Though I've seen it time and again, the contrast between Canadian and US politics is so vast on so many different levels. Last Friday was the first of the televised US Presidential debates. Starting at 6pm, the debate coincided with our dinner break where a large majority of my team stopped to watch Senators Obama and McCain duke it out. It surprised me how many people were so interested in the debate of an election we had no part in.
Contrast that to tonight, the first of the debates between the Canadian party leaders. None of our TVs were set to the debate, in fact, the popular program of the evening was the pre-season hockey game between the Canucks and the Flames. I am almost ashamed to admit that I didn't realize the debate was tonight until I got home and read about it on the CBC web site (well after it was over).
Tonight is going to be a great night for politics. The federal party leaders will debate again, this time in English. On the US side, the much anticipated VP debate is on, where many, many people are looking for Joe Biden to dismantle Sarah "I can see Russia from Alaska" Palin. The crazy thing is that both debates are scheduled to start at the same time. Though I consider myself a proud Canadian, I will fully disclose that I intend to watch the US VP debate in its entirety. Does that made me a bad citizen? I don't think so, I just love the spectacle of the US politics more than the straightforward and matter-of-fact nature of Canadian elections.
I've been looking at apartments for about five months now. In that time, I have realized there's one thing I don't want my home to have and that thing is a fireplace. In nearly every single place that had a fireplace, it has been located right where I would put a nice big flat panel TV.
It's as if the designers asked them selves where the best location would be for a TV and then plopped a fireplace there. What would you rather look at hours at a time, a fireplace or a TV? A high-def TV no less!
I've seen some places that put their TV above the fireplace but that's not a good idea. I don't like craning my head up just to watch tele. Next to the fireplace? Often there's not enough room or it just looks weird.
So whatever cardboard box I buy in the future better not have a fireplace in it.
As most of you know, the US economy is taking a big dive currently. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. On the one hand, a sagging US economy will undoubtedly lead to effects on our Canadian economy. One could easily reason that will lead to lower housing prices. On the other hand, much of my RRSPs are tangled up in mutual funds which gone down in value in the last few weeks. I now also have less buying power.
Will housing prices drop lower than my mutual funds? That is the question I need answered.
I was driving home from downtown Vancouver this evening. As per my usual route, I took a road that led through parts of Gastown. At one particular intersection, a police car was in one of the lanes, stopped with lights on and flashing.
As the light was red, I was able to witness what was happening. Two uniformed patrol officers had stopped their patrol vehicle next to a blue, light-duty pickup truck parked off to the side of the road. One officer was shining his light on the driver side where a young man was slumped over, looking very much unconscious. The other officer was making a very slow circle of the truck for some reason.
None of them seemed eager to tap on the driver's window. The driver didn't seem to have any visible injuries. It's most likely he was just too drunk to drive home and passed out in his truck. Or, he could have been dead and that would be the more sensationalist take on it. Seeing as how none of the news media have reported anything like that, I bet he was indeed just inebriated.
