my old closet and came out with a couple of ?A? papers from the days of my youth. I didn?t reread them because I was sure I would start critiquing my old work. And what good would that do? I wonder how surprised the selection committee will be when they see a writing sample from 1997? that was back before anyone even considered using online resources in essays and research papers!In the interests of accountability, I thought I would post some of my goals for the New Year. No, they?re not resolutions. Resolutions are useless. ... More About: Rambling , Bling
the Louis-José Houde experiment
2007-01-08 15:20:00 I'm trying a little experiment here. Having seen the nifty clips that others have managed to include in their blogs, I thought I would try and do the same. I've attemped to link to a short clip of the stand up comedy of Louis -José Houde. Those of you who've seen the film Bon Cop Bad Cop will remember him as the fast talking coroner, Jeff.He seems to be pretty much everywhere at the moment. Definitely one of the "in" Quebecois comedians at the moment. So sit back and enjoy this little experiment. By the way, it's in French, so I apologize to those readers that don't understand the language. Til next time... More About: Experiment , Peri , Rime
Some Interesting Sites
2007-01-03 16:23:00 Since I have a bit of time this morning, I thought I would direct my readers to a couple of interesting sites. The first is the blog of Matthew Hayday from Mount Allison University. He?s a post-doctoral fellow in Canadian Studies and has written a book called Bilingual Today, United Tomorrow: Official Languages in Education and Canadian Federalism (a copy of which is sitting on my kitchen table). It?s one thing for me to ramble on about Quebecois culture and language issues, but Matthew has the credibility to back up his analysis. He?s also been rather helpful as I?ve searched for potential essay topics for my MA application, so check out his site. I think it?s a worthwhile read.The next comes from Larry Savage from Brock University. I?d gotten an e-mail over the past few weeks, indicating that he would like to put a link to my blog on his site and since I welcome new readers, I gave him the thumbs up to do so. I?ve skimmed his entries over the past week or so and it looks lik... More About: Interesting , Sites , Some , Eres
Draw Your Own Conclusions
2007-01-02 00:46:00 Welcome to 2007! I?ve returned from the surprisingly green environs of London, Ontario and still have a day or so to kill before I start back at work. So I?ve been watching a bit of football and a variety of dvds (including my newest guilty pleasure, a film called Stick It). Since part of my holidays have already been covered on Chris? blog, I thought I would jump straight to this past Sunday, when I had one of those really Bizarro World moments. Enough preamble, let?s get to it.This past Sunday, I decided to check out the local Catholic churches. I?m not a devout Catholic by any stretch of the imagination, but recent correspondence with a new friend prompted me to take a look around. So I did some web searches on the Archdiocese of Montreal website and found a listing for Saint-Etienne, located about a block or so from me. It didn?t list the times of the services, so I made a wild guess and took a walk over. Here?s the thing?when I got to the address, there was NO church th... More About: Catholic Church , Draw
The Quest for Mitsou
2006-12-21 03:26:04 Mitsou has been one of my favorite Québécois personalities for a while now. Though I didn't understand any of her lyrics when I first heard Bye Bye Mon Cowboy back in the late 80s, she still made an impression on me. Then, as usually happens to francophone artists in English Canada, she seemed to disappear, only to return a few years later with a rather risqué video for her song Dis-Moi, Dis-Moi. From what I've been told, her songs still get air-play during various Toronto "One Hit Wonder" hours on the radio. But despite our ignorance in English Canada, she's continued to have a vibrant career in Quebec. It's with that in mind that I contacted her representatives to try and arrange an interview. Her schedule didn't permit it earlier in the Fall, so I tried again in mid-November. Here's the response I got today:Bonjour Alan, Je me souviens de vous. Je suis désolée de vous annoncer qu?il ne sera pas possible pour elle de participer pour les prochains mois.Mitsou sera en congé de... More About: Quest
The Myth of Canadian Lacrosse
2006-12-20 03:25:11 The year was 1988. I was nearing the end of my time at Jean Vanier Catholic school in London, Ontario, when the school was visited by a rather peculiar man. Though he was clearly of Indian descent, the man spoke with a British accent. He wore all white and carried with him something that looked like an oar whose shaft had been sawed off. Turns out this was a bat. I remember him standing before our class and asking what seemed to be an idiotic question at the time:"Can anyone tell me the name of Cana da's National sport?" he asked. Who did he take us for? Everyone knew the answer to that!"Hockey!" someone piped up."No, not hockey." he replied."It's Lacrosse!" someone else exclaimed. "No, I'm sorry. It isn't Lacrosse, either." he answered.You could see the confusion in the crowd. Who did this guy think he was? We're Canadian damn it! We know our own National Game."It's Cricket!" he finally revealed.Shock. Silence. And then muffled protests."Cricket is the game of the British Empi... More About: Cross , Across , Dian
Words Without Voices
2006-12-16 15:22:07 Ol' Al received an unexpected e-mail in his Inbox this afternoon. It seems that Jim Fielding of Atlantis Found Publishing in Maine came across the review I did about the Metal documentary several months back and asked that I mention the Word s With out Voice s online album art competition. I took a quick look at the press release and figured it, why not? What follows is the press release sent to me by Mr. Fielding. I encourage any of my artisitcally inclined readers to check it out.***Rock Meets Academia in National Concept Album Art CompetitionPortland, Maine-based Atlantis Found Publishing Inc. announces the launch of ?WORDS WITHOUT VOIC ES? (?) Online Album Art Competition. The contest seeks digital visual artwork submissions to illustrate the song lyrics of Conceptual Artist James Thomas Fielding.The contest is limited to the U.S. , Canada and the U.K.The juried art competition, which seeks to establish a new multimedia artform based on rock ?Concept Albums,? offers $6,000 in cash ... More About: Words
The Recap
2006-12-15 03:20:04 The dust has finally settled and I?m on my own again. Last weekend saw OJ roll into town, which was cause for a wee bit of celebrating. Thanks to him, I got a chance to take in one of the mandatory Montreal experiences?un match des Canadiens! His train arrived a little before 5pm, which gave us enough time to swing back to my place to drop his stuff off, then go right back downtown via metro to the Bell Centre. We didn?t have tickets, naturally, so we were at the mercy of the friendly street vendors.En route, we met ?Jacques,? who happened to have a couple of nosebleed seats available. I was somewhat surprised that OJ didn?t try to haggle a bit for the price, but whatever. The point is we had seats. Though he protested, at first, OJ convinced ?Jacques? to take a picture with us. OJ had tried to play it off as a tourist thing, but ?Jacques? was no dumbass. He knew damn well that this was our insurance policy against getting scammed. Fortunately for all parties, the tickets were legit... More About: Recap
Mes Aïeux
2006-12-10 15:17:03 Today I thought I would take a moment or two to talk a bit about my favorite Québécois group, Mes Aïeux. I would be pretty shocked if my readers from English Canada had run across them before and even more shocked if my new American readers (Thanks to a recent link from Stumblingthroughlifewithgrace.com) had even the slightest clue who they are. Since they?ve recently released a new CD/DVD set in Quebec, I thought that now was as good a time as any to talk a bit about them. I don?t know too much about the history of the group (Yes, I know. My bad. But it seems to me that the music is more important than quaint little tales of origin.), but it?s pretty clear that they?ve been deeply influenced by traditional Québécois folk music. The sextet is comprised of Stéphane and Benoit Archambault, Fredéric Giroux, Eric Desranleau, Marie-Hélène Fortin and Marc-André Paquet and has released 4 albums to date.I picked up their 2004 album, En famille, when I was in Quebec City during my first Fren...
Calm Before the Storm
2006-12-07 03:15:06 Today?s edition of Al B Here will be a brainstorming session. In a mere 2 more days, Hurricane OJ will be blowing into town, leaving chaos in his wake. So the question becomes: what does Montreal have to offer this weekend? There?s been talk of wandering up to some friendly street vendors, in an effort to procure tickets to Saturday night?s hockey game, but even if we do that, the game will be over by 10pm at the latest. And who wants to go home at that point?While surfing around, I also noticed that my old friends from Cagibi are playing a gig at Saint-Ciboire that night around 9pm, so we may be able to catch a part of that show, depending on how long it goes. From there, I imagine there?s no shortage of trouble we could get ourselves into (though how much manages to make its way onto this site is anyone?s guess). Le Petit Medley is out, though, due to a private party. Damn shame, too, given its proximity to my apartment. I?ve also had a hankering to hold an informal Quebe... More About: Storm , Stor , Fore , Calm
Thoughts on Dion
More articles from this author:2006-12-06 03:14:08 Although I?m not really one to banter on too much about politics, the recent Liberal leadership convention caught my attention. I didn?t have too many thoughts about it beforehand, aside from being anti-Rae, but I was still pretty surprised at the outcome. Watching Stephane Dion ?s come from behind victory reminded me a bit of the coup that resulted in the IOC granting Sydney the Summer Olympics. For those of you who haven?t followed the convention, Dion barely squeaked into 3rd place on the leadership ballot, then leapfrogged the 2 leading candidates and then sealed the deal on the 4th ballot.The Sydney delegation pulled a similar stunt back in the day. They approached voting members of the IOC and essentially pitched the idea that, ?Okay, we know we?re not your first choice. But do you think we?d be an acceptable second choice if your favorite gets knocked out?? They managed to gain enough support by focusing on the endgame rather than the first couple of rounds of voting. Slick mo... More About: Thoughts , Thought 1, 2, 3 |
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