The G20 Experience in Toronto – With mass arrests and human rights violations, this was a dark day for Canada. Yes there are inquiries, but the Bill Blair, Chief of Police is still there, and though a few individuals have been taken to task, no one is holding any of the politicians responsible.

Rob Ford Becoming Mayor of Toronto – Conservative Rob Ford  got elected on a platform of fighting the “war on the car”. That’s right, he convinced the voters of Toronto that the problem was not the fact that there are too many cars on the road, and we should look at why, but instead that there is some mysterious “war on the car”. This saddens me, since we have an opportunity to increase transit, and with his mishaps with MetroLinks mean that probably there will be no forward movement on transit in the next 3 years of his term. He has recently distinguished himself as the first mayor in decades not to march in the pride parade. I lived in Toronto for 10 years (and may be going back next year), and I cannot believe that the people of this diverse cultural capitol chose this guy to lead them.

Conservative Stephen Harper Getting a Majority – I noticed that even the political pundits are rolling their eyes. When an new scandal came up recently with him re-appointing an ex-senator to the senate, who had left to campaign and failed, one of the pundits on Evan Soloman’s Power and Politics said “well, you elected them after outlandish scandal after outlandish scandal, what do you expect?” Yes, perhaps this has more to do with the implosion of the Liberal Party than anything else, but I am saddened that this man represents me and my country on the world stage.

I don’t know why Canada has changed so much – especially when we are seeing a predicted Conservative win in Ontario as well… I think that these politicians are preying on the apathy of the voters. I think that, since I cannot believe that the average Canadian is aligned with these guys. Maybe everyone is just busy like I am doing the day-t0-day, and we are letting the wolves manage the henhouses.

I have always liked the saying: “Canada is not great, but it is good”. But, now with this awful collection of leaders with their backwards agendas, I am afraid we can no longer say that.

A Protestant theologian in the 20th Century wrote a commentary on the story of the Good Samaritan as he made his journey from what we might call “good” Samaritan to “conscious” Samaritan. The first time the Samaritan saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. The second time he saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. The third time he saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. About the fourth time he saw the beggar on the road, he stopped to ask himself, “Why are there so many beggars?” Martin Luther King would not just ask us to help those who suffer; he would ask us to challenge the institutional forces that make all that suffering inevitable.

In the Western world, I think that we are less likely than ever to challenge those institutional forces. The Harper administration in the Canadian government is a perfect example. Although time and time again he is not representing Canadian values (such as the G20 mess in Toronto, the increased building of prisons when our crime rate is going down and taking away funding for women’s advocacy groups) the opposition stays silent, and regular Canadians go on with our lives.

As time goes on, it will be interesting to see if this continues, or if eventually there will be a backlash. I hope so.

The first thing we noticed was how forward American men are compared to Canadian ones. Where we come from you go out to a crowded club but still have a quiet night since Canadian guys tend to give you space and wait for you to approach them. In Seattle though, we were getting approached by dozens of guys – it seemed like almost every 10 minutes someone was talking to us. It was fun and we really liked the boldness of American men.

Another thing we noticed was all of the other Canadians that were there – coincidentally, the Toronto Blue Jays were playing the Seattle Mariners last night. Canadians were there waving their giant flags, singing the national anthem at the top of their lungs and saying "Canada says hello" to passers-by. I realized that Americans would never come to a Canadian city, wave the stars and stripes and say "America says hello". Funny that us Canadians are forward in that way, if not in all ways .