Marc Emery.

I'm not a fan of Marc Emery, though I did vote for his party once. He insulted me the other day, and you too if you're a Canadian. Somehow, his logic goes, that if he ends up extradited to the US and spends the rest of his life in jail, we're to blame because "... we all knew!" And since we condoned what he did we're complicit in his detention or some such nonsense. His arrest by Canadian Authorities caught him off-guard. Look, he's been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while now. He wouldn't travel to countries that had extradition treaties with the US. One of his early statements, after being released on Bail, was since the Canadian Government accepted his money in taxes over several years that is defacto legalizing his seed-selling operation and if its legal here than the issue is on their side of the border. He's right. As an aside, his arrest from the American request to our authorities was perfectly legal, we do it all the time, so I didn't understand the uproar over that. Anyway, that statement, I believe, has legs. It is a grey area that needs to be made clear because the Government can't have it both ways, either it's legal or it isn't, you can't accept money 'til someone finds out then arrest people. It's no different than the Sponsorship scandal, because what if the workers at Revenue Canada knew that Emery's business was generating that money and just pocketed it? I know they didn't, they processed him like millions of others and moved on. But, it lends itself to abuse and it needs to made clear, legally clear. Its going all the way to the Supreme Court. It would sure make Revenue Canada, er, I mean Canada Revenue pay very close attention to what the taxpayers are doing, i.e. prostitution. Ask your Accountant, many people only reveal what exactly they do on their taxes because as long as you pay your taxes--!?!. And some big questions need to be answered before the extradition can be sorted out. So, stop whining Mr. Emery, your a Politician: Get on CNN!

Iraq.

A lot of this is mute now, but Bush, the son, did a lot of things right at first. Go to the U.N., use the Security Council, get a coalition. It was the French that said no, not under any conditions could they vote for a resolution that would endorse invasion. That, ironically, triggered the invasion. The American leadership, not being able to risk some permutation of bin Laden and friends getting some WMD's from Saddam felt that they no alternatative, but to invade. Now, don't forget, every and I mean every intelligence service in the world believed he had chemical and biological weapons. I didn't think he had enough money or infrastructure to support a nuclear program, especially under the sanctions Iraq was under, but hey look at North Korea and Pakistan. What I really don't understand is why this wasn't done in 1991 with Bush, the father. The Allies would have been greeted as liberators and Iraq would be free and stable by now. Am I glad Saddam is out of power, yes. He slaughtered about 100,000 of his own people every year and he supported terrorism(though he had no involvement with the attacks on America in 2001). Now, I'm no Bush, the son, fan either. I only give him one nod. At least he's a leader who leads. I'm sick of leaders who do nothing. I don't agree with what he's done or how he's done it. But at least he's leading. One of my personal credos is if people are dying and theres a way to stop it--then stop it! The slaughter in Rwanda, to me, is an example of how Humanity can fail. People were dying, and sadly, still are, dying in Iraq but the drafting of the Constitution and the electing of the new Government are solid first steps. I believe the new Government will ask the Americans to leave by the fall of 2006.

In all practical terms the success or failure of post-Saddam Iraq is up to the Iraqis themselves. The most recent positive sign was the elections--where under death threat, 60+ plus percent went out and voted. Also, the Sunnis are going to be more involved the next time. Thats good. I wish I could explain to them about how its at the local level i.e. municipal, county that so much of the real power lies. In Canada, a majority in one area but a minority in the country wields a lot of power. Now I know some Ontarians will quibble but politically most things hinge on Quebec. Its the fulcrum is what I essentially mean and the Sunnis could have that too.

No its not that at all, I was blown away by how he self-destructed, first S. Day, now Harper. I awknowledge that he's a smart man and to be so close and then have it slip away to the scandel plagued Liberals must be frustrating. If there was an alternative for the Liberals, I'd look at them. And don't get me started on that wing-nut Layton.

The footage from the plane crash in Toronto yesterday was scary. None of the news services were saying anything about the passengers and I had assumed the worst, turned off the TV and went out for dinner. It was the third time I had ever had oysters and they were yummy(a few drops of Lemon juice is the key). So, when I returned home and heard that everyone managed to get out with some having minor injuries--Incredible, simply incredible. A quick side note Wolf Blitzer on CNN said Toronto right everyone else was over enunciating it.

I think its great that current Vancouver city mayor Larry Campbell is going to become a Senator. He's not a pothole guy he's a big picture guy. He might help the senate become relevant. Apparently Paul Martin is going to name a new Governor-General soon, thats too bad because I think the current one, Adrienne Clarkson, has been a great G-G. I hope she will continue to contibute to public life in someway. Now on to the self destruction of Stephen Harper, what went wrong with this guy? He's a smart man, he had it within his grasp, now he'll never be Prime Minister. I'm not even sure he'll make it to the next election due in the next 6 - 8 months. He let it get personal and emotion clouded his judgement. Sorry Mr. Harper your done. Next!

I recently had a conversation with 2 friends and they were very pessimistic about the future. One was particularily disappointed with how the federal government is wasting our resources and the other about runaway population growth. I'm a realist but I think things are the best they've ever been. Far too many people are being killed for no reason, too many are dying of hunger and preventable disease. Yes, I'm aware of all that--but in my lifetime we now have more democracies than ever before, more people are getting educated, for the most part life expectancy is up, equal rights and opportunity for women are on the rise. One thing I often say is if I started the Good News Network (GNN) it wouldn't last a year because not enough people would watch. The media bend on 'the news' is about war, crashes etc.etc. so all we hear is the negative and I feel its hard but the positive is out there all around us.