So get out and vote, UBC! Students need to make themselves heard this election.

UBC area voting stations will be at:
*    Place Vanier
*    Walter Gage Residences
*    Acadia Park Commons Block
*    Old Barn Community Centre
*    UBC Golf Club

Duceppe pointed out that Harper blames the Liberals for many of their Afghanistan-related decisions, and holds them to account on them. However, he said, the Liberals made their decisions early on in the mission, and Harper, with the benefit of experience and as he sees conditions deteriorate, continues down the same path, making bad decisions.

I thought that was a particularly good comment, and I don’t think Harper was really able to respond.

Favourite moment of the debate (or of the half I saw):

• Dion turns to Layton and says how the reason Mr. Duceppe will never be prime minister is because of how he makes decisions on Afghanistan.

• The moderator and Duceppe gently point out that he is speaking to Layton, not Duceppe.

• Dion laughs and says yes, he meant Layton, and there is a very different reason why Duceppe won’t be prime minister.

Funny stuff.

That is the tagline of the first attack ad I have ever seen targeting the NDP. I saw it a few minutes ago on Global BC, in the middle of Oprah. The ad features a greying, bald head from behind, with its fingers stuck in its ears as the narrator talked about crime and road construction. I think the Conservatives could have picked a better Layton double, myself.

If I were Jack, I would take this as a good sign. The NDP is finally being seen as a credible threat in BC. I wonder, are the Conservatives running similar ads elsewhere?

I’m trying to find the ad at the moment. When I do, I will post it here.

Good luck finding anything but election coverage to read or watch in the next few months.

Also, the CBC Ottawa newsroom is in the background right now on Newsworld, and it’s making me homesick.

That’s right, national and international politics-loving me has gotten right into the local news scene over the last couple of months. There’s something to be said about knowing something about the place where you live.

Every day, I talk to someone or see something that makes me really appreciate the city. I’ve discovered whole neighbourhoods that I never visited before. So many people in the city are working on these amazing projects, and it’s really something to be able to meet them, or at least talk to them over the phone.

Sure, there are fluff stories, but there are also highly meaningful stories. Unlike many national politics stories, these can affect people immediately and every day.

Of course, I write this as I scour the web for story ideas to present in that all-important story meeting tomorrow. In case you didn’t know, local news is hard.

I can’t say I’m surprised. It was no secret at UBC that he was planning to run for something… although the rumour at the time was that he was going Liberal. And, at that time six months ago, I wondered why not NDP. I guess I was proven right in the end.

It seems everybody on the Maclean’s blogs has something to say about this event. So does the Vancouver Sun, unflattering as that article is. The part that interests me is that he decided Stephane Dion’s “Green Shift” wasn’t any good and he preferred the NDP’s environmental plan. Dion must have better marketing, because I don’t remember what the NDP’s environmental strategy is, other than that it’s not (NOT!) the same as the Liberals’.

Still, I’m not sure why Byers doesn’t like Dion’s plan. It seems fairly consistent with his lectures on environmental issues in class. It’s also fairly consistent with the problem he posed to the class: how to ethically dispose of an SUV his family won in a grocery store contest. He didn’t want to drive such an environmentally-damaging car, but nor did he want to sell it, because that would mean somebody else would drive the gas-guzzler all over Vancouver. I don’t know what they finally ended up doing.

His lectures on environmental problems or on many international issues were quite good though, and the support he gave to his students was admirable. Like any good politician, he knew everybody, and would frequently enlist his contacts to help out on student projects.

Anyhow, Prof. Byers, should you ever read this, feel free to comment or drop me an email. I’d love to know why you think Layton’s strategy is better than Dion’s. And what you did with that car.

Ribfest!

The smell coming past the Ceeb is to die for. To find Ribfest, start at Parliament Hill and follow your nose.

Or, go to Sparks Street. Ribfest runs from Wednesday, June 18th to Sunday the 22nd. A full rack of ribs (a huuuge portion) is about $20, a half $12 or $15 and a third $9. Some places sell pulled pork sandwiches and chicken, which under normal circumstances are both solid choices, but it is called RIBfest after all.

The line of bureaucrats at every booth at lunch today was astounding.

My God, that man is busy.

I get 5 or 6 emails a day from his campaign, announcing conference calls, denouncing whatever Obama happened to say that day, then announcing a conference call to denounce Obama. McCain also does a lot of general “politicking” all over the place too. I think he was in Missouri today or will be tomorrow… I don’t read the emails in much detail.

Frankly, I don’t understand how presidential candidates stay on their feet.

I stay on the list because it’s vaguely interesting, and my inbox at work doesn’t get all that full anyway, so I have time to read it. It is a little odd for a Canadian reporter who currently works on a show that talks about Canadian politics to be on a John McCain mailing list, but I needed some info on his visit to Ottawa this Friday.

Entertaining things about poking around for that story:

• Introducing myself as someone with the “Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” rather than CBC Radio
• Discovering that the Republican website is plastered with pictures of Obama, with nary a McCain to be found (seems to have changed since I first saw it, now with at least 1 McCain related item, so the humour is somewhat lost now)
• Getting an item that’s under embargo (in another country… not that I would break it, but what would the legal consequences be in that case?)
• Mystifying people with the simple question, “So why is he coming to Canada?”

The CBC website version of this story has a great debate on the merits of the “prime directive“. Check it out. Where do I stand? I guess I’m on the side of leaving them alone. I think that they will eventually be contacted either way though, like if helicopters keep flying overhead.

(Picture from Funai, taken from the cbc.ca site)

The gist of it seems to be that Ottawa is becoming progressively more secret and that Stephen Harper’s government and the PMO have securely tightened their grip on all information flowing out of government. All messages are controlled through a central authority and government officials, even Members of Parliament are being muzzled to ensure a consistent message line.

I have to say that this has been my own experience thus far. There is a growing culture of secrecy in Ottawa, and I’ve seen it from the inside and the outside. Everything communications-wise at DND got vetted by at least PCO.

From the outside, I still see that there are some extraordinarily helpful individuals in the media relations offices of the government, it’s true. Unfortunately, many of them seem unable to tell me anything when I call.

I had a poor experience with Environment Canada recently. I had asked people from the local B.C. branch some questions regarding municipal sewage treatment for this story I was writing, and with one exception, they all eventually referred me to the central media relations office in Ottawa. Fair enough… not everybody wants to talk when a reporter comes calling.

The media relations person I got first referred me to the website, which I had read, and then asked me to email her my questions. I wanted to speak to an expert who worked in the appropriate division, and I told her so. She wanted to know what questions I was going to ask. Eventually, after calling everyone I could think of in the department to no avail, I emailed some questions.

I got back very unsatisfactory answers after several days. They seemed cut and pasted from a communications policy document, and did not even answer the specific questions I asked. So, I went back.

And again, didn’t get answers. So I went back.

And asked again.

And again.

I called nearly every day for two weeks.

Eventually, as the story was about to be published, I got a bland email with another policy-ese response that ended up in the story. I never got to speak to a live person, other than the media rep. Really, they would have looked better if someone had talked to me.

Read the Star’s series. I have high hopes for it.