End of An Era for Baby Boomers

Thursday June 25, 2009 will be remembered as an important day in our cultural history. The names Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are now bound together forever as both died on the same day. Ms. Fawcett represented the clean image we all admired while MJ represents the bad boy image with extreme eccentricity thrown in to make him one of the most interesting people of our era. Farrah Fawcett set a fine example in her clean life and her courageous battle with cancer. Michael gave us music and dance which thrilled us with excitement and enthusiasm. Years from now I believe Michael Jackson will be remembered much like Elvis Presley is remembered. It is hard to say if Michael or Elvis made the greater cultural impact. Each had a troubled life and an unexpected death when their career seemed to be coming back strongly.
Let Farrah be our role model.

Let Reason Prevail

Election speculation this week was high in Canada then something surprising happened. The Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Liberal Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff held two productive meetings on Tuesday and agreed to work together. Among other things they apparently agreed on a "Blue Ribbon" task force to review Employment Insurance and needed changes during the current economic crisis. This is much like the one Harper appointed before headed by Liberal John Manley to deal with Canada's future role in the Afghanistan conflict. This depoliticized the issue. Hopefully positive changes will come (quickly) to improve the EI (or UI as most people still call it) system.
The meetings of our leaders were a positive sign of bi-partisanship which makes everything work better and makes most Canadians happy with the outcome. It is starting to look like minority government can work.
If you have not yet voted in my current poll on whether Ignatieff should force an election please do. You may also change your vote which makes sense to me as progress is made for the benefit of Canadians. I voted maybe then yes and I am now going to change my vote to no. Elections are not needed when reason prevails.

Stanley Cup Over now what? ELECTION!

Once again Canadians are holding their collective breath to see if there will be another Federal election. This is becoming our national sport and now that the hockey season is over with the Pittsburgh Penguins winning the Stanley Cup election fever is back. Everybody is saying they do not want an election but do they really mean it? I do not believe the politicians on that as Prime Minister Harper wants nothing but a majority government and the opposition still wants him out. If both the Liberals and Conservatives think they will win there will be an election. This may be such a time.
The big spending Conservatives have run a $50 Billion deficit and it is hard for the opposition to argue they are not spending enough on stimulus, but certainly argument can be made about how quickly the money is going out or how well targeted it is. Clearly the Conservatives do not have their hearts into this bail out process and can't wait for this recession to be over. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is arguing against the Bank of Canada and most economists saying happy days are just around the corner.
These are tough times and it would be nice to have a Federal Government that was united in its approach to crisis. In the world of politics that is too much to expect. So Canadians may be asked to choose between Harper and Ignatieff which is certainly a better choice than the last time around when the Liberal leader was too weak (mainly from being bashed by attack ads) but also by his own communication difficulties.
Michael Ignatieff set some terms for not defeating the Government on Monday June 15 so it is now in Stephen Harper's hands whether to make the election happen by saying "bring it on" or to accommodate the Liberals on this to keep his government in power a little longer. If PM Harper does not want an election and makes concessions Michael Ignatieff can still say "it is not enough". This means there is a very good chance for another election that nobody wants. Then it will be an interesting choice of values where the immediate policies are really the same.
A summer election may be called at the end of this week and if not it could still come anytime Parliament is sitting up until a summer or other recess. We shall see and if there is no election there is still baseball.

The New World

Our world and how we see it have changed a lot in the past year. Most of us have been affected by the economic upheaval that appeared in September and got worse. It appears that we are now in a period of optimism as people and businesses are restructuring for greater cost efficiency. Commodity prices are rising, GM and others are restructuring for survival. If you read Jeff Rubin (oil economist)and his timely book "How your world is going to get a lot smaller" you can see the beginning of a new era and that people are starting to see limits and adapt to them. The trend is towards localization and away from globalization.
This has certainly been true in my life, mainly due to personal events, but the economic crisis has hurt too and forced quick changes to ways of doing business and to our personal lives. How have you been affected? I would love to hear some comments on this.

BC Election Result Analysis

Gordon Campbell is back with a third term for his Liberal Government in British Columbia. He does have an advantage getting elected because Conservatives support Provincial Liberals in B.C. The N.D.P. blew a great chance to take over by being the enemy of the environment in the election. Even David Suzuki campaigned for the Liberals and against the N.D.P. I am from Ontario and find B.C. politics interesting and strange. If you are from BC you will probably find Ontario politics boring.