Well, the election results are in from Quebec’s provincial election last night. And what a change! We have our first minority government in 130 years…and what a miscalculation by Jean Charest, the Liberal leader (who just squeaked through in his own riding, by 0.4% of the vote!). He anticipated the new year’s drop in PQ interest was a good thing for him, but didn’t figure that this would be coincident with a surge in interest for the relatively new ADQ party. They went from 5 seats last time around, to 41 seats (out of a total 125 seats in the National Assembly) — so they will be the official opposition! The Liberals dropped from 74 to 48 seats and will form the new minority government.

And people took a bit more interest, this time around — the voting rate went from around 67 to 71% of eligible voters.

…or controviersial intelligences? This Sunday (at 8pm), the CBC will host a “nation-wide intelligence test” called Test the Nation. They will pit various groups (surgeons, fitness instructors, tattoo artists, millionaires, DJs, etc.) against each other. And against you! You can play along at home, and eventually they will have results divided by region of the country, by gender, by occupation, by…everything. You get the idea. Surely this will make more enemies (let’s be polite and say “rivals”) than friends. We all know about the “two solitudes” of Canada, but this may well create ten, fifty, as many as thirty million solitudes! Just as well my old competitive self is out of the country. To remind you of the importance of “keeping on thinking”, here is one of their fun facts:

Summer vacation means brain drain. Two independent studies show an IQ decline over the summer, increasing with every month out of school.

Well, I’ve been out of school for more years than I can count (not a good sign), so surely this bodes ill for me and my precious neurons.

[UPDATE Mar. 21, 2007 — the results are in!]

Then call your MP! The Official Development Assistance Accountability Act (aka Bill C-293) is going for a final vote in the House of Commons on March 22. It will help ensure Canadian foreign aid is effective, and is focused on reducing poverty. More specifically:

The purpose of this Act is to ensure that all Canadian official development assistance abroad is provided with a central focus on poverty reduction and in a manner that is consistent with Canadian values, Canadian foreign policy, sustainable development and democracy promotion and that promotes international human rights standards.

You can (dare I say should?) contact your MP to ensure he or she realizes that this measure is important to you (assuming it is). Ideally you should phone, but at the very least send along a short email (I did!). They are your representatives, and this is just to remind them of their constituents’ values… You can find the contact details for your MP here.

I just found out I could contribute my opinions towards the next Federal budget (the Quebec budget just came out yesterday — too late for my feedback, but it does have some good things in it). At this government site, you can fill out a “pre-budget consultation” form indicating your interests and priorities for spending, tax breaks, etc. But only until February 28, so act now!

On the Spending priority, I made the following comment: “Increase aid for poor and developing nations. Specifically, 15% increase in foreign aid, moving towards a goal of 0.7% of GNI in aid by 2015.” Currently, our aid level is at 0.32% of GNI.

On the Personal tax priority, I said: “Increase Child Tax Benefit (to $5100) — help reduce child poverty in Canada.” Currently it will be $3240 in 2007, far short of what is needed by families below the poverty line.

I added, under Other priorities: “Drastic measures are needed on climate change. Increase fuel taxes to encourage reductions in car usage, and move towards more environmental cars (rebates on efficient vehicles, penalties on inefficient ones). Increased tax revenue must fund aggressive climate change initiatives and public transport.”

Feel free to copy my text, if you agree with it! And here is an essay by Gerry Barr, co-chair of Make Poverty History.

In other news, as of a few hours ago, we’re starting an election campaign in Quebec… Fun fun fun for the coming month (election March 26)!

Sorry, I don’t normally wax political on my blog, but I stumbled across this headline and photo on Health Minister Tony Clement’s website, and couldn’t help but chuckle and share it with my faithful co-chucklers…

Tony and Prime Minister Stephen Harper make Hepatitis C announcement

This is exactly the kind of thing Rick Mercer would make fun of — but it’s actually the Conservatives themselves who are (unintentionally, I assume) being funny.

Yes, I’m talking about the Great Train Robbery of Nanton, Alberta — which took place a bitter prairie winter day (February 5, 1907). It’s a great story I heard about today on the CBC Radio show Sounds Like Canada.

So, I ask you — how Canadian is this story? Poor, freezing, small-town folk and farmers patiently wait (and wait!) for their ordered load of much-needed coal. It is a terrible winter and they desperately need it for heating. The CPR Rail passes through town, and they watch trainload after trainload of coal pass on through (probably destined for those damn rich Big City Folk!). The poor folks — without road access due to a terrible winter storm — finally had enough and took the law into their hands. They robbed a train that came through town on Feb. 5, while the local RCMP constable stood by and did nothing (what could he do — throw the whole town into a freezing jail cell?). I don’t know, maybe he even helped them shovel coal?

The best part is not that they robbed a train… No, the funny thing is that they did it in a truly Canadian way. First they had a meeting to figure out who would get what. Then they carefully kept records (1,000 pounds of coal for townsfolk, 2,000 for farmers, etc.) and oversaw the distribution to make sure no one took more than their share. Then — this is the best part — they paid for the coal they had “stolen”.

You can read a bit more about it here, or in the Winter 1997 edition of the Alberta History Journal, if you happen to have that lying around…

I just came across the brand new RCI (Radio Canada International) site, which includes a Spanish-language portal (that is, besides English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese and Ukrainian). Even cooler are new radio shows, also available ¡en línea!

There are several emisiones (broadcasts), direct from Montreal — Reflejo Boreal (”Northern Reflections”) and El Castor Mensajero (”Beaver Messenger” — does Microsoft know about this? ;-) are weekly shows, and Canadá en las Américas is a daily one…

The show Canadá en las Américas is also available as a daily podcast. Fantastic — more daily Spanish listening practice, right from my own back yard!