tonight is road to perdition and i think i will actually enjoy it. let's just hope tom hanks' cheese heavy previous performances (the ups island movie, a league of their own, etc.) doesn't detract...

a few thoughts political on a cloudy day:

1) where have all the small c conservatives gone? where are the centrists and the communitarians? we're left with a few libertarians and some one-issue extremists on the right, some crazy top-heavy labourists and one-issue extremists on the left, and a governing party that is more content to invent new programs to save face then give a damn about civic values?

2) dear joe, you will be missed. say what you want about our quivering, style-less friend: he has contributed much to canada and probably had a better sense of this country than most pm's in history. from his "community of communties" vision for federalism, to his openness and acceptance of diversity (a conservative riding in a pride parade long before it was vogue), joe clark was truly canada's elder statesman and someone who espouses much of what it is i hope for canada.

3) where are our queer political heroes? i had lunch with the mayor of winnipeg yesterday and it was quite intriguing, fascinating and interesting. we talked at length about queer politics. why is svend out there alone? how wonderful that bill graham, with a boyfriend in the city and a wife in rosedale, marches in the pride parade. while we can continue to pretend that "it shouldn't matter" the reality is that we need out and proud pioneers to prove that being queer doesn't make you out of the running as far as big-league politics is concerned. (please note, as the hypocrite points the finger at himself: i say this with complete understanding of the personal difficulty in running as an out candidate and with full awareness that i might not be able to do it myself, however, i'm just frustrated at the significant lack of role models)