THE CONSERVATIVE HIPSTERS

I was going to post about the same-sex marriage debate that will take place today and the vote tomorrow.

However, I have made my total ambivalence to this issue know in the past and since I have not been blogging for a while, I thought it would be better to give an update on a smattering of issues:

1) My lack of blogging

I have been watching the debates and politics and reading my favourite blogs and quite honestly I haven't felt I have had too much to contribute. There are better/wittier bloggers out there, and I have been content to read the other blogs. This will change. I have a little more time on my hands come the new year and I will be making many observations and trying to rebuild my meager following :-)

2) Stephane Dion

I am not going to underestimate Stephane Dion and I am certain that neither is the Prime Minister. He is too smart for that. If the Tories had been serious about environmental protection and climate change, we could have headed this guy off at the pass. While taxes and healthcare are major issues, the environment is a sleeper issue and if we could take if for our own, we would be one step ahead.

3) Ed (what's his head) the new Alberta Premier

I have to admit I was interested to see what Ted Morton would do and how he would run Alberta. It would have been nice to see a real conservative agenda implemented. As for old Ed (I honestly haven't figured out to spell his last name yet), I guess sometimes bland works.

4) My recent electoral defeat

Now that I have had a chance to reflect, I realize that ultimately my loss was my own fault. Two things, this time around I didn't knock on enough doors. The great unwashed does not follow politics in general and even less so with municipal politics. I can say that while I recieved several nice endorsements from the paper (after the fact) the majority of my ward did not know what I had been doing. I should have spent more time promoting what I had done, rather than what I still wanted to do. I hate the whole concept of "my resume is better that your resume" approach to municipal politics, and I was trying to stimulate debate with a series of proposals that people told me they wanted to see implemented. Unfortunatley I forgot to blow my own horn in my literature and not knocking on enough doors sealed my fate.

5) What's next

I am leaving my current employer at the end of this year and find myself in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose what I do next. It is my intention to help out with the upcoming federal and provincial campaigns as a volunteer and spend some personal time working on four things (re-learning french, taking piano lessons, playing my guitar more and getting back into shape). Oh, and update my blog more often.

Q