Election heat is off, but the soup is still simmering

Today, I had two experiences which suggest to me that our government still has election plans afoot. First, I received yet another useless flier from my MP at taxpayer expense. They had stopped for a while, but this is the second in a week. Then I received a phone call from the local Conservative Party asking me if I would be supporting my local candidate in the event of a federal election. Guess what I said.

Here we have another example of spending money outside of the election period so that it won't count in the election limit. My MP is being cautious, since Elections Canada caught him in 2006 $4,000 over the limit.

There are no limits on spending outside the election period. Perhaps there should be.

Hot Air Blogloons

Apologies to those who revere the English language .. I thought I had coined a new term. When I looked it up through the search engines, it has been used elsewhere with the same meaning as my intention. I could not find a definition, so I will attempt one.

Blogloon: (i) Someone who posts endlessly about their particular little issue while either (a) grinding an axe, (b) drawing attention to themselves, (c) rewriting history or (d) demonstrating that they are correct while the rest of the world is wrong; (ii) an unbalanced and entirely negative stream of posts; (iii) a blogger whose only engagement with their issue is through blogging, rather that doing something constructive about a solution.

My good friend pointed out to me that when I read the policital blogs, I generally come away with a higher level of anger and frustration. As I reflected on this observation, I realized that I am not prepared to give away my time and energy to the blogloons. I trust my own company and my own judgement, and I will begin to prioritize my reading in order to maintain my orientation to active solutions.

Everone on the internet has an opinion. Very few of them are actually worth reading.