La belle province, Québec, has elected its first minority provincial government in 130 years.  The results are:
Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) - 48
Action Démocratique (ADQ) - 41
Parti Québécois (PQ) - 36

The results signal that the old federalist-sovereigntist dichotomy between the Liberals and the PQ, which has defined Québec provincial and federal politics for more than thirty years, is dead.  It is a sign of hope for the upstart, right-of-centre ADQ...but also, I believe, for the provincial Liberals and the federal Tories.  Why?  Because the separatist provincial PQ and federal BQ are in danger of losing their reason for being.

I admire Stephane Dion, the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Opposition.

Dr. Dion is an accomplished political scientist and economist, whose bona fides as a professor and senior fellow of the Brookings Institute speaks for itself.

He is a courageous Canadian federalist, who was instrumental as Chretien's Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs in the passage of the Clarity Act, which helped to make Quebec secession much more difficult.

He is a vocal environmentalist, who made sustainable development the keystone of his leadership campaign, and was an important figure in passage of the Kyoto Treaty on Climate Change in Canada, an important piece of international law.

He is a voice for Canadian independence in international relations, and was part of the Chretien cabinet when that government decided to stay out of the American invasion of Iraq.

But....

In the wake of the arrest of seventeen individuals suspected of planning to plant explosives at yet unknown Canadian landmarks, news reports in the American media were - typically - crap.  One reporter on CNN stated that "terrorism has, for the first time, come to Canada."  A Faux News bobblehead declared, "Today, Canada lost its innocence."  What are we, a naive, ditzy waif wandering the polar icecaps?  To paraphrase  that erudite observer of the political landscape, Britney Spears, "We're not that innocent."

It's bad enough that we're held up (or derided) as an icon of respectability, the squeaky-clean welfare state where everything works, everyone's happy and healthy, and the only thing that ever goes wrong is that we might trip over a beaver turd whilst skipping through the heathery meadows.  But to claim Canada has not suffered its share of terrorism and violence - or worse, that we don't know how to deal with it, is either ignorance or wanton revisionism.

A remarkable interview this evening by Evan Solomon on CBC News: Sunday.  It was remarkable in two ways.  First, it involved the usual probing and hard-hitting questions one sees in journalists in every nation of the developed world, save one.  But Gore, pro that he is, parried commendably.

Secondly, Gore let drop a few comments that caused me to reassess my earlier conclusion that he was readying himself for a second run at the White House.  Which would be unfortunate.

Traditionally in Canada, new governments are granted what is called a "honeymoon," as Canadians and the media give the cabinet-in-training some time and leeway to get themselves acquainted with their new portfolios and implement their promised platforms.

Stephen Harper's honeymoon ended the same day his government was sworn in last week, with the announcement that he had appointed an unelected Conservative organizer bagman to the unelected Canadian Senate, so that he could serve as Minister of Public Works Pork; and that the former Liberal cabinet minister, David Emerson, had switched parties to serve as Tory International Trade Minister.

The shit hasn't stopped hitting the fan since, as the Canadian media and the public begin to squeeze the new government on three fronts:  Its pledge to abandon the old politics of patronage and cronyism, to be a more moderate, mainstream party than its Alliance/Reform progenitor, and to provide continued support for Canada's important social programmes.

FRANK McKENNA TO THE LIBERAL PARTY:  "HAVING ESCAPED THE TRAP, I WON'T GO BACK FOR THE CHEESE."

With this announcement, what last week appeared to be a headlong rush to crown McKenna as Paul Martin's natural successor as the twelfth leader of the Liberal Party of Canada came to a screeching halt.  Liberal Leader is not a trivial position.  As the party that has governed Canada for over seventy of the past 100 years, it has earned its nickname as "The Natural Governing Party."  With Canada's new Conservative government shakily sitting 32 seats short of a majority in the House of Commons, whoever replaces Martin is likely poised to be the next Prime Minister of Canada - the giant killer, who will stick a stake in the heart of Stephen Harper's dreams to remold the Tories as a SoCon shell.

So who does McKenna's decision benefit?

This story from the New York Times is another alarming indicator of the Bush cabal's dtermination to exchange lucre for a habitable planet.  Not five minutes after hearing Heather Mallick on CBC Radio discuss why some scientists think that there may be less than a century before most of the world becomes uninhabitable for human beings due to climate change, we get this nugget from the Times...

The message coming out of the election of Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party is clear.  Last night the Canadian people did not vote for the Conservative Party.  Instead, they voted against the Liberal Party.  Canadians and Harper himself know this, and it will colour the way in which this government unfolds over what will be its very brief life.

What will the Tories do in office?
How will they try to expand their appeal?
Who are the contenders for the Liberal leadership, and how will that party rebuild?
Who won the pool?

More below the fold.

WOO-HOO!  For all you Canadian politics geeks out there!  All, uh, five or six of you...This is your opportunity to show your stuff!

What are your predictions for Monday's election?  Will the Conservatives, as expected, pull off a minority?  Or will they surpass expectation and get <shudder> a majority?  Will people have an "Omigod!  Stephen Harper!" moment in the voting booth, and actually return a Liberal minority?  Oh. My. Gawd.  I'm going to pee myself I'm ao excited!

More below the fold...

Well, here he is - the likely next Prime Minister of Canada, according to the latest polls

Scary, eh?  Well, certainly to read the scenarios being painted by many dKos correspondents writing in anticipation of next Monday's Canadian election, you'd certainly think so.  The theme is the same:  George Bush's Canadian agent is about to take the reins in Canada and make-over Canada into a northern version of Bushco's United States.  To that scenario, I have six short words:

CANADA IS NOT THE UNITED STATES

From the CBC website:

The opposition parties banded together Monday to defeat the Liberal minority government and set the stage for an election that is expected to culminate in a mid-January vote.

In a 171 to 133 vote, the House passed an historic no-confidence motion exactly one year and five months after Canadian voters elected the Liberals.

Prime Minister Paul Martin will now have to go see Governor General Michaëlle Jean Tuesday morning and ask her to dissolve Parliament.

As the vote was conducted, parliamentarians stood up to applaud MPs who will not be running in the next election.

An interesting story in tomorrow's Sunday Times of London.  MI-5 has intercepted a video in which al-Qaeda's Ayman al- Zawahiri names Queen Elizabeth II as "one of the severest enemies of Islam," because of her role as the Governor of the Church of England.  MI-5 is treating this as an incitement to violence against Her Majesty, and security has been beefed up.

Perhaps as worrying is a portion of the video in which Mohammad Sidique Khan, ringleader of the London bombings which killed 52 commuters, urges British Muslims to ignore moderate Islamic leaders who want integration with British society, and to take part in jihad and seek martyrdom.

Well, we all remember Bob Novak's meltdown on CNN's "Situation Room."  But few of us appreciated at the time that Novak's antsiness here and in earlier "Capitol Gang" exchanges with Margaret Carlson and Al Hunt actually represented a legitimate source of stress for the ol' Douchebag of Liberty.  That stress was the realisation that he was about to play a pivotal role in bringing down Karl Rove and - perhaps - the Vice President of the United States.

Amazing revelations await below the fold!

Condoleeza Rice arrived in Ottawa yesterday for a long-delayed visit (she cancelled earlier because Canada wouldn't play ball on the missile defence "shield").  I am delighted to report that she was greeted with an earful on the US theft of $5 billion dollars from Canada, lax American border security that is allowing guns to be smuggled into Canada, and the US plans to require passports at land borders. More below the fold.

Steve King, representative for the 5th district of Iowa, deserves to be booted from office perhaps more forcefully than any other GOP incumbent.  Why?  Because Senator Joe McCarthy is a hero of his.

King was instrumental in blocking an effort to name a post office in Berkeley after longtime Berkeley Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek, questioning whether the 94-year-old activist represents American values.  Berkeley Rep. Barbara Lee, in a statement after the vote, blasted King, saying his "campaign of innuendo and unsubstantiated 'concern' is better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover than today's House of Representatives."

To which King responded: "I think that if Barbara Lee would read the history of Joe McCarthy, she would realize that he was a hero for America."

More on King and the shitstorm below.

Shocking news from the Taize community in France, where Br. Roger, the 90 year old founder of the Taize movement was murdered during a service before 2500 people at the Church of Reconciliation.  The link to the story is here:

http://www.dfms.org/3577_64258_ENG_HTM.htm?menu=undefined

I don't rant very often - I'm the guy who posts my sermons, after all.  But I'm gonna just let rip.

Quit being distracted!  The bombings in London are small potatoes compared to the thousands of preventible deaths every single day in the developing world.  The media - and this site - could have worked to hold the feet of the leaders of the G8 to the fire on Africa and climate change.  Instead, we've allowed them to get off the hook, saying that they'll deal with this in 2010, without a whimper.

Just disgusting.  Nothing on the front page about this.  How fucking insular are we?

Facts and figures below the fold - read if you dare.

Tonight, Canada became the third country in the world to expand its legal definition of marriage to include gay and lesbian couples.  The vote was 158-133

Of course, it is already legal for over 80% of Canadians living in the 7 provinces whose high courts have overturned discriminatory legislation.  Hundreds of couples have since been married - my partner and I will soon be doing this ourselves, and having our union blessed by our Anglican parish.

The reason is simple.  It's the Canadian Charter of Rights, stupid.  Namely article 15:  "Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability."  Clearly, the old Marriage Act didn't pass muster, as successive provincial courts and the Supreme Court of Canada have ruled.