test blog #10

We´re back from our second visit to Machu Picchu, killing time until we take the train back to Cuzco. We´ll be in Cuzco only overnight, then head south to Lake Titicaca. After posting yesterday, we had something to eat (why is the best food in Aguas Caliente pizza?) and hung out a bit in this tiny town. It was Saturday night, and the residents had reclaimed their plaza from las turistas . El Gran Bingo was starting up - outdoors on the plaza - and the little church on the square had its doors open for Mass. This is one area where traditional societies have it all over modern life. One time in southern Italy, we thought there was a parade, until we realized it was just the town taking its nightly walk after dinner, the passagimiento . In Oaxaca, Mexico, a band was playing in the plaza, not because it was a holiday, just because it was a beautiful evening. Adults were kibbitzing, teenagers were checking each other out, kids were running around, just because that´s what you do in the eve...

Wondering how Cody the Dog is doing without us? Check out the latest installment of they´ve gone to peru !

I´m writing the Peruvian portion of we move to canada exactly as if it were my travel journal: I´m writing it for myself, for the things I want to remember. So before I forget, I must immortalize the kind Peru Rail employee who tended to my injured finger. As we were running around our hotel room in Cuzco, throwing clothes in our suitcases and dashing around like maniacs, I reached into our bathroom-toiletry organizer bag and, thinking I was grabbing my eyeglass cleaner, I grabbed Allan´s razor. Pinched it hard between two fingers. It wasn´t especially painful, but it was deep and bloody. I then discovered we had neglected to bring Band-Aids. (We forgot several things on this trip. We usually pack much more carefully.) I wrapped my finger in toilet paper and consulted my phrase book for "Do you have a Band-Aid?" While we were hustling into the taxi - holding up traffic on the narrow one-way street - a hotel employee got me una curitas , which was soaked through with blood by ...

Now you´ll all find out what a great writer I´m not. Machu Picchu defies my power of description. All I can tell you is how I felt being there. It is one of the most spectacular, beautiful, powerful and truly awesome things I have ever seen in my life. Awesome is an overused word, but I mean it in the true meaning of the word: I was in awe. I´ll back up. After I left you yesterday, we had dinner at our hostal, in the tree house, and man, was that a surprise. One of the owners is a professional chef from Lima, and this dinner would get high ratings in New York or Toronto. Here´s something a little weird: he made sushi for an appetizer. Noting my surprise that they could serve sushi at 2,020 meters, our hosts explained that trucha (trout) is farmed and served all over the area. There was plantain soup and amazing chicken and potatoes, a great meal, too much food, and we high-tailed it back to the room. Up at dawn, we met our guide Armando at the bus to the Machu Picchu. Buses start leav...

In an internet cafe, Aguas Caliente, outside Machu Picchu temperature: 20 C / 70 F elevation: 2,020 m / 6,627 f It turns out I have another day to wait to see Machu Picchu, but I´ve waited this long... Last night it was Allan´s turn to get the serious altitude sickness, his complete with fever and chills. Insomnia is still running rampant, but we managed to doze off before sunrise. You can imagine the scene when I looked at the clock and saw 5:10 - and our cab was coming at 5:30. A little mayhem, packing and flying into the cab (and of course I cut my finger and was bleeding all over the place, just because we were in a rush), then more mayhem at the train station, where every taxi is met by a throng of sellers hawking water, batteries, postcards. For this trip, we opted for a higher-priced ticket, in order to ride the "Vistadome", a more scenic train with a set of upper windows. Leaving Cuzco, the way is so steep that the rails are a series of switchbacks - the train goes ...

After blogging yesterday, the altitude sickness hit me full force. I had every symptom in the book, including the very rare loss of appetite and the sadly not rare insomnia. The fumes on the street were making me sick, which makes sense if you´re not getting enough oxygen. Walking uphill to our room, after watching Allan eat dinner, was rough. Yet, after a completely sleepless night, I somehow felt much better in the morning - not 100% but vastly improved. We had a very full day today, and tomorrow we´re off for Machu Picchu, so I want to get this all down tonight. This morning we had a full healthy breakfast at the hotel, and that was the last thing I wanted to eat for the whole day. (Can I get this altitude sickness stuff to go?) After discussing how to arrange our travel for the next few days, we opted, at the spur of the moment, to pop into one of the many travel agencies lining the Plaza de Armas. These days we´re often falling somewhere between doing everything in advance before ...

Internet station near Hotel Los Niños, Cuzco current temperature: 13 C / 55 F elevation: 3,248 m / 10,656 ft This morning in Lima we had breakfast at our hotel with two older Dutch women, hardy travelers, one of them sharing my lifelong desire to see Machu Picchu. It was the first time we´ve said we´re from Canada! The hotel in Lima and the one in Cuzco are both run by Dutch people, by coincidence (I think). Breakfast was a good ¨continental¨ affair (although we´re on a different continent), but Peru is, surprisingly (to me) not a coffee-drinking country. Coffee is often a jar of instant, so we´re both drinking tea. They have lots of strong black tea - te puro - as well as herbal. Another wild cab ride to the airport, then security confiscated my nail file, small scissors, corkscrew, and a knife more suited to spreading peanut butter than attacking anyone. I always travel with a nail file. It felt a bit like robbery. The flight to Cuzco is an hour and ten minutes, over immense, stark...

Hostal Mami Panchita, in the San Miguel district of Lima, Peru current temperature: 23 C / 74 F elevation: 12 m / 39 f Monday afternoon, after disappointing the extremely excited and expectant Cody, we drove to Buffalo. Our JetBlue flight was delayed, so instead of having several hours of waiting time in JFK, it was only 90 minutes or so. I couldn´t sleep at all on the plane. I can never sleep unless I´m lying in a bed, at night, in the dark. This time I thought I´d be prepared with Ambien, but even after 10 mgs (I usually only take 5) and several glasses of wine, I did little more than dose. I was extremely uncomfortable in the middle seat. But oh well, two minutes after you land, it´s all forgotten. After exchanging some Canadian dollars for Nuevo Soles in the airport, we found our hotel taxi, as promised, with a sign from the hotel with my name on it. Also as promised, dozens of taxis, some not exactly reputable, hawking for your business. It was a pleasant 15-minute drive from the ...

This morning I have a few last-minute errands, and I have to go out for breakfast because there's no food in the house. Then I'll wake up Allan (he worked til 1:00 a.m. last night), and we'll pack and drive to Buffalo. As soon as we take out the suitcases, Cody will know we're leaving. She'll be monitoring us closely to see if she's coming or not - then she'll have a small fit when we leave. It's one of the few emotional displays she'll ever make. In NYC, she would run out of our apartment into the hall, and plant herself by the elevator! She'd sit up real straight, staring at us expectantly. If I'm out here, they have to take me, right? It's a killer. But she'll only be alone for a couple of hours, until Ellen arrives, and then all will be well. We fly from Buffalo to JFK, wait a few hours in the airport, then fly overnight to Lima. Someone from the hotel in Lima is meeting us at the airport, which apparently is pretty common there....

Did anyone see The Simpsons tonight? Marge and the kids are Puritans fleeing England for the New World. As Homer pilots the Mayflower through a storm, he cries, "I'll see you fundamentalist Christians live to take over all of America by the 21st century!" Nothing like a new Simpsons episode to start your vacation off right. Time to pour myself another glass of wine and settle in for Family Guy and the return of American Dad.

How much are the wars in (and occupations of) Afghanistan and Iraq costing US taxpayers? Wrap your mind around $10 billion a month . With the expected passage this spring of the largest emergency spending bill in history, annual war expenditures in Iraq will have nearly doubled since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat. The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found. Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vi...

There's a good story in the Toronto Star today about how great cities are designed, and how Toronto might become one . It's part of a series in which various people - Toronto Mayor David Miller, critic Christopher Hume, community activists - weigh in on how to improve Toronto. The Star also asked readers to send ideas. Links to those stories are here. Today's story points out that great cities are often made either by dictatorial fiat - always the case in ancient times - or after a major disaster. Wars, bombings, earthquakes and fire create an opportunity for planned rebuilding. So the writer asks, absent these two factors (we hope), how will Toronto develop its own great style? For Larry Richards, a professor of architecture at the University of Toronto, that's why all of the new cultural projects need to be a resounding success, as "proofs of excellence." Will that be enough? Maybe. "Toronto has to come out of its pessimism and just be more confident ...

Last week we tackled the U.S. tax forms ; this week we did the Canadian returns. Despite what we had heard, they were not appreciably easier. The language of Canada Revenue may be somewhat clearer than that of the IRS, but other than that, there's not much difference. There are still multiple forms to fill out, arcane formulas to follow, and instructions that refer to other instructions ad infinitum . Because we earned very little money in Canada last year - having landed on August 30 and then living off previous earnings for a while - we're getting a small refund. That's always welcome, and we'll be sure to put it right back into the economy. However, it might be the economy of Peru.

Paul Krugman's latest column seems to be all over the blogosphere. It's pay-per-view at the New York Times , but free to wmtc readers. The Great Revulsion By Paul Krugman "I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country." I wrote those words three years ago in the introduction to my column collection, "The Great Unraveling." It seemed a remote prospect at the time: Baghdad had just fallen to U.S. troops, and President Bush had a 70 percent approval rating. Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush's approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush's performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and N...

Why don't more Canadians use VoIP? VoIP - voice over internet protocol - is an easy and very inexpensive way to get excellent phone service. Through Vonage , Canadians can get unlimited local and long-distance calling for a flat rate of $39.99 per month. I brought my US Vonage service with me, so I'm only paying $24.95 (US) per month. But even in Canadian dollars, this is a bargain. One flat rate, unlimited local and long distance, anywhere in Canada or the US, plus lots of little extras. All services like voice mail, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID and such are all free, and you can enable or disable them as you choose. Those services are usually free in the US, but apparently not in Canada, so it's even more of a bargain. You can pick up your voice mail on the internet. You can add on phone numbers in other area codes. For example, if your mom in Montreal calls you in Vancouver every week, for an additional $5.00 a month, you can give her a Montreal phone number...

The NHL playoffs have started, and who can blame hockey fans for being excited about the first playoffs in nearly two years. With four Canadian teams in the quarterfinals, I guess everyone is happy except Leaf fans and Vancouverites. It always seems to me that too many teams make the playoffs in hockey, but nobody asked me. Is anyone here heavily invested in the playoffs? Who are we rooting for? I have no hockey team, I might as well be on board for a friend. While those games were getting underway, I was watching the Red Sox locked in mortal combat with the Blue Jays. What started out as a Red Sox team in cruise control ended up going 12 innings, until the Red Sox ran out of decent pitching and were forced to turn to Rudy Seanez. Sox fans knew that the game was over as soon as he started warming up. The Red Sox are right down the street and Allan has to work all weekend. That just seems wrong. It happened in New York, too, of course, but in this case, he's working literally blocks...

People rallied at Queens Park in Toronto yesterday, in support of undocumented immigrants who are facing deportation. Another rally is planned for today. The immigrants are all working people, supporting themselves and their families. For some, deportation is a true nightmare: their family will be split up, as their countries of origins are not the same. The rally was organized by the Universal Workers Union, Local 183 , which represents construction workers, among others. The union is calling on the federal government to amend its immigration process so these hard-working, average folks can continue to live in Canada and contribute to society. A construction workers' union rallying in support of undocumented workers? That's not something you'll see in the US. Among the speakers at the rally was Hazel McCallion, mayor of Mississauga , formerly mayor of our own Port Credit, and my pick for coolest mayor ever.

I visited the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) for the first time today. While it's disorienting to visit a museum that's undergoing a dramatic transformation, I'm glad to have been in it once before the change is complete. The Frank Gehry exhibit is really good. It's a little thin for the $12 price tag - while general admission to the AGO is free right now, there's a charge for this special exhibit - but if you're into architecture, it's worth seeing. For each building or complex in the show, there's one or more of Gehry's elaborate models, plus sketches, enlarged colour photographs, blueprints, information on the design concept, and a video, either of Gehry talking about the design, or people reacting to it, or some other background. One video is a clip of a "Simpsons" episode where Marge proposes contracting Gehry to build the Springfield Symphony Hall. (He accepts.) There's also a good CBC programme of the Canadian-born architect talkin...

A propos of our discussion yesterday , Jeffrey Simpson writes about Harper's so-called day care policy in today's Globe And Mail . He might not say anything you haven't thought of before, but he sums up the situation nicely. Call it many things, but not a 'child-care' policy Like the other famous five promises of the Conservative government, the wrongly called "child-care" policy is good politics but lousy policy. The Conservatives, you might recall, pledged to give all families $1,200 per child under 6. They called it the Choice in Child Care Allowance. The money, according to their campaign platform, "will let parents choose the child-care option that best suits their family's needs." It will do nothing of the kind. Simple math shows why. The $1,200 is supposed to go to the lowest-income earner. Say that person earns $40,000. For simplicity's sake, suppose he or she pays tax such that of the $1,200, a $1,000 per child is left. That woul...

The Soulpepper production of American Buffalo is very good. I imagine you'd have to like David Mamet to enjoy this darkly funny play, with its grim view of the world, but I do, a lot. The program notes referred to (I paraphrase) Death Of A Salesman as sounding the death of the American dream and American Buffalo as driving the nail in its coffin; also that you can view Buffalo and Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross as bookends, blue collar and white collar underbellies of American working life. True, both. That's also a cool comparison because Dustin Hoffman starred in the movie version of Buffalo , and later, brought down the house on Broadway as Willy Loman, something I was lucky enough to see in my theatre days in New York. Many people dislike Mamet 's stylized dialogue, his almost exclusively male world, all the cursing. I think he's great. Allan and I both love his intricate, wildly confusing movies House of Games and The Spanish Prisoner , both about con artist...

I think it's time for another classic wmtc discussion. Lately I've heard from many Americans who are in the middle of the application process to emigrate to Canada. This is the wave of people who started downloading forms immediately after the 2004 "election," and are now in various stages of planning and waiting. I recall how, in early November, various mainstream media were asking, Are people really moving? Is there really an exodus to Canada? Many didn't even bother to do enough homework to learn that disaffected Americans couldn't just pick up and move to Canada. Here we are, almost mid-year in 2006, and that exodus, no matter how large or small, is still waiting for the green light. Among the people who have recently contacted me was a family who has concerns about how Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party may be changing Canada. They are leaving a community in which they have deep roots, and they want to feel more sure about what they're getting ...

It's Cody Day, the anniversary of the day we adopted her, in 1999. Sweet Cody Brown, quiet, quirky, low-key, loves all people, intimidated by but curious about most other dogs. Never makes a sound, barely affectionate, likes to be alone, don't do that to me! , but ok you can pet my head, can I have your food? no? goodbye. Cody the survivor, from the streets of Jackson Heights, Queens, briefly slave to our little Clyde, then master of tough-boy Buster, now a strangely silent presence, enjoying her backyard. Here's classic Cody of the Sad Brown Eyes. Yesterday Ellen came over, the person who'll stay at the house and take care of Cody while we're in Peru. Ellen's looking forward to the change, and to spring in beautiful Port Credit, and Cody will have a blast. This is the first time in many years that I'll go away without worrying. Several people took care of Buster during his lifetime, but between his copious medical issues and his aggression towards other dog...

I've seen three good movies lately, two that you've probably already seen and one that you might have missed. "Capote" is as good as I had heard, as was Philip Seymour Hoffman's astounding performance. There's not much that I can say about this movie that hasn't been written already. One thing that struck me is how rare it is to see a movie with a main character who is so unlikeable, and who becomes less and less sympathetic as the story progresses. At the same time, the character for whom we have the most sympathy is a murderer. It's rare writing and directing that can pull that off. It's really a brilliant movie, one for the ages. We've been watching Hoffman since he snuck into seemingly every independent film in the past decade. His transformation into Truman Capote rates him as one of the greats. "The Constant Gardener" is also very good, a political thriller with the added attractions of Ralph Fiennes' and Rachel Weisz's ...

Some months back , a publisher contacted me about reprinting my Roe v. Wade essay . I just got a copy of the book in the mail, and I'm so pleased. The piece is being used in a series called "Issues On Trial" ; this edition is on Reproductive Rights . I believe they're mainly used in public and school libraries. The main headings are: Upholding Involutary Sterilization Laws - Buck v. Bell (1927); Legalizing Contraception - Griswold v. Connecticut (1965); Legalizing Abortion - Roe v. Wade (1973); Disputing the Fate of Frozen Embryos - A.Z. v. B.Z. (2000). For each, there's an overview of the Supreme Court case and decision, then between four and seven opinion pieces. It's just a wee bit strange to see my name in the brief table of contents, alongside Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harry Blackmun and Stephen Jay Gould! I have no idea why the editor chose my piece, but it was a nice bit of luck. Something every writer can use once a decade or so.

Today's a special day for Red Sox fans. It's Patriots Day in Massachusetts, and the Red Sox play an early day-game at Fenway, a tradition that dates back more than 100 years . Patriots Day commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord, the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. It's also the day of the Boston Marathon , being run this year for the 110th time. I love the Boston Marathon because it was the first major city marathon to admit wheelchair racers as official participants (though not willingly at first). The wheelchair designer and former racer Bobby Hall fought the heart of this battle. I interviewed Hall many times in connection with the bitter, protracted battle to admit wheelchair racers into the New York City Marathon. The great Jean Driscoll , who I've written about extensively, has won the Boston Marathon an eye-popping eight times, the only athlete in any division to do so. Driscoll's seven consecutive wins helped catapult the visibility...

In yesterday's New York Times , Richard Clarke, former national coordinator for security and counterterrorism, and Steven Simon, former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, give a recent historical perspective on the brewing US-Iranian crisis. White House spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why. Reports by the journalist Seymour Hersh and others suggest that the United States is contemplating bombing a dozen or more nuclear sites, many of them buried, around Iran. In the event, scores of air bases, radar installations and land missiles would also be hit to suppress air defenses. Navy bases and coastal missile sites would be struck to prevent Iranian retali...

Greetings from the Great Port Credit Swamp, otherwise known as my backyard. We have a very large backyard - huge by new-home standards - and through most of this winter, it was either a pond, a swamp or a series of giant mud puddles. A disappointment, for sure, as it was usually too wet for Cody to play in - and very ugly. Every time it rains even a little, large puddles form, because there's clearly no place else for the water to go. Whatever's not under water is squishy. In addition, the front half of the backyard - the area closest to the house - looks like a miniature lunar landscape, a series of tiny hills and valleys. And mostly dirt. We spoke to our landlord, and to a Friendly Lawn Care Guy. The problems seem to be caused by a combination of: the previous tenant never picking up the leaves in autumn, so the grass died; which in turn caused soil to erode during this winter's torrential rains; which in turn drew more animals to our backyard in search of yummy grubs; an...

Here's an acronym for ya! Thanks to Redsock, as usual. The boy finds great links.

Sign the petition. Let it not be said we didn't try.

Another Canadian for impeachment: Neil Young's upcoming album, called "Living With War," will feature a track called "Impeach the President". The song reportedly features an edited-together Bush rap set to a 100-voice chorus chanting "flip"/"flop." Young's own website describes the new album as "a power trio with trumpet and 100 voices - a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan - metal protest folk". Oh my god, does that ever sound good to me. According to that website, lyrics will be released on the ticker . Thanks to the folks at the Impeach Bush Coalition for the tip.

We're leaving for Peru a week from Monday. I'm thinking I'll use wmtc as a travel journal while I'm gone. Anyone who's interested can follow along with our adventures. It will be an old-fashioned travel journal, I'm afraid: text only. We'll be taking tons of photos, but I'd rather not deal with sorting them out and posting them in internet cafes. Think of it as an exercise in imagination. I have a travel journal from every trip I've taken since I first traveled on my own in 1982. (NN, if you're reading, that's us! Circles Over Europe.) About ten years' worth are in notebooks, actual pen and paper, until I started traveling with a laptop. For this trip, moving around a lot by plane, train and bus, we want to pack as lightly as possible, plus we don't want the added concern of keeping the laptop free from harm. So it's back to pen and paper for me, which would all be sweet and quaint if it weren't for my dodgy hands (arthritis, ...

A new blogger joins our little circle of defectors. Two Moms to Canada is MSEH's blog about her and her family's odyssey from St. Paul, Minnesota to... somewhere north of there. They're ten months into the process, and counting. Canada gets richer every day.

When I was still living in (and blogging from) the US, a frequent comment I heard from flame-throwing wingnuts was "Canada? Enjoy being taxed to death!" or similar sentiments. Allan and I never understood it. We always wondered, where do these Americans live, who don't pay taxes? We paid federal income tax, New York State tax, New York City tax, in addition to sales tax on almost every purchase. Many US states don't have sales tax, and a few states don't have income tax, but the picture of the US as some sort of tax haven is awfully strange. Unless, of course, you're a major corporation. So far, our taxes here in Ontario are lower than what we paid, all taxes combined, living in New York State. I repeat: lower. For me, the question has always been, What do I get for my money? Universal health insurance seems like an excellent - and a stunningly obvious - use for taxes. Indeed, it's exactly what the purpose of taxes should be. On the other hand, what do you...

From The Nation : New Orleans has long been pivotal in the struggle for black voting rights. During the Civil War, free blacks there demanded suffrage; their efforts resulted in Lincoln's first public call for voting rights for some blacks in the final speech of his life. Once these rights were won, New Orleans blacks took an active part in politics, leading to the establishment of the South's only integrated public school system. But rights once gained aren't necessarily secure; after Reconstruction, blacks in New Orleans lost the right to vote. As Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote at the time of the Civil War, "revolutions may go backwards." This is what we are seeing now, as New Orleans prepares for municipal elections on April 22. These elections are set to take place even though fewer than half the city's 460,000 residents have returned and the vast majority of those displaced outside Louisiana are African-Americans--the result of what Representative Barne...

William Sloane Coffin, Jr., a progressive activist who used his faith to serve the greater good, died yesterday. He was 81. Coffin first became well-known when, as the chaplain of Yale University, he was an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. He was jailed several times for his civil rights activities (he was a Freedom Rider), and indicted by the US government in the Benjamin Spock conspiracy trial. Coffin was a former pastor at New York City's famous progressive Riverside Church, and a long-time president of the SANE/FREEZE Campaign for Global Security. He also fought in World War II, worked for the CIA, and inspired a character in Doonesbury . He wrote several inspiring books, among them, The Courage To Love and A Passion for the Possible . Coffin was a great man and a great leader. Progressive people everywhere can honour his memory by carrying on his work. AlterNet's obituary features an interview with Coffin from the progressive Jewish magazine Tikkun .

US citizens, no matter where they live, have to file US tax returns. You have to show all your income, no matter in what country it's earned. However, unless you're in a fairly high income bracket, you'll be exempt from US tax. If you live in a country with a tax treaty with the US - such as Canada - you also receive a credit for taxes you've already paid in that country. So you shouldn't be taxed twice on the same income. The year you move, however, is tricky. Because we lived in the US and worked for US companies during most of 2005, our income is not yet exempt. In addition, we have to declare whatever we earned in Canada, and get credit for any taxes paid on that. To complicate things further, my freelance work is for U.S. companies, so I still have some US income, and no taxes are withheld from that in advance. Each word of every sentence on this post represents a form to fill out and a barely comprehensible instruction book to follow. We also have to file Cana...

A friend sent me this link , my first bit of all-Canadian activism. From Canadians for Equal Marriage : Stephen Harper has confirmed that the new Conservative government will try to turn back the clock on equality, by holding a vote to re-open the equal marriage debate this fall. The prime minister avoided the issue in his April 4 Speech from the Throne (meant to outline the government’s agenda for the upcoming session), so Canadians for Equal Marriage held a press conference the following morning. In the media theatre on Parliament Hill, Emily Turk and Cynthia Misener, a lesbian couple hoping to marry later this year, called on Harper to reveal his intentions. "Nobody should have to plan their wedding under this kind of threat," they said. Within two hours, Justice Minister Vic Toews responded by confirming the government’s plan to hold a vote on re-opening the equal marriage debate "sooner rather than later". Harper himself said a vote would take place "withi...