-TSS-

Not sure which event you are refering. I think you must mean when President Kekkonen had his 6-year term since 1968 nearing its completion he had a law passed in Parliament in 1973 to extend his term by further four years until 1978 and cancel the election of 1974. He promised not to run for President again in 1978 but later on he broke that promise and was yet re-elected in 1978. Only when his health deteriorated and he suffered from dementia he had to resign in 1981. Not a very proud piece of our history. Kekkonen was semi-authoritarian playing the Soviet-card saying that he is indispensable and without him the Soviets would invade.

In Canada you also have had elections which have been critisized for being held unnecessarily early. Wasn't the 2000 election one of such? The Liberals had a sound majority from the previous election and the the next election was not due until 2002.

There just shouldn't be "snap elections" or they should be the last resort to solve a political deadlock. If an election-term is 5 years that is how it should be, no matter what the polls say. Imagine if Donald Trump could call an early presidential-election the moment his approval-ratings began to improve. That just wouldn't be right, would it?

If and when Labour is soundly defeated he really has no alternative but to go but is there really any obvious successor to lead the party anyway?

Surely also in the USA if they need to tear down a person's house because they are going to build a motorway to run over it that person can not stop it by appealing to property-rights?

That goes without saying really; the NHL hates the Olympics. Not only does the tournament mess up the schedule of the NHL but also the attention people give to the event makes them jealous.

How can there be illegal immigrants in Canada anyway? Is it because there is a new boss in the neighbouring country directing the flow elsewhere as that is the only way those illegal immigrants can possibly enter Canada? Namely, they are unlikely to come from the North-Pole nor Russia nor crossing the Atlantic on rickety boats is as easy as crossing the Mediterraneann

I have never really understood the relation between religion and right-wing politics; it seems that the more right-wing you are the likelihood of you being religious is greater. Kind of makes sense as communism is an atheist ideology, at least in principle. However, one can't help the impression about having read stories about Jesus that he was some kind of a proto-hippy. Just the kind of a person who would today annoy the hell out of the right-wing people.

Kim himself is a mascot and a puppet. The generals of the NK-army are the real rulers of the country.

If you ever lose Quebec you could have Scotland in return. Not a bad deal or would it be?

My prediction is that after the election there is going to start another debate on the necessity to reform the electoral-system.

As a rule, parliamentary terms should be fixed. Only in case of a total deadlock early elections are acceptable and that was not the case in Britain. Besides, this could backfire on the PM. This election is turning into another dispute about Brexit and 48% of the voters could wield significant influence. Luckily for May their votes will be scattered.

The role of the opposition is to create an impression that they are so much better than the government and they complain all the time that if only they were in the government everything would be so much better. Against this background it would be very odd if they voted against early elections.

If people have come to second thoughts about Brexit then they should vote the LibDems to a landslide-victory as they are the biggest europhiles in Britain. However, that is not going to happen. They were annihilated last time around and are unlikely to recover this time either.

Theresa May has called new elections to be held on June 8th. Easy to understand why as the Tories are in a comfortable lead. I just thought that these kind of snap elections well ahead of the schedule were a thing of the past because they have changed the law about it. Apparently I have misunderstood the issue.

I know that soccer doesn't have a best on best in olympics. FIFA is very jealous of its own world cup that the in the olympics only under 23's are allowed to play. My point was rather that if bigger sports have found a workable arrangement how to balance things as to which tournaments are important and who attend them then it is embarrassing for a minor sport like hockey not to be able to do the same.

It is rather embarassing for hockey as a sport not being able to decide over things like this as it is a relatively minor sport on a world scale and bigger sports such as soccer and basketball have managed to find a deal which satifies everyone.

If the regime of N-Korea is overthrown wouldn't that mean the end of the country and unification of the Korean peninsula? Having said that, I guess fixing N-Korea would cost a fortune or at least too much for S-Korea to manage.

There was the famous Ugandan leader years ago who said that everyone has the freedom of speech but he cant guarantee freedom after speech.

Erdogan got what he wanted? Oh dear! Who would have ever believed that?

Over here in Finland there is some Orthodox Easter-service going on on TV. I quite like the Orthodox-sermons but one thing really disturbs me about that occasion; the Finnish language of the sermon. Finnish is simply not the language of the Orthodox-church and any sermon held in Finnish smells fake miles away.

Bomb North-Korea with good food, fashionable clothes, i-phones, tablets etc. It would be a miracle if it didnt lead to an uprising.

If Seoul weren't such a short distance away from the border and therefore very vulnerable the N-Korean regime would have been overthrown years ago. Even in the case of certain destruction the North-Koreans are able to cause a lot damage to the South-Korean capital.

There isn't really a good time to have a best-on-best hockey-tournament. September is not good because the season hasn't really started yet when as February is even worse as it messes up the NHL-season. The best time would be in the middle of May if only the Stanley Cup-finals were played six weeks earlier.

^but as they are not an independent country yet they still need a permission from London to hold another referendum.