Loonie reaches parity with US Dollar

The Canadian dollar, known to us Canadians as the Loonie, has reached parity with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. This has been a story Canadians have been following for years now as the Loonie has risen over 60% over the last 5 years. In real terms, that means that my Penn education now costs less than half as much as it did my freshmen year and that since my assets are denominated in Canadian dollars, my net worth has risen 60% relative to my American peers. Not bad.

This story here has to do with the US dollar weakness against all major currencies and will likely continue its decline as global current account imbalances work themselves out.

With oil closing at record highs above $80 and the mortgage crisis continuing to take its toll, things are not looking good for the US economy.

Cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

DiCaprio Takes on the Environment, Gore-style

Originally posted at Progressive Dispatches

Leonardo DiCaprio is following in Al Gore's footsteps with his new movie, The 11th Hour. According to Warner Brothers,

The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course.

It comes out in New York and LA this weekend and has a wider release on August 24th (which is when I will be able to see it when it comes out in Philadelphia). After watching the trailer, it's no surprise that the film has already received so much positive buzz online,

The film expands on the themes of last year's Oscar-winning doc, "An Inconvenient Truth," and even goes further then the global warming issue, which the film argues is just one symptom of humanity's overarching influence on the planet.According to Warner Brothers.

From a review at Treehugger.com:

The film is a collection of vivid imagery accompanied by commentary and meditation from an impressive collection of political leaders, designers, and visionaries—a proverbial team of environmental rock stars. Cast members include former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, and sustainable design authority William McDonough . . . to name a few. In total, the film features 50 independent voices, bringing expertise, experience, and emotion to the crisis at hand. Their words are informative, powerful, and inspiring—perhaps some of the great quotes of our time

Gristmill also has a review and an interview with DiCaprio and the producers of this film.

Leonardo DiCaprio premieres "The 11th Hour"

~BT

Young Liberals Fight Back!

The Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) released three great ads today, based on Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, in response to another round of Conservative attack ads. This is a much needed counter attack to the Conservatives ability to buy television and radio ads. (they have them running on Business News Network).

According to the YLC's press release,

“Look, it’s no secret the Conservatives are a wealthy party who can afford all kinds of fancy marketing executives and focus groups,” admits Pickup, “but within the Liberal family we’ve got talent, we’ve got dedication, and we’ve got a clear vision for Canada of which we’re proud.”

The three parody ads will be promoted through a multi-pronged approach that utilizes youngliberals.ca, Facebook, youtube.com, instant-messenger programs, and bloggers. This cohesive online campaign provides an opportunity for members and supporters to disseminate and share their messages quickly and affordably.

The ads have already garnered positive coverage in the Toronto Star, on CityTV's 6pm news, and much coverage throughout the blogosphere:

• A BCer in Toronto
• CTV's Politics Blog, Gauntlet.ca
• The Turner Report

The Facebook group has reached over 575 members and is growing fast.

(cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches)

~BT

Harper's EcoFraud Exposed!

In their own words:

We thought that http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca was a little too strong on the BS side, so we made our own.

Visit http://www.ecofraud.ca and raise awareness by spreading the word!

You need to check this out and spread the word!

Progessive Dispatches: 1 month old!

I was really surprised to notice that I have been blogging at Progressive Dispatches for 1 month now, mainly because it feels like I just posted And we're back! So, why post about a such a minor milestone?

Well, I had previously blogged for 3 months at Canadian Liberal @ Penn in the summer of 2005. True, I am only 1/3 of the way to my previous record in terms of longevity, in terms of number of posts, this is my 21st post so far, which is getting close to my previous record of 27. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere close to the amount of traffic I used to get, which is disappointing because the traffic provided me with active comments and conversation with others that made blogging more fun and meaningful. But last week's discovery of a burgeoning blogosphere at Penn has been pretty cool.

This time around, I found blogging to be both easier and harder. It has been easy because of the large range of topics that I want to blog about but tough because of the high speed and breadth of the constant flow of new information. The sheer size of the American political system allows for a sizable political chattering class of pundits, strategists, lobbyists, and has seen the emergence (pdf) of a vibrant progressive blogosphere that is fascinating to watch flex its muscle within the Democratic party. The progressive resurgence nationwide and the real notion that I could be part of this avant-garde progressive movement has been exciting. Most of all, it it the desire to bring this progressive infrastructure and success back to Canada that is most interesting me about US domestic politics right now.

In comparison, I was able to blog about Canadian politics at a much slower pace and there were less blogs and not much of an online opinion infrastructure. Granted, I was blogging within a nascent Canadian blogosphere dominated by well organized conservatives. Progressive Bloggers had just been founded and was quickly followed by Liblogs, both of which I joined and saw a steady traffic of around 50 unique visitors per day.

We find the the same thing at the early stages of the development of the US blogosphere. It started with conservatives having a powerful top-down infrastructure which has since stagnated. Meanwhile there has been an incredible growth of the progressive blogosphere with some asking whether it has reached its apex. This example shows how the Canadian right is able to effectively emulate their American counterparts and implement similar policies, strategies and ideas on a slight time delay.

In Canada, Conservatives have long mastered the art of borrowing from the US conservative movement and I don't see why Liberals shouldn't do the same thing on the Progressive side. Across the pond, British bloggers are similarly learning from recent progressive successes in America. From an initial glance, the Canadian landscape seems to have grown in size but I don't see Canadian blogs having the same sort of impact on politics yet.

(Posted at Progressive Dispatches)