A politician I respect, and a comedian I love

I was going to write solely today about Ed Broadbent's comments today in the Journal (and I'm sure other CanWest Global papers), about his frustrations over the years with our current electoral system and discussing other options besides first-past-the-post. I have always liked and respected Broadbent (maybe because I "came of age" during the Mulroney years...), even if I don't always agree with some of his party's policies (remember, I'm supposed to vote for the Bloc!). I was sad when he retired, happy when he "unretired", and sad that he's leaving again. I too am frustrated with our electoral system - it really doesn't matter who I vote for (election prediction coming), I'm in Alberta so I can already tell you that my MP will once again be Conservative Rona Ambrose (who is a very likable and intelligent person, regardless of what you think of Conservatives in general).

But then, I read something that I also had to mention today - trust Rick Mercer to find a way to liven things up even though his show's on break until after Christmas. You may have heard about top Liberal aide Scott Reid's criticism of the Conservative child-care plan, saying that the proposed child-care allowance could be used by parents to buy "beer and popcorn". Angry outrage has now included a petition at kidsnotbeer.com. But, now Rick Mercer has decided to protest the obvious "anti-beer agenda" on his blog, and he has created his own petition at http://www.beernotkids.com/. If you remember Rick's last petition, I think this one will be bigger than Stockwell Day changing his name to Doris - I just wish his show was on this week so that we could see Mercer rant about this...(I had no luck in trying to find the Stockwell/Doris rant clip online...)