UPDATE: Some family news:

1) Val's getting married! My sister's boyfriend Stevie Wood proposed with roses, a honeymoon suite and a diamond. He did it with class. "Stu, I only plan to do this once. And I'm calling to see what you have to say." He called my brother and parents too. Val said yes, and is planning an August wedding in PEI. Here's Val and Stevie in 2000 when they were helping to renovate our cottage, Plover Dunes Retreat.

2) In a warm-up for the inevitable love child, my brother Lowell and his wife Sharon now have a dog, named Moose. I was lobbying for "Harley" or "Tofu", but those were too Eastern Canada. We receive almost daily updates: "Yes, we were up in the night because he was crying -- poor fella". Good practice, folks. Relax. Kids don't usually need newspapers on the carpet.

3) Check out the new Jasper Video! I'm testing a video capture and editing programme. Please let me know how this works for you (speed, quality, etc.)
Jasper says BOO.

4) Our friend (and soon to be family member) Berni Wood -- sister of my sister's new fiancé -- landed a new job this week. Berni has been undervalued and underpaid in a government of PEI film and new media job for 20 years. Now she can finally thumb her nose at the bureaucracy (and we hope she flips them something, too) because she's the new Regional Vice President (Atlantic Canada) for the Canadian Television Fund. Way to go Berni!

>> Here's a pic of Berni at our recent Mid-East dinner party)
>> The press release about her appointment.

O Canada!
Finally, something to really cheer about! As they say, revenge is a dish best served GOLD. Fifty years after our last Olympic Gold hockey medal, we bring it back. And what a game!

What a wonderful opportunity for our country:

- Teach them young.
- Instill the dream in them; show them the "Cup" - the result of achievement.
- Instill a sense of pride, but make them work for it.
- Let them know success won't come easily.
- Equate success with national purpose.

If we can harness this sense of purpose into other things, just imagine what we can do.
A cure for cancer? NO PROBLEM!
Go Canada GO!

Groundswell
I'm getting lots of great mail about my political rant, posted yesterday (below). One person suggested I pack up my family and flee Ottawa, forgetting politics for a while -- "paint, meditate, farm". It does sound good! Another reader wrote about my call for an alternative energy solution: "Set an example, and get rid of your car." Great idea, but you first, buddy. As soon as there's an affordable, mid-sized hybrid car, I'm buying it. Incidentally, the technology to make one widely available has been around for over a decade. Why we don't have them on our streets has less to do with technological hurdles than lack of demand. Thanks to saturation advertising, the public is more interested in Web-enabled cell phones and other superfluous communications junk. (And billions of dollars has been spent introducing them into the market -- think about that the next time you see cell towers winking across the skyline at night). For more information along these lines, see a fantastic article, "Why Technology is Failing Us: and How We Can Fix It" in Shift Magazine.

I love this discussion: Keep sending mail. What's most fun, but least surprising, is that no one is jumping to the defence of the Prime Minister, our "leader". Last time I met him in person (for a client photo shoot) he asked me, "So, you for your company, you spend lots of time skating on the Internet?"

'Nuff said.

Storm the Peace Tower
Something in me yearns for a knock-em-down, clear-the-decks political revolution in Canada. But a revolution will never happen here. We Canadians like to be told what to do, what to believe. Our Prime Minister lies, twists, denies, shrugs, and we let him get away with it. I'm not a big fan of Pierre Trudeau, but he had something right when he said he'd rather see Canada go out with a bang, not a whimper. Who's crying now? Anyone who still believes we can be more than a backwater nation of wannabes.

I'm a hopeless idealist. I know it because people tell me (frankly, I don't take it as an insult). They roll their eyes in their heads when I get exasperated and start to wave my hands and talk about "what we should do as a country". I still believe we need a Prime Minister that takes a stand and that tries to engage the collective imagination. And what's wrong with that? Why do people groan when I say this? Canadians have had great ideas before!

- Someone once had the nerve to declare that we would connect Atlantic to Pacific by rail. Across the Rockies? Never! Impossible!
- Someone once said that women in this country should be recognized as "people", and be accorded the rights and responsibilities of such status. Heavens, no! Imagine!!
- Another person dared to suggest that the state could provide universal, comprehensive health coverage.
- Yet another recognized that while we would never dominate the world, but we could police it, and work for peace where there is war. Good Lord, how could that be!?

Those things were all achieved, we take them for granted. And now many of our greatest achievements are being stripped away. Still we do nothing.

What are our leaders saying today? Nothing. Squat. Diddle.

Are there pressing global issues for which Canada could provide leadership? Hell, yes: Children are starving to death at 35,000 per day around the world. While the US makes war, we could broker peace. The world needs pioneering research in alternative energy to avert an ecological disaster. International trade discussions lack a mediating voice between social unrest and corporate domination. Players in millenia-old religious wars could use the patient perspective of a mature, multi-ethnic, panentheistic nation.

Are we meeting any of these needs, or any others? No. None. Is anyone even suggesting we do? Nope. We're cowed by cheap gas, SUVs and box retailers. And, meanwhile, Mr. Chrétien can do whatever the hell he wants.

History will be his judge. And ours.