Quebec election & provincial finances

So, I'm living in Quebec in the midst of a provincial election. Let me sum it up (in my own cynical, biased way)...

- separation talk still dominates the election

- negative comments about separation are referred to as "scare tactics" (this reminds me of the US where negative comments on the war are referred to as "unpatriotic")

- students have the lowest tuition in Canada by far ($1600/yr vs. ~$4000/yr for the rest of the provinces - don't quote me on exact figures except for the $1600 figure)

- a lot of election talk is about how much money the province can get from the feds

- debt and deficit are hardly mentioned (instead see above RE: separation talk)

- seems Quebec demographics are the worst in Canada in that it has (or soon will) have the most number of old folks relative to the number of taxpayers (read skyrocketing health costs with the fewest number of taxpayers, relatively speaking, paying for the healthcare) - none the less, see above lack of discussion about the debt / deficit

Which brings me the following tables that I came upon and which got me thinking about this in the first place:



I mentioned this to a friend in San Francisco and he essentially told me I was being American. Here's my thoughts for the topic:

- In the long term, is there a limit as to how much one part of the country subsidizes another? I support / understand (?) some of the the socialistic / federalistic reasons for equalization payments, but how long is this sustainable?

- If one part of the country really has that low productivity (logistical reasons? such as no fishery?), do transfer payments just stop people from moving to where econmics suggests they should be living?

- Why are Manitoba's per capita subsidies so high relative to Saskatchewan? Is oil & gas really helping SK out that much?

- Ignoring per capita equalization payments, it's pretty funny that Quebec gets virtually half of the equalization or 5.5 billion dollars last year. I wonder how many separtists factor this into the separation equation? I assume this is essentially money from Alberta & Ontario? I'd think this would be called a "fear tactic", but given Quebec has the 2nd largest total debt and the largest provincial debt ratio with the exception of little old Newfoundland (where they're clearing drinking too much screech).

- How come these sorts of quite simple tables don't get shown more during such things as say campaign elections? Do people not want to see them? Are they not popular topics? Or maybe the people (Quebeckers? Canadians? Americans?) too stupid to understand them? Definitely Americans must fall into this latter category (or at least about 49 million of them, if I recall that number correctly) since they elected Bush not once, but twice!!

fast...

Bugatti Veyron at top speed

coffee

My caffenation this week has been difficult.

Thursday I was washing out the french press (aka bodum) and the screw fell out of the screen/filter assembly and went down the drain. And it's not really a normal screw (more like an inverse screw or nut that screws in), so replacing it is going to be difficult. None the less, I did make coffee by pushing the screen down with a fork (this resulted in slightly crunchy coffee, but a drug addict is willing to put up with a few imperfections). And just to totally gross people out, I drank the microwave-reheated leftovers on Friday. But clearly this was a temporary solution.

Saturday I was at Canadian Tire (buying someone a new car battery as I had to move their car for snow plowing and it wouldn't even turn over and I don't desire to be jump starting their car all winter long) and decided to pick up a stove-top espresso maker (Moka style) for $20 (of course I had to buy new plates, windshield wipers and a shovel as well - I'm quite an impulsive consumer). I've had a camping espresso maker for years that works great, so... Does anyone have any idea how to get this stupid thing to work well? My camping one works perfect every time. I've used it a few times now with varying degrees of success. Here's my problem and questions:

Problem: The water boils, but only about 1/4 of the water actually makes it to the top chamber, the rest stays down below eventually boiling off as steam if left long enough. I'm pretty sure its supposed to boil fast and violently passing up to the upper chamber in 30 seconds or so of boiling.

Questions: I've ground the coffee quite fine and packed it quite full and firmly (following others instructions and a quick search online. I've also put the water right up to the pressure valve. I tried it a 2nd time (with the same grounds) but after removing a scoop of grounds and it seem to work better. Perhaps I just have too much and too fine off coffee and its not letting the water boil up enough?

So anyway, today's espresso only created about 2 ounces of elixir, but the consistency was very thick and the results have been equivalent to drinking a pot of coffee (after adding milk and additional water to make a full coffee cup). Zinger! If this were beer, it would put Guinness to shame.

radio3

Ever listen to radio3? I'm listening to some streaming new age hip hop rap electronic shit right now (No Luck Club from Burnaby) on radio3.cbc.ca. Actually now it's the New Pornographers (The Bleeding Heart Show). The basic streaming music website focusing on Canadian indie/alternative music, but with neat multimedia stuff. You can click on what's playing and get band info and other songs and stuff. I haven't been to the site since they re-did the website, though I've been listening to the radio3 podcasts via iTunes. Anyway, I checked the site out again because I saw it won an award in the US for best online multimedia programming or something (despite being Canadian... but I guess since it's online it goes cross border).

I'd recommend the blog and the blog archives for some neat links too...

P.S. Me edited this heres post cause my mom saids there was an grammer error - thanks to me mom for catchen that there error here cause I think me fixed it and me wan'ts not to sound iliterate.