General

Bill C-2 is bad and Mark Carney should feel bad

NOTE: This is about politics. Canadian politics! If you're not interested in politics, skip to the next post or just scroll to the end for a photo of a kitten.

I think Steve Boots was right, Mark Carney is basically a Conservative prime minister in Liberal clothing. Boots’ video (linked below) details some of the horrible changes proposed by Bill C-2, the “Strong Borders Act” that would give the government far too much power with far too little–or no–oversight. It’s not often that I am motivated to write my MP, but I did today. My riding, which has been an NDP stronghold for decades, saw the vote split between the three major parties in the April 29 federal election, and long-time NDP MP Peter Julian was out. Based on his photo, our new Liberal MP is some high school kid. I wrote this to him today:

Hello Mr. Sawatzky,

Congratulations on winning your seat in the recent federal election.

As a constituent in your riding, I must strongly object to Bill C-2, the so-called “Strong Borders Act” which is draconian piece of legislation that vastly overreaches in giving the federal government expanded powers in law enforcement and immigration with little or no oversight. I believe there are portions of the bill that are unconstitutional.

It is depressing to see a new government come in and make this its first act, which seems mainly aimed at appeasing Donald Trump. This is not leadership, it is capitulation at the expense of Canadians’ privacy and of refugees simply seeking a better, safer life in Canada. We should not be emulating the United States. Prime Minister Carney’s government will not last long if this is the sort of legislation you champion.

I realize you are a Liberal MP and will likely to toe party line, but I urge you to vote against Bill C-2. It must be scrapped. Future governments will only make worse the abuses of power it enables. This is not the Canada anyone should want.

Here’s Boots’ video:

And here’s where you can find your local MP and their email address: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/search

Finally, here is a kitten:

Why is there a spider in my toilet?

It’s a big spider and it’s sitting inside the bowl, an inch or so above the water. Why? How? WHY?

I can’t decide whether to wait and see if it moves on its own or to gently try getting it out, knowing it will probably somehow die instantly if it accidentally touches the water.

UPDATE: The spider has been safely redirected outdoors.

My dinner attacked me

Specifically, I stabbed some baked chicken with a fork, and it squirted me with hot chicken juice. This was not so bad when it hit my shirt, because the shirt’s going in the laundry tonight, anyway. It was less delightful when it also sprayed onto my bare arm. But hey, juicy chicken!

And here is what the internet tells me is a “chicken person”, which may explain why it’s delightedly holding the apparently cooked remains of a chicken (non-person).

What is the newest album I own?

Not an album I can access through a streaming service, but one I bought and can play anywhere.

The answer: Wilder Minds, by Mumford & Sons, from 20151Worse, I’ve barely listened to the album, I never got into it.

Yes, the newest album I own was released 10 years ago (I bought it when it was new).

I only started listening to streaming music (via Apple Music) a few years ago, so there really is a years-long dropoff between now and when I bought my last new album. I have lamented how streaming seems to have killed the album in favour of an endless mix of random songs, but now realize I’m part of the problem!

I’m slowly rectifying this, though. The past few weeks, I’ve been listening to albums on my runs instead of shuffling songs. The albums are admittedly ancient, for the most part, but it’s a start.

Let’s see what’s new out there…

Run 921: Mid-afternoon malaise

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. Not seen: A breeze which was not particularly refreshing.

This was a hard run. Why? Probably because it was warmer, windier and I have felt weird and lazy all day.

After sleeping in, which is uncharacteristic of me, I saw it was showering a little and thought to maybe wait a bit before running. Then I debated running at all. Finally, I changed, started my warm-up stretches and my right ankle began to hurt like I’d been abusing it (I have not, to my knowledge). I sat back down and pondered. Eventually, I tried again, completed the stretches, and headed out, with vague plans. By this time it was mid-afternoon, a time I generally try to avoid running.

I initially thought I’d do a brisk 7-8 km walk, then changed that to walking to the end of the river trail and doing a 5K run from there, before eventually settling on going to the lake and running a short loop.

For reasons, I started exactly at the 10K marker:

I believe the goose image is a warning.

My first km, which includes a prominent uphill section near the start, was a bit sluggish, but I pressed on and found myself pausing briefly, like I was running too fast or too hard. After 10–15 seconds, I resumed. I ended up doing this four times, though once was at the Nature House, in order to get a drink from the fountain, as the breeze was resulting in a bit of Dry Mouth Syndrome.

To my surprise, my second km came in under six minutes, as did each of the rest. That said, I was a second slower than the last run (rounding error) and despite BPM being a bit lower at 151, it felt like a lot more effort. I experienced some mild cramping, though I don’t think it affected my pace, just my will to actually keep running. But I did finish the 5K, so I’ll take it!

The start of the run also saw me carefully navigating through a large group of geese and goslings who were making a section of the trail their own. Nothing happened, though a few goslings scooted a bit and one adult goose bobbed its head in that threatening way at me.

In all, I’d like to say lesson learned, but I guess we’ll have to wait till Friday to find out!

The area near the dam was full of mini-poopmonsters.

Stats:

Run 921
Average pace: 5:56/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 2:33 p.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:53
Weather: Sun and cloud mix
Temp: 18°C
Humidity: 63%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 151
Weight: 171.9
Total distance to date: 6,440 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (35/49/84)

Music: R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant

A few thoughts on the recent Canadian federal election (April 28, 2025)

The election was held on Monday, April 28, 2025.

UPDATE. May 5, 2025: A freshly-elected Alberta MP in a very safe Conservative riding has surrendered his seat so Poilievre can run. Barring some extreme karmic shenanigans, Pierre Verb-the-Noun should win and get back in Parliament.
  • Hooray for short Canadian elections! Five weeks and done.
  • I am relieved the Conservatives lost.
  • I am chastened by their share of the popular vote, which increased, along with their seat count.
  • I am amused by a poll that showed they could have potentially won it all without a leader. But only without a leader.
  • I am deeply satisfied by Pierre Poilievre losing his own seat. He had been elected seven times previously in the Carleton riding.
  • I am saddened but not surprised by the collapse of the NDP, going from 24 seats to just seven. Singh, who also lost his seat, gave a warm and gracious concession speech and announced he would resign. The party, IMNSHO, needs to go back to being fully socialist, to give people a clear alternative to the Liberals, who are in some ways moving further from the left.
  • The Greens desperately need something to be more than a blip. Elizabeth May ain’t going to run forever.
  • Maxine Bernier came in fourth in his riding. I think the PPC is PP-Done. The bad news is the Conservatives seem happy (?) to absorb the extreme right-wing he represented.
  • The Liberals fell three seats short of a majority (getting 169), but should probably be fairly safe with help from the gutted NDP, who will not be in a hurry to have a new election.
  • The whole election is kind of a shock from what was expected before the re-election of Trump. It is not an exaggeration that Trump’s demented grandpa antics aimed at Canada helped revive the Liberals (along with Trudeau resigning), giving them a mandate they may very well have lost had the polling showing the Conservatives with a 20+ point lead held. This is good for Canada in that Poilievre would have been a terrible PM.
  • My own riding switched from NDP to Liberal. I can live with that.

Now we wait to see how Poilievre gets back into Parliament without a seat. Some newly-elected MP will need to resign “for the greater good” but I suspect the party will start developing fracture lines even if this happens. Remember, it’s the result of merging the Canadian Alliance (nee Reform) and the old Progressive Conservative parties. It’s no coincidence they dropped the “progressive” part, as the party has pushed much harder to the right thanks to the CA/Reform wing, which drive the merger. Poilievre is also taking the worst cues from the U.S. Republican Party, by constantly spouting lies, misstating and misrepresenting everything and being just an angry, unlikeable sod, and I think some in the party realize that and know the gains made in this election may have been in spite of their leader, not because of him (though with any “populist” leader, he will always have his base of cult-like loyalists).

Interesting times ahead.

So long, doodlingsandnoodlings.com!

For a time I had the idea of a more purpose-driven blog and out of that I secured the domain for doodlings and noodlings.com.

I never used it, and I am passing on the opportunity to renew it, so anyone else who wants it, go get it!

The idea seemed sound at the time:

  • Take my two main creative interests, writing and drawing, and combine them into a blog that would showcase each.
  • I could use lots of old material to get the site rolling, so I wouldn’t immediately need to create new content.
  • I could opine about writing/art in general to “fill in the gaps”.

There were a few problems, though:

  • The URL, though kind of catchy, is long. Also, I could never remember if it was doodlings andnoodlings or noodlingsanddoodlings. This didn’t seem like a good sign.
  • My brain doesn’t seem to like being restricted to just a few topics, which is why this blog (creolened.com) covers anything that pops into my head.
  • I think part of me just wanted to do something more “worthy” than rambling about random things.

In the end, I realized I was not going to seriously pursue the site and chose to let the domain expire. It’s also why, as we start May 2025, I have not yet moved off of WordPress, despite a desire to unhitch from a platform that is apparently running largely based on the whims of a single person with, uh, interesting views.

I’m still not entirely ready to start up something new, but I will let the ideas just appear organically or something–which may mean never. And if it’s never, I can live with that.