This is my first blog for informedvote, my name is Noah and I’m a History major at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. History and politics are my passion and I look forward to sharing my opinions through this blog.

Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international campaign touring University campuses across the United States and Canada, aimed at “enlightening” young people in North America about the injustices Palestinians face in within Israel. My problem lies not within the content, because I strongly believe everyone should be able to fight for what they believe in, but within the execution.

The Israel Apartheid week campaign simply feels like a campaign based on centuries of hate. The severity of this hatred is clear through the campaign’s main poster, depicts a helicopter labeled “Israel” shooting a rocket at a small boy holding a teddy-bear. This picture grossly misrepresents the nature of a conflict thousands of miles away, within circumstances unimaginable. This picture also shows absolutely no respect to the civilian victims on either side of the conflict, be them men, women, or children.
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A day doesn’t pass by without a media report relating to the economic downturn. Irrespective of its origin, architect, beneficiary or solution, a quick and robust solution to reverse this trend is inevitable. In this respect, governments around the world have been busy designing economic stimulus packages, necessitated by the unprecedented loss associated with this dire situation.

In a world of growing demand for energy and rising prices, the Canadian energy sector, a top five world energy producer, generated 5.6% of its national GDP in 2007. Canadian energy exports fuels a great deal of US energy imports, directly and indirectly breathing livelihood and economic sustenance to Canada.
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The most serious failures connected to the events of 9/11 are not those of US intelligence agencies, airport security services, NORAD and the like. Rather the deepest and darkest of the failures to protect us for those enemies that menace us most lie with journalists, mainstream media outlets, professors and the universities that employ us. It is we who have in the vast majority of cases chosen to abandon our skepticism and with it our professional ethics and responsibilities. By and large our professional class and caste continue to respond to the events of 9/11 in ways that are expedient rather than wise. As I see it, therefore, it is a mass treason of the intellectuals that constitutes the most significant underlying condition resulting in the continuing fraud known as the War on Terror. The War on Terror continues to be packaged, promoted and sold to the public in the most aggressive campaign of psychological warfare ever mounted. How many of us are complicit with our silence in this black psyop, the key enabling factor in the ongoing aggressive wars justified in the name of an unfounded and unproven official conspiracy theory of 9/11?………
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The militarization of the drug war (and other issues) has been a grave mistake and has caused the deaths of millions of innocent men, women and children throughout the world.

This reality serves only a small group of men and women whose job it is to manufacture weapons of war–at the expense of the other 95 percent of the world’s population.

If the pen is mightier than the sword (and corrupt politicians) then I suggest the United Nations use their collective pen to create a Pathway to Peace, namely:

1. Eliminate the prohibition of drugs
2. Legislate a prohibition on weapons of war

What would that look like…
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In the coming days, weeks and months you should start seeing an elimination of bottled water on municipal property.

In a time where Canadians are confused by what the Federal Government is doing about the economy it may be hard to celebrate the small things. The recent decision by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to phase out the sale of bottled water may make things a little easier.

Joe Cressy, member of Inside the Bottle, says, “In the same way that Coca-Cola doesn’t sell Pepsi in its building, we’re very pleased to see the FCM encouraging its municipalities not to provide bottled water on civici property.” Canada has some of the cleanest tap water and Canadians should be proud of that fact. This move helps to endorse that pride. This move is also one that has both environmental and economic benefits.
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The National Battlefields Commission created a major controversy by canceling a scheduled re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. While many commentators felt that the Battlefields Commission yielded to the demands of sovereigntists, the truth is that both Francophones and Anglophones opposed the venture. As Don Macpherson of the Montreal Gazette wrote,

You don’t need insight to see that recalling the defeat of the French in North America with a sort of Heritage-Minutes Plainsfest in the capital of the descendants of the losing side wasn’t a good idea.

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Why is it that everything Stephen Harper tries to do becomes the potential trigger for an election? If you listen to Conservative Party spin-doctors you’d likely be led to the belief that the Opposition is building an offensive to take down the Government. Reality check: Mr. Harper, your Government is already at the will of the Opposition. If and when Michael Ignatieff wants to force an election he will do so and he won’t be stopped.

If anything is clear, this moment in time is not right for an election. This past week the Government has been in a deadlock fight with the Liberals over a proposed $3-billion fast-tracked stimulus fund. Why the uproar? Harper’s plan for getting the fund working fast is to bypass the generally required approval procedures for such funding.
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Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jon, and I’ve lived in the heart of Canadian politics – Ottawa – for each of my 22 years. This is my first foray into the blogosphere, and I have been critical of it in the past. The main issue I had with bloggers is that many tend to hide behind the anonymity and security of their online personae. The distance created between the blogger and his/her audience by the internet allows the blogger to say things that she/he would not say if standing face-to-face with another person. So, I make a promise to you, my reader. Every word that you read in this, and any future postings I make, are words that I would be proud to speak, no matter the situation. And with the preamble now out of the way, let me tell you how Barack Obama will change the world.
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AM640 is reporting that Andrea Horwath has been named the new leader of Ontario’s New Democratic Party.

Horwath succeeds leadership from Howard Hampton after he announced would not seek re-election as party leader, a position he has held since 1996.

Horwath has been MPP for Hamilton East since 2004 and beat out fellow colleagues Peter Tabuns, Michael Prue, Gilles Bisson for the position.