Weekly Bulletin #10

My first blog of 2010, so I thought I would start off with a recap of recent events and then some predictions of what I think will happen this year.

Harper's decision to prorogue parliament was one I disagree with although in reality we are talking about only 1 month of parliament missed as well as I suspect the PM will be at the Olympics held in the latter half of February. My problem here is that all bills that have not yet cleared the senate will have to be re-introduced and this seems like a waste of time. It would have been better to return on January 25th and then perhaps not schedule any sessions during the Olympics.

Also, it appears that the US and some other countries are tightening up airport security in reaction to the failed terrorist attempt on Christmas on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Security is in my opinion already tight enough as no amount of tightening can prevent a terrorist attack entirely. Besides, in this case, I think the blame should not go at the airport security but rather at those who gave the suspected terrorist a visa to visit the United States. Considering this guy was on a terrorist watch list and had no return ticket, how the heck did he manage to get a visa to visit the United States. All Nigerian nationals are required to get a visa to visit the United States and before boarding any plane, by law, they must check that every passenger has the required documents necessary to board the plane, so if anything needs to be tightened up, it should be the issuing of visas. Otherwise they should more thoroughly screen people before issuing visas. I hope Canada doesn't follow in tightening our airport security. If anything we should start clamping down on bogus refugees and those illegally immigrating here. There are few problems with those who immigrate here legally, were born here, or come here as a legitimate tourist, so it makes sense to focus on where the problem lies.

Here are a few of my predictions for 2010 in the world of politics.

1. There is a greater than even chance of an election this year federally. The most likely outcome is another Conservative minority although both a Conservative majority and a Liberal minority (if held later in the year) are within the realm of possibility.

2. The US midterm elections in November will result in losses for the Democrats and gains for the Republicans. The Democrats will retain control of the senate and house of representatives as well as the majority of governorships, but with smaller numbers in all three cases.

3. In the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown will get badly defeated and David Cameron will win a majority government and become the next PM of Britain.

4. Australia will re-elect Kevin Rudd

5. The election in Sweden will be a tight race with the centre-left coalition having a slightly greater chance of victory than the centre-right coalition, but could go either way.

6. New Brunswick election will result in a PC government unless the Liberals back off their plan to have Quebec Hydro takeover NB Power in which case I think they will be re-elected as they had a solid lead in the polls until they did this deal.

7. Yukon Territory will have an election and I haven't got a clue which party has a better chance, other than it will be either the Yukon Party, NDP, or Liberals who win.