vintage

Personally, I like my proroguies with sour cream.

Anyway, it’s old news by now: Parliament has been prorogued and will not sit again until January 26. In that time period, the Conservatives are expected to unleash a flood of election-campaign-style material, the Liberals will lick their wounds and probably get rid of Stéphane Dion a few months earlier than planned, and Gilles Duceppe will go on doing whatever he feels like doing.

Interestingly, Wikipedia actually has an ongoing article about the current dispute with a great deal of collected background information, so that is worth checking out as well.

John Manley, former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister, has written a column in the Globe & Mail today calling for Dion’s speedy replacement. It seems that that is probably the best (well, perhaps the only) option for the Liberals at this point; they really need to come out swinging when Parliament resumes in January, and the only way they can do it is by replacing Dion, either with an interim leader or by somehow having their leadership convention early and finding a permanent one. Obviously, if they plan to bring down the government, a permanent leader would be more stable, but at this point I think the reigning sentiment is “anyone but Dion”.

I hate to see him go, but the last week was not exactly convincing, and as much as I think he has the fight in him, he has not done a good job convincing us of that and he has to move over to make room for someone who could bring the Liberals back on track.

Coming soon: my top 10 releases of 2008 (I’ve almost finalized my list) as well as top 10 concerts I got to see this year. Bear in mind that I work at Massey Hall now, so the list is considerably more diverse than it otherwise would have been — a pretty awesome side effect of getting a new job. See you soon!

PS: I saw Neil Young on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre. He played all the hits. “Cortez the Killer”, “Powderfinger”, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”, “Heart of Gold”, “Rockin’ in the Free World”, “The Needle And the Damage Done” … etc. The list goes on forever, and the set was capped off by a cover of “A Day in the Life” for the encore, which was totally amazing. In summary, it was absolutely worth the $65 — yeah, I cheaped out and bought 3rd-tier seats, but they ended up being really great. I also hope that I am as cool as he is when I reach retirement age.