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If it ain't broke ... Report from Poll #90

Submitted by Geoffrey Dow on Wed, 2011-05-04 22:58

I am still processing the results of Monday's election and expect to have gathered my thoughts about the results shortly. Meanwhile, I want to talk about the Canadian federal election system itself — that is, how we cast our votes and how our cast votes are counted.

That system is antiquated, labour-intensive, apparently inefficient and uses technologies that, with the exception of a computer-generated print-out of the voters' list, would be completely familiar to a time-traveller from the 19th century.

I spent some 15 hours in an uncomfortable chair on Monday striking names off the voters' list with a cheap ball-point pen, then helped to count the votes. I came away from the experience with a sore back, tired eyes and a lot of appreciation for an apparently primitive system that still managed to count not far off 15 million ballots in a matter of a few hours. This ancient and cumbersome system is one that is in no need of fixing.

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Election 2011 - First Reaction

Submitted by Geoffrey Dow on Wed, 2011-05-04 19:14

More in-depth response to the events of May 2, 2011, to come in the near future.

  Cartoon by Geoffrey Dow, www.ed-rex.com  
  Cartoon by Geoffrey Dow, for True North Perspective  
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Elizabeth Sladen, 1948 - 2011

Submitted by Geoffrey Dow on Tue, 2011-04-19 23:14

Goodbye, Sarah Jane Smith (our Sarah Jane Smith)

Bloody hell. I don't usually "do" celebrities or mourn people I've never met, but somehow Elizabeth Sladen has made herself an exception. I read just a few minutes ago of her death and, as I read, found myself chanting out loud, "Oh no ... Oh no ... Oh no."

Sarah Jane Smith was one of the best of Doctor Who's many companions — brash and spunky, brave and creative — but she came into her own as a marvel, dare I say, a role-model, as a woman very nearly classified as a senior.

For those of you who don't know, Sarah Jane Smith was an alien-hunter, an action hero of sorts, who, as with the Doctor (and apologies to that talk-show host — Craig something?), made knowledge and intelligence sexy in a culture that all too often celebrates brute force and cruelty above all else.

I never met you Lis, but I'll miss you.

(The details are up at the Beeb. Bloody, bloody hell. I imagine I'll have something more to say later, but for now, this will have to do.)

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Any resemblance to yours truly is completely coincidental

Submitted by Geoffrey Dow on Mon, 2011-04-11 09:13

Pearls Before Swine

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Adventures in awkwardness: A black day in race-relations

Submitted by Geoffrey Dow on Tue, 2011-04-05 16:22

I like to think I am, if not colour-blind when it comes to human beings, at least colour-indifferent. And more, that I am at the same time reasonably sensitive to cultural nuance and to words and phrases that, however innocuously intended, can carry offensive or painful baggage.

In other words, I am white (or at least, perceived as white; ask me about my Mongolian ancestry!) and am part of my country's dominant culture. So I try to remember the privileges those facts afford me.

Sometimes, though, it can all get a little confusing ...

Read more, "In Blackest Day ..."

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