Murder In the Name of Family Honor

As many as 5,000 women and girls lose their lives -- most at the hands of family members -- in "honour killings" around the world each year, according to the United Nations. Up to a dozen have died for the same reason in Canada in the last decade, and it's happening more often.


There are a number of organizations which don't accept the idea of honour killing; they say it's a Western-propagated myth by the media, but it's not true. Honour killing is there, and we should acknowledge it, and Canada should take it seriously.


Kingston, Ont., police are now investigating that as a motive in the deaths of three teenage sisters and an older female relative who were found in a car submerged in the Rideau Canal in Kingston on June 30. The girls' mother, father and brother were arrested on Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder.


The suspicious circumstances that led to a car, carrying the bodies of three sisters and their father's first wife, being submerged in the Rideau Canal began to unravel on Thursday, amid allegations of an unfathomable scenario where the girls' parents and brother conspired in a premeditated murder. The small detail in the indictment added yet another twist in a tragic story that appears to border on the bizarre -- including tearful displays of mourning by those who are now accused of murder, allegations from relatives that it may all have been over honour, and a revelation that the adult initially described as a cousin was actually a first wife.


In our Canadian society, we value the cultural values of everyone that makes up this great country, and some of us have different core beliefs, different family values, different sets of rules. Certainly, these individuals -- in particular, the three teenagers -- were Canadian teenagers who have all the freedom and rights of expression of all Canadians.


Honour killings can be sparked by a woman talking to a man, having a boyfriend, wearing makeup or revealing clothing. Children of immigrants who grow up inwestern nations take those freedoms for granted, which can throw them into conflict with their parents' rigid standards.


When people are moving to another country, they leave everything they have, all their possessions, behind. But what they can bring with them is what they believe, their culture, their traditions, their religion. Unfortunately, they are choosing to show the worst part of that, and the worst and criminal part of that is controlling women.


One of the earliest honour killings involving a Canadian occurred in 2000, when Maple Ridge, B.C., resident Jaswinder Sidhu was murdered in India in what police called a contract killing, after she married a man she met while travelling.


In 2003, Amandeep Atwal, 17, died after her father stabbed her 17 times. The Kitimat, B.C., teen had been secretly seeing a boyfriend.


Sixteen-year-old Aqsa Parvez's father and brother are currently awaiting trial for her strangulation death in 2007, and friends said the Brampton, Ont., teen had been clashing with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab.


In May, an Ottawa man was sentenced to life in prison for killing his sister, Khatera Sadiqi, 20, and her fiance.


There is nothing in the Koran, the book of basic Islamic teachings, that permits or sanctions honor killings. However, the view of women as property with no rights of their own is deeply rooted in Islamic culture.

Men occasionally die in honour killings, but young women are almost always the victims in western countries. Honour killing is most prevalent in nations with large Muslim populations. Some perpetrators use religion as a "cloak," but honour killing is about patriarchy, not religion. A few women are really sacrificed to terrorize all women, to push them into submission, where they are not in the position to defend themselves or even their daughters or sisters.


It's wrong-headed to blame particular cultures or further stereotype the Middle East, but Canada cannot overlook the motivation for these heinous crimes. In Canada, we have been extremely culturally sensitive, and that's a good thing, but in this particular case, we may have pushed the pendulum a little to the other side, in the sense that there are cultural components in these types of crimes which we cannot ignore.




Til later

America, beware the bogeyman of Canadian-style health care.

O.K. we - Canada - are getting way too much attention in the USA these days. I am getting nervous, you really don't want to piss these guys off!

With U.S. President Barack Obama in the midst of an intense political fight to pass comprehensive health-care legislation this year, U.S. opponents have returned to a familiar argument in efforts to derail the plan — warning Americans that all roads lead to a dysfunctional, Canadian-style, single-payer health system.

I watched an ad against health care reform in the U.S. showing Canadian Shona Holmes staring straight into the camera and telling the audience a brain tumor would have killed her had she relied on her government-run health plan, which would have provided treatment far too late. "Now, Washington wants to bring Canadian-style health care to the U.S.," a narrator says darkly.

Someone check her Social Insurance card - if she actually is Canadian - then she is guilty of treason and better start packing!

In congressional testimony, in television advertising campaigns, and on cable news talk shows, critics this week answered Obama's call for a public health insurance option with dire predictions Americans would soon face long wait times, rationing of care and poor-quality treatment that they say is common north of the border.

The increased use of Canada's health system as a political tactic in the U.S. debate followed Obama's decision this week to ramp up his personal involvement in pushing the health-care issue.

One Republican senator has even taken to attacking the Canadian system by citing a decision two years ago by former Liberal cabinet minister Belinda Stronach to seek breast cancer treatment in the United States.

"Like under the old Soviet system, everything is free and nothing is readily available," David Gratzer, a senior fellow with the conservative Manhattan Institute, said in describing Canadian health care in testimony this week to U.S. lawmakers.


Gratzer, a Manitoba-born doctor and outspoken opponent of Canada's system, counselled Congress against the "temptation" of embracing government-funded universal health care."Canadians wait for practically any diagnostic test or specialist consult procedure, and some of them opt out of the system by crossing the (U.S.) border."

"When she got cancer, what did she do? She came to the United States for her care. That's what Canadians do," Barrasso said in one interview. In another, he said the MP came to the U.S. "because we do a better job with prevention, we do a better job with early detection."

What??????

Stronach, a former human resources minister who battled breast cancer in 2007, has also been unwillingly caught up in the debate. A source close to Stronach said Barrasso had his facts wrong. Stronach chose to have a highly-specialized type of reconstructive surgery at a California facility during a latter stage of her treatment. The treatment had nothing to do with early prevention or detection, nor her faith in the Canadian health system, the source said. Her cancer WAS treated in Canada.

Me thinks this guy has been partaking some our medicinal "Ganja", if he thinks that we would travel to the U.S. for early detection.

Obviously he has not heard of the development of the "Lab on A Chip" developed by Canadian Cancer researchers, which allows for patients to be able to walk into their doctor's office, give a few drops of blood and get a diagnosis within minutes. These quick test results not only gain precious time for patient treatment, but also offer significant savings, as testing can be done at a fraction of the cost of current methods.

This advanced diagnostic development has now become a world wide protocol. We have people from all over the globe traveling HERE for cancer treatment.

In his televised interviews, the Republican senator called Canada's health care a "trick-or-treat system, and that's because it's about Halloween time when they run out of money to do things like artificial hips and artificial knees." O.K. now that's just plain RUDE!!

Ironically, Obama has also faced criticism from activists on the political left who favour the wholesale adoption of a single-payer system but complain the White House, and congressional Democrats have essentially shut them out of the debate. And Canada has its defenders in Congress.

Representative Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat and perennial presidential candidate, got into a heated debate with Gratzer — the Canadian health-care critic — during a House committee hearing this week on health reform.

"Do you know what Statistics Canada says the median wait time is across Canada for elective surgery?" Kucinich demanded of Gratzer.

"Why don't you inform us, sir?" Gratzer replied. "It's four weeks. And what does Statistics Canada say the median wait time for diagnostic imaging like MRIs is? It's three weeks," Kucinich continued."How many uninsured are there in Canada?""Probably relatively few," Gratzer said. "That's right, none or very few," said Kucinich.

Even federal Industry Minister Tony Clement, who previously held the health portfolio, felt compelled to defend Canada's health-care system at a recent business forum in Washington.

"Not a single person who is unemployed has lost the ability to access health care" during the economic recession, Clement said.

Then he recounted a long-ago appearance at a U.S. health conference when someone told him Canada's system is the bogeyman for Americans.

"And as it turns out," Clement said, "the bogeyman for Canadians when it comes to health care is the United States."

By the way Belinda Stronach would have looked ALOT better on camera.


Til later

Footnote: since the publishing of this post the media & public reaction to Ms. Holmes has been brutal - in her defense I must say that she took action at the time of her illness which best suited her situation - and I am grateful that she was treated and survived what was obviously a very serious medical situation. - Fundywriter

Ah Houston?...we have a BIG PROBLEM!

Is it just me or is travel on the space shuttle loosing it's appeal. I really believe it is time to retire those cigar tubes on steroids. With all the O rings, and broken tiles, bad foam jobs etc. I wouldn't be caught dead riding around in that old thing.

Even as the shuttle Endeavour lifted off into orbit Wednesday evening, several pieces of debris fell off the external fuel tank, and at least one hit the orbiter. Astronauts in space and engineers on the ground will spend the next few days examining and analyzing the damage to see if it might pose a danger to the shuttle on re-entry.

The launching had been delayed five times by hydrogen leaks, schedule conflicts, lightning strikes and rain. That was one short of NASA's record for the number of delays. Two previous missions, in 1986 and 1995, were delayed six times before launching on the seventh try. “Persistence pays off,” Peter Nickolenko, the launching director, said to crew members a few minutes before launching. “Good luck and Godspeed.” Or...good luck everyone, you're gonna need it!

A camera on the external tank captured about a dozen pieces of debris falling off the external tank. At least one, coming off about 1 minute 46 seconds after liftoff, hit the orbiter, leaving three marks on the heat-resistant tiles on the underside.

“We don’t consider those an issue for us,” William H. Gerstenmaier, the associate administrator for space operations, said. Maybe not for him....he's not in the tin can!! “The issues will be in the back of the vehicle.” O.k. make sure you ride upfront another words....yikes!


Now every woman's nightmare - The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet. I don't even want to imagine what that looks like in a weightless atmosphere.


One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews. The pump separator apparently flooded. Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet until it could be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents had to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts were restricted to the shuttle bathroom. There have never been so many people -- 13 -- together in space. The toilet repair work fell to Belgian Frank De Winne, who had to don goggles, gloves and a mask. O.K.....YUK.


Flight director Brian Smith declined to speculate whether overuse caused the toilet trouble. "We don't yet know the extent of the problem," Smith told reporters. "It may turn out to be of no consequence at all. It could turn out to be significant. It's too early to tell right now."

Easy for him to say, he's down on earth with approximately 5 trillion john's to choose from.

How can you tell that these things were designed by men. If women had any say in the matter, there would be one men's toilet - consisting of one stall and some sort of "sucky kind of urinal thingy" -or maybe a hose of some type, and 6 stalls for the women with dim lighting, potpourri, candles and lots of soft tissue.

NASA said there is no urgency to the bathroom situation, at least for now. But he said if the toilet remains out of action for several days, "then we'll readdress the situation and see what we have to do." Typical male attitude. What man ever wants to work on the bathroom and we women really want it done! Two bathrooms ultimately are needed for a full station crew of six. Smith said he did not know how long six occupants could rely on a single toilet. Both the shuttle and station are equipped with other ways for the astronauts to relieve themselves, Smith said, including Apollo-era urine collection bags. O.K.....enough! Getting bad mental images here.

Time to go back to the drawing board and re-group thinks me....never EVER - saw these problems afflicting Captain Kathryn Janeway. She's got her own on-suite. Call me when I can look that good in space.




Til later

Got Pesky Bears?...no problem - just kill them!

We have a bit of a bear problem here in Saint John. Coming from Alberta, I can appreciate that bears are a little scary. I have ran across one in a campground back in Jasper and he was a little grouchy, and I wouldn't want to meet one in an alley with lets say a hot dog in my hands. At first I was on the side of the humans. The bears were getting too close to their property, scrounging around their garbage, peeking through people's patio doors and waiting out by the swing sets.

As said previously it was a pretty slow news week, and thought all the bear coverage was simply filler, but no. It seems they became the "bane" (excuse the pun) of the SJ police and there lies the problem.

New Brunswick Fish and Wildlife people should be evolved as well, they however are not giving their expertise on the situation. For days they were trying to lure the bears away with tasty treats, such as honey, Timmy's doughnuts and Crosby's molasses. That last choice may have been pushing it a bit, but it seems that none of these epicurean bear delights did not work. So the next best choice it seemed were to - kill them!

This was where I switched my allegiance and sided with the bears. Number one it is our fault that they are this close to urban centers to begin with, and then the home owners in question did nothing less but attract them in the first place. Now I know that black bears are not an in-dangered species but neither are humans, and we don't kill them when they become bother.

Due to the changing environment, bears are either losing their habitat or the sources of their food. In that case, bears, being highly adaptive, search for other sources of food – the food or even garbage that humans make. Bears are naturally shy and would avoid being seen by man, but when their survival is at stake, they get over their people-shyness and attempt to steal some snacks from humans.

If you do see a bear, you should not be afraid. They are just hungry creatures looking for food. It is only very rare that these bears attack people. Bears only attack people when you get in the way of their food or their cubs.

Hunters place bait in a barrel to attract the bears, and when these intelligent, gentle, and curious animals come to eat, they are shot—often several times before they die. Many bears escape wounded and face a slow death from blood loss, gangrene, or other infections, dehydration, or starvation.

Because of the barbaric nature of bear baiting, it has been banned in British Columbia and many U.S. states. Many Canadians and numerous hunting and conservation groups agree that this is a cruel and unsportsmanlike practice, yet black bears continue to be mercilessly slaughtered in Canada.

Mother bears who are killed leave behind orphaned cubs who- as was the case last week, when they killed the mother bear in West SJ - are completely dependent on them for food during their first 17 months, and when left in the wilderness alone, they often cannot survive. In many areas there are few restrictions against shooting mother bears with nursing cubs, leading to the destruction of entire families. Last week they killed one mother bear of two cubs, which are frightened and hiding themselves, tucked quietly away as they're mother trained them to do - in dangerous situations. They probably won't be found and will slowly starve to death.

Taken from the Telegraph Journal - Police shot and killed a female bear in west Saint John Thursday night, after she charged at them while they were standing on the deck of a home in Westgate Park. "The boys went down, they got a call about 8:30 and they went down to see what was going on," said Les Jarvis, resource ranager for District 3 of the Department of Natural Resources. They saw the bear in a driveway on Mountfield Crescent and had to back away from her because she wouldn't give ground. "Then they got up on a deck at the back of the house and the bear came at them so they put that bear down," Jarvis said. "That one was fairly aggressive - the boys hadn't seen one like that awhile." "The other two bears that might be in the are a may be last year's cubs that the same female had, so we are not sure how aggressive they are," he said. "They don't seem to be causing much problem right now."

She charged because her cubs were there as well - this was simply a natural protective mother bear reaction! Well trained animal officers would have seen this -killing her for protecting her cubs is horrific!

Sounds so expertly and humanely handled - what a joke! Shooting the bear should have been the absolute last alternative. And oh - I don't know - why not come armed with tranquilizers instead on lethal ammunition. Police just itchin to shoot something it seems!!



Til later

Welcome to Alberta....oh no wait a minute...that's England!

Considering that I am not allowed to write about MJ, because hubby told me I was not allowed to utter another word about it verbal or written, and that it is an incredibly slow news week, I, Fundywriter, have literally scoured the Internet looking for interesting little tidbits to bring to you.

Now I came upon this story which somehow slipped right under the radar here in Canada, for reasons which will be obvious, but certainly made the U.K. papers.

Being that I am from Alberta I almost P....d my pants when I read this.

Every couple of years Provinces like to re-vamp their Tourism campaigns, with brand new full blown media launches - and they work. We look at the yummy food eatin in fine restaurants, local culture and music to partake in and of course the sweeping vistas of the country or area.

Well the province of Alberta also relaunched its media package. In the past you typically saw the mighty majestic Rocky Mountains, crystal clear mountain lakes, and the vast sun kissed prairies, under the brilliant blue of an Alberta sky. (gosh - maybe I should be writing the stuff for them. All those scenes were included in this latest version - with one small addition. A five second clip of two beautiful children running along the - beautiful sand dunes and billowing sea grass growing along a white sandy beach, waves crashing along the shore.....WAIT A MINUTE?!? What waves???? where the hell are those? I lived there almost 4....well along time and I never saw any sandy dunes and breaking waves!

It seems that a Northumberland, U.K. beach was mistakenly used in the promotional advertisement for the landlocked province of Alberta.

The Alberta government issued an apology, saying it "screwed up", ah... yeah! A statement from the Alberta Public Affairs Bureau said: "At one point in the narrative we mentioned our regard for people in other places, and in that place we used the only image that did not come from Alberta. Come on! They couldn't find one single image anywhere? Also, I have written marketing and advertising for years and number one rule: when trying to promote the product or message - you should not show another product in its place assuming that will work better. That is called "False Advertising."

Despite the two places being 5,000 miles apart, and an 8 hour flight away, advertising executives charged with attracting visitors to Alberta decided to feature Bamburgh beach in Northumberland, and a boy and a girl happily running through sand dunes and tall grass on Britain's heritage coastline.

Alberta's government has denied any attempt to mislead the public and attempted to justify Bamburgh beach's inclusion. A spokesman for Ed Stelmach, the premier of Alberta, said: "The picture used just fitted the mood and tone of what we were trying to do. "Children are a symbol of the future. They symbolise that Albertans are a worldly people." Yeah...our OWN children!!

The beach concerned is a horse-shoe shaped stretch overlooked by Bamburgh Castle, built by the Normans after the original was destroyed by the Vikings, and restored by William Armstrong, Victorian industrialist. Sheelagh Caygill, marketing executive at Northumberland Tourism, said the issue had arisen at a time when the region is working to sustain a recent boom in tourism. She said: "We think it's quite funny, a landlocked province in Canada presenting an image of itself as an island.

The $24 million dollar re-branding was handled for the province by Edmonton PR firm Calder Bateman, who said they were unable to comment on work done for clients because of the terms of the government's contract. Olga Guthrie, manager of the brand initiative for Alberta's public affairs bureau, said: "This slide represents Albertans' concern for the future of the world. There's no attempt to make people think that the place pictured is Alberta." What would be the point of a Tourism campaign for Alberta that was not intended to make people think of Alberta? Also, it probably didn't help that the name "Alberta" is slapped across the image...?

Apparently the campaign has really worked though, hits on Northumberland's tourism web-site has increased 5 times to what it used to be.
And they didn't have to spend a dime.....ha! ha!

But you know....if it wasn't for the rest of Canada, Alberta would be surrounded by water....

Til later

The Bay of Fundy back in the running - New 7 Wonders of Nature

O.K., now I am really confused. We’re in - we’re out? What’s going on. Every day last year before the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” contest round 1 closed, I faithfully, and I mean faithfully (I set my alarm daily to make sure!) went on-line and voted for the Bay of Fundy (for some reason pronounced ‘fun-day’ don’t know why - can’t see an A there) to win one of the wonders of nature.

But….I am also from Alberta….hmmm what to do, what to do…..I was torn. This caused me some grief. If I voted for the Bay of Fundy, I was abandoning the province in which I had lived all my life. I always was a very proud Albertan - as a matter of fact ‘Pride’ is a pre-requisite to be Albertan. But…if I didn’t vote for the Bay of Fundy I was not truly embracing my new identity as a ‘maritimer.’

The New 7 Wonders of Nature contest announced the Bay of Fundy, which boasts the world's highest tides, is now Canada's entry in the global competition. Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park was disqualified for not meeting contest requirements. Hmmmm…and what are the ‘requirements’ I wonder.

The Maritimes' iconic Bay of Fundy is back in the running to win an international natural wonders contest after a bid by Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park suddenly became extinct. Excuse the pun….

I grew up spending vacations in ‘Dinosaur National Park’ - have to admit it didn’t seem all that wondrous then, however got better once the MacDonald’s opened up across from the Tyrell museum. But then most children don’t appreciate things like that anyways. I know my son, was absolutely captivated and it jump started a life long love of fossils and everything ‘rock-jockey.’

Well to get the cold hard facts, and that is what I try to do….(don’t laugh), I went to the local papers out there in ‘Alberta land.’ No use going to my hometown paper the Edmonton Journal, as Edmontonians are still miffed that the West Edmonton Mall was not considered, although the food court there is pretty wondrous, anyhoo…I went to the Calgary Herald. According to their article this is the reason:

A spokeswoman for Alberta Tourism Parks and Recreation said "The reason they gave us was that expectations were different from our end than there was on theirs of what was involved in the competition." Well what in the heck does that mean? I suspected they did not want to really tell it like it is. So I checked out a paper from Belgium, which straight out said that the Alberta park didn't make the cut because, well, there's not much to do there. Wow!…nasty.

"Not much to do" kind of sounds as if "something to do" is dependant on man-made entertainment - can this really be true? I always thought experiencing nature was "something to do" - all these years I've been so misguided. No, there are not any amusement parks, water slides or tacky little people waiting to steal your money, however just a short drive away and you can find that. What Dinosaur National Park does have is an amazing carbon footprint in the history of creation of the earth. Located in the heart of the Badlands, Drumheller Valley has an interesting history which spans back some 70 million years to a time when the area was very different looking than it is today. White explorers did not discover the area until the 1880's. J.B. Tyrrell, in his search for coal deposits along the river, discovered a skull of a dinosaur. That dinosaur is today known as the Albertasaurus. This marked the beginning of the collection of dinosaur remains that are sought after by museums all over the world, including the Royal Tyrrell Museum located in the Drumheller Valley.

While Dinosaur Provincial Park was knocked off the list, the places that did make the cut in Canada were Niagara Falls and New Brunswick & Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy.

Terri McCulloch, the manager of the Bay of Fundy Tourism Board, said now the bay needs votes to continue to the next stage. "I think the Bay of Fundy stands a very good chance of getting there," McCulloch said. "If we can marshal the troops again, Maritimers were just amazing for support and now we have the whole country behind us."

Well…probably not Alberta….

The Bay of Fundy again now joins the other 261 nominees from around the globe, a list that includes Mount Everest, whatever...you climbed one mountain you climbed them all.

The Bay of Fundy advertises a “New experience with Every Tide.” To say you have the highest tides in the world and to actual see this phenomena take place is something else.

The Bay of Fundy is a 170-mile-long (270km), straight-sided, somewhat funnel-shaped bay which splits at its northeastern head into two narrow bays, Chignecto Bay and the Minas Basin. It was formed as the continental plates parted millions of years ago. As they split, deep rift valleys formed, which quickly filled with sediment washed in from the land. The Bay of Fundy is one of these ancient rifts.

The mudflats also provide a larder of food to hungry migratory shorebirds. Each year up to two million semi-palmated sandpipers and other shorebirds stop over in the Fundy region during July and August on their annual migration from their spring breeding grounds, far to the north on the arctic tundra near Hudson Bay, to their wintering grounds along the coasts of South America. The semi-palmated sandpipers that settle in the Minas Basin and other areas represent 75-95% of the entire world's population of this species. They build up their body fat on tiny crustaceans found only in mud of a certain consistency.

As for things to do; kayaking, canoeing, caving, whale watching, camping, sailing, birdwatching, climbing, beaches, golfing, museums, arts & crafts, dinning, beer drinking, and...whales...oh I mentioned the whales.

But enough said. VOTE! And vote often…all of this country of ours is truly AMAZING!! That is why we are so lucky to be Canadian. www.new7wonders.com


Til later

Election Canadian Style!

There are a few things that we Canadians are pretty good at. We brew really good, potent beer, give birth to our fair share of awesome hockey players and of course we are always there right behind the Americans to do general “Invasion Cleanup” detail.

But there is one thing that we perhaps excel at more than any other nation in the world and that is….ELECTIONS!!

Yes, we surpass every other country due to the fact that basically we get a lot of practice. We sometimes have elections even when we don’t need one. It’s like well…it’s kind of slow around here…I know lets have an election!

Look at the state of other countries who attempt to hold democratic elections. Riots, terrorism, outright assassinations take place in other places in the world when people simply exercise their right to choose a leader.

Then there is the American template. Their elections should be considered a 4 year sporting event. The stories, political mudslinging and the intrigue makes for some excellent reality T.V., yet we are able to make the whole process look like a walk in the park. Even the swearing in of a new cabinet, takes about an hour and only pre-empts an infomercial somewhere.

We have the whole election process down to a fine art. We have the capability to throw out one leadership, create smear campaigns, listen to both sides of the issues, debate platforms and vote in a new government - all within 30 days or less. If elections were an Olympic event, we would have the gold. You know with the demise of our fishing industry and softwood lumber, we could actually make our ability to hold an election an export of sorts. We could offer to go into a country, do a little campaigning, organize the polling stations and “Voila” new government and be out there inside of a couple of weeks - no violence involved.

Usually our government calls an election when all the infighting has gotten out of control and everyone has forgotten what the fight started over to begin with - or if we have exceptionally good summer weather and the hill wants to get out early

This week's saber-rattling between Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper over a summer election has all the makings of an epic battle over which leader has the biggest, um, sword.

Forget the worst economic crash in decades, the collapsing industries, the thousands of Canadians losing their jobs, their savings, their pensions, their homes.

If the political jousting between Iggy and the PM is any indication, the country is at risk of being dragged out of the pool and off to the polls in July over dueling egos. Harper, of course, is no slouch in the larger-than-life department, having spent the past three years successfully muzzling his ministers, and generally trying to put an iron grip on everyone and everything government.

Today, the Conservative administration remains predominantly all Harper all the time. But make no mistake, there's a new ego-slinger in town with the potential to make "l'etat c'est moi" s(the state is me) an understatement in both official languages.

But this time, instead of the usual Hewie, Dewie and Lewie, Mr. Harper and his gang have actually got some stiff opposition. So this time it looks like we could have ourselves one “Humdinger” of an election, a good old fashion shoot out! (not the O.K. Corral type - Hockey - we're Canadian remember)

So right now they are doing a little square dancing - everyone eyeing up the partners to “Doe-See-Doe", and I am sure an announcement will be forthcoming. I however will do what the rest of the country does when it really wants to know what is happing in the Canadian political climate - wait for Rick Mercer to make the announcement.

Til later