Oh dear, politics. Canadian politics no less.

I think most Canadians avoid politics as a matter of distaste, which is both understandable and unfortunate. But something interesting is going on.

There's a summary on Wikipedia: 2008 Canadian political dispute

For any Americans that may be reading: This demonstrates how our multiple party system (as compared to two-parties in the U.S.) operates. With several oppositional parties, it's entirely possible for a Prime Minister to get elected with much less than 50% of the votes / seats, but still have the highest split between the various parties: We call that a minority government.

(overly-simplified definition, technically a minority gov't is anything less that 155 seats, but let's not argue the details).

So a "no confidence" vote to remove a Prime Minister is quite possible, as long as most of the other parties get together and agree. Which almost never happens. But here we are: The vote is expected on Monday.

Except our Prime Minister has a loophole plan to avoid the vote by temporarily suspending Parliament (via "prorogue"). That's a pretty rare use of the system too. Technically it can only be done by the Governor General, but that's an appointed (non-elected) position that's mostly ceremonial and expected to capitulate to the PM's requests.

Why is Parliament trying to remove our Prime Minister so soon after an election? There are a host of reasons, but the general thoughts are that he's been sitting on his hands while a worldwide economic crisis goes on.

So for the record, as a Canadian citizen, I support the "no confidence" vote and the coalition that is planning it. It's a constitutionally sound mechanic designed for exactly these circumstances. This is our representational democracy at work.

And I'm against Stephen Harper's attempt to block his fate by dismissing Parliament for months on end. Not only is it a dirty political trick (and not his first), but it seems irresponsible during a time when we need action from all portions of our government. His speech attempt to misdirect and stir it up as a French vs English issue doesn't help either, that pretty much illustrates the way he rolls.

Any minority government Prime Minister has to accept that they may be called into a "no confidence" vote of Parliament and further accept the results. You have to be pretty bad for all of these elected parties to agree on ousting you.

To put it bluntly, can we get this clown out of office now, please?

If the U.S. is concerned about the hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be lost if the Detroit Big Three go down with a whimper, then here's what they should do:

Divide up the 25billion+ bailout money to all the employees of these miserable companies, so they have a windfall they can rely on while seeking better employment.

I bet the money actually lasts longer that way. These people don't need jobs with those deadend companies. What would be more valuable would be to give them some time and opportunity to seek careers with more responsible and viable employers. Meanwhile it would inject some cash directly where it's more needed and ultimately more sustainable.

The current economic downturn was just the nail in the coffin on this one, these three companies have been mismanaged since the 80's, acting as if american cars were some sort of automatic tax on western culture. I just cannot believe that they'd change their corporate culture by tossing them another pile of money.

Let them sink. These aren't like the banks at all, it's inevitable. Let newer companies do the innovating.

I'm not a Libertarian. This isn't an argument in defence of pre-defined principles. It's just about my sense of smell and this one stinks.

We just finished a national election here in Canada and did anyone notice? Worst voter turnout ever.

There's not much local political awareness. You can be derisive about American media, but they have a deluge of information on their candidates. Meanwhile our news has done little more than cover our candidates' basic talking points.

Political satire is the most infectious and oddly-informing outlet. It's booming in the U.S. right now and what do we have in Canada?

CBC airs decade-old episodes of This Hour has 22 Minutes. Reruns are worse than nothing at all, it's just confusing. Some people actually think Kim Campbell is still our Prime Minister. CBC needs to take this old junk off the air.

We've got Rick Mercer, leftover from 22 Minutes, he's got the Rick Mercer Report but despite the similarity in the title it's not tongue-in-cheek like the Colbert Report. His blog was blank for the week leading up to the election, and on his show he covered honey bees and motorcross? Even he's bored of our political landscape.

Every episode of the Daily Show starts out with the day's date, so even if an episode is at most a week old, you know where it's at. And the Daily Show covers what's expected, the day's political news.

Now is the time when the collective MMO blogosphere takes a step back. After a rash of criticism towards game mechanics in recent games and upcoming expansions, we feel like we've been a bit harsh. After all, we love these games don't we? We have to prove we're not just critics.

In true passive-aggressive nerdcore fashion, we look inward.

It's time to wax philosophical about us gamers ourselves. What motivates us? How many problems in these games are caused by us, the gamers? How well do we treat each other? And what makes us so important anyway?

There are other, far more important things happening in the world, right? The world markets are hurting (don't say collapse). It's election day in Canada. Led Zeppelin isn't really getting back together.

We're just little squigs specs in this great big ol' Universe.

But dammit, joy and creative urges are the best things to live for. Gaming is part of that for me. If anyone asks me to look at a greater perspective, that's my take. So excuse me if (after voting) I queue for some Scenarios.

Now I just need to remember to kill the dude with the thing.

Just on a purely math / statistical point of view and not involving any political banter, it looks like Barack Obama will win the U.S. Democratic nomination, barring some giant shift in the landscape. I'm pointing this out because it's largely ignored by the mainstream news, I suppose they're more interested in making it seem like a dragged out fight even if this conclusion is probable.

CNN has an easy delegate calculator chart that makes it fairly obvious, of the remaining delegates:

Clinton needs 62% to claim the nomination.

Obama needs 44% to claim the nomination.

Obama doesn't need to win states outright, he just needs to fall within that margin, including the remaining Superdelegates.

Clinton won today in Pennsylvania, but not by a wide enough margin to make a serious dent in the seats Obama has already won. By most accounts, it was her strongest state of those remaining and 55% just isn't enough. If she continued with exactly those numbers (which seems unlikely) she still wouldn't stop Obama from going over the top.

Politically of course, it's presumptuous to point this out.

I know it's been said before. All too often the "fake news" of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report surpass the supposed "real" news media, in scope, substance and of course perspective.

Last night's Colbert Report really hit the spot, because it achieved (for me at least) the complete opposite of punditry: It gave me a fresh perspective on a piece of history that I was previously only mildly aware of.

With comedic grace, Stephen Colbert demonstrated the similarities in today's primary races with the George McGovern's fight against the establishment in both his own party and then the general election against Richard Nixon. The comedic bits were capped off with an interview with George McGovern himself.

Of course there was a certain amount of truthiness to the episode, but overall it gave me just as much food for thought as laughter.

I'd link to some Youtube clips but the topic filled most of the episode. I'm too lazy to figure out where you could watch its entirety online, but if you're so inclined I would say last night's episode was as good as any to dig out. Colbert packed more in that half-hour than any of the 24/7 news channels report in a week.

Hats off to Stephen Colbert and his excellent writing team as well.

I don't tend to discuss politics much.

Okay wait, that's a lie. In real life, I discuss politics all of the time. I'm actively vocal and many of my day-to-day decisions are strongly tempered by my political beliefs. On some topics, I'm an activist, but awareness is the first step.

I am reticent to discuss politics online. Spinning wheels against the entrenched arguments along political lines just covers us in mud. Trolls love to bathe in that stuff. But here goes--

I am watching the American primary races intently, yet oddly detached in a typically Canadian way. Very much aware that the political bent of the world's only "super power" affects the rest of the world deeply. I'm sure some folks might say it's not my country, so not my business, but by your own design your mess is everyone's mess. When you're at the wheel and you drive the bus off the road and into a ditch, the passengers don't give marks for any good driving beforehand.

As Bush Sr. put it: since the cold war ended, America leads the new world order. Meanwhile the rest of us are not granted the same power that your votes entail.

So please, if you've got that ability, express it. Don't squander it. There's so much that your country can achieve right now, but it's also on a precipice. Vote and choose wisely.

All the rest of us can do is wait and be tolerant of the results.