Friday night at the Club we had the launching of our 25th Anniversary year. This party took some months to organize simply for the logistics of it, food, music, guests list, press release and much communications between various Official guests and VIPs.
The food was Lobster rolls which is always a big hit, we had other nice finger food and a beautiful carrot cake made by one of our members. The Mayor of Charlottetown hosted the party as a Patron of the Club and the Lieutenant Governor was also present as our Vice-regal Patron, the Premier sent his personal representative and ministers of the government were also present. Lots and lots of members came to the event. Our small orchestra played and the entertainment Chair composed a Club song to a famous tune by a well know Jazz composer. We had a lot of fun and it was a great success.
It helped that the weather was sunny and warm like a nice late Summer day and this week it will be more of the same.
This week the Coffee and Conversation series is starting up again and I organized for the TESLA dealership in town to bring cars to the Club so members can hear about it and test drive them. I expect a big turnout.
Well tomorrow is VOTING Day in Canada, because we have 6 time zones, to know the results we will have to wait a few hours until people living on the West Coast vote and their Voting Polls close 3 hours later than ours. In the meantime the news media has endless silly chatter and speculation trying to fill in air time until they are authorize by Elections Canada to announce the results.
The vote is close both main parties have split percentages 32% to 31% and the NDP has a 19% favorable rate. The Bloc Quebecois which only runs candidates in Quebec and only represents Quebec interests or so they say, could play a major role in that province which is vote rich. Ontario and specifically the Greater Toronto Region is also vote rich and very important in terms of the number of seats. Atlantic Canada votes first and the Liberal party has a huge unbeatable lead in the 4 Atlantic provinces.
It very much looks like it will be yet again a minority government Liberal or Conservative not clear yet. However I can see PM Trudeau being forces out by his own party if he cannot give them a majority. Same for the Conservatives who are not supporting the centrist approach in this election of their Leader Erin O’Toole, who looked desperate this weekend. Because the right wing vote is badly split between between right and extreme right and the more extreme fringe controls the conservative party, the possibility of seeing that fringe vote for the Neo-Nazis, ( I use this term because of their ideology), of Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party is very real. A strange coalition of white supremacists (Alberta) and anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Feminist, anti-abortion, anti-vaxxers, anti-jewish, anti-gay, anti-human rights, and very much PRO-Assault rifles.
This election is unlike any other I have seen in my life time, if I think back to 1968. It was one of violence, assaults on candidates, violent demonstrations, hate mongering and very little substance. PM Trudeau did present his program which is progressive and clear with the costing done. The other parties not so much, Conservatives tell us WE have a Plan, really what is it. That is not clear. How much does it cost? Mystery.
The NDP of Jagmeet Sigh have a program but it is mostly about Provincial jurisdictions where the Federal Government cannot intervene. High fantasy in other words. Jagmeet does not appear to know the difference between Provincial and Federal competence. The public follows him because many are themselves ignorant of those differences. The Green party died during this election, it’s leader was totally unprepared for the job and she by taking a strong Pro-Israel stand destroyed her party and she is already saying that if she does not win a seat in the House she will resign.
The wild card is Bernier and his People’s Party, remains to be seen if he will make gains or not. So we shall see.
