What Naheed Nenshi's Victory Means

The tyranny of the baby boomers is over. But is generation X done as a political force too?

It was great to be part of a winning election campaign for the first time in my electoral life, but I can’t help wondering if it might just be the last time my demographic is considered part of the swing vote.

While Naheed Nenshi’s victory means different things to different people, as his ability to reach out to diverse communities was no doubt one of the reasons he was able to garner support across the city, the thing I will be watching closely is to see which political generation is now in the ascent.

It would be easy to suggest that the baby boomers are passing the torch to generation X, but that is not necessarily true. One of constant points of frustration for my generation has been the fact that we are outnumbered by both the boomers and the millennials. Thus, while it was clear throughout the campaign was that Naheed Nenshi dominated support among 18-35 year olds and a few reports even implied that anyone under 40 was part of the generic “youth” movement. The fact of the matter though is that there are two distinct generations throwing their weight behind Nenshi - the so-called generation X and millennials.

Over at The Daily Wenzel I’ve speculated that real political change could only occur once the millennials came of age, simply because of their numeric superiority. As with all generations, there may be lot of division over beliefs, but many of these beliefs are not being addressed in any meaningful fashion by the major parties, leading to their perceived disengagement in the political process. Nenshi has proven that they are ready and waiting. If I were a provincial or federal politician, I would be watching these results with a view to see where the support for Nenshi was coming from and comparing that with other elections happening today.

If the day really does belong to the millennials, then Stelmach and Harper have a lot to answer for.

Double Espresso Glory

This is the view of the cream swirling in my double espresso this morning.

(Ok, it's really from the Hubble.)

The Process, Pt.II

Growing up, I always thought that writing was a glamorous activity, something free of structures and the rhythms of nine-to-five work. Maybe that explains why my writing process is not the best. In writing this novel, I carried with me one my A9 Bluelines, jotting down a few paragraphs at a time whenever I had the chance or a good idea. Most of these early pieces are fragments, non-linear snippets, that I worked on over the summer trying to put them in order. I think I had forty to fifty pages worth of these pieces in my notebook. I spent much of the last year just transcribing these words and editing them on the fly.

Once the summer started I settled into an early morning groove, waking up at six o'clock every morning in an attempt to write a minimum of five hundred words before the other people in my house woke up. Within a few weeks I was doing a thousand or more words and appeared well on my way to achieving my goal of finishing the novel before September 1. However, as August approached the mid-way point, I began to suspect that I wasn't going to make it. My initial guess was that 65 - 70,000 words would suffice, and I believe I crossed the 65,000 word threshold going into the Labour Day weekend. The only problem was that my novel was going to be much longer than this. It took me another two weeks before finally completing the first draft at 83,000 words.

After taking a short break, I began the process of revising, which is almost complete. In the past, I used to hate revising, preferring to move on to my next project. This time has been different, though I can't imagine that I will continue to feel this way. What made it enjoyable has been watching the core of the narrative take shape, pruning and amalgamating minor characters and subplots, streamlining and strengthening the whole.

Pattern Recognition

In honour of completing the first full draft of my novel, Games of Chance, I celebrated by going and buying a paperback novel for the first time in years. Usually I get most of my books via Fast Forward or handed to me from my wife. When I do buy new books, it tends to be mostly non-fiction works, like the phenomenal Third Teacher. Buying a new paperback was a special treat.

So what did I buy?

I went up and do the aisles quite a bit, but ultimately chose William Gibson's 2005 Pattern Recognition. I quite enjoyed it's sequel, Spook Country, and especially the chance to interview Gibson about the book. There was a way that Spook Country conceptualized information-as-commodity that I found really intriguing. In Pattern Recognition it appears that part of the focus is on the relationship we share in the construction of meaning.

BTW, Gibson has a new book out, continuing to explore the ground laid out in these earlier two. It's called Zero History and Fast Forward has an interview (by someone else) here. At my current pace, I'll be reading it in 2015.