Give me democracy or...I don't know. Maybe a decently functioning constitutional monarchy?

Ok, we have some new additions. Welcome Clare! She is a fellow spouse here, and has an awesome blog that is well worth looking into. Her organizational skills astound us here at the otherwise lazy SMID. Perhaps more important (sorry Clare, explain in a minute) is the new membership of Brandi. Welcome! She doesn't have a blog, but we'll forgive her anyways. She's temporarily more important because I've been really pissing her off lately, mostly because apparently she joined like three weeks ago and we didn't notice. I may or may not have also lied to her about the availability of a whole pile of delicious granola bars. Mea culpa, Brandi. Glad you're part of the family.

This is probably a good time for me to note that, if we never gave any of you a shout out, please tell us promptly. We'll remedy the situation.

So a couple of weeks ago, the Canadian election was called, because the governing Conservatives were found to be lying to Parliament (that's a no no in our system), and because we haven't spent 300 million on an election in awhile. And they're off!

Prime Minister Stephen "Who, me?" Harper

Denise and I signed up to vote by mail. We were pretty skeptical that the whole thing would pan out: we had to fax our registration (simple enough), then they had to mail us a ballot (difficult), then we had to mail it back (more difficult). Not so easy peasy in a third world country. A recent letter we received from family took 6 weeks to get here. One box we're still waiting for is on week 7. This election is in three weeks from now. The math was not on our side, but we figured we might as well try.

On Wednesday I got my ballot! Thanks first world country, what with your expedited mailing system, accountability, and stuff. I opened the package and felt the rush that only political nerds can feel when they step up to vote. An institutionalized obligation to consult citizens every few years is a pretty nifty idea.

Thanks Canada for the courier! You rule!

This will hopefully be the ballot that firmly but politely tells Rod Bruidouche to kindly vacate the premises as fast as humanly possible.

The one and only Rod Bruidouche*. Gross.

To my Canadian friends - Please vote. Lecture: it's our one single civic duty, and it takes 15 minutes, especially if you have the pleasure of actually living in Canada. Learn the candidates. Vote. Hell, give the Greens a couple of bucks and vote for them, but you can't complain about your society unless you vote. Lecture done.


*Name copyright of Jocelyn Mclean. His actual name is Rod Bruinooge. Thanks for creating this wonderful term Joss; Denise thought this was his actual name because we use it so much.