Feb 18 1980. Joe Clark re-elected following a nasty campaign. Pierre Trudeau resigns as leader of the Liberal party.
Nov 4 1980. Ronald Reagan elected U.S. President in a landslide.
Dec 8 1980. John Lennon survives a murder attempt despite having been shot five times, however he will never walk again. Mr. Lenneon will devote much of his fortune to research possible cures for spinal cord injuries.
(I put this one in because Mr. Lennon was shot on my birthday)
March 1981. During an assasination atempt against U.S. President Reagan, his press secretary, Mr. James Brady is not shot. As a result there are fewer calls for the restriction of firearms in the United States.
Sept 4 1984. John Turner's Liberals are returned to power following the general election. Joe Clark tenders his resignation from the PC party. He is succeeded by Brian Mulroney.
Nov 6 1984. Ronald Reagan re-elected in a landslide.
June 23 1985. A bomb is discovered in the luggage aboard Air India flight 182 thanks to a sniffer dog at Montreal's Mirabel Airport. The flight is delayed for several hours, but eventualy arrives safley in New Delhi.
Jan 26 1986. The american Space Shuttle, Challenger, is grounded for repairs following the discovery of a faulty O-ring on one of the solid rocket boosters. NASA internal documents show that the flaw would have destroyed the shuttle during launch had it not been found.
Nov 8 1988. Al Gore elected U.S. president with a narrow victory over Vice-President George Bush. Mr. Bush Actualy won the popular vote but came up short in the electoral college. Mr. Gore pledges to continue with president Reagan's more popular policies, and to maitain a hard line on the Soviet Union.
Nov 21 1988. Brian Mulroney wins the largest majority in Canadian history following revalations of corruption in now former PM Turner's government. The Tories return to power with 215 of the 295 seats in Parliment. Ed Broadbent's NDP rises to become the Official Opposition with 44 seats. The Liberals fall to third with just 25, with 11 going to minor parties or to independants. Mr. Turner gives his immediate resignation, as he has lost his own seat in the fiasco. One of the few Liberal MPs to survive the disaster, John Manley is soon chosen to lead, and attempt to save the party from extinction.
June 4 1989. When ordered to crush the pro-democracy/anti government protests at Tianamen Square, the People's Liberation Army instead mutinies, and guns down the communist government, leading to the June Revolution and seven years of military rule. This would enventualy lead to democracy, and to China becoming one of the two superpowers in the early 21st century.
June-November 1989. The fall of communism. Communist regimes are toppled one by one, usualy without violence, but some of the prostests are met with force leading to bloodbaths, such as in China where the army mutinied, or Romania, where the security forces, seeing the writing on the wall, execute their master, Nicolae Ceausescu. Even the Soviet Union is not immune. Though the Red Army and the KGB prove capable of preventing the break-up of thier nation, the govenrment is forced to allow opposition parties and to hold elections, which the CPSU loses. The Cold War ended with just the roar of cheers and strains of music from the newly freed peoples of the east.
Dec 4 1989. The son of a natualized immigrant from Algeria, Marc Lepine, chooses to end his life under the wheels of a subway train in Montreal. By coincidance, there are no calls for the restriction or prohibition of firearms in Canada.
September 1990. The Iraqi Army stays in Iraq. No one says a word. Americans never need to learn how to find the place on a map.
October 1990. Fireworks light the sky as Germans celebrate the Re-unification of their nation. Germany remains in NATO, though the alliance does seem rather pointless with the Soviet threat having just evapourated.
October 1990. Slobodan Milosevic in killed in a helecopter crash. Yugoslavia is too busy trying to find a replacement acceptable to all the factions to miss him much.
Jan 16 1991. Is a dark and moonless night, perfect for astronomy and military operations. The USAF conducts a small number of minor drills. Most US military personell are home in their beds, fast asleep. No-one gets to drop any bombs.
Nov 3 1992. John McCain wins a narrow victory over incumbant US President Gore. It is noted that had Mr. Gore been able to win his home state of Tennesse, then he would still be President. McCain's victory coinsides with victories for the Republican Party in general, giving them control of both houses of the US Congress as well as the presidency.
Jan 25 1993. Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Consevatives win a somewhat reduced majority. This marks the first time since the First World War that a Tory govenment has been re-elected to a majority. John Manley's Liberals double their number of seats, but are still the third place party. John manley gets to keep his job. NDP leader Audrey McLauglin, so confident of victory until that night, does not.
1993-96. There is no war in Yugoslavia, nope nothing to see here, move along.
1994. When a UN peacekeeping mission in Rwamda comes under attack, NATO troops are sent in. Having a broader mandate, greater numbers and looser rules of engagment, they work to stabalize the situation. Machete-wielding thugs find that they are not bulletproof, and that it is open season on them, with no limit. Incidentaly, 500,000 members of an ethnic minority are not massacred, but go about their lives under the protection of NATO soldiers. NATO finds itself a new purpose.
Nov 5 1996. John McCain is re-elected assuring the continued dominace of the Republican Party in american politics. The 1996 election is the first contested under new campaign finance rules instituted under pressure from president McCain. Bill Clinton goes back to Arkansas where divorce papers happen to be waiting for him. If Mrs Clinton can't ride him to the top, the Bill gets kick to the curb. Such is life in politics.
June 2 1997. Brian Mulroney's PC Party wins a third consecutive majority Government. John Manley becomes leader of the Official Opposition, as the Liberals have increased to having 90 members in the Parliment. Alexa McDonough is leader of the third-place NDP, she keeps her position as no one else wants the job.
July 4 1997. Osama bin Laden steps on a land-mine while in Sudan. He would die three weeks later due to the wounds becoming infected. His heirs opt to use his fortune, no longer frozen by the Saudi government, to pay for the removal of land-mines in areas where they have been planted during various wars. The Bin Laden Foundation sweeps its namesake's terrorism and adherance to a virulant strain of Islam, Wahhibism, under the rug. The BLF also benefits by having the photogenic Princess Diana as spokeswoman. The BLF will be the only publicly acknoledged legacy of the late Saudi businessman, as Al-Qaeda withers due to a lack of funds.
Fall 1998. Bill & Hillary Clinton finalize their divorce. Bill does not meet Monica Lewinsky as he is not President. She also does not carry on with President McCain as she is not his type. If he is keeping a mistress, she is not Miss Lewinsky, and she knows how to be discrete.
Nov 7 2000. Jeb Bush, Vice President of the United States of America, gets the big job after a narrow win over rival Zell Miller. Mr. Bush carries most states in the south despite being the son of a Conneticut Yankee.
Nov 27 2000. Third time is indeed the charm for John Manley as the Liberal Party of Canada gains a narrow majority in the general election. Tory leader Stockwell Day is not amused. He was new to federal politics and was unaware as to how nasty things can be. That stunt with the dinosaur probably helped to wreck the NDP and their socialism more than it hurt him for his religious beliefs. Mr. Manley at least apologized and fired that strategist, showing that he can be gracious in victory, and insuring that that sort of crap doesn't get thrown right back. Dirty politics is for Americans.
Sept 11 2001. Is an absolutly gogious day in New York City. Shame that it is a Tuesday. Would have been more appropriate as a Saturday, weather-wise. Nothing of importance happens today.
Feb 3 2003. The Space Shuttle Columbia is destroyed during re-entry. This is NASA's first loss of astronauts since 1967. This serves to remind America that spaceflight is not withou risk. The US Congress opts to follow president Bush's vision for space travel by releasing $50 billion for a replacment for the ageing shuttles. Also America will be going back to the moon, and the mission is to take place no later than Feb 3 2013.
March 19 2003. Is a quiet day in Iraq.
June 28 2004. John Manley wins re-election with a slightly expanded majority. His government is the first by the Liberals in three generations not to be known for corruption scandals. Stockwell Day opts to remain leader of the Tories. Jack Layton has given a decent showing in his first go as leader of the NDP. He won't be fired anytime soon.
Nov 2 2004. Jeb Bush wins in a landslide. Democratic Party candidate John Kerry fails win even a single state. At least he can go back to the senate...
August 29 2005. After hurricane Katrina strikes the US Gulf Coast, the differance in the level of response combined with the failure to evacuate New Orleans exposes the massive corruption inhernt in Louisiana politics. This leads to federal charges against the Govenor of Louisiana, and to the assasiantion of the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, after he is blamed for the disaster that befell his city. The Katrina Scandal also tears through the US Army Corps of Engineers, who designed the shoddy levees, and through dozens of contruction companies, who skimmed millions while not even building to the Army's admitedly poor specifications. Dozens of government inspectors were revealed to have been bribed in to passing substandard or damaged levees and barriers during annual inpections or after contruction some had not actualy been inpected at all. The Scandal has for obvious reasons, humiliated America, and now it is time to fix that.
2008. It is primary season in the USA, and as usual the crap is flying every where as the candidates try to make something stick. The Republicans have been in power for 16 years. Maybe someone can actualy unseat them this year.
In Canada Jahn Manley appears likley to call an election and gain a third mandate. He is challenged yet again by Stockwell Day, though both are starting to show their age.
In the Soviet Union, President Vladimir Putin is winding down his second term of office. As he cannot run again, he now has to watch as his hand-picked successor, Dimitri Mendeyev, looks set to go down to defeat in the elections to be held in May.
China has not been in the news much, but the People's Republic truly is, and has become peacfull and prosperous. The Olympic games to be held in Bejing this September will showcase China's transformation to the world. Tibet is a thorny issue, but local autonomy and free elections have made the issue go away. Incidentaly, the Dalai Lama supports the reforms, and has abandonned his quest for independance.
Europe is at peace and is slowly buckling under the bureaucracy of the EU. This is seen as better than the alternative of endless war.