Quick notes

I’ve slowly emerging from a very active period, both at work and at home. Some quick notes for now, more later.

Obama does Canada: The stop at the Byward Market was not only a good idea, it was also nicely executed. Those stunts are a little harder to do well than they look like (thinking about you, Stockwell Day). I hope the Beavertail didn’t make him sick.

Harper’s social media response lacking: Mr. Harper put to shame those critics saying he would look foolish and unloved standing besides Mr. Obama. It was a stupid theory and the visit actually went quite well for our Prime Minister, of course. Except for the social media response – while the White House was posting liveblogging and pictures of the visit, the most recent picture of the Prime Minister’s Flickr channel was about a visit to Toronto’s transit authority.

Begging with dignity: It’s fun to watch North American automobile executives trying to find the right note in their relationship with governments these days. They realized showing up in their luxury jets wasn’t going to endear them to the taxpayers. On the other hand, you’re trying to keep your dignity with abjectly begging for a multi-billion government handout you absolutely don’t deserve. What to do, what to do…