Most writers view a deadline as something you get as close to as possible without stepping over.
It’s a bad habit, and one worthy of a New Year’s resolution.
Today I’m hitting the keyboard early.
But it’s got nothing to do with New Year’s resolutions. I don’t make them, and certainly not for something as spurious as some antsy editor’s concern about whether or not I’m going to have my work done on time.
More like, it’s got to do with one of the other big New Year’s traditions.
My first New Year’s prediction is that before the day is out, I will be snuggled up to a hot water bottle, drugged up on every anti-cold medicine I can get my sweaty paws on.
Indeed, nothing much else is worth predicting for the upcoming year.
Nevertheless, here goes.
Federally, apologists for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (I didn’t think I’d like the sound of that as much as I do) will find myriad excuses, from elaborate to inane, for the inevitable errors he will make, and will blame Stephen Harper’s record for anything significant that goes wrong.
Meanwhile, his political enemies, who have as yet to realize that the election was LAST fall, will find error in everything he does, and will blame him for everything arising out of Stephen Harper’s record.
Naturally, one of the biggest bugbears will continue to be centred on the Syrian refugees. It will take more than a year – based on historical precedent, it will take more than a decade – for the inevitable positive impact of the refugee immigration to be felt in our economy, and by that time, the anti-immigration twits, whether racist, xenophobic, or Conservative, will have gone on to several easier targets.
Provincially, I predict that Premier Christy Clark will create lots of photo ops.
One of the biggest nothings in the coming year will come out of one of the biggest blunders of the year past.
Nothing significant will proceed in regards to Lower Mainland transit in 2016.
Mayors and councillors don’t have the political cojones to do what they should about the transit mess: nothing.
They need to step back and refuse to do anything at all until the province is forced to do the job it has been neglecting for more than two decades.
Trouble is, provincial poohbahs have convinced voters that transportation in the Lower Mainland, and only in the Lower Mainland, is a local responsibility.
And local politicians know that the more gullible among us, out of the ignorant belief that provincial politicians have earned their free ride, will vote them out of office if they don’t pretend they want to do something.
Of course, they can’t get anything started because nobody wants to foot the huge bill that has accrued over decades of provincial inaction.
Last year’s transit referendum was simply a scheme to get taxpayers to blame themselves for politicians’ incompetence. And those who participated, for or against, only ensure the current mess will continue for at least another decade.
Speaking of nothings, whether or not Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, he will not be elected President of the United States in November.
There are about 240 million Americans of voting age, and about half turn out to choose their president.
There are a lot of wackos down there, but I cannot bring myself to believe that more than 120 million Americans are that stupid.
