Random Thoughts: Election’s Over Back to Work

Orange Crushes Quebec

After a very interesting this week in Canada, with an election that most definitely confused the political pundits and proved that in Quebec, anything can (and will) happen, we should all take a Valium relax and get ready for the coming summer. Whether the Jack Layton Daycare (aka the NDP) can mount an effective opposition to the brazenly arrogant Tories remains to be seen, but I relish the tom foolery that may arise in parliament over the next little while. My guess is that the Tories may simply re-introduce their original budget, with a few added tweaks, and we will get back to the business of Government.

We also had the death of Osama Bin Laden and flooding all over Canada, so plenty of big news causing some media outlets to almost meltdown trying to figure out what should be the big story of the week. The Canadian dollar continues it’s run as a muscular currency, but unfortunately gasoline prices continue to stay very high, which should cause more Inflation jitters in the economy. How will the Harper Majority Government deal with this, should be interesting (did someone say interest rate hikes)?

The Globe and Mail also had yet another poll about Vote: What’s the best Canadian Personal finance blog and it was nice to be nominated (it would have been nicer to get more votes than the Marijuana party did this week, but I guess that is the way these things fall sometimes).

A quieter week from me as I returned from my blogcation but still some interesting ideas:

• I felt it was my civic duty to remind folks to remind folks to Vote Today Canada, which I hope all of you read and complied. If you don’t vote, I don’t think you get to complain about the Government.
• The question are you prepared? is an important one for you to answer. Bad things happen unexpectedly, and if you aren’t prepared it could make for one heck of a mess
• OK Everybody Take a Valium paraphrased one of my favorite political cartoonists Aislin about the election results. Many folks are making dire predictions about Canada, I think we’ll be fine, but as I have said, it will be interesting, that is for sure
• Is there really such a thing as a reputable tattoo parlor? If there is I guess the other financial oxymorons I mentioned might not be as far fetched as I thought

As a note, I actually enjoy all comments (even the ones that question my sanity), and will try to respond to most comments, so please feel free to comment away.

Other Financial Bloggers had more insights about the RRSP season and the financial turmoil in the world these days:

• Michael James points out that with a Conservative Majority Should Come Tax Breaks, eventually, but not right away. Most of the promises were when the budget is balanced and that is a ways away.
• Tom over at Canadian Finance Blog suggests you Balance your Savings and Investments While Raising a Family, which is very good advice.
• Canadian Capitalist gives us his views of What to Expect from the Conservatives, again nothing exciting just yet, but maybe some cuts in the government (my guess via offering early retirement to the aging baby boomers could accomplish that quite easily).
• Jim Yih wants to know Did You Learn Anything In Financial Literacy Month? Hope so, financial literacy is an important point in your financial growth.
• Larry MacDonald wants to know Where is the Housing Bubble in Canada? Houses in my area seem to be selling briskly, but I don’t know if I would call it a bubble yet.
• Mike and Money.Smarts gives us more RESP advice with RESP Withdrawals From Family Plan Account – Don’t Overpay Grants to a Beneficiary, Mike also has an updated version of his RESP book as well.
• Preet asks Should Wedding Size determine gift size ? I guess he still has Royal Wedding Fever! Thanks to Preet for nominating me for the Globe and Mail Poll. Oh, and a sure sign of your advancing age is that you are going to more funerals than weddings.
• Sustainable Personal Finance gives us 16 Driving Tips to Improve Your Mileage, pushing your car everywhere is a tip they missed, but I am sure they thought of that one too.
• Sandy at Yes I am Cheap gives us My Debt Consolidation Experience and Rules, which is a very personal view on a problem many of us have.
• Boomer from Boomer and Echo gives us 5 Common Mistakes Investors Make, which does not include giving your wallet to the wallet inspector when he rings your door bell (I added that one just in case).

Carnivals this Week

No submissions this week to any Carnivals, as I was on blogcation last week.

Other Bookkeeping

Will Rogers

Remember my RSS feed is available too, for those who enjoy reading without looking at my crappy page lay out, and I have added an RSS Comment Feed as well.

Have alook at my micro-blog on Twitter, where you can see a whole plethora of good articles and pithy comments by me as well. Twitter feed where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on Digg as Big Cajun Man, on reddit, Tumblr and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well.

If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the side of each article, where you can cast your votes). As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!

This site is iPhone Friendly (and Android , iPod Touch and iPad Friendly), enjoy it on the go, in a readable format for the device. If you are reading with an iPhone or Android device, drop me a comment and tell me if this needs any improvements. This site is also in the Kindle US Blog list, if you are interested, not available in Canada yet (because no Blogs are available in Canada on a Kindle?!?).

Remember

“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the
politicians as a joke.”

Author: Will Rogers

Unfortunately looks like this one is still very topical in Canada at least.