canada

Read the full transcript on Macleans here.

The highlights:

9:00 p.m. It’s here! It’s election night – the most exciting day on the Canadian political calendar, ranking just ahead of the one afternoon each year that CBC producers have Keith Boag immunized to prevent a sudden outbreak of insight.

9:38 p.m. Elizabeth May is speaking before her supporters, none of which is dressed well enough to get into an Arby’s.

12:02 a.m. (NDP leader) Jack Layton - apparently fuzzy on this whole ‘how democracy works’ thing - says he’s going to go to the House of Commons and put forth the New Democratic agenda for better health care, child care, pharmacare, home care, job care, hair care, Wookiee care, Care bears…

12:34 a.m. Lowest voter turnout ever. Woooo! We did it! We set the record!!! Wooooooooooo!! In your face, 2004!

12:46 a.m. Before removing his smile and placing it in a small box labelled Do Not Open Til 2011, Stephen Harper arrives to his victory party, shaking hands in a welcome line so long that he now technically qualifies as a monarch.

I arrived in Ottawa yesterday afternoon, having spent most of my flight reading briefing documents on the humanitarian impact of landmines and their dubious military utility.

It's remarkable, really, when you really look at the arguments some states employ defending the use of landmines, or cluster munitions. In many instances, their defense parallels the same sort of language and arguments which surfaced during the Geneva protocol in 1925 regarding the use of chemical weapons.

This morning I began my pre-departure briefing at the Mines Action Canada office on Nicholas street. Nancy gave me a tour, and we briefly contacted Margaret in Uganda. From there, I was given an overview of MAC, ICBL and CMC. We went over logistics with Jessica, and I had the opportunity to go out to lunch with Paul Hannon, a remarkable man who happens to be the executive director of Mines Action Canada. After lunch, training resumed, consisting of an introduction to a publication called the Landmine Monitor, along with sessions on domestic outreach, proposal writing and the media.

It was both intensive and overwhelming, and a day I'll likely never forget.

Paul Hannon, executive director of Mines Action Canada, has been working in the NGO community for more than 24 years. We had lunch in the Byward market, at a place called the Black Tomato.

Insightful comments on the web are often few and far between. But I found one yesterday afternoon on one of Heather Mallick's columns, via cbc.ca:

Canada is the product of an arranged marriage that has been difficult. As such, young Canada is leery of simplistic window dressing, which explains why we've never strutted ourselves across any stage or blared our own horn or imagined that the "Canadian Way" should work for everyone else.

Canada is young, but by no means the adolescent nation that the USA is. Their flag waving, hand-on-heart patriotism is actually a cover-up for a very basic insecurity and rather unfortunate split personality that vacillates and lurches between isolationism and economic imperialism.

Canada doesn't want to have "dates". Canada wants to adopt. Canada lives in a very large house, has lots of room, and is looking for children who will not trash the house, or tear it down, but who will respect the rules, help mow the lawn, and take the garbage out.

More here: cbc.ca

Happy Canada day

"The governing motive in my life has been to harmonize the different elements which compose our country."

"La pensée dominate de ma vie a été d'harmoniser les différents éléments dont se compose notre pays."

The Canadian prime minister made an announcement yesterday, touting a new set of reforms to food-labelling guidelines. The adjustments, which are the first changes to labelling regulations since the 1980s, would close loopholes in existing legislation making it possible to confuse or mislead consumers.

The designation "made in Canada" or "product of Canada" would only apply to food grown or produced in Canada. Currently, anything can bear that label as long as 51 per cent of the cost of creating it is spent in Canada. Moreover, a new label would be added reading "Made in Canada with imported ingredients". -CBC and the National Post.

Ian McIsaac at the PEI federation of agriculture was quoted in the article, in support of the amendments. "We're very pleased that the federal government has recognized the need to clear up what exactly a 'product of Canada' label really means," he said.

The Calgary Herald also notes that Malpeque MP (yes, home of the world famous oysters) and Liberal critic for agricultural affairs, Wayne Easter, is on board with the changes. He said the new regulations provide consumers with honest information on the contents they purchase, and the changes could also increase the consumption of Canadian products.

According to the Post, however, this announcement 'circumvents a process currently underway in the Commons agriculture committee, which launched a study into Product of Canada labelling months ago.' Although from a political perspective, this is a welcomed change and a very smart 'common-sense' policy move by Harper.