Trapped in Suburbia…

I don’t often post related to firearms but the recent spate of letters and comments in the press from the Coalition for Gun Control and the Canadian Chiefs of Police has been getting on my nerves. While they might like to claim that the gun registry is necessary for the safety of women the fact of the matter is that gun owners are – statistically – less likely to harm their spouses.

To top it off, the firearms registry is responsible for draining precious resources that could otherwise be used to prevent domestic abuse.

Statistics Canada’s 2008 report on Family Violence shows only 40 of over 38,000 incidents of domestic violence involved firearms. In other words, 99.92% of spousal assaults didn’t involve guns. In instances where spousal abuse involved physical violence, firearms were used against women 34 times and against men 6 times out of over 17,000 violent assaults.

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In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I don’t think there’s anything I can add to last year’s post, so I will repost it.

Two minutes. At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

Its a trifling sum to pay for the countless ranks of Canada’s sons and daughters in distant graveyards and under forgotten battlefields. But it is, remarkably, the only price asked for such monumental sacrifice.

Every year the dwindling ranks of veterans turn out in force to mark Remembrance Day. Every year there are fewer men marching, fewer men standing at attention. Fewer men who carry the weight in their hearts of seeing the horrors on the bloody shores of Europe, the frozen wastelands of Korea, and of the carnage of dozens of other places we seem to forget too quickly.

Lest we forget.

We are the last generation that will have known the veterans of the First World War. With time the same will be true for veterans of the Second World War.

The freedom we so often take for granted was paid for most dearly. The payment asked in return is modest; the debt is worth repaying.

At the going down of the sun, we will remember them.

We will remember. We will always remember.

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Michael Ignatieff has been telling anyone who will listen that the Liberals are not interested in forming a coalition with the NDP and Bloc.

The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday that Ignatieff is taking umbrage with the latest CPC commercial attacking him for planning a “reckless coalition” in order to seize power if the Liberals don’t win the election. Ignatieff told the Globe:

The Liberal Party would not agree to a coalition. In January, we did not support a coalition. And we do not support a coalition today or tomorrow.

and:

I have a certain credibility on the coalition issue. I could be standing here as the prime minister of Canada. I turned it down. We turned it down in January,

Now, I’m far from being a “political strategist” but it certainly seems to me to be a bad idea to tell everyone how against forming a coalition you were earlier in the year when in reality you were all over the news telling people how you supported and/or wanted to lead it. I mean, you would think somewhere in the bowels of Liberal Party HQ someone might consider doing a quick search on YouTube before sending the leader out to deny his part in the coalition.

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I suppose the Green Party, with its dedication to the environment, has a soft spot for windmills. That’s the only way I can explain why Elizabeth May has decided to run in the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands in the upcoming federal election.

Ms. May received a boost in the 2008 election when then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion agreed not to run a candidate in the same riding. Of course, this wasn’t must of a sacrifice for the Liberals since Elizabeth May decided to run in Central Nova – the riding held by Peter McKay and a Conservative party stronghold. It wasn’t much of a surprise, then, that she lost by some 6,000 votes.

At first blush it would appear like an exercise of pure ego that Ms. May would choose to run in a riding that consistently votes Conservative, that was held by a Conservative MP and cabinet minister.

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Yesterday Michael Ignatieff announced that the Liberal party would no longer “support” the Conservative government. The vagueness of his speech – would they not vote in favor? would they vote against? – was clarified by a number of Liberal MPs including deputy-leader Bob Rae who left no doubt when they stepped up to the podium. The Liberals will vote to bring the government down.

According to a CTV News article, in a speech Tuesday to the Liberal caucus, Ignatieff said Harper’s time as prime minister, “is over.”

The real question is whether or not Ignatieff can convince Canadians that he is acting in the country’s best interests.

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