Canadian Invasion Alert
Posted on October 15, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 26 Comments
For those of you who live in Canada:
1. Congratulations on surviving your own national elections;
2. I’ll be appearing on CBC radio’s The Point show tomorrow around noon or so. Talking about — wait for it — men and cats. Yes, apparently I’ve become North America’s foremost commentator on male ailurophilia. It’s a heavy burden, it is.
I’m not 100% sure whether I’ll be on live or whether they’ll record me and then run it, but either way the Web site archives the shows as streaming media and podcasts, so if you miss me on the radio you can always catch it online. This will also give those of you in the US an opportunity to hear me blather on this critical subject, as I’m certain you’ll want to.
Ailurophilia… ailurophilia….
*checks Websters*
OH. Interesting. I’ll have to download the podcast.
Hey, I learned a new word today! Yay!
Even if you are live, that’ll only be in the Maritimes. The rest of the country will hear you (and all of the show) at their same relative time, but of course pre-taped.
I’ll try to be near a radio. I’m still not sure what to think of the show; it’s new, replacing another show that moved to a morning slot in order to replace a show that was retired. And us CBC buffs have trouble giving things up.
D
Your multi-faceted fame precedes you.
Wait, your are invading Canada? Just when I thought about moving there…now I have to pick a new country.
You are the first American I’ve heard that was even aware that we had elections. Good on ya.
I’m curious to hear how your step into Canadian media works out though. Any chance you’ll get to plug Zoe’s Tale?
Well done, John. A popular blog and constant pet pictures clearly makes you an expert on all things both feline and male. And the interface between the two.
And yes, well done Canadians on surviving the election… without a Harper majority :P. I lived in Canada for the last year, so I know the politics relatively well. But I’m from NZ, and we have proportional representation. It always makes me twitchy that a party can very nearly get a majority of the seats with 37% of the vote. Blech. And the Greens and the Bloc have pretty close to the same amount of support, the Bloc gets 50 seats and the Greens get zilch. Double blech.
The Point is an interesting show- but too bad you’re not on Q, which is the show that used to have that timeslot, discussing your books. That is more interesting to me than this thing about cats.
Woohoo! The Point is a new CBC show, and really quite good. I started listening because it took the place of a show I love, and have continued because the show itself is great. Hope it goes well! :))
Must resist. Urge. To make. Joke. about. Men. and… p-p-p…..
Hey, cool. I liked the host, Aamer Haleem, when he was doing Bands Reunited on VH-1. I thought the episode where he got Scandal back together was particular good.
“Surviving” is an awful strong way of putting it.
Invasion? Perfidious Yank! General Brock will show you the error of your ways, just like last time.
(Or maybe his zombie will, which would be even cooler…)
And let’s not forget about our abysmal voter participation this time around. So, 37% of 59% = 21% of all Canadians over the age of 18 support our current leader. Yup, it’s a great feeling. It’s at times like these where I wish we only had 2 parties.
DaveD,
I’M American and I knew about the elections! I even know (most of) the candidates names and watched a few minutes of the debate. Can I have a cookie?
Here’s my (actually not so informed) take:
Stephen Harper (the encumbant and minority party government winner) is too conservative for me, but in comparison to our conservatives…you all are lucky. He is intelligent, he knows the difference between church and state, and he is just a smidgeon to the right of Obama, IMO.
I would have voted for Green. I think Elizabeth May rocks. But I get your multi party dilemma. I don’t completely understand the difference between the liberals and the new democratic party. But it seems like that vote was pretty split and together they could have ousted the conservatives. It would be nice if you (and us in the U.S. could have some kind of system of representation for minority parties instead of clumpy geography keeping them out even when they get a substantial % of the vote overall).
Okay. I’ll stop post jacking now and let you all get back on the topic at hand, men and cats. (and I’ll try to catch the podcast, John.)
Lisa,
Heh, that’s Canadian politics for you – that Harper is only a bit more to the right that your ‘lefty’ politicians…
I’ve always been mostly left-of-center as our politics go. Which on the american scale would be…
Raving frickin’ commie, I believe… =)
Don’t you mean ailurocracy? I mean, you live in the domain of the Wondrous She.
O Boring Scalzi, the Executive Committee of The Official Ghlaghghee Fan Club notes that this post is the only remotely acceptable post in, like, forever.
Not that we will bother to listen, because we know you’ll spend all the time going on about stuff nobody of any import cares about, and no time at all discussing The Spectacular Marvels of Marvellous and Magnificent She.
You are hereby forbidden, by order of the Executive Committee, to report on your ridiculous interview unless the report is accompanied by a superb picture of the Beauteous Ghlaghghee and an update on Her Doings.
Don’t violate our order. We have officially adopted the Seal of Disapproval Award, and we are confident you don’t want to receive it.
The Official Ghlaghghee Fan Club
Have you seen Slate’s take on the question of men and cats?
http://www.slate.com/id/2201764/
Not that I read Slate, but my news aggregator threw the link up the other day. Really.
Disclaimer: I am straight and male, but not a cat person. Though I apparently married their Queen.
I’d’ve settled for a Harper majority. I do not want to be heading back to the polls in another year and a half, which is what’s going to happen here. Ideally, I’d’ve gone for an NDP minority, but that won’t happen for a long time.
As it goes, anyway, yeah, I really dislike the idea of a provincial party whose ultimate goal would be the dissolution of this dominion of Canada being allowed to exist, and only runs in a province that is unfairly given so many seats in the House of Commons. I understand why they gave Quebec those seats, but times have changed in the past 160+ years and it’s time to update the House.
Also, Elizabeth May is a dunce. If she really wanted to win, she would move to a different riding with weaker opponents, instead of running against Peter MacKay. I cannot take seriously a party whose own leader fails to be elected.
Attention America!
We have The Scalzi. And we are not giving him back.
love and kisses,
The Canadian Peoples’s Committee For Cats And Bacon
Problem with Minority: we’re going back in 18 months or so.
Problem with Majority: it’s effectively a time-limited one-party state.
(see? There are things in Canadian politics I dislike – intensely – that you Americans get right(er). Just not your voting rules/structures).
Problem with most likely Majority (a Conservative one, which came close enough to be really scary): Yeah, they’re a little right of the Democrats. Their base is, however, very socially conservative, while (to my bent) being nowhere near fiscally conservative enough. Harper *says* he’s not going to go anywhere near the parts of our society that don’t match those conservative values. I’m sure he’ll keep saying that at least until the day after we vote him a Majority, all the while saying “trust us. It’s not just that we’ll get voted out of office if we tried it that’s stopping us, it’s actually what we’re going to do.” Whether it lasts more than two days after the election, I’m not so convinced of.
You may have noticed I’m not socially conservative (except in the xkcd “Just shy” form)…
On-topic: Yippee! Cats, Men, Scalzi, CBC,…
I was bored by this (Canadian) election, and my brother was a candidate. Top that!
To Lisa: The NDP was originally formed as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, a socialist/social democrat party, which is something you don’t have in America. It’s avowed purpose was to destroy capitalism. They’re not so radical anymore, but they’re still capable of giving the average American right winger a brain aneurysm. Which is reason enough to keep them around. I know it gets confusing when even the Conservative Party endorses socialized medecine.
Not only did we have a party that wanted to destroy capitalism, we even elected a Communist MP in the 1940s!
He was convicted of spying for the Soviets, too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Gouzenko
I think that the last time an American politician actively aided and abetted an enemy of the US was in the 1861-65 unpleasantness.
Damn you John Scalzi! Now I’ll have to listen to that truly execrable new show on the CBC. Try not to let the vapid, upbeat college radio amateur-hour atmosphere of the whole thing make your head assplode.
If anyone is interested in listening in live, the CBC streams online at http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html
@22: In addition, remember that it was the CCF that really drove the move to socialized/normalized medicine in Canada.