Where the fines go

I incurred my first Prince Edward Island library fines today.

In the olden days — before May 1, 2004 — Prince Edward Island didn’t charge fines for overdue library books. You received a polite notice in the mail, or by email, telling you your book was overdue. And you brought it back.

That was then, this is now. Today I had to shell out just under $5.00 for an overdue book and an overdue VHS tape.

As much as I appreciated the novelty of PEI being fine-free, I don’t have a huge problem with paying penance for keeping materials longer than I should, especially if there’s evidence that this system generally keeps materials more available to everyone.

And I can always take comfort from the notion that the money from my fines will be used by the library for Good.

Except it isn’t. I learned today that money from library fines flows into general revenue. It goes to pay for potholes and MRI machines and wind turbines. And, I suppose, in some small, small way, to buy books. A small, small, small way.

That’s a shame.

More Federal Politics at 84 Fitzroy Street

Federal NDP candidate Dody Crane is coming to a gathering here at 84 Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown on Tuesday, June 1 at 4:00 p.m.. This will be an informal opportunity to learn more about Dody and her ideas, and for us to provide feedback to her. All are welcome. Please drop me a line if you’re going to be coming, so we can plan coffee capacity.

A reminder that Green Party candidate Will McFadden is dropping by here today at 2:00 p.m.

Federal Candidate Website Table, Version 3

Here’s the latest update of the table listing candidate websites for the 2004 Federal Election on Prince Edward Island. Comments below.

PARTY

Conservative

Green

Liberal

NDP

Cardigan

Peter McQuaid

Weblog

Windows 2000

Microsoft IIS

Aliant

Jeremy Stiles

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Lawrence MacAulay

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Dave MacKinnon

No Weblog

Mac OS

Lasso

Newton

Charlottetown

Darren Peters

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Will MacFadden

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Shawn Murphy

Weblog

Windows 2003

Microsoft IIS

Velocity

Dody Crane

Weblog

Solaris 8

Apache

Aliant

Egmont

Reg Harper

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ePark

Dr. Irene Novaczek

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Joe McGuire

No Weblog

Windows 2003

Microsoft IIS

eNom

Regina Russell

No Website

Malpeque

Mary Crane

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

EV1Servers

Sharon Labchuk

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Wayne Easter

No Weblog

Linux

Apache

ISN

Ken Bingham

No Website

I’ve added new website addresses for Lawrence MacAulay and Reg Harper, and changed all of the Green Party addresses to point at their Island-based party website candidate pages.

There are now pointers to candidate weblogs where they exist.

Dody Crane’s website is being moved to a new address at Eastlink, and I’ve been told it will be live later today; I’ll update this page when it’s available online.

There are now NDP candidates in Malpeque and Egmont, although the national NDP office can’t give me telephone numbers or website addresses yet. I do have local email addresses, and I’ve sent out a query looking for information, which I will post when it arrives.

Our House, in the Middle of the Street

Wily-eyed friend Gary found this Robert Harris watercolour in the online Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

Robert Harris (1849 - 1919)  Methodist Chapel, 1870, Confederation Centre Art Gallery CAG H-193

From the church, count three buildings to the left: that’s our house at 100 Prince Street. When the watercolour was painted, in 1870, our house was already 33 years old (see also this photo taken 34 years after the watercolour).

Kudos to the team at the Centre for developing this wonderful, elegant online resource. Who would have ever thought that the Centre would employ people with the job title of Metadata Technician.

I do shudder to think that our house is now part of the grade 4-5 curriculum, although I do take some pride in knowing that this will help students “identify and describe how people create places that reflect human needs, values, and ideas.” That’s certainly the effect we’re going for here, now.

Federal Candidate Blogs

So far Dody Crane, Shawn Murphy and Peter McQuaid are the only candidates with blogs. Only Dody’s has a complete feature-set, with things like an RSS feed (she’s using TypePad). Shawn’s “Daily Update” is built using DotNetNuke and Peter’s looks like HTML homebrew.

By the way, Dody’s website has gone dark; it’s still being pointed to by the federal NDP site, though.

And Shawn has a campaign website to replace his regular MP website during the campaign.

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