"Still, I feel qualified to instruct him that ..."

What he said.

2050?

Who do they think they're kidding? My CBC News homepage tells me that "Canada trumpets G8 vow to halve emissions by 2050" By 2050, every one of those G8 leaders will be dead. So what kind of commitment is that? What value does a promise have if nobody is around to see it kept?

Politicians are famous for making promises. End poverty, reduce carbon emissions, etc. But instead of promising something will happen in 10, 20, 30 years, how about just changing your behaviour now? Instead of saying something will happen at some distant date when you will no longer even hold office, how about making changes now?

No more promises. Behaviour needs to change and here are the changes that we are making. Today. That'd be something to trumpet.

Canada’s next Prime Minister

An academic, a “nerd”, a man with a dog named Kyoto, and, if recent history is any indication, this country’s next Prime Minister.* Stéphane Dion was in fifth place going into this weekend’s Liberal leadership hootenanny and even though convention-al wisdom saw the prize going to one of the giants with “star power”, Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae, the man with little charisma, so-so English, and a geeky reputation (but the most meaningful political experience) emerged the convention victor.

This is how politics is supposed to work. I couldn’t be happier.

*i.e. the newly instated leader of the Liberal Party invariably wins the next election.