But that was back when there were only three real national parties, back before the Bloc Quebecois. In 1978, minority governments were a simple thing. Neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives had enough seats to form power. The NDP held the balance of power and whomever they sided with, formed government. Simple.

It’s not that simple anymore. With four parties on the slate, the permutations can be complicated, but very interesting.

Depending on how the seats are distributed it might be something as simple as the NDP backing the Liberals to form a majority. However, don’t hold your breath. There are plenty of possibilities.

There are 308 seats in the House of Commons. That means a party needs 155 seats to form a majority. Suppose, for argument’s sake, the Liberals garner 120 seats, the Conservatives 110, the Bloc, 40, and the NDP 38. To form a government, the Liberals would have to cozy up to the either the NDP or the Bloc. For those who were repulsed by the thought of the Bloc being the Official Opposition a couple of elections back, feel your spine shiver at the thought of the Bloc holding the balance of power.

We could also face the possibility of the Conservatives making alliances (pun intended) with the Bloc and the NDP to, even though they have fewer seats than the Liberals, form the government. A Conservative/Bloc alliance (remember the Bloc, as with the new Conservatives, has its roots in the Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservatives), would not have enough seats (150) to form government. They would require some help.

If politics is about deal making, minority governments are epitome.

So let’s have some more fun and throw into the mix the possibility that a Green Party candidate gets elected.

Let’s suppose, just for a minute, that the Liberals win 125 seats, the Conservatives 124, the NDP 28, the Bloc 30, and the Green Party one. Remember, 155 seats are required to form a government, so, any combination wins. In this scenario a Liberal/Bloc alliance (155 seats), would form a government. However, we could end up with a real quagmire. A Conservative/Bloc alliance would give them 154 seats, while a Liberal/NDP/Green alliance would also have 154 seats. The one Green Party candidate would hold the balance of power for the entire government. The candidate could choose to side with the Conservative/Bloc crew and form a government or not, which would likely result in another election.

Are minority governments good or bad? Political parties, which strive for power more than anything else, abhor minority governments. Our country is used to majority governments where the party in power has no fear of losing that power short of its mandate. Politicians and party hacks will say a minority will hamstring the government. However, minority governments force those given power into ruling with the fear that their power could vanish in an instant. The result is that governments are more careful about the legislation that is passed. We all complain about government ramming things down our throats – gun registry, GST, etc. These types of legislation usually don’t see the light of day in a minority government.

Are minority governments bad? No, they just make governing more difficult because political parties have to enact legislation that will appease more than the backbench minions of a majority government.

* Reprinted with permission

There is a rite-of-passage that we must go through at this time of year.

It is a time-honoured tradition whereby we risk life, limb, and sanity all in the name of good cheer. Hanging up Christmas lights. I just hope it was Santa Claus or someone like that who came up with the idea of hanging up Christmas lights.

We better not be risking our rational thought all in the name of consumerism. Nah, Christmas lights can’t be about consumerism. Christmas itself hasn’t been consumed by consumerism, why would the hanging of lights be?

Silly me, I don’t know what I was thinking about.

This year we purchased some of those new LED Christmas lights – the newest fad since icicle lights. You will see the LED lights around many towns this year. They are very nice. They cast a kind of eerie, neon glow. Unlike the television ads suggest (hence my confirmation this is not about consumerism), you will not fool your neighbours into thinking they are looking at the Northern Lights. Well, you might, but then you really have to start worrying about your neighbours.

The benefit to these lights is that they are very energy efficient, which is a good thing, bulbs are unbreakable, and they are supposed to be good for 200,000 hours.

Most of us won’t live that long, so how can we refute the claim? Just asking. (Okay, before you get the calculator out, 200,000 hours is 8,333 days or just over 22 years.) But that leads to another question. Don’t they think someone might want to change their Christmas lights before 22 years is up? Again, just asking.

There is something the average consumer should know about these lights. They are not all the same colour. Before you start commenting that Christmas lights should come in different colours – red, blue, green, yellow – etc., I’m talking about the particular shade.

They’re not all the same. We purchased three boxes of blue lights, which should be enough to replace the ‘outdoor’ string we bought last year that worked fine as long as it wasn’t cold or snowy (we checked the box and they said ‘outdoor’ lights).

There is also another lesson to be learned here. It’s not really a lesson, but more of a common sense suggestion. Common sense only really works if you use it.

The common sense suggestion is checking your lights before you string them up. We used common sense. We plugged in the lights before we strung them up, and they worked fine.

Then comes the rite-of-passage part – climbing the ladder umpteen dozen times to string the lights up. The risking life and limb part of this story is all about using the ladder in ice and snow, with frozen fingers and in a hurried rush because the Canucks game will be on in 10 minutes.

Everything worked just fine. It didn’t take too long to accomplish the feat and, as with all feats that go too easily, something was up.

I didn’t notice it right away, since it was still light out. However, as soon as it got dark the too-easy task took on a new light (sorry about the pun).

The lights weren’t the same colour. One string was a nice light blue; the other was definitely a shade of purple. We checked the boxes. There is nothing on the boxes saying what colour they were other than the colour picture of the bulbs. They were identical.

Out came the ladder again and I went into my best impression of Sir Edmund Hillary. The offending string came down. No problem. Off to the store we went to replace the purple lights.

The store was very accommodating and let us exchange the lights. Back home it was time to challenge Everest again. With fingers that could be used to keep fish, I reattached the lights. We zapped them with the minimal amount of electricity that they need and : the purple lights came back on. Purple? Weren’t they supposed to be blue? The second string was still blue. Yes, it was the hard way to find out that the lights are actually supposed to be purple, not blue. The blue string was the anomaly. Probably a factory defect.

At any rate, the lights endured 200,000 hours of curse words and I will be testing the unbreakable bulb theory as soon as my hands thaw out.

To the nice people at the store, I’ll be back to, probably sheepishly, exchange yet another string of lights. Merry Christmas.

Yes, I’ve decided to further my eh-ja-ma-kay-shun. I’m going back to school. I am attempting to get a Bachelor of Arts degree in political economy. How’s that for a mouthful? And, I can take all my courses at home. I’ve enrolled in Athabasca University that specializes in distance learning.

They call it ‘individualized study,’ which is really just a fancy name for correspondence. However, thanks to the Internet and more working people seeking to further their education, AU has thrived. It now has more than 24,000 students. Not bad for a little prairie town located north of Edmonton.

It’s not an easy program and like all degree programs, will take several years to complete. The decision to do it wasn’t an easy one either. And as a genuine ‘adult learner,’ I can sympathize with those who make the decision to go back to school later in life. It’s tough, especially if you have a good job that you love (like I do). If you’re doing okay, then the first question is “why?” If your goal isn’t necessarily to get a new job or a raise (make note to send boss this column for potential remuneration increase), then why do it?

The simple and trite answer is to do it for yourself. For me, it’s finishing off something I started many, many years ago.

I attended university right out of high school and, being very mature in my late teens and early 20s, I didn’t quite complete my degree. I never regretted leaving university because it resulted in my life’s journey bringing me here. However, I always wanted to complete my degree.

When I started working and maturing (getting into debt), returning to school became less of a reality. Like I said earlier, the Internet has changed all that. Completing a degree is within anyone’s reach.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a scary proposal. All kinds of questions roll through your head. Can I do it? What if I fail? Will I find the time? Do I still know how to study? What if I don’t like it? Can I do it? The questions swirl around and around.

The answers to those questions lie in the community around you. That’s where you can find your inspiration At least it worked for me. I look at people at our local ElderCollege and it becomes abundantly clear that educating ourselves later in life is something we should all do. And don’t wait until you’re older. Never stop learning. That is the mantra of another group in Williams Lake, the Learning Communities group, which promotes “lifelong learning.” Lifelong learning doesn’t have to be a formal education, but it can be.

Last year my wife Cathy attended the University of Calgary and earned a diploma. (Maybe I just don’t want to be the dummy in the house).

I also have a friend who, in her mid-30s, went back to school to get her master’s degree in psychology, and then she got her doctorate. It took her 10 years. Here’s the kicker. When she started she had three kids, all under the age of seven years old. If you think you can’t do it. Think again.

Take your inspiration from wherever you can get it. In addition, do it, just for the sheer joy of knowing more. If you aren’t constantly learning, then you are standing still. In a society that is moving ever faster, standing still is still getting left behind.

So, if you see someone pushing the kids out the way when three-ring binders go on sale, that’ll be me. The downside to ‘individualized study’ is that I don’t really need back to school clothes. A new bathrobe and slippers are about it.

So take the plunge. You never know what you might learn.

* Originally published in the Williams Lake Tribune