Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Formeruser-82 (talk | contribs) at 03:51, 10 August 2005 (→Excessive formality). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Fraser Institute

Hey folks. I'm in the middle of a dispute with an anonymous user at the fraser institute article. The person keeps inserting material that is found on the fraser institute website. I just reverted the text for a third time and I was hoping that someone might like to weigh in on this problem. Thanks. --PullUpYourSocks 22:04, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

You're right. The user has been copying direct off of this page. The best you can do is ask the user to stop in their talk page (I can see that you did) and if the user presists, list them at Misplaced Pages:Vandalism_in_progress. (By the way, that page is taking a very long time to load). I'll keep an eye on the article in question too.

•Zhatt• 22:22, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

L. P. Fisher Public Library

Hi, I stumbled across this library. I was wondering if anyone knows what makes it notable? I'm afraid Misplaced Pages will now start having articles about every library in Canada.

--YUL89YYZ 17:28, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Its primary notablilty comes from being a handsome and fairly old public building. It's also linked to Lewis P. Fisher. --NormanEinstein 15:36, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

I suspect it's not encyclopedic. It should likely be merged into Woodstock, New Brunswick and Lewis P. Fisher. DoubleBlue (Talk) 17:34, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages does not have a notability standard. The content of this article seems quite verifiable, which is all that is important. - SimonP 15:13, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

My goodness you're right. (Misplaced Pages:Notability) Since everyone has always used this as a reason for deletion, I always thought it was policy.

•Zhatt• 18:44, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

It's quite true that Verifiable and NPOV are all that is required but there have been guidelines developed, more or less by consensus, to try and establish what is that fuzzy term, "encyclopedic". You may wish to consult: Misplaced Pages:Votes for deletion/Precedents, Jimbo's No vote for Fame & Importance policy, Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not, WP:BIO, WP:MUSIC, WP:NOR, WP:FICT, WP:SCH, and WP:VAIN. DoubleBlue (Talk) 19:23, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Canadian Government Departments

SimonP and I have been talking about Canadian Government department names. Many of the names are formated Department of TOPIC (Canada). The discussion was prompted when SimonP removed (Canada) from Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada) for the fact that disambiguation was not needed. My arguement was that it was not a disambiguation but the fact that mand departments are commonly known as TOPIC of Canada. We were wondering what the names on Misplaced Pages should be? The common name or the official name? I'm not even sure what the official name is anymore: Department of TOPIC or Department of TOPIC Canada? I work at the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and I remember someone saying that the government made a change a while ago saying that all departpents should have Canada in the name now. INAC (as its commonly called) used to be known as DIAND. Fisheries and Oceans is still known as DFO because no one here likes saying "foc".
•Zhatt• 17:23, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

I like the TOPIC Canada naming but I suspect the official name is still Department of TOPIC. I do not strongly favour one over the other at Misplaced Pages but redirects at the other should, of course, be done.

Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (government departments and ministers) actually wisely suggests that "pre-disambiguation" be done for instances such as Department of Fisheries and Oceans to be Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Canada) to leave no chance of ambiguity, even if there are currently no other articles with that name. I suggest, therefore, that if there are to be any articles named in that format that the "(Canada)" be added. Obviously, if the TOPIC Canada format is used, the disambiguity is built in nicely.

The general rule for article names is to use the most commonly used and recognisable name rather than the official name. There is a bit of a mix, as you point out, between the popularity of different names: i.e., Department of National Defence vs. Environment Canada and some with equal popularity: Department of Fisheries and Oceans vs. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. I think a good argument could be raised here for using "Dept. of" for consistency with other departments within and outside of Canada. My vote, however, is to use the name given on the official website. For example, although Fisheries and Oceans Canada's website is dfo.gc.ca the name on that site is Fisheries and Oceans Canada and I would go with that. http://canada.justice.gc.ca on the other hand, is titled Department of Justice, and I would go with that. DoubleBlue (Talk) 18:38, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

The Federal Identity Programme: Titles of federal organizations page is an interesting resource for this topic but a bit out of date. DoubleBlue (Talk) 18:52, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks DoubleBlue. I'm going to start doing some renameing accordingly. •Zhatt• 19:13, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

This is actually the second time this issue has come up. I had all the articles at their conventional FIP location initially, and then someone insisted on putting them all to their legal Department of XXXX name, which is relatively silly considering how ubitiquous Health Canada and Environment Canada and so on are. The template still has them all linked to the appropriate place, which is XXXX Canada except for Justice, Finance, Canadian Heritage and Defence, I think. -The Tom 14:56, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

They wont be easy to move back. It's been telling me "the page allready exists". Does that mean copy-paste, or Requests for move? •Zhatt• 16:09, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Means admin move. If someone here would be inclined to do it, it would allow us to bypass WP:RM. -The Tom 18:55, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Northwest Territories Electoral History

Hi everyone, I have really been working hard, on cleaning up and detaling Northwest Territories electoral history,

My work, is going to take me away for at least a month, and I won't have time to continue with N.W.T. elections, and related.

If someone out there wants to take on the more recent elections, I am still looking for a comprehensive source of members elected from 1951 on, still looking for a source for the period of appointed members between 1905 and 1951, and looking for a source of members appointed to the temporary council prior to 1876.

My free time lately has mostly been consumed on the Northwest Territories party politics from 1898 - 1905, I have nearly completed the list of members elected in 1902, scanning through microfilm of Newspaper from the late 1890's on, but I am at a loss as to when Party politics actually began in the Northwest Territories.

According to a Calgary Herald editorial from November 17th 1898, it talks about the pro's and con's of the possible introduction of "Dominion Party Lines" into the Northwest Territories legislature. And I was quite shocked to learn that the 1898 election was not along party lines, as some on-line sources seemed to have indicated. I will update the 1898 election to reflect that.

In news paper articles close to the 1902 election it does talk about the "Government and Opposition" , but I was able to find no indications of what date in the 1898 - 1902 period party politics sprang up, but they were clearly active in the 4th North-West Legislative Assembly even though it was not elected on party lines.

I also found somthing interesting, perhaps more related to journalist neutrality more then anything, in the articles of the day that refered to Candidates affiliations as simply "Government" or "Opposition" and "Indepedent", or "Independent Opposition or Indpendent Government, It was only in a couple editorials that Liberal or Liberal-Conservative was mentioned. When an article would talk about who a candidate is running for, it would say John Smith pledges loyalty to the Governing Party etc.

Aside from the birth of party politics, the end before the period of Alberta and Saskatchewan being carved out seems intriguing and needs researching, most of the Liberal-Conservatives switched to Liberal, and some Liberals switched to the Conservatives, when the new parties were formed in Alberta and Saskatchewan, there doesn't seem to have been any loyalty, in the short time party politics formed in the territories.

--Cloveious 05:00, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Canada Collaboration of the Week

So what is the next CCOTW? On the page it says "The August 2005 CCOTW article will be selected on Sunday, July 24, 18:00 (UTC)."
•Zhatt• 00:50, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Celebration of Light

As those in Vancouver know, the Celebration of Light starts today. I'm asking those who are attending and are interested, to take pictures and gather information for the new Celebration of Light article I'm working on. I'm also looking for results before 2000 when it was sponsored by Benson & Hedges. Thanks.
•Zhatt• 21:50, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

The more I look into Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire, the more I realize how sparse information is with the disappearance of its original sponsor. There is a Symphony of Fire in Capetown, South Africa, but I'm not sure if its related or under the same sponsor. It stopped in 2000, the same year Benson & Hedges pulled out.

•Zhatt• 23:06, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Federal electoral districts template

Hi, I noticed that the riding Don Valley East has an interesting table in it. This should be made into a template and added to all the ridings. However, I am not sure this is universal for every province since Ontario has the same ridings both federally and provincially. Should we have unique ones per province or a general one for the country. Also what should be the columns? The current ones are:

• MP
• Party
• MPP
• Party
• Province
• Census division(s)
• Census subdivision(s)
• Federal district created

I am not sure the value of the Census division and sub-division. Any other comments? --YUL89YYZ 18:49, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

It's done as a table with the coding copied and pasted directly into the article, rather than as a true template. Which means that you can use it for any riding, and just remove the sections (like provincial representation) that don't apply. Bearcat 01:31, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Image request

Can anyone either find a photo or take a photo of the lapel pins the members of the House of Commons gives out to their constituents? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 07:38, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Prime Ministers of Canada timeline

I just put this together for no paticular reason. If anyone wants to use or change it, go ahead. It still needs the proper RGB party colours and to be Wikied. For more information on the timeline, check out Misplaced Pages:EasyTimeline. Zhatt 23:52, August 9, 2005 (UTC)

I wikied and spaced all the names. If anyone could double check the dates, that would be nice.

Zhatt 01:42, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

Excessive formality

A few users are, I think, going overboard with inserting prenomial honorifics such as "His Worship", "His Excellency" etc in articles on Ambassadors, mayors and the like that undermines the spirit of NPOV. AFAIK formal styles are not used in encylopedia articles outside of royalty. The Honourable and the Right Honourable for privy councillors is one thing (I'd prefer not to use them in artcles on Senators) but using formal style for Ambassadors and mayors seems excessive - why not use Mr. and Mrs at the biographical articles as well? Is there a wikipedia protocol on styles and titles?Homey 03:51, 10 August 2005 (UTC)