Iqaluit on a rainy Wednesday

So let's see, an update on things.

1. If you're interested in the fate of Nunavut's curling teams at the Dominion Curling Club Championships in PEI this week, visit this site. You'll see a link there for CurlCast. Click on it and you can see updates of the scores and, with some luck you might catch their game on a webcam they have set up at one of the clubs.

A rough first day, but kind of expected when you're playing Ontario and Saskatchewan, although then men came painfully close to beating Saskatchewan. That one is going to haunt them for a bit, I think.

Oh, and I was fine about not being at the Dominion, even though we lost the championship game by a 1/10 of an inch. Totally fine. Said all the right things, about how it was good that other teams got the chance to experience this championship. That it would be hard to get the time off work. And I mean all of it.

Except today, I really wish I was there playing. Oh well.

2. The weather continues its deep weirdness up here. It went up to +4C today, which tied us with St. John's as the warmest place in Canada. People in Iqaluit have officially given up trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. We were 16 degrees above the seasonal high for this time of year. I'm close to wearing my curling shoes outside to deal with all the ice.

Another bonus, Vancouver is officially losing its mind because it was -7C there today. Yes, I know, karma is a bitch and in February when it's -40C here and +15C there, the tables will be turned and all that jazz. But for right now, I'm enjoying the hell out of it. Allow me to enjoy my shallowness. Vancouver, I mock your wussiness.

3. Iqaluit also has a mayor's race going on as the previous mayor stepped down a few weeks ago. Two of them - Al Hayward and Jim Little - are former town councillors. As town councillors are always complained about, I've been hearing the usual grumbles and complaints about them and what they did when they were on council last time. Then we have Madeleine Redfern, executive director of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, who I've heard people complain is too serious, which has to be an "Only in Nunavut" complaint if ever there was one.

And then we have an odd one - former NTI president Paul Kaludjak. And by former, I mean, very recently former. As in, NTI is having a special election the same day as the Iqaluit byelection to replace him as they booted him out last month for abusing NTI's credit card to the tune of $50,000.

No one seems to think he has a chance. However, as I believe he's the only one of the four to speak Inuktitut, I wouldn't rule him out quite yet.

Kaludjak would be the strangest candidate, except there is also a byelection for a councillor and one of those - Ed DeVries - has been a candidate for the Marijuana Party, plus a guest of the penal system over illegally possessing some things he might have been espousing during his run in federal politics a few years ago.

So yes, weirdness. But it'll be something to liven up the Christmas season.

4. Completely un-Iqaluit related, but right now I'm reading Tom Rachman's "The Imperfectionists". Have you ever hated a book because it's that god damn good and you wish you had written it and, in fact, you kind of started something along those lines but it will never, ever be this good?

No? Well, it's probably just me. It's still a damn good book, though.

Last Five
1. What Sarah said - Death Cab For Cutie
2. Breaking the girl Red Hot Chilli Peppers
3. Here today (live) - Paul McCartney
4. Shine on, shine on, shine on - Joel Plaskett
5. California - Josh Ritter*