Public Service Announcement: RIP Jack Layton

Less than a month after he announced a temporary withdrawal as leader of the NDP, Jack Layton died this morning at the age of 61. If you've been seeing his name trending on twitter and have no idea who he is - he was a great political leader who has done the most for the Federal NDP since Tommy Douglas. This is a sad day for his family, for the New Democrats, and for Canada. 

If you know nothing else about Canadian politics, I urge you to check out these links, photos, videos. 

Bringin Shakespeare Back (yeah)

 

So this might sound preachy or dorky, but I really think that every big city should have an outdoor summer Shakespeare festival. Edmonton has the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, which I’ve been attending for the last three years.  They performed “Titus Andronicus” and “A Comedy of Errors” in 2009, and “Macbeth” and “Much Ado About Nothing” last year. FSF is located in one of our biggest parks, and the price is roughly equivalent to a movie ticket. Awesome! [Note: Freewill Shakespeare Festival did not endorse me, I just love them].

 

 

Thursday night I went and saw their comedy for this year, and next week I’ll see their tragedy. Although “Twelfth Night” has one of the most unoriginal names ever, it’s a ridiculously funny play, especially the bawdy sub-plot of drunken pranksters.

FSF decided to go with a Steampunk setting and costumes, which were mostly well done, and with some techno versions of Beatles songs (this was the one part I really didn’t like) between scenes. I was surprised to find that the actress playing Viola was in my university orientation group in first year! Small world. They have a good mix of veteran and newly-premiering actors, with some

Overall it was a really funny play, well done and a great way to spend a summer evening if you can live through the mosquito plague.

 

 

Canada Votes Against Voting Against People?

The following post is largely Canada-centric.

Here’s a live stream of Lady Gaga’s HBO presentation of the Monster Ball as appeasement.

However, if you don’t know much about the Canadian political system and are interested, this post might help.
So, my personal political views, as I probably have intimated, are largely left-wing. I’m not super happy with the majority Conservative government which has just been elected, but I’m thrilled with the NDP as official opposition. I want to talk about another thing here – this election seems to have had a backlash against strategic voting.
The first-past-the-post electoral system and its flaws have convinced many people to vote strategically. That is, rather than voting FOR the party of your preference, vote AGAINST a certain party by voting for the party most likely to beat them in your riding. Websites like ProjectDemocracy.ca help you figure out how you should vote.
It’s a morally frustrating and unhappy way to vote, always voting against rather than voting for. But it’s what we have to do often. But it’s what we don’t want to do.
Example:

Let’s say you hate Party A and would personally like to vote for Party B. However, Parties C and D are also running in your riding (~ electoral district). If we’re voting strategically, and Party C has a better chance of beating A than B does in your district, you should probably vote for Party B’s candidate.

So what does this election’s result mean? I think it means that Canadians are not happy just with strategic voting. And that, at the base of it, means that we are not happy with our electoral system.
Some good points against strategic voting are shown here, I personally think the answer is electoral reform, preferably in something close to proportional representation.

Phobulous

Friday night we went out to a place near the university, Phobulous, for Vietnamese food which I haven’t really had much before. Pho (pronounced like the French ‘feu’) is what I got, with well-done beef. It was absolutely delicious and hugely filling for less than $10. They also had green tea, sake, and mango pudding, as well as a bunch of other Vietnamese dishes. But in –20 C weather, it was soup for me!

My pho looked something like this (from Initiales JB @ Flicker)

Overall it was a really great experience, I’ll definitely go there to eat again sometime. Service was fast, with modern design inside, and of course delicious. ** I was not endorsed to write this, I just like food.