Congrats Michael Healey

The Drawer Boy 4th most produced play in the US during the Naughties

Top ten lists are always in vogue around the new year, especially at the dawn of a new decade (or century, or millennium, or what have you).

You can usually find Top 10 productions of the year for theatre as well but, due to the nature of the beast, they're so localized, that these lists don't "mean" as much as some others.

However, over at Nestruck on Theatre there is a report that Michael Healey's The Drawer Boy was the fourth most produced play in the U.S. during the last decade.

Local boy does good!

Of course, I can't help but grit my teeth a little to report that somehow this list should mean more to me than others.

It is an unfortunate symptom of Canada's national character that we judge our successes based on how well we do south of the border.

That being said, Mr. Healey's work is among a list of some really seminal pieces, and the fact that his play has been produced 36 times in a country not of his origin is, to put it mildly, impressive.

Congratulations are indeed in order. Well done!

Accomplish much?

Those who doubt seem really, really angry about it

As of this writing, the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament has grown to 80,235 people.

That's nearly equivalent to the population of Sarnia, Ontario, or Nanaimo, British Columbia (according to tageo.com).

Media responses to the group however, have been mostly negative. They range from dismissive, to cynical to actually-kind-of-insulting.

If you are easily discouraged, I recommend not clicking the above links.

But I have to wonder: if this FB group is just BS, then why do you continue to write about it? If you take a look at the National Post's Full Comment section online, I see 8 different opinion pieces about the group published since January 5th (not including Chris Selley's Full Pundit).

I'm a member of the group, and in the same time frame, I've only written about it once.

Like the Bard said: "Methinks thou doth protest too much..."

Perhaps, all we've accomplished is eighty thousand people clicking a button. But for me, that's a damn good start.

So... what shall we accomplish next?

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And, for those of you who are gluttons for punishment, here are the aforementioned NP articles:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight

Have you joined?

A Grassroots movement against a cynical government

What a difference 5 days make!

My last post, on the last day of 2009, was quite pessimistic, I'll admit. However, despite the government's move to hide its 2nd annual prorogation of Parliament behind the blur of thousands of New Year's Eve parties and the announcement of the Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team roster, something quite different happened.

People got pissed off.

A number of Facebook groups that opposed the government's move were set up. One of them caught fire: Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. As of this writing, its membership has grown to about the size of the population of Lloydminster, Alberta.

Yesterday morning, the group was noted in the Globe and Mail's Ottawa Notebook political blog. Later that day, the group's founder Christopher White, was interviewed on CBC News. This morning, it was featured in an article for the Toronto Star.

Polls still show that more Canadians are indifferent to prorogation than are against it. But not as many as you might think: while 45% are indifferent, 35% are unhappy about it, and only 15% are for it. The causality of the majority's indifference could be based in any number of reasons, but people's opinions can change on a dime. Especially if they feel that they are being taken advantage of.

Well, we are. Democracy may be our right, but it is a fragile one and it needs to be protected. It needs to engaged by its citizens.

It needs us to stand up and be counted.

Join us.