The Governor General has issued a Writ of Election and the Parliament of Canada is dissolved. The General Election will occur on 23 Jan 06 and the next eight weeks will involve a great deal of debate, reflection, name-calling, and ideological knee-jerking.
Posts here have been sporadic in the past, but I am going to take this opportunity to post on various issues as they come up during the campaign. My focus will be on examining the positions of the various candidates and parties. However, I will endeavour to pay attention to reactions to these positions, as I find them. I have noticed that political reaction to a large number of political questions has become quite personal and abusive, but I am under no illusion that it is getting any worse than it ever has been. What I will be looking for in particular, over the next eight weeks, are the logical (and to a much lesser extent, rhetorical) errors made by candidates, commentators, and the general public. One avenue to the general public will be Usenet; specifically, the newsgroups calgary.general and wpg.general.
Usenet has been around since 1980, providing geeks and nerds the ability to argue with other geeks and nerds in far-flung lands (like Boston). Now that nearly everyone and her dog can have access to the Internet, Usenet has been populated by nearly every manner of person: from net.kook to well-respected scientists. I will be dipping into the Usenet bucket from time to time to see what is stuck to the bottom.
I am going to be looking through quite a few blogs for fodder; if you know you nay you’d like to me comment upon, send an e-mail. If I write something that is factually incorrect, leave a comment. If you simply think I’m full of crap, well, leave a comment to that effect too.
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