Jeffrey Aho

So I’ve been in Oshawa a few weeks now and there really hasn’t been anything that notable in the city. I think I’m settled into my work now, though it might not be for long. The UAW in the US is striking, affecting all of the GM related plants. The strike started yesterday and it is beginning to affect Canadian plants, including the two car plants which are shut down. I am at the Truck plant which is still open though the media notes we only have parts for the next 3 days. I’m not sure what will happen given my position as a co-op student, but I’m sure I’ll hear closer to possible shutdown date.

Tonight are the premieres of both House and Boston Legal, my two most favourite dramas currently on TV. I only have watched the occasional episode of Boston Legal since The Practice ended but I really got hooked on it recently. I’m still catching up on past seasons so I’m hesitant to watch the new season.

For those who enjoy internet memes, I’ve been enjoying ‘lolsecretz‘. It’s a mash up of Lolcats/I can has cheezburger? and PostSecret.

I’ve been blogging about the Ontario General Election and if you’d rather just read those posts you can go to jeffaho.com/election. Feel free to post a topic if you’d like me to talk about it or comment on existing topics. For more election coverage go to pulse.feds.ca/election.

I guess it is noteworthy that the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar last week. It makes it more tempting to visit Boston for the Thanksgiving weekend, though I may just go to Ottawa instead. It has been a while since I’ve been back (hmm…I can’t recall when I was back since I moved away almost 2 1/2 years ago).

Currently Listening to: Smooth - Santana

Random Wikipedia Article: Cohiba

I won’t go too in depth into this topic as I had a much lengthier conversation on Kevin Redmond’s Facebook Note, where my thoughts on the issue are explained in detail. This seems to be the most talked about election issue (which shows how boring this election really is).

The proposal by the Conservatives is to publically fund faith-based schools in Ontario. Currently Catholic schools receive funding, which was guarenteed by the Britsh North America Act (originally just elementary schools) and extended by past Premier Bill Davis to include highschools. Polls are showing that a majority don’t support this, but it has made a target out of the exisiting funding for Catholic schools. A great deal of the public are either saying that it is unfair for Catholic schools to receive funding without giving funding to other faith-based schools or for them to even have funding at all.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has taken the latter stance and yesterday released a statement on the issue. There is quite a substantial debate on the announcement on the Globe website. I agree with this stance and I’m quite pleased that I recently became a member of the CCLA. I will note that the Green party is the only party to officially state in their platform that they wish to remove the Catholic School funding. I applaud them, but they also claim that they will add a mandatory world religions course. I have nothing against world religions courses, but I’d rather see a mandatory Grade 12 math course before I’d see a mandatory religion course. There is only so much space in the curriculum.

What do you think?

Premier Dalton McGuinty has said that if his party is elected that he’ll work toward adding a long weekend holiday in February. In the media and alluded to in his platform, it will be called Family Day. Saskatchewan and Alberta already have such a holiday. While I am tempted by this offer (February IS a horrid month…), I’m not oblivious to the ramification that it will cause to business. An extra paid day off for millions of workers will cost a few billion for business in Ontario. The name and concept really appeals to a populist labour group of voters and I expect that it will be advertised pretty well to pick up their votes.

It will be interesting to see how the Liberals will raise the issue when they are re-elected (Yes, I’m making a Liberal Minority prediction already), but I hope they don’t force more important issues off the table to get it implemented in 2008. To me this is really just a cheap trick that will work in enticing voters but not truely adding any real value.

In terms of a date, I have always enjoyed the idea that instead of a Family Day we can use Flag Day (”Calm down Stephen Harper, I said ‘Flag day’.”). Flag Day in Canada is on February 15 and the holiday could be fixed around a weekend near then in a similar manner to Canada Day. It would be a nice federalist secular holiday that really doesn’t ask anything from you (you could follow tradition though and give someone a Shawinigan Handshake!). Maybe people will actually know when Flag Day is if it is a holiday (which is good as long as it doesn’t turn jingoistic). The holiday would land around Valentine’s Day for people who want a long weekend get away and lands about halfway between New Year’s Day and Good Friday.

What do you think?

EDIT: I thought I would add an additional note I came across while reading the Green’s platform. They also propose adding a holiday, but they go further pledging to introduce legislation to creat SIX new statutory holidays. One in March for creation of Ontario, Earth Day, Friday before first Monday in August, Remembrance Day and days for Municipal and Provincial elections. If you want lots of holidays I guess they are the one to vote for.