Blog Twenty-Five: Edmonton, Day One

I never thought I'd hate travelling on business more than I already did, but I do. Geez, I miss the Small Girl and Snaby. It's like a picture of them hovers before my eyes all the time.

Also, my cell phone is beeping. I don't know why; every couple of minutes it lets out a little "bloop." The battery is fully charged. There are no messages. No text messages. Bloop!

I'm going to have to kill it.

Spent the last two hours at a business dinner with an associate and two customers. They're all nice guys, but God damn, I was bored. There's nothing I despise more than business dinners. Everyone else drinks like fish, and they're invariably all older than me and so want to talk about the time they were hunting groundhogs in Upper Assgrab back in 1957. (Bloop!)

Anyway, we're here in Leduc, Alberta, which is just outside the Edmonton airport. That's about all there is to say about Leduc; I will grant the little restaurant we went to was pretty good, though, with great French onion soup. One of the great shames of our time is how all the restaurants now are the big chains, like Montana's and Kelsey's and other mediocre places, and you don't have as many family run places that are usually cheaper and have better food. Of course, out here, the steak and prime rib is all about four dollars cheaper for any given cut than it is in Ontario. Which thrills me. (Bloop!)

Last night was the English language leader's debate. Now, I could see why you might want to vote NDP, or Conservative, or Green, or if you live in Quebec BQ, even though I might not agree with you, but I just cannot fathom how anyone could vote for any party led by Paul Martin. The man, frankly, looks and sounds like an old fool, and even by the abysmal standards of politicians he's unusually dishonest.

I'll hold my nose and vote Conservative, but I wouldn't be upset if a miracle happened and the NDP won the election. Frankly, I'll vote for whomever will beat the Liberals, because if the Liberals win, our country will break up.

There you have it, my prediction; if the Liberals win this election. Quebec will separate from Canada, probably before 2010. I don't think a lot of people outside Quebec realize how much they hate and mistrust the Liberals now; they're simply despised. If we re-elect them, the message Quebec will get from that will be "Screw you. We don't care that they stole money and cheated in the 1995 referendum, we'll elect them anyway." The PQ will win the next provincial election, hold a referendum, and win it. I absolutely guarantee it.

If the Conservatives get elected I think there's a good chance they'll be a pack of total screwups. I guess you never know, but hardly anyone in that party has any experience governing anything bigger than an expense account, so it might be a real screwup. Or maybe not, who knows. But I think it would give the Liberal government in Quebec City a fighting chance in the next election, and would give the "Non" side a huge, huge advantage in any referendum that might be called. Quebecers would be THRILLED if we dumped the Liberals.

So I ask you; look into your local race and find out which candidate has a better chance of beating the Liberals, be it NDP or Conservative. (It'll be Conservative most places, but in southwestern Ontario, or Oshawa, or university towns, it could be NDP.) Vote for them. If the Liberals are running third, well, I guess you have your pick. Don't elect the Liberals again; I don't want my country to break up.