Travels With Miranda

I awoke to news that Jack Layton, chief of the National Democrat Party and Leader of the Opposition, died early this morning after a lengthy battle with cancer.

I truly feel that this man was Canada’s last and best hope for a cohesive, sensible, transparent, and just government. His victory at the last federal election, sweeping through Quebec and forever changing its political map, not to mention gaining the keys to Stornoway, shook many Canadians out of their political torpor.

Now, the party is in the hands of an interim leader, Nycole Turmel, whom I have never trusted. She will not be getting my vote for new leader of the NDP! I wish the reins had been handed over to someone else, perhaps Thomas Mulcair.

It will be strange to no longer get the orange emails from ‘Jack’, to not see that handsome and trustworthy face speak so eloquently and with such passion, to not have someone at the near-helm of this government that I believe actually truly gives a damn about the Canadian people.

Rest in peace, Jack, and may someone worthy of you pick up your fight.

I was very pessimistic about tonight, but it seems that there is hope for the Canadian people!

Two and a half years ago, I watched in awe as Quebec moved from light blue to dark. Tonight, it is glowing orange. The NDP has gone from having had only one seat ever in Quebec, gained during a by-election, to taking down the Bloc québécois.

Moreover, the NDP is, for the first time, the official opposition. I shudder at the the thought of a Conservative majority, but it is palatable because of the NDP surge. Baby steps.

(Stephen Harper might have his majority government, but Jack Layton gets the nicer residence!)

The passenger side is just about half done, if I count from bumper to bumper.

Every colour behaves differently. The beast is the emerald green, which leaves behind the thick grey glue. Second is the teal, which leaves a a chalky white residue. The best are the burgundy, the lettering, and the swipes, which just peel right off.

I put in a solid day of destriping to get to this point, starting around 9:30 and working two hours, then putting in another four hours this afternoon. I’m on flier duty for the rest of the week, so it’s nice to get a head start. This is not an onerous chore, believe it or not. I love working on my home and being out in the sun feels so good!

My tools for this project are:

-a hair drier that blows really hot;

-a narrow metal paint scraper (thrilled to find one that isn’t wrecking the fiberglass!);

-an old Petro-Points card for scraping the bottom stripes that are on white painted metal, not fiberglass;

-an old pair of tweezers for picking at small bits;

-WD-40 for loosening the adhesive prior to blasting with heat.

I have two thoughts about this immense project that may shed some light on why I’m putting myself through this.

The first is that Miranda was due for a really thorough exterior restoration. Why put in all that elbow grease only to cover decals that are cracked, peeling, and dated?

The second is that I have a number of options for how to restripe, in a variety of prices and difficulties. If I end up with a worst case scenario, that even with a thorough buffing I still have ghosting, or, even worse, I can’t get off all that grey glue, then I can get three rolls of wide striping in different colours, plus a couple of stock graphics, and just reproduce what was there in a more simple design. Total cost for that would be a few hundred bucks and Miranda would still look better than she does now. I’m exploring all options, including professional restriping and even, gasp, painting, but I know that regardless of what I end up doing, it’ll be completely worth it.

As a side note, I love my location. After working all day in the hot sun I really wanted a cold beer and there just happens to be a liquor store across the street!

All this work today was also a good distraction from my feeling of impending doom about the election results. Two and a half hours left until the poll results start trickling out…

I arrived at the advanced voting location about ten minutes before the polls were set to open. There was already an impressive lineup, and it just got longer and longer and longer. It took forty minutes for me to get out of there.

One man said to me “What a wait for a real waste of time. It hardly seems worthwhile. ” I curtly replied “Sir, there are millions of women around the world who wish they could do this. I’ll stay here all day if I have to.” He actually looked ashamed and quickly turned away.

The Elections Canada staff aren’t well experienced and are only trained for specific scenarios. This gang had absolutely no idea how special ballot voting works and were not comfortable (or authorized to?) making their own decisions. The easiest thing was for me to register as a new voter and vote for a Lethbridge riding. Having no attachment to any one riding and being fairly sure that I’ll be switching to Alberta residency I was okay with that. I had no ID with a Lethbridge address, of course, but was told I’d be treated as someone who just moved here who hadn’t gotten everything changed over yet, which is actually much more fact than fiction.

Once that was all squared away I was able to cast my ballot for the local NDP candidate.

I can’t wait for the results on Monday; for the first time in history there is a chance that the NDP will sweep through Quebec. It almost makes me wish I was still voting in Pontiac. Almost.

The advance polls in this riding open at noon today, so I have gathered up all my necessary documents, including the list of candidates in my riding, and will be heading out shortly to cast my ballot.

Why not beat the crowds and vote early? Advance polls will be open throughout the long weekend. Visit Elections Canada to find out where you can vote.