My thoughts on the blog and myself

As part of sharing my thoughts when they come up, I wanted to share my thoughts on this blog, and how I think my readers should use it, as well as some information on who I am.



My ideal use case for the blog, and what I try to design/post for, is to have the blog in your bookmarks. That every morning you check it, along with a dozen other bookmarks, half of which have nothing new, and thus, not having a new post here, does not make the blog stand out terribly from the norm.



You come to read it primarily to get introductions to things, both getting a foot in the door, as well as getting information about what is going to happen in advance of it happening. An example from many years ago (and thus beyond the lifespan of this particular blog) is when I noted the NDP's poll rise in the 2011 federal election in Quebec 72 hours before the mainstream media ran stores on the same topic.

I like to look at things and notice how the trends are going. It is my objective that you come here, see me saying "look out for X, as X is happening" and that, a few days or a week later, you read a news story on how "X just happened", as, by keeping up with the blog, you'll already know some baseline information on the topic.

Additionally, I imagine you come here to read my research into various topics. Frequently the prevailing wisdom on an issue is simply wrong or has incorrect stats; I am all about the stats and when I find something amiss, I tell you. It is my intent that you come here to cut through the nonsense and get your information from someone who is not trying to push any particular agenda on you. Yes, I have my views and opinions on issues, but I generally keep the sharing of those to a minimum, and try to give forewarning when I do so.

Lastly, I imagine you come here to get only the information you need. I am not the most verbose writer, partly by design, and partly due to lack of skill. My expertise is in numbers, not words. I aim to give you the stats and the data and let you make up your own mind with those numbers. I thus imagine people wanting to learn more but unwilling to read a longer piece come here to get information on various topics.

So, what do I imagine you do after you've finished reading the blog? I actually imagine, if you found a topic you are interested in, you google it to learn more. My aim is to provide you with enough context so if you do, as a result of that googling, run into advanced academic content that use particular phrases (such as "Triple E Senate" or "The Troubles" or "Shinawatra Loyalists") you know already what they mean and the context behind it. In short, I write these posts to help compliment other data you've found from elsewhere, and imagine you come here first before taking a deep dive into the topic elsewhere.



So, who am I anyway? I am Teddy Boragina. I live in Penetanguishene, Ontario, and I've run for office two times before using my birth name, Nick. I came third in my seat in both the 2003 PEI election and the 2006 Toronto municipal election. First as a New Democrat, and then as a Tory. I've voted for the PC Party / the CPC, the NDP, the Liberals, and the Greens, all at least twice, and if you count the sort of Independent-Tory and Independent-NDP candidates that run in Municipal elections, you can bump that up to a minimum of four times each.

I think if myself as a moderate vs a centrist as many of my views lean one way or another. Importantly, there are many issues I simply do not prioritize. I focus on a few key issues I feel are important, and if some candidate or party disagrees with me on an issue I do not focus on, I'm much more likely to simply overlook it. This often leads to odd situations where the party I agree with on most issues is not the one I support because those "most" issues are simply not as important to me as the key issues I desire to see implemented.

I despise the kind of negative complaining and attacks that comes from overly partisan participation. All MPs do hard work and good work. All parties have good ideas and intentions. Everyone, party and MP, is capable of evil and selfish action. To pretend otherwise sickens me as it suggests to me a aura of fakeness around the complainer that makes me mentally peg them as a liar, and someone not to be trusted. As such those who, 99 times out of 100, back their party while, 99 times out of 100, attack things other parties do, are liable to get themselves blocked or unfollowed by me on twitter, compared to someone who does the same things at a frequency closer to 70 out of 100. It's fine to have favourites, but if I need to dig to find the last time you said something good about this or that party, you and I are likely not going to get along well.



Enough about my thoughts, what about the physical me. I am 35 (I think, I'm at that age where you start to forget these things) and quite chubby. I live on my own in a tiny apartment that is between 10 and 11 feet square, with a tiny 4 by 4 foot bathroom adjoining. I am on ODSP (disability) and my only non-disability income is from my Patreon. The last long-term job I held was lost shortly after my employer found out I have Autism. They simply stopped scheduling me for shifts, so they could get away with saying I was never 'let go'. As a result I became unable to pay back my student loans, and thus, don't even get the various tax rebates that another person in my situation could expect.

I was born in Toronto, and have spent alternating decades living in Toronto, Prince Edward Island, Toronto, and now Penetanguishene. My father was born in southern Italy. I don't know much about his family beyond the fact his father was a shoe maker, and his father was the town crier. Supposedly, our last name means something along the lines of 'bad priest'. My mother was born in Toronto, both her parents from New Brunswick. My grandfather's brother spent time as the Archbishop of Ottawa; growing up in North West NB. As far as we can tell, his family is Quebecois and not actually Acadian, but don't tell that to them.

My grandmother was born in south east NB and before she passed she became interested in genealogy. She is directly related to the first LeBlanc's that settled in the province, and from what she could discover, large parts of her ancestry come from coastal Normandy with a small portion from the Rhone area in Southern France. Her grandmother was Mi'kmaq, something she long suspected but was not able to confirm until the research.

As such I consider myself "Half French and Half Italian", and that I am technically 1/16th Mi'kmaq. If North America ever sank under the waves and I had to go "home" to Europe, I would go to France as I consider myself more French than Italian, even if my blood says otherwise.



I hope this gives everyone a better idea of who I am and why I do this.