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First of all, I do not apologize. I have nothing to apologize for. No one should apologize for having an unpopular opinion, or an opinion that the majority finds offensive. Second, I said nothing disrespectful to veterans. My utter lack of respect -- my undying contempt -- is for rulers whose policies send humans into unnecessary armed conflict. Those rulers pay lip-service to "supporting" troops, while their policies ensure more humans will suffer from the effects of war. If you're joining us in progress, here's what you missed.  Before the election, I took all my personal social media offline. We knew that the opposition would dedicate vast resources to digging up or fabricating anything they could use against NDP candidates. For some reason, no one directed me to remove wmtc links from the Wayback Machine (i.e., internet archives). This proved to be a grave error. A right-wing political hack who masquerades as a journalist received excerpts from some old wmtc posts...

Where to begin? Not blogging for the last eight weeks has been difficult! I was reminded how much I need to write, and how much I enjoy writing for readers. I have so much to catch up on -- I've been keeping a list -- but I don't want to overwhelm you. (For selfish reasons: I want you to read!) I'm going to blog my heart out, but I'll schedule only one daily post. At least that's the plan. The timeline runs something like this. April 7 - Ontario NDP search committee contacts me. April 9 - I agree to seek the nomination for the NDP in my riding; vetting begins. April 16 - Allan and I go to Vancouver Island with my brother and sister-in-law who live in Oregon. More than just a vacation, this was an exploratory trip, as we are considering moving there. April 20 - I am cleared to seek the nomination. April 24 - We return home from Vancouver Island. April 29 - I attend my first official NDP event, Andrea Horwath's campaign kickoff rally in Hamilton. May 6 - I am off...

Friends of wmtc, rejoice! Or at least put me back in your feed. This blog will be back and I will be writing again soon.

Dear friends of wmtc: I have been nominated as the NDP candidate for Mississauga Centre, the riding where I live and work. You can follow my campaign here on the web , on Facebook , and on Twitter . I am very excited to work for the people of Mississauga Centre, to help bring change for the better. Under the leadership of Andrea Horwath, Ontario can recover from the devastating effects of past governments and begin to work for us , the working people of this great province. We need to break the pattern that has been holding us back: moving back and forth from Liberal government to Conservative, going from bad to worse and back again. We need a bold leap to something different: change for the better. Only the New Democrats offer that. I'm enormously proud to represent Ontario's NDP, and to be part of the solution. I hope I can count on your support. With love and solidarity for all, Laura Kaminker

Celebrate #EmpathyDay with a good book. Last year, a prosecutor in the US state of Virginia asked a judge to hand down an unusual sentence. Five teens had defaced a historic structure -- a Jim Crow-era schoolhouse for African-American children -- with swastikas and other racist graffiti. The judge agreed with the prosecutor -- and she sentenced the teens to reading . The teens were to choose books from a list of books that illuminate bigotry and hatred, among them Elie Wiesel's Night , Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , and Arthur Miller's The Crucible . Sentenced to read With at least one of those teens, it worked. This person (not identified), who is 16 or 17 years old, agreed to share his reading list and his thoughts with a reporter for The New York Times . The list included The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The books he found most affecting w...

With apologies to my man C. Dickens, it was the worst of customers, it was the best of customers. Our Children's Department is short-staffed right now, and although that is stressful in many ways, there is a silver lining for me: I am needed more on the information desk, and that's my favourite place to be in the library. One day this week, I experienced a real study in contrasts. From the desk, I looked over at the "activity centre" -- an educational-play area for parents and children -- and saw something sail through the air! It was a plastic play-thing of some sort and its arc was unmistakably thrown . As I started walking over, a parent intercepted me. He was holding the base of a small puzzle -- a square piece of wood -- and said, "This child is throwing things. He hit my child with this. I spoke to the father, and he said, 'They are children. That's what children do!'". I thanked him for letting me know and said I would take care of it. I c...

We used to eat President's Choice Blue Menu granola. The vanilla-almond flavour was crunchy, delicious, and reasonably healthy. My favourite way to eat it was with plain Greek yogurt and fruit, but it was very good with milk or rice milk as well. Then... it changed. It was no longer crunchy. It was no longer tasty. With a little liquid added, it tasted like soggy cardboard, or what I imagine soggy cardboard would taste like if it were a breakfast cereal. Thanks a lot, Loblaws. Allan, who does our food shopping, went on the hunt for a cereal that would satisfy all the requirements: whole grain, crunchy, tasty, not overly sweet, and reasonably healthy. Plus I prefer clusters to flakes. It would also be good if the cereal didn't cost $10.00 a box. This is how I discovered Jordan's Morning Crisp granola, and it has made me very happy. Morning Crisp is crunchy. Morning Crisp is delicious. Morning Crisp comes in a variety of yummy flavours: Wild About Berries, Simply Strawberry, ...