September 2, 2008

It's Tuesday September 2nd,

Presidential Candidate John McCain's selection of Alaska's governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate has electrified the Republican party

Currently, Palin says she'd be deeply gratified, except she doesn't believe in electricity.

This is The Current.


Caring about the Canadian Elections

The Current took to the streets in order to hear some thoughts from everyday Canadians and how they feel about the election.It sounded like a case of election envy is settling in here in Canada, or at least on the streets of Toronto.

And to be fair, it's pretty easy to understand why.

Americans get scandals over unwed pregnancies, natural disasters of biblical proportions and a candidate who -- by his mere existence -- is making history. Canadians? We get scheduling conflicts. And now that the Prime Minister and all three opposition leaders have managed to coordinate their day-timers, it looks like we're getting an election.

Jack Knox has been giving some thought to whether we really get the election campaigns we deserve. He writes for the Victoria Times Colonist and he joined us from Victoria.

Getting Revved Up

Political party strategists here in Canada are ready to hit the campaign trail, hoping to convince Canadians they should get all revved up about a fall election. Two of them joined us from Ottawa for the show. Tim Powers is a strategist for the Conservative Party and Anne McGrath is President of the Federal NDP.

Air Safety Investigation

There are big changes coming to Canada's air safety system.

Regulators say that by encouraging the airline industry to self-report on safety issues, they'll be making our skies safer. But critics say the experience in the United States suggests otherwise. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration -- or FAA -- has coordinated a similar self-reporting system for years. And last spring, two senior FAA inspectors served up some shocking testimony about how it was working- stories of planes flying with cracks, maintenance not getting done, and FAA managers looking the other way.

Sandra Bartlett has been looking into those stories. She's a reporter with the CBC News Investigative Unit. She joined us in our Toronto studio.

Credit Card Crunch

Ahh yes, those familiar ads just wrap themselves around you like a nice, soft blanket. But just because something is priceless - doesn't make it free. And according to a growing number of economists, the cost of using plastic is now going well beyond the individual consumer to the point where it's threatening the global economy. But try telling that to a cash-strapped university or college student who's being targeted with free swag and the promise of some extra liquidity.

And so it begins. Of course there are benefits to having access to credit. But for Laurie Campbell, there are plenty of dangers too. She's the Executive Director of Credit Canada. That's a not-for-profit organization that helps people manage debt problems and she joined us in Toronto.

And for Bob Manning, credit cards are a global problem, not just an individual one. He's the author of Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit and he joined us from Rochester, New York.


Last Word:

On this episode of The Current, we left you with one more thought about managing your credit, courtesy of Steve Martin, Amy Poehler and Chris Parnell on Saturday Night Live.