When I seen the size of 'er hot mince pies...

So, news from Blighty seems a little odd, big huge old Henry Moore sculpture being stolen, wassthatabaht?
Here the news has more gravitas - mince pies were excellent and we had eggnog with them, so real Anglo-Canadian teatime. Somehow this hasn't yet made it to the national news but only because my newsworthiness, my thunder is being stolen by the squabbling politicians. Or really, politician. Now I obviously don't get to put in my twopenn'orth (officially) and presumably don't actually understand Canadian politics, but from my outsider's view, I see a conservative (Stephen Harper) who must have forgotten to go to class when they did what 'conservative' means - since he keeps doing un-tory stuff, like promising to reduce indirect taxation and shoving wads of money at people to be used for childcare. He then starts squinnying when some liberal points out that some people might not spend said dosh on childcare. DUH! On the other hand he is trying to make it seem like he isn't trying to undermine the fundamental rights of everyone over the age of consent to get married to whomsoever they like irrespective of gender, whilst attempting to do exactly that. In English that's called 'going backwards' Stevie. In our local free rag, there was a good cartoon, a bloke on t'phone to Harper saying 'I have someone in my office who is interested in your childcare proposals Stephen.' In the next frame you see two men standing in his office, and the guy, still on the phone, is saying 'There's just one problem...'
Stephen is trying to cultivate a 'man of the people' look by appearing on TV with no tie. I like this, I think it has a lot of class, it puts me in mind of the team on Tele Matin (sorry, haven't figured out how to do accents yet) who are casually dressed but very professional. Sadly, it also makes me think of the pres of Iran who sports the same look. And one final thing, his face has the look of wax that has slightly melted. Brrrrrr.
Paul Martin, on t'other hand, not seemingly beloved by all Canadians, to me, has nonetheless the demeanour and appearance of an old hand. You know, the guy at the head of a company who doesn't dress in designer suits but knows everyone in the firm and has mastered every job. You have the feeling he knows what he's doing. The 'no bullshit' guy. We'll see.
Back to eggnog. The French for this -which has to appear on the box and so it should - is 'lait de poule' hmmmm. Anyways, you have to buy rum to go in it. But here, you can't just buy rum or any other alcohol in the supermarket, you have to go to the liquor store. Now the liquor store is government run I am told. So, the good things are that a) it is one shop where the price quoted includes tax and b)there is an amazing range of stock. The downside, again as I understand it, is that there cannot be competition in this area, because even if the govt allowed supermarkets to sell booze, the supermarkets could not then engage in a price war because the govt controls the price. Not in the way that it does in the UK where it has a special tax on drink and fags, but here it actually is the supplier. So, say you are some thriving little vinyard in the Loire valley, you can't sell directly to Canadian Superstore, you have to sell to the Canadian government through its body that deals with such things. I don't approve of this way of going about things. If I am going to give Paul Martin the same undying devotion that I give to Tony Blair, then he has to get one or two things sorted out. That is deffo one of them.