Month: November 2004

I had meant to post this earlier, but I couldn’t find an Internet connection…but the news from Montreal is all good for Jaime. Jaime and her three team-mates won the lightweight women’s Four event at the Canadian University Rowing Championships, which were held this week in Montreal.

The weather was cold and windy, especially on Saturday. But Sunday was a better day. But none of it made any difference to Jaime. Her boat won their heat on Saturday and easily outdistanced their competition on Sunday. What a great race to watch.

Go here to see a complete report on the weekend activities. Now, I’ve got to run, ’cause we’re heading back to Toronto today.

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned what’s happening with rowing around here. Well…Jaime (my oldest daughter) is now at the University of Victoria, where she’s continuing to row every day. And doing very, very well. She was chosen to row in the Varsity Lightweight Women’s 4, which is very impressive for a freshman!

So this weekend, Jaime and her team are in Montreal for the Canadian University Rowing Championships. And of course, the rest of us here in Hamilton are heading down to watch and cheer. It will be a lot of fun for Jaime, especially because she’ll get to see all her rowing buddies from around here. We’re all very excited, and so what if the water’s frozen, there’s snow on the ground and we can’t feel our fingers? Hey, that’s what rowing is all about, right?

Jaime has a digital camera, so if I get a chance, I’ll upload a few pics from the weekend’s activities. I’ve set up a Flikr account in order to be able to add some visuals to my blog, but I haven’t tried it out yet. This will be a good chance to give it a go.

In the meantime, Jaime had a regatta last weekend in Victoria, called the Head of the Gorge. She had a lot of fun, and rowed in a double (with her Australian partner, who’s also in the Four with her in Montreal) and a quad, with the same women she’ll be rowing with in Montreal.

If you want to see them, this is Jaime (on the right) and her doubles partner, and this one shows Jaime (2nd from the right) and the others all dressed up in the Quad. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the uniforms, don’t forget it was the day before Halloween!

It’s time for Canadians to take a valium, or something. The reaction this morning to President George Bush’s re-election seems a little out of proportion here in Canada. There was a lot of “holier-than-thou” comments form Canadian pundits, who love to like to think they know a lot more than Americans. Let’s just face facts here. For all that Canadian media and pundits think they know what’s best for everyone else, the American people have spoken. And they spoke pretty clearly.

There was a record turnout and they voted for the President. Period. Sure, there’s a big split in the country. But the system worked. The people had a vote, and they used it. Let’s just move on…

The hand-wringing among the Democrats and plenty of others will begin immediately. Here in Canada, Stephen Harper immediately started trying to accuse the Liberals of being anti-American. Same old, same old. Canada doesn’t look particularly sterling right now, not after the way we ran our own election just a few months ago. And in the good old USA, Canada doesn’t rate a mention. I don’t think there’s many issues that Canada will have much impact on in America for awhile.

Canada used to be the land of two solitudes. Now, it looks like America is splitting into two pretty distinct camps. And the rise of the evangelicals is a real phenomenon. Just what the continuing impact of their power will be is still to be determined. But it’s going to be significant, at least in the short term.

So let’s just chill out, and see what happens. It’s going to be an interesting next few months…

Today is election day in the US and I can’t believe the kind of crap that’s about to go on in the polling stations across the country. What a way to have an election. If this kind of stuff happened in any other country, the US would refuse to recognize the results…but that’s the way it is in a “mature” democracy, I guess.

I might have more to say on the election process as the day continues, but I’ll probably wait to see what happens.

In the meantime:

I came across this list on <a href=”http://andrewcoyne.com/archives/004032.php “>Andrew Coyne’s blog</a>…from the Letterman show.

I haven’t had much to say about the US election for awhile, but I couldn’t resist sharing this little gem.


Top Ten Punch Lines to Dirty Election Jokes   Â 

From The Late Show w/ David Letterman:
10. "With a poll like that, I’m suprised he can gallup at all."

9. "She starts chanting, ‘four more minutes! four more minutes!’"

8. "That’s not the voting lever, but don’t stop pulling."

7. "This isn’t how it looks — I’m just joining a third party."

6. I prefer Bush, but I don’t know who I’ll vote for."

5. "So that’s where Katherine Harris was hiding the Al Gore votes."

4. "Unfortunately, his margin of error was plus or minus three inches."

3. "Get used to it, honey — we live in a swing state."

2. "I thought you had trouble maintaining an election."

1. "I saw your sister with Mary Cheney — there was no sign of Dick."