On my way to work, the bus passes through the riding of Edmonton-Strathcona, one of the city's most highly-contested ridings. There is a good battle between Conservative Rahim Jaffer, Liberal Debby Carlson and NDP Malcolm Azania. (I guess with the environmental-ish flavour of the riding, it wouldn't be fair to exclude the Green Party's Cameron Wakefield either.) I have to smile everytime I think of Michael Moore and his idea that we shouldn't vote Conservative because that would break Canada's ethic.

"And that ethic says: 'We're all Canadians, we're all in the same boat. If one of us gets sick, that person should get health care 'cause we're all affected.'

"The American way is pull yourself up by your bootstraps: 'Me, me, me, me, me. It's mine. It's mine.' You know? Don't go that way. Your Conservatives are trying to take you that way."

Anyway, this riding has lots of giant lawn signs, propped up with large wooden frames from the three major parties. On Connors Hill (or is it Cloverdale Hill?) there is a house with a couple of these large Conservative signs where somebody crossed off the first two letters of the word "strong" from the phrase "For a strong Canada." He isn't too far off.

I wouldn't vote Conservative, an idea which isn't too strong here in Alberta. That leaves the Liberals and NDP. Here in Edmonton-Beaumont there is a candidate running for the Communist party. She might get a few votes for fun, I think, or from those dissatisfied with all the major parties.

My first experience in the river valley with my inline skates this past weekend wasn't too exciting. I climbed hills with my skates on, which is worse than walking uphill (because there's always the possibility of rolling down the hill backwards). I wore off the sides of my wheels, while doing this decreasing their lifetime significantly. My friend on his bike wasn't as unlucky. We went for coffee afterwards, a remedy for my blue toes caused by this climbing.