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Monday, May 2, 2011

Election night and other news!!

Another federal election has all but come and gone and it looks pretty clear that it's a  majority Conservative government of 166 seats under Harper, rather than the minority that he had. But, BUT, the BIG news is that the NDP (New Democratic Party) are the opposition!! They have, at this point, 104 seats, to the Liberals' 34. They have never, ever, seen these numbers of seats.  Did I say never, ever!!!  It has always been the other way around with the Liberals in the 100+ and the NDP in the 30's. Alas, Lewis Cardinal, the NDP candidate for my constituency, did not defeat the incumbent, Laurie Hawn :( 

The Green Party got their first ever MP--their leader Elizabeth May--in Vancouver Island's Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.  But the leader of the Liberal party--Michael Ignatieff lost his seat, and in all likelihood will end up being removed as leader from the party.  That party will have to do some serious rebuilding for the next election. And the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Gilles Duceppe, lost his seat, his party suffered a crushing defeat, and he has already resigned as leader.  Quite the surprise with that party gone just like that.

My own opinion of it all, is that there is really little difference between the parties when all is said and done, and none of them tackle the truly major issues that exist around us.  And it's the same everywhere. Maybe I should have voted for the Pirate Party!! Yes there was a candidate on the ballot! Arrrrrrr!!

On the local front, there was a natural gas leak next door last night. I was wondering if we would all be evacuated and whether I should pack my jammies and a tooth brush.  Several ATCo trucks showed up, and sounded for the gas line and marked it, then the jack hammer started up to break up the lane paving and Jack's driveway--by this time it was 1 AM.  Then Welder Guy arrived (let's hear a round of applause for welders!!!!) and he was still working at 3:30 when I woke up again to the sound of his welding machine revving up and down. When I got up at 7, the workers were gone, a metal plate was lying across the lane, covering the hole, and another one was on Jack's driveway, and appropriate signage warned people of the plates--like slow down!! Thank goodness there was no evacuation needed, and nothing and no one went up in an explosion. I have always been impressed with the people that work for the natural gas companies--at the merest hint that there might be a problem, they are right there. And thank you all those guys that work anytime of the day or night to fix the gas lines!!!

My other lesser bit of news is that I got into a bit of a donnybrook, so to speak on FB--again!! Haha!!  A FB friend from Norway, who posts wonderful pictures of her 2 big collies and all the activities they do together in the lovely wilderness of Norway, posted a couple of pictures of her 2 boys who had caught a hare and were dividing up the spoils. A lot of people clicked a 'like' but one or 2 didn't care for the whole thing.  One in particular was quite aghast and disgusted about it and figured she would have to block the Norwegian, because her grandson looks at her FB page.  So I posted that this certainly was a species appropriate diet and that we should be careful not to sanitize our dogs to the point we forget they are essentially wolves--citing the amazingly close DNA percentage.  She replied that she had a pet, not a wolf!! Hahahaha!! Talk about failure to understand the concept.  It went on from there, but most of the posts were between her and Duffy's breeder!!! I was quite surprised--and happy--that he waded in and mentioned how he knew a number of people raw feeding their dogs, that she should look into the info available, that kibble was a convenience food for people to use, etc. She had said she never heard of anyone feeding raw--she lives in New York.  In my only other post, I mentioned that I go to a vet  clinic that supports raw feeding and that the Norwegian gal lives in a rural area and dogs are more likely to be protective of their territory against intruders and more likely to kill small animals for food too.  Her last post was that she had nothing more to say about the topic, and was hiding the posts and pictures, and, "thanks for sharing YOUR opinions..." (her emphasis).  Okay then!!

Why are people so reluctant to think of dogs as carnivores?? They have no problem with cats wandering around killing mice and birds, but the very idea that their Bowser might eat meat and yikes, could even kill an animal to eat if he had to--and all hell breaks lose!!! And because their vet has never suggested it, they couldn't believe that a dog could and should eat a species appropriate diet. Oh the horror of it all!!! Sheesh!! It seems that a lot of people have gone far away from the basics of life and the reality of nature.  When more people lived on farms, you didn't get this sissy, wussy look at things, but now with so much of the population urbanized, they think everything has to come out of a bag and a store--even for their dogs.  And as usual, when the idea of a species appropriate diet is presented to them, they go on the attack, rather than ask questions. Oh well--maybe one day!!

Time to change the TV channel--election winners are blathering on and on!! Good night!

6 comments:

onecollie said...

do tell where these posts are!!! Sounds very interesting!

JM said...

I roll my eyes whenever I see ads for dog food that is "casserole": all the "choicest cuts" (offal) plus veggies and rice (what wolves eat rice???)...it's crazy...dogs are dogs...they need to eat raw...and they will hunt small game...why not?

K. would agree with you completely on the farm vs. urban thing. He remembers all the animals on his farm pulled their weight...the dogs worked with the livestock...the cats caught mice in the barn. The cats especially had to be able to feed themselves...his parents couldn't afford to buy cat food (if it was available in rural Ireland in the 70s) for a dozen cats...they caught mice or they didn't eat.

I watched the election results from here...I think Harper's going to send Layton and Iggy a fruit basket and bunch of flowers to say, "Hey, thanks for that non-confidence vote...now I have that majority I've always wanted." Sheesh.

Squishy said...

Ok, let me try this again....election news...gives me a headache, but probably doesn't help that I don't know a thing of what you talk about here. I agree that we're all screwed.....good luck in getting someone to really tackle the hard stuff.

And, the gas line workers. Probably a thankless job. Especially in the middle of the night.

And, the ol' raw feeding......I remember when I tried to get Pierre to feed Tiffy raw and he said that she couldn't do that because she was a hunting dog. I asked him if he thought she was really that stupid, that she didn't know the difference between eating and working. He finally switched her and not only was he a "born-again" about the raw, the dog was a stellar hunting dog. She hunted in the hills like a champ the winter before she died.

Dianne SS said...

Thank you posting again Diana!! We have a very different system of elections here, so it would be pretty foreign to you. And the American media don't give much attention to our politics. The only thing they had expressed a concern about was that there might be a 'socialist' government if the NDP won--Snort!!

That was good that Pierre did switch his dog to raw. A lot of people think that in feeding dogs raw meat, it will bring out the blood lust in them and they will start killing everything in sight. Geez people!!

Jacqueline:Yeah Harper should send them something in thanks!! Now we are stuck with the Conservatives for 5 years :(

Jolene: I'll have to email you the names! Turns out the hare was already dead. So that brought out the comments about letting ones dogs eat diseased animals!

Squishy said...

Road kill. Get over it.

Jane said...

I totally agree with you about the parties all pretty much boiling down to essentially the same thing.
The vast majority of us are way too removed from the realities of what it takes to put food on our plates each day. I was ranting about this a few weeks ago to whoever would listen - we all should be working towards being more self-sufficient (but we aren't) - if a major breakdown occurred in the transport systems we would all be up shit creek!