McGill University Grants BA to Student 99

Now for some good news. After four years of diligent study, Student 99 received her BA from McGill University in Montreal on Oct. 20, 2005.

Louise and I were in were in the audience that heard Chancellor Dick Pound encourage the graduates to treat learning as a life-long mission, and to serve well their world, their country and their community.

Student 99 in line to mount the stage.

She picks up her degree after being tapped on the head by the Chancellor.

Happy day !

Hard to say who is prouder.

The Graduate.

Exit Polls of the Presidential Runoff Vote

I guess the right wing socialist wins after all. When I talked to Aunt Wanda in Warsaw this morning, and she told me that she and all the other pensioners in her building voted for Lech Kaczyński, I agreed I would probably have done the same in her position. There's a slight chance that he and his twin brother Jarosław will try to buy popular support by some funding of social programs and pensions. But in the long run I am not optimistic. Lech was not effective as the mayor of Warsaw, so there's little hope he'll be much good as President. I'll bet you anything that in the next few weeks we'll hear that the PiS have decided to take his brother as prime minister after all.

Polish Presidential Election Results

Donald Tusk 35.82%
Lech Kaczyński 33.29%





The old Poland voted for Lech Kaczyński,while new Poland voted for Donald Tusk. The peasants voted for Lech, while the towns voted for Donald. Tusk led among both men and women, and in all age groups except the youngest (under 24) and the oldest (over 60).

As neither candidate got an outright majority there will be a run-off vote in two weeks.

The next two weeks will be an extreme test of the nerves of Polish voters. Which of the two center right candidates will become president depends entirely on who the left wing populist vote decides to support. I fear that is going to make it very difficult for Tusk, as Samobrona and LPR tend to get the vote of the peasants, the un or under employed, the less educated, and the retirees - exactly the segments of the population that are more likely to vote for Lech Kaczyński.

Here's how Reuters compares the candidates -

"Tusk, 48, and his Civic Platform want to revitalise the economy by cutting red tape and taxes, saying this is the best way to put back to work Poland's 18 percent unemployed, an EU record high.

The soft-spoken historian paints his party as a force for modernisation that can unite Poles, mend strained relations with big neighbours Germany and Russia and anchor the nation of 38 million in the European mainstream.

Kaczynski, 56, and his Law and Justice party promise a clear break from post-communist Poland under the banner of the "Fourth Republic", "moral renewal" and a return to Christian values while protecting workers' rights and the welfare state.

The conservatives have also courted the religious right, shrugging off EU criticism over their calls to limit gay rights and reinstate the death penalty."

I'm actually pretty proud of how Poland has embraced democracy and the maturity its political processes have begun to show. We've come a long way since 1990, when the leader of the chronically pathetic Libertarian Party of Canada, Stanisław Tymiński, ran for Polish president and came in second only to Lech Walęsa, leading to a second round where he finally lost with 25.1% of the vote. That he got so much will long be a stain on Poland's credibility.

Now, unfortunately, the knives will come out. The twin gnomes, Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński, will never again have an opportunity like this one to impose their vision on Poland. I expect that they will resort to the worst kind of USA style mud-slinging and dirty tricks to get their vote.

Here is how the other candidates did:

Andrzej Leppera 15.11%
Marek Borowski 10.33%
Jarosław Kalinowski 1.81%
Janusz Korwin-Mikke 1.43%
Henryka Bochniarz 1.26%
Liwiusz Ilasz 0.21%
Stanisław Tymiński 0.16%
Leszek Bubel 0.13%
Jan Pyszko 0.07%
Adam Słomka 0.06%