While, I think of Hamilton more often now that I am about to visit and I have great pride for Hamilton. We are a city with so many strengths. I remember this event with extreme pride. Our city looked so great and so many people came out to the National Cycling Championships!
This picture is from Friday June 27, 2003 at about 0800. I am briefing my volunteers for the day. I cannot say enough great things about these volunteers. They were great and worked very hard. I hope that Hamilton gets another Cycling Championship, it was the most exciting event I have ever seen in Hamilton.
In other news, I have received my preliminary exam schedule and it appears I will be done April 23rd. I am not sure where I will be for the summer, I may decide to take courses at University of Alberta or University of New Brunswick. I am very excited right now and cannot wait for this summer!
September is getting closer by the day. I cannot wait to return to Hamilton and return to being a contributor to my community.

I may go on a roadtrip this weekend to Calgary to attend the War & Security Conference at the University of Calgary. Probably not, but one of the floormates is going so I may as well.
I noticed that the 820CHAM website in Hamilton is saying that a new 820CHAM is immerging today. I am hoping that it is a talk-format with Jason Farr as one of the on-air personalities. I really hope they get a webstream so I can enjoy it from Winnipeg.

The Political Science Conference is this week!

Okay, I did not really care that this guy’s corruption resulted in the end of Sgro’s time in Cabinet. I say let the Martinites rip each other apart and be evil little politicians with each other, I do not care.
But when it is hurting charities that are doing a good job of helping people, while I get pissed off!
You know, this makes me angry!
I can see why so many services are going away from Not-For-Profits and Charities ….. simple these groups are not allowed to give kickbacks to the Liberal Party. Which is a good thing about charities and not-for-profits, I do not want my taxpaying money to be funnelled to the Liberal party. That is why we have the sponsorship inquiry, to try to stop this funnelling of money.
Now that the Liberals are privativing these services, the money is able to flow back into Liberal coffers.
Joe Volpe is more interested in making sure money is funnelled first to the Liberal Party and then to his riding. He does not care about the people that lose out, as long as the Liberal Party coffers are filled.
The Liberal Party of Canada – desparately searching for new ways to funnel money without ad agencies.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/01/27/nonprofit050127.html

Now that I am sitting in an acting capacity on the UMSU Council I have starting changing my flights to attempt to be here on campus for the February 10th UMSU Council Meeting. I will be unable to post an updated Calendar because of the shorttime lines and constant changes I will be making. I look forward to landing in Hamilton, it will be cool to see Hamilton from above

While, I am eating my dinner, scanning over 100′s of lines of computer programming when I get approached by the College (A division of my University is called a college) Student Council President and asked to go to an UMSU (University of Manitoba Student’s Union) meeting. Little did I realize that I would be sitting on the council, the highest student governing body at the University of Manitoba.
While, I was a “proxy” councillor. Basically, I am there in place of the regular councillor but I am a full-member for the meeting and able to participate as such. I was there to represent St. Andrew’s College and look out of the interests of my fellow students.
(CONTINUED – FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW)

Continue reading →

http://shannondavis.blogspot.com/2005/01/big-important-reminder.html

Don’t forget that this Friday, January 28, is the first official meeting of the Warren Kinsella Fan Club. I nominate Paul Wells for president.
Actually, Warren should probably be president of the Paul Wells Fan Club. Warren on November 13, 2004: “I love Paul Wells. I adore him.” How sweet. And now he’s posting silly stuff like a picture of Paul with horns growing out of his head. As my grade seven social studies teacher said, when a guy picks on you, it probably means he likes you. Remember Warren, Valentine’s day is coming up, so be sure to get Paul a special something to show him how you feel.

http://shannondavis.blogspot.com/2005/01/big-important-reminder.html

I have updated kboysandgirlsclub.com overnight and I think it is my best job ever!
Check it out – kboysandgirlsclub.com

Read below two posts for A Canadian Web Flame War in Progress
While it appears that this Flame War is no longer Kinsella vs Spector
It is now
Kinsella vs Wells
Spector vs a newcomer.
The newcomer is Kate, right-wing, with her blog Small Dead Animals which was voted “Best Canadian Blog” in an American Blog
voting contest.
Kate vs Norman is occuring on the Western Standard Group Blog.
So the Canadian Blogosphere now has two right of centres fighting each other in one corner, and two left of centres fighting each other in the other corner.
As a Poli. Sci. student, I find this very interesting. All four are making good points. I am logging these blogs for future use when I take Politics and The Media at McMaster.
Warren’s View
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm
Norman’s View
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2005/01/normans_spectat_25.html
Paul’s View
http://weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/
Oracle of Ottawa’s View
http://www.oracleofottawa.org/new_ink_current.htm
Kate’s Blog
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/

I have added a link to Warren Kinsella’s Blog. His blog is a model in a way for what I am trying to do with my blog. My political life is a little boring right now so I do not get as much politics on my blog as I want. But I do get some of my personal humanity on my blog. I was just reading his blog and it reminded me that everyone, no matter how political, is human.
His latest post really touched me.

Life in the Canadian Blogosphere just got very interesting.
In one corner; Former Chief of Staff to Brian Mulroney, leading Canadian News Junky, member of the Western Standard Group Blog, and Maclean’s Magazine.
In the right corner: Norman Spector
In the other corner; Senior Staffer to PM Chretien, a witness at the sponsorship scandal inquiry, loyalist to Chretien (and Sheila Copps – a politican I strongly support), top left-wing Canadian Blogger, columnist for the National Post, and communications guru.
In the left corner: Warren Kinsella
This started when Norman on his daily press review commented on Warren’s appearance at the inquiry.
Warren shot back
Norman returned fire
Warren shots back again
Enter Paul Wells: Columnist for Maclean’s magazine.
gets in and shoots at Warren
Warren shots back at Paul Wells and put a childish picture of Paul Wells on his website:

(note picture is not hosted on my site – it is directly from warrenkinsella.ca)
Norman shots a little bit today on his website
and the Oracle of Ottawa states his views this morning on his website.
Warren’s View
http://www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm
Norman’s View
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2005/01/normans_spectat_25.html
Paul Well’s View
http://weblogs.macleans.ca/paulwells/
Oracle of Ottawa’s View
http://www.oracleofottawa.org/new_ink_current.htm
A NEW POST – Canadian Web Flame War in Progress II added on 27 Jan 05 check it out on the main page of my blog

Evidence of my hard work!
We had 5 of these nerf-type toys and were ambushing each other for about 30 minutes. This was the best shot with me in it. I am waiting for someone to come out of their room. They had retreated into it.

It is -6 today. So I will be making a couple of trips off-campus to do my personal admin. I love days like today. Except that it is very foggy.

University of Manitoba Political Studies Students Conference is next week here at the University of Manitoba.
It will be a very interesting event with a focus on Canada/US Relations.
I look forward to the Defense/Security section of the conference where I will ask a question of the Panel.
Right now I think I am going to ask one of the following three questions:
1) With our Defense budget being the 16th highest in the world we are spending more per capita than most countries in the world yet we have nothing to show for it. With this in mind, would it not make more sense for the country to not increase the Defense budget, instead would it not make sense to get rid of the tens of thousands of uniformed bureaucrats that do nothing more than chase their tails in Ottawa everyday?
2) I take great pride in being a Canadian, especially when I know that one of the top Generals in Iraq is a Canadian. The Americans are very pleased with his performance, very much like they were pleased with the PPCLI’s performance in Afganistan. With this in mind, would it not make sense to reshaped the Canadian Military to have specialized units that can easily interact with the Americans?
3) The blackout of 2003 exposed many glaring problems with the Canadian Government and its inability to respond to a potential crisis on any scale. Has the Canadian Government done anything to prepare for a similar event in the future?
If you are one of my fellow Manitobans make sure to check out the website for the conference: www.umpssc.ca
and make sure to come out for the Conference.