(no subject)
Dec. 3rd, 2008 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
felis_ultharusPolitics
Like the rest of the 62% majority who voted to the left of Harper last election, I'm very much hoping for the coalition. Harper seemed genuinely shocked that his attempt to kill off the other parties by destroying their funding has provoked a passionate reaction.
This is a great time to be an NDPer. I'm really hoping that parliament doesn't get prorogued. And in this most anti-Harper city of Canada, I keep catching that rarest of creatures, the cheery conversation about politics. Whether Liberal, NDP, or Blocquiste, those who follow federal politics in this city are almost giddy.
I feel sorry for Michaëlle Jean. I figure that governors general are like retired superheroes -- they likely don't think about their special powers, and then they only hope never to have to use them.
Video Games
The excitement didn't keep me from finishing Shadow Hearts, yesterday. This is a game made by the small company Sacnoth, founded by alumni from the Final Fantasy franchise. Someone told me they thought the Final Fantasy series was too repetitive, and felt it needed something else.
Apparently that something else included 13th-century English scientist Roger Bacon and his pet imp, wild historical inaccuracies, daughters of married Catholic priests, gay acupuncturists with very little professionalism, gods of death, anatomically correct monsters, anatomically very incorrect monsters (how does that thing stand?), pretty vampires, steampunk treadmill-operated teleporters, and space-alien gods.
It is a very fun game, with some highly original elements, and well worth the playing. It's incredibly campy, but when your Dickensian orphan is taking down an space god in orbit with his slingshot, you're too distracted to notice how strange the game is. Very absorbing.
Like the rest of the 62% majority who voted to the left of Harper last election, I'm very much hoping for the coalition. Harper seemed genuinely shocked that his attempt to kill off the other parties by destroying their funding has provoked a passionate reaction.
This is a great time to be an NDPer. I'm really hoping that parliament doesn't get prorogued. And in this most anti-Harper city of Canada, I keep catching that rarest of creatures, the cheery conversation about politics. Whether Liberal, NDP, or Blocquiste, those who follow federal politics in this city are almost giddy.
I feel sorry for Michaëlle Jean. I figure that governors general are like retired superheroes -- they likely don't think about their special powers, and then they only hope never to have to use them.
Video Games
The excitement didn't keep me from finishing Shadow Hearts, yesterday. This is a game made by the small company Sacnoth, founded by alumni from the Final Fantasy franchise. Someone told me they thought the Final Fantasy series was too repetitive, and felt it needed something else.
Apparently that something else included 13th-century English scientist Roger Bacon and his pet imp, wild historical inaccuracies, daughters of married Catholic priests, gay acupuncturists with very little professionalism, gods of death, anatomically correct monsters, anatomically very incorrect monsters (how does that thing stand?), pretty vampires, steampunk treadmill-operated teleporters, and space-alien gods.
It is a very fun game, with some highly original elements, and well worth the playing. It's incredibly campy, but when your Dickensian orphan is taking down an space god in orbit with his slingshot, you're too distracted to notice how strange the game is. Very absorbing.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-04 07:10 am (UTC)There's a blog called Making Light that one of my American friends pointed me too when I posted about this. Author did a post about our political situation and got some great comments, including a couple trying to explain the role of the G-G to befuddled Americans.
One at 63 says:
Lee @45, I've always thought of it this way.
The sovereignty of Canada is a sort of supernatural spirit. It exists at all times, having been conjured up in 1867 from the depths of wherever such things are conjured from, but is only on rare occasions actually present in the person of a charming elderly woman from London, and is cursed by the Statute of Westminster (a rather powerful spell cast in the early 30s) from ever escaping Canada's national borders.
Whenever Her Majesty is actually on Canadian soil, the sovereignty of Canada is vested in her person, and she is mystically transformed into the Queen of Canada. However, the moment her plane leaves Canadian national airspace, her Canadian sovereignness exits her body and proceeds instantly (through a sort of political version of quantum entaglement) to Rideau Hall in Ottawa, where it roams free, occasionally venturing out to scare Supreme Court justices whenever anyone sues the government, and from time to time taking possession of the body of the Governor General to compel her to sign bills, read throne speeches, and call elections.
While for most Americans, this all sounds terribly silly, it makes perfect sense to most Discworld readers.
It also makes it a lot easier to explain Canadian constitutional law, since the Queen is also, independent of her role as Queen of Canada, Queen of each of the 10 provinces. Thus, Her Majesty in Right of, say, Alberta, can take legal action against Her Majesty in Right of Canada, before Her Majesty's Supreme Court, without anyone in London having to miss a night's sleep.
Then there's one which the author liked so much he turned it into an independant blog post.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-05 09:52 am (UTC)I tend to just describe her as the symbolic leader of Canada -- she entertains dignitaries, gives arts awards, attends funerals and cuts ribbons, so that the PM doesn't have to do things. But she also plays final referee in elections. This time I think she's made a bad call.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-05 10:32 am (UTC)It was a difficult position for her to be in, but this decision sets a bad precedent. Now anytime a prime minister is in danger of a vote of non-confidence he can just say, "Please, Mme Governor-General, may I have a prorogation?" Way to dodge the will of Parliament, there.