Birth Announcement: It's a Baby Blog!

I am pleased to announce the birth of a brand new team blog. It's called 'Kats 'n Dawgs', and the team members consist of myself (Runesmith/Jennifer Smith) and self-described centrist/conservative Raphael Alexander of 'Unambiguously Ambidextrous'.

No, I do not have a brain tumour. Thank you for asking.

For the record, this was my idea. As a resident of Garth Turner's riding of Halton and a frequent visitor of his blog, I have had the opportunity to observe what happens when Conservatives (from Garth's old party) get to interact with Liberals (from his new party) on a regular basis in the comments section of single blog.

It ain't pretty.

Still, it made me aware of just how isolated most political bloggers have become. It made me wonder if there might be some place, some way, that liberals and conservatives could discuss and debate the issues of the day without shrieking at one another.

I ran across Raphael's blog by accident, I believe through one of several mocking links from Canadian Cynic. The particular post I read impressed me as exceedingly rational and non-partisan, so I kept checking in from time to time.

Ok, so I don't agree with everything (or much) of what Raphael has to say. Still, here was someone who was at least attempting to go beyond partisan positions and talk about what he REALLY thought, despite identifying himself as a small-c conservative. On impulse, I suggested doing some sort of bi-partisan / non-partisan / unholy freak-of-nature team blog together.

The son of a bitch took me up on it.

This blog is an experiment. I have no idea if I'm going to be able to take it for any length of time, let alone expect readers to subject themselves to it on a regular basis. Nonetheless, I think it's important to try. We are all Canadians after all, and if we can't even talk to each other without descending into a food fight, there really is no hope for us at all.

This is our manifesto. Subscribe if you dare.