some

here's a bit of that article

"That said, what I find most exciting about what is going on right now - beyond just getting rid of Harper, which is exciting in and of itself - is that we have this opportunity to show what proportional representation (PR) would look like, because all of this talk that this is a coup is a joke.

What is being proposed by this coalition is much closer to representative democracy than what we have right now, which is a government that has [slightly more than] 35 per cent of the popular vote in a turnout that was historically low, of 59 per cent of Canadian voters, which means that even though the Tories won more seats they had fewer actual votes than in the last election.

I think it is really important to talk about democracy, about what it actually means in this period. In some ways I think it is even more important than talking about the policies, because our electoral system is broken. Because of the Tories' extraordinary opportunism and terrible calculation we now have an opportunity to see a better version of democracy and see more people represented in government.

To me the best case scenario that could come out of this is, one, you get the coalition, and, two, the NDP uses this moment to really launch a national discussion about why we need PR and that that becomes one of the things that comes out of this crisis.

Now, they don't have the mandate for that right now, but we could come out of this with a national referendum on proportional representation. People might actually like it, which would be really, really exciting."

more excitement

read this article by naomi klein for an actual informed opinion on what's happening with all of this (versus my emotions)

a note from our sponsors

in light of the exciting and rather unprecedented (only in the sense that who woulda thought any of those old guys would actually have the gall to make a move on the Conservative's sad minority government) rallying behind our, remember, parliamentary democracy up on the Hill in Ottawa, i invite you to watch this incredibly wicked documentary on Hugo Chavez & Venezuela called The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

to me it's like all of a sudden it seems that democracy here has managed to retain a shred of meaning despite the 8 year appropriation of the word by all nations, including this one, subscribing to the rhetoric surrounding the "war on terror". i'm wondering right now if the hijacking and subsequent attempts at redefintion of the term has moved people to forget that it has come along way since Plato. the brand of democracy we accede to, courtesy of Her Majesty (!!), is based on a document constructed in order to maintain a certain degree of fairness and representation in the supreme ruling of this country. which is where this very formal 'vote of non-confidence' procedure and possibility of a coalition government taking over the House is coming from. much to our surprise. or mine at least, because i'm fairly certain i've never even read the constitution. so sad. have you?

my roommate and watched a lot of news tonight, the best line was maybe Rex Murphy's nod to the 'separatists' being what holds together the propspective federal government.

though we are sort of not into this label for the Bloc. could we move on, please?

but seriously, this could be the smartest thing Gilles Duceppe ever does for Quebec; gaining the support and trust from Canadians still unnecessarily nervous about a separation that will likely never reach a number of yes-votes even close to the support garnered in 1995. all the while still maintaining the integrity of Quebec as a unique nation. maybe this is a unifying move!

and really. i cannot believe how Stephen Harper's slick move to get himself re-elected before people started getting really riled up about Obama being chosen as P.E. of the U.S and our own potential for 'change', is actually, actually and seriously, backfiring on him. eat that.

slow sunday snow storm

apparently a big one is coming.

i'm finding too much to share today! thus requiring this additional post. so here are some MORE AWESOME THINGS!!!



aoyama hina.

yes! go look at more.

still on paper & knives; remember when i wrote about ed pien? accidentally stumbled into an opening of his last weekend when my parents were visiting and wanted to go to the birch libralato. and there he was! and so many of the things i like. he looked graceful. that was nice.


and THIS!

eric eley

oui oui oui oui oui

i have a great deal of familiarity with the universal transverse mercator system

this is so awesome.
mario feese made 'air lines' using daily worldwide flight paths

chris harrison made this map of internet use & city-to-city connections

then they got put together at the ministry of type



you can buy a poster of mario feese's work. i think i would like one. i would stare at the delicate tip of chile and search for a faint outline of baffin island from my bed.

trees by mistake

claire sherman

this is okay. it is in progress and so is everything you might find there.
edit #3: yes, you may click that this. i'm all over the place.



hanna konola

postscript

you all liked this too, right?