my new website is called "Memories of Ireland,Nova Scotia"

You can view it here: Memories of Ireland, Nova Scotia - I will keep on adding to it over the years, as my recollections flood in....

An international Maritime success story - using the power of blogging

By anybody's standards, Mcinnes-Cooper lawyer David Fraser is an national - and even international - success.

Not yet 40, he has become the go-to-guy in Canada whenever Canada's national media want a pertinent quote on a privacy-related story.

In researching credible panelists for "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?" (an Internet and Digital Town Hall) here in Halifax, the planning committee quickly became convinced that all the movers and shakers on these issues lived in Central Canada - and that in fact live most with 150 miles of Ottawa's Parliament Buildings.

In a bit of panic, we called some of those movers and shakers and said, "You got to help us out - is there anyone in the Maritimes with any sort of a national presence on these kinda issues?!"

They started off admitting they didn't know anyone Down East, period, who dealt with these issues.

But then invariably, they'd pause in mid stream ,"...wait - the big guy on privacy - David Fraser - isn't he from Halifax - yeah, I am sure he is."

Then they all confess that "they read his "Canadian Privacy Law" blog faithfully".

The son of a Canadian diplomat, Fraser travelled widely as a child. But since coming, in 1993, to St Mary's for a history MA and then to Dal to get his LLB, David has remained in Halifax.

He's done all the 'old school things' a lawyer and a scholar always does to gradually get better known nationally - the articles in the traditional journals, the conferences meet-and -greets.

But conferences are a rare event and a lawyer in Halifax in the past would normally be outside the day to day connection building that lawyers inside the "blessed triangle" of Toronto to Ottawa to Montreal enjoy.

But the world of blogging - and lawyers have probably taken it up more assiduously than any other profession - allows a truly talented someone in a relatively small and remote region like the Maritimes to quickly make their mark nationally.

Not just among the lawyers and journalists inside The Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Beltway either - the power of blogging is shown when a successful law-blogger starts getting comments and faithful readers from lawyers in Canadian towns and cities even more remote than Halifax.

To these small town readers, David Fraser is an online superstar.

Remember - "on the internet - nobody knows you're a Down-Easter."

We exaggerate - if anything, people online are even more curious than usual to learn a little more about the writers they admire.

Its just that it doesn't matter anymore where you live - if you have talent - above all the talent to communicate what you have to say - you can leap over geographic barriers without a glance, to plant your brand on the world.

David Fraser's success as a stay-at-home Maritimer who is nevertheless a nationally-known blogger shouldn't be allowed to remain unique.

Others here in the Maritimes need to learn his story - above all those ambitious young people already looking to leave here to become successful.

David shows us all that you can still stay Down East and yet establish a national voice - if you have drive, intelligence - and a blog....

Pirate Party to meet in Halifax October 17

The old line parties - the Greens,Bloc,NDP,Liberals and Conservatives - will face a new party whenever Mr Harper next visits the GG.

The Pirate Party of Canada is very, very, very close to getting itself registered officially with Elections Canada.

(I know that feeling....)

Halifax is no exception to the process and a group has been meeting online and in person in this city.

The next in-person meeting is take place , 3:00 PM, this Saturday, October 17th, at the Spring Garden Road branch of the Halifax Library.

I work - occasionally ! - so I will be late, but I will be there.

The only East Coast stop of the open internet Town Hall movement , "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?" will be inviting all the political parties to attend the October 26th evening meeting at the Dal SUB McInnes Room.

That includes the Pirates.

I can only hope that their presence (before almost 600 would-be voters !) will put the old line parties on notice.

It is essential that all of the oldliners give more than lip service as to just who is throttling the information pipeline we so desperately need right now, to make it through the world's environmental crisis and the coming natural resource shortfall.

In the future, Ideas - not Oil - will keep grandmother warm and granddaughter fed - and it will be seen as a criminal act to throttle a good new idea , just to protect your firm's dinosaur intellectual assets.

I am as serious as Life itself - when people are cold and hungry they are not always the most rational and they will start looking around for scapegoats - it would be better for our Telcos and Cablecos if they are not in an angry electorate's line-of-sight....

Dal students display the guts on internet net neutrality and DRM that province's politicians lack

I am soon to be a grandmother and I can't say enough good things about the kids at the Dal Student Union.

When their elders in the province's parties refused to rebuke Tony Clement for shortchanging this region on the copyright- internet consultations back in August, the kids took over from us aging Baby Boomers and ran with the issue.

It was the kids - and the folks at Chebucto Community Net -who decided to hold a real public Town down east on internet worries, not a sham town Hall, like that in Toronto, stacked by Music Industry functionaries fearing for their jobs, all singing Tony's praises.

The Tories are killing innovation in the regions by handing control over valuable patents etc to the big guys with the big money in T.O.

Why this very week, we are reminded how smart we Maritimers really are - when Willard Boyle got the Nobel for laser and digital cameras.

I know his son David and David told me about his dad's work - but I, like the party leaders like Darrell and Stephen and Karen and Ryan,paid it no mind till Nobel came calling.

Mea Culpa ....

And thanks Dal students for leading the way to protect Maritimers' chance to be innovative for the benefit of all humanity -- too bad the old farts are ignoring this !

Facebook Page up for "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

There is a Facebook page up for the East Coast 'alternative' Town Hall on citizen concerns over "just who is driving the Internet and where ? "

For the few people left in the world who are not on Facebook, (and I am one of them !) information on the October 26 evening panel & audience at the Dal Sub's fabled McInnes Room can be found here, here and here.

I've seen a lot of the well known bloggers put in that oh so uninformative 'here, here and here' in their posts and I thought I give it a whirl, just this once.

PS : The place only holds 600, so plan to get there early - doors actually opens at 6:30 pm, for a 7:00 to 9:30 pm event.....

Rob leForte and DSU runs bold with Town Hall on "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

When Chebucto Community Net came to Rob LeForte, External VP at the Dalhousie Student Union in Halifax, and suggested the DSU consider sponsoring an alternative Town Hall on citizen concerns over just where in the h-ll the internet mavens were taking our private data and personal freedoms, he could have easily begged off.

But to his credit, he took it up right away as something the DSU owed not just to its students and university students across Canada, but as part of Dal's obligation to serve the greater Atlantic Canadian population.

(These alternative Town Halls had been making their way across Canada and the East Coast was overdue for one.)

Atlantic Canadians need so badly to be part of the national and global conversation on the direction of where the internet is going.

"Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

October 26 - 7:00-9:30pm.

Its a Monday evening and there is only 600 seats - max - at McInnes Room, Dal SUB - so plan to get there early.

Thanks ,Rob & DSU Executive for having the vision....!

A rare PhD sees Internet copyright from two unusual angles at "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

Darren Abramson is an unusual sort of philosopher , even for the twenty first century.

And I've met a few.

Michael Marshall is my partner, as many of you may know.

His father, Rowland (Rollie) Marshall, is a retired philosophy professor at SMU (St Mary's University) here in Halifax.

Rowland always insisted that philosophers have to climb down from their ivory seminar rooms and 'go public'.

On his retirement, he donated sufficient money to convince SMU to set up an annual public lecture where prominent philosophers are brought in to deliver a public-oriented lecture on a matter of pressing public concern.

So I am sure that Rowland is proud that a philosopher was invited to add his two cents to one of the most pressing issues of our day : where in the heck are the big boys of the internet heading with our personal information and personal freedoms ?

("Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?" Oct 26 Mcinnes Room, Dal SUB, 7-9:30 pm, free - only 600 seats so plan to get there early.)

Doctor Abramson, who teaches at Dalhousie university, has an unusual educational background for a philosopher .

He has a joint Ph.D. in the philosophy of mind & cognitive science ( and he's not just winging it in the tech department, either : he also has a M.Sc. in Computer Science.)

He has his own views on how copyright is working out out there on the digital pipeline - and how it should be working.

It won't be the usual spin, that is for sure.

Be there !

Slashdot post picks up on "Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

Tanx to farbles and slashdot.org for picking up on the latest in a cross country series of ALTERNATIVE town halls over citizen concerns on just what the Canadian Sector of the Digital DMZ is up to.

"Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

Oct 26 7-930 pm, Mcinnes Room, Dal SUB, free, only holds 600 people and a few aliens, be there early.

Show S. Harper how to do citizen engagement right....

David Fraser, national expert, local treasure

We are lucky to have someone like lawyer David Fraser of Mcinnes Cooper around here in Atlantic Canada.

He is the best known expert in the country on privacy issues, particularly as they are impacted by digital 'progress'.

Most experts on telecommunication and digital/internet concerns are found in Central Canada - particularly in Ottawa.

David is here, he's ours, and he speaks on privacy concerns on the internet at the Dal SUB McInnes Room on October 26th at 7pm.

"Who is SHAPING your Digital Future?"

Learn about your rights and obligations as you ply the uncharted waters of the internet....

Canada needs new Adult Education Movement as we struggle with Internet

(originally published in the Arcadian Recorder)

For Laura (Harman) Murray , being the keynote speaker at the October 26th Town Hall on citizen internet concerns ("Just Who is SHAPING your Internet Future ?") atDalhousie University's McInnes Room, will be a bit of a homecoming.

Her grandfather, Leonard Harman, got an honorary doctorate from Nova Scotia's St FxUniversity, home to Moses Coady's AntigonishMovement, for his many decades of labour on behalf of co-operatives and rural development & peace, in Canada and world wide.

But Harman remains best remembered today for his pioneering work in an early forerunner to today's interactive/two way internet : Canada's own unique contribution to adult education, the Farm Radio Forum.

The Farm Radio Forum, Canada's method of fostering two-way interactivity in mass citizen involvement, (on CBC Radio between 1939 to 1965), was taken up by the UN and introduced in many countries around the world.

It also had other Canadian spin-offs : the Labour Radio Forum and the Citizens Radio Forum (which survives to this day on CBC Radio as Rex Murphy's Cross Country Check-up.)

During the war years, gasoline was rationed and in any case, back rural roads weren't usually plowed in the winter .

Most rural communities had no electricity and were lucky if one or two richer families had a decent battery-powered radio.

The cooperative and adult education movements, flamed into life by the fiery speeches of Moses Coady, were going strong at that time (part of a broader wartime reform movement that led to the 1943 breakthrough for the CCF).

Adult education froze in the winter

Going strong, despite gas rationing, but only in the summer.

The Farm Radio Forum format emerged gradually.

Initially, the leaders of the co-op/adult education movement thought only of using the national radio network of the CBC (itself more or less brand new in 1939) to 'leap over' theunplowed snow-filled back roads to talk totheir rural members.

But without any way for field workers to visit in the winter, how could they be sure anyone was listening and if what they heard actually helped in their local situation?

The broadcasts were weekly and even in the wartime winter, mail could be relied upon ,in those days, to go to and from Ottawa to the remotest farming parts of (southern) Canada in a week.

Ottawa sent out - by mail - a weekly list of questions for the local group to debate after they listened , in someone's kitchen, to the weekly half hour radio panel discussion.

So far, pretty routine adult education stuff.

The Flash of Genius

But then the flash of genius sparked forth, perhaps driven by wartime necessity, because the CBC of 1940 was hardly a populist, bottom-up, sort of organization !

'Still isn't ?' Well, opinions vary.

Anyway, the Ottawa organizers dreamed up a way to ensure that the local meeting secretaries continued to send in their expected weekly summing-up of the local meeting's debate, without needing a field worker to drop in physically to chide them in person.

Why not tell the local meeting that their secretaries' comments would be summed in Ottawa and reported back to the national farm audience on the radio, with direct quotes from the most striking and vivid reports ?

A tempting prospect indeed for local farm notables who never expected to be quoted publicly at any higher level than their local community weekly's pages !

Radio broadcasting was an 'old' novelty by 1940, but a nation-wide broadcast by a interconnected network was still new and literally mind-blowing.

It was hard to believe that you, as an ordinary rural resident, could have lived long enough to expect to hear your written own words - delivered live by the miracle of radio - being broadcast into the homes of farmers andurbanites all across the nation simultaneously.

Remember, in those days, before our multi-channel world, there was a realistic chance that all your scattered family and friends country wide would in fact be listening to the CBC on a local affiliate station.

Wow !

For the first time ever in Canada, the big city experts on the radio had to listen to the voices of the 'little people' and had to adjust their own voiced opinions - live - as they heard the grassroots speak of their real world/ first hand experiences.

The Year 2009 : Progress ?

Cut to Halifax, 2009. The big people are still talking down - one way - to the little people - even on something that should be intrinsicallytwo way - like the Internet.

In August 2009, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement has a cosy private roundtable in Halifax on his proposed copyright act changes.

These roundtables are always intimate affairs , posted with signs saying 'general public keep out'. But at their best, they include representatives of both citizens and of industry and the conversation is two way and probing.

But Clement's Halifax meeting was with industry only.

Many Maritimers felt the Minister would not dare try this sort of thing in Central Canada , where there are well organized activist groups on behalf of the public good in matters digital.

What this region lacked was a meeting space where all the people concerned about just where the internet was going, could say their piece in a two way/ live communication with Internet experts.

A Farm Radio Forum, in other words !

And who better to invite to keynote the discussion than the granddaughter of Leonard Harman, herself a long time activist

in seeing that the general public's wider interests in an open, financially-accessible and neutral Internet were not overshadowed by the specific demands of Internet creators and users ?

At first glance, Laura (Harman) Murray might seem to be too much a pillar of the canadianacademic establishment

to be leading a citizen's movement for reclaiming a role for the general public on theinternet.

She has a PhD from Cornell, was a visiting Fulbright scholar and is a tenured English professor on one of Canada's elite universities, Queens. Her book on Canadian copyright law,

"Canadian Copyright, a Citizen's Guide" , is the standard text on the subject in most reference libraries.

Like many academics these days, she has a blog,

faircopyright.ca .

Unlike most academic blogs, her blog posts are not only informed and informative , they are also lively , readable, prose and above allpassionate.

It seems to run in her family, if her great auntMae , a feisty seniors activist extraordinaire, was anything to go by.

Laura hopes to move Canadians into action with her blogs, her articles and her public talks.

Her reoccurring theme?

That internet copyright,access, neutrality and privacy are not just something for experts. They are not even just something for activists.

Increasingly all of us are being forced to get pro-active on these issues because we are finding our hitherto ordinary and accepted daily activities hemmed in and restricted by copyright laws and internet provider policies that seem to act as if every citizen is guilty of something until proven innocent.

Murray comes across restrictions every day in her ordinary (non-professor) life : in what her local school board lets her kids copy for their projects to what SOCAN lets her play on her cello or banjo in her band, The Swamp Ward Orchestra.

Once again, Canadians need an adult education process to better inform ourselves about our rights and the issues as our world changes drastically from the one we grew up with, thanks to the digital revolution.

Nova Scotia, home to Moses Coady'sAntigonish Movement, just feels like thehistorically appropriate place to start.....

cosy industry-only roundtables replaced by 600 citizens roaring : digital concerns heat up

a cross-post from the Arcadian Recorder:

Looming Digital Copyright/DRM/Net Neutrality/Privacy Law changes have a way of making all of Canada's citizens feel a bit like a criminal, if they dare try anything out of the ordinary on the internet.

Citizens , 'voters' in politico-speak, want their say on these issues - in person and in depth, just like 'the suits' are used to.

By and large, they aren't getting that chance.

The government's claim that it would be more open on this round of proposed amendments to the Copyright Law finally boiled down to a total of two token town hall meetings with the public.

The two, one in Montreal and one in Toronto, only drew flies - and were designed to do just that.

Halifax got only a particularly one-sided private industry roundtable with Industry Minister Clement.

Now the Dalhousie Student Union and the local access-for-all internet provider, Chebucto, are about to hold a real town hall in Halifax.

The keynote speaker is Pippa Lawson of CIPPIC, who some have called 'the citizen's bulldog' , because of the David versus Goliath stand she and her little band of law students have taken against the federal government time and again to force them to do what the law demands they do.

It was Pippa and CIPPIC students whose complaint to the federal privacy commissioner forced the commissioner to move against Facebook over privacy concerns - a case that had had global implications.

DSU and Chebucto expect 600 to attend - not bad considering the GTA of Toronto is about twenty times as big as metro Halifax and Clement's own town hall in Toronto only got 300 people out and the town hall in Montreal drew 100.

The venue is the Dal Student's fabled McInnes Room, a hall that has hosted just about every PM and political leader in Canada at some time or other over the last 41 years.

If an election call does happen in the next little while, the date of their town hall, October 26th,could fall right in the election period .

Interesting, because if any one issue is likely to get the non-voting youth out in droves at the ballot box, it would be the thought that the government is about to make it easy to send young people to jail for downloading tunes off Bit Torrent.

Critics charge that the Harper Tories are choking innovation and any chance at creating new interesting jobs for young people when they propose regressive copyright changes that only shield dinosaur industries from having to face new digital realities.

Just imagine : an election fought over fostering innovation, with the Conservatives on the 'nay' side.

Could be interesting...

a town hall without the TOWN, isn't ( a town hall)

(If it wasn't for Michael Geist, I'd never even have heard of this marvel of mental furniture - a round table that is one sided, -------now read on:)

''Tony Clement - as only he can do it - in the role of the legendary Hank Williams - in ' The Halifax Town Hall He Never Gave ' ''

The October 26th Town Hall at the Dal SUB's fabled McInnes Room, over citizen concerns that the direction the Internet is heading towards is 'away from them', is a chance to address a great wrong.

On August 10th this year, federal Industry Minister Tony Clement slipped into Halifax to conduct a private, invite only, roundtable over the direction any amendments

to its existing copyright law should take.

{ A note aside: the Big Lie in Canada's copyright debate is the century old constant refrain that our copyright law is hopeless 'out of date' and needs urgent updating (so let us not waste time with needlessly public discussions), so we will no longer be the laughing stock of the civilized world.

Actually we have always been talking-about and changing-about our copyright laws since the day they were first created. But all that change supposedly 'due to changing circumstances' , has in fact been exclusively in one general direction.

Always the rights of the creators and their publishers has been expanded and always the rights of the consumers of creativity has been reduced.

Remember how artificial and society-slash-government-created copyright law actually is: the makers of machine tools don't have a government law requiring the purchasers of those machine tools pay them further every time they use the tool - but radio stations pay every time they play a record they paid for.

Copyright Law is supposed to balance the interests of creators and consumers , not be the lap dog of creators and publishers.}

On his trip to Halifax, Minister Clement didn't try to hold a dangerous open,public, advertised, Town Hall ; as he might if he actually wanted 'consultations' with' the public'.

Town Hall always represent the danger that masses of real live unpaid consumers might overwhelm the voices of the handful of paid lobbyists arguing for more money for creators & publishers.

And 'public' means all this ends up happening on the TV sets of millions of other ordinary consumers as they watch the evening news.

Worse, he went on to do in Halifax what he won't have dared to do in bigger cities like Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.

His invite-only roundtable excluded representatives of ordinary consumers, of libraries and of teachers.

If a 'round' table can ever be 'one-sided' the Halifax roundtable was just that. For some lucky invitees, (industry invitees of course) this was their second invite to this exclusive soiree.

Clement figured Halifax would take it.

It didn't and it won't.

Chebucto Community Net and the Dal Student Union decided to do it up right.

On October 26th, even Tony Clement in Ottawa is going to hear this city and this region roar.

In all likelihood, five hundred and seventy ordinary consumers will be there,to contrast with perhaps only thirty lobbyists for the creators & publishers, and it will all play out in front of the TV cameras, microphones and reporters' notepads.

In the cosy world of industry-to-government lobbying this is sort of like Balloting Day in a goneral election.

You know, that rare one day every four years, when the vote of a homeless person weighs in just as heavily in the minds of Official Ottawa as does that of multi millionaire like Conrad Black.

Oops !- maybe more so...

Mark 7pm Monday october 26th, Dal SUB McInnes Room on your calendar - this should be fun.

"Just who is SHAPING your internet future ? : digital concerns in a digital age"

Keep free Monday evening, 7 pm, October 26th 2009.

The place is the Dal Student Union Building's storied McInnes Room (capacity 600), a favorite place of choice, for the last 40 years, whenever Canada's PMs and other heavyweights deign to address Canadian students and academics.

The event is an overdue Town Hall on citizen concern over the direction the Internet is going, in Canada and around the world.

Its all part of the DSU's (Dalhousie Student Union, University Avenue, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) Annual Speakers Series -- part of the DSU's outreach to the broader community .

This town Hall/Panel discussion is co-sponsored by Chebucto Community Net - one of Canada's oldest free-access-to-all internet providers.

Chebucto has always been concerned about citizen access to an increasingly commercially-controlled internet - that is the very reason they were formed.

Students, like those that the DSU represents, are leading users of the internet in just about every possible way - from downloading songs to searching for information to complete a term paper or thesis.

Various international bodies this year have revealed that Canada pays more for less service right across the gambit of internet and cell phone services.

HALIFAX: ONCE A LEADER, NOW A LAGGARD

Closer to home, Halifax and Nova Scotia - believe it or not - were once leaders in internet usage - now the city and province even lag behind the smaller and poorer sister province of New Brunswick and its tiny capital Fredericton.

The troubles citizens face on the commerce & government heavy internet are too numerous to begin to list .

Perhaps the most eye catching recently has to be this summer's 'Big Brother-like' secret removal of the e-book "1984" off of the Kindle e-book readers of Amazon customers (after they had paid for them and the e-book), all without telling them !

If Hollywood dared put this in a movie, we'd snicker at the implausibility and the sheer PR-stupidity of going Big Brother on Orwell's book, of all books, - but fact , again, out-trumps fiction...

Mark down the date/ be there....

Tando departs - who will run for Greens in E. May's old bailwick ?

Angus 'Tando' MacIssac, the longtime Tory MLA for Antigonish has suddenly resigned, citing urgent family matters.

The former deputy premier did seem to be running this last time just for the sake of the party, in the eyes of one observer who watched him during the all-candidates debate at St Fx in June's general election.

Who will the Greens run in the by-election to be held in about seven months time, max ?

It is E. May's home turf and she polled very well in Antigonish town, the core of the riding.

But this hasn't helped the local provincial Greens - the two provincial candidates have both been parachutes, albeit that the 2009 parachute, Rebecca Mosher ,(Ms 'Evergreen' herself !) was born and raised and holds land in Antigonish.

She publicly decried the weakness of the local greens in Antigonish - asking why a university town and home to the Antigonish/Coady Movement should be about the weakest riding out of 52 in all of Nova Scotia.

Disgraceful !

And Antigonish hasn't exactly lacked money and staffers from the Ottawa offices of the GPC in recent years.

We'll see.

Webber finds while Libs bled to NDP in last week of election,Green vote went up

New Brunswick historian and political scientist Patrick Webber who has an abiding interest in the smaller/newer parties of Atlantic Canada (he has an article in the current issue of ACADIENSIS) has done a riding by riding study of the advance polls results a week before the June 2009 election in NS.

He finds, overall, that the Libs bled 10% of their support to NDP between then and election day, while Green vote went UP not down - a total surprise, as tiny parties traditionally lose half their support as polling day approaches.

Looking at it on a riding by riding basis, he found the Liberal loss of support to the NDP, in that last week, moved a few seats to NDP from PCs, so ironically the Liberals got what they felt they badly needed - to come out slightly ahead of PCs to become the Official Opposition.

But being the Third Party in the House never hurt John Hamm in 1999 though....

Quebec least likely to want to see E. May in Parliament

New poll's key feature ?

Quebec's view on May in Parliament : yawn.

Should have picked David C, over E May, if we really want to gain any votes for GPC in Canada's greenest province.....

NS Greens only party to file all candidate returns on time

The NS Greens finally did something right.

Seventy of NS's 210 odd candidates in June provincial election failed to get their candidate's returns in this week.

That is one on three !

Some might even be MLAs and hence unable to attend the legislature till they get their returns in and accepted.

But none were Greens - Kathryn Herbert accepted an offer from party members to help her out and 46 returns were polished off in one night back in early July.

Kudos to Kathryn !

Medicare USA ? Yes we can't !

Obama seems likely to back off from his promise to bring in some public medicine in the US.

They still use old imperial feet and inches, avoid celsius temperatures and metric measurements, so it seems sensible to avoid this new-fangled medicare as well.

Progressive or regressive ? Canadian Greens can't seem to figure them out .

America seems a little of both....

Greens cheer as Jack is re-elected for another term

Who is the best vote getter the federal Greens in Canada have right now ?

Most Greens, upon reflection, would say "Jack Layton" .

Because of the vicissitudes the GPC is going through right now, the reasons for their current exalted standings in opinion polls must surely lie more with how Canadians view their third party than how they regard their fourth national party.

This weekend's NDP Convention in Halifax showed us a lot more Jack than we have seen lately and as a result we can expect his personal approval ratings to fall even further.

Jack , at least as Jack-the-Leader-in-Public, has an prompt answer for every problem and seems to be entirely unreflective.

One simply never hears him say, " I'm not sure we have an answer for that, let me think a little about that, it seems to have no easy sollution that will make most everybody happy."

Most people respect Jack Layton as the leader of a party with a long worthy tradition of keeping the other guys honest but would hate to see him given the reins of power.

OBAMA IS NO 'DP' & NEITHER IS JACK

The decision of the NDP not to decide on a name shortening also gave Greens hope this weekend.

Having a party name that isn't turned in a set of initials is a godsend for Greens.

Ditto for the Liberals, Conservatives, Labour, Republicans and Democrats.

No one calls the Liberals the LPs or the republicans RPs.

Only parties with three word names suffer that fate : CCF and NDP for example.

But almost every New Democrat rejecting the dropping of the new off their party name claimed they feared being called DPs.

In the 1950s, DP was the "N" word for Canada.

But the Canadian 'Democrats' claim that they fear they'd end up being called DPs is just a smokescreen : NDPers actually seem to like being known by their initials !

Why, when it only conjures up fearsome organizations like KGB and KKK with similar three letter names, is beyond explanation.

But Greens can be grateful for the NDP decision not to decide.

And for the fact that only 11% of the NDP delegates said "Jack, its time to go."

They won't have to face Democrats as they chase votes in the next year - but they will get to face off against 'Smiling Jack' one more time....

One Hanky Quiltmaking - a Green way to revalue your family treasures

Here is a blog I always really enjoy:

One Hanky Quiltmaking.

Margo Takacs Marshall says those family treasures that you take out of a drawer once a year to enjoy which no one else in the family appreciates, will probably end up in the landfill after you go.

Why not arrange them in a display or turn them into a quilt and explain (with the label) just what they mean to you, so your family will appreciate them after you're gone?

She did this, with her collection of hankies - even did a beautiful book on her 'one hanky quilts' .

But her point is that you can do the same with you or your grandmother's doilies, buttons, photographs, whatever.

Recycle, reuse - revalue is her motto.

Hats off to Paul Shreenan the GREEN who keeps on greenin'

Paul Shreenan, the recent Green Party of Canada candidate in the federal riding of Dartmouth Cole Harbour is at it, again.

"It" is being active and public on green oriented issues between elections.

He was on CBC Radio's Maritime Noon a week or so ago - making the point that much of our 'litter' - once defined as that natural stuff that falls off trees on its way to becoming humus and soil, is now redefined 'as the synthetic stuff falling off of patrons eating fast food takeout'.

Another word debased.

A Green talking to real people - not just other Greens ??!!

Don't fall off your chair - it does happen - in other provinces and in other countries.

But rarely in Nova Scotia.

Chris and Mike Milburn - they are active Greens in their community in between elections.

Probably some others - tell me about yourself - prove me wrong - get active !

I need to do the same.

We all do....