I'm back!

Well, after a self imposed 6 month vacation from blogging, I'm back. All in all, it's not a bad time for blogging. We have a Liberal leadership race that should start to heat up as the September delegate selection process approaches its nadir. The International AIDs conference and our Prime Minister's absence from the afair is certainly comment worthy. Is it just me, or does it seem a bit whimpy for the PM to avoid the conference for fear of being heckeled and booed. Is that leadership? When it comes to pandering to his base, Mr. Harper can be very resolute. Evidence the strength of his statements on Canada's role in the middle east and Afghanistan, on gay marriage etc. There is also the interesting fact that Mr. Harper seems to believe (by raising the age of consent) that a 14 year old is not responsible enough to make reproductive and sexual choices, but a 10 year old can be held responsible for crimes in adult court. Again - lots of strong words to appeal to his conservative base. But when doing the right thing (like funding the Vancouver safe injection site which all of the research says is making a difference) goes against his base - Mr. Harper is weak.

However today - I just thought I would mention that my neighbourhood was visited early yesterday morning by an unwelcome element - gunfire. At about 5:30 yesterday morning, somewhere around 8 to 10 shots were fired on the front street directly in front of my home and then a Japanese car with a "sport" muffler sped away. Thankfully, our home was not the target, but the house across the street. All in all, I am told by the Vancouver Police community liaison officer that 10 9 millimetre shell casings were recovered. One of the shots made a 6 inch long 3/4 inch diameter furrow through the hood of the Volvo parked across the street. At least one shot penetrated all the way into a rear bathroom shower.

I don't know much about my neighbour across the street - I know the neighbours on both sides of me quite well because this side of the street and the homes that share the same back alley have a block watch program and we have had block parties and BBQs and our children often play street hockey in the back alley. What I do know about the house across the street is that there is a basement rental suite, that appears to be rented to a couple of young guys with very expensive cars. This is probably a good indication that I should get to know the other side of the street.

On the subject of getting to know the other side of the street, if Mr. Harper is ever going to form a majority government he need to expand his appeal outside of his base. Pandering is not going to get him anywhere.