The ancipation in the media couldn't be cut with a Chainsaw.

Well if there's one group that's excited about another election it's the Media. The joy of covering everything from debates to whistle stop tours is a joy that resounds across all the channels. Though I'll have to admit that it will be kinda nice to hear something political other than the coronation of Obama.

Of course on the bad side we'll have to sit through endless ads about what they'll claim they never really promised if actually elected. While I'm not a big fan of the US style attack ads it is kinda funny to see an ad that just says "My opponent is a terrible person who kills puppies" and never mentions anything about what the guy paying for the ad is doing or plans to do.

Of course the Greens and NDP can promise anything they like in their commercials because the chance of them forming a majority government is about the same as of John McCain being a cover model for a swimsuit issue. An energy efficient society by 2012 sure it's not like we'll ever have to weasel our way out of doing it.

As for the Liberals well it's pretty much a toss up. If they had a more dynamic leader (read anyone other than Stephan Dion) They'd probably have a good shot. But since they don't Harper would have to do something reallllllly crazy to not get back in with at least a minority government.

Let the speculation continue.....

The Media frenzy about yet another federal election is still going strong even though it has yet to be called. Apparently the Prime Minister will take the short walk to Rideau Hall on Sunday and ask the Governor General to dissolve parliament and call an election. It does seem all but a certainty, The Conservatives are running election ads including one with a girl claiming she'll be voting for Stephen Harper... unless she lives in Calgary Southwest that seems pretty unlikely she may be voting Conservative but not for the Leader himself. All the speculation and the commercials do make it pretty clear that the call is near. The other parties are also going out and announcing their plans for Canada including the Liberals announcing plans for taxes on fuel and tax cuts for energy efficiency. The Green party is planning on going to court to be included in the debate and The Conservatives have said they won't come if the Greens are there. All this over an election that so far isn't official.

Election fever: Just like dance fever but much less fun to watch or participate in

Well the campaigning has started for the non existent election. All sources point to it being held on October 14th when the Conservatives figure we'll be to drunk on Turkey, Turducken or some other equally fattening substance to vote straight. Not that i'm saying the Conservatives have done a bad job . Actually far from it, they've run the most sucessful minority governement, probably ever. Though they did say they'd wait for 4 years it seems they've grown impatient and decided that giving up the right to call elections when they want was a bad idea after all and well they'll just call them when it works for them.

We'll see if any major issues emerge or anything happens to distinguish the different parties.. but so far ... nothing.

Who will I be voting for? who knows.. We're not even having an election yet.

Olympic medal count

Well just a note on that Olympic medal count. All the wailing and crying in the first week was for nothing and Canada came out with a medal showing tying our record for the second most medals in a non boycotted Olympics. I guess what the COC really needs to do is have more athletes in events that are in the first week just so that people don't whine so much. I'm also glad to hear that our athletes are getting a few extra bucks for getting a medal 20000$ for gold is nothing to sneeze at though I'd like to see it expanded to be 5000$ for a 4th and 1000$ for a top 8 finish just to recognize those athletes that really did very well despite not coming home with hardware.

The coverage of the games was good but a little odd. I thought it strange to see regular shows being shown during the day when they could have been rerunning events but I'm glad that they did do alot of live coverage even if it was at 3 in the morning. I hope CTV will not follow NBC's lead and decide that they'll only show the games in prime time.

Overall 5 out of 5 stars for the athletes and 4 out of 5 for the Olympic coverage hey at least here you can watch events live.

Olympic Medal Count

Well so far there has been a lot of hand ringing and wailing about Canada's medal count. all i can say is if you don't like it why don't you devote your life to a sport and win one for us. Seriously, numerous Canadian records have been broken by teams in swimming. People ranked 15th or 16th in the world have made it to the finals and they've all put on a great show. We've had a number of 4th place finishes and overall we're a pretty small country. Also a number of the sports we're really good at like rowing don't finish till next week so I think we can wait just a little longer and besides it's the SUMMER olympics so lets save our complaining for when we fail for the third time to win a gold medal at an olympics that we've hosted.

Good Luck to all the athletes you're all doing a great job.

Wireless spectrum auction results

Well the advanced wireless spectrum auction is over, finally. As for what we'll see once the dust settles and the new companies start operating a year or so from now it's hard to say. Globealive has a full country license and between Shaw, Videon and Eastlink the cable co's could make a go of it as a national carrier. Shaw has so far been the only company that has been very vocal about it's plans with Jim Shaw stating that they planned to be testing by the end of the year and launch in Calgary Mid 2009, with further rollouts planned in Vancouver, Edmonton and then smaller centres. There has been no mention from any of the new carriers as to what they may offer for plans but most TV speculation seems to focus on unlimited data, SMS and Voice for a fixed all in price possibly around $50 a month. That price for that plan would be amazing given the services it would come with, but certainly wouldn't make it a low cost option for people who just want a basic cellphone. We'll have to wait and see what they come up with. With all the furor over the new incoming message charges i'd expect to see some people clammering just to get to a new carrier. At the moment though it's all up in the air I'd expect to see the new carriers to start by naming their services and giving definate plans for a roll out date first then announcing pricing and plans very close to their launch date to prevent the incumbants from being able to make a competing plan right away.