Ah, the Senate

Well it's an interesting week in terms of the senate.

One of the most interesting appointments, at least in Quebec, is the appointment of Jacques Demers to the senate. Famous now for admiting his illiteracy there's been a fair amount of commentary on this choice. (Which I think was the point)

What also piqued my interest this week was the following comment by Matthew Yglesias


— It’s also important to have in place systems for effective monitoring of elected officials. A Canadian voter elects one federal official—a Member of Parliament. An American elects four—a President, two Senators, and one Representative. Americans don’t have four times as much time as Canadians to pay attention to what politicians are doing or to learn the issues; our politicians are just being monitored less. When you consider the proliferation of things like independently elected school boards, district attorneys, sherrifs, etc. keep in mind that this diffusion of responsibility is a good way for the egomaniacal to evade
responsibility.


This is actually one of the best arguments against Senate reform. I've never really understood who the Senators would represent. It would complicate Federal-provincial relations. Ultimately I kind of like the idea of undercutting the provinces by having an elected Senate that can represent regional (or provincial) interests in federal legislation. However the possibility of gridlock is there. Also of course on paper is one thing, but in reality I can imagine elected senators trying to expand their power.

One of the reasons the Senate actually works is because of its illegitimacy. It has a high amount of power, but it is checked by the fact that they are not elected.

Generally, I think it works ok, and I think there are a lot of problems with having elected senators.

What to write about?

Unfortunately I had a great idea for this post, and even started writing it out in my head, but then went to sleep and promptly forgot not only the wonderful lines I had written, but also the topic.

So, I guess this one will be short.

I'm having trouble finding dress pants. I think partly it's because I dont' really enjoy shopping, but I'm surprised how difficult it is to find pants. I have a really nice lightweight pair of summer dress pants that need to be replaced but I can't find out where to go.

Partly this is because Ottawa, despite having so many bureaucrats is not a very good place to shop for men's clothes. Montreal would be much easier (and probably cheaper). It's surprisingly difficult here.

Oh well...I guess that's it for this week.

Information overload!

One of my recent discoveries was the google reader. This allows you to gather RSS feeds from different websites.

I used to check out probably 10-15 websites daily, sometimes a few times a day. Using RSS feeds I've been able to increase the number of sites I follow, as I don't waste time surfing sites which haven't been updated. It also allows me to keep track of sites that aren't updated very often, and I might overlook.

However it really changes the nature of the process. You can see how many unread articles there are. I think that's a big part of the feeling of information overload.

For me it's the same with itunes. I haven't had my number of un listened to podcasts dip below 20 for quite some time! I end up deleting interesting material simply because I don't think I'll have time to get for it. It's actually not too bad during the summer because some of the podcasts don't get updated.

I guess this is the problem of the internet age, too much information.

Urban Revolution

I just finished an interesting book called the Urban Revolution, it's an interesting book that focuses on what the author Jeb Brugmann calls urbanisms, which are urban capacities and style and way of doing things unique to a given city.

What was interesting was how he put Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver in the category of opportunity cities. These are cities which have a hard time getting everyone organized to take advantage of their strategic advantages, to create a really amazing urbanism. Part of this is due to way our cities are organized politically, they are seen are the poor cousin of provinces and lack revenue raising tools that would allow them to be more flexible and create in their development policies.

One of the most interesting parts of the book for me, was related to his description of Chicago, and the importance of community organizers and community organizations in revitalizing and create the civic space, which has helped reclaim neighbourhoods in that city. It made me want to go and visit Chicago, and also reminded me of the few times I'd been there, only to the downtown core. I'm always struck by how important a city it is, and how little I know about it's importance and not only because a Chicagoan is now in the White House.

It has one of the busiest airports in the U.S, Chicago is a big city as well. It has an important University and a well known Symphony Orchestra. There is such a thing as Chicago style Jazz, and also Chicago style Pizza, which speak to a sort of cultural influence as well.

I haven't been there in quite a while but after the description in the book, of the renaissance of Chicago it makes me want to explore it again.