The Computer as Mind

Is it possible that human beings have accidentally shaped the computer as an avatar of the human mind? The autonomic system (BIOS, Processor, Buses, Communication Protocols, etc), the subconcious (daemon programs, background processes, root-programs, etc) and the concious (GUIs, active programs and processes and real-time access to memory & data) minds are all represented...

Just a thought.

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!

Damage Done

It's been a hell of a week. There's been a lot of damage - the most important instance being, of course, Her Excellency the Governor-General's choice to prorogue parliament effective immediately, rather than awaiting Monday's (now cancelled) confidence vote. This is an absolutely terrifying precedent; Stephen Harper and Michaëlle-Jean have essentially established that any Prime Minister faced with a sure-loss confidence vote can go ahead and ask for a prorogation and avoid the hammer of the House's voice - at least for a time.

Harper will face the same problems he left the parliament with when it reconvenes on January 26th. The coalition may not survive until that date, but Harper has lost the confidence of our elected officials. They will not forgive him and he needs to resign. Canadians will not forgive him - or, at the very least, if they do, Québecois will not. The Conservatives will deliver a budget more quickly than the coalition could and for that I support their mandate to govern. However, it is my sincere belief that Stephen Harper must resign.

Not just because he's lost the confidence of the house, but because his treatment of the bloc during this crisis was shameful. I've stated before that attacking the bloc's legitimacy attacks the legitimacy of the whole French-Canadian franchise, it accuses Québecois who want their own country of being anti-Canadian in a way that is patently false and stirs up a unity crisis in the middle of a constitutional crisis and an economic crisis. It is a third crisis we simply do not need!

Bloc MPs are elected just as legitimately as their conservative, liberal and NDP counterparts - in many cases, they're more legitimately elected than their counterparts, as they often garner real majorities in their ridings, rather than mere pluralities. For some reason, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper is unable to accept them as fellow Members of Parliament with the same democratic authority as his own duly elected and Right Honourable Albertan ass. Such discrimination in parliament is just as dangerous as his prorogation precedent.

That dangerous precedent was accompanied by a litany of lies from his Right Honourableness; his claim that the Bloc Québécois' interests lie in the destruction of Canada are patently false! In fact, for a separate and prosperous Québec to exist, a strong, economically independent Canada would have to exist and continue to exist. It is intrinsic to any sovereignist option to prop up and improve Canada in every possible way. In that sense, there is nobody in parliament I would trust more to ensure the stability of either a coalition government or a revitalized conservative one.

And these facts were not lost on the Bloc, the PC, Québec Solidaire or any of the Sovereignist parties - the work done by the Liberals and Conservatives over the last thirteen years, placating Québec and solidifying a United Canada may aswell be flushed down the toilet. Stephen Harper threw it away to save his political career.

Mr. Harper, please step down.

Stability & The Economy

The Government's rhetoric, over the last two days, has stressed the unstable element that a coalition propped up by the Bloc Québécois would bring to the country and its economy; at a glance, this would appear accurate. The Toronto Stock Exchange has seen its value fall steadily since the announcement of a coalition agreement on Monday, and its volatility has been higher than usual since rumours of a coalition began flying after the economic update on Thursday. This, however, is more appearance than reality.

The current instability of the government is causing trouble with the stock market; investors unable to know whether a divided parliament will continue past Christmas, whether government will be dissolved until spring while the country runs another election that may yield another dysfunctional House or whether the Governor-General will ask the coalition to step in and govern. I believe that the most likely desired result on the part of investors lies in either a Harper-less conservative government, or in the implementation of the Liberal-NDP coalition. The Bloc's commitment to the coalition would ensure rather than oppose the stability Harper claims he fears for so much from the Opposition's agreement.

In promising, within the context of a legally binding document, not to defeat a coalition government for 18 months, the Bloc has ensured that no one short of one of the governing parties could join the Conservatives in bringing them down - stability, thy name is coalition.

That they are promising, in addition to the measures implemented by the conservative government, to invest massively in Canada's manufacturing and agricultural sectors in order to protect them from the forecast economic downturn is yet another reason for investors to remain optimistic about a coalition being invited to form Canada's government. In fact, the most damaging thing the Governor-General could do for the economy at this point in time would be to okay another election.

A Marxist Perspective

While I do not agree with their position, I'd like to present columns by my friends over at Fight Back. They've presented their opinions on the current goings-on in Parliament and I think it's an interesting take on what is obviously becoming a crisis worthy of the name.

The first article discusses the causes of the current crisis in the framework of a move towards socialization:

http://www.marxist.ca/content/view/399/1/

While this second article addresses the concessions made by the NDP in order to form the potential coalition (interestingly, it ignores the Québec factor when trying to explain why Gilles Duceppe is so damned happy):

http://www.marxist.ca/content/view/402/1/

Pay them a visit, give them a read - they're interesting enough, and provide a lot of good insight, even if (like me), you don't agree with their motives or their direction.