Politics and recession

For the "week in retrospect" part, we had a very interesting one. Reminds me of that Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times." The ruling conservative minority government came up with the fiscal update which was as inert as they are. No protection or bonuses offered to ease the pain of the global economy collapse. Oh sure, we were told that we won't be affected by the subprime mortgage fallout which spread from the US like cancer and metastized throughout the whole world. Yeah, Canada was supposed to be an Oasis of Fiscal Sanity in the fiscally insane world. Guess what--we ain't spared! We just lost over 70,000 jobs last month and are officially in recession. Anyway, the government bullied the opposition with unacceptable fiscal update, certain that they'll get away with it, because we just had elections and no one will dare to challenge them and risk another election. What a miscalculation! The opposition showed they actually grew some balls and formed a coalition which is ready to vote down the government. The conservatives started backpedaling and avoiding the vote of confidence. At the end, the Governor General (that's Canada's peculiarity--a figurehead, a "Queen's representative," a theatrical role held by a person we didn't know has any kind of power other than looking pretty, giving away annual literary awards and pinning the Order of Canada medals on the chests of old guys and gals) prorogued the parliament. For those like myself who have no clue what that meant, it means the parliament is suspended. In our case for 60 days! During which time the conservatives hope the coalition will fall apart, the recession will go away, the economy will miraculously heal itself and the Canadians will forgive them all. Well, this is a weird country, anything is possible. Tune back in 60 days, I'll tell you what happened.

As recession hit home, Maggie let me buy a leather office chair. I guess we'll be spending more time at home, so may as well keep my butt from hurting in a nice and comfy chair. Besides, we helped the economy by spending recklessly when frugality is advised. We'll help it some more tomorrow, if we find those bar stools Maggie liked, for the breakfast bar in the kitchen.