With the 2011 Canadian federal election a week away, voter turnout looking to thankfully exceed 2008’s embarrassingly dismal 58.8%, the polls are starting to look extremely interesting. While earlier polls indicated we could expect very nearly an identical Parliament to the one that existed before the election, an apparent surge in support for the NDP […]
Posts Categorized: Canada
Boobquake: in which Catherine gets annoyed at the press
“So! Boobs, huh?” That’s right, boobs. Or what-have-you. “I don’t get it.” Well, the other day, Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi–yes, he’s not even an Ayatollah. I know, right?–went and said some crazy shit about boobs and how they cause earthquakes. Or more specifically, no, he didn’t really. As PBS explains: While delivering […]
On Haiti and Sarcasm
Dear CBC Commenter: I understand that “some of [your] best friends are Haitian” and that you’re only talking about the “bad ones” when you say “Canada will be overrun by gangs and HIV” if we fast-track the immigration process for Haitian refugees. I get that you’re not really a racist, I do. In fact, I totally […]
Catherine’s Vancouver is growing
While hanging out at a Main Street coffee shop this afternoon, I overheard a conversation between a mom and her four-year-old. “We can go out to the airport,” the mom said as they were leaving. “Oh, that’s a long drive!” Yes. Yes it is. With the opening of the Canada Line now moved up to August […]
Critical Pride
On his blog this morning, Buzz Bishop posed the question: Are you proud of Pride? In his post, Buzz asks if the imagery we’ll see in Vancouver’s Pride Parade this Sunday is really the best way to demonstrate that gays are just like everyone else. This reminded me of another familiar argument, about Critical Mass: are […]
Blogathon 2009: “Legally, we have to refer to you as Catherine December.”
After hearing Dave Olsen talk a bit about the restrictions being applied — in particular, to the “pedestrian corridors” being established here in Vancouver during the Olympics, I’m concerned about the implications for free speech, as well as the potential for these laws to endure after the Olympics have ended. I’ve been convinced for a long […]
Blogathon 2009: Dave Olsen & the True North Media House
Dave Olsen stopped by Workspace this evening to cheer some of us on and tell us a bit about the social/indie/citizen media project he’s working on for the 2010 Olympics this year, the True North Media House. From the TNMH website: We intend to create a space in downtown Vancouver to serve as a media […]
Blogathon 2009: Infographics, Part 1: Why the CBC sucks
Okay, this is something that has bugged me for a while. People who say “interactive” when they mean “hard to use” and “Flash scrollbars”. While otherwise a competent, irritatingly underfunded news organization, the CBC sucks at infographics. Most of their “interactive features” are just text that requires a lot of clicking and scrolling to read. […]
Trackballs: A part of our heritage
In the summer of 2007, I learned I had a bit of an RSI problem when a can of Coke I was holding suddenly slipped from my grasp and plummeted to the ground. I couldn’t apply enough pressure with my thumb and fingers to hold it in my hand. One short diagnosis of tennis and golfer’s […]
Mobile data rates: Canada’s national shame
With the US release of the iPhone permeating even Canadian news, I’m finding that my current smartphone solution just isn’t as desirable as that which I cannot buy. These days, I’m more than happy with my Treo 650, despite PalmOS showing its age. I expect a Linux-based Treo will follow the recent Palm Foleo by […]