Eight Long, Weird Years

Four days ago marked the eighth anniversary of this blog project. Eight years is a long, long time. When I think casually over the things that has transpired in that period of time it feels almost overwhelming. In the summer of 2010 Canada was still in its long string of federal minorities. Barack Obama was a very popular president. The hangover of the recession 'seemed' to be clearing up. So much has changed and so much of it in unexpected ways.

Sometimes I wonder what this blog will mean as I continue to write it and time marches forward. I know it certainly provides information and evidence for my own evolving politics and snapshots of issues that I cared about at different moments of time. I'm also convinced there is about a 25% chance that any political ambitions I have will be sunk by it. I have no doubt said something in here offensive to a significant number of people in or out of context.

Writing in 2017 was... difficult to say the least. As my anxieties over the fate of liberal democracies spike it was increasingly difficult to tackle and discuss the news in a meaningful way. That's probably the reason that this blog has taken a closer look at culture over the last 18 months. Rating a television show or a book is a nice reprieve from the difficulties of modern political living.

At some point in these pieces I often talk about the state of the readership. In the spring I shut down my personal Facebook page which fed views into my blog, and made it easy to share. I killed my account because I find Facebook an odious company. My readership has been fairly steady each month over the last year or so, with occasional spikes. However, this month I crossed 100,000 page views, which just seems generally insane.

In the coming months I expect to be talking about the new provincial government in Ontario, provincial elections elsewhere in Canada, and the local elections in Ontario. As always, I'll be picking up on the news and information I care about and sharing my thoughts. I want to thank all of you for reading and making this blog part of your political/cultural life. I hope the next year gives us happier things to talk about.