Punched Up

Today's post is a shameless plug for my brother's new television show "Punched Up" which premieres tonight at 10:30 on The Comedy Network.

Pat Thornton - the aforementioned sibling - is part of a team of comedy writers sent in to "punch up" the lives of ordinary people. The first episode has them working with a girl from the Naked News.

That certainly gets the Nine Inch Column's stamp of approval.

The Day After

I hope all the Nine Inch Column's faithful readers voted yesterday in the municipal elections.

Here in your humble scribe's hometown of Mississauga, Mayor Hazel McCallion cruised to victory with 98,293 votes - compared to Donald Barber's 5,571 or Roy Willis' 3,667.

For your word of the day, see: Juggernaut.

Also, disappointingly, Eve Adams was re-elected in Mississauga'a Ward 5, despite numerous campaign violations. It begs the question of just what an incumbent has to do to lose an election in this town. Beat a puppy to death with a sack of doorknobs, maybe? (Readers will note -with gratitude, I hope - that I have not sought out a hyperlink for that last sentence.)

But, new to council, thanks to some geographical redistribution, is Carolyn Parrish. Her victory will at least bring some much needed drama to Council meetings. She has already declared future intentions of seeking the mayoralty, and this means she'll be trying to make a name for herself at Council, while Hazel (and other councillors with similar ambitions) try to prevent her.

Finally, looking east across the Etobicoke Creek, a comment about hapless Toronto mayoral candidate Stephen LeDrew. Here's LeDrew, an influential lawyer, former President of the Liberal Party of Canada, with political experience and connections out the wazoo, who managed only to get 1.4% of the votes for mayor (8,078 compared to David Miller's 332,969).

He's a cautionary tale if ever there was one. I can see the thought process: "I've got a national profile. I've got the Liberal machine behind me," he probably thought to himself. "There's no doubt I can be a legitimate contender." Perhaps his bow tie was a little too tight, or perhaps he's spent too much time protected from the rest of the world by the oak-panelled walls of the National Club.

My point is this: I'm a political junkie. I ran for office in 2003 and made a reasonable go of it. I'll likely run again some day. But God protect me from the blindness that afflicts so many candidates - the hubris, the inflated sense of their own importance and influence. It must truly be a rare thing in politics to be aware of your place in the universe, and to respect the limits of your own notoriety.

Remember

Your humble scribe's thoughts turn today, as do most Canadians', to fallen heroes.

I've always had a profound respect for veterans, but the abstract became a little more concrete when some genealogical research turned up the particulars of the a member of my own family.

So now, every November 11th, I think of my great-uncle, Flight Sub Lieutenant Sydney Emerson Ellis of the Royal Naval Air Service, a bona fide World War I flying ace, whose Sopwith Camel went into an irrecoverable spin on a July day in 1917 and crashed, killing him at the ripe old age of 21.

Thanks, Uncle Sydney.