Now it is official: The Liberal Government has been defeated and there will be an election in January. I’ve said before that I don’t think this is the right time for an election. I still believe that, and for the same reasons I gave then (we should wait for the final Gomery report, and an election will not significantly change that situation).

But here it is. And elections are great fun, especially ones where a few seats one way or the other can make a big difference in the final outcome. So I didn’t want it, but I’m going to enjoy it!

And I hope I’m wrong about the result. So, I predict the NDP will form the next Government, and it will be a majority. OK, a guy can have dreams, right?

I’ve been reading Peter C. Newman’s book of interviews with Brian Mulroney (and, as it turns out, others). The Secret Mulroney Tapes is interesting to read, but I agree with much of what critics have said. It appears to have been slapped together with little care or thought, and it doesn’t flow very well – the reader is taken from chapter to chapter haphazardly and with no apparent direction (though perhaps I’m just not seeing it).

The interviews themselves are fun to read in places – Mulroney was apparently somewhat colourful in person. But the shock value wears off pretty quickly, and without it the interviews are far less insightful or interesting. Mulroney’s interviews actually form less of the book than you may think, as well – extensive interviews with others are also included (though some of those are also interesting here and there).

I would not recommend this book. If you are really curious, go read a bit in a bookstore or library first, or buy a used copy – give it a couple of months, and used bookstores will be littered with them.

I found myself home earlier than expected last night, and thought I’d spend some time in front of the television. John Doyle’s recommendation in the Globe & Mail, combined with the fact that a friend is currently in Thailand, convinced me to watch a documentary on “Rough Cuts” called “Bangkok Girl”.

The film describes the life of a young Thai woman who works in bar in Bangkok’s sex-trade district. Through interviews and scenes of her life, we slowly discover what her life is about. I won’t go into detail, but it is terrible. You may be thinking that you have some concept of what her life may be like; whatever you are thinking, it is worse.

The documentary also talks about the social and political conditions which create and sustain the sex-trade. Women (and children – the woman in the documentary began working in the bar at 13) are forced into the sex trade by poverty. And it is sustained by money – too much money is a stake for anyone to be willing to put an end to it.

This documentary may not tell you anything you didn’t know already. But it will give you an insight into the lives of the women working in the sex-trade in Thailand. It will make it personal for you. It will make you furious. And, in the end, deeply sad.

Saturday’s Globe and Mail included an article, prompted by the recent events in France, about racial integration in Canada. Quoting an Institute for Research on Public Policy study by Jeffrey Rietz, the article suggests that the children of immigrants to Canada feel less integrated into Canadian society than their parents were. The reason, according to Reitz, is that they expect equality and do not find it (unlike their parents, who never fully expected equality).

Reitz’s idea sounds obvious on some level, and seems intuitively true. Anyone born here expects – one would hope reasonably – to be treated like a Canadian (that is, in the same way as the rest of us). It is perhaps an indication that we still have a long way to go that reality falls short of this expectation.

Many of us are guilty of contributing to this problem. When we see someone who isn’t caucasian, we wonder where they may be from. When we meet them, it is often our first question. This isn’t all bad – to be Canadian shouldn’t mean losing one heritage – whether it is European, Asian, African, etc. But it is a problem when we treat people different because of race. The line is likely very hard to draw, and it seems many of us are not doing a very good job. Part of this problem is likely education, and part of it may be simple thoughtlessness. But we need to do better.

Canada claims to be a multicultural society – indeed, many of us would include such a claim in any definition of our country, and what it means to be Canadian. But if we are truly going to live up to the claim, then race can’t be part of the definition of what it means to be Canadian.

The gist of the article is correct: We aren’t so different from France, and we shouldn’t think it could never happen here. Moreover, we ought to think this is a problem worth solving because it is the right thing to do. Canada can be the place we want it to be.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is in China on a trade mission. Given the growth in the Chinese economy, this makes sense. But he has taken with him representatives from the tobacco industry, which does not!

While I’m sympathetic to Ontario tobacco farmers, whose livelihoods are in jeopardy, the answer isn’t to sell tobacco to the Chinese. What’s the message here? Ontario tells its own to stop smoking, but it is OK for the Chinese?

If this makes sense, what else are we willing to pawn off on others? PCB laden lubricants? Pesticides banned here? Sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out these other things were happening.

The answer is to provide tobacco farmers help to change their crops, not going into new markets with it. Isn’t free enterprise great – don’t worry if you can’t sell your poison here, someone will buy it! Consciences optional.