Plane prepares to leave Germany, Les conservateurs de Stephen Harper gagnent, Martin annonce son dépar
chris lloyd
to pm
More options 1:04 pm (0 minutes ago)

Dear Paul / Stephen?

I'm not sure when the exact handover date is, when Stephen will get
the keys to the "pm@pm.gc.ca" account, or when Paul will have cleared
out his Inbox, so for the next few days I'll keep writing to Paul; but
if Steve is already reading this, please let me know. Also, please let
me know if I can address you as Steve. It fits better the
single-syllable salutation.

Claudine and I drove Judy and Peter to the airport yesterday morning,
then had a nice lunch at the Beatty and the Bistro just before voting
right next door. I hadn't heard from you (Paul) so I voted with my
heart and principles and tradition and went back to the NDP. Ran some
errands and visited with Mary. Shelled out $90 for a refurbished phone
from the crooks at Telus. Yeah, that's right, that company is a great
big crook. Here's their strategy:

1. Offer a free phone with a 3-year contract;
2. Phone has a 1-year warranty;
3. Phone is designed to break down completely after 1.5 years;
4. Fees to a) send phone to company and b) have phone looked at by
technicians and c) fixed by said technicians easily outstrips an
average monthly income, and;
5. Simply buying out the remaining year of contract costs double a
refurbished phone, so;
6. Yet another consumer is suckered into another useless technological gadget.

Fucking crooks! They'll rue the day! That day in March 2007 when I
return their phones and chargers, preferable in some violent manner,
hopefully involving the CEO of the company and his dirty anus.

The phone does have a photo function which is cool. Once I figure out
how to use it I'll send you another picture of my own butt. That's
worth the $.25 it costs each time to email a phone-photo. Can you
believe it! Fucking crooks!

We watched the election results live at the Somerset after priming
ourselves with a screening of Wag the Dog. Almost nothing is more
frustrating than having a bunch of political commentators speculating
on what early results mean, when those early results are gleaned from
1 polling station out of 220, and those results involve maybe a dozen
votes in total. I know there is a lot of time to kill while votes are
counted, but surely they can talk about something else until things
get really close. Perhaps they could talk about how nuts people can
get while playing those ridiculous Video Lotto Terminals. That has to
be one of the most gruesome and disgusting methods for a government to
raise revenue. For anyone to say otherwise means they have never sat
in a bar for any length of time with those ridiculous noises while
vacant-eyed people pump money into the machines, with strange 'codes
of honour' based on how long/how much money they've pumped in, waiting
for the big payout. It's fucking sick and any government making money
off these machines should have its collective head examined. Same goes
for people who allow the machines on their premises, all in the aim of
making a greedy buck. It's nothing short of sick and pathological.
What a colossal waste of time and energy.

Now I'm even more depressed. And yesterday was supposed to be the most
depressing day of the year. Maybe my poll results will spread some
cheer. Thanks to everyone who responded over the past couple days. I
apologize for not getting the results out faster but we slept in;
Claudine's sore throat and cold is not getting much better and we
aren't sleeping as well.

Chris Lloyd's Federal Election 2006 Poll 22 January 2006 (32 respondents)

1. Did how the media reported on polls influence your voting decision?

90% reported that the reporting of polls had no influence on their vote

2. Do you plan to vote in this election?

90% planned to vote

3. Are you voting for (a) change 3%
or for (b) a party and its specific platform 80%
or (c) your local candidate? 17%

4. Do you find Stephen Harper 'scary'?

17% said no; 83% said yes. Some said 'yes' a little more emphatically,
which included some 'yikes' and a few definitelys; "less scary" still
counts as 'scary', as does "as scary as Mike Harris", as does
'stupid'. Comparisons to wolves, references to mock turtlenecks and
the late Princess Diana were also counted as 'scary'.

5. wine or beer?

Wine and Beer ended the poll in a dead heat at 32%; close behind was
'both' at 29%; 7% preferred something else.

6. CSI or Six Feet Under?

SFU just edged out CSI, 33% to 27%, which was also the same percentage
of folks who watched neither, often because of no TV whatsoever. 13%
preferred different shows.

-chris

140 soldiers leave for Afghanistan, Paul Martin lance un ultime cri du coeur aux électeurs indécis
chris lloyd
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More options 10:09 pm (0 minutes ago)

Dear Paul,

Wow, I had no idea it was still so early. I'm exhausted and ready for
bed and it's not even ten o'clock. I guess that's what happens if one
drinks beer and wine in the afternoon.

How did this all happen?

First off, I slept in, waking up before noon, then meeting Peter at
the bar to go over a bunch of details to prepare for their trip away,
then meeting Claudine, collecting Katie and then Jessie and Jonas and
Jonas driving us out to Rothesay. Whatever for, you might ask? Well,
for a much-appreciated mid-afternoon matinee performance by Tyler
Messick, followed by Joel Plaskett. The Friday and Saturday shows sold
out at Sessions Café so they added a third day, which was great for
me. It was a great show, a couple fantastic singer-songwriters, and I
got to catch up a bit on some Halifax news with Joel. Things don't
sound good at the 'ole Khyber, like it has really run its course. Too
bad.

The music, however, was amazing.

Then we were back downtown, having supper, burgers, and half-price
wine at D'Amico's, and now I'm just exhausted.

I wanted to send out my own version of a poll, to be completed before
the election, but I'm not sure if that can happen in time. In any
case, here's the poll, for you as well as for whomever might run
across it on election day. Please fill it out and add it to the
comments section. I'll be emailing it out to a bunch of folks, and
will post results on Tuesday.

Chris Lloyd's federal Election 2006 Poll 22 January 2006

1. Did how the media reported on polls influence your voting decision?
2. Do you plan to vote in this election?
3. Are you voting for (a) change or for (b) a party and its specific
platform or (c) your local candidate?
4. Do you find Stephen Harper 'scary'?
5. wine or beer?
6. CSI or Six Feet Under?

OK that's enough for now, Any longer and who would want to spend the
time to fill it out. Polls suck arse.

Good luck tomorrow Paul. Remember that I would have voted Liberal if
you had bothered to send me a 500 word essay on your favourite piece
of art. You still have time, but barely. I'm not holding my breath,
you lazy arse. I'll be watching election results live at the Somerset
Pub after a screening of Wage the Dog. I'll down a beer for you. If
you lose the election when do you stop checking this email address? I
need to know when to start writing to Stephen.

It's just so damn weird.

Especially with the whole Southern Hemisphere veering towards the
Left. What the hell is wrong with us in Canada that we can't elect an
NDP government?

-chris

Pelletier files legal motions; Stephen Harper demande aux Québécois de lui donner des ministres
chris lloyd
to pm
More options 2:53 pm (0 minutes ago)

Dear Paul,

I just missed Stephen's visit to Saint John yesterday. I didn't know
about it. Do you have any more visits planned before the election?
Apparently Paul Zed and John Wallace are "neck and neck" in "one of
N.B.'s most hotly contested ridings". Maybe you should stop by, give a
fiery speech and hand me my 500-word essay on your favourite piece of
art in person.

So I had neglected to tell you that yesterday we finally set up my
studio in the basement. All that remains to be done is to find a
proper desk or table, install some more lighting and sort through my
boxes of crap and supplies so I can get cracking on some new works.
portraits of you, of course, but also other commissions and of course
the new projects, like the Tim Hortons cups. I think our collection
stands at a few hundred at the moment, despite taking a long break
from collecting over the holidays.

So I'll be interviewed by Carmen Klausen from CBC in Halifax later
today regarding the election. I think they thought of me because some
of my Jean Chrétien paintings in the AGNS collection are on display as
part of the current "Stump Speech" art and politics show. You should
tune in to CBC Halifax if you get a chance; I think it will be
featured in the last part of the afternoon show. It's a good warm up
for the CBC forum "A Matter of Trust" that I'll be participating in
tomorrow in Fredericton.

Also in exhibition-related news: I spoke with Jerome Grand from the
cneai (centre national de l'estampe et de l'art imprimé) today about
an upcoming exhibition there of artists' ephemera in the exhibition
"Transmission," which will take place from March 18th till June 4th
2006 at the Villa Arson in Nice, France. They want my letters; we
discussed binding possibilities and other installation details. Fun
stuff! I feel like a real artist again.

-chris