today canada stepped away from the version of itself that i want to believe in. in ottawa today we were treated to an ugly man making ugly choices, setting up a very ugly precedent of proroguing parliament. notice that one of the synonyms of "prorogue" is "to render ineffective". so now we have a suspended elected body that can't make any decisions until the end of january. good thing none of the maple trees have any leaves left; they'd turn instantly black in disgust.