I watched Peter Jennings today at 6 pm like I normally do every week day. Not one mention of the dramatic Canadian election yesterday that delivered us Canadians a Liberal minority government led by Paul Martin.
If Blair or Fox, Chirac or Sharon faced and just survived an election American tv networks would report it . So what the fuck is wrong with Canada?
We are America’s biggest trading partner by a mile for fuck sakes. We share more official alliances than anyone else.
And what is particularly irksome is that Peter Jennings is Canadian like several other high profile America network news reporters.
I saw the election results, and was very interested in them. It’s an interesting situation Martin is in – even with NDP on his side, he can’t pull a numerical majority without bringing Conservatives or Bloc Quebec members in, right? That should lead to some interesting governing, or perhaps another election in a few months.
I do think that it’s a big deal that the left-leaning candidate won. With the left-leaning candidates leading in the Australian poll, with Gordon Brown apparently lining up troops to oust Blair and pull Labour in Britain back to the left, and John Kerry generally leading by a few points in most presidential tracking polls (though Bush has an edge in the Gallup this week), it seems that the Left worldwide has found some sort of footing.
As a gay man, I’m also very interested in how this will effect the movement towards equal marriage rights in Canada.
Huh? Whazzat?
:looooong stretch, smacks lips, looks around, gropes for his glasses:
did you say something? What’s going on?
:puts glasses on, looks at clock, eyes bug out:
Holy smokes! It’s the middle of 2004 already? Why the hell didn’t you wake me up earlier? Wha’d I miss? I musta fell asleep after the Starr report came out in '98!
Did I miss anything good?
(Actually, Jennings became a U.S. citizen quite a few years ago.
And most the of news outlets to whom I pay attention reported and analyzed it extensively. (Of course, neither ABC nor Faux News, nor any other TV broadcast, is high on my list of news sources.))
I wouldn’t be too concerned Grienspace. It’s nothing new.
I recall President Jimmy Carter introducing the then Prime Minister of Australia, the Right Honourable Malcolm Fraser on the Whitehouse lawn as “Prime Minister JOHN Fraser”. That Jimmy Carter had never met the man before that day is understandable given the nature of the late 70’s. That the two had just spent three hours discussing military arrangments for the USA’s various spy stations etc on Australian soil and that Carter THEN couldn’t get Fraser’s first name right at a press conference was just plain… oh I dunno… kinda funny.
Apparently, in private these days Malcolm Fraser gives Jimmy Carter hell about it, in a good natured way. They meet quite regularly on the “elder statesmen circuit”.
Kidding! Kidding! Not making fun of you, really, just making fun of people who really do think like that. Not that I’m one of 'em, nosiree Bob (not necessarily me, Bob, because my name is Bob, just . . . nosiree Bob. You know?)
Now, now, everyone knows Puerto Rico is the 51st state. Followed by the Virgin Islands, Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. That puts Canada #58. Unless you want to hammer away at Nicaragua and Panama. That would drop them to #60.
BTW, why the hell haven’t we stormed into Ottawa yet. (Hey! A 'Merkin knows the capital!) I mean, we are hell bent on world domination, right?
