Luke Walker :: Blog

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If there are two things in this world that I love, they are TED talks and John Hodgman (the order is unimportant). I haven’t yet gotten around to picking up his new book, More Information than You Require, though I fully intend to as soon as my reading list dwindles a bit. In the meantime, here is a bit of a diversion for you all:

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Every Canadian knows of a wonderful, magical place that can cure all your ills, and fill you in a way no other fast food restaurant can or wants to. It is a place worthy of an epic journey, a la Harold & Kumar.

“It” is White Castle.

Last month, I had the good fortune of spending a few days in beautiful Northern Kentucky, famously (mis)marketed as the South Side of Cincinnati (The mis-marketing is a topic for another time and place. Let’s leave it at: I’d never be happy living someplace that built its identity in relation to a bigger, better place. I know, I know, Canada… but here we are). It is also home to a vast array of liquor and tobacco shops, a “main strasse” (I don’t know why they pulled out the German there) and a White Castle. Read more

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New on Tuna Cupcake:

As of yesterday, fishermen off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia (where lobster is currently in season) were getting $2.25 CAN per pound. That’s insanely cheap… and worrisome to many a fisher out there. Know who it doesn’t really worry? Me. For me, it just means lots of potential for delicious lobster.

Now, it’s not as cheap in Toronto (note: speculation. I’m too lazy to go to a grocery store with a lobster tank.), but that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from the cheaper-than-chicken status of lobster (note #2: the weight of lobster includes like… the whole thing, not just the meat you’re going to eat. So you have to factor in all the other junk… but again, too lazy to know what kind of ratio we’re talking there.) So what should you do with this delicious lobster? Read more on tunacupcake.com.

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This makes me chuckle… You can customize it to have your own name and the names of all your non-voting friends!

 

Click here to do it up!

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To start, the actual title of this series “The Best of: Thanksgiving when you’re a single 20-something whose parents are an 18 hour drive away and whose roommate really hates Thanksgiving.” But that would eaten up a lot of screen space, so I decided to trim it a bit. Also, too, however, and as well (Palin-ism), my Thanksgivings have not always been unfortunate affairs. I used to have great, delicious, possibly nutritious, family gatherings that left everyone sleepy and a bit testy, and I’ve even had some good Thanksgivings in Toronto. But they’ve been a slippery slope heading toward a downward spiral. And they are documented… HERE. Also click here for the brand new, just launched surprise.

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Not to say that we’re not on heading toward recession, that the downturn in the US economy is doing anything to help our situation, or that everything is rosy and great.

BUT:

Do we really have a banking crisis in Canada? Just throwing this out there for thoughts… Peter Mansbridge, in his interview with Stephen Harper today, mentioned the banking crisis several times (watch). I’m not denying that we live in an interconnected world, that the US economy won’t drag ours down, or that our financial institutions stand alone, separate from the global banking system. But when no banks have failed, and the biggest issue they’re having seems to be that they’re stuck with (in CIBC’s case, very substantial) bad sub-prime mortgage debt from the US… when Canadian companies like Manulife are looking to scoop up American behemoths like AIG… When the best example the CBC could find of someone who is ‘hurting’ because of our ‘banking crisis’ is a guy who couldn’t refinance his condo so that he could jump into the stock market while it’s down (note: he eventually found financing)… do we really have a crisis on the scale of that in the US? Do we really need to be demanding to know how our leaders would react given the (unrealistic) event of a US-style collapse?

Granted, we do have two very serious situations at play:

1. The drastic downturn of the US economy, failure of its banking sector, and huge public debt burden creating a perfect storm in our biggest trading partner

2. The stock market sucks

The outlook isn’t amazing, and we’ll have to deal with that. But is it really fair to say we have a banking crisis? Where’s the evidence of that? Please, point it out. And is the focus on ‘our’ banking crisis in the media and in the election campaign not just serving to exacerbate the problem and decrease public confidence, further exacerbating the problems… basically putting us into a downward spiral? Isn’t that really, if you think about it, an overreaction that we (and our leaders) are driving?

I don’t often agree with Stephen Harper, but frankly, I do agree that lending is and has always been better regulated here, that banks are in more secure financial situations (and are more ethical than their US counterparts in many ways), that our relatively more healthy budget and debt situation puts us in a better place to deal with a banking crisis, were it to erupt, than the US, and that a good leader doesn’t set policy or change plans based on the nightly news or movements in the markets. I honestly have to give him all those points. And we, Canadians, have to learn our lessons: save more, buy things you can afford, and if a deal sounds too good to be true….

We’re still talking about a crisis at the margins. Our credit crunch has not yet reached the mainstream, although it feels like the power of public opinion alone is pushing is in that direction. But this issue, given our context, is getting way too much attention, at the expense of some other very important issues impacting our economy, and our society more broadly. That word ‘context’ is absolutely crucial. We’re hardly in an optimal situation here, from a consumer information perspective. Individual investors and voters have always suffered because their access to information, even in the age of the internet, is even more imperfect than that of bigger players. Add to that the complexity of the situation (I have a degree in economics, and it confuses the hell out of me), and our inundation with foreign media/relative scarcity of local focus in coverage, and… well, who can even make sense of it. I think that the media, as much as they have been emphasizing the relative differences between the Canadian and US economics at the structural level, have a short term focus that thrives on a crisis, which is only helping to create an overreaction among both investors and voters. But the impacts of that short term focus are definitely only going to hit us in short, or at worst, medium term.

My worry bigger worry is for the longer term. Both Canada and the US are in the middle of elections, times when spin goes out of control and issues that could otherwise be dealt with in a relatively rational way become blown out of proportion. Politicians have to focus on getting elected, and reacting to a crisis while in that mindset… well, you can’t deny that they’ve got competing priorities. My fear is that leaders and parties will take and are taking (I’m looking at you, Jack Layton) the cheap road–the Sarah Palin road. I can already see Jack Layton, in his references to the Great Depression, taking a populist, alarmist, and even fear-mongering focus that can and will, without providing complete or even factual information, influence a choice that people can only make once ever four years–their vote.

Image credit: Public Citizen

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So yeah, I’m a *tiny* bit obsessed Sarah Palin. And, as Gawker says, Tina Fey is probably the only good thing about her. Every time I need to bring a bit of joy to my day, I tune in to NBC.com and watch one of the (now three) amazing Tina-Fey-as-Sarah-Palin clips. Of course, if she’s actually elected, I don’t think there’s a thing in the world that could bring joy to my days. If we even have days left… Oh dear…

Some great lines:

Tina Fey (as Sarah Palin): “Also, too, you see, I think a little differently from an insider. I don’t think it’s patriotic to pay more taxes. I don’t think it’s patriotic to criticize these wars we got goin’ on. I do it’s patriotic to tell the government ‘Hey, get outta my way. Stop trying to impose on my right to shoot wolves from a helicopter.’ But a Washington insider like Joe Biden probably disagrees.”

Another great line: “Gwen, we don’t know if this climate change whozywhatsit is man-made or if it’s just a natural part of the end of days…[flipping to taxes] We are not afraid to get maverickey and ruffle feathers and not got to allow that and also too… the great Ronald Reagan.”

[Update: Embedded video is completely b0rked in IE, but can be found here. NBC's embed code was futzing it up totally, so I cut the IE code... just don't use IE. Ever.]

[Update 2: Thank you NBC for giving us Canadians snippets and bits of video. Not as good as, say, Hulu or watching full episodes online, legally, but better than nothing.]

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Canada’s got a big choice ahead of it. Ideally, it would be a race for the Prime Minister’s office. Realistically, it’s a battle against a Conservative majority and [impending doom music] the end of Canada as we know. Jokes, jokes. But a majority would be bad, and it’s a tough fight for those trying to stop it.

The campaign, in typical Canadian style, isn’t overly negative–even the attack ads. Take bushharper.com. A simple site with a simple premise. Stephen Harper’s politics are the same as GW Bush’s. A couple of videos that make a couple off good points. Nothing too intense. Googling it, I saw of lot of the obvious ‘wow, that’s desperate’ from conservative/Conservative bloggers, and perhaps it is. I tend to think it’s more right on the money than it is desperate, but whatever. That’s not what this is about.

What this is about is how much these videos/this site say about the Liberal party’s really bad job at messaging. The Liberals, you say? How did they come up? Oh, dear friends–they’ve funded the site, and a number of other relatively anonymous efforts at telling Canadians that Harper is a bad choice of leader. But you’d never know, unless you watch through to the end of the second video, or looked at the fine print on the site. They may as well be the work of, well, anyone. Unlike Sarah Silverman’s TheGreatSchlep.com, there is no clear link back to the funder (in her case, JewsVote.org), just some fine print. In a campaign where so many people are pushing Anyone But Conservative strategic voting initiatives, you could be forgiven for thinking the site was the work of one of those groups. But it’s not. It’s a Liberal site that should be encouraging us all to vote Liberal, right?

Mixing messages can be a tough thing. Sure, they want to focus on the Green Shift message and get that out there, and confusing you by putting too many different messages in your head is a Bad Thing. I like the Green Shift, but there are right ways and wrong ways to go about that, and unfortunately, the path they’ve chosen isn’t working. Frankly, focusing on positioning the Liberals as better leaders for a Canadian Canada could sell.

And sure, attack ads are risky. In this case, I think they’re making a good point, and they are definitely no worse than the attack ads the Conservatives are throwing their way (and doing a much better job of, might I add). There are a lot of reasons you might not want to be associated too directly with a really negative campaign, but this isn’t that. It’s not overly personal, it’s not unfounded, and given the recent news that Stephen Harper swiped a speech that John Howard gave that was actually fed to BOTH of them via the Bush administration, well… it needs to be said.

But here’s the crux of it: This is not an ‘if not A then B’ situation. It is not a given that one vote scared away from the Conservatives is a vote for the Liberals. Anything but… There are subtle references to the Liberals, and you can find out that the site/ads are funded by the Liberals if you read the small print (and, if you get around to watching the second video, a mention there), but where’s the call to action? Where’s the push TO something? With a very strong New Democrat threat (and it is a threat to our country as we know it, but that’s a discussion for another time), the Liberals can’t afford to let people connect the dots, or to assume that they are still the de facto ‘other party’ in people’s minds.

To the Liberal war room: it’s too late to get my vote. Mine’s cast, and not in your favour. But like millions of other Canadians, I can’t stand the thought of a Conservative [false] majority, and the four years of trampling on the ideals and opinions of the real majority that travesty would enable. I honestly think that your Green Shift is along the right path, and your ads are pretty good. But you need to make a connection between your arguments and the action you want the audience to make. It’s very specific. You want a vote. You don’t want them to learn more about Liberals. You don’t want them to vote for someone other than Stephen Harper. You want them to vote for YOU, so you need to say it. If Stephen Harper wins a [false] majority, it will be a lot of people’s fault, but for the most part, the blame will be yours to bear. You can do better.

Oh by the way, check out AnyoneButHarper.ca if you want to find out which opposition party has the best chance of winning your riding (it’s NOT funded by the Liberals). And don’t forget to vote on October 14th, if you didn’t get around to it this weekend!

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Seriously folks, I worked from home today, and i:

• Got more done (way more) that I would in the office


• Was more relaxed


• Had time to go for a run


• Managed to run the same presentations and meetings


• Ate way healthier food than I normally do

I also worked longer and took fewer breaks. I know it’s not exactly rocket science, and everyone is telecommuting these days, but seriously, this is the first time i really hit me that I actually not only concentrate better at home, but actually get more done.

And I have time to read more internet-ey things: Gawker, Youtube (great Obama clip), and BlogTO (a little bit of sxsw-style action in Toronto?, just to name a few.