Anticipating Jesus' arrival

O come, O come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

O Come Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here.
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
And order all things, far and nigh;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And cause us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

O come desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven's peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

--John M. Neale

The coalition

It's finally time for me to weigh in on that coalition that almost replaced our minority government here in Canada. Here are a few of my thoughts:

• In Canada, we technically elect our Members of Parliament (MPs), not our Prime Minister. Parliament has the right and the responsibility to hold the Prime Minister and cabinet accountable. Forming a coalition to defeat the government was within the rights of the parties involved. We don't have rules to distinguish between legitimately holding the Prime Minister accountable and making a shameless power grab. Nor should we. Bad policies and lack of leadership skill are legitimate reasons to defeat a Prime Minister, and I don't think we can make a rule to define these situations. If the opposition parties really do make a shameless power grab, hopefully the public will see through it and punish them for it in the next election.
• In Canada, we technically elect our MPs, not our Prime Minister. But when we vote for our MP, we know which party each candidate is in, and we know who their leaders are. I'm sure many people in my riding voted for Tim Uppal because he's in Stephen Harper's party, not because he's Tim Uppal. Likewise, I'm sure many votes across Canada were influenced by the party leaders more than the local candidates.
• More people voted for the Liberals, NDP, or Bloc Quebecois than for the Conservatives. This gives the coalition some democratic legitimacy.
• More people voted for the Conservatives than any other individual party. This should count for something. While I believe most NDP and Bloc Quebecois supporters would rather have Stephane Dion as Prime Minister than Stephen Harper, there are many exceptions. They voted against the Liberals for a reason.
• When Stephen Harper threatened to take away government funding of political parties, I think that gave the opposition parties a legitimate reason to defeat the government. To do that on such short notice would cripple the opposition. But Harper changed his mind, taking away a major justification for the coalition.
  
• When I saw Stephane Dion on TV during the election campaign, it sounded like he thought Canadians were morally obligated to defeat Harper and make Dion our Prime Minister, because of Harper's lies. (I'm not even going to touch the issue of whether Harper was lying or not.) When he announced his resignation after the election, it looked like he would be only the second Liberal leader in Canadian history not to become Prime Minister. Did he decide to bring down the government because of some post-election bitterness? I suspect a shameless power grab.
• While I don't like the idea of suspending parliament to prevent a non-confidence vote, that's apparently within the rights of the Governor General. And based on opinion polls showing a strong Conservative lead, suspending parliament was probably the only way to keep the government that the most people wanted.
• Without the threatened loss of party funding, the coalition used the government's lack of action on the economy as its justification. I have no idea what would be best for our economy. I would lean toward a small bailout, but I'm no expert. Since I'm not very sure which path to take, I would favour keeping the Conservatives in power because they won the last election.

While I think Harper should remain Prime Minister for now, he hasn't been very cooperative and he seems to take pleasure in hurting the opposition. He needs to watch himself. Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that the new Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is sounding more cooperative than Stephane Dion. Maybe our government can accomplish something this winter, and if not, maybe it will be defeated for a more legitimate reason.

Making fun of Stephane Dion

"I didn't know Celine Dion had a sister."
--John Stewart talking about Stephane Dion

Rut

I'm having trouble thinking of ideas on what to write here. So until I think of something good to write, or I take some time away from reading total strangers' blogs to make another envelope-pushing video, click here to read a letter that someone wrote to The Onion explaining her faith.

I learned something at Canadian Tire!

Most Canadians know how hard it can be to find someone to help you at Canadian Tire, but as I discovered this week, the people they do have there sometimes know stuff that I don't. I'm not much of a handyman; I know there are lots of people who know more about fixing stuff than I do; I just didn't know Canadian Tire hired those people.

I was trying to pick out a replacement flapper for one of my toilets and I had a couple questions. While I was talking to an employee (who seemed to be in a rush to stop talking to me), he told me that if a flapper leaves black marks on my hands, it's rotting through and needs replacement. I'd already confirmed that the toilet is leaking by putting some food colouring in the tank and then checking the colour of the water in the bowl a while later, and this confirmed it's leaking. But now that I know this thing about the black marks, I have extra confirmation that it's leaking.

Good job Canadian Tire! Now go and hire more of these people.

Snowing

I woke up this morning and saw snow on the ground, and I couldn't help but smile. This seems to happen every year when the first snowfall happens. (Technically, we have had some snow earlier this fall, but those light dustings barely count. This one might not last either, but it's more significant than the others we've had.)

But why do I smile when this means there are months of cold weather coming up? Maybe I like cold weather with snow more than somewhat cold weather without snow (which is how it's been for most of the last month or two). Maybe I'm looking forward to skiing. Maybe it's because a snowy landscape is more beautiful than the brown landscape I've been looking at lately. Maybe it's just a different kind of beauty, one I haven't seen in several months (except that one day in Banff at the end of August). Maybe it's because anticipating bad times is sometimes worse than experiencing bad times. (The cold weather made me anticipate winter. Now the snow makes me feel like winter is here.)

Unfortunately, I'm sure my happiness about this weather won't last. Hopefully I'll enjoy it today anyway.

Why it's great not having cable

I haven't seen a single American election commercial on TV, but I still get to watch them make fun of the candidates on Saturday Night Live.