I really enjoy watching most professional sports. I love the sense of pride, enthusiasm and community you see in teams with great home fans: Raptors, TFC, Golden State Warriors, all of Premier League Socer, Seahawks, every NFL tailgate I've been to, etc.
I also enjoy the strategy in sports, and can nerd out watching a perfectly executed pick play, or the intricacies of NFL linemen play. Watching the San Antonio Spurs pass the ball to create the perfect shot is essentially my current sports nirvana.
I love the way Fantasy sports keeps me loosely connected to people I have met throughout the years, in friendly competition. Also the way that it feels like a personal challenge for me to demonstrate that I know something about the sports I play fantasy in.
But wow, is it hard to be a fan of the NFL these days. They have two major strikes again me, and I don't know how to continue holding three thoughts in my head:
1) Playing football kills people. From High School to professional, head and neck injuries are killing people. Sustained playing careers, or short ones, cause something called "CTE" which kills people. Football is really bad for you.
2) The NFL has a problem with players committing violence and not being held accountable. Ray Rice, Greg Hardy and Adrian Peterson are three recent high profile examples of athletes who beat up a woman or child and received arbitrary, unpredictable, inconsistent consequences from their team and the league. Greg Hardy has yet to even offer basic remorse for his actions. Two of the three are still playing in the league.
3) I enjoy watching the game.
I know many people who stop watching. I know some who shrug and essentially ignore the problem. I haven't actually heard of a third solution: So...any of you out there find a way to resolve knowing these three things?
No need to worry about Trump or Carson Presidency
In the Guelph Mercury:
http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion-story/6086982-a-president-trump-scenario-will-not-come-about/
http://www.guelphmercury.com/opinion-story/6086982-a-president-trump-scenario-will-not-come-about/
Official Election Day Prediction for Guelph
For the political nerds out there:
Here are the factors I am taking into consideration:
Here are the factors I am taking into consideration:
- The ballot question in Guelph is "Who can beat the Conservatives" (for about 70% of voters in Guelph)
- Campus/Student voting will end up being the same as 2011, due to poor logistics on the part of Elections Canada. There was a TON of missed opportunity here, as students were generally very eager to vote, but didn't have an hour plus to stand in line.
- The collapse of the Federal NDP vote is real (triggered by a collapse in Quebec about a month ago) and will send their support to Bobbi Stewart/Tom King numbers: about 9,800.
- This is the election after Robocalls, and although I admire Gloria Kovach's campaign, she received almost no visible support from the Federal Party. The Conservative vote, long established as a rock solid 17-19 thousand will drop to at least 14 thousand.
- Looking at the elections Liz Sandals was elected, it feels safe to say the Liberal base vote is around 19,000
- Green Party Base: 3,500
- Let's assume 60,000 people will vote in Guelph:
Conservatives: 14,000
NDP: 9.800
Other: 500
Liberal Base: 19,000
Green Base: 3,500
Remaining votes: 32,200 that pretty much solely care about beating the Conservatives.
Note: Much more confident in my Con, NDP and Other guesses than I am in Lib and Green.
I met Lloyd Longfield when he was running for the Liberal nomination and liked him. I thought he was going to stand on the issue of a stronger democracy, for modern voting, for easier access, for more engagement...but I've seen a campaign where I believe he has embraced mediocrity and would be a very reliable Liberal backbencher. His campaign is obviously terrified of the Greens, as for the first time I can recall, they dedicated a page of a city wide mail-out attacking Gord Miller and the Green Party.
The Liberal Party has won 7 federal and 3 provincial elections in a row. I think there is a small chance that some Conservative voters may swap to Green to strategically vote against Guelph becoming one of the safest Liberal seats.
Elizabeth May has visited the riding a few times, motivating the Green base. The Green campaign has run an incredibly substantial voter persuasion and id campaign. I don't think they've done quite enough to publicly show the city that a person can vote Green without fear of that vote accidentally electing a Conservative (even though I fervently believe this to be true). So, final vote tallies likely near:
Con: 14,000 (23.3%)
Green: 16,000 (26.7%)
Lib: 19,500 (32.5%)
NDP: 10,000 (16.7%)
Other: 500
Total Votes: 60,000
In other words: This whole race comes down to questions like: who runs a better Get out the Vote operation this weekend? What impact will the Jays game have on voter turnout? If it snows on Sunday or Monday, what impact will that have? It'll be fun to watch!
Everything I've written for the Guelph Mercury
Hello all! Long time since I've posted here!
I was asked recently if I had a collection of things I've written as an Editorial Board member for the Guelph Mercury; and I didn't until now.
I feel a little conflicted about posting the pdf's of my articles here, as the Mercury does pay me for the editorials, which I would say entitles them to the web traffic and or subscriptions (hahahaha) my content may generate. As such:
-I'll provide links to anything I wrote in the past month
-I'll pdf anything older!
-some of the dates/links may not be perfect right away, I'm still ironing this out.
-Titles will differ from what was published in the Mercury, but the content is basically the same.
Please let me know if there's any articles you particularly like/dislike. I'm always looking to improve my writing and for new areas to write about.
Current:
I was asked recently if I had a collection of things I've written as an Editorial Board member for the Guelph Mercury; and I didn't until now.
I feel a little conflicted about posting the pdf's of my articles here, as the Mercury does pay me for the editorials, which I would say entitles them to the web traffic and or subscriptions (hahahaha) my content may generate. As such:
-I'll provide links to anything I wrote in the past month
-I'll pdf anything older!
-some of the dates/links may not be perfect right away, I'm still ironing this out.
-Titles will differ from what was published in the Mercury, but the content is basically the same.
Please let me know if there's any articles you particularly like/dislike. I'm always looking to improve my writing and for new areas to write about.
Current:
November 9: No need to worry about Trump
October 23: Your Move Mr. Longfield
October 15: What should we make of so few visits to Guelph by party leaders?
October 23: Your Move Mr. Longfield
October 15: What should we make of so few visits to Guelph by party leaders?
September 28: Lloyd longfield is doing this wrong
2015
August 3: Soundbite politics and inflation
July 10th: Slut shaming and reality TV
June 16th: Jurassic World and unnecessary bullshit
2014
Dec 12: Love letter to Guelph
October 18: Don't vote for Mayor Farbridge
October 8: Who cares where you live?
2013
Dec 12: Optimism
July 30: The problem with voting
June 3: Why does Rob Ford matter?
April 11: Stand for Something please
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