A good ruling from the Supreme Court

Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, can stay open indefinitely. It also ordered the Minister of Health, Leona Aglukkaq, grant the site an exemption from Canada’s drug laws. The specific legal rationale was that the failure to grant an exemption violated Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This is the correct ruling. Harm reduction, which safe injection sites are part of, and the general practice of treating drug addiction as a medical problem than a legal problem, has been far more cost–effective than the failed War on (Some Classes of People Who Use Some) Drugs. In addition, harm reduction and the liberalization of drug laws are far more effective at reducing crime, improving public health, and reducing drug use than caving to the appalling prison–industrial complex.

What is the point of voting out a future appointee?

The Prime Minister has appointed three new senators. All three of them ran for the Conservative Contempt Party and lost in the recent election.

Two of the new senators aren’t really new, as both Larry Smith and Fabian Manning had resigned their senate seats before unsuccessfully running in the recent election. In other words, so much for personal responsibility. The last new senator is Josée Verner, who lost her seat to the Orange Crush. Manning will represent Newfoundland and Labrador, while Smith and Verner will represent Quebec.

Besides merely being an affront to the electorate who rejected them, the appointment of these two senators from Quebec is especially insulting. Contrary to every other province, Section 22 of the Constitution Act, 1867, requires that the senators representing Quebec represent special “electoral” (sic) divisions in the province, rather than merely being resident as is the case elsewhere.

In other words, two politicians who couldn’t even muster a plurality of people in their ridings to support them, have now been appointed to represent other “electoral divisions”.

Clark elected

Just as I and pretty much everyone else predicted, Christy Clark has won the by–election in Vancouver–Point Grey. She will officially take her seat later this month. This also ends a streak of governing parties losing by–elections that stretched back to 1981.

Amongst other things, Clark only got a (large) plurality of votes. I was expecting her to get a majority, and therefore this by–election was closer than I thought it would be.

I’m back

Near the beginning of April, my mother accidentally broke the network card on my computer (don’t ask; it’s a long story), and I was cut off from the internet for a month. But now, I’m reconnected. Here’s a month’s worth of posts, all rolled into one:

• Canada’s general election was yesterday and the Harpercons and Reformatories won a majority. Fuck. I feel like my country just died, its beating heart ripped out by the grimy hands of a reactionary. Women will suffer under the new regime. I’d like to be wrong about that and hope I am.
• If it’s any consolation, the Bloc–headed separatists were basically blown away by an orange wave in Quebec. Good.
• The Green Party has now entered the club of “serious” political parties as it won a seat.
• Premier Christy Clark is running in a by–election in Vancouver–Point Grey. I predict that she will crush the NDP candidate and gain a seat in the legislature. Various governing parties’ by–election losing streak will finally come to an end.
• An Epic FAIL for wingnut economics.
• O RLY? Barack Obama released the long form of his birth certificate. To the surprise of no rational person, the birthers were wrong. He really was born in Hawaii. Of course, to conspiracy freaks, all evidence is created by the New World Order™, so this won’t really sway them. I wonder why such a conspiracy theory ever managed to gain hold. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms of Obama, and therefore conspiracy theories ought to be beneath the dignity of everyone.
• The same reasoning as above applies to Parentism involving Trig Palin.
• Team USA won the 2011 Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships. Congratulations to them. This is their third consecutive title and fourth overall. Just like in every other final, they faced Canada. Just like in every previous tournament, Finland played in the bronze medal game. They won, beating Russia who had their best showing since 2001. My prediction from last May was correct. Despite beating Finland, Switzerland didn’t medal.
• In the Division I tournament, China was relegated. For a team that played in the last Olympics and at one time was a medal contender, it truly is the Great Fall.
• Osama bin Laden was killed by an American special forces team. Good fucking riddance.
• I wonder if my absence has caused a frequent commentator here to finally leave. Part of me kind of hopes so, as he commented semi–on topic on virtually every post, resulting in threadsurrections and endless discussions, sometimes with dozens of comments. Real people have a life outside of commenting and blogging. If you are still here (you know who you are), please, shut up a little.
• I really like this picture (hat tip: Blag Hag).
• Many people here in BC are boycotting Carrie Underwood. This is because her husband, Mike Fisher, plays hockey for the Predators. Seriously, folks? Ms. Underwood has minimal control over which team her husband plays for. She is in no way responsible for the fact that our local team is playing her husband’s team, and as a matter of fact has nothing to do with it. I’d like to think that we live in a civilized society where a woman is not seen as subordinate or lesser than her husband.
• Just before I was cut off, I downloaded music composition software called MuseScore and since then have been loads of fun with it.
• Also a note to this guy. MuseScore is free, so there’s no need to shell out hundreds to get the next version of Sibelius or Finale.

An election-related story

The Alberta Legislature has passed a law mandating that its MP’s be banked for the next few elections. “We are tired of all the people in Quebec and Ontario having all the power in the House of Commons, even though they have so much more population than us,” said a spokesperson for the Alberta Legislature. “Even though we’ll have no seats this Parliament, by banking our MP’s, we’ll be banking 56 next time, then 84, and then electing 112 MP’s. By that time, we’ll be the real primeministermakers in Canada. We’ll be sure to elect to recycling bins to Parliament, because we’re so conservative that we’ll elect recycling bins just because they’re blue. Actually, we’re not really that conservative, it’s just that turnout is so low that it lets us elect whoever we want, and ridings are so arranged so as to give rural areas power while screwing cities. And once we stuff the House of Commons with our reactionary minions, who will be thoroughly greased with oil shale hydrocarbons, we’ll get revenge for the Canada Energy Policy. I know, the CEP was decades ago, and rational people, like the majority of Alberta citizens, would rather move on and get on with life, but we Real Albertans™ are still pissed off about the CEP and will keep raising a shitstorm over it.”

Clark sworn in and by–election soon

Christy Clark has been sworn in as the new premier of British Columbia. She has already shuffled the cabinet to put her stamp on the government. As I have previously mentioned, she is the second woman, (after Rita Johnston), to be Premier. She ought to be a little bit to the left of Gordon Campbell, and in the short term I am willing to give her a chance to govern. It’s not like there’s a realistic chance of a motion of non–confidence passing. Some part of me would kind of want her to win the next election, as it would end British Columbia’s ridiculous “tradition” of putting women in charge of political parties in ruins.

Meanwhile, Gordon Campbell has resigned his seat of Vancouver–Point Grey. This means that there will be a by–election soon. Although Liberal–leaning, it is not exactly the safest Liberal seat in the legislature. If all the students at UBC actually bothered to vote in reasonable numbers, the seat might actually be considered competitive. Nevertheless, if Clark runs in the by–election she’ll be the favourite to win. That would be the first time since 1981 that the governing party of British Columbia has won a by–election.

Clark to be the next premier of BC

The BC Liberal Party has selected Christy Clark as its next leader. This means that, once the formality of Gordon Campbell resigning is over, she will be the next premier of British Columbia. She will be the second woman to be premier.

Since Clark does not have a seat in the legislature, it’s possible that a new general election is imminent. If that takes place, the HST referendum due to take place this September would likely be moved up to coincide. A less likely possibility is that some backbencher in a safe seat will resign to let her run; she would likely win the resulting by–election. That would be the first time since 1981 that the governing party has won a by–election here.

As for the leadership vote itself, I’m glad it was not Kevin Falcon who won. Clark is a life–long federal liberal. Supporting your own side is only part of getting your political preferences enacted; you also have to support middle–of–the–roaders in your opponents. Clark should be one such middle–of–the–roader, despite being a partisan pit bull that grinds opponents to dust.

The BC Liberals will likely get a boost in the polls. Clark remains popular with the public at large. New leaders always get a honeymoon period in the polls. I just hope that she waits until the NDP has selected a new leader before she calls an election; dropping the writs earlier would be blatantly opportunistic.

A few more factoids guaranteed to set the blood of any wingnut readers boiling. The BC NDP is a nominally socialist party, even though it is far more moderate than the federal party. At the same time, Clark is a divorced single mom. She will soon become the most powerful person in British Columbia. The NDP and the Liberals are the only parties with a realistic chance of winning seats. Who should the wingnut vote for, the “socialists” or the woman heading a non–nuclear family? Either way, the sky still refuses to fall. Indeed, the only thing that’s fallen recently is a bunch of fluffy white stuff.