Killing time

I have an hour before heading out to Quinpool to meet my Quebeckie just-got-back-from-a-year-in-Spain friend Manon at Clay Cafe so for some reason I chose to visit the computer lab and it's giving me a killer headache. Oh well, there's not a lot else to do on campus and it (tut, tut) looks like rain. For the record, if nobody gets that reference I'll feel like an outcast.

I did some door-to-door canvassing with Graham last night and it was actually a lot of fun - way better than phone canvassing to be sure, people are way more responsive in person and especially so when they get to speak directly with the candidate. Let's not talk about unpleasant experiences with calling people on behalf of a certain environmental organization...it must be even worse when you have to call and ask for money! You also have to admire a person who can engage with people on just about any topic. Kinda daunting when you're considering an eventual career in politics. I'm learning a bunch of the tricks of the trade, though, and I get to play Miss Political.

Anyway, it's nice to see interest in the environmental side of Nova Scotian politics in all the campaign brouhaha. The Herald has been running some kind of article about a related topic just about every day. The parties have also begun releasing their environmental platforms and of course, the Greens have their first-ever full slate of candidates (incidentally, they have more candidates than the Liberals, at 52 vs. 51). One thing I'd love to see would be the province taking over where the federal Conservatives abandoned us (when they cancelled the Energuide program), and subsidizing building retrofits for increased energy efficiency. However, removing the tax from home heating fuel is more popular so the political winds will favour that. It's so frustrating that the environment is marginalized as a "special issue" when really, it's everyone's issue and should be way closer to the foreground of our collective consciousness. We need to begin, as a society, to give the issue more than lip service.

If I were a superhero, my superpowers would be cartwheels and the sad face (with corresponding sad noises). Oh, and my supersuit would be made of organic hemp.