Taking Some Time Off

I will be on holiday for a few weeks, so I won’t be blogging for a few weeks. Here are some things I will be working on when I return.

My website is in need of a bit of a refresh. I will be trying to increase subscriptions with slightly more persistent nudging than is the case now. Rather than having 378 posts scattered over 32 pages, with each post linked with a thumbnail, I will use thumbnails for only the most recent dozen posts, which will be shown on my home page. In subsequent pages, I will categorize previous posts by topic (public policy, political narrative, film and book reviews, and personal) with links by title. I will delete older and now unread posts, but I will keep those that continue to find readers. One of the favorites is a post I wrote on September 7, 2009 entitled “Sherlock Holmes and Narrative Point-of-View” in which I explain why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle invented Dr. Watson as narrator. Some people out there – students in English courses maybe – love it.

I will be writing about the federal election campaign. I will be interested in policy issues and in party and candidate narratives, especially as presented in political ads. As advocacy groups assume greater importance, I hope to discuss their ads as well as the parties’ official ads.

Over the last year, the Ford Government has taken much of my attention. I hadn’t intended to write about it so often, but the egregiousness of its policy and management mistakes has demanded commentary. Personal disclosure: I am concerned about forthcoming regulations about compensation for full-time faculty who are required to draw their pensions. I will be in that category in 17 months and don’t want to be forced to retire for purely financial reasons.

Currently, the premier is trying to distance himself from former Chief of Staff Dean French as though French were a bug and not a feature of his government. French proved himself dictatorial and nepotistic, and sufficiently stupid and/or arrogant that he did not realize that the former was bound to lead to his being exposed for the latter. Former Social Services and current Tourism minister Lisa MacLeod has proven herself temperamentally incapable of serving as a minister, yet the premier refuses to drop her from Cabinet. She is a gift that will keep on giving. And the Government is getting ready to roll out the controversial and dishonest gas pump stickers in a few weeks. There is lots of scope for future blunders to justify my prediction that Doug Ford will be gone in a year, due to a party coup. I’m sure there will be much to write about.

Enjoy the summer!

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