In a healthy and functioning democracy, all I would need to do is research the issues, the party policies, the candidates, cast my vote and go about my life with a minimal level of stress.
As I am not in a healthy and functioning democracy I instead pounded the pavement and campaigned for Vote Palestine and my local Liberal candidate, Adam Van Koverden, who publicly did everything that I could realistically expect of him on the Palestinian cause.
He won. But there's a lot in the election that gives me a lot of stress.
I have spent quite some time on this blog, and in my life, shouting at anyone who would care to listen about the deficiencies in the "Winner Take All" First past the post electoral system Canada uses at all levels of governance. As a customary jab at Justin Trudeau and his broken promise on reform, the reason I specify "Winner Take All" is that his preferred system, Instant Runoff Voting, is also a "winner Take All" system.
But that is a tangent as the purpose of this blog is not to dunk on Justin Trudeau but to fulfill my destiny as an electoral reform nerd by designing my own system. To very much toot my own horn, and also wallow in horror at the amount of time I wasted on this when I really should be trying to sell my novel, I also simulated what the 2021 election would have looked like under this system.
Tremble at my glory! Or pity me. Or do both. Both works.
So, permit me to introduce the CLMP system which stands for...
If you do not wish to read further then the TL;DR is:
Summary: This is a collection of short form poetry and prose by one of the many shining lights of Palestinian literature, Refaat Alareer. It feels like both a journal and journalism as it describes the reality of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation and oppression.
My conclusion: This book proves one thing more than anything else. Israel is built on myths that shatter on contact with Palestinian reality. Refaat Alareer's words, demonstrate that reality with stunning clarity and is necessary reading.
This review has been posted on other platforms with code words to avoid suppression. The version here does not.
As a Prime Minister Trudeau, at his best, was witty and concise. Within the space of a soundbite he was able to capture a moment the way he wanted the world to see it; presenting it to the camera with a winning mixture of charm and gravitas that was able to go, at least by the standards of Canadian politics, viral.
Two of these moments bookend his career. The first came when he was newly elected on a sunny November day in Ottawa where he responded to a question on why he had a gender balanced cabinet with the quip of "Because it's 2015".1 It was a break from the dark and angry days of his predecessor, Stephen Harper, and cemented his image as a bold, progressive and inclusive leader, strong in his principles and set on building a brighter and more hopeful future. He successfully set the tone for what was an unusually long honeymoon with the Canadian public.
Ramadan started a week after my last monthly post, please accept my belated congratulations for all those who celebrate the blessed month. And since Eid will be in a week from now please accept an early Eid Mubarak!
Ramadan has gone well this year, not only did all denominations start Ramadan on the same day, which is rare, but it also coincided with the month of March. This has made tracking the days of the month incredibly easy. It has also not been a particularly hard three weeks as this year the month has fallen between the long and thirsty days of summer and the shorter and far more pleasant winter fasts.
That last sentence of the paragraph is the second sentence from my novel, only slightly re-written. Think of it as a little preview six months out from launch!
Recently (on the 27th of Feb 2025) an election was held in the province of Ontario, my place of residence. The most important part of the results is that the ruling party of the Progressive Conservatives under Doug Ford got about 42% of the vote, got about 60% of the seats, and therefore earned themselves 100% of the political power in the province for four years thanks to the First Past The Post (FPTP) rules of the election system.1 It was a cynical snap election call and Ford was rewarded for it, evidence of an unhealthy society and a broken election system.
This outcome is pretty much exactly what advocates of a proportional system like me decry as undemocratic as, under proportional systems (henceforth called PR) getting about 40% of the votes means a party gets about 40% of the seats and has to negotiate power with other parties. Another fun bit of factual ammunition that came out of the election was the NDP party getting about 11% less of the vote than the Liberals (around 600K votes less) and yet getting double the number of seats as them.
It doesn't make any sense.
It's a mess.
And Justin Trudeau had promised to fix it at the federal level by 2019.
This is an accounting of how he broke the promise, and lied about it until the end of his career as Prime Minister of Canada
A lot happened in February and a lot of it was pretty difficult. I lost a close family member, my elderly mother had an accident which required a greater amount of care, and there was an unprecedented amount of snow that was dumped onto my part of the world in the space of a week which meant that there were hours and hours spent on snow clearing. Time and energy that I would have loved to spend elsewhere.
For me it's important to put my difficulties into perspective as a lot of other people in the world are going through so much worse than I am, but also to recognize my own fatigue, pain, and frustration as well. It's an impossible balancing act to maintain with perfection, but the closer I get to that balance the more I feel I'm able to both give myself time and space to recover, as well as keep from wallowing in self-pity, saying Alhamdullilah, and persisting.
A part of maintaining that perspective is to recognize what I have accomplished over the last month. The biggest of which is moving into a different phase in the journey to publication of "Under The Full And Crescent Moon"
I took a bit of an unplanned break from social media since I made my cover reveal and preorder opening posts. Life has been happening pretty fast and there were a few family things to take care of. I've learned from Palestinians to say Alhamdullilah for it all and get back to it. I'm blessed to be able to rest for a bit but I do not want to let it lead to stasis or despondency.
So what I want to do here is to write out my ideas as 'scripts' for the short videos that I want to make. That way I'll get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper and it might make for interesting blog content as well. It'll definitely shed some light on how I approach social media posting. More after the click.
There are a lot of milestones that I'm looking forward to as a new author. Seeing the book in my local library or in a bookstore, holding it in my hands for the first time. I am incredibly grateful to have these events to look forward to Inshallah.
Two of those milestones have been reached this month. The first is preorders have opened for Canada and the United States, Alhamdulillah!
I would be really honoured if you could preorder it. The various options are on my link tree Here
The second is the cover reveal! Click on for more.
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