…Regina barrister, Noah Evanchuk!
Other blogs have already broken, commented on and projected some potential impacts of this story with the main theme appearing to be: “Team Meili was more than a bunch of people drawn to an inspiring new political figure but a group of already accomplished men and women, many of whom will make up the next wave of leadership within both the provincial and federal NDP.”
He hasn't officially announced yet but if and when this does come to pass, I know that Noah's going to run a strong campaign – taking the lessons he's learned as a defence lawyer often in the difficult position of representing some of society's most maligned citizens, as a student of history and politics, and as the Regina co-chair of the Meili campaign – and will have a really good chance of taking back the Palliser riding.
From a personal point of view, I've got to say that there was a lot about Noah that impressed me in the short few months that I was a volunteer for the Meili campaign and got to know him a bit. He's obviously highly intelligent, hard-working and committed. Beyond that, it was clear that he genuinely cared about making society better for everyone, not just for a select few. He was also very open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. Perhaps most importantly from my perspective, he's not afraid to call things as he saw them – a rarity for many aspiring, let alone elected, politicians. (Of course, the fact that we share a love of the same NHL team doesn't hurt either!)
Best of luck, Noah! I can't wait to contribute a few bucks to the…uhm, anybody got a good pun on “Money Bomb” to do with Noah's name? Cause I got nothing…
—
Since I'm talking about the Palliser riding, I'm going to slip in a few quick thoughts about that riding's former Conservative MP, Dave Batters, who left politics in 2008 to deal with some serious mental health issues. He lost that battle, committing suicide earlier this week with his funeral being held today. I never met Dave but his brother was one of my best friends in undergrad and if Dave was anything like his brother, he was one of the most intelligent, funniest, memorable characters that you'll meet. (I can still remember the exact first words Dave's brother said to me when I met him – how many people can you say that about in this life?)
Since he died, people have been celebrating Dave's life (as they should), lauding the family for their bravery in disclosing that it was a suicide (as they should) and looking hard at the deeper issues (as is the proper thing to do although obviously, it's unfortunate that these things only seem to get attention when a high profile person is involved.)
I do not want to speak ill of the dead but I do have to say that Dave Batters did take one position as a politician that I find unconscionable. I won't get into the details and in some ways, it's nothing beyond the typical “pro-gun/anti-gun”-type stuff that all politicans must delinate themselves on. But it gets to the core of why I'm a supporter of the NDP and proudly so. So to tie it all together, let's hope that we can get the Palliser seat back in NDP hands so that all constituents in that riding will be well-represented, not just the chosen few.
Head Tale
And Your Next MP Representing Palliser Is…
Friday Fun Link – You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover – But Can You By Its Title? (July 3, 2009)
Print-on-demand web site, Lulu.com has a service that helps project how well your book will do based solely on its title. The algorithm was developed exclusively for Lulu by statisticians who studied 50 years' worth of bestseller data encompassing over 700 titles from 1954 to 2004. They compared the attributes of these titles against a control group of less successful titles by the same authors which gave them a model to project the odds of any title becoming a New York Times bestseller.
For example, here are a few trials I ran…
Catcher in the Rye – 63.7% chance of being a NYT bestseller
Twilight – 63.7%
The Da Vinci Code – 35.9%
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – 22.9%
Outliers: The Story of Success – 10.2% (I think the algorithm only looked at Fiction bestsellers but there's no reason you can't try it with non-fiction as well – though obviously, this result indicates that there may be some flaws!)
(I heard about this site in a book I just finished called “Super Crunchers” whose author actually used a Google AdWords campaign to help choose between two alternate titles for his book!)
Fun With Google Referrers
Does anyone else see this recent post on my blog as the first result in the Turkish version of Google when you search for “fucks”?
Man, that widget down there…
…on the lower part of the right hand column that tracks what countries people are hitting my blog from and also occasionally what search terms brought them here is an endless source of fascination!
A Message For Jack Layton's Moustache
I'm home sick today with what is either H1N1, severe neck and intra-skeletal damage from dragging around concrete patio blocks in my backyard the other day or possibly a slow-developing brain aneurysm.
For that reason, I wasn't able to attend the “BBQ With The NDP Leader” event that happened in a Regina park this evening. That's too bad because I was hoping I might get a moment alone with Mr. Layton to pass along some advice I'm sure he's heard before – namely, that he should shave that 'stash.
Now I know his moustache has become a bit of a running joke for people – mostly on the right but the odd person on the left. I'm not joking about this and am quite serious that I think it's the right thing to do for a number of reasons.
I've tried to pass along this advice once before when I was randomly invited to a focus group which turned out to be a chance to provide feedback about some potential ads the NDP were planning to run in one of the recent federal elections. After giving my thoughts on the ads, I made the point that ads were good and all but that I believed the federal NDP's best chances for success hinged on Mr. Layton shaving his moustache. I didn't get into my thinking on this and obviously, my comments never made it back to NDP HQ anyhow as the ol' soup strainer remains to this day.
But now that he's in Regina, perhaps surfing around on his Blackberry in his hotel room or while waiting for a flight out at the airport, I thought I'd recap my arguments against the stash:
– rightly or wrongly, many Saskatchewan people take their grooming very seriously, especially in regards to our leaders. For example, Regina is a town that nearly had a collective conniption just a couple months ago when our otherwise popular mayor let his hair grow out past his ears.
– men without moustaches look younger which will make you appear more energetic and dynamic – a great selling point in our youth-oriented culture (those qualities didn't hurt Obama or even our own Premier Brad Wall.)
– shaving your moustache would also send a symbolic message to the electorate that you best represent change for our nation (er, unless the Liberals regularly changing leaders signifies changes better? Nah…)
– a common thing you hear from people out here is that the moustache makes you look like a used car salesman. Worse, you're from Toronto and there are a number of people in the West (not me, I add hastily!) who think that everyone from Toronto is the equivalent of a used car salesman – trying to sell you something you don't want or need or otherwise take advantage of you somehow.
– Here's the ultimate visual that proves my point – someone has worked up a before & after photo. The guy on the left looks like he could've been the Prime Minister of Canada…in 1939. The guy on the right looks like he could be the leader today!
Quebec Received 85% of Federal Funds for Canada Day Celebrations in 2008
Happy Canada Day! (or should I say: “Joyeux fête du Canada!” 
)
Or if that story doesn't float your canoe, Reddit has tons of Canuck-related stories in their Canada sub-reddit section.
Hope everyone enjoyed their mid-week stat holiday!
First-Time Home Owners – 1975 vs. 2009
Here's a really good article I found on Reddit about the differences between the economic environment for baby boomers seeking to buy their first houses a generation ago and the realities for their kids looking to buy a first home today.
“I’m of the belief that [the rise in housing prices is] likely the biggest differentiating factor between generations, in Canada at least.”
The author's contention is that young people today (at least where he is in BC) must spend somewhere around 7x their annual household income to purchase their first home whereas, for the average middle class family in the 1970's, this could be done for around a single year's household income.
The writer is very clear to point out that he's doing massive generalizations using only his parent's situation and that of his and his partner. Still, an interesting idea to consider.
(I'm happy to report that Shea and I purchased a home that was, like this writers' parents, just slightly higher than our total household income when we purchased it – although we were admittedly extremely lucky to purchase in 2004 just before real estate took off in Saskatchewan.)
Music Monday – "Then Every Head Turned With Eyes That Dreamed of Being The One"
I wracked my brains trying to think of a unique Michael Jackson song or clip but I think I exhausted the one possibility on that the day the news of his death broke.
So instead, I went in the opposite direction (embedding disabled) with perhaps the definitive MJ video in a career that was filled with them. I mean, who else has used the video format so well for so much of their career? Radiohead pops to mind as on a similar level for unique, memorable, innovative clips but that's about it.
Friday Fun Link – "This Bespells Doom" – Authors Signing Kindles (June 26, 2009)
If Jeff Bezos was smart, he'd have incorporated a stylus right into the design of the Kindle so authors could “sign” their digital books. (Of course, maybe they feared this would make getting a signed book no more special than getting a package from UPS.)
King of Pop Dies
There's tons of commentary all over the web after the news broke that Michael Jackson died today. I don't have much to add but here's a couple random thoughts….
– like probably a million people, “Thriller” was my first “real” record (I'm not counting Mini-Pops and crap like that – er, except I loved the Mini-Pops back in the day.)
– I'm curious what, if anything, will happen to his 50% share of the Beatles catalogue
– as heartless as it sounds, if he had to die (relatively) young, he probably would've been better off dying ten or fifteen years ago. Then he would've been remembered much less ambigulously than the reaction's been today
– he was preparing for a 50 show stand in London as you probably heard. If they recorded his rehearsals, that footage is going to be worth a fortune.
– my favourite Michael Jackson song? “Dirty Diana”
– I never did learn how to moonwalk myself but I have a vivid memory of a girl who was a few years older than me and lived down the street spending a whole afternoon with a friend trying to learn how to moonwalk.
– that face morphing in “Black or White” was pretty fricken awesome at the time as were a lot of MJ's videos.
– it was a big deal to stay up late to watch the big premier of the full-length video version of “Thriller” on “Good Rockin' Tonight” with Terry David Mulligan. The video scared me so badly, I had nightmares for a few days afterwards!
– if you want some really tasteless Michael Jackson jokes, check out that Reddit thread above. Whether he molested children or not (he was never found guilty but it's also one of those things that people will probably ever know for sure), the implication was enough to forever colour people's perception of him.
– When we were in Cancun, our resort had nightly entertainment in its show lounge and one night was a Michael Jackson impersonator who was so good compared to the rest of the generic song & dance acts that week, it was unbelievable. The performer was obviously so into Michael Jackson and if memory serves, appeared to have even had his own plastic surgery to more closely resemble his idol. I feel really bad for that guy tonight for some reason.
– Thriller is often cited as the biggest selling album of all-time. I wonder if part of what makes this story so big is that Michael Jackson was the last artist to reach the level of appeal that only a select few – Elvis, The Beatles – have and with the segmentation of the market via the Internet and the 500-channel universe, etc, that's unlikely to happen ever again?
– here's a little clip you may not have seen before sort of showing the over-the-top side of Jackson. Read the blurb to get the full story but basically, he was doing a Messianic performance at the Brit Awards in 1996 so Jarvis Cocker from Pulp hopped on stage, wandered around, waggled his bum at the camera then got tackled by Jackson's security guards.
Enabling Local Democracy at the Red Deer Public Library
I heard about this innovative library program during a presentation by Red Deer Public Library’s Director at CLA. For the last two municipal elections, that city’s library has created information pages for all municipal candidates from the mayor to council to both school boards. The candidates provided the information and the library simply posted it on their behalf in a non-partisan fashion. In 2004, these pages were pretty straight-forward HTML (the generic “brochure on the web”-type pages) but in the 2007 election, they created blogs for every candidate (with comments enabled!), had a dedicated domain (www.electionforum.ca), provided links to local media outlets, posted video clips and more.
Here’s an explanation from the staff member who was the project coordinator:
“The main focus of our website will be to provide an interactive
platform for candidates to present their views and comment on election
related issues. Our site will allow them to post their comments in
their own words. They will be able to update their blog as the election
process continues. Interested citizens will be able to post questions
and concerns to which the candidates can respond. We hope to create a
busy conversation site and give everyone a chance to state an opinion
or ask a question. Our website is intended to promote a healthy
dialogue, increasing communication and understanding between candidates
and voters.Via the Election Forum 2007 website, we will strive to
provide information the citizens of Red Deer will need, enabling them
to make informed decisions on Election Day.”
The RDPL Director said that the general feeling was that this site definitely had an impact on the final result as voters were much more informed than they might have otherwise been if they didn’t have this central repository for information. (I think there was also some sort of a flame-out by a candidate or a supporter on one of the blog’s comment sections – I can’t remember the exact details though.)
Personally, I believe this is a great role for the library to play as we not only have a long history in facilitating democracy (some have called libraries the “embodiment of democracy in society”) but also because we are perhaps the last completely neutral entity within society. (This used to be the media’s role but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case anymore.)
Now, with Regina’s municipal elections coming up in October, I just wish I knew someone at RPL I could suggest this idea to! 😉