Plenty of Nothing

End Times Schedule

Foggy Dew

Instant Wakame Soup

Japanese packaging is so lovely it's a shame to open it. I am filled with despair at a world in which you must tear up beautiful art! D

Brazilian Soccer Name Generator

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Fiddleheads

Evangeline Brandt "Ilha do Corvo"

Pillar Art

Louis Plamondon

Each federal election brings about a certain amount of change in the composition of the House of Commons, but some are more like extinction events. 1984 saw the Liberals reduced from 147 to 40. In 1993 the Progressive Conservatives toppled from 169 to 2. And in last week's election the Bloc Québécois went from 49 members to 4. Member of Parliament is almost always a short-term career, and few Canadian MPs have enjoyed what in many walks of life would be considered a normal 40-year career.

Louis Plamondon is the current ironman of the House of Commons. He was first elected in the Progressive Conservative landslide of 1984, unseating a Trudeau Liberal. A Red Tory with affiliations to labour, it was once suggested to him by a party colleague that he might be more comfortable in the NDP. Instead, he broke with the Tories in 1990 following Meech Lake and joined the caucus of Québéc nationalists who became the Bloc and swept the Conservatives out of Québéc in 1993. When Bill Blaikie quit federal politics in 2008, Plamondon became Dean of the House of Commons, a mainly ceremonial title that includes presiding over the election of the Speaker. As longest-serving Bloc member, Plamondon might be expected to take up the leadership of its four-member rump, but he says he doesn't want the job.

Other current MPs who have sat in the House of Commons as Progressive Conservatives are: Lee Richardson, Bernard Valcourt, Peter MacKay, Scott Brison, Gerald Keddy and Gary Schellenberger. 

Concert Flier

Halifax is a city of musicians and visual artists, so it should come as no surprise when the telephone poles blossom into little art galleries just before the weekend. Despite the vitality and wit these notices add to the town there is still the Temporary Signs Bylaw, and the fellow with the staple gun can be looking at a fine of $478 if caught red-handed.

Evangeline Brandt "Hellions"