John Reel’s Blog

I’ve been practicing and teaching Yoshinkan Aikido for something like seventeen years.  This is a very powerful martial art, and the official style of the Tokyo riot police. 

When I started, I was blessed to join what was at the time probably the best dojo outside of Japan.  People flew in from all over North America to join us for our monthly intensive training sessions, and we flew in guest instructors from Japan and elsewhere on a regular basis.  The day I joined there was about three new people like myself, and several dozen brown and black belts, including three fifth degree black belts who had just returned from training for three years full-time with the founder of our style.

Those instructors were out to prove themselves by creating the best Aikido trainers they could, and I was one of them.  I soaked it up, loving every minute of it.  Each of the top instructors had their own very different styles, and I tried to take the best of all of it.

When training in Aikido, the goal is to learn while being safe.  Our training partners are kind enough to lend us their bodies to practice on, so we return them in the same shape we got them in.  We take people slowly through learning how to move while keeping perfect timing, control, and balance, while taking their oponent’s balance.  This alows small people (like me) to easily control and pin much larger opponents.  We also spend a lot of time learning how to easily and safely fall, so that we can advance you up the ranks to more exciting techniques, without risk of injury.

For the past year or two, I’ve been donating my time to help a dojo get going here in Guelph.  It was started by a former student of mine from back when I had my own dojo.

It’s been a rough road, as we’ve been forced by circumstances to move five or six times, starting in Fergus, then Elora, then Guelph.  We thought we had a big space right downtown, around the corner from my new place, but it didn’t pan out at the last minute.  I thought that might be the end for this little club.

However, last week, a new place was found downtown.   Yesterday I taught the first class there and we had about a dozen people show up.  Apparently the new location is a hit and the club’s web site is getting more hits than ever before.

If you are interested in seeing some Aikido videos or trying out a class, check out our web site at Grand River Aikido.

Earlier this week, the signs went up all around Guelph, Ontario, where I live.   The by-election was called.

For those who don’t know, a by-election is something that happens when there is a vacant spot due to illness, death, criminal conviction, etc., in a riding.  The spot can only be vacant for six months, before a by-election needs to be called to fill the space.

In Guelph, the Green Party have a strong following. The Green candidate, Mike Nagy finished with nearly double the national average for the party in the 2006 federal election.  The Ontario Green vote went from 2.8% in 2003 to 8.01% of the popular vote in 2007, described as a “protest vote” to send a message to the main parties.  The Green Party is the 4th biggest party in Ontario with just under half the votes the NDP received.

Generally in by-elections, fringe parties get more votes and voter turn-out is lower.  Apparently, if everyone who voted Green in Guelph in the last general election votes Green in the by-election, Mike will win, even if voter turn-out is above average for a by-election.

There is a strong chance that Guelph will vote in Mike Nagy in the by-election, giving the Greens their first seat in Parliament.  The ramifications of this are huge.  Canada’s traditional parties have a “no seats equals no podium” argument, which is currently keeping the Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, from speaking in the televised debates.  If Mike wins the by-election in Guelph, Elizabeth gets to speak for sure, which will in turn help the Greens win more seats in the next general election.

In a recent poll, 62% of Canadian believe that Stephen Harper and Jack Layton are worried about facing Elizabeth May in the debates and 77.2% of Canadians polled want to hear Elizabeth speak in the next debates, even if they traditionally vote for other parties.

Below is a video of Elizabeth May being making a promise I think she can keep about the debates: