On the eve of the general election, we have a lot to be thankful for here in the Bay of Plenty.

Thankful that we have a lot of entertaining and motivated election candidates.
Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's voting, we should be grateful at least that our colourful candidates have contributed to a most entertaining build up.
We have a selection of bizarre stories in this edition of the Sun.
We have Lyle McMahon's story of a local Labour Party chairman's personal viewpoint that a 'tactical” vote for Winston would help keep National out; of course some of his Labour party colleagues are pretty dismayed that a Labour man could be advocating anything other than an electorate vote for Labour. But as a result of that story, we've had the Bay of Plenty Labour Party campaign manager, Sandra van Egmond, telling us that it would be 'unethical” for the Sun to publish that story!
Last time I checked, freedom of speech was still alive and kicking, although it has been added to the endangered list, thanks to The Mind Control Party which has been running the country for the last nine years.
Is this more Nanny State pressure, trying to tell us how to run our newspaper?
What is more interesting, is that the call from Sandra came from a cellphone. When I phoned the number back, the message said it was the Department of Labour. Now, she wouldn't be using the resources of a Government Department for campaigning on party business, would she? That wouldn't be 'ethical” would it?
Then there's antics on the streets of Greerton – when John Key apparently wouldn't mix it with Winston. Along for the show was Larry Baldock and Hori Tunnels – who reckons the National plan on the central corridor is designed to gazump Winston's ideas.

Down the corridor
As we accurately speculated in the Sun last week, the National Party leader announced in Tauranga this week that a National led government would fast track development of the city's central corridor road system. That would include four-laning of 15th Ave and Turret Road and an underpass at the beleaguered Welcome Bay roundabout.
Of course all the NZ First cronies have called this week to point out that Winston has already promised that, as part of any government he's involved with. Thanks, and great to hear from you all. Let's hope that someone, then, gets some action.
The thing is, it's all very well politicians making such promises. You have to actually be involved in governing the country after Saturday.

Political dealings
It's pretty hard to know with this MMP system, whether those the majority actually vote for, will be the ones running the show.
As former prime minister Mike Moore pointed out in the Herald this week, the Allies imposed proportional representation as democratic governance on a defeated Germany, to stop any one political party dominating government!
He went on to say the system is inherently unstable and New Zealanders supported it because they wanted less power in the hands of politicians.
'Some even thought they'd get less politics. Now it's not who wins the election but who can stitch together a deal with other parties after the election that decides who makes up the Government.”

In the pink
The great debate on television this week, though has produced the most definitive result of the campaign so far: Helen looks much better in pink.
It's not often I think about Helen. Especially not during long, hot showers with an incredibly large flow nozzle, wasting gizzillions of litres of water and stuffing the planet. But she really does need to get back to the softer Helen. The airbrushed Helen. the sultry, Prime Minister-next-door look.
Also in the debate: smoking. A lot of time is wasted arguing about advertising and point of sale. Why bother? When is a leader, or potential leader, going to stand up and say 'smokers are idiots” and if you want to stop, then stop. Don't keep expecting everyone else to jump through hoops to help you, or pay the price of your medical treatment for the rest of your miserable life!
I've been to a few funerals in recent years and it never ceases to amaze me, how we hear the tragic last years of the lung cancer suffer, then all go outside and half the mourners light up… before the hearse has even left. Unbelievable.
There are only two cures for smoking.
1.You give up, or…
2. Die thinking you should have.

Hands on
John Key missed the big opportunity of the night: He should have supported Lockwood Smith on the issue of Asians having small hands and Pacific Islanders having big hands.
He could have also pointed out that Norwegians have perfectly average sized hands. But overall, I am bitterly disappointed that he has not recognised the importance of big hands and small hands in society.
For starters, how else would we tell the time (analogically speaking) if it were not for big hands and small hands?
Are we so entrenched in the digital age that, now, The Big Hand points to apathy and The Small Hand points to redundancy?
I say bring back the big and small hands. Let's celebrate our diverse hand sizes and give thanks that we do have some points of difference that are worth noting, rather than cowering under the usual PC tripe, and trying to pretend that everyone has the same sized hands. You may all clap now, with any size hands.