Apologies for the lack of quality postings so far.On Friday I tripped over a peice of rebar and landed on the heels of both hands.Everything in the right hand is sprained-hand wrist and all the fingers.So hang in a few more days like I'm being forced to do.There's better,more interesting posts coming.

Well,here it is almost 9pm.and its taken me this long to get a very tempermental laptop to work.I had lots to post today but I think most of it will have to wait.I've worked all day and I'm tired out.I should just mention that the Progressive Conservative Party won a large majority in Albertas provincial election on Monday.Not what I was hopeing for,but not as bad as The Wildrose Party,also conservatives,though,it seems much more right leaning.I'll have more to say on one of the Wildrose candidates in days to come.I'd planned to get an editorial on Rev.Alan Hunsperger up tonight,but I guess it will have to wait for another day or two.

A couple of days after I stepped off the bus the premier of Alberta called a provincial election.Because I haven't lived here for the last three years,I'm not able to vote this time around,but that does not mean that I am not aware of the election and it's attendant issues.

 Much has change politically,so it seems since I left here three years ago.We now have a new political party,known as the Wildrose Party and the consensus seems to be that they are running neck and neck with the Progressive Conservatives who have ruled Alberta for the past 41 years.Why,then do I get the impression that the more things change the more they stay the same?

It all has to do with the rhetoric coming from some of the Wildrose Party's candidates,something the Progressives seem only too eager to point out.One candidate,a pastor and self professed Christian is credited with a statement saying homosexuals are bound to burn eternally in a lake of fire.The other,a white man running in a very ethnically diverse Calgary riding suggests that being white qualifies him to speak for everyone,whereas a Sikh candidate is qualified to speak for the Sikh community.But,"when a white man speaks everyone listens"(paraphrased).Well,when I listen I hear clumsy speech,though not necessarily racism.That is to say,I'm confident that I know what this man is saying,but the manner in which it is said leaves much to be desired.As for the Pastor,he notes that the statement,made in a blog is a statement of his "Christian" beliefs.This deserves much more commentary because I think his beliefs are significantly different from my own beliefs,also Christian.But I'll save that for another day.I only make mention of it here to show that the intolerant brand of conservatism long lurking in Alberta's dark corners has not disappeared.Suffice it to say,I would have great concern about being governed by such people and would not give the good Reverend my vote.

So it seems what we have is a choice between two conservative parties,in a very close race.So much for the idea that the political landscape has changed all that much.As a liberal,I wish there were a true liberal alternative.I would love to cast a vote for liberal ideals without resorting to socialists as that alternative.But there seems to be at least a glimmer of good news.If the race between the two conservative parties is as close as it seems,there is the very real possibility that either the Liberal or NDP party could hold the balance of power in a minority government with as few as a handful of seats.That would,of necessity change the way conservatives do business.The governing party,whoever that turns out to be will have to learn to do something that they traditionally haven't been good at here in Alberta:consensus building.

About three years ago I started to wander about this vast Canadian country.You might think it had something to do with being middle age crazy but the real reasons involved the company I worked for ceasing to exist,a death in the family,and an attemp by someone to burn the house I was living in.And so,after thirty years of living in Alberta,in the Canadian west,I set out for my home province of New Brunswick,nearly three thousand miles to the east,on the atlantic coast.And there I spent the next year,in my old hometown,which had changed nearly as much as I had in the over thirty years since I'd left.Which proves convincingly why it's true that you can't go home again.Oh you can go,set your feet down on it's streets,but the whole point is that its not the same anymore than I am.That's a story,or ,more likely more than one for later.That sentimental sojourn was followed by two years in Toronto,Canadas largest city.My reasons for going there?I wanted to experiance life in the cultural center of Canada.And a wonderful experiance it was,though it was way too. hard to make a living there.It was there,though that I began to form the idea of writing a memoir.Not that my life seems especially interesting to me,but it might someone else.In Toronto I met with,was mentored and inspired by and shared bits of my life with other memoir writers.Now,I'm back in Alberta,though I'm not necessairly happy to be here.I was rooted here for over thirty years,but I suspect I was never really happy here.There is so much I miss about Toronto already.Again,thats more than one good story for later.The point is that all of this wandering begs the question:where is home?

Well here it is.My first ever blog entry.I don't really know myself what it will be all about,because you see,sometimes life is really odd.I had in mind something that is loosely speaking autobiographical,but aside from that,what form it will take I really can't say.I can only say that I expect it to be uniquely me,whatever that means.I guess I expect to find out  a lot about myself as this blog progresses.I've been a writer now for years.A historian and a philosopher too,among other things.Don't expect a clear structure or even an obvious sense of direction.I surely don't,and that is way more than half the fun.The destination should never be a greater thing than the journey.So come along ,if you think it's worth the trouble, and find out where I'm going,what I'm doing and thinking,and who I am and why it matters...just like I'm doing.