Who should I vote for

I'm considering who I should vote for in the upcoming federal election. My options are:

• Liberal Paul Zed
• Conservative Rodney Weston
• New Democrat Tony Mowery
• Green Michael Richardson

Federal politics interest me, but I'm no expert. Here are my thoughts. Offer your thoughts in the comments section.

Zed seems to push for local issues and seems able to work with a party that isn't his when his isn't in government.

Rodney Weston has experience with the provincial government and could likely move into the position of MP without too much of a learning curve. Also, if the Conservatives win (which appears likely), Saint John would have a government member (which is supposed to be a good thing).

Tony Mowery seems to get local issues and was popular in the west side in the recently municipal election. I agree with the NDP on many social issues, though I'm concerned about how they would be at governing (spending money on social programs is good, but running a Federal Budget with no previous experience could be tough).

Mike Richardson seems to be a pretty reasonable guy. I respect that he ran for mayor (with little chance of winning) in spite of critics saying he should work on name recognition first. I think the Green's ideology that the economy and the environment must both be considered in policy decisions. Still, I bet Mike Richardson's run will likely just get "his name out there." This will be positive for his future in local politics.

I have until October to decide, and am open to suggestions.

House, without ads

I just watched an episode of House on the Global TV website. I find it odd that there is no advertising on these full episode. The show was split into 6 clips, I'm surprised that none of them started with an advertisement. The only revenue generation seems to be from a small still ad at the bottom of the screen.

I wonder what the revenue model is for showing TV programs in their entirety without forcing me to watch tradition TV style ads. I doubt dose.ca's ad at the bottom of the page generates as much cash for the TV station as the advertising during the show's original broadcast.

Edit: There is also a 3 ad, Google Adsense text ad.

Natural Gas follow up

I visited the Enbridge NB website. The comparison of fuel on a litre to litre basis that I wrote about yesterday is clarified on the Enbridge site by this:

• "Note: These charges are strictly commodity vs. commodity and do not account for equipment efficiencies."

The site also offers a comparison between the price of electricity and the price of natural gas. The comparison of these heat sources is done on the basis of price per kilowatt hour. This sort of comparison is likely to be more helpful to consumers than the per litre comparison offered when comparing oil to gas.

Natural Gas

I recently saw a bill board promoting natural gas as a home heating fuel.

The sign indicates that natural gas costs $0.15 less per litre than heating oil.

The problem I see with this as a measure of cost effectiveness is simple: we don't measure fuel effeciency in litres. If natural gas and oil don't produce the same amount of heat per litre, then cost per litre doesn't help us decide which is a better deal.

If we are to decide which fuel is a better deal, we need to compare cost per heating unit; perhaps a sign that tells us cost per BTU would better assist customers in making an informed decision about heating costs.

Another issue one must consider before making a decision is the upfront costs associated with each fuel type.

Keeping our cool

I just heard on CBC's Quirks and Quarks Andrew Weaver, environmental scientist and author of Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World.

My understanding of science is limited to high school courses, and documentary watching. Still, Weaver said something that made me question what he had to say about global warming. Weaver said that the global warming symptoms are worse than projected by the most "pessimistic" models.

What I am curious about is this: if the results of global warming are worse than models project, meaning the models do not yield results replicated in the real world, are the models valid?

While the concepts around global warming and the human causes seem realistic to me (again, I'm not that scientific), if we are depending on models to make decisions about how we react to global warming, shouldn't we rely on models that march reality?

New Home

I've moved into my new apartment. The move was a little stressful, but everything I own fit, so that's good news. I like my new apartment, it's pretty modern inside. The building, in the Heritage Preservation area, should give me instant cred, with the uptownsy folks ;)

Getting out of my old place taught me a lesson though. Make sure your landlord follows the rentalsman regulations. My former roommate and I realized too late that the landlord did not forward our damage deposit to the rentalsman and is now claiming we have to pay (from our deposit) to fix various damages that existed before we moved in.