Countdowns and Transitions

Our neighbours to the south have just inaugurated themselves a new President and his first major action was signing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay Prison before the year's out; the transition begins. Executive orders are all well and good, but it remains to be seen how he'll steer the country itself over the next four years (and my money's still on boring and ordinary).

That being said, there are countdowns on in this country, one of which is related to our own governance: Stephen Harper's delay tactic comes to an end in four days. Parliament will be confronted with his new budget and, if cooler heads haven't prevailed, we'll be looking at a very interesting end to the month of January; the liberals and NDP know the damage to their reputation is already done, and they may grab the coalition just to make sure they can wield power for the next two years or so and maybe get credit for steering Canada out of the coming economic quagmire - the only way they might salvage their political reputations before any more elections are called. I'm keeping an eye on CPAC.

Oh, and the all-star weekend begins in Montreal tomorrow night. Woohoo!