Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, December 23, 2009

One crummy year

So how does one sum up 2009 — a crummy year — in 550 words or less? Not well, but here goes.

In the world of Canadian politics, deficits were the story of the year as the feds and provinces ramped up spending — courtesy of our kids and their tax deductions — to try to fill the gap with infrastructure cash and credit given the lending drought that plagued financial institutions.

Locally the big story was Mayor Larry O’Brien’s acquittal on obscure criminal code charges. Other big news was the end to the transit strike which mayoral opponents — should O’Brien run — will legitimately raise as an issue. As well, the green light for Lansdowne Park, the still unfolding green bin program and AG Alain Lalonde’s $100K pension top-up kept city council in the public eye, and more often than not, it was not a pretty sight.

South of the border, President Barack Obama’s mortality was, sorry to break the news to you, confirmed. Plummeting approval ratings, mounting cross-country job losses and a continuation of the U.S. war on terror (welcome to the intractability of some aspects of American foreign policy, Barack) conspired to show the president for what he is: A gifted orator yes, but, a miracle worker with a magic elixir to fix all that ails America, ah, no.

In the sports world our Senators missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade. And then there was Dany Heatley’s summer trade circus since he apparently didn’t like the second line of the power play, back-checking, skating backwards or all of the above. At least our boys are playing much better as we approach 2010 and the odds of a playoff run next spring look good.

Of course the big international sports story of 2009 was, and still is, about some guy named Tiger who took a pass on the whole “love and honour till death do us part” portion of his marriage vows. Or maybe he thought his superstar status made them optional, who knows, and more importantly, who cares? Too bad society won’t learn to celebrate (and relegate) athletes for what they are; athletes, noting more and nothing less.

In the world of technology circa 2K9, Twitter moved from being a medium for B-list stars to tweet about their new reality TV shows to a bonafide business and media tool to disseminate real-time market, political and public safety information. Meanwhile, Facebook went mainstream with the 30- to 50-year-old demographic using it as the tool to re-connect with high school and university classmates or, sorry you’ve been busted, play Farmville on company time. Although I still don’t get the allure of fertilizing your online crops or finding a pink cow?

Culture wise, king of pop Michael Jackson and 1970s sex symbol Farrah Fawcett, RIP, enough said.

Finally, 2009 was the year all those bottles in my liquor cabinet decided to launch branding campaigns. Who knew that Crown Royal was for kings or that Disaronno could be mixed with cranberry cocktail?

In a perfect world, 2010 will usher in the decline of government deficits, the end of reality television and no federal election. However, I will hope for more modest things like an Olympic gold medal over Russia in men’s hockey, a hot, humid and drier summer and good health to all Sun readers.