14 days in a hole, I should of taken more drugs

Been incognito for the last two weeks, diligently, diseased, while working my ass off, on a road trip. Willy is still a salesman after all. At sixty, the trade show talk flows too naturally, but the wear and tear on your body, with the food, the drink and constantly being on, starts to take its toll, especially when mixed with a cold and accompanying fever.

After two weeks of not reading headlines, I feel out of touch (going to have to spend all weekend reading impolitical , as well as everyone else on the side bar), but the one thing I have noticed after returning to Canada as a non blogging citizen is that Harper seems to be smiling a lot more.

The airport magazines feature a smiling Harper as a newsmaker of the year and this picture with Flaherty taken at the first ministers seems to say: Hey we did it, I think we get to keep our jobs.

Little news, just political posturing and confirming alliances from the meeting with premiers, at least according to this extensive CNEWS synopsis .

Flaherty’s planned deficit has grown 10 billion since I’ve been gone, now promised to be $40 billion. I think we are in for more fiscal surprises and probably closer to a $100 billion deficit, by the time they roll the mortgage buyouts from last fall, into the year end balance sheet. Look for finger pointing and excuses in April.

Obviously Alberta and Saskatchewan are backing their boy, with Campbell jumping on board. He obviously needs some big federal bucks to cover the increasing burden of the Olympics. Their message en masse: the country can’t afford an election, it is time for nonpartisanship.

Progressively speaking the only positive news from the conference seems to be that Charest and hopefully all of Quebec still remain anti-Harper, with McGuinty still riding the fence.

Meanwhile Ignatieff seems to be ready to avoid the risk of an election, at least by this article. I'll have to check with the Liberal guys Steve V and Scott to find out where the party is at.

In any case Harper seems to be enjoying this recession more than anyone else that I have met in the last two weeks.

Speaking of recessions, this one seems to be moving at a hastened pace and has already moved into the marketing phase. In the US, they are advertising new car sales with the added option that if you loose your source of revenue, in the next two years you can walk away from the lease.

In Canada, Galen Weston is rehashing an old Dave Nichols ad from the nineties and is telling us to buy the yellow packaged groceries with no name on them.

And the government wonders why the consumer has lost confidence.

That's all I got for now. It is going to take a couple days to get caught up and start building enough anger so I can sarcastically attack my wind mills.  I will be posting at least once a day.


Cough, cough, wheeze...



JAWL