Just a Gwai Lo fun within prescribed limits [?]

Last year, after the 2006 Canadian election, I made the four political predictions. Here they are, with the results:

After the 2007 Macworld Expo where nobody had a stake in the predictions they made as to whether Apple would announce a mobile phone, I realized that a prediction market, wouldn't work for product releases, because people would squabble about definitions. It's a tablet! It's a computer! That happens to have a phone!

I'm pretty sure I want one, since everybody else does (with the iPhone, mobile phones, already a status symbol, just consolidated their power over us), though it won't document my world quite like a Nokia N95 would. I had more to say about the iPhone, and wanted to point to people like Mark or Dave (which I wanted to do in a separate post titled, cleverly, "iCurmudgeon") but instead, I'll just say that I think I'm over my prediction fatigue and will go back to using lines from rap songs as my weblog's taglines.

Bill Siksay returned to office in my riding of Burnaby-Douglas. I'm a long-time federal New Democrat (independent provincially, at the moment), and supported, if silently, his candidacy. The following is the table from Elections Canada (I encourage those who want official results to visit the website and search for the riding's results, for I'd hate for someone to search for 'election results burnaby-douglas 2006' and have them uncritically cite the numbers I give here):

There should be an election results microformat. (Couldn't resist.)

With some satisfaction I note the defeat of Sam Bulte in Parkdale-High Park. Kudos to Joey who wrote extensively about her relationship with copyright interests. (I kind of wish he had a category just of articles about her, so that he could own her on Google.) A little disappointing, though, since that the phrase "pro-user zealot" will fade into history, but I have to wonder, did she misspeak. I'd never heard the phrase before, but can't think of any word replacing 'user' that she could use to describe those who argue for an alternative, more flexible copyright regime.

As you probably know, the Conservatives won a minority, and might align with the Bloc to govern. If only there were some electoral system that gave you the same percentage of seats as votes you got in the election.

Outlandish predictions:

• a grand coalition government between the Liberals and Conservatives!
• Ujjal Dosanjh as the next leader of the Liberals!
• more photos of Peter Mackay looking forlornly at Belinda Stronach!
• or even better, she crosses the floor again so that she can once again join a party that is actually in power!

At last night's election counting party, I saw my dad on CHEK TV last night, as Darren flipped the TV at the bar to find something other than CBC coverage. That's 5 seconds of fame deducted from his (my dad's) account.

To update my article about Burnaby-Douglas candidates blogging, it appears that Bill Cunningham's site is now a weblog, which Robert at Burnaby Politics calls inane. He and/or the staffer writing the weblog is using Blogger, so you can subscribe to his Atom feed. Conservative candidate George Drazinovich's weblog is up and running, but with no permalinks and no feed? NDP Candidate Bill Siksay and Green candidate Ray Power (not Ian Gregson as reported in my article last month) appear not to be blogging.

I've been relying on the aforementioned Burnaby Politics weblog for coverage of the candidates for the riding in which I live.

After some confusion, Ian Gregson, who writes the Carless in Vancouver weblog, will not run for election this year. I've updated my article on Burnaby-Douglas candidates for the 2006 Canadian election accordingly.

Ian Gregson: “This week the Prime Minister announced the date of next federal election. The big news here is that I will be running as Green Party candidate in Burnaby Douglas. My election web site is http://voteforian.com I intend to run this election campaign using bike power and public transportation only.”

My sympathies lie elsewhere on the political left, but Ian found me through a search for Burnaby-Douglas and sent me a brief email simply making note of the fact that he's the riding's Green Party candidate. He appears to be the only candidate seriously blogging in my riding—and not just about the election, but about his experiences after giving up his car and commuting in Greater Vancouver by bicycle or public transit (or both).

The other candidates do not (yet?) have serious weblogs. Bill Cunningham as a weblog-like website, but no RSS feed or permanent links. Bill Siksay does not appear to be blogging at all (if I were volunteering my time and advice to the NDP—disclosure: I am—I would have a weblog for each riding on their Drupal-powered website). George Drazenovich, whom the Conservatives list as their candidate, and who had a campaign weblog last year, has yet to update his site in 2005 (the Burnaby-Douglas Conservative Association has yet to update their calendar for January to reflect the fact that the country is holding an election on the 23rd).

Time passes after writing the above and Gregson writes to me that he will not run in the 2006 election.