Category Politics
The Evangelical Prime Minister?
The intersection of religion and politics fascinates me. In the United States, where church and state are constitutionally separate, the religious beliefs of presidential candidates are always part of the public discourse. In Canada, with no such wall of separation, I suspect 99% of the populace would be hard pressed to name the religious affiliation, […]
Reading The Polls
There is an election going on. For Canadians it is almost over. In slightly more than two weeks we will know who will form our next government and who will be the Prime Minister. Americans aren’t so lucky. Their presidential election is an ongoing thing, with the vote still 13 months away. The systems are […]
The Social Media Election
Today is the last day for candidates to file their nomination papers to run in the Oct. 19 Canadian federal election. I will not be running. Writing this blog has disqualified me from ever being able to seek public office. The problem is that not only do I have opinions, but I have shared them. […]
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
There’s a fair amount of political talk in my household these days. I have been trying not to write too much about the October 19 Canadian election, figuring that not everyone shares my passion for politics, but decided to make an exception today. Our discussion started with the local options. While Canadians tend to think […]
Refugees and Migrants I – Election Fodder
It suddenly became the biggest issue of the Canadian federal election, sparked by a photograph of a dead Syrian boy whose family had supposedly desired to emigrate Canada. He (and other family members) had drowned trying to get from Turkey to Greece. According to the news media, the family had applied to for refugee status […]
Campaign Signs
His name is Ryan Leef and he is running for Parliament in Yukon. I’ve never met him, but I do admire his response to those who were vandalizing his signs. I have worked on many an election campaign. One common element to almost all campaigns is deliberate defacement and destruction of campaign signs. Signs cost […]
Trump Withdrawal
I have been back from my vacation in Maine for four days. I am missing the beach and the sound of the ocean waves. I am missing the fresh seafood and the lazy days with nothing more important to do than read. But more than anything else, I am missing Donald Trump. It is not […]
The Debate
Thursday night is fireworks night in Old Orchard Beach. That meant I missed the first debate of American Republican presidential hopefuls. It was on television, but I was on the beach. The television coverage the next day and through the weekend was extensive. There are after all 17 people running (at this point) for the […]
And They’re Off!
The writ has dropped. For those of you not familiar with Westminster tradition, that’s just a formal way of saying the Canadian federal election is underway. I am a political junkie. But this is not a political blog and I will for the most part steer clear of this election campaign. I may, over the […]
The Guns of America
In Canada we take government restrictions on the possession of weapons as the norm. There is a general agreement, even among gun owners, that possessing firearms is a responsibility, not a right. There is from time to time debate about how intrusive governments should be in regulating firearms, but the basics, such as criminal record […]
random thoughts from lorne 
Recent Comments