Swiss Politics

Back in November you may have heard about the Swiss voting on a referendum to ban minarets. If not, here’s an article from the Globe and Mail about it. I have been working on an article about Swiss politics and kind of about this issue, but since I just found a video of Jon Stewart explaining the whole thing (while validating the Goodwin law, although perhaps a bit justified in this case), I might as well just post that:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Oliver's Travels - Switzerland
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

As well, since there are some similarities to Canada, here are five facts about the the political system here.

1. Switzerland is composed of 26 cantons which are somewhat similar to provinces (although they seem to have much more say over issues within their respective jurisdictions).

A map of the 26 cantons (20 full cantons and 6 half cantons) of Switzerland

2. The Federal Council constitutes the federal government, and serves as a collective Head of State.

3. There are two houses of the federal legislature, the upper (Council of States) has 48 members with 2 from each canton and one from each half-canton and the lower house (National Council) which has 200 members based on proportional representation across the country and based on population of each canton.

4. There are a lot of political parties (about 18), but only 5 that actually garner any significant amount of votes and stats in the legislature: SVP – Swiss People’s Party, SP – Social Democrat Party, FDP – The Liberals, CVP – Christian Democratic People’s Party and the GPS – Green Party.

5. Switzerland is basically the closest country to a direct democracy in the world. Citizens can force referenda on any issue in the constitution (100,000 signatures within 18 months) and may challenge any law passed by the federal parliament (collect 50,000 signatures within 100 days of law being passed).

Ah, so this is why everyone comes to Switzerland…

I’m not sure why that bunny is here !?

I finally got my feet wet and went downhill skiing in the Alps. Definitely not something I will ever consider doing every weekend, but it’s fun for a day (although pretty expensive). I’m passable enough on skis (mostly because of sheer fear) to have fun and not be stuck on the Idioten Hill (the German is definitely a bit more degrading than Bunny Hill) all day.

I went to Hoch-Ybrig which is the equivalent to Zurich as Camp Fortune is to Ottawa, except it is much more awesome. Although it is the closest to the city, it was pretty amazing. The whole experience of taking the chairlift up above treeline and basically being able to go anywhere was very cool. The Swiss colour system is blue, red, black in order of difficulty as opposed to the North American green, blue, black. Although some of the Swiss “easy” runs could definitely be closer to the difficult ones of North America. The steepness of the pistes was impressive.

I only ran into some trouble when the only link between the two main lifts involved a tough red run along a narrow section with some steep drop-offs on both sides. Not a huge fan.

I also managed to ride the longest T-bar of life without falling off, which was a good confidence boost after a silly incident at Martock in grade 7.

Drop by over the winter sometime and we can hit the slopes!

Vancouver Madness!

Well, March is almost finished, time to get some thoughts and experiences of the past month 2 months (!) down on paper.

In October 2008, about 2 months before I knew about coming to Switzerland, Emily and I decided to apply for tickets to the Olympics in Vancouver. We were successful and got tickets to a few events and I was definitely not missing it just because I was in Switzerland. To that end, I travelled back to Canada in the middle of February to take in some Olympic Games.

I actually surprised her by not telling her when exactly I was arriving in Montreal and then just showing up in her lobby on Valentine’s Day (a modern Casanova, I know). We took off for Vancouver on the following Thursday and were staying for a full 9 days.

Through our extensive network of contacts (not really, but…) we managed to find places to stay with friends in both Whistler and Vancouver for the entire time. It was really a life-saver considering the price for a night of accommodation in Whistler was more than I make in a year. So a big thanks has to go out to Will, Tamsyn and the Dutkiewicz family for their extremely generous hospitality. Anytime you want to visit Switzerland, there’s room for you here!

We went up to Whistler the morning after we arrived via the Greyhound and we took in a Nordic skiing event which was alright. The next day we went skiing in the morning and then took in the first two heats of the 2-man bobsleigh which was the best event we watched (despite my initial trepidation) as we had complete access to the entire track and could get extremely close to the action. It is unbelievable how fast they are going when you are that close:

Unfortunately we missed out on seeing any downhill events because of some early delays and rescheduling, but we managed to sell our tickets so it all worked out in the end. We managed to take in a few of the country pavilions including Norway house where we ate waffles with jam and watched the events with Norwegians. We also met up with a friend from Ottawa who we had no idea was taking in the games as well. From there, we took in a Sam Roberts concert and the first Canada-USA game in Whistler Village Square with a few hundred of our closest friends (and an Austrian TV crew, it’s amazing how well you think you speak German after a few pints). It was these moments that were the best part of the trip for me. It was really cool to be in a huge crowd all cheering for the same outcome. A heaping spoonful of patriotism indeed.

We went back to Vancouver, went to the loudest curling game I’ve ever attended (alright it was only my second, but it was crazy loud. Perhaps the metal bleachers and ample beer consumption had something to do with it?), and also took in a great Constantines and Wintersleep concert at Yaletown Live. Although our original plan was to rent a car and get in some skiing in the interior, the summer like conditions and lack of snow convinced us to shelve those blueprints and instead remain around Vancouver and take in more of the atmosphere and sights. Below are a couple of the better photos in an album.

Whistler Olympic Park

The top skiers coming through to the finish.

After about 20 attempts, Emily took this great picture.

2, 4, 6 mittens?

I guess China was expecting colder tempeatures?

Instead, lots of beautiful green grass.

THE PANTS!

Cons killing it in Yaletown

Our picture with Quatchi and Miga

To sum it all up, it was a great experience (although I still have a few problems with the business side of the Olympics) and I highly suggest you try it out if you have the means. Sochi in 2014 anyone?

Langlaufen im Schweiz

Well, I've managed to get out on my new skis a number of times already here in Switzerland (Langlaufen is german for cross-country skiing). Before Christmas I bought a pass that is good for every single km of ski trail in the entire country for 100 CHF (equal to about $100 CDN) and I resolved to mkae good on it by getting out as much as possible. One of my goals has been to try out a number of different places since I also have a general abondenment (GA) to get everywhere in the country.

Myself and a couple of people from work usually go skiing at Einsiedeln every Wednesday evening (as they have a lit 4 km loop) and on the weekends, I try and do a bit of exploring. I have also made it to Rothenthurm (photos below) and Langis, both of which were quite nice. The one thing I have noticed is that because most forested areas are limited to the steep slopes, there are not many XC trails that cut though the woods (similar to Gatineau Park) which is just a different vibe, although it does produce nice sightlines.

I will post more photos as the season progresses and visit more trails.

Watching the fog drian into the valley at Rothenthurm

All geared up after skiing at Rothenthurm

Motivation to Blog Diminishing...

I haven't posted anything since the end of November and posts definitely trailed off in the fall. I guess either I don't have as much to say or I'm getting exceptionally lazy about making posts. I'll draw out the percentages as 17% of the former and 76% the latter with the rest being made up by other ridiculous reasons.

Then again, over the past 4 weeks I have had a decent excuse in that I was no where near Switzerland. I was back in Canada for 4 weeks it was great as I managed to spend time in Montréal with Emily, Ottawa with Pat and Greg and some frisbee boys, Halifax with the family and friends from high school and Toronto with the Constantines. It was hectic at times, hugely relaxing at others and overall a superb vacation (with maybe a bit too much travel overall). I apologize if I didn't get to see you, it really hits home how many great friends I have when I can't see them all on these trips home.

In the spirit of the so-called awards season, here are some prizes from my vacation:

Best concert attended: Constantines 10th anniversary show at Lee's Palace in Toronto. Epic.

Best restaurant meal: Fish and chips at Lucille's Oyster Dive in Montréal. Coincidentally, best restaurant name as well.

Most exciting sporting event (live): Sens-Flyers game in Ottawa. Back and forth affair that featured all 4 dressed goaltenders. It was like a video game, except I know it was real beause I received free pizza because of it.

Least exciting sporting event (live): Seeing the Mooseheads get shallacked 10-1 or something equally ridiculous by the Wildcats. The reason I don't know the final score is because we left after the 2nd period. Yep, that bad.

Most exciting but equally disappointing sporting event: (tie) World Juniors gold medal game and Packers-Cardinals wild card matchup. Amazing comebacks only to be shattered by quick OT losses in both cases. Personally, I blame the Ye Olde Orchard (and it's archaic spelling which obviously incites some sort of black magic curse).

Best gambling related event: Finally winning a fantasy football title in the CFFL in the 9th year. No money, just straight up pride. Also finishing in the money for a third straight year in the CHFL was a pretty good moment as well. I wish my hockey team were on that track, but alas they were doomed from the day I picked them.

Best movie watched: Open Range, although the sheer wow factor of Avatar is a really close second.

Best purchase: Definitely my new nordic skis. I'll have pictures of my nordic skiing adventures in Switzerland soon.

That's all I can think of right now (but feel free to post categories you think I should add!) and just being home and eating holiday baking (although in hindsight I should have eaten so much more) was great.

I hope all of your holidays were spectactular and that you are starting off the new year in style.