from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 10:34 PM
subject Thomas Mulcair souhaite que le NPD «fasse entrer de l’air frais»; Satellite images lead to possible discovery of unknown Viking settlement in N.L.
Dear Stephen,
I am still alive. I survived the flight to SJ. I had a great night sleep (no children to interrupt) and this morning I had my haircut at Element 6 by Adam for about half what an equivalent cut would cost anywhere in Montreal or further west. “Welcome to the east coast” was the response when I commented on how inexpensive it seemed. Helped Robert put together a bed frame for the mattress for the basement and then we went to TUCK to be secret shoppers to help the staff with final preparations. The rest of the evening (pizza, wine) a bit of a blur. Facetimed with my mom and the kids. Big day tomorrow. Did you get my Tweets and Instagrams?
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Apr 3, 2016 at 11:19 PM
subject Trudeau participe à la fête de l’indépendance de la Grèce; Judge slashes Toronto lawyer’s ‘excessive’ fee to give more money to injured child in malpractice suit
Dear Justin,
I am still alive.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 2:13 PM
subject Le directeur parlementaire du budget s’attend à des déficits plus modestes; Where is Trudeau government heading on China?
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the flight back to Montreal. Sorry I didn’t write immediately upon my return, somehow it was a busy day at home on the computer yesterday. I finally filed my final report for the travel grant I got from CALQ for the MST festival back in 2014. The whole form is fillable online but boy oh boy do they ever want lots of details. The program officer called me to compliment the “humour” in my project (written in French; I’m sure there was a subtext of how funnily-written it was), but I needed to provide more receipts, more expenses, so I photographed and included all my gas and meal receipts for the whole trip, the crazy drive to Fort McMurray and back, Banff, Lethbridge, the whole nine yards. Hope they accept it now and don’t try to get me to pay money back to them. It was only $750! Speaking of money Judith has sent me a transfer of my cut of my painting sales, $900! I won’t accept it until I fill out my EI report this week so I can claim my full allowance, which is also around $900. I don’t want to lie to EI. A few other things I want to mention but can’t go into great detail about, I’m cleaning the house and washing laundry but need to go to the Patro and see if we can still register the kids in swimming lessons (the pool is back open) and I need to get groceries. Anyway, in no particular order: practically the whole city of Saint John (myself included) is up in arms against dipshit arsehole Jim Bezanson and his late appeal to the Heritage Preservation Board concerning the Irving plan to build an 11-storey world HQ on King’s Square, beside the Imperial. Even though I am against the pipeline (and further oil exploration, period) I think this development is only good news for SJ. Also even though I am in favour of decriminalizing cannabis and even legalising it (and decriminalizing most drugs), I do not want to ingest it again. I was having a beautiful MDMA afternoon that I ruined by trying out a new cannabis vaporising pipe, and drew too deeply perhaps but for whatever reasons it killed my joyful high and I turned inward and introspective and morose and brooding and anxious and just felt terrible, right through to the next day and all during the flight home, thoughts of death couldn’t escape me. We’re signing our life insurance policy tomorrow and somehow that was freaking me out as well, that I would either die before it was signed leaving my kids in legal limbo or that I will die shortly afterwards, as if the very act of insuring against premature death will somehow cause it. And our insurance premium has already jumped $140 for the year because Clo responded to the health questionnaire that she had smoked cannabis once last July! What a fucking sad joke, they now consider her to be an ‘occasional smoker”. I’ll argue tomorrow that she used the new pipe which only vaporises the TCP crystals on the leaves, and doesn’t burn the leaves themselves. My insurance broker will not know what to do with that info, she’s a small cog in a massive array of larger and larger cogs. But I will pitch this as a story for Civilised. Anyway I’ve got to go lots to do this afternoon. Like try to get my Erika Lust membership activated. have you ever seen any of her films? Holy Gobsmacking Hotness Batman! And not Batman vs. Superman I have zero interest in seeing that or any other comic book superhero mega-blockbuster in the near future. In case you were wondering.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 12:09 PM
subject Panama Papers: des «leviers» contre l’évasion seront actionnés, dit Trudeau; Despite not being an election promise, how did Liberals’ $2B campus infrastructure fund make the budget?
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived yesterday. I forgot to tell you that first thing in the morning, after breakfast and my parents leaving to head back to NB, Sol was playing and slipped and fell on his forehead in the kitchen, and I’ve never seen a bump swell up so big so quickly. Poor guy! Lucky it swelled on the outside, he had no dangerous side effects and after about an hour of monitoring the situation we took him to daycare. He’s doing so well with potty training! He had a little accident before supper but just pipi and because he waited too long and couldn’t get his pants down in time. He initiates his own cacas and there hasn’t been a caca accident since last week (knock on wood). Rose, for her part, has been advancing steadily with her piano lessons. Yesterday afternoon I signed them both up for spring swimming lessons starting this Sunday at le Patro. Yes, the pool is open again. Clo was going to start going again this morning but the roads were in terrible shape after the heavy wet snowfall last night and the rain today. The weather slowed down our insurance broker as well by an hour, I needed to give her a cheque for the $140 increase because Clo was treated as an occasional smoker. Our annual premium will drop back down to $560 once July comes around and more than 12 months will have passed from that single joint. Ridiculous. I’m at home today, going to start a thorough spring cleaning, right after lunch. Oh, and begin the guts of my CALQ grant application for the bronze, my final report for MST was accepted so I’m in the clear!
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 2:36 PM
subject Aide médicale à mourir: Ottawa opterait pour l’extrême prudence; Agent of mercy’ or doctor of death? First physician jailed over assisted suicide has no regrets
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived my very, very brief appointment at the endodontiste, he was very nice and only charged me half price for the visit, since he could tell straight away with his crazy microscope that my rear molar, #37, is cracked in two, and so not a good candidate for a root canal. I’m a gonna have it pulled out, and then I have a few months to decide if I go for an implant, a bridge, or nothing. Once one’s adult teeth start to fail the thoughts of mortality come faster and more often. The M:ST Spring Runoff was announced today and I’ve been sharing the info, I’ll be sending copies of my letters to you to any of my sponsors between April 23-30. I’ll try to find a wide variety of strange and unusual things to be doing that week, like perhaps an Everyday Goalie visit to Parliament Hill, in between art install gigs at SBC and Rose’s school, and maybe getting a tooth pulled. No crazy MDMA dancing night in the forecast however, as I probably need a break. Tomorrow evening Clo and I are going to an event called General Audience, a local gathering modelled a bit on the Moth live podcasts. Storytelling, basically. Luisa is coming to babysit. Other than that, and a dinner party planned for Sunday evening, we’re spending the weekend with the kids. Family weekend.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 11:32 PM
subject Le PM albertaine veut que le NPD se dissocie du manifeste anti-oléoducs; Alberta premier calls Leap Manifesto ‘naive’ and ‘ill-informed,’ but won’t cut ties with federal NDP
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend, Monday and losing tonight’s letter because Microsoft Word just crashed and I hadn’t saved the document. I was only writing it on Word because I’m using Clo’s laptop and she was using an app that blocks her own access to Gmail and Facebook, so she doesn’t get distracted while working. My wireless keyboard was acting up again, so here I am. Anyway, the weekend was fun, we spent a lot of time together as a family. Tania invited us to eat at le Petit Alep on Saturday, then that night Clo and I went on a date to a General Audience event which this time was based on the Moth storytelling hour, with a theme on dating. Both Clo and I threw our names in the hat; I read a Dear PM letter from a date chosen at random from the audience (February 14, 2007) and she told three online dating stories. She’s a natural storyteller, much better than I. Sunday morning the kids had their first swim lessons at the re-opened (again) pool at le Patro. I went first with Sol at 9:30 but there must have been 25 kids and so instruction was almost impossible, and no games or toys were introduced, so I found the class lacking but Sol seemed to enjoy himself. Clo is able to swim lanes during Rose’s class at 11, which was an added class with only 5 kids in it. Sunday evening we had planned a little dinner party, a few folks backed out last minute but still with Pip, Eliot, Alexis and Peter our apartment, and our kitchen table, were just pleasantly full. I made a couple dishes of the Jamie Oliver Fish Pie recipe, yum yum. The kids fell asleep so easily, before Peter and Alexis had left even. Later that evening Clo and I decided to watch a show but mistakenly chose Broadchurch without realizing it is basically Twin Peaks but with an even younger child murdered at the beginning. Not exactly the kind of show we gravitate towards; we have horror stories about our kids playing through our heads all the time, but we watched two episodes anyway. Later in the night Clo awoke with nightmares about Sol and climbed into bed with him, which was unusual as I’m usually dragged off to his bed, by him, in the middle of the night. He is continuing marvelously with the potty training, btw. Oh, and during the evening I got a call from Marie-Josée at Optica and they needed a tech short notice to sand and plaster and prime and paint today, so that’s what I did. I’ll go in a few more hours tomorrow. I was planning to claim my Tuck sales this week which would cancel out my EI earnings, so it was good timing. Studio work for the rest of the week, and maybe more concrete active searches for a new used Subaru. Hey, crazy news about Mulcair eh? I signed that Leap Manifesto way back during the election campaign, it’s not naive, it just has no time for 20th century excuses. “Jobs” don’t exist in a vacuum, and if we collectively and actively begin to transition away from fossil fuels now, what difference will it make to most workers if they are building pipelines or wind turbines? Just shift the subsidies already.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 1:49 PM
subject Aide médicale à mourir: il faudra entendre tout le monde, dit Deltell; Tom Mulcair says NDP wants him to stay on as leader until party finds his successor — so he will
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived an extra day of painting at Optica, finishing around 3. Started work in the studio on the next silkscreen series for Tuck, a smaller version of the City of Saint John manhole cover. Forgot to work on the tattoo designs for Colin and my brother. Had a=leftovers and pasta last night for supper, the kids snack so much and so often after they come home from school that they never seem to eat a full meal. I think we serve them too much, too late. Bedtime was OK and in the evening Clo and I checked out some of the Erika Lust films. I ended up in Sol’s bed after waking in the middle of the night to him standing on me, complaining that he was scared of something on his wall. I thought it might have been a shadow or lights from the street but it was most likely a bad dream. He has two black eyes now, a result of the bump on his noggin pooling down. He asks me a few times daily now to clean his eyes, poor guy! I’m going to get some face paint today so he can go to daycare in disguise. I’m a bit behind schedule today, was hoping to get some writing done for my goalie bronze CALQ grant application but I spent the morning on social media, which is a waste I know but currently the best way to promote my projects. At least the wireless keyboard is working fine today. What slows it down I wonder? heard on the news about the arms deal to the Saudi’s, not impressed. Not impressed with your unwavering commitment to pipelines, either. I’m starting to think more and more seriously about running again in Papineau in 2019. OK off to the studio, for reals, and to find kids’ face paint.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 1:26 PM
subject De l’aide médicale à mourir si la mort est «raisonnablement prévisible»; New assisted suicide law will be limited to Canadians to prevent suicide tourism
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived my first day back out on my bike. It was sunny but the air still crisp. I cycled to B&B to get facepaint, then hit the studio, then home to get the kids. I had an OPP meeting last evening to go over the upcoming school events: l’expo d’un art à l’autre, le corvée de nettoyage de la cour, le Bal de Printemps et le pique-nique de fin d’année. And then came home and went through calendar with Clo for the next few months identifying nights she works late, vernissages, events, talks, parties, revising our summer travel plans slightly and of course it all stresses me out: I’m a terrible planner. I signed up to read the TRC summary and challenged you to do so as well. Today this morning I am procrastinating well on my CALQ application, finished watching The Experimenter via Netflix, about the psychologist Stanley Milgram and his groundbreaking studies on obedience and authority. Now I feel overwhelmed and powerless to begin anything. I downloaded a parenting book on Audible and ordered another book book, mostly on how to communicate better, be more calm, less stressed. I’ll head out to the studio shortly and collect a screen to take to Graff to wash and clean and add a new coat of emulsion. I’ll burn it tomorrow. OK out into the bright sunshine and crisp air. It’s supposed to warm up to 20 degrees this weekend! Now go on up to Attawapiskat and deal with the suicide crisis.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Apr 17, 2016 at 10:06 PM
subject L’inspection des cargaisons ferroviaires au Canada laisse à désirer; Saving lives or risky pics? ‘Revolution’ in MDs’ smartphone photos raises ethical concerns
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend and sudden jump in temperature. I got a bit of a sunburn today from our family cycle to Joe Fresh and Parc Jarry. Sol only lasted 5 minutes in his swim class this morning, he wanted more to play in the playground than swim. There was a lot of playground playing this weekend and the first time we were all able to wander about in shoes and shirtsleeves. Clo bought Sol new shoes – Natives – on Friday and he has taken to them like glue, loves them to bits. We were still face-painting yesterday to hide his bruises, he was Batman to the Oboro opening, he also tried to paint me as well which I left on even though it just looked like my eyes were scratched, scraped and bleeding. I wore my new suit and shoes though so I looked ok, just weird around the face. Lots of kids at the opening. Rose and Sol played at the playground on Berri on the way to the car and then were up later than usual as we watched Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Tonight after supper we watched some cartoon shorts on the NFB website, finishing with a couple Richard Condie classics including my all-time favourite, The Big Snit. I’ve been a fan since high school. Off to bed early tonight starting the de-install at SBC tomorrow and need to collect some tools from my studio tomorrow morning and might cycle to work so it will be an early morning.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 11:19 PM
subject Bill Morneau présente les détails de l’allocation pour les enfants; John Ivison: Trudeau’s point man in Senate aims to regain public’s respect for red chamber
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday. I was at SBC for the day helping with the deinstall. Took the car, managed a few dropoffs on the way (Sol, some posters for a parent of the OPP to use for signage, my studio for tools, Clo to work). All is going well: the fabrics are down, the print came down with very minor damage (less than expected, given it was held up with adhesive tape), the large crab on a public hair sculpture packed up, the wood rails off the walls and dismantled and the holes patched. Back tomorrow for painting and to help place projectors. Picked up umbrellas from home and then both kids and we walked home in the rain, made leftovers for supper, Rose had her piano lesson Sol still wonderful on the pot, and the kids in bed by 8. Had time for a shower tonight but we’re leaving garbage and recycling for tomorrow, seeing as we’ll be up early: Sol needs to be at daycare by 8:30 for the field trip to Zig Zag Zoo.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 9:52 PM
subject Procès de Mike Duffy : le verdict sera rendu jeudi; A Liberal government styled by Dorian Gray
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another couple days at SBC. Sorry I didn’t write yesterday but I was with the kids and fell asleep with them until Clo came home after her Oboro event at Moment Factory and then I couldn’t get back to sleep, even after watching a couple episodes of The Office and reading a couple New Yorkers and popping a couple melatonin I was still lying in bed wide awake thinking about the absolute unknowable nothingness of death. Hard to fall asleep to.
Anyway the kids are down and we’re in bed early so hopefully I’ll nod off ok. One more day planned for SBC which gives me Friday to send new works to Judith and make some headway on the CALQ grant and maybe get some studio work done. Tonight after work I had a scheduled ‘Special Time’ with Rose, as she seems more jealous than usual with Sol recently, so we took our bikes and got ice cream and cycled to the Park on Gaspé with the monkey bars before supper.
I’ll leave you with a letter from Elizabeth May in response to a form letter I signed from a petition about KPMG. I’m sure you’ll do nothing on it, in the same vein as the arms deal to Saudi Arabia. Hands are tied, right?
Thank you for copying me on your email to Minister of Finance Bill Morneau concerning tax evasion and the KPMG offshore tax scheme scandal. Canada needs to take action to hold tax evaders to account and close all tax loopholes.
The CRA’s offer of amnesty to multi-millionaire clients who took advantage of this tax scheme is appalling. They are sending taxpayers the message that wealthy taxpayers will be let off the hook for tax evasion, while ordinary Canadians must still pay their fair share.
This KPMG scandal is just the beginning. The Panama Papers showed the world just how pervasive a problem tax evasion is, and how much more action must be taken to combat it.
Closing tax loopholes could recover approximately $3 billion in additional tax revenues each year. I support your call for the Finance Committee to conduct a comprehensive investigation of tax evasion, including calling KPMG officials to testify. You can also sign this petition on my website to close tax loopholes.
The problem of tax evasion, and solutions to fight it, are well known. It is time for Canada to take action to combat illegal and unethical tax avoidance.
Thank you again for writing.
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Thu, Apr 21, 2016 at 10:19 PM
subject Trudeau à New York: accords de Paris et boxe devant les caméras; Trudeau runs a high-wire act with his image that few others would dare attempt
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another day at sbc, and it’s going to take me at least one more to finish wiring up all the audio. There are 2 sets of headphones to 4 video pieces, and all the amps and wires need to be hidden in plinths or under couches, so a bit time-consuming. Had lunch with Victoria down in the old DHC hood, their exhibition of Joan Jonas is opening next week. I might go, although their is another opening the same night, Josée from Oboro, and we may all go with the family. I am reading Debt, the first 5,000 years, a book Clo suggested I read, as the concept of debt is one of my minor obsessions, like Tim Horton debris or manhole covers or almost daily letters to you.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Sun, Apr 24, 2016 at 10:41 PM
subject Le cabinet Trudeau se penche sur l’Alberta, en difficulté; Scheming Putin to arm Kurds with advanced weapons — despite Canada’s olive branch
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the weekend, which started out super-nice weather-wise on Friday, though I ended up at SBC again all day. Wiring things up nicely takes time. The temperature dropped a bit on Saturday but it was warm in the sun and we ended up hanging with the kids in the neighbourhood. We didn’t do half the art things on our list, in fact I did zero art things this weekend. It was repeated visits to the park, playing with Sol with his cars and trucks and trains in the sand, zipping on scooters up and down the sidewalks, visiting neighbours and drinking beer on the steps. Today it was still sunny but unseasonably cold, which made me unreasonably grumpy. Clo went to check out Papier 16 with Sarah and dropped Rose off for a playdate with Femke, I stayed home with Sol and went to the park and then later we went for a grocery run to the Provigo in Parc Ex. Cooked fish for supper, the kids were in bed and asleep early, a result of lots of play outdoors and no naps. They never nap on the weekends, even though today I tried hard as I wanted one, to no avail. Oh, and apparently I am a good investigative news subject:
Christopher Lloyd exposed
For a second year in a row, CBC Montreal won the Dan McArthur Award for multiplatform in-depth/investigative work.
Led by CBC journalist Kate McKenna, the team’s winning feature exposed that Christopher Lloyd, the Conservative candidate running against JustinTrudeau, was actually a performance artist who embedded himself inside Stephen Harper’s party.
That little news boost bumped me up again over 600 followers on Twitter.
Off to read more from Debt, and hatching plans for artwork based on our understanding (or lack thereof) of the economy.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 10:30 PM
subject Des bureaucrates ont freiné les ambitions militaires des conservateurs; John Ridsdel was an adventurer, but he was no cowboy
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived another Monday, puttering around the house procrastinating on the CALQ grant. Straightening up for the cleaner who comes tomorrow, and dropped off the suitcase of new works at the bus station for Judith, and dropped off giveaway stuff to Renaissance, and tried to get Chrome to run faster on the mac, and filed my EI report (even though I worked and will claim earnings from paintings so no EI will be forthcoming I bet), and read a bit (but steered clear of Facebook so didn’t fall down that rabbit hole), and picked up my winter boots which had needed some TLC, and gathered and took out the recycling, and paid a parking ticket online – yes, I forgot to move the car for street cleaning a couple weeks ago – and generally puttered around, occasionally wondering about what happens in the end. Oh, and so far no bites (pledges) for the Spring Runoff for my letters. I guess interest is low.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 4:08 PM
subject Justin Trudeau réplique à ceux qui le critiquent au sujet des oléoducs, Alberta naturopath faces investigation after parents convicted in toddler’s meningitis death
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived a day of working on my grant! Yes, I finally overcame whatever dark web of procrastination that was impeding my progress and I was able to write and write and write and even fill out more than 3/4 of the online application. Amazing! I worked on it from home but also from Café Odessa and also from my studio. Had a fairly calm night with the kids, tried to watch the Joan Jonas talk via Livestream but they were of course jumping on my head so that didn’t happen. Clo went to see live. The kids fell asleep easily, though it was Sol first in our bed around midnight. Today Judith picked up the new work from the bus station and had arranged in the store and posted online and sold two of the screen prints on paper by noon. Not too shabby! Hopefully I’ll sell a few more before the end of the month so I can pay studio rent and get more supplies to do new ones, as well as some new roulages here in Montreal. Still no backers for the Spring Run-off, I feel a bit bad for MST but it seems they are casting their net mostly at other performance artists or fans in a limited community. I tried to invite all my friends via Facebook but hit my quota at a few hundred, which didn’t help. Facebook analytics are terrible right now for sharing info, what to do? Need to get Rose change into suit get Sol drive to get Clo and we’re going to la Maison de la culture Frontenac for an opening of new video work by Josée and then I’ll continue on to the opening at DHC. Tomorrow is set-up all day for Rose’s school exhibition d’un art à l’autre. Busy busy! Boy, I wish you would adopt the Leap Manifesto, shut down ALL the pipeline bullshit and focus all your energy and intelligence towards renewables. Your image is progressive, time for some substance.
-chris
from chris lloyd
to pm@pm.gc.ca
date Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 2:46 PM
subject Corruption à SNC-Lavalin: l’immunité de la Banque mondiale confirmée; Give the Liberals an ‘A’ for effor
Dear Justin,
I am still alive. I survived the DHC opening as well as the D’un art à l’autre school exhibition. I didn’t actually SEE the exhibition at DHC, hanging out only at the lobby near the bar talking with techs who all seemed to agree that had I been working with them they wouldn’t have come so close to actually postponing the opening. Went for supper with Education at that taco place on St. Laurent and then the after-party at La mal nécessaire downstairs afterwards. It was a bit tame, and I left shortly past midnight, politely declining an invitation to imbibe in some MDMA. It was already too late in the evening and besides I was planning to – and did – spend the entire day Thursday at Rose’s school setting up for the massive D’un art à l’autre expo. It felt a little bit like how the techs at DHC must have felt, running around trying to get everything done before an imminent luckily kids make solid artworks because many were dropped and banged around in all the hustle and bustle. Gotta love deadlines! I’m getting ever closer to finishing my CALQ grant, the written part anyway, then it is off to Clo for translation, and the slides and videos need to be selected and uploaded, and some paperwork from L’atelier du bronze, but then it’s done, and I can move on to completing some final Everyday Goalie videos and can concentrate on pitching the big Dear PM project for touring. Why do I procrastinate so? It’s Facebook I know it is the agent of the devil. Gah! I just lost another fifteen minutes Liking random posts and watching stupid videos and getting lost in a spiralling comment thread about Elon Musk wanting to build a colony on Mars.
Maybe we’ll watch Wall-E tonight.
-chris
DEAR PM 