I did a little count and my streak of painting winter scenes is now at 31 days. Here are a few more of my winter scenes.
More winter paintings
More paintings of the day
I have to admit that the idea of doing a small painting a day during the COVID lock down has lasted longer than I imagined. I asked myself how much longer I’d be able to do it at about the twentieth. A while ago, I did the 100th and thought that was a milestone. Now, I’m currently at 221.
So here are a few more of the paintings of the day.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
This was number 200.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
Watercolour on paper, 5×7.
First trip to Lake Laberge
T’was on the marge of Lake Laberge
I cremated Sam McGee.
– Robert Service
July 27
I had hoped to have far more done before leaving this morning; however, that did not materialize as it should. For example, there was a bit more cleaning in the house to do before leaving, but I was worried about getting a site. Lake Laberge is a small campground, and many of the sites are not suitable for anything other than a car and tent. There are really only 16 sites at the campground and it is close to town and supposedly rather popular.
I did say supposedly. After all, Clara and I have never camped here before. And, for the first two evenings, it will only be me camping here. Clara is going to a funeral on Friday so probably won’t be coming out until then.
I did find lots of open sites, with the first grouping of campsites open other than one site. I found one after a couple of tries, since the first two I did try made leveling a bit of a chore. I still need to develop some better system for leveling the camper. It’s 25 feet in length, which means it doesn’t take too much of a slope to require quite a few blocks under the wheels.
We chose Lake Laberge since friends were also going there. It’s a rather easy commute to town, about 35 km from our house. One person was working in the daytime so the commute time was an issue.
There are a few things I don’t like about the campground. Sites here are rather small, and I had a choice of leveling the motorhome or putting my awning out fully (see the campsite picture above). I did put it out partially. My other issue is that some of the access roads are quite narrow and sites were harder than usual to back into. The campground was obviously designed for tent camping.
My other big peeve is that there is no wharf for tying up your boat. I have an inflatable and since the lake can blow up quite well, I don’t like it crashing on the shore when it’s just tied up on the beach. The beaches here are quite rocky to add to the problem. The alternative is to launch it every time you want to go fishing and then reload it onto the trailer when you’re done. This would involve breaking down camp since all I have with me is the camper.
However, with the small sites and the small number of places to camp, even though the campground is quite close to town, it should work out to be rather quiet. We’ll see how the weekend progresses.
Weather wise, as I mentioned, today was rather windy. There was no consideration of going fishing.There were whitecaps on the lake and it seemed to have enough energy built up that it wasn’t going to flatten out this evening. The temperature got up to 20° C, so it was pleasant though. And, while the sun came out again after supper, there was light rain in the afternoon.
July 28
It was a quiet night, despite the wind. That did die down over the course of the evening. I woke, and made a rather nice breakfast.
The wind blew up again, and was even stronger than yesterday. Around 11 AM, I put the awning back up because I was a little worried about the possibility it may get damaged. I would like to replace the fabric at some point, but not until I have to.
Camping at Laberge has reminded me that I have camped in a fair number of the Yukon Government campgrounds. I did get involved in a “How many campgrounds have you camped at?” thing a few years ago on Twitter. I think I really should review the list again:
- Lake Laberge
- Kusawa Lake
- Fox Lake
- Twin Lakes (first place we camped with the old tent trailer)
- Quiet Lake South
- Yukon River, Dawson (first place Clara and I ever camped together)
- Klondike River (working an archaeology contract)
- Lake Creek (coming back from Homer, AK)
- Watson Lake (easy one to remember since I almost broke my hip when the picnic table collapsed on me)
- Tagish Lake (before it was transferred to the First Nation)
- Wolf Creek
- Squanga Lake
- Snafu Lake
- Kathleen Lake
- Lapie Canyon (another archaeology project)
- Pine Lake
- Tatchun Creek
I should add one or two more, since, if the weather holds like it has the last three years, an October trip to the Takhini River campground sounds like a decent plan. While we’ve passed it numerous times, and stopped to use the bathrooms on the way to Kusawa Lake, we’ve never stayed there. I had wanted to get to Drury Creek campground this year, but the timing never worked out. Marsh Lake is quite close, and we’ve never camped there either. The boat launch is a bit far from the campground, but something may work out.
I went for a walk, about 2.3 km. This was to completely walk around the campground, including the suspicious campsite number 8. This is a nice site, near the boat launch. However, there was a black truck and camper there the other day, although they did leave Wednesday morning. When they left, they seemingly abandoned a Suzuki quad on their campsite. I walked up the Deep Creek Rd. as far as the bakery. I didn’t take my wallet, although I have more than enough baked goods in the camper as is and buying fresh bread to freeze it when you don’t have to makes little sense to me.
It started to warm up a bit during my walk. I’m glad for the wind, since the breeze made it seem a bit cooler. I was breaking a bit of a sweat when I got back to the camper, in spite of the wind.
After supper, I dropped in on our friends and after a bit, the wind did die down enough to try fishing. It was still a bit bumpy, although we kept to the leeward side of the lake. However, as the evening went on, it became obvious the wind and the lake were going to die off a bit. Neither of us had any luck, even though we trolled for a while and then tried or hand at casting for pike. However, we shall see what tomorrow offers, since it looks like the weather will turn nice tomorrow morning,
July 29
I woke about 9, when friends came over to visit. We followed that with another round of fishing, this time heading north around Richthofen Island. Fishing was not the most stunning. We did see some on the fish finder but they weren’t biting.
The lake was rough, but there wasn’t any wind. There was still a lot of built up wave energy from the wind the days before. We thought we might try across the lake, on the lee shore, but gave that idea up shortly after starting out. Instead, we decided to try the lee behind the island. On the north point, it was rather sheltered. We fished there for four hours but, as mentioned, had no luck,
Once we came out of the lee, we realised it was somewhat windy and had to deal with up to 3 foot waves on the way back. It was slow, and getting the boat onto the trailer was tricky, but nothing too much to manage.
A quick note on the rest of my weekend. When we were on the lake, between the shore and the island, I could get a bit of cell service and got a text from my Katrina that Clara would not be coming out tonight. I guess I’m on my own, and am now trying to decide if I’ll stay out tomorrow night or come back to town. Hmm. There are advantages to going back, but this is the last weekend of my vacation and I really should be catching fish rather than getting stuff ready for work.
The weather today was cooler, with a high of only 18° C and cloudy most of the day. Hopefully, things settle down and we get a nicer day tomorrow, which would also help me make up my mind about what to do. However, I did get a chance to sit down in front of the campfire finally, although there were a few black flies around. My bug lantern was enough to keep them down and I didn’t need to smother myself in insect repellent. However, I do need someone to explain to me why I brushed my teeth and then made s’mores.
July 30
A nice sunny morning, although there is a bit of a breeze. The outside temperature dropped to its lowest I’ve seen in a few months, 6° C. It got down to 10 in the camper. However, it was 17° when I woke so it was actually warmer outside than in. I went out to start the generator to make toast for breakfast and opened the door to warm things up.
Daryl had come to wake me earlier, probably to go fishing, but I had been up a lot last night and just wasn’t into getting up quite that early. I think I was lucky I could haul myself out by 9:30 as it was. I still haven’t looked at the lake so I don’t know how calm it is.
We did go fishing, actually, and it was probably the nicest day on the water this summer. While Daryl caught a single fish, and I only got two nibbles, the water was dead calm and the sun shone. In retrospect, I could have put a bit more sunscreen on; however, it was a nice day to run across the other side of the lake and into Upper Laberge to fish. We came back and tried the side of Richthofen Island as well.
After fishing for four hours, we came back in for supper and then went out again, fishing until 10 PM. It was still calm, and the lake was quite nice. I was really regretting forgetting my camera this trip. After we got back, I sat by the fire for a bit before turning in.
July 31
Where has my vacation gone? This is the last day, and I have to celebrate that by cleaning up after a camping trip. I woke at about 8:30. It was, about 13C with a small breeze. I made tea and started getting things ready to drive home. I will admit that the prospect of the short drive home does appeal to me; however, another trip has come to end and that usually isn’t that appealing.
This will probably be the last time I camp here. It’s simply too close to town, which makes it a prime party spot. I don’t know why people go to a campground to drink. It’s easier and safer to just stay and home and be hammered before 10 AM.
And, if rules aren’t your bag, stay out of campgrounds. For example, quiet hours run between 11 PM and 7 AM and you aren’t supposed to run a generator during that time. I saw one person, in a group of partiers that occupied the four sites around me, wait a few minutes after a Park Officer asked him to turn off his generator, and then take it and a long extension cord and put it across the campground boundary where the rules don’t apply. This doesn’t demonstrate your expert legal prowess. It means you’re a jerk…
Back to Fox Lake
Wednesday, June 22/2016
It took a while to actually get going. I had been aiming to head out at about 4 PM but things just took too long to get ready and packed and it was a bit after 5 before we headed out. I was worried about getting a decent spot at Fox Lake. We went back to Fox since friends have a cabin right next to the campground and we don’t get to see them often enough.
The drive was rather uneventful, other than Furball not settling down very well and meowing constantly. He really doesn’t like his carrier much. Darcy tends to climb in and fall asleep as soon and the camper starts moving. He did eventually settle into it, or just come to accept his fate as inevitable, after about 20 minutes.
We arrived to find the campground almost full. There were three spots left… a double site and a single right on the turn lane next to the boat ramp. The two at the double would be fine if you only had to level something short like a camper, but a 24’ motorhome is something else. We took the less attractive site, which also required a few attempts to get levelled out as well. I need a better levelling system.
I was surprised to see it as full as it was, but there was a group of large Class A motorhome travelling together, along with a very nice couple who parked their trailer crosswise across a double to take both sites. We aren’t fond of sharing two close sites with someone you don’t know, but it was the best choice had it been available.
I loaded the boat, since I was in a rush to determine how the repairs went. They weren’t much… just a cleaning of the fuel system and new plugs. They figured the gas had gone over. I changed the fuel in the tank. However,with setting up, and the long day, I was in no mood to go out in the boat. I cooked dinner and had a beer to make myself officially camping. After dinner, I was just too tired to go out so left my discoveries to be made for the next day.
We had finally got most of the setting up and unpacking done after a rather rushed job of leaving by about 10 PM. By that point, the promised thundershowers for last evening were obviously not coming and it was 21 degrees. The sun was out and it was a beautiful evening. We took the cats out for a stroll around the site on their leads. Then, I sat down on my new camp chair with a glass of wine, when along comes our friends with the cabin. We had a great visit and will probably head over to their place tomorrow evening. They brought their small dog, who was reasonably friendly towards the cats on the other side of the camper door. Furball was slightly less upset than Darcy. She wanted nothing to do with him.
The cats did settle for a bit overnight, but when the ravens woke at about 5 AM, there was a different story. They went from window to window trying to see what all the commotion is. Eventually, when the ravens gave up, so did they and they want back to sleep for a few hours.
Thursday, June 23/16
We did finally get up around 9 AM and I made breakfast. I got the chance to try my new Polaris generator, which is incredibly quiet compared to the other one. It didn’t seem to add too much of a load to run either the toaster or the microwave when I wanted to reheat my bacon. So far, I’m rather impressed, although it took a week longer than promised.
It’s rated as quieter than a Honda but is a few pounds heavier. And, it was on sale for $200 off the listed price, and the price on the ticket was the same as charged, unlike Honda’s adding more than $200 to the price with fees not on the price tag. That was almost $500 more than the one I went to Honda to see, which is still showing as on sale on their website even though the model is discontinued and no dealers in Canada apparently have it. Suffice to say, I really don’t like Honda’s somewhat unscrupulous practices and don’t see myself buying any of their products in the future.
After breakfast, Clara and the cats opted for nap time while I opted for fishing. I spent about 90 minutes trolling with no luck. There were fish on the finder but they were down rather deep and probably not feeding at the time. I’ll go out again later and try again.
It did start to cloud over by early afternoon. There’s no way to get the forecast out here but the last one we saw did call for sunny with cloudy periods for today.
We spent the afternoon lazily. I eventually decided to put on supper. This was our hot dog night, since you need one simple camping thing on a trip. After that, I thought some fishing was in order. Big surprise. The motor was acting up exactly the way it was on the last trip. In short, the guess of bad gas wasn’t right. Now, I have no boat and I have to take it back to the shop. And, since we came out with the boat and camper, I have no way to bring it back without going back in altogether. I am not happy.
Around 6:30, the wind began to come up out of the north. I don’t see it being bad, since the wind is still quite warm. As you can see in the picture, there are no white caps, but there are a few clouds. I’m thinking rain by morning.
A little rain is OK. It will bring down the dust at the camp site.
So, my new plan is to deal with the boat. Since it can troll, I’m going to have to make do with trolling not too far from the campground. I don’t mind too much, since these are probably best fishing spots anyway. And, I will have to stay close since, if it does break down, I don’t want to paddle too far.
A bit after 11 PM, I cleaned up the inside of the camper and started to get things settled. We turned in about 11:45.
Friday, June 24/16
We finally got going a bit after 9. The cats seemed somewhat less stressed by the exuberance of waking ravens Although there was a bit of wanting to sit on your chest to see out your window when the caws began.
We had a nice breakfast and I went for a walk around the campground. Then , I figured I’d check if the boat was happier or not. I trolled about 750m down from the campground and came back the same distance. After a few passes in front of the campground, I figured it was time to open her up. It ran fine at full throttle for about 1000m, but then started surging a bit at the highest throttle setting. It was okay at about ¾ throttle. Maybe it need more cleaner run through it. (Add something about the cleaner). It trolls fine so I’m not without a method of fishing.
After that, I popped over to visit Kelly and Nita. I’d given her a copy of a play script to look at and get an opinion on. She liked it, by the way, especially the twist. We gabbed for over and hour and then I headed back to sit for a while. It was time to enjoy the little table with drink holder I got for Father’s Day. Camping is very strenuous.
It was when I was doing the mushrooms for the steak when I discovered that I had taken out the cooking sherry it had not packed it. We had steaks but with mushrooms sautéed without sherry. Blasphemy. Camping IS strenuous.
I have had the opportunity to observe one of my biggest peeves over camping here. I do understand why it happens, and I have done it myself. That is the practice of coming early to claim a site, leaving something in the campsite, and then coming out Friday evening. As a result, trying to head out to a relatively popular campsite means you get to turn around an head back home. The problem has expanded in scope.
We came out Wednesday and there were 3 sites left. The one we took was unattractive, but at least we got one. However, of the 50-odd sites, almost all were taken but less than half were occupied. I peaked a bit, and it became obvious that what many people are doing is coming out on Sunday afternoon after people have left for the weekend and setting up their trailer, or a tent, or a boat trailer, or simply a few chairs, filling out a slip, saying they’re staying 7 nights, and coming out the following Friday evening. Further, there were two areas where there were 3 or 4 sites next to each other held with matching chairs. With a yearly permit, it is easy enough for one person to go out and book a large number of sites, just by everyone involved giving him or her their permit number.
The rules do state that, if you are not on a site for 48 hours, it is supposed to be “abandoned.” But, it’s quite an issue to enforce that regulation, and I have talked to park officers about it on occasion. It’s getting so that, if you don’t want crowds and are on vacation, heading out to camp during the week on a Monday may mean you may not get a spot, or not a very good one. I think it’s time that the legal minds at YTG set down some new, and enforceable, regulations.
The wind did come up a bit out of the northwest, but that didn’t last more than an hour. However, it certainly made things dusty for a while. Little dust devils blew across the boat launch, impressing the cats to no end. It became obvious that there was no more fishing for me tonight, since there was no indication that the weather was going to settle down or get worse. So, I settled the boat for the night, bringing in the portable fish finder and safety gear, checked my lines, and put a campfire in. I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to having a fire. Since it’s traditional, and important, we made s’mores, and I did obey the adage of knowing your limit and only eating two. More than that is more than I’m good for now, but I did also roast a few marshmallows by themselves as well.
Saturday, June 25/16
Today was a rather full day, with company coming and doing a bit of visiting. Katrina, Shawna, and Ryan came out along with a rented canoe. They went out twice, as did I in the boat. I did get a chance to take the boat on a bit of a run without any sign of a problem. It seems that it may just need a bit of engine cleaner run through this tank of gas. It finally took until today to use up the first tank of gas in the new generator. I am rather surprised at how little it holds considering it ran about 10 hours on the first tank. The small two gallon jerry can of gas I brought for it is only half empty after refilling the generator.
The generator is still in break in period, which means less than 50% load for the first 20 hours. The biggest thing I did with it is run the toaster (750 w) and the microwave (900 w) and of course, not at the same time. It seems to handle either with no issues, although the microwave is a bit more than half its working load, but I only ran it for 15 seconds to see how it would do.
The generator is quite quiet and I deliberately didn’t bring the generator house or the front cargo rack. This gives me far more space in the cargo hutch, since the Jenny house does take up a fair bit of room. For those curious, I brought the small jerry can of gas in the boat. The front cargo rack is still a necessity if I was going to need more gas than I was planning to use this weekend. Or, I could rig a better way of carrying gas cans in the boat and get a bike carrier for the front trailer hitch.
As you may have guessed, I didn’t fare so well on the fishing front. I did lose one this morning, and while it spit the hook before I saw it, it was probably a keeper biased on weight. However, now that I have a functional boat and am getting a system down, better fishing is probably just ahead. This is my mantra for this evening. And now, it’s time for a glass of wine and bed.
Sunday, June 26/16
We got up at a reasonable hour, again about 9 AM. After a quick breakfast and washing the dishes, we started putting the campsite to bed. It really didn’t take too long, with the longest job waiting for the generator to cool down enough to pack after running it to power the toaster for breakfast. We do like our creature comforts. After that, it was a quick 50 minute drive home. Furball did not cry as much this trip and may be slowly reacquainting himself with driving. I will look at some better way for him to travel and dog seat belt harnesses are the direction I’ve been leaning.
All told, it was a nice trip. The weather held well and the boat, with a few problems at the beginning, behaved itself rather well. I think Kusawa is the next trip. I’m really pleased with the new generator and do have a few projects to do with the boat. We did give away the old boat, but some things aren’t going with it. These include the nice Garmin fish finder, which I will install in the little boat. This calls for the addition of a 12-volt battery, but that should fit nicely under my seat so it shouldn’t be in the way. I also kept the marine radio, but on a boat this size, this may be overkill…
First trip of the year, 2016
I’m a bit late posting this, but there were a number of chores to do, such as getting the boat fixed, hunting for a new generator, and some general yard work. Now that that’s done, and I printed out the checklist to go camping this weekend, I should get around to dealing with this.
Friday, June 10, 2016
This is my first camping trip in almost a year. It started well but took a bit of an annoyance turn before the end of the day. The temperature has been quite warm today, with sunny weather. However, the boat does not seem very cooperative today. It doesn’t seem to want to run properly. Oh, well. That does allow for having a beer at a reasonable time, rather than having to wait until we came back from fishing and a boat ride or two.
I left just before noon to come out to Fox Lake. I had brought the motorhome out on Wednesday evening, hoping to have the boat ready to come out sooner. However, there were things to get done and I didn’t really get a chance to come until today. Clara did not come out, and she kept the cats, so the motorhome seems a lot emptier. I came out this morning with the boat and launched it when I arrived. I set up the boat, then set up the camper. There were a few things to do, such as make the bed and put the food away. I followed that with taking the boat out for a half hour. It trolled well, but didn’t seem to want to move too quickly. I got back to the dock, lifted the motor, and discovered the trolling plate didn’t want to come up. I fixed that, and then company arrived. Katrina and Ryan, along with Shawna, Hanna, and her parents came.
Katrina and I went out for a quick run after dinner time. However, now the boat didn’t want to run well at all. It’s a tossup between a dirty filter, a dying fuel pump, or bad gas. I will state categorically that the gas does have fuel stabilizer in it and has since late August.
After supper, we gathered for a camp fire and had a few beers, watching it not get really dark. I went down to the dock to get a few pictures, and came back for a last cup of tea before going to bed. I read for a bit and slipped out to get some pictures about 11:30. By that point, it was time for bed. It was 21 degrees most of the day and quite sunny. It was one of those days where the sunscreen didn’t get too far from your hand.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
I didn’t actually wake up until 10 AM, after a nice sleep. The weather wasn’t so bad when I got up, although it wasn’t really shorts weather at that point. The temperature was only 16 degrees, less than it was went I went to bed last night at about midnight.
The wind blew throughout the day, primarily from the southeast. It was windy enough that I didn’t feel like I would have out the boat in. This, by the way, is what I’m telling myself to make the fact the boat isn’t working seem better…
We basically all hang around today. Ryan was going to a party in town so he went back to Whitehorse this morning. I had a nap, since it was just a lazy day at the campground. People found things to do, Katrina and I went for a walk, etc. I did drop over to some friends’ cabin, but they weren’t home. Oh, well.
The evening plan was just sit around the campfire, read, and do very little. I find camping is one of the few times I really get to just sit and read. Maybe, when I retire, it should be a big camping trip.
After barbecuing some chicken skewers for a nice dinner, the weather changed. The sun came out and the wind died. It seemed like a good idea to load the boat now, rather than see what tomorrow weather is would be. It can be a bit of an issue when the wind is pushing against the side of the boat when you’re trying to load it on the trailer. It went rather quickly, and Katrina and I put the travel cover on it and got it ready to pull home tomorrow. Now, time for a nice glass of wine and to sit around the campfire. Camping is so strenuous.
I did go for another walk around the campground and then, back to sitting around the fire. It did get up to 18 degrees at one point, but had fallen to 15 by 9:30. At that point, it was time for me to go back to the camper, get a cup of tea and a snack, and then read a bit before bed.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
My last morning. I got up relatively early and packed up the camper. It’s annoying that the boat didn’t work, but it is the first trip of the year and things usually need tweaking. I guess I do need to take the boat in this week and look at my wish list item, a much quieter generator…
Hoarfrost
We’ve had a marvellous winter. Our January thaw lasted almost three weeks, with temperatures at or above 0°C throughout. In short, it has not been the traditional Yukon winter, although we haven’t really had a really cold winter in quite a while.
The advantage of the warm weather has been that it hasn’t been quite as dry as usual. My sinuses and hide are both quite grateful over that, by the way. And, another advantage has been that when the temperature eventually did drop south of freezing, we get a nice freezing fog and hoarfrost.
I like the way that frost and sunlight interact, so went out on the front step while the sun was starting to drop and grabbed a few pictures. After all, it’s nice to have an excuse to play with the new camera…
An odd start to a morning
This morning started in quite an odd, but interesting, manner. The oddity began when I went out the front door to drive to work. On the fence between the front and the back yards, there were several magpies. They were looking over the fence and squawking like they were upset over something. So, I figured I’d walk over and look.
This was the odd part. Magpies are members of the jay family, which includes crows and ravens. And, if you’ve ever had any experience with magpies, you’ll know they are incredibly wary of people. Try to walk up to a magpie and see how quickly they disappear. This time, though, they didn’t. I was about two feet from the nearest one sitting on the fence.
Near the base of the fence, lying on the ground, was a dead magpie. The other magpies seemed far more interested in the dead one than me. They perched on the fence and squawked. Bagging up the dead magpie and putting it in the garbage container at that point didn’t seem appropriate, so for some reason I muttered, “Excuse me,” walked back to the truck and drove to work.
When I came home, I dealt with the dead magpie. There was not a mark on the magpie so it wasn’t a predator of some sort that killed it. I don’t know what happened to it. It didn’t seem old.
The odd part is that, this morning, I felt like I had attended a funeral. Since they didn’t fly off like they normally would, I felt like I was invited. I don’t know if this is common behaviour with magpies, but if funeral ceremonies are good enough for people, they should be good enough for them, too…
I’m Going to Trademark the Expression ‘Unite the Left’
This is the last of my CBC Your Take blog entries. Thanks to the CBC for the opportunity to write them and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them over the election.
Unite the Left is probably going to be a phrase you hear reasonably frequently in the near future. This is due to the Liberal Party being devastated in last night’s election, and this result was also seen in the Yukon.
Larry Bagnell, the Liberal incumbent who has held the seat since 2000 lost (by a rather narrow margin of less than 1% of the total vote) to Conservative Ryan Leef. Larry received 5,290 votes to 5,422 votes. In 2008, the Conservative candidate, Darrell Pasloski, won 4,788 votes and 32.66% of the vote. Ryan Leef won 634 votes more than the CPC won last time when it was running a very popular local businessman.
What happened in this election? Larry Bagnell garnered 1,425 fewer votes this time. This is important in that about 1,330 more people voted in this election than in 2008. The population, using estimates, increased by about 2,000 people over that time.
Where did Larry’s votes go? I think much of the answer can be seen in that John Streicker, the Green Party candidate, received more than 1,150 votes more than he did in the 2008 campaign and Kevin Barr, the NDP candidate, received more than 1,030 more votes than the NDP representative did last time.
This was a bit of a suprise, since many people thought that either Larry or John were a shoe-in for the seat and last week, the local polling firm placed Larry as receiving about 44% of the vote. Ryan Leef was supposed to garner 24% of the vote (a result that, once again, reaffirms my belief in the correlation between polling and witchcraft).
How similar will these numbers will be when the official results are released? It will be interesting to see if the increased number of voters reflects an increase in the youth vote or not.
So, I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out. And, I’m also looking forward to seeing how many people want to use my new trademarked phrase… for, of course, the appropriate fee.
Once More Into the Breach
The last of the candidate forums took place Wednesday evening and again, there was little possibility of calling this a debate. This was sponsored by CBC and included an online Facebook feed and Twitter component as well. I was hoping to live blog the event but discovered that, when the hotel said that WiFi was available for the event, it just wasn’t available in the room where it was held.
The format was slightly different, in that the candidates answered questions from the floor and telephone and did have a chance at rebuttal after their earlier chance to answer. However, each of the candidates supported the various concerns, be it reducing violence against women or increasing the amount of affordable housing.
Some of the obvious things that appeared were the standard issues. Some of the candidates are very unfamiliar with the difference between Federal and Provincial/Territorial responsibilities. This was apparent in the answers on free entry staking mining and when discussing education as part of their answers. Much of the time, candidates read their responses from party platforms and their answers seemed flat and uninteresting. In one case, Ryan Leef, the Conservative candidate, refused to answer a question on how the candidates felt about removing support for abortion counseling. His response, that he knew little about the subject so it would be improper to answer, drew a bit of ire from the crowd.
Not all of the questions proposed were asked due to the two-hour time limit on the event. However, a point of note was that some issues, such as health care and the long gun registry, were not brought up in the discussion.
One aspect of many of the responses was the amount of time candidates spent referring to their history. One tweet from the Twitter feed dealt with this: “when a candidate speaks about himself, he has nothing to say.”
Winners? Losers? Most of the comments on Twitter and Facebook suggest that John Streicker, the Green Candidate, was the most passionate and informed. But, in the long run, I don’t see where these forums actually accomplished a great deal. There should be a more structured debate format rather than the current one next time. The current format does nothing to allow you to differentiate between the various parties and probably adds little to deciding on whom you’d choose.
For all intents and purposes, there should be little more to the campaign. The leaders are all running around safe ridings to ride out the last few days and avoid doing a “Kim Campbell” at the end of the campaign. Few big issues will come forward to prevent making any mistakes in the final days. Now, the main thing that remains is wondering what will come from the NDP polling results, a trend you probably will not see extended to our riding…
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Live Blog
My posting today starts with an apology. I had planned to use Cover It Live to cover last night’s candidates’ forum. My plan was to do this through WiFi. I contacted the Gold Rush Inn early in the week and was told that WiFi was available. Sadly, their WiFi network doesn’t extend into the meeting room where the forum was held and I had no way of notifying people to the contrary. Sorry.
Doug Rutherford 